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[AMA] Importing & wholesaling for resale on eBay.

Ecom man

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Yes I did and the sales basically dried up. Maybe I didn't wait long enough though?

I waited a few days and when nothing was really happening I lowered the price again to the point where I'm getting my money back plus just a little. They're 2 small ticket items to begin with and it seems by the time I recieved them there was more competition.

Maybe I will raise them up again and give it some more time just to see - thanks for the input.
I cant say for sure without knowing more specifics but sometimes it takes a while for cheap sellers to sell out. I've even had competitors message me on eBay and say they were buying out the cheap competition so us with normalized prices could get sales! For some reason eBay draws in losers who sell just to sell not to make money.
 
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Villain

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Relisted at my original price and made a sale a few hours later so maybe I'm good to go.
 
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Chazmania

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It's tough finding great and profitable items from good suppliers! Ok....just had to vent that out. Now I feel better!

Just got a quote on what I thought is an awesome product. Calculated cost + shipping + escrow fee, then went on Ebay to compare. I can get it on Ebay from a U.S. seller delivered to my door for less than the supplier, and faster! Aye....

On a positive note: I did just order some samples of another product that seems promising so we'll see on that one.

It's like sifting through a ton of dirt to find a little fleck of gold, but hey - if that's what it takes, so be it. Can't wait to find a few real winners.
 

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It's tough finding great and profitable items from good suppliers! Ok....just had to vent that out. Now I feel better!

Just got a quote on what I thought is an awesome product. Calculated cost + shipping + escrow fee, then went on Ebay to compare. I can get it on Ebay from a U.S. seller delivered to my door for less than the supplier, and faster! Aye....

On a positive note: I did just order some samples of another product that seems promising so we'll see on that one.

It's like sifting through a ton of dirt to find a little fleck of gold, but hey - if that's what it takes, so be it. Can't wait to find a few real winners.
Happens to me often also. Find good selling products starts looking for good price to buy then only to find out eBay is cheaper!
 
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Villain

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Just received my shipment of 100 items. I'm quite disappointed as I have been sent unpopular colours, rather than the popular ones that were in my sample of 10.

I did have the feeling that I should add a note with the order, asking for specific colours...
 

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At work and haven't really checked on eBay about this since I just thought about it. But I was reading through catching up on this forum and ecom you mentioned being on vacation for 2 weeks. Is there a stop all sales button or something on eBay for when you leave long periods at a time, or do you cancel each sale?
 

Ecom man

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Just received my shipment of 100 items. I'm quite disappointed as I have been sent unpopular colours, rather than the popular ones that were in my sample of 10.

I did have the feeling that I should add a note with the order, asking for specific colours...
That sucks! Unfortunately you have to spell out exactly what you want otherwise they send you what the have the most of (which is of course the unpopular colors). That's a bummer.
 
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Ecom man

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It's tough finding great and profitable items from good suppliers! Ok....just had to vent that out. Now I feel better!

Just got a quote on what I thought is an awesome product. Calculated cost + shipping + escrow fee, then went on Ebay to compare. I can get it on Ebay from a U.S. seller delivered to my door for less than the supplier, and faster! Aye....

On a positive note: I did just order some samples of another product that seems promising so we'll see on that one.

It's like sifting through a ton of dirt to find a little fleck of gold, but hey - if that's what it takes, so be it. Can't wait to find a few real winners.
That is a great comparison. When you find a so-so product it's like finding the flakes and you start to get hooked. When you find a good selling product it's like your starting to find bigger nuggets. When you find a great product it's like hitting the mother lode! You cant wait to get up in the morning to see how much money you made while sleeping! You go out to eat for dinner and make $$$ while eating! That's when it's really addicting.

During the holiday time (October-December) you will fell like you are on a gold mine with not enough shovels to dig with! I remember multiple times last year I would wake up and had made over $1,000 while I was asleep! Talk about exciting!
 

Ecom man

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At work and haven't really checked on eBay about this since I just thought about it. But I was reading through catching up on this forum and ecom you mentioned being on vacation for 2 weeks. Is there a stop all sales button or something on eBay for when you leave long periods at a time, or do you cancel each sale?
I just hit the end listing button on each of my products listing. To be honest, i really should have left them listed and just raised the price astronomically so if anyone bought I could just buy from Amazon and have them ship it. When you end your listings you lose your place in "best match" so i probably should have left them live. Oh well, guess we all learn new things.
 

