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[AMA] Importing & wholesaling for resale on eBay.

BlahBlahBlah

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I am again getting a bit paranoid about counterfeited items (http://andrewminalto.com/top-10-alibaba-scams/). Is there any way to recognize for sure whether the manufacturer/seller selling branded products are selling original or not? In my opinion most items are fakes, which are perfect if you want to brand them yourself considering how easy is to stick a brand on the product in most cases, however the most wanted items on eBay/Amazon are branded and the buyers would look for the brand them - problem is that if we don't know whether the manufacturer/seller is selling genuine product, how can we do?

I will open my shop soon and if I add generic products with my company name I don't think anybody would buy them (or anyway never as much as for well know branded products), and for sure they won't sell on eBay/Amazon at decent price. But if this is the only way to go, then I will do it and find a way to make it work, will just be a bit harder at the start.

How can I overcome this problem?
Also, if I contact the company via their official channel (ie. contact brand ABC via www.ABC.com website) I guess their wholesale prices will be much higher? Will this technically be the only way to be 100% sure the brand is genuine?

@Ecom_man , I read you sell mainly generic products, do you sell any branded product at all? If yes, how can you ensure they are genuine? do you brand all your products yourself?

This issue is giving me a bit of headache :(


Also I was wondering if anybody here got suppliers from these websites?

http://www.made-in-china.com/

http://www.globalsources.com/

Thank you!
 
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Bakwan

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Hello,

Ebay is not very popular in France and I wanted to try Amazon.
I have difficulties understanding Amazon branding policy. I see a lot of items that I can find on Alibaba but people have branded on Amazon. Some have probably customized the item or packaging, but I think most of them have just put their name on the listing and I don't know if I am allowed to compete on these listings.

So it seems to me that wether you create your new listing or add on an existing one you could be in trouble with Amazon policy.

How do you know if you can compete on a listing or need to create a new one ?

Thanks for your time and precious advises
 

Ecom man

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Hello,

Ebay is not very popular in France and I wanted to try Amazon.
I have difficulties understanding Amazon branding policy. I see a lot of items that I can find on Alibaba but people have branded on Amazon. Some have probably customized the item or packaging, but I think most of them have just put their name on the listing and I don't know if I am allowed to compete on these listings.

So it seems to me that wether you create your new listing or add on an existing one you could be in trouble with Amazon policy.

How do you know if you can compete on a listing or need to create a new one ?

Thanks for your time and precious advises
Within the past few years a lot of people have just added a "brand" to the product and created a new listing for it. Technically according to Amazon policies items that are identical are supposed to all be on one listing but people have really screwed that up. If you have an identical item you can list it under the listing of the identical item. As long as it is identical that is what you are supposed to do. If your product is unlike anything else That is selling then you have to create a brand new listing for that product.
 

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Hey Ecom man,


I've been lurking this forum for some time and decided to make an account after seeing this thread, first and foremost thank you for taking time to answer our questions and provide value, we all really appreciate it!

My questions are

If you had to say a concrete number of how many competitors are too many what would be that number?

and when you search a product on ebay, how many listings equals too many, some of the products i have searched have come up with 200 plus results and others 2000 plus results are these two numbers too high? What would be the cut off point?

Is there a way to decipher from the listings without going through every single one to see if there are sellers listing multiple items?

How many samples of an item do you order to test out market, and does that depend on the price of the item, i.e the cheaper the product the more samples you would buy and a high ticket item maybe one or two? and what is the typical price you expect to pay on shipping from alibaba?

lastly how quickly are you looking to sell samples, what time frame determines whether it's a winner/hot product or not? for instance let's say you had 5 samples of an item are we talking a couple of days to a week to sell all 5 to be a good product?

I have a few products in mind that i would be able to make a profit on but the only thing that's stopping me from pulling the trigger is knowing whether it is too competitive or not.

Thanks once again, this thread has motivated me a lot and I'm determined to make this a success! My goal is to quit my 9-5 and do this full time in 1 years time.
 
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DrunkFish

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Ok so I have 3 items in mind. 1 is already on ebay but the margins are good and there aren't many suppliers at all.

