In the spirit of the internet, I'm not doing this to make money. I wanted a cap myself, and no one else was volunteering, so I did.
I paid the original setup charges and bought a supply of envelopes. I charged $12 for each cap until the setup charges were covered and then reduced the price to $10 which covered the (then) incremental cost to me for each cap. Prices have gone up since then; now the cost of sending out a cap has risen to $15
For the record: this is not a business. As a favor to other rec.boaters I am buying caps for them within the state of Michigan where I pay sales tax on each purchase. I mail the caps to those who want to be part of this group purchase and they reimburse me for what I have paid for their cap and for the envelope and postage to mail the cap to them.
I have an Excel 5.0 spreadsheet which details this group purchase. It keeps track of orders, inventory, and cash flow. It wouldn't be useful for a real business, but it works nicely for a few-item inventory and a cash balance. I'd be happy to send it to anyone interested. I would delete all names and addresses, but leave the cash flow details. (I don't believe it's my right to distribute information about anyone else without their permission.)
I take no reimbursement for my time, travel or money tied up in inventory; when
I said volunteer, I meant it. As one of my .sigs says,
"if there was something i'd rather be doing, i'd be doing it."
More information