[AMA] Importing & wholesaling for resale on eBay.

[the5thpgriff]

I know I'm really late to the post but I had success buying from Liquidaton.com. I bought designer hand bag lots and sold on Ebay... I was working a full-time job (overnight) and the business became to much to handle on my own but I purchased my last lot for $793.00. Once everything was sold, shipped and fees removed I had $1,042 profit. I have been thinking about getting back into selling...

 

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[YMCMB]

How do you go about filing sales tax? With the Nexus Law do you have to remit sales tax to each state you sell to in the US? How does that all work, and what are you doing?

 

[mosdef]

ordered my first product last night

 

[Ecom man]

I know I'm really late to the post but I had success buying from Liquidaton.com. I bought designer hand bag lots and sold on Ebay... I was working a full-time job (overnight) and the business became to much to handle on my own but I purchased my last lot for $793.00. Once everything was sold, shipped and fees removed I had $1,042 profit. I have been thinking about getting back into selling...

I did Liquidation.com when first starting. Can make a decent amount of money for sure if you find the right product. The issue is you are limited in products you can sell to what they have at the moment. When you order products from China you literally have millions of options.

 

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[Ecom man]

So I'm looking into Alibaba for the first time and I notice 1) a lot of much, much better prices, and 2) everything is FOB pricing. I've never dealt with any kind of large scale shipping before, since all I've had to deal with thus far is DHL, FedEx etc. Can anyone recommend a good resource to read up on dealing with freight shipping overseas?

If I understand, I'd have to arrange for transport on the vessel from their port to my local port, unloading fees on my end and transportation to wherever I'm storing the items. Is that correct?

You can order on Alibaba and just tell the supplier you want a quote with DHL shipping or other shipping. That way you don't have to deal with the sea freight and you can order in much smaller amounts than the minimums they have listed.

 

[Ecom man]

ordered my first product last night

Awesome!!!

 

[Ecom man]

Sorry to everyone who asked questions in the past 2 weeks. I took my family on vacation to Michigan where there was no internet or cell access. I guess my wife wanted some time where I looked at her more than eBay lol. If there are any questions I missed or that you had further questions on please feel free to ask. I just want to help any way I can.

I am starting to gear up for Christmas as should anyone who has products that sell on a reliable basis. Stock the storages boys and girls because the sales will be more than you can even imagine!!

 

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[the5thpgriff]

I did Liquidation.com when first starting. Can make a decent amount of money for sure if you find the right product. The issue is you are limited in products you can sell to what they have at the moment. When you order products from China you literally have millions of options.

I agree @Ecom man you are very limited! Liquidation.com got me started and I found myself not wanting to purchase most of the time... it took a lot of searching before i purchased from them. I made a couple overseas connections with wholesalers for products I actually wanted to sell but I let my "job" at the time overshadow what I was trying to accomplish in my business. My job won back then... but not anymore.

 

[Ecom man]

I agree @Ecom man you are very limited! Liquidation.com got me started and I found myself not wanting to purchase most of the time... it took a lot of searching before i purchased from them. I made a couple overseas connections with wholesalers for products I actually wanted to sell but I let my "job" at the time overshadow what I was trying to accomplish in my business. My job won back then... but not anymore.

I am all for more options to source from but I didn't want people to dump China suppliers for Liquidation.com because it seems "easier". There is a ton of competition on there for every good item.

 

[Tobore]

Thank you very much Ecom man, these tips were needed. To start with, I didn't know one could ask the selling company for sample products or a brand name to the items.

I've been able to find product(s) i think would be a success using the NESCT Principle by MJ DeMarco, I've done my research from the Streets (Vendors) and Final sellers of these products (In my case, I would be trading B2B) trying to solve a problem by bringing in these 'proposed' products to my state as i observed that vendors of these items travel far to get these items.

 

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[Tobore]

Pretty much every bad experience I had was because of my lack of knowledge.
I have ordered things before and completely lost my money (paid by western union) btw don't ever pay by western union or wire for first shipments til you get a feel for the supplier.

Thanks for that tip, what are the advisable platform(s) to use apart from Western Union

 

[Brentnal]

It seems like a huge amount of people all over the world are importing cheap and selling for profit.
Is it smart to start doing it now, i learned from the internet and books that it is not smart to do something when everybody is doing it.

What have the fastlaners have to say about this?
I want to start doing this to i really like the idea! I must note i have only a few hours a day and no storage space only under my bed and i got around 1200 to invest.

 

[Wuz]

After a long wait the producs arrived home.

now lets take photos to the product, write the copy and test customer demand

 

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[Ecom man]

It seems like a huge amount of people all over the world are importing cheap and selling for profit.
Is it smart to start doing it now, i learned from the internet and books that it is not smart to do something when everybody is doing it.