The other two items are more typical 'importing' items. Sold by some chinese manu's and that's it. Problem is similar to @BlahBlahBlah though.

I will feel weird having some super commercial/store looking item on my account and having it alone or even it with 2 other items still seems lonely compared to the MASSIVE shops you see with thousands of products and a custom store page and what not.

The first item won't suffer from this problem as it's more personal of an item but the other items are definitely ones that you'd buy from a store or whatever and seem weird buying from a small time person. Like let's say it's

Hm. Input?
 

DamienP

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I am in the process of negotiating with a Chinese supplier for a shampoo product. Their prices are EXW, not FOB. Some quick Googling tells me what the differences are, but are you able to provide any advice, based on your experience?
 

ljb7

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I am in the process of negotiating with a Chinese supplier for a shampoo product. Their prices are EXW, not FOB. Some quick Googling tells me what the differences are, but are you able to provide any advice, based on your experience?

There's a little rule that goes something like this:

If your customers are going to be putting your product on their skin and/or ingesting it, DON'T BUY IT FROM CHINA!

I may be wrong, but I think anything that is going to be ingested and/or applied to skin from China has to be FDA cleared. Not something you wan't to be dealing with. (Can somebody else chime in here?)
 
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DamienP

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There's a little rule that goes something like this:

If your customers are going to be putting your product on their skin and/or ingesting it, DON'T BUY IT FROM CHINA!

I may be wrong, but I think anything that is going to be ingested and/or applied to skin from China has to be FDA cleared. Not something you wan't to be dealing with. (Can somebody else chime in here?)

I'm actually based in the UK, so the FDA does not apply here. The manufacturer has ISO, MSDS, Free Sale and SGS certifications, so I'm hoping that will be sufficient to keep the wolves from the door.
 

ljb7

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I'm actually based in the UK, so the FDA does not apply here. The manufacturer has ISO, MSDS, Free Sale and SGS certifications, so I'm hoping that will be sufficient to keep the wolves from the door.

So am I. The first rule still stands.

It would be much cheaper to source locally anyway?
 

DamienP

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So am I. The first rule still stands.

It would be much cheaper to source locally anyway?

Hmm, you're the second person to say that in less than an hour.

I'd like to understand a little more behind the reasons. Is it because the products are often unsafe? Or is there some certification that I need that is expensive or difficult to obtain?
 
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ljb7

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Hmm, you're the second person to say that in less than an hour.

I'd like to understand a little more behind the reasons. Is it because the products are often unsafe? Or is there some certification that I need that is expensive or difficult to obtain?

I don't fancy having a debate about why you should/shouldn't import shampoo from China. I would say it's pretty obvious in that you can't guarantee the quality and contents like you could a domestic manufacturer. The fact you don't know what certifications you require speaks volumes.

I'm just trying to give you some advice that'll likely save your a$$ X months down the line.

Here: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=shampoo+private+label+uk
 

DamienP

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I don't fancy having a debate about why you should/shouldn't import shampoo from China. I would say it's pretty obvious in that you can't guarantee the quality and contents like you could a domestic manufacturer. The fact you don't know what certifications you require speaks volumes.

I'm just trying to give you some advice that'll likely save your a$$ X months down the line.

Here: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=shampoo private label uk

OK, thank you for your comments.

I just got off the phone with a British manufacturer who can cater for our requirements, WITH all the correct certification. Their prices are obviously higher, but I'm not convinced there will be much difference after taking all other costs of dealing with China into consideration.

Learning as I go, so I appreciate your time.
 

ljb7

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OK, thank you for your comments.

I just got off the phone with a British manufacturer who can cater for our requirements, WITH all the correct certification. Their prices are obviously higher, but I'm not convinced there will be much difference after taking all other costs of dealing with China into consideration.

Learning as I go, so I appreciate your time.

Good to hear, well done for taking action! :)
 
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Walter Hay

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Pretty much everything is in this thread but here is a decent condensed version of importing and selling on Amazon.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entreprene...me_save_you_6000_dont_buy_an_amazon_course_5/
I can't resist replying. This very helpful article linked by @Tyman, is possibly going to be a great help to those who don't want to pay a ridiculous price that covers a ridiculous affiliate payment that leads to floods of spam from people who obviously make a lot more out of selling the course than they make out of the course itself.


