So, I’m looking through the German version of the Esbit catalog (pdf), and look what I find.
That’s right, bitches. It’s a Trockenbrenstoff-Kocher. For those of you who don’t sprechen the Deutsch, that means super-bad-ass esbit stove.
It weighs .4 ounces.
It folds up eensy-weensy, teeny-tiny.
I can’t seem to find any for sale here in America, and the minimum import order is 300 pieces.
Anyone know of somebody who’s importing these things?
Anyone know how hard it is to setup an import business? Esbit makes all sorts of cool stuff that I’ve never even seen before!
Ist das nicht süß?!
Update: It looks like backpackinglite.com used to carry them, but now they are out-of stock… grr..
Update 2: I spoke with a sales rep at AGS, which is evidently the only Esbit distributor in the US. She says that they don’t carry this particular stove, but will start carrying it early next year.
I’ll check back in a few months.
Setting up the importing part of the business is easy. You send money, they send product. For our European vendors, we often have to use wire transfers of funds rather than credit cards, checks, etc. Selling the product is a different challenge. You could sell direct to customers through a website, if you want to deal with retail customers. Since you have to buy 300 pieces, you could be a distributor to retailers, which generally eliminates the hassles of retail, but at a lower profit margin.