What have the fastlaners have to say about this?
I want to start doing this to i really like the idea! I must note i have only a few hours a day and no storage space only under my bed and i got around 1200 to invest.

It's not easy to import and resell for a profit for sure. Just read the hard times that people are having finding good reliable products with good margins. The thing is find something that people need that they arnt getting or that they are getting but not in the way they would prefer (no customer service, slow shipping times, sellers that just don't care etc.) I have built a reputation on my speed of service and excellent customer service. I ship things same day and send it FAST. I have sold a product Saturday morning dropped it off at the Post Office before they closed at noon Saturday and the customer got it on Monday. Do you think that customer was happy? Will he buy from me again? You bet! Be the best at what you do and you can charge a premium over the other lazy people who are just getting by.

 

[the5thpgriff]

It's not easy to import and resell for a profit for sure. Just read the hard times that people are having finding good reliable products with good margins. The thing is find something that people need that they arnt getting or that they are getting but not in the way they would prefer (no customer service, slow shipping times, sellers that just don't care etc.) I have built a reputation on my speed of service and excellent customer service. I ship things same day and send it FAST. I have sold a product Saturday morning dropped it off at the Post Office before they closed at noon Saturday and the customer got it on Monday. Do you think that customer was happy? Will he buy from me again? You bet! Be the best at what you do and you can charge a premium over the other lazy people who are just getting by.

I completely agree with @Ecom man... the margins on this stuff are tight! But if your willing to work hard and kill the competition with communication and customer service people are happy to pay a little extra. I shipped an item once ($109.00) during Christmas and it was "lost" during shipment but I acted quickly, communicated and sent out a new item that day. I soon saw a number of different purchases coming from that person over the next few months and they told others about me. That small problem ended up being a good opportunity!

 

[Ecom man]

After a long wait the producs arrived home.

now lets take photos to the product, write the copy and test customer demand

Awesome!! Good luck

 

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[Tobore]

I really need help/suggestions:

I've been able to find a product I can brand and build a company out of here in Africa. I've read a lot on these thread but I seem to be having one barrier, the payment method.

I am currently in a paypal restricted (banned) country, therefore I cannot use their services, I wouldn't want to bye-pass because that's too risky. Ecomm man said something about NOT using Western Union, I got the drift but that seem to be my only choice. Pls I need your suggestions, somebody, anybody! Pls, Respond.

 

[Tobore]

I really need help/suggestions:

I've been able to find a product I can brand and build a company out of here in Africa. I've read a lot on these thread but I seem to be having one barrier, the payment method.

I am currently in a paypal restricted (banned) country, therefore I cannot use their services, I wouldn't want to bye-pass because that's too risky. Ecom man said something about NOT using Western Union, I got the drift but that seem to be my only choice. Pls I need your suggestions, somebody, anybody! Pls, Respond.

 

[Ecom man]

I really need help/suggestions:

I've been able to find a product I can brand and build a company out of here in Africa. I've read a lot on these thread but I seem to be having one barrier, the payment method.

I am currently in a paypal restricted (banned) country, therefore I cannot use their services, I wouldn't want to bye-pass because that's too risky. Ecom man said something about NOT using Western Union, I got the drift but that seem to be my only choice. Pls I need your suggestions, somebody, anybody! Pls, Respond.

Can you use Alibaba escrow in Africa? All suppliers on Alibaba are supposed to accept payments theough escrow but some don't. I would try paying that way.

 

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[Villain]

@Ecom man Can I use this thread to record my progress or would you rather I started a separate progress thread? I have a 600 word update to post!

 

[Ecom man]

I love reading progress! You are more than welcome to share it in this thread.

 

[Villain]

Awesome


I have tried samples of 4 different products from Chinese suppliers. All of them are small ticket items since that’s all I can afford right now. I have ideas for new items but all my cash is tied up in stock.

I need to start doing book keeping because it takes me far too long to figure out my numbers, but I don't want to spend too much time on it.

ITEM #1 - I sold 10 pieces in a week so I ordered 100 more. I negotiated the price down a bit by saying that I did not need the individual cardboard boxes the items were shipped in. However, by the time I had scraped the money together and received the package, there seemed to be more competition on ebay! I am struggling to sell them for a profit. They are currently selling at about the same frequency as before, but only at break even. I also made a loss on the sample .

When buyers order 2 of these items (which they frequently do), I profit since that saves me £2.80 on postage. I think I have too much stock to only accept orders for pairs though…I don’t want to be left with dead stock if this item stops selling.

If I plan on reordering then I must negotiate a better price.