BUT....
his brief treatment of sourcing is not helpful at all. This in its entirety is what he writes on this subject that can make or break a new importer (even ones with some experience get caught):
Sourcing
Another level of difficulty, but you can make it easier if you know what you’re doing.

Two ways to source: You can Google [private label/wholesale/OEM (insert product name here)] –or- you go to these sites (a couple tips next to each):



Alibaba.com: When looking at manufacturers use Gold Suppliers with one million in sales. A tip to avoid getting scammed is using Paypal instead of a bank transfer.



Aliexpress.com: wholesale marketplace, smaller order quantities, not for long-term purchases



Dhgate.com: Wholesale marketplace, full OEM services sometimes, free shipping sometimes (free shipping is a huge plus)



WHEN SOURCING PRODUCT ALWAYS ASK FOR SAMPLE, NO EXCEPTIONS &nbsp


Trust me, save yourself the headache



Shipping

If you can get free shipping go for it. Shipping is a lot to fit in here. But it is not complicated at all.


Courses try to confuse you, to make you think it is difficult, but it is not. Factories have a lot of experience and can guide you through the process you follow.



Want more details you go to:
http://www.chinaimportal.com/blog/sea-freight-shipping-from-china-guide/


Custom fees and charges come when shipping products that have a combined value of $2000. If you are shipping by sea you will need the help of a freight forwarder. Google can assist you in finding a good freight forwarding company. Calculate custom charges and shipping cost before it arrives, you do not want any surprises. You need help talk to a freight forwarder.

Many fastlane members know that my AMA deals extensively with safe sourcing and easy importing. Here is my take on the Reddit article in relation to these subjects.
1. Googling can find you most things but for product sourcing to get best prices from genuine manufacturers you will need the patience of Job and plenty of time on your hands.
2. There have been thousands of people scammed by Gold Suppliers. After Alibaba admitted that fact, things were supposed to improve, but a report earlier this year by the Chinese government's official Consumer Protection Watchdog showed that the bad practices continue.
Also, genuine manufacturers rarely accept PayPal.
3. Aliexpress which is a retail offshoot of Alibaba, has an even worse reputation for scams than their parent Alibaba. It is hardly the place to begin a sustainable reselling business.
4. DHGate has a reputation at least as bad as, if not worse than Aliexpress.
5. I agree that sampling before commercial ordering is essential.
6. I agree that many or most courses do try to confuse you. The blog reference to sea freight linked in the Reddit article is designed for big time importers. Fredrik Grönkvist's blog is all about selling his company's costly sourcing and shipping expediting services.
I have provided a lot of free practical information on shipping in my AMA. It is not complicated if you know the basics, but those basics are neglected by most "experts".
7. The Reddit article statement about Customs fees and charges is way too simplistic and is totally irrelevant if you are outside the USA. I teach that sometimes you may need a freight forwarder even if shipping by air. Unless you know what to ask of your freight forwarder you could still get some nasty surprises. On this subject, a fastlane member recently said: Walter, you have literally saved me $3,000 on freight. EDIT: I checked his PM and the words "on freight" were missing. Sorry, but I thought it was freight he was talking about.


Regarding 2,3,and 4, you might find my post on B2B scams worth reading: Sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist.

Walter
 
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Ecom man

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Hey Ecom man,


I've been lurking this forum for some time and decided to make an account after seeing this thread, first and foremost thank you for taking time to answer our questions and provide value, we all really appreciate it!

My questions are

If you had to say a concrete number of how many competitors are too many what would be that number?

and when you search a product on ebay, how many listings equals too many, some of the products i have searched have come up with 200 plus results and others 2000 plus results are these two numbers too high? What would be the cut off point?

Is there a way to decipher from the listings without going through every single one to see if there are sellers listing multiple items?

How many samples of an item do you order to test out market, and does that depend on the price of the item, i.e the cheaper the product the more samples you would buy and a high ticket item maybe one or two? and what is the typical price you expect to pay on shipping from alibaba?

lastly how quickly are you looking to sell samples, what time frame determines whether it's a winner/hot product or not? for instance let's say you had 5 samples of an item are we talking a couple of days to a week to sell all 5 to be a good product?

