[AMA] Importing & wholesaling for resale on eBay.

[Harley]

wow you guys have it good when it comes to shipping it in the states, just amazes me how big of a difference it is when you cross our borders.

for example the cheapest form of shipping to the states for us would be lettermail which is only for documents or cards ($5) anything your shipping thats not the size of a card or documents without tracking is about ($10 - $12) which i learned the hard way to never do because people will just scam you and say they didnt recieve the product knowing you dont have a tracking number, and to ship with tracking for say a 5x5x5 box with less then a 1lb in weight would be ($16-$22) ....thats not getting into international shipping yet either.

Too true - I'm in Canada as well. Dicky dee, how do you deal with customs charges? Do you have a broker? I'm new to this and had a seller ask what price do I want on the package, for customs to see? He said most of his Canadian customers will tell him a price to put down. If I recall looking at the customs website, you don't get charged if under $20 and if over the general fee is around 9%?
Cheers

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Mike.B]

i found a product. Sells for 11 dollar on dhgate, and selling for 18 dollars on ebay. There are many sellers selling similiar products but only a few selling exactly the product i found.

Opinions on this one? Maybe im able to get it cheaper fron alibaba? Alibaba seems cheaper generally. But dhgate offers free shipping.

Not enough margin. By the time you pay shipping and fees, you'll have nothing left. I've had products quoted a lot cheaper on Alibaba in most cases, even with shipping.

 

[Mike.B]

It looks like my first product wasn't delivered to the buyer and it's on its way back to me. F*cking awesome! more money down the drain.

At this rate I should just start wiping my a$$ with my money, at least I'd get better use out of it.

 

[Ecom man]

Not enough margin. By the time you pay shipping and fees, you'll have nothing left. I've had products quoted a lot cheaper on Alibaba in most cases, even with shipping.

I agree $7 isn't enough margin. You have to pay $2 in eBay/paypal fees so that brings you to $5 and shipping will eat up almost all of that even using the slowest shipping possible. You either need to find the product at a lower price or move on to a different product.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Ecom man]

It looks like my first product wasn't delivered to the buyer and it's on its way back to me. F*cking awesome! more money down the drain.

At this rate I should just start wiping my a$$ with my money, at least I'd get better use out of it.

Every problem you encounter is a barrier to entry. Every problem helps to weed out people who arn't serious about the business or who are just quitters in general. Yes it sucks to have problems and yes it sucks to lose money. What sucks a lot more than that is working 40 hours a week for $1600 a month. (Yes folks $10 an hour is what the going rate is around here for something besides fast food) I made more than $1,600 in the last week and I didn't have to go out and kill myself for 40 hours.

 

[mosdef]

I agree $7 isn't enough margin. You have to pay $2 in eBay/paypal fees so that brings you to $5 and shipping will eat up almost all of that even using the slowest shipping possible. You either need to find the product at a lower price or move on to a different product.

how much should margin be at least?

The sellers on this product dont offer fri shipping on ebay, they charge about 8 dollars for shipping in europe.

 

[mosdef]

What's the sale volumes per week/month like for these similar products?

Also, there is no such thing as Free Shipping. You pay for that in increased unit costs. Unit costs per volume order is all that matters, if all else is the same (product quality, supplier service, etc.)

How can i on ebay se how much weekly sales are? Isnt that what you are going to do by buying and selling samples? Besides testing the quality?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Ecom man]

how much should margin be at least?

On a $20 smallish item you are going to spend $8ish in shipping and fees. I always try to do profit at 50% of sales price so $20 item I want to make $10. So unless I could get the item for a couple bucks I wouldn't do it. I try and look for items in the 40+ range. Then you are looking at $10 in fees and shipping so I can pay up to $15 each and still make a decent profit. Obviously I would like to keep the purchase price towards $10 so I can hit $20 profit on the $40 item. The higher price point means you spend less % on shipping costs. Most anything shipped will cost you $5 or more so the higher your selling price the less % you are spending to ship it.

 

[Ecom man]

How can i on ebay se how much weekly sales are? Isnt that what you are going to do by buying and selling samples? Besides testing the quality?

Completed listings are your best friend. If there are other sellers of those items you can see what those sellers are selling. If they are selling as buy it now you can also see the quantity they have sold in their listing.

 

[s168]

Mosdef, I thought you were talking of buying 1 item for that price, so I was hoping to get better prices on a larger volume order. But thinking about it now, it depends on the items weight and size too, so there may not be very big margins in it for you here. Is the $18 figure the lowest price or average of sold items?

