Made $6,900 Importing From China and Reselling on eBay.

[BeLarge]

Hey man! I'm very impressed from your achievements!
As I saw you started in the age of 16. Right now I'm 16 years old too. I want to start my own E-Commerce business and start Importing/Exporting things and earn money. I don't have any special knowledge in this issue. May I ask you to give me some advices that can help me start my own eCom business?

I got pretty nice knowledge of Wordpress system and some marketing knowledge (SEO, SMM). My problem is that I don't sure in myself. Like- I'm starting project and losing my motivation after few weeks of dealing out with problems.
I'll really appreciate your help man.

Thanks in advance,
BeLarge.

 

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[Tehcasa]

Hey man! I'm very impressed from your achievements!
As I saw you started in the age of 16. Right now I'm 16 years old too. I want to start my own E-Commerce business and start Importing/Exporting things and earn money. I don't have any special knowledge in this issue. May I ask you to give me some advices that can help me start my own eCom business?

I got pretty nice knowledge of Wordpress system and some marketing knowledge (SEO, SMM). My problem is that I don't sure in myself. Like- I'm starting project and losing my motivation after few weeks of dealing out with problems.
I'll really appreciate your help man.

Thanks in advance,
BeLarge.

It's great to see you're starting as early as I did. It's hard to respond to a question regarding motivation, but this could help.
1. Having someone who influences you day by day, any siblings in this area of work (entrepreneurship)? If not, we're here for you online.
2. Making yourself motivated. You can create this by asking yourself "Why you started in the first place".
3. Using motivation from other inspirational speakers/movies/books.

I see motivation being a big deal in any line of business, that's why I think "it's great to do what you love", however this isn't the case for everything you do. You need to feel uncomfortable, and by means of this don't just be lazy and do same routines everyday. Get out of your comfort zone and explore different business ventures. It will change your life exponentially.

As with advice with starting out as an importer, you can PM me anytime mate.

 

[Tehcasa]

http://realtimeimports.com/

Course is finally up!

 

[fhs8]

How many hours of work did it take for you to make $6,900? Everything from contacting suppliers, picking up product, shipping, packaging, etc... How many items total were involved?

 

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[Tehcasa]

How many hours of work did it take for you to make $6,900? Everything from contacting suppliers, picking up product, shipping, packaging, etc... How many items total were involved?

I put in at least 1 hour 2x a week during my last year in high school. I couldn't tell you how many items were involved exactly, but I do know it was over 200+

 

[fhs8]

I put in at least 1 hour 2x a week during my last year in high school. I couldn't tell you how many items were involved exactly, but I do know it was over 200+

That's quite hard to believe. You're saying it's over 200 items so if we are to assume it was 300 items that you've sold then your average profit per item would've been $23 which is very high. Your ASP would have to be at least $150 per item if this was the case. Hard to believe since most items would sell $20-$30 tops especially from Alibaba. Usually brand name recognition is needed for $150+ items. Are you saying that you made $6,900 in revenue or $6,900 in profit?

 

[Tehcasa]

That's quite hard to believe. You're saying it's over 200 items so if we are to assume it was 300 items that you've sold then your average profit per item would've been $23 which is very high. Your ASP would have to be at least $150 per item if this was the case. Hard to believe since most items would sell $20-$30 tops especially from Alibaba. Usually brand name recognition is needed for $150+ items. Are you saying that you made $6,900 in revenue or $6,900 in profit?

A sum of this total was from counterfeits. I was popping profits $90-100 per unit sold. I have stopped that operation now and alternatively import ethically. I did not know the risk of importing counterfeit goods in the first place and pretty much I was hooked because the margins were so high. And there's plenty of products you can buy from Alibaba that sell higher than $30.

 

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[Tehcasa]

That's quite hard to believe. You're saying it's over 200 items so if we are to assume it was 300 items that you've sold then your average profit per item would've been $23 which is very high. Your ASP would have to be at least $150 per item if this was the case. Hard to believe since most items would sell $20-$30 tops especially from Alibaba. Usually brand name recognition is needed for $150+ items. Are you saying that you made $6,900 in revenue or $6,900 in profit?

Also, checkout: realtimeimports.com, it will explain my story more accurately

 

[fhs8]

Also, checkout: realtimeimports.com, it will explain my story more accurately

The official bug-a-salt 2.0 sells for $39.95 however your website claims to have sold them for at least $70 which doesn't make much sense. Also did you include packaging and shipping costs?

