Hello, my name’s Kyle. I’m somewhat overdue introducing myself on this forum but I have been lurking around for some time.
I’m an experienced lab worker with a background in diagnostic Histology and Cytology. I’ve been in the works starting a small biomedical and lab supply company that offers equipment and supplies to small teams and skilled hobbyists.
One of the things I have been working on is an OpenFlexure parts kit, as when obtaining parts for my own microscope I noticed certain parts can be a bit of a headache to source. After various delays I now have a small batch of kits available for sale which include everything you need except for a Pi and 3D printed parts which can be included as optional extras.
The base kit costs £225 + Shipping and includes the following:
This should be everything you need except for a Pi, an SD card, a power supply and the 3D printed parts. I can provide these as an add-on if required though this will include a bit of a lead time.
My webstore isn’t quite ready yet as it is being custom built however in the mean time I am able to sell these kits directly through sales@malkanicus.com where I can provide a payment request through stripe. I can currently ship to the UK and depending on where you are in Europe I should be able to ship there too though customs fees are likely to apply and something you should consider.
Once the webstore is ready we will slowly increase the number of products available including peripherals like slides and coverslips. If you are after something more specific or a custom order please do get in touch and I’ll see what I can do.
I will keep an eye on this thread for any questions though if you are interested in purchasing one please send an email to sales@malkanicus.com so I can get your details and send you an invoice.
Do you plan to sell on Amazon? It is much easier for us (university lab policy) to order off of Amazon rather than via another site – if it costs more $ that is ok, compliance with policy is the main bottleneck here.
An interesting idea. I am not sure any of the kit vendors do yet. We have a number on the website now:
I think if you want to use Amazon’s fulfilment then you need to give them a load of stock. But it seems that if you are shipping yourself and doing smaller quantities then it is probably quite easy. Except the VAT complications of shipping to the EU.
@jorodeo Do you think that discussing Amazon listings is a good idea for one of the up coming OSS meetings?
It’s interesting that amazon is an option for universities, it’s the opposite in the UK and in my experience. I have sold items to universities in the UK and EU on account where they send a purchase order by email and pay by bank transfer after delivery.
I did consider doing amazon fulfilment but because most orders are international it’s probably not practical (might be different in the US). Amazon listing with own fulfilment has somewhat confusing shipping rules and prices but I will look into that if it makes it easier.
For EU, VAT can be handled via IOSS for orders <150EUR, which is how the prepaid VAT on my store works, it should then easily clear customs with no extra fees (and I had no complaints so far about extra fees being charged by customs so it seems to be working). There are some brokerage fees involved because IOSS requires representative in the EU but they are fairly reasonable.
I have heard of some US universities trying to do almost everything through Amazon, and others where it is blocked entirely as a supplier. I don’t know of any UK universities that like using Amazon, but I think each sets their own procurement processes, so who knows!?
Hi @j.stirling, we can definitely add it to the agenda! We (iorodeo) have not had any experiences with institutions asking for fulfilment via Amazon, but a large number of universities won’t just allow an order through an online store and require a first a quote followed by vendor registration -->> purchase order -->> invoice, which is for sure a lot of hoops to jump through for the researcher/end-user! Process can take many weeks. But like you said each place has its own procurement processes!
Hi, there are operational challenges in regards to selling through Amazon. This is a pretty in-depth topic but basically it can be more expensive to sell through Amazon and they have a reputation of making mistakes and refunding customers at the expense of the vendor.
That’s not to say we wouldn’t consider it in the future (and it might make sense for one of the other vendors) but right now it is out of scope for us as a business to sell through Amazon. I do understand that for large institutions it can be challenging to make purchases through unapproved means. My background is working in a large NHS histology lab and purchase approvals were always difficult. Coincidentally Amazon was not approved for a long time.
For the time being we can only accept sales through our website (I realise I never updated my original post to add it, I’ll do that now) or alternatively quotes and purchase orders through our sales email. I’m more than happy to talk to any accounts or purchasing department to discuss their needs to approve a purchase though I understand some are unwilling to reach out. Sometimes it’s luck of the draw sadly.