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When you find a great product it's like hitting the mother lode! You cant wait to get up in the morning to see how much money you made while sleeping! You go out to eat for dinner and make $$$ while eating! That's when it's really addicting.

Uh yea.......that sounds awesome! I will continue the search and find the gold!
 
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Villain

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Not long after my last post I lowered my prices and went for a nap... I woke up to 8 items sold :p

So most of the colours are still selling anyway. That's a good lesson learned though. Tell suppliers exactly what you want - or you'll get shafted.

"Addicting" is definitely the right word!
 

Ecom man

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Not long after my last post I lowered my prices and went for a nap... I woke up to 8 items sold :p

So most of the colours are still selling anyway. That's a good lesson learned though. Tell suppliers exactly what you want - or you'll get shafted.

"Addicting" is definitely the right word!
Awesome! Glad to hear it!
 

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I just hit the end listing button on each of my products listing. To be honest, i really should have left them listed and just raised the price astronomically so if anyone bought I could just buy from Amazon and have them ship it. When you end your listings you lose your place in "best match" so i probably should have left them live. Oh well, guess we all learn new things.

I always wondered how people did this style of drop shipping from Best Buy, Amazon, etc.. It would have saved me a fortune when I played the arbitrage game in the past with Black Friday stuff (the only way I knew to make anything with Amazon or eBay before seeing this thread). Doesn't the customer see the receipt in the box made out to YOUR name and, even worse, the price YOU paid?
 
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Ecom man

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I always wondered how people did this style of drop shipping from Best Buy, Amazon, etc.. It would have saved me a fortune when I played the arbitrage game in the past with Black Friday stuff (the only way I knew to make anything with Amazon or eBay before seeing this thread). Doesn't the customer see the receipt in the box made out to YOUR name and, even worse, the price YOU paid?
I don't normally do it but in a pinch (item is damaged that I sold already etc) I will. If you order on Amazon you can select that it is a gift and it won't come with the price you paid. It might come with your name I'm not sure but any item you send will have your name and return address as well.
 

s168

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I just hit the end listing button on each of my products listing. To be honest, i really should have left them listed and just raised the price astronomically so if anyone bought I could just buy from Amazon and have them ship it. When you end your listings you lose your place in "best match" so i probably should have left them live. Oh well, guess we all learn new things.

Why wouldn't you:
- delegate that temporarily to someone you trust to do the packing / shipping for you?
- add a prominent note to say that you're out on vacation and any orders will be shipped later, but incentivise them for their wait? Like a bulk buy discount or whatever.

I hate leaving money on the table. And wouldn't raising your prices significantly annoy potential buyers given the alternative options I mentioned above?
 

Ecom man

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Why wouldn't you:
- delegate that temporarily to someone you trust to do the packing / shipping for you?
- add a prominent note to say that you're out on vacation and any orders will be shipped later, but incentivise them for their wait? Like a bulk buy discount or whatever.

I hate leaving money on the table. And wouldn't raising your prices significantly annoy potential buyers given the alternative options I mentioned above?
Unfortunately people on eBay have a tendency to purchase items without reading the description then leaving negative feedback when they don't get it quickly. Honestly raising the prices wouldn't annoy buyers they just wouldn't buy the item. I could have had a friend do it but the issue is that if that friend messes up its my negative feedback and my problem. I just ended all the listings and then relisted when I returned.
 
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debitandcredit

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Ecom man,

How is your order volume? I am back in ebay now first week, selling like 7, 8 items a day, mostly getting rid of inventory worth about 10k. At my first try, I fell in a trap of selling for the sake of sales doing ridiculous high volume with tiny margin.I want to avoid that. I know an amazon product as well if I list under I get about 30 orders a day but $2 to $4 profit. But don't wanna do it because I only waste time on packing and it is not scalable. I guess I haven't found the product yet. It would be great to find an item that has $50 up. profit. 10 orders a day and I'm done. I feel like I'm playing arbitrary game as of now.
 

s168

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Unfortunately people on eBay have a tendency to purchase items without reading the description then leaving negative feedback when they don't get it quickly. Honestly raising the prices wouldn't annoy buyers they just wouldn't buy the item. I could have had a friend do it but the issue is that if that friend messes up its my negative feedback and my problem. I just ended all the listings and then relisted when I returned.