I have a few products in mind that i would be able to make a profit on but the only thing that's stopping me from pulling the trigger is knowing whether it is too competitive or not.

Thanks once again, this thread has motivated me a lot and I'm determined to make this a success! My goal is to quit my 9-5 and do this full time in 1 years time.
Pretty much every question you asked varies depending on your account age/feedback and how much money you have available. I will try to answer them as best as possible.

1. I want there to be few enough competitors that people would scroll through them and be able to find my product in the mix. That would normally be 15-30 different competitors. If you have a high feedback account The number of competitors doesn't matter as much as you can get best match pretty easily which puts you right at the top.

2. If you have only buy it now listings selected then you can just look at total results of the product and that is your competitor number. One seller can only have one buy it now listed for each product. You can have as many auctions as you want but only one buy it now.
(If profits and sales look amazing but competition numbers are higher I will normally still order a test order to see how long it takes to sell them and what margins look like.)

3. Sizes of sample order depends on the minimum order quantity and price. I try to keep it around 10-20 for a test. I don't want to end up with 1000 items that don't sell. In regards to alibaba shipping, it varies a huge amount. I prefer dhgate or aliexpress as they either have free shipping or all shipping costs on each listing so you don't have to waste your time talking to a seller that is trying to rip you off on shipping.

4. I just want to see if they will sell at all and how long it takes to sell. I have some products that sell one a week. I am fine with that but I also only have 20 on hand not a 1000. How long the samples take to sell just tells me how many more to buy. If they don't sell at all then obviously I don't buy more.

Pull the trigger, order the samples, and see what happens. Testing is the only way to know if the product will sell at a profitable price.
 
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Ecom man

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Ok so I have 3 items in mind. 1 is already on ebay but the margins are good and there aren't many suppliers at all.

The other two items are more typical 'importing' items. Sold by some chinese manu's and that's it. Problem is similar to @BlahBlahBlah though.

I will feel weird having some super commercial/store looking item on my account and having it alone or even it with 2 other items still seems lonely compared to the MASSIVE shops you see with thousands of products and a custom store page and what not.

The first item won't suffer from this problem as it's more personal of an item but the other items are definitely ones that you'd buy from a store or whatever and seem weird buying from a small time person. Like let's say it's

Hm. Input?
If you are selling on eBay it doesn't matter if you have one product or thousands. People will buy from you if you have the product that they want at the price they want. If you are talking about setting up a website for one product than that is a bit different.
 

Ecom man

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I am in the process of negotiating with a Chinese supplier for a shampoo product. Their prices are EXW, not FOB. Some quick Googling tells me what the differences are, but are you able to provide any advice, based on your experience?
I agree with not selling anything that would be ingested or goes on the skin. Too many negative possibilities for my liking. There can be huge margins in hair care, perfume, etc. but you really have to do your homework and make sure that the company isn't just throwing random stuff in the bottle that could cause someone to have an allergic reaction.
 

Ecom man

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Pretty much everything is in this thread but here is a decent condensed version of importing and selling on Amazon.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entreprene...me_save_you_6000_dont_buy_an_amazon_course_5/
Really funny I was just over on reddit and saw this up there. Quite a bit of good info for beginners.

On the subject of sourcing, aliexpress and dhgate are chocked full of good products that can be imported for a profit. You can use your credit card to pay so you can always do a chargeback if they send you worthless junk. Both of those sites are great for beginners who want to get their feet wet but can't afford to drop a ton of money on a huge shipment. I'm helping my brother get up and selling on eBay/Amazon. We spent a few days looking through dhgate and aliexpress and found more products than he had money to buy. He is pushing close to 10 grand in sales in the last month on 5-7 products.

Anyone who says that there isn't products on those sites to import for a profit either haven't been looking or are trying to sell you something.
 
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Sevlow9

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Pretty much every question you asked varies depending on your account age/feedback and how much money you have available. I will try to answer them as best as possible.

