The profits made on the feathers we sell is much lower than what some people think. Every business or private seller of such feathers does have some expenses, but we go several steps further...
Once we acquire the feathers from our partners a considerable amount of time is spent on them, to apply the necessary presentation and compliance requirements to bring them to market within our high standard. Below explains our procedure, after the feathers are sourced from our partners:
Cleaning. Feathers are treated for mites, then sanitised and cleaned in a multi-stage process. This process is time consuming as it thoroughly cleans the feathers without altering their natural form.
Presentation. The feathers are graded twice (before and after treatment) then: measured, photographed, tagged, packed and catalogued – to become ready for selling to our customers. Please Note: Every item of feathers we sell has been individually photographed, so what a customer sees in our store is what they actually receive when they purchase.
Certification. Some feathers are certified, depending on the species and value the level of detail and effort varies. Certificates can be costly to produce - but are a FREE SERVICE provided to our customers.
As explained above - a considerable amount of time and labour cost is spent on our feathers to bring them to market professionally, legally and responsibly.
In addition to these procedures above, below are other expenses that we incur:
Shipping Expenses. Many consignments sent to customers cost us more to pack and send than what we charge, so the difference it costs us extra isn't passed on to our customers, but instead is subsidised from the profit made (from the sale of the feathers).
Legal Compliance Expenses. FeatherExchange.com is fully legally compliant. We hold several licenses to ensure that our activities are Government approved everywhere our feathers are sourced and sold. With our licenses comes the legal compliance procedures, which involves time and cost to manage.
Stock Management Expenses. FeatherExchange.com holds more sellable Black-Cockatoo feathers than anyone else and also holds one of the largest species range and quantity of other sellable rare Parrot and Raptor feathers. Not all the feathers we hold is displayed in our store and we usually have more feathers in our storage than displayed online. The way we preserve and manage our stock continuously involves labour and cost.
NOW... THE GOOD NEWS FOR OUR CUSTOMERS! Despite all these additional expenses, we still price our feathers very reasonably and at most times substantially less than comparable feathers traded outside of Australia. Customers can be assured of the best service and value for money when buying from FeatherExchange.com and they can also be confident in knowing that every feather sourced and sold by us is naturally moulted from birds which are well cared for in captivity.