I've set up multiple eBay accounts for this purpose. If one suffers from a spate of bad feedback (always hate it when the odd idiot buys without reading the description and then complains, but unfortunately we have to live amongst them!) then the other is the 'alternative'.

I once had someone complain that had they'd known what I was selling was only 8 hours long (tutorial CD package) then she'd pay 10-15% less than the price. I thought WTF, it's a BIN listing, lol. Still gave her the 15% back just to not jeopardise the 100% positive I had at the time. Sometimes you just have to tolerate the 1-2% of undesirable buyers. Can't really pleased them all.

Nowadays my view is that if not enough people are complaining, then I'm not selling enough. So long as I'm getting above 99% positive then I'm happy.
 

s168

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Ecom man,

How is your order volume? I am back in ebay now first week, selling like 7, 8 items a day, mostly getting rid of inventory worth about 10k. At my first try, I fell in a trap of selling for the sake of sales doing ridiculous high volume with tiny margin.I want to avoid that. I know an amazon product as well if I list under I get about 30 orders a day but $2 to $4 profit. But don't wanna do it because I only waste time on packing and it is not scalable. I guess I haven't found the product yet. It would be great to find an item that has $50 up. profit. 10 orders a day and I'm done. I feel like I'm playing arbitrary game as of now.

You can only do volume with low margins if you can automate and scale. Else bin the idea/product. It's not viable otherwise because your time is worth more.

Better to sell a handful of items with good to great margins than loads of products on thin margins. The work involved will be much less.
 
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debitandcredit

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You can only do volume with low margins if you can automate and scale. Else bin the idea/product. It's not viable otherwise because your time is worth more.

Better to sell a handful of items with good to great margins than loads of products on thin margins. The work involved will be much less.

Thanks, there is nothing worse feeling than need to pack 200 items on Monday morning knowing Im not making money. I originally wanted to sell novelty crap with big mark up since if there is a damage or return, I wouldn't care to refund it. However, I am starting to realize popular products are already dead need to be one of the first one to bring it from overseas.
 

Ecom man

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I've set up multiple eBay accounts for this purpose. If one suffers from a spate of bad feedback (always hate it when the odd idiot buys without reading the description and then complains, but unfortunately we have to live amongst them!) then the other is the 'alternative'.

I once had someone complain that had they'd known what I was selling was only 8 hours long (tutorial CD package) then she'd pay 10-15% less than the price. I thought WTF, it's a BIN listing, lol. Still gave her the 15% back just to not jeopardise the 100% positive I had at the time. Sometimes you just have to tolerate the 1-2% of undesirable buyers. Can't really pleased them all.

Nowadays my view is that if not enough people are complaining, then I'm not selling enough. So long as I'm getting above 99% positive then I'm happy.
I agree it is impossible to please all the idiots but I do all I can to minimize things idiots can complain about. Unless you have taken certain "precautions" if one account gets shut down for bad feedback so will the other one.
 

Ecom man

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Ecom man,

How is your order volume? I am back in ebay now first week, selling like 7, 8 items a day, mostly getting rid of inventory worth about 10k. At my first try, I fell in a trap of selling for the sake of sales doing ridiculous high volume with tiny margin.I want to avoid that. I know an amazon product as well if I list under I get about 30 orders a day but $2 to $4 profit. But don't wanna do it because I only waste time on packing and it is not scalable. I guess I haven't found the product yet. It would be great to find an item that has $50 up. profit. 10 orders a day and I'm done. I feel like I'm playing arbitrary game as of now.
Most items that I sell I profit $20+ on each. On a normal month I will do about 10 items a day. So 10 times $20 profit is $200 a day profit times 30 days is $6,000 a month. Some months will 10 grand profit other months will 7 or 8. It varies from month to month, During Christmastime volume and profits increase substantially. An item I was selling for $50 in September I sold for $99.99 during December. So my profit went from $20 an item to $55 per item and I was selling them faster than I could get them.
 
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debitandcredit

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Most items that I sell I profit $20+ on each. On a normal month I will do about 10 items a day. So 10 times $20 profit is $200 a day profit times 30 days is $6,000 a month. Some months will 10 grand profit other months will 7 or 8. It varies from month to month, During Christmastime volume and profits increase substantially. An item I was selling for $50 in September I sold for $99.99 during December. So my profit went from $20 an item to $55 per item and I was selling them faster than I could get them.

