Welcome to OPEmart y’all! If you have a product suggestion, please use the SUGGESTION BOX on the forum.
We’re so glad you stopped in to see the merch that we hope will subsidize some of the costs of running the infamous Outdoor Power Equipment Forum for you.
Read on to discover why this store exists at a different domain name than the forum has …
Conflicting Platforms
Why not just sell all of this merch directly on OPE Forum? While OPEforum is arguably the best place to commiserate, I mean collaborate with like minded outdoor power equipment users and mechanics, it’s not built on a good ecommerce system. When we had to choose a new server to host opeforum.com because of Godaddy’s massive failure in February 2023, we chose the fastest and most secure option, which was cloud hosting provided by the creators of the forum software that we use. It’s built on Xenforo forum platform, which wouldn’t connect to the distributor of this merchandise.
Since the primary forum sponsor is HLSupply, why not sell this merch at HLSupply.com? While HL Supply, LLC is arguably the best place in the world to buy OEM and aftermarket parts, it’s built on the Volusion ecommerce platform, which wouldn’t connect to the distributor of this merchandise either.
The printing company we chose to make the products that we wanted to offer to you, connects with WooCommerce, but not with Volusion or Xenforo. This store you’re viewing now had to be built on WooCommerce to accommodate that interconnectivity. To host this WooComm store on a server separate from HLSupply.com (Volusion) and OPEforum.com (Xenforo), it had to have its own domain name, hence our choice of OPEmart.com (which is a domain name that we had already registered).
Purpose of OPEmart.com
The server, the apps, the maintenance are all expensive af; it takes a LOT of time and money. Gold Membership sales and advertising are only making a dent in those costs, so we hope to subsidize some of the big costs of running the forum, in which you are proud to be a member, by providing merchandise that y’all would be proud of reppin’ in public.
We’re open to product suggestions too.
Merch Pricing
If any of these merch prices seem high to you, it’s because the print company takes most of it. Since we ain’t dealing in high volume, they pretty much retail it to us and we have to mark it up a wee bit to make a profit. They don’t offer wholesale pricing to us, so if we want any of this to benefit your forum, we have to make it expensive. Sorry.