Ebay business

Hey all,

So about a week ago, I started selling on ebay. It's someting ive always wanted to do, but have never had the means to do it. I bought a few ebooks, with the intent on getting a bit of ebay experience. I have got just that, but, not suprisingly, the ebook market is so over-saturated that selling them is only worth a few dollars a week after all fees are paid for.

But, all this has got me thinking. There MUST be some underserviced markets in which one could turn a decant profit. Now, Im not expecting to make anything near a slary, jsut enough to really justify my time.

I spent a few hours searching, and dropshipping wholesalers are REALLY hard to come by. Either they dont sell at anything near wholesale, or they are extremely shady. I also looked for a good prodct to sell, but of course, anything that I could find was already over-popular.

So, I am wondering if anyone could help me out in suggesting either
-Good Wholesalers
-A place that will dropship refurbished items
-A good, underserviced market.

Now, I know that anybody with these ideas would be very reluctant to jsut give them out. I would be willing to offer good compensation to anyone who gives me a lead that I could eventually go with. We can definetly work something out that would be beneficial to the both of us.

So, if you know of an idea, are retired, or are thinking about getting out of your business, i'd be interested to hear. Once again, I will compensate you fairly, with my Trade reputation as a backing.

Mike

I think you should consider
Ioffer.com and alibaba.com

Many ebayer buy a bulk of items from Ioffer and alibaba (since most of them are China made).

I was a silver powerseller 5 months ago. But now got suspended.....

Right now, I am looking more along the lines of drop-shipping right now.

P.S. Could a mod please move this to the off-topic forum?

i'd like to know if there's a place where i could get high end stuff like ipods or gfx cards in bulk... i dont think alibaba would be any good there...

No One is going to give up their sources - they'd put themselves out of business by creating more competition for themselves.

Search for Wholesale Forums on Google - you may be able to find something helpful

Good and honest Dropshipper is very very though to get.
Almost online dropshippers are middlemen. So you will not get good prices from them.
I did research almost 3 months, and got nothing.
Most of the dropshipper lists that many people sell is just a bs.

my suggestion is... just go to your campus recycle center, and buy computers and electronic stuff from them, and sell it on ebay.

That was what I did. I earn almost $2000-3000 a month.


About alibaba...., almost 30% are scammers. But just deal with the gold members...

Ioffer is a good source too, if you are looking for items in bulk and LV purse...

[quoted3b74a58f0]No One is going to give up their sources - they'd put themselves out of business by creating more competition for themselves.

Search for Wholesale Forums on Google - you may be able to find something helpful[/quoted3b74a58f0]

I understand that, but many people have to put their business on hold/retire for different reasons. I have heard multiple times around here from people saying "I used to sell _____ on ebay untill.." . Thats my guess anyways, and hopefully, im right )

Mike

So... what are you planning to sell or currently selling?

I have a sister and currently studying in China (Shanghai).

And next month I am planning to visit her and probably finding a good stuff to sell online...

My friend said I can get a cheap jordan basketball shoes around $10 (I dunno if it is fake or not) and sell it in US for $60.

Well, i am currently selling ebooks, jsut to get famlliar with all the features/tools of eaby. They pay the fees, but not much more.

I have no real idea what im going to be selling, becasue i will sell whatever is needed.

I did ebay few years ago reselling made a pretty penny I can try to dig up my wholesaler who dropshipped, If i can find the info Ill let you know

I had a few as well, but follow the advice of the guy up there.. get urself a wholesaler. use a little capital and get some products

i have several legit large volume, and highly reliable dropshippers, ranging from all types of consumer electronics to large flat panel monitor only distributors. i used to run an online electronics business for several years and was an authorized NEC reseller as well as an authorized reseller for smaller companies.

do you have a registered business? the legit wholesalers with good prices all require a TAX ID, basically so they can sell the products to you and not pay taxes, as business to business sales are exempt

if u dont have a registered business and dont plan on it, good luck getting any good distributors.

