We launched a new website where you can receive and give quotes for commodity deliveries. Simply post a RFQ ( Request for Quotation) and wait for the quotes to come. More info www.CommodityPartner.com

Question:
Is a website to give and receive price quotations for commodities (oil, biodiesel, methanol, ...) a good idea?

Choices:
I don't think so
Yes!
Maybe, it depends on ... (reply below)

 

Thanks for the feedback! Glad to see that there is great interest in a website to receive price quotations for commodities.

What is your first impression of the website? What could we improve on it to help you better?

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Respectfully,
Marc

First response from the site would be that I like the idea and while it is easy, it isn't incredibly intuitive. Possibly fill out "example" answers for people, or give an example screenshot. (biggest problem was what to fill in the commodity section...this could be a dropdown list driven by current commodities found in the "sell" database table)

Second idea would be that the "average homebrewer" may be intimidated by seeing the "Metric Ton" as the default quantity and assume this is only for large scale industrial purchases.

Third, I would set your default currency to be the country wherein you plan to market your webpage most actively (I assume this would be USD, but could be wrong).

Fourth, possibly a more robust search result. I did a search for 15 Gal of methanol to buy. It returned "No Results Found" which is OK, but a somewhat "smarter" interface could have been something that said "No exact results found - Methanol is available, but not in that quantity." or even better "Methanol is available in the following quantities" or finally "Methanol is not a currently listed commodity" so I know to stop searching for the right price/quantity.

Just some suggestions. I don't know if any will help you or not...
Thanks,
-Scott

Would be good to be able to just browse your listings instead of haveing to go thru the search.

Trc

Basically a good idea...but:

The market for chemicals such as Methanol and lye is getting tighter.

Personally I would rather not disclose on a public forum/website where to get those things.
Everybody will have access to that info which will make it so much easier for a politician or fed to make the homebrewers life a little bit more difficult by limiting access to 'his' source.

Hans

hello handcuff,


Thank you for your valuable feedback.

We did the following adaptations to the website:

When entering the website you will get immediately all the available results. This way you immediately get a decent overview of the available commodities without having to go through the search.

A more robust search becomes less important now that you get all the results on first entry. However, the moment the amount of RFQs becomes too high we will definitely work on this.

For the commodity section we choose for a textfield instead of a dropdown list as a dropdown list would become way too long. We are targeting all commodities. Vegetable oils you already have 200 different varieties I do agree with you that at this point a dropdown list would be more intuitive.

On the home page, we changed 'Metric Ton' to 'Any quanity unit' as indeed we don't want to scare homebrewers but attract them!

When launching a new RFQ we made the most used items as standard, currently this is US dollar for the currency, and for quantity unit it is still metric ton. But if pounds or gallon would become the most used, this would become the standard selection when you open the 'Post a Request for Quotation'. On the home page we had to keep 'any currency' as standard so that you get all the available rfqs on the home page as stadard results.

Are these adaptations what you were looking for or do you feel we underestimate some things?

Thank you very much for your response.

If there is anything else you don't like or would like, please post it here. It gives us a lot of positive energy!

Best Regards,
Marc

Trc59,

Thank you for your feedback! We made it so that you get immediately all results on the home page and don't have to go through the search anymore.

If there is anything else, please let us know, we are here for you.

Best Regards,
Marc

B100Hans,

Thank you for your feedback.

We have made it possible to be anonymous on the website. This way only your country is revealed, but nothing else. This way you can post what you are looking for, receives quotes, but still remain anonymous.

As you can see on the website about 50% of the users also use this feature and are 'anonymous'.

Would this solve the problem for you?

Thank you for your valuable time.

Best Regards,
Marc

quote:

Originally posted by B100Hans:
Basically a good idea...but:

The market for chemicals such as Methanol and lye is getting tighter.

Personally I would rather not disclose on a public forum/website where to get those things.
Everybody will have access to that info which will make it so much easier for a politician or fed to make the homebrewers life a little bit more difficult by limiting access to 'his' source.
Hans

quote:

Originally posted by CommodityPartner:
B100Hans,

Thank you for your feedback.

We have made it possible to be anonymous on the website. This way only your country is revealed, but nothing else. This way you can post what you are looking for, receives quotes, but still remain anonymous.

As you can see on the website about 50% of the users also use this feature and are 'anonymous'.

Would this solve the problem for you?

Thank you for your valuable time.

Best Regards,
Marc

Marc,

Thank you for your effort.

To answer your question w/o 'beating around the bush': No.

My 'concern' is not regarding the individual brewer, it is the source of where the chemicals are coming from. Natural those can't be kept anonymous in a 'forum' like yours.

So I just keep mine to myself and only disclose them on a base where trustworthiness has been developed between me and who I am disclosing my sources to.

Thanks, Hans

b100Hans,

Thanks for your feedback.

I see what you mean, you say the chemicals are getting harder to get and government likes to have more control.

However, I don't understand what risk a supplier takes if he is posting this anonymously?

The governement cannot see who he his. At the same time thanks to posting on our website what he has he receives requests from people that are interested in his product, and only if he trusts the potential buyer enough can he reveal his coordinates.

I don't see how the supplier would lose anything here. He would only enjoy the extra interest and therefore a better price.

By posting a request for quotation as a buyer, for the chemicals or oil you need regularly, you will also raise the chance of finding more suppliers as you have today, giving you more options and allowing you to strike better deals, without compromising your privacy.

Hope this clarifies our concept.

Seeing forward to your response.

quote:

Originally posted by CommodityPartner:
b100Hans,

Thanks for your feedback.

