Need opinions badly!!!!

[Tallbabydoll]

Well if you read the description I think she is completely honest and up front about all that. She basically poured all her heart and soul into getting her business started, now it will be time for someone to pick it up where she is leaving off.

Personally, I think having a unique image, a well ranked site, gorgeous graphics and custom labels, very good candles, is worth more than just a truckload of supplies and then having to come up with all those things on your own, but I can see from all the different answers there are a lot of different perspectives to it.

But I have appreciated all the helpful advice...a lot to think about!!!

Laura

It looks to me like your mind has already been made up, and that it's worth the price to you. Isn't that all that really matters in the long run?

It may not be worth it to me, jane, or john, but that doesn't really matter.

IMHO you can't buy or sell knowledge, or talent, both of which come with time and practice. I think in this case it's especially true with the food candles. For ex. Bruce could sell me his dipping equipment and show me how he makes a carved candle......Doing this in no way insures that I will ever be able to produce a carved candle anywhere near the quality of his, even using his equipment, formula, and me trying to duplicate his techniques. Again, talent can't be sold.

As for the price of web designing, personally it's not worth it to me. There's web designers all over, even some of the members on the board who'd charge much less, and label designers too. Also you could buy software and design them yourself, which is the way I'd prefer to do things. When I get to that point, I wan't my style to be my own. If someone hires your services at an agreed rate, thats one thing. But to say that something is worth X amount of dollars because of the amount of time you spent on it, well it probably wont be worth it to another. If we could charge for candles based on the amount of time, effort, and wasted supplies we used to get our candles to be of high quality, well no one would buy them. They'd be way to expensive. Plus the seller needs to keep in mind that the site did generate them income. The buyer needs to keep in mind the limited amount of time the site has been established, and how much income that site has/will generate, and if you want to/can continue to produce the item the site is best known for, at the same quality.

I don't mean for my words to offend anyone. Opinions were asked for, therefore I am stating mine. I do not know either the buyer or the seller. This is my unbiased opinion based solely on what I find valuable. I personally would rather use templates and software to build my own site and labels and put my money into supplies. JMHO

[LauraAndrews]

You know, when I posted this, I tried to make it very general and anonymous; I should have known someone would figure out what I was talking about. :embarasse

I think Bev has been completely up front and honest and I think what she has described in her listing is accurate; nowhere did she state she had a huge customer base or anything of the sort. She clearly stated much of what a person would be bidding on.

For me, my thought was that something like this would be perfect. I already have a full time job, I deal with the challenge of having MS, I have 4 kids that keep me more than busy, and I have another website I put a lot of work into but would like to expand (particularly with candles!), so the idea of "picking up the ball and running with it" and time saving aspects of starting with something that is already so well thought out seems to make good sense to me.

But I wanted to get some other opinions, because in terms of making or selling candles I am a relative newbie, and it would be a lot of money for me and a very big commitment. This business just totally tugs on my heartstrings, and I do not want to make a foolish decision out of emotion. There is too much at stake.

So thank you for all the helpful advice and I'm really sorry if anyone was offended. Maybe I am the one with the communication problem!

Laura

[cindym]

Really no reason for anyone to be offended, Laura it is a personal decision on your part, but if you are new to making candles you need to really think about if this is the way you want to get started. There is so much to learn about candle making and you have to have a full understanding of what the process is about, before you can go into business. You still need to test test test, even with someone elses formula's etc what works for one does not always work for another. I would love to buy the business and the website, but I know what I need most is supplies to keep my business going.