ITEM #2 – Ordered a sample of 10 pieces for a product that I thought was pretty cool…but apparently nobody else does. I have not sold a single unit, even at silly low prices. One of the items was also damaged.

ITEM #3 – Ordered a sample of 10. All sold out in a week! I had one item returned. I refunded the buyer straight away, avoiding negative feedback and was able to sell the item on to someone else. Made a small profit on the sample order.

I have ordered 30 more of this product and it should arrive by DHL in a day or two. Margin for this order of 30 is 80p per item (not including any returns).

ITEM #4 – Similar product to item #3. I ordered 10, and they all sold out in less than a week. Made a loss on the sample but they sold for a good price. I have ordered 100 by free snail mail, so it will be a while before these arrive. The margin on these is somewhere between £1.50 and £2 each, which includes my estimate of customs charges. Looking forward to seeing how this one goes…

So out of 4 items, it seems that I have: 1 loser, 1 break even or marginal winner (perhaps not worth pursuing), and 2 winners.


CUSTOMS & FOREX CHARGES

So far I am being charged between 7% and 15% for customs. My bank was also charging me 2.75% for foreign transactions, but I now have a dedicated credit card for the business. There is no charge for foreign transactions on this card, and it looks like they are even giving me 0.5% cashback on purchases! Every tiny bit of margin helps, right?


EBAY SEARCH RANKINGS

I notice that most of the top search results for an item are for sellers labelled as “eBay Premium Service”. Getting to the top of the results will surely increase sales, so how can I do this? Do I need to achieve premium seller status? If so, how do I go about doing that?


CUSTOMER SERVICE THAT SUCS

I am doing everything I can to offer amazing service. I offer same day shipping as standard. I received an order late one night and realised that the buyer was local. So instead of posting it, I just dropped it off the next morning. Less than 24hrs for delivery isn’t bad.

I also include a hand written note to the customer, providing an email address if they have questions. I end the note with a call to action, asking them to leave positive feedback with 5 stars. I don’t plan on doing this forever but it will do until I get a printer!

 

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[Luke1213]

How do you guys go about getting your stuff sold so fast on ebay? Does the same apply to amazon?

 

[Villain]

I have sold my items quickly on ebay by selling at the same price or just a little bit cheaper than the competition.

 

[Ecom man]

How do you guys go about getting your stuff sold so fast on ebay? Does the same apply to amazon?

Either sell it for a little less than all the competition or offer something they don't. (Faster shipping, freebie etc.) If you pick the right product you don't have to do anything at all. A hot selling item will fix all your possible mistakes. Let the lower priced competition sell out then yours will start selling at a good profit.

 

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[Luke1213]

Either sell it for a little less than all the competition or offer something they don't. (Faster shipping, freebie etc.) If you pick the right product you don't have to do anything at all. A hot selling item will fix all your possible mistakes. Let the lower priced competition sell out then yours will start selling at a good profit.

From what I can see on ebay, it looks that their is 4 sellers selling the same thing from China. They sell it for about 30% less than me with free shipping but they all ship from China.

 

[Ecom man]

From what I can see on ebay, it looks that their is 4 sellers selling the same thing from China. They sell it for about 30% less than me with free shipping but they all ship from China.

You will sell circles around the China sellers at only 30% more. If you aren't selling the item at all you have a product that no one wants/needs, a seasonal item that is mainly sold during holidays, or people only buy the name brand of that product. Leave it posted and see what happens but also watch the China sellers stock level. If they are selling and not you, you are doing something wrong. Maybe you need more keywords, better pics, or just a bad selling product.

 

[Chazmania]

However, by the time I had scraped the money together and received the package, there seemed to be more competition on ebay! I am struggling to sell them for a profit.

Yea I'm going through that myself at the moment. I'm selling like a madman but not making any profit! Well, at least not enough to re-order these couple of products.

Definitely learning about Ebay's fees and shipping costs though. And another benefit is growing my feedback rating. I can't wait till there's a nice juicy profit behind each trip to the post office!

 

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[Ecom man]

Yea I'm going through that myself at the moment. I'm selling like a madman but not making any profit! Well, at least not enough to re-order these couple of products.

Definitely learning about Ebay's fees and shipping costs though. And another benefit is growing my feedback rating. I can't wait till there's a nice juicy profit behind each trip to the post office!

Have you tried raising your prices to a profitable level and let the cheap guys sell out? If you offer faster shipping you can charge more as well. Any product selling like crazy is not one to give up easily.

 

[Chazmania]

Have you tried raising your prices to a profitable level and let the cheap guys sell out? If you offer faster shipping you can charge more as well. Any product selling like crazy is not one to give up easily.

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.