Not only that but bug-a-salts from China are $15 on Ebay. Why would you pay $29.84 a piece?

Sorry but I don't believe you. Also selling counterfeits do risk getting banned and it's very hard to get a seller account on PayPal or Ebay once banned. Why would you sell an imports course? Wouldn't that cause more competition to compete with you? Why would you want that?

The manufacturer that you're buying from is selling directly on Ebay or at least people there sell on Ebay. How are you going to compete with that? Margins will be thin.

 

[Tehcasa]

The official bug-a-salt 2.0 sells for $39.95 however your website claims to have sold them for at least $70 which doesn't make much sense. Also did you include packaging and shipping costs?

Not only that but bug-a-salts from China are $15 on Ebay. Why would you pay $29.84 a piece?

Sorry but I don't believe you. Also selling counterfeits do risk getting banned and it's very hard to get a seller account on PayPal or Ebay once banned. Why would you sell an imports course? Wouldn't that cause more competition to compete with you? Why would you want that?

The manufacturer that you're buying from is selling directly on Ebay or at least people there sell on Ebay. How are you going to compete with that? Margins will be thin.

Firstly, stop trying to make false accusations. I live in Australia, so the exchange rate is totally different to the US + they did not initially ship this good internationally due to regulations. Yes I was selling for $70. There were numerous sellers selling for this price in Australia at the time. This was years back when I was selling them, and I wasn't selling the 2.0, I was selling the original Bug A Salt.

They may be $15 now... I haven't checked since. At the time however they were approximately $29.84 a unit to buy on Alibaba.

There was no Chinese manufacturers selling on eBay in the initial stage. Again, please get your facts right.

If you have any more questions I'm more and happy for you to personally msg me.

 

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[Monique]

Good question. I found these "perfect products" through four main websites:

1. Amazon Movers and Shakers - which identifies the biggest gainers in sales rank compared to twenty-four hours previous. I found products that had approximately 1000 reviews. If it was greater than this, the product was more likely to be saturated (too many sellers and not enough buyers. Or if it was less than 1000 by a lot I wouldn't really waste my time.

2. Kickstarter - Which is a global crowd funding platform. It helps bring creative projects to life. This specific page displays the most successful projects of ‘product design’ which have been 100% funded. Sometimes the product isn't out on the market yet, even if its 100% funded so don't get your hopes up if you think you've found the best product to sell.

3.Trendoriginal - This is another great resource for finding products.

4. New Movies - This was my favorite medium out of them all. I'm a regular movie watcher, and the amount of products/novelties that are created from movies is enormous! New movies = New TRENDY products on the market

My tip overall: Look for the newest, strangest, weirdest, and most trendiest products out! Even if you haven't heard of the product before, or you think the product is bizarre, go for it.

This was just half of the puzzle done.

Next I checked if the product was available on Alibaba. And from this (If it was available) I moved over on to Terapeak which is a market analytics tool that provides importers with product intelligence. I used this whenever I wanted to know if my product was selling or not. It provided your search with results that indicated the average price, average shipping cost, start price, listings and most of all the sell through ratio on eBay. All the results are essential to know, but for start-ups the sell through ratio is the most important parts of finding the "perfect product".

It essentially tells you if your product is selling or not. For example, if the sell through ratio was 30% it would be quite low and therefore you wouldn't want to buy the product. However if the product was around 46% or greater it’s awesome to buy. This is because the product isn't saturated which means that there is a lot of buyers and not enough sellers. Then I would move onto profit margins. I would answer this question: Is this product giving me x2 return for what I purchased it for or more? If it is a little bit under your x2 return that's fine, as long as you make profit during your start-up journey.

These are very good tips
Thanks for sharing

 

[fhs8]

Firstly, stop trying to make false accusations. I live in Australia, so the exchange rate is totally different to the US + they did not initially ship this good internationally due to regulations. Yes I was selling for $70. There were numerous sellers selling for this price in Australia at the time. This was years back when I was selling them, and I wasn't selling the 2.0, I was selling the original Bug A Salt.

They may be $15 now... I haven't checked since. At the time however they were approximately $29.84 a unit to buy on Alibaba.

There was no Chinese manufacturers selling on eBay in the initial stage. Again, please get your facts right.

If you have any more questions I'm more and happy for you to personally msg me.

Ok because your post made it sound like this was a recent win. It would've been good if you've mentioned that you've made $6,900 over the course of a few years.