Thanks for the insight. Have you considered setting up stealth? Not to be shady or do more sales but to protect yourself from some guy try to rip your whole lines of products. If you carry only profitable products, one copy cat can ruin your profit. So I think. It's good to protect your account in that way. I don't buy a stealth account but I did it by using tax id and getting ups po box new phone and vps. I just added someone trustworthy as a contact person . Just an idea to prevent exposing all the bread and butter.
 
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Ecom man

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Thanks for the insight. Have you considered setting up stealth? Not to be shady or do more sales but to protect yourself from some guy try to rip your whole lines of products. If you carry only profitable products, one copy cat can ruin your profit. So I think. It's good to protect your account in that way. I don't buy a stealth account but I did it by using tax id and getting ups po box new phone and vps. I just added someone trustworthy as a contact person . Just an idea to prevent exposing all the bread and butter.
Yeah I actually try to kinda hide my profitable items. I have a ton of listings that are just a bunch of random items that I have listed about $50+ higher than anyone else. If someone dug enough they could obviously sort through all my listings and see which ones have sales and which ones don't. I did look into going stealth but the book i read on it appeared that I needed to have another computer, router, IP address, name, address, phone etc. So far hiding the profitable items as "needle in a haystack" approach has worked fine. It is an excellent idea to hide your total sales that way though. The only issue would be if someone does it wrong and gets all their accounts linked and shut down.
 

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Most items that I sell I profit $20+ on each. On a normal month I will do about 10 items a day. So 10 times $20 profit is $200 a day profit times 30 days is $6,000 a month. Some months will 10 grand profit other months will 7 or 8. It varies from month to month, During Christmastime volume and profits increase substantially. An item I was selling for $50 in September I sold for $99.99 during December. So my profit went from $20 an item to $55 per item and I was selling them faster than I could get them.


da heck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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debitandcredit

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Yeah I actually try to kinda hide my profitable items. I have a ton of listings that are just a bunch of random items that I have listed about $50+ higher than anyone else. If someone dug enough they could obviously sort through all my listings and see which ones have sales and which ones don't. I did look into going stealth but the book i read on it appeared that I needed to have another computer, router, IP address, name, address, phone etc. So far hiding the profitable items as "needle in a haystack" approach has worked fine. It is an excellent idea to hide your total sales that way though. The only issue would be if someone does it wrong and gets all their accounts linked and shut down.

Yes, you need thoughtful plans to do that. My aim is $1000 profit a day. :) I was up to $500 profit before combined amazon and ebay. so I know I can do it . Account shut down took me back to $0..
 

debitandcredit

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@debitandcredit , not sure if I missed something somewhere but why was your account shut down?

Well, I had a partner who was a power seller in home sector since 90s. He didn't use his ebay account anymore as his ecommerce website is huge now. Anyways, I started selling imported goods fast using my 2 fresh ebay acccounts since last Feb. It was moving so fast that I asked him to sell my products as well. So I was using 3 ebay accounts from my cell while I was a work clearing $2g sales a day. After I quit my job, his account went under performance because of his past sales from backorder home goods, his account was shut down. That linked my accounts and went down.. no mercy, i am banned.

I really didn't know about ebay rules at all then, because I was in ecommerce company. We didn't care rats a$$ about ebay or amazon. It was pure seo and ppc -(15mil plus sales alone). I kinda underestimated it. now i know how to play by the rules.
 
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s168

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I wonder how they linked your accounts? Must be same beneficiary account, email, phone number, IP address logged in from etc. Any one of those would probably be enough.

Not sure I understood everything you wrote in your second paragraph though?! Bit confusing.
 

debitandcredit

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I wonder how they linked your accounts? Must be same beneficiary account, email, phone number, IP address logged in from etc. Any one of those would probably be enough.

Not sure I understood everything you wrote in your second paragraph though?! Bit confusing.

It's a credit card that linked me and IP address. I was using his account to bypass the account limit.. Sorry about the confusion. I was in a dropship ecommerce (.com) ppc seo world before, never ebay or amazon. so i was completely noob on the platform. so I made a mistake on a set up etc.
 

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