Also, as Ecom Man said, you can gauge sales rates with completed sold listings, checking quantity sold on live listings by clicking on the number to see when each purchase was made (I think it shows the last 100 sales or something), and you can also to some extent view their feedback scores for comments related to purchases and the item listing often shows there.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[mosdef]

On a $20 smallish item you are going to spend $8ish in shipping and fees. I always try to do profit at 50% of sales price so $20 item I want to make $10. So unless I could get the item for a couple bucks I wouldn't do it. I try and look for items in the 40+ range. Then you are looking at $10 in fees and shipping so I can pay up to $15 each and still make a decent profit. Obviously I would like to keep the purchase price towards $10 so I can hit $20 profit on the $40 item. The higher price point means you spend less % on shipping costs. Most anything shipped will cost you $5 or more so the higher your selling price the less % you are spending to ship it.

Im sorry ecom man i didnt understand this, read it a few times and tried write it down on a paper. Do you mean when you are buying(sale price) for 20 dollars u want to profit 10 dollar? Or do you mean when you are selling the product on ebay/amazon for 20 dollars you want to profit 10 dollar?

And when your are saying look for products in the 40+ range are we talking on alibaba or on ebay?

The last part i think i understood, you buy the product for 10 dollars from alibaba(including shipping) then 10 dollars goes on fees and shipping to customer and then you have 20 dollars left in profit? Im a right here?

Sorry if little confused post but im confused Trying to learn alot here.

 

[mosdef]

Even thou i only feel a little smarter today and ive spent almost 5 hours looking for products and im confused now it feels great that im trying to take action and that i put my mind to doing something. Only did this when it comes to school or job.

 

[s168]

You're taking action. That's what matters.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[CarrieW]

It looks like my first product wasn't delivered to the buyer and it's on its way back to me. F*cking awesome! more money down the drain.

At this rate I should just start wiping my a$$ with my money, at least I'd get better use out of it.

why was it not delivered?

 

[Mike.B]

why was it not delivered?

Not sure. It showed out for delivery, then back to and departing the sorting facility, and now in transit again. I'm hoping this is just a mistake by good ole USPS, but either way it's not getting delivered in the allotted amount of time.

 

[Mike.B]

Every problem you encounter is a barrier to entry. Every problem helps to weed out people who arn't serious about the business or who are just quitters in general. Yes it sucks to have problems and yes it sucks to lose money. What sucks a lot more than that is working 40 hours a week for $1600 a month. (Yes folks $10 an hour is what the going rate is around here for something besides fast food) I made more than $1,600 in the last week and I didn't have to go out and kill myself for 40 hours.

Not a quitter, but nothing has gone right with any of the 3 products that I've ordered. It's hard to stay positive, especially when I read others comments about how great they're doing.

I don't have a lot of disposable income right now so I have to make every dollar count.

Boo hoo ... I know.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[CarrieW]

Not sure. It showed out for delivery, then back to and departing the sorting facility, and now in transit again. I'm hoping this is just a mistake by good ole USPS, but either way it's not getting delivered in the allotted amount of time.

are you sure its on its way back to you? I had some crazy shit happen to a delivery it went around the country for about a week. it got sent to the wrong sorting places or something... it did finally end up where it was supposed to be but it definitely took the scenic route LOL at least you have proof of when you sent it out. hopefully it gets there soon. (it could be already delivered too sometimes it takes a day or 2 to balance out in their systems)

its the usps fault so I hope that it doesn't cost you good feedback...

 

[CarrieW]

Not a quitter, but nothing has gone right with any of the 3 products that I've ordered. It's hard to stay positive, especially when I read others comments about how great they're doing.

I don't have a lot of disposable income right now so I have to make every dollar count.

Boo hoo ... I know.

its hard to stay positive but very important to try to do just try to think of the problems your facing as dues for future successes

 

[Mike.B]

are you sure its on its way back to you? I had some crazy shit happen to a delivery it went around the country for about a week. it got sent to the wrong sorting places or something... it did finally end up where it was supposed to be but it definitely took the scenic route LOL at least you have proof of when you sent it out. hopefully it gets there soon. (it could be already delivered too sometimes it takes a day or 2 to balance out in their systems)

I'm just assuming at this point, who knows where it's off to. So much for "fast and free" shipping via USPS.

its the usps fault so I hope that it doesn't cost you good feedback...

Me too!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Ecom man]

Im sorry ecom man i didnt understand this, read it a few times and tried write it down on a paper. Do you mean when you are buying(sale price) for 20 dollars u want to profit 10 dollar? Or do you mean when you are selling the product on ebay/amazon for 20 dollars you want to profit 10 dollar?

And when your are saying look for products in the 40+ range are we talking on alibaba or on ebay?

The last part i think i understood, you buy the product for 10 dollars from alibaba(including shipping) then 10 dollars goes on fees and shipping to customer and then you have 20 dollars left in profit? Im a right here?

Sorry if little confused post but im confused Trying to learn alot here.

I like to find products that are selling on eBay or Amazon for $40+ When I said "sale price" I was referring to the price I was going to sell the item for. So if I'm selling the item for $20 on eBay i want to profit $10 on it. If I sell it for $40 I like to profit $20. Obviously you aren't going to to get that profit every time but thats what I'm looking for when finding new products. That way if my math is off or the price drops while it is shipping to me I still have a good profit.