As of today, I've made close to $7,000!

If it took you a couple of years to make $6,900 and god knows how many hours (I'm guessing at least 500 hours) then why are you accepting questions like you're fastlane? You're not fastlane. There was no Chinese manufacturers/Chinese people selling on Ebay in the initial stage but there sure is now. What matters is today not five years ago. If you can't hire someone to do your work then it's a job not a business.

A sum of this total was from counterfeits. I was popping profits $90-100 per unit sold.

Also margins are higher for counterfeited goods but it carries the risk of getting a lifetime ban by PayPal / Ebay so it's not a reliable long term solution. So for all we know you could've done much worse had you not counterfeited anything.

 

[mosdef]

Ok because your post made it sound like this was a recent win. It would've been good if you've mentioned that you've made $6,900 over the course of a few years.



If it took you a couple of years to make $6,900 and god knows how many hours (I'm guessing at least 500 hours) then why are you accepting questions like you're fastlane? You're not fastlane. There was no Chinese manufacturers/Chinese people selling on Ebay in the initial stage but there sure is now. What matters is today not five years ago. If you can't hire someone to do your work then it's a job not a business.



Also margins are higher for counterfeited goods but it carries the risk of getting a lifetime ban by PayPal / Ebay so it's not a reliable long term solution. So for all we know you could've done much worse had you not counterfeited anything.

actually good questions. Did OP sell for 6900 in a matter of years? And what currency? Also if one counterfeit sold for about 90-100 that is only 69 pieces?

 

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[Okraz1]

Good on you for taking action and creating shit man but $6900 isn't a lot and you made it mostly from selling counterfeits and now you are marketing your "success" like a financial guru who hasn't actually done the walk. Still good job though, you're ahead of most.

 

[Tehcasa]

actually good questions. Did OP sell for 6900 in a matter of years? And what currency? Also if one counterfeit sold for about 90-100 that is only 69 pieces?

so viscous, so please inform me how you got those numbers. You are just fantastic at what you do...

 

[Tehcasa]

actually good questions. Did OP sell for 6900 in a matter of years? And what currency? Also if one counterfeit sold for about 90-100 that is only 69 pieces?

so viscous, so please inform me how you got those numbers. You are just fantastic at what you do...

Good on you for taking action and creating shit man but $6900 isn't a lot and you made it mostly from selling counterfeits and now you are marketing your "success" like a financial guru who hasn't actually done the walk. Still good job though, you're ahead of most.

Thanks bro. I think people are mistaken me (a sum of that $6900 was accumulated with ethical products as well as counterfeits). I initially started with counterfeits until I faced reality, that is, cease and desist letters. I no longer import counterfeited goods, and currently selling ethical products.

 

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[Tehcasa]

@fhs8 Please advise me more on how I am not taking a Fastlane lifestyle. Haha you sir are the devils daughter who signals little messages into people's
brain into stopping them from doing what they love. I'm not going to taunt, harass or say anything mean, (maybe devils daughter counts)..who knows?
But sir, telling someone they aren't doing something right, or spinning the agenda of my post, brings me to this conclusion: that you tell people in all of your time that their business is ridiculous, because you have already given up on yours.

 

[fhs8]

@fhs8 Please advise me more on how I am not taking a Fastlane lifestyle. Haha you sir are the devils daughter who signals little messages into people's
brain into stopping them from doing what they love. I'm not going to taunt, harass or say anything mean, (maybe devils daughter counts)..who knows?
But sir, telling someone they aren't doing something right, or spinning the agenda of my post, brings me to this conclusion: that you tell people in all of your time that their business is ridiculous, because you have already given up on yours.

When a business is not fastlane because it's been stagnant over a couple of years going no where then that's when you give up and try something else. You're not living fastlane style because your business is no different that a job. First your business would stop running if you stopped working, second your business doesn't pay that much per hour wise, and third there's no light at the end of the tunnel where your business takes off based on the circumstances. I've given up on mine because I've realized that it was just a big waste of time. That means I can try something else and stop wasting time on something which got me no where.

 

[mosdef]

so viscous, so please inform me how you got those numbers. You are just fantastic at what you do...

the thread is called how i made 6900 importing and reselling on ebay, and then you say you sold counterfeits. How are we supposed to know how much counterfeits vs legal products you sold?

 

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[mosdef]

the thread is called how i made 6900 importing and reselling on ebay, and then you say you sold counterfeits. How are we supposed to know how much counterfeits vs legal products you sold?

i dont mean to attack you nor say youre doing something wrong. But if i got these questions in my head probably others also did. Thanks for sharing your story bro.

 

[Gravy South]

Sorry I simply think you get way ahead of yourself. I am very far away from being an e-commerce guru and I have made more than $6900 within 2 months selling ethical goods. You took a few years to make $6900 with a large percentage of profit from fakes and you are trying to sell a course teaching people how to start an e-commerce business?

A 3 year old kid who just learned how to speak English in a sentence would not decide to become an English teacher, the same applies to you.

 

[Tehcasa]

Sorry I simply think you get way ahead of yourself. I am very far away from being an e-commerce guru and I have made more than $6900 within 2 months selling ethical goods. You took a few years to make $6900 with a large percentage of profit from fakes and you are trying to sell a course teaching people how to start an e-commerce business?

A 3 year old kid who just learned how to speak English in a sentence would not decide to become an English teacher, the same applies to you.

I started when I was 14-15. $6900 was a lot of money for me back then. And that's notable, I've made more than $35k+ importing and reselling from China. But good for you

 

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[Gravy South]

I started when I was 14-15. $6900 was a lot of money for me back then. And that's notable, I've made more than $35k+ importing and reselling from China. But good for you

Well your OP post and title says you have made $6900 over a few years, so why are you suddenly claiming that you have made more than 35k+? And the point is $35k+ is not even a big figure. I don't go proclaim myself as an expert and start teaching people as I know I am not an expert at all. I have nothing against you personally, but I just feel you may need a lot more credibility before you open a course.

 

[Tehcasa]

Well your OP post and title says you have made $6900 over a few years, so why are you suddenly claiming that you have made more than 35k+? And the point is $35k+ is not even a big figure. I don't go proclaim myself as an expert and start teaching people as I know I am not an expert at all. I have nothing against you personally, but I just feel you may need a lot more credibility before you open a course.

Why have I suddenly claimed it? It's a fact and its been years since I made $6900. I started early to get a head-start of entrepreneurship in general.
As an 18 year old I'm satisfied with my results and goals I have accomplished, and I don't care if someone boasts me about not being an expert. What I will say however is that I have a strong background in this industry and it's something I like to love to do, "helping new startups". Similarly, my course is based on teaching startups, not pros; but I truly believe that this course is for anyone who is seeking help in finding and attaining profitable merchandise goods alone.

Sorry I simply think you get way ahead of yourself. I am very far away from being an e-commerce guru and I have made more than $6900 within 2 months selling ethical goods. You took a few years to make $6900 with a large percentage of profit from fakes and you are trying to sell a course teaching people how to start an e-commerce business?

A 3 year old kid who just learned how to speak English in a sentence would not decide to become an English teacher, the same applies to you.

I started when I was 14-15. $6900 was a lot of money for me back then. And that's notable, I've made more than $35k+ importing and reselling from China. But good for you

 

[eribruski]

What is your preferred method of shipping? Do you offer free shipping or is your shipping calculated upon checkout?

 

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[Tehcasa]

What is your preferred method of shipping? Do you offer free shipping or is your shipping calculated upon checkout?

I always offer "free shipping". The uttermost way to satisfy price savvy consumers on the internet is by "saving money" for them. A lot of the time consumers turn to free shipping as the quickest way to cut their final costs. I just find it beneficial for me and the consumer, feel free to PM me if you have any more questions.

 

[Tehcasa]

I've been asked a lot on how to build your own product label, so I thought I'd share my contemplation.

This idea was absorbed by http://mancrates.com/a company which sells awesome gift crates targeted towards men. An interview of this can be viewed on https://mixergy.com/

You could simply replicate this business model but have a remarkably different approach by selling different merchandise goods.

....Already see the potential?

The commandment of scale is emboldened with the target market: specifically for men, however this venture can be condemned to many simply because of the physical attributes of stocking-product-inventory, buying online and selling!

Logistics is another difficult aspect of Mancrates business model considering international food regulations. (That goes only to food-gift-crates). This indeed decreases the mobility of the venture.

I won't give you any suggestions of what I've got in mind...but ultimately if you research and discover new products you could possibly bundle together, it's possible to create your own product label/brand.

I hope this gives you a rapid insight towards this brief introduction for creating your own brand from scratch.

PS. Mancrates is killing it