1. I want there to be few enough competitors that people would scroll through them and be able to find my product in the mix. That would normally be 15-30 different competitors. If you have a high feedback account The number of competitors doesn't matter as much as you can get best match pretty easily which puts you right at the top.

2. If you have only buy it now listings selected then you can just look at total results of the product and that is your competitor number. One seller can only have one buy it now listed for each product. You can have as many auctions as you want but only one buy it now.
(If profits and sales look amazing but competition numbers are higher I will normally still order a test order to see how long it takes to sell them and what margins look like.)

3. Sizes of sample order depends on the minimum order quantity and price. I try to keep it around 10-20 for a test. I don't want to end up with 1000 items that don't sell. In regards to alibaba shipping, it varies a huge amount. I prefer dhgate or aliexpress as they either have free shipping or all shipping costs on each listing so you don't have to waste your time talking to a seller that is trying to rip you off on shipping.

4. I just want to see if they will sell at all and how long it takes to sell. I have some products that sell one a week. I am fine with that but I also only have 20 on hand not a 1000. How long the samples take to sell just tells me how many more to buy. If they don't sell at all then obviously I don't buy more.

Pull the trigger, order the samples, and see what happens. Testing is the only way to know if the product will sell at a profitable price.

thanks a lot buddy i will definitely take this advice on board and let you know how i get on!
 

Carnage

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Hi Mr. Ecom man.
First, I'd like to thank you for making this thread.
Not only is it super informative, but it is also very motivational.

After reading this thread a month ago, i decided to go ahead and test out some products.
Could you please offer me some advice?
I made an ebay account ~20 days ago, and got up to about 120 100% ratings using questionable methods...
Anyway, I found 3 products to import from China.
The 1st two are not selling, I may just lower the price so that I can get a loss or cancel out....whatever, more ratings for me.
the 3rd one is selling pretty well (2-3 everyday).
The 3rd product I buy for 15.8 bux a piece (includes shipping).
These go on Ebay for 30-35 bux, however there are about 5 competitors that are selling in between 26-30 and they are selling a lot.
Every piece that I've sold was at 25.49 (cheapest).
The problem with this is that my product margin is tiny after shipping and Ebay fees.

These are with small samples though, so the price that i buy them at will be lower when I start buying in bulk.

I don't think I can sell them if I increase the price because I only have 120 star rating, and people can just buy from the cheapest person.
What do you think I should do?
I am thinking of keep selling this product and make that tiny profit margin while building up my ratings.
I have 2 more products coming in at the moment.
It seems that you can charge more if you have a beast rating, but if your rating is low you have to sell cheaper....

Thank you very much.
 
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Motley crue

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Hey again ecom man, I have another question and also wanted to thank you for answering the ones that I've posted so far. So here's my question/concern. How do you get you're money sent to you off of paypal? I know I can request a check or link a bank account, but my concern is more with the IRS. If I buy my products off craigslist and pay $400 for each item and sell each for $500 on ebay and I sell, we'll say 1,000 items in a year, and come tax time I report making $100,000, but they look at my sales history and say I made $500,000 what happens? I didn't word this quite the way I wanted to but I think I got my question across.
 

Ecom man

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Hi Mr. Ecom man.
First, I'd like to thank you for making this thread.
Not only is it super informative, but it is also very motivational.

After reading this thread a month ago, i decided to go ahead and test out some products.
Could you please offer me some advice?
I made an ebay account ~20 days ago, and got up to about 120 100% ratings using questionable methods...
Anyway, I found 3 products to import from China.
The 1st two are not selling, I may just lower the price so that I can get a loss or cancel out....whatever, more ratings for me.
the 3rd one is selling pretty well (2-3 everyday).
The 3rd product I buy for 15.8 bux a piece (includes shipping).
These go on Ebay for 30-35 bux, however there are about 5 competitors that are selling in between 26-30 and they are selling a lot.
Every piece that I've sold was at 25.49 (cheapest).
The problem with this is that my product margin is tiny after shipping and Ebay fees.

These are with small samples though, so the price that i buy them at will be lower when I start buying in bulk.