if you are interested in registering a business its not that hard
in illinois I had to
go to county offices and fill out a DBA form, registering the business
had to run a small ad in a newspaper advertising the creation of my business
i received tax id (you can get this before your business license) in mail
lastly i got my business license sent to me

some distributors want a copy of your business license and the State Tax Id (Resale ID), but most just want Resale ID

you fill out application for dropship program and they set you up. i fulfilled orders via email and they were usually shipped out same day

pm me for distributor information
)

[quote6df51eec5e="Airkat"]I had a few as well, but follow the advice of the guy up there.. get urself a wholesaler. use a little capital and get some products[/quote6df51eec5e]

there are plenty of good drop ship distributors

getting a little capital and products isn't necessarily a better idea, because
1)then you would have inventory and with so much product proliferation, any product u purchase for inventory could lose its value in a matter of months, weeks even
2)large drop ship distributors purchase in incredible volumes, you aren't likely to get the pricing that they get.
3)dropship distributors handle returns for you, saving you time and money
4)with dropshipping you get paid before you purchase the item! I had net 30 terms with my plasma/lcd/projector distributor. i sold a couple NEC HT1100 units and i received the money first online. Then my distributor sent out the unit right away. I collected the money and had 30 days to pay the distributor for the item. Less risky model!

the only time i would suggest getting some capital and purchasing inventory with your own funds if you are new to this would be if you wanted to focus on reselling a specific product wherein you go directly through the manufacturer, such as modchips, or products from new tech firms (finding innovative products by new tech firms is easy- check magazines such as Maxim, Stuff, or online tech portals. then just contact the manufacturer directly!)

i hooked up with this one manufacturer that produced a touch screen LCD flat panel alarm/cd player and i worked directly through them. the product was $75 my cost and they had a MAP (min advertised selling price of $179). needless to say, they protected this map, so the margin on this product was very nice!

there are all sorts of opportunities out there, just have to take time to research and focus on the products that u can get a decent profit margin off.

its not worth it to me to try to be a volume seller on ebay and make <10% per sale. especially with ebays fees.

hmmmm.. i was not aware of this Tax ID thing.. that may make things more difficult, becasue I am located in Canada...

I suggest selling incense. you can get them way cheap and jack up shipping and stuff

make rounds at local colleges at the end of the year, students throw TONS of good expensive stuff away.

Last year alone i got....... a suade love seat, AMD 2200+ Processor + motherboard and heatsink, a nice futon, some wall deco stuff (throws, un ripped posters)

This was just from walking around my local dumpster while tossing my own garbage away. I made over 400$ just from picking up stuff that wasnt really garbage...just too big to lug home for students.

[quote93c71052cd="exclusiv"][quote93c71052cd="Airkat"]I had a few as well, but follow the advice of the guy up there.. get urself a wholesaler. use a little capital and get some products[/quote93c71052cd]

there are plenty of good drop ship distributors

getting a little capital and products isn't necessarily a better idea, because
1)then you would have inventory and with so much product proliferation, any product u purchase for inventory could lose its value in a matter of months, weeks even
2)large drop ship distributors purchase in incredible volumes, you aren't likely to get the pricing that they get.
3)dropship distributors handle returns for you, saving you time and money
4)with dropshipping you get paid before you purchase the item! I had net 30 terms with my plasma/lcd/projector distributor. i sold a couple NEC HT1100 units and i received the money first online. Then my distributor sent out the unit right away. I collected the money and had 30 days to pay the distributor for the item. Less risky model!

the only time i would suggest getting some capital and purchasing inventory with your own funds if you are new to this would be if you wanted to focus on reselling a specific product wherein you go directly through the manufacturer, such as modchips, or products from new tech firms (finding innovative products by new tech firms is easy- check magazines such as Maxim, Stuff, or online tech portals. then just contact the manufacturer directly!)

i hooked up with this one manufacturer that produced a touch screen LCD flat panel alarm/cd player and i worked directly through them. the product was $75 my cost and they had a MAP (min advertised selling price of $179). needless to say, they protected this map, so the margin on this product was very nice!

there are all sorts of opportunities out there, just have to take time to research and focus on the products that u can get a decent profit margin off.

its not worth it to me to try to be a volume seller on ebay and make <10% per sale. especially with ebays fees.[/quote93c71052cd]

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replied to all pms.

another thing that i found in my experience

the largest distributors aren't always the best. in all actuality, their pricing isn't that good. plus, even some of the largest ones require you to pay them $100 or $150 to enroll in their dropship program. either they have a pricing structure based on your volume or they dont have to compete on price a lot because they have such large clients already. it doesnt make sense for them to focus many resources on a new dealer applicant

examples
Ingram Micro
Tech Data
Synnex
D&H Distributing

I had access to all of the above and these distributors are HUGE, but I didn't use one of them even once. Prices aren't good for lower volume, new dealers. There are other distributors out there that are better.

