A rational, reasonable price for pot?

UncleBuck

UncleBuck

Well-Known Member
desert dude said:
Ok, my kitchen, my spare bedroom...
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if you don't mind your kitchen looking like this:



note: this was barely a third of my crop this year, approx 2-3 pounds. hope your kitchen has room for 6 pounds. this is a 8' wide by 8' tall by 12 foot deep room.
 
desert dude

desert dude

Well-Known Member
cannabineer said:
Not just weather ... labor. You have refused to address my contention that well-groomed weed is much much more labor-intensive than a leaf crop. cn
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Actually, I think I did address your question: there are mechanized trimmers already on the market (the samarai, for example). Another solution is to sell your pot untrimmed at a discounted price.
 
desert dude

desert dude

Well-Known Member
UncleBuck said:
if you don't mind your kitchen looking like this:



note: this was barely a third of my crop this year, approx 2-3 pounds. hope your kitchen has room for 6 pounds. this is a 8' wide by 8' tall by 12 foot deep room.
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Nice.

It would be a relatively easy matter to heat my garage, it is already insulated, drywalled, etc. My oldest sons used it as a bedroom for several years.
 
UncleBuck

UncleBuck

Well-Known Member
i'm going to head out on a pesky treadmill delivery now.

DEAdude, you really need to go ahead and pull off your own 6 pound backyard harvest before you continue to tell us how easy it is.

see how much you manage to harvest while investing $0.00 in security.
 
desert dude

desert dude

Well-Known Member
UncleBuck said:
i'm going to head out on a pesky treadmill delivery now.

DEAdude, you really need to go ahead and pull off your own 6 pound backyard harvest before you continue to tell us how easy it is.

see how much you manage to harvest while investing $0.00 in security.
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WHen CA legalizes, I will do just that and keep a careful accounting of costs.
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
desert dude said:
Actually, I think I did address your question: there are mechanized trimmers already on the market (the samarai, for example). Another solution is to sell your pot untrimmed at a discounted price.
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Do you remember I mentioned that they stink? Like the pricy ProTrim. They stink. A good non-manual trim tech doesn't exist. cn
 
desert dude

desert dude

Well-Known Member
cannabineer said:
Do you remember I mentioned that they stink? Like the pricy ProTrim. They stink. A good non-manual trim tech doesn't exist. cn
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So, don't trim it. If you, as a buyer, are offered pot at $1,000 per pound trimmed, or $65 per pound untrimmed, which would you choose?

What is so great about trimmed pot to start with?
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
desert dude said:
So, don't trim it. If you, as a buyer, are offered pot at $1,000 per pound trimmed, or $65 per pound untrimmed, which would you choose? What is so great about trimmed pot to start with?
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And that is why I grow my own. I like foie gras and you're giving me a choice and saying Esskay or Oscar Meyer. The only time to do a good trim on weed is when it has not yet wilted. I do not think that you realize that you're figuratively selling me five pounds of carded but unspun wool as "a rug; some assembly required". Weed is not a leaf crop, and you're treating it as one. cn
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
desert dude said:
I posted this the Washington legalizes marijuana thread, but I think it deserves its own thread.


"What is a rational price for pot?". The answer I expected was something like this: "Pot should be priced at a point where all involved are able to make a living at growing, processing, distributing and selling it."

In a free market, the most efficient production chain wins because it produces the most, and the best quality for the least cost. That is simple supply/demand economics. It is hard to put a precise dollar figure on it, but it is easy to put an approximate dollar figure on it.

Look at similar products, Tobacco for example. Tobacco is mostly grown by small family farmers in the US. They sell their Tobacco at auction in the early winter every year to the big Tobacco companies. The big Tobacco companies buy it at wholesale prices from the farmers and process it into cigarettes, cigars, snuff, etc.

In the summer of 1974 I was a field worker on my cousin's small Tobacco farm. I cut it and housed it in September, and "stripped" it in November. I think I was paid $2.00 per hour for my labor, I don't remember exactly, but it was a lot of work for little money. My cousin sold the Tobacco he raised to the big Tobacco companies for about $2.00 per pound and he was very pleased with that price. I doubt Tobacco sells for more than $4.00 per pound today at auction.

Using the price of Tobacco as a guide, I would expect marijuana to sell for about $5 to $20 per pound at the wholesale level, i.e. that is what a grower can expect to make when selling to a wholesaler. In a free market, I would expect each of the "handlers" in the supply chain to double the price. If this approximation is accurate, I would expect the retail buyer to pay $20 to $100 per pound for the finished product.

Now, let's get the gangsters involved:
1. the Washington state government apparently wants $10 per gram in taxes, that is their bite. This amounts to about $4,600 per pound in "sin taxes".
2. the cartel chain currently demands about half that amount (i.e. about $2,300) in risk premium under the current prohibition scheme. As usual, the "criminals" are more reasonable than the government.

My conclusions:
1. Any "legalization" scheme that makes the retail price attractive to the cartel will do very little to take down the cartels. This is why Unclebuck is so overjoyed at the Washington legalization initiative, it effectively raises the floor price on his treadmills. This is crony capitalism at its finest.
2. An "honest" price for high grade retail marijuana is probably about $100 per pound.
3. If you tack on an "honest" tax, that might raise the retail price to $200 per pound.
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$10 a fucking gram tax?????? No blackmarket potential there so it's legal but avoid paying the tax and go to jail. See "Cigarette Tax Smuggling" in the eastern US. No wonder the proposition made the ballot. The shit never ends. I hear you on the tobacco. I worked and lived on a potato and grain farm in Southern Colorado. Hard work every day, no exception. But we didn't get anywhere near what Safeway got for them after trucking them and giving them a bath.
 
desert dude

desert dude

Well-Known Member
hotrodharley said:
$10 a fucking gram tax?????? No blackmarket potential there so it's legal but avoid paying the tax and go to jail. See "Cigarette Tax Smuggling" in the eastern US. No wonder the proposition made the ballot. The shit never ends. I hear you on the tobacco. I worked and lived on a potato and grain farm in Southern Colorado. Hard work every day, no exception. But we didn't get anywhere near what Safeway got for them after trucking them and giving them a bath.
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I could be jumping the gun on the $10/gram tax thing. After looking at it, I am not certain of that number. If anybody has better info, feel free to chime in.
 
mysunnyboy

mysunnyboy

Well-Known Member
desert dude said:
I would be interested in seeing your analysis to predict a price. Tobacco is labor intensive, so is pot, it seems a reasonable comparison. Coffee sells for about $6.00 per pound retail. Frankly, I think I WAY overestimated the retail price of pot at $100 per pound.
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i hope i live to see that day :eyesmoke:
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
As easy as pot is to grow, as easily as it breeds and seeds, as many strains as there are to adapt to varied environments it would not take many years before it was as easy to get as yard clippings and worth a little more.
 
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