I don't think I can sell them if I increase the price because I only have 120 star rating, and people can just buy from the cheapest person.
What do you think I should do?
I am thinking of keep selling this product and make that tiny profit margin while building up my ratings.
I have 2 more products coming in at the moment.
It seems that you can charge more if you have a beast rating, but if your rating is low you have to sell cheaper....

Thank you very much.
If they are a great selling item I would just list the price at a profitable amount and see what happens. 120 positive feedback is pretty decent as long as it's all positive. Most people just look at the % rating. Once the guys who are the cheapest sell out then you will still be the cheapest but at a profitable level. The other option is to list them the cheapest until you get to the top of "best match" once you are at the top of that then you can raise your prices to a more profitable level and still sell large amounts.
 

Ecom man

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Hey again ecom man, I have another question and also wanted to thank you for answering the ones that I've posted so far. So here's my question/concern. How do you get you're money sent to you off of paypal? I know I can request a check or link a bank account, but my concern is more with the IRS. If I buy my products off craigslist and pay $400 for each item and sell each for $500 on ebay and I sell, we'll say 1,000 items in a year, and come tax time I report making $100,000, but they look at my sales history and say I made $500,000 what happens? I didn't word this quite the way I wanted to but I think I got my question across.
You would need to keep track of how much you spent for inventory whether purchased through craigslist, with a credit card or whatever other means you get your products from. The IRS knows that $500,000 in sales obviously does not translate into 500k in profit. Just keep track of what you spend on inventory and in case of an audit you have the paperwork to back up the inventory costs. (If you are bringing in 100k a year after all expenses you should certainly hire a good tax person to make sure you are getting all the deductions etc that you can and have your paperwork in order.)

I get all my money direct to a checking account from PayPal etc.
 
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Carnage

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If they are a great selling item I would just list the price at a profitable amount and see what happens. 120 positive feedback is pretty decent as long as it's all positive. Most people just look at the % rating. Once the guys who are the cheapest sell out then you will still be the cheapest but at a profitable level. The other option is to list them the cheapest until you get to the top of "best match" once you are at the top of that then you can raise your prices to a more profitable level and still sell large amounts.
Thanks a lot.
That is some good advice. Just one question...
What if the guys who are selling super cheap never run out? =O
 

Ecom man

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Thanks a lot.
That is some good advice. Just one question...
What if the guys who are selling super cheap never run out? =O
Even if you are more expensive you will still sell some... Just not as many. The problem with eBay is it can quickly become a race to the bottom with price wars. If you can sell at the same price as the cheapest person and still make a decent profit then go for it. If that is unprofitable, set your prices at a profitable level and see how many you sell at that price.
 

Carnage

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Even if you are more expensive you will still sell some... Just not as many. The problem with eBay is it can quickly become a race to the bottom with price wars. If you can sell at the same price as the cheapest person and still make a decent profit then go for it. If that is unprofitable, set your prices at a profitable level and see how many you sell at that price.

Thanks man.
I actually raised my price from 25 to 30 and someone still bought from me the product from me....
I don't have as much feedback as the competitors either....Cool
 
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Motley crue

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Thanks a lot ecom man, i'm gonna give it another go with my new product in the next few days, really can't thank you enough for the thread.
 

Dream&Achieve

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I have been lurking on the forum for about a month and have gleaned so much information I knew it was time to give back. I currently run an import/ resale on eBay business. I started the business about 3 years ago but just dabbled in it up until about 6 months ago.

6 months ago, I quit my job and started working the business "full time". I use that term loosely because full time for my business is abt 1 hr a day packaging up sold products and a few hrs a week researching new products.

I have been pretty much in the same niche since I started selling things 3 years ago but because of reading TFM I have started to branch out to reach more people. I added one product in the last two weeks that has already translated into a $1500 a month extra PROFIT!!!

I have sold mainly through eBay and a little through Amazon. I have imported a lot of things as well as bought things wholesale by the pallet. I would love to be able to help anyone in any way that I can.
How did you go about of finding a legit China manufacturer? I would like to sell Jordan's or other Nike shoes, but I feel like most are fakes. I've heard of Alibaba and Aliexpress, but I'm not sure they're legit.
 

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