I see what you mean, you say the chemicals are getting harder to get and government likes to have more control.

However, I don't understand what risk a supplier takes if he is posting this anonymously?

The governement cannot see who he his. At the same time thanks to posting on our website what he has he receives requests from people that are interested in his product, and only if he trusts the potential buyer enough can he reveal his coordinates.

I don't see how the supplier would lose anything here. He would only enjoy the extra interest and therefore a better price.

By posting a request for quotation as a buyer, for the chemicals or oil you need regularly, you will also raise the chance of finding more suppliers as you have today, giving you more options and allowing you to strike better deals, without compromising your privacy.

Hope this clarifies our concept.

Seeing forward to your response.

Yes your post clarified your concept, thanks.

My supplier does not sell Methanol nor lye to anybody wanting to use it for the purpose of making Biodiesel.
During the process of opening an account with them they ask what the buyer wants it for, if Biodiesel is mentioned the say thank you and end the conversation (and that potential buyer ends up on a blacklist). If bought for racing fuel purposes (Methanol) and tanning animal skins (lye) they are happy to sell both to you...

Anyway I posted the above to show how much more difficult it is becoming to acquire the chemicals needed.
I am in process of switching to WVO/SVO, no more chemicals to buy, no more large amounts of highly explosive and highly toxic stuff to deal with and an all over time and cost saving process after an initial investment (conversion).

Anyway CommodityPartner good concept and I hope it will help some.

Hans

quote:

Anyway CommodityPartner good concept and I hope it will help some.

Thanks for the compliment Hans.

I have never understood why companies don't want to sell methanol and svo to biodiesel producers but for any other purpose no problem.

I agree that driving on wvo directly or simply mixed with diesel is a much more interesting way to go for a private person. If you are short of wvo, don't hesitate to put a request for quotation on our website. This way people that have wvo in your area can also find you.

Enjoy the grease riding :-)

quote:

Welder: Although precious metals and chemical reagents are both commodities, the relative disparity of comparing a deal of 10 KG of potassium hydroxide to 40 Kg of siver is a wide stretch indeed. The 40 keys of silver is a big enough chunk of business to warrant selling it via the normal commodities markets while the potassium is something small enough to pick up from a local chemical retailer.

It's sort of like starting a flea market with someone selling individual paper clips and ice cream cones next to someone selling brand new mining trucks worth $500,000.00 . They just didn't compare well, that's all.

Anyway, there's no shame in someone doing a small deal right next to someone doing a big deal, it just looked a little odd, that's all.

It is true that some request for quotations on the website are clearly business to business while others are clearly small private persons. For example there is a request for quotation to buy 30.000 gallon of grease per week, clearly a business, while there is also a requests for quotation to buy 500 gallon per 6 months, clearly an individual.

We are indeed targeting both communities, large users/suppliers and small users/suppliers. A professional collector of wvo might find better business in selling his limited supply to better paying smaller private customers, something he could discover when he receives interesting quotes from smaller customers on CommodityPartner. (We have a larger cooking oil supplier already on the website, at the bottom of the page you can send him a quote.


40 kg of silver in coin form is not tradable on a commodity exchange as it is not accepted. It must be bullion good delivery bars of minimum 1000 ounces each (NYMEX/COMEX, CBOT), meaning it is standardized. If you trade silver on a commodity exchange, it must be per this quantity, that quality, these payment terms. All is decided already, nothing can be customized to your preferences.

Commodity exchanges are for example centralized. You will have to deliver or pick up at the standard location mentioned in the contract, this cannot be changed. This can be Chicago (CBOT) or New York (Nymex). CommodityPartner is decentralized. It doesn't mather where you live, it's door to door trading, unlike an exchange you can decide the 'delivery term' yourself before closing the deal.

Also note, most commodities do not have a commodity exchange. Grease, potassium, crude glycerin, ... are not traded on any commodity exchange. I estimate that only 1% of the commodities are traded on a commodity exchange somewhere in the world.

This is why we started CommodityPartner. CommodityPartner is a destandardized and decentralized commodity market. You can ask for or sell all commodities, in all forms, for all delivery locations, all qualities, all quantities, all depending on the customers need or suppliers possiblities. Commodity exchanges are not what you would think they are. Commodity exchanges are thanks to this standardization and thus liquidity of contracts, excellent financial instruments. However, commodity exchanges are very unpractical for physcial commodity trade. That is why 99% of all transactions on commodity exchanges will never transact any commodity but have the sole purpose of speculating or hedging.

CommodtiyPartner is a commodity market for the people and companies that do - physical commodtiy transactions - and are looking to buy or sell any commodity, any quality/quanitity ..., i.e. customized to their need.

quote:

Welder: You gotta remember that this site is constantly bombarded with spam from chinese factories to Nigerian fraudsters trying to literally sell "snake oil" and other oils, so when something new pops up it begs scrutiny.

If you are sincerely trying to start up a bona fide marketplace, then I'm sorry for offending you. If you are legit, then I wish you all the best of blessings (success).

Your scrutiny is indeed wise and well taken. Yes, CommodityPartner is a bona fide marketplace so I welcome your blessing :-)
There is nothing more motivating than getting feedback, it makes you work. Much better than silence!

So thanks for your reply Welder.

If there is anything else, post it here, I check this forum regularly.

We noticed that several users from this forum posted Request For Quotations on our website but did not fill in the lengthy registration page.

We therefore simplified the registration. From now on you can post a RFQ and register with only your country and email. This way you can register quick and stay really anonymous.

People that want to relaunch their RFQ are more than welcome.