Ok why is it that everyone that has this information [i9103a5defc]used[/i9103a5defc] to deal with this stuff? Why has every one of them stopped doing it if they were able to turn profits?

The logic behind doing this at all is that people wither found it too much work or were forced to close their business becasue of a change in lifestyle...

Also, I figured there would be a few " I sold ______ in clollege for some extra spending money, but now I dont have time for that, with work" But so far, nobody has spoken up.

Mike

[quotefdcd895799="kevxross"]Ok why is it that everyone that has this information [ifdcd895799]used[/ifdcd895799] to deal with this stuff? Why has every one of them stopped doing it if they were able to turn profits?[/quotefdcd895799]

I think exclusiv posted the main reason why - a 10% margin on electronics wasn't enough profit for him. It's easy to get caught up in the numbers, but you also have to value your own time.

If you sell Ipods and make 10% on the sale of one iPod - you make $30ish. Now you have to factor in the cost of your time to make the auction, deal with non-paying and scammer bidders, etc etc. After a couple auction where you get a chargeback against you, and you lose $270, you start to rethink the business.

Of course the sale of $5000 TVs would make up for the loss of an iPod now and then, but there aren't enough people buying $5K TVs to make up for the $30 you make on an iPod.

To really succeed at an eBay business (IMO) you need to find something that you can completely automate - like selling information; something that where once you receive notification of a paypal payment, your email server bounces the "information" your buyer bough back to them. Easy and very cheap to operate.

[quotea3908f940b="kevxross"]Ok why is it that everyone that has this information [ia3908f940b]used[/ia3908f940b] to deal with this stuff? Why has every one of them stopped doing it if they were able to turn profits?[/quotea3908f940b]

There are several reasons why I no longer do it.

Just a little background on myself I am only 23 years old. I started my first company in january 2002 while I was attending college as a means to not only make extra cash, but to also learn how to run a company. I registered the business, paid taxes, found distributors, applied for credit, researched, built a website, sold products, and dealt with customers. It takes a lot for only one person.

When I ran my business I only had one partner to help, and he didn't do much of anything, so the time I had between college and everything else was the only time I had available. I would often be on the phone with distributors and ordering products on the way to class.

Doylnea hit on a lot of points that I agree with. Margins on ebay aren't very high anymore as well. In summer of 2001, I sold high end custom built computers for $1600, with profits of over $300 a piece. You can't do that anymore, you have to research a lot. If you have the time to research the market and located products that can turn good margins then it can be VERY lucrative. Ebay fees add up as well. There are many great opportunities on Ebays foreign sites however, as ebay fees are LESS and the sites arent saturated with competition. As I've pm'd several people about, I found a nice market on ebay.it (italian site) when I was reselling electronics.

Doylnea is also right about automation. You can't automate the research but you can automate everything else once you find the profitable items. I ran a bunch of ads for my most profitable items (ex high end home theater projector) on places such as Google Adwords, Overture, and Nextag. It is nice waking up and checking your email to see that you got an order, that it was successfully processed, and all you have to do is email your distributor and its fulfilled. No ebay hassle!

Another thing if you are running an online shop make sure you pick a highly reliable payment processor. I couldn't tell you how many fraudulent orders I would receive each week. Some were obvious- like $50,000 orders from Jakarta. Others weren't, but not once did I sell to a fraudulent buyer though because my payment processor picked up on all of them. )

I'm no longer doing it also because I have started another company doing digital signage. I've been attending shows such as the Digital Retailing Expo and have done several presentations since I graduated in May. I also secured my first two clients last week. )

If you have the time, energy, and resources, you can do really well selling items online. I'm helping people out with this because I know how hard it was to get going.