 

[Ecom man]

Not sure. It showed out for delivery, then back to and departing the sorting facility, and now in transit again. I'm hoping this is just a mistake by good ole USPS, but either way it's not getting delivered in the allotted amount of time.

USPS tracking can be really screwed up sometimes. Last Christmas I had 100+ packages that I had shipped that showed they were out for delivery to my house!! Customers were messaging me and flipping out because they of course needed the items for Christmas. It was just an error in the system and the next tracking update showed the correct spot of where the item actually was.

 

[Harley]

Bartering with a supplier on shipping - They say they can ship cheaper if go with EMS, instead of DHL.
Never heard of EMS. Anyone have any experience with their shipments?
Thanks

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PopEmersen]

EMS is a chinese shipping company, i believe. Every time I have used them they have been much cheaper but slower than DHL. They have tracking numbers too. They are reputable but if you need something in a hurry go DHL, if you dont, go the cheaper EMS route.

 

[Harley]

EMS is a chinese shipping company, i believe. Every time I have used them they have been much cheaper but slower than DHL. They have tracking numbers too. They are reputable but if you need something in a hurry go DHL, if you dont, go the cheaper EMS route.

Thank you

 

[Villain]

I'm looking through completed listings on ebay to see how well items are selling. However, the number sold does not always match the sales that are listed. Does this number included sales from the previous times the item has been listed?

For example, this says 14 have been sold.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XDRUM-PRO...ents_Drums_Percussions_MJ&hash=item4179f52b34

But when you click here... http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAP...tem=281218984756&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2564

...you can only count 10 sales.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Ecom man]

I'm looking through completed listings on ebay to see how well items are selling. However, the number sold does not always match the sales that are listed. Does this number included sales from the previous times the item has been listed?

For example, this says 14 have been sold.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XDRUM-PRO...ents_Drums_Percussions_MJ&hash=item4179f52b34

But when you click here... http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAP...tem=281218984756&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2564

...you can only count 10 sales.

The one says 14 sold the other shows 11 sold (one person bought 2) and 3 still available. I would assume when they ended the listing they put that they had sold the items through another sales channel hence the 14 sold but it would appear they sold 11 total on eBay in this listing.

 

[Harley]

Finally ordered my first item!!!
You weren't joking when you said it takes many hours research to find a profitable product that will/may sell - Now, to see if it will sell and quality is good - fingers crossed.
Thanks for this great thread and all the advice.

 

[Hayden]

Hey ecom man, thanks for this thread! Great info and I'm happy to hear you're succeeding.

I am basically house-bound by a medical issue for the time being, and while I do make some money through other ventures, I need to step it up to another level. I have dabbled in E-Commerce already but on a smaller scale and am determined to get something going here.

This may sound silly, but the biggest challenge I've observed thus far is that there are so many possible products and keywords to search. I've searched for office products, home products, etc... but I get 15,000 results for each search (using dhgate and AliExpress). I go page-by-page, often narrowing the price range to my liking, but often times I'll go for 50 pages without seeing anything worthwhile. Just thinking there must be a more efficient way. Another thing I've done is checked out the eBay "top searches" but I feel as if most all items with relative keywords already have saturated markets. I've read the thread but don't recall you speaking to this.

Obviously I am still early in this process, but if you wouldn't mind sharing your approach/mindset as to how you decide what to search, I'd be curious to hear your input.

Thanks!

Best
Hayden

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Dicky Dee]

where are you located?

im located in canada

 

[Dicky Dee]

Too true - I'm in Canada as well. Dicky dee, how do you deal with customs charges? Do you have a broker? I'm new to this and had a seller ask what price do I want on the package, for customs to see? He said most of his Canadian customers will tell him a price to put down. If I recall looking at the customs website, you don't get charged if under $20 and if over the general fee is around 9%?
Cheers

When i import from china its almost always bigger shipments that i have shipped here by sea which is the cheapest if your not in a hurry for your products, my last shipment took 2.5 weeks. I have a broker here for big shipments but i dont have a broker in china just yet so i always ask for the CNF price from the manufacturers which is all the costs to get it to a canadian port then after it lands i get my broker to handle paperwork and shipping from there.

Im not sure about not getting charged under $20 as ive never had a shipment less then that and the amount of duties you pay depend on the product that your importing, some you dont pay any at all and some like shoes has a huge duty roughly 17% and thats not including broker fees, shipping from the port etc.

The seller asked you what price you want on the parcel is because if its a lower price your duties are lower, i personally never done this just because i dont want the hassle of being caught for something like that and besides you should of done the research on what your cost and margin is including all fees before ordering.

ps. my friend that imports smaller amounts say 4 big boxes that arent too heavy uses DHL air