[AMA] Importing & wholesaling for resale on eBay.

[Ecom man]

Raises hand

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Yes, Carrie go ahead.

 

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[s168]

I was looking for a mower part on eBay and came across this gem of a seller. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Drive-Cable...288?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51b40d2cc8
What should you as a seller be doing differently if this were you, and how would you tell what the problems were?

I would give it a keyword rich title, to include popular brands and models that this part can be used on. If need be, I would do multiple listings to cover the compatible products range.

In the body text I would list all likely variations of the product code, with and without dashes/spacings. Part numbers can be confusing! Of course I would add all variations of compatible makes and models here too.

I would add reasons for owners to buy this product even if theirs does not need replacing just yet. "It's always good to have spares on standby" etc. I would sell the product internationally as well as, for example, it looks like this is not available to the UK. I would emphasise my money back guarantee, same day or next day fast shipping. I would add more pictures too, probably with a free image hosting service or on my own existing server space.

If it's an OEM part, I would emphasise this to the layman. And finally I would add a video link / image to show users how easy it is to replace this part.

 

[Ecom man]

I would give it a keyword rich title, to include popular brands and models that this part can be used on. If need be, I would do multiple listings to cover the compatible products range.

In the body text I would list all likely variations of the product code, with and without dashes/spacings. Part numbers can be confusing! Of course I would add all variations of compatible makes and models here too.

I would add reasons for owners to buy this product even if theirs does not need replacing just yet. "It's always good to have spares on standby" etc. I would sell the product internationally as well as, for example, it looks like this is not available to the UK. I would emphasise my money back guarantee, same day or next day fast shipping. I would add more pictures too, probably with a free image hosting service or on my own existing server space.

If it's an OEM part, I would emphasise this to the layman. And finally I would add a video link / image to show users how easy it is to replace this part.

Excellent ways to increase listing visibility but also make someone more comfortable that they are ordering the correct part! Awesome!

There are many other things that this person could do.... Anyone else have something?

 

[CarrieW]

He posted a few of mine. (Better more detailed copy, