2010 SSE Yearbooks Mailed Yesterday

[mjc]

I got mine today...and well...the online version leaves a lot to be desired...

[Wi-sunflower]

Sorry about the mistake on the code/ number thingy.

I did my membership over the phone and did part of the password thing on the phone too. All I needed was my member code.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The thing I like about the online version is the "search for a member's listings". I could bring up all several hundred listings for a couple specific members rather than look thru over 200 pages of listings. I would like to request seeds from just a couple of members rather than a dozen or more. Online I can see if a member also has several other varieties I'd like.

Carol

[mjc]

If I could actually get the search to work most of the time it would probably be better...and now with the yearbook and listing codes, I may be able to get something out of the search that is more meaningful (I am sooo not used to having to structure the search query perfectly that I just can't make the blasted thing work).

[mjc]

Okay, I've had a little time this evening to peruse and start preparing my lists...

Now this really has me ticked off...one of the items I want is listed by a member who happens to also have a site that sells the same variety. The $5 charge for biennials for the SSE 'sample' pack, for unlisted members, is much greater than the full sized pack offered on the site...so by ordering through the site, I would get the varieties I want, with more seed, including shipping charges...for $5 less than going through with an SSE request...

Does anyone see anything wrong with that picture?

[yotetrapper]

I think the prices seem a little prohibitive, but, I've decided to consider it as a place not to get stuff that is available elsewhere, but only for rare things not to be found elsewhere. $3-4 isn't a lot for something truely rare/unusual/hard to find.

[amideutch]

Here's the answer from Joanne at SSE concerning the seed pricing increase. Ami

Hello Theodore,

Many members have raised concerns about the prices being too low in the past. A decision was made by the past executive director George DeVault to increase the prices in the Yearbook and the Flower & Herb Exchange to offset the costs of increased postage that has occurred over the last few years as well as the costs of packaging materials for mailing larger seeds, cuttings, tubers, etc.

Joanne

[Blueaussi]

The Yearbook is not a commercial enterprise. It's a whole bunch of individuals trying to preserve and keep seeds in circulation. It's not really a catalog, and most of those individuals don't have the ability to cut costs with bulk buys of envelopes and other packaging material. So, I wouldn't expect the deals that can be found else where.

Honestly, if I don't buy a single pack of seeds through the Yearbook, I still feel like my money is well spent because I'm supporting the mission. It's not about me, it's about participating in preserving seed diversity.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by amideutch

Here's the answer from Joanne at SSE concerning the seed pricing increase. Ami

Hello Theodore,

Many members have raised concerns about the prices being too low in the past. A decision was made by the past executive director George DeVault to increase the prices in the Yearbook and the Flower & Herb Exchange to offset the costs of increased postage that has occurred over the last few years as well as the costs of packaging materials for mailing larger seeds, cuttings, tubers, etc.

Joanne

Thanks for posting that Ted, but the explanation does not satisfy me, not that I can do anything about it.

How many members complained?

Were they members who listed mainly large or small seed varieties?

Why weren't the listed members asked to vote on options as to price increases as has happened in the past?

Why wasn't any advance notice given so that folks could alter their suggested request prices if they chose to do that?

Ah well.

[pooklette]

My Yearbook came today. Yay! It's in beautiful condition too...no rips, water damaged pages, etc.

Regarding the price increase; I offer beans in the Yearbook. There's no way it will cost me $4 or $5 to mail a packet of beans, even including the cost of the seed envelope and the bubble mailer. Unless I factor in the cost of my time spent handling the request, I fall way short of the new prices (and the old prices for that matter.) So to blame it on the cost of postage and packaging seems odd to me.

That said - I am willing to pay a one time fee of $3-$5 (per sample) for a rare variety that I cannot buy commercially. I don't have the room or time to care for a large number of new varieties every year, so for me, the price increase will be quite limited. I can see where it would add up VERY quickly for others though. That's a shame.

I'm annoyed that this change came with no warning at all, but not annoyed enough to end my membership or stop requesting seed. I am thinking about including special pricing in my blurb for next year though. It doesn't seem fair to charge $4 for a pack of beans that I would've grown anyway and can share for maybe half that price.

[darwinslair]

In past years I noticed that many members set different prices for packs of seeds. I have found it to be worth my while to ASK the lister how much they wanted, especially if I was looking for quantities other than the recomended amounts. I got a pound of a rare corn seed for $12. If you dont like the yearbook prices, just ask people what they want for their seeds.

I have also, always, in the past, included an extra $ for postage, and indicated in a letter that the $ was for that. I think SSE would have better served everyone if they had indicated a $ per source charge for postage, instead of an across the board increase in seed prices.

Tom

[carolyn137]

Tom, I think asking the lister if you want more than the normal number of seeds is OK, but I think the assumption is, or has been, is that if someone in their contact blurb doesn't say anything about the request price then that means they're going with the suggested SSE request price.

I've always included my own suggested request price/pack, which is lower than the SSE suggested one, but I don't think that many SSE members realize that they can do that, or even if they want to it since they might feel, if shipping tubers, scions, garlics, etc., that they deserve the money to help defray shipping costs.

Now I have help with my tomatoes, as you know, but when I was doing everythihng myself I often wondered what the true cost of X number of my seeds would go for if I counted the months from seed sowing to harvesting and seed production and then broke that down to hours, at X $/hour, what the cost might be. Oh, and then add on the time spent packing seeds, padding them, and postage and all the other supplies I use.

Anyone know what an hourly cost of such labor might be just out of my own curiosity? I mean the hard part, not the sitting at my table packing seeds part.

Let me repeat that this true cost/seed pack is part of my theoretical brain meanderings, which I do from time to time.

[DiggingDogFarm]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

An increase from $2 to $3 for listed members for tomato seed I think is a significant increase. All of us listing are basically amateurs and I think $3 is too much for listed SSE meembers and $4 for unlisted members, for tomato seeds.

I thought that $2 and $3 was a lot for an "exchange."

$3 and $4 is just plain rude and ridiculous!

Welcome to the Seed Savers Brokerage!!!!!!!


~DiggingDog

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by DiggingDogFarm

I thought that $2 and $3 was a lot for an "exchange."

$3 and $4 is just plain rude and ridiculous!

Welcome to the Seed Savers Brokerage!!!!!!!


~DiggingDog

Here's another perspective.

When the first YEarbok came out in 1975 there was indeed a place where folks could trade seeds and then they went to doling out seed for different varieties to the then small membership for them to grow out and list.

But the exchange stuff didn't work and nor did the doling out of seeds so even before 1980 the basic function of the Yearbook was set.

They had named it Seed Savers Exchange from the get go and trademarked the name, so that's where the name came from in terms of those first one or two yearbooks where seeds were exchanged.

Those who are thinking of joining SSE know that it's not a place to trade seeds, as in an exchange. I think that was all explained in an earlier post in this thread.

And then there's Southern Exposure Seed Exchange , an excellent seed source. When Jeff McCormack first put out his catalog in the late 80's, he too had a section at the back of the catalog for exchanges and he too had named his place from the get go and he too had trademarked the name.

But that quickly changed also and no seed exchange has been in place for SESE for at least 20 years now.

And lastly, as also I think was explained above, individual listed SSE members have the option of setting their own request prices and not going with the SSE suggested request prices. But this last price increase was not announced before hand.

As I see it any listed member who recieves requests also has the option to return money to the person requesting if they think the suggested price is too high. That's an individual decision each member will have to make if they didn't already ask for a specific request price that was lower than the suggested one.

Hope that helps.

[DiggingDogFarm]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

But this last price increase was not announced before hand.

That, along with other communication failures, proves that the Seed Savers Brokerage is totally out-of-touch with the membership!

It's time for a major shakeup!!!


~DiggingDog

[PNW_D]

2010 version now on-line ..........

http://seedsaversyb.dreamhosters.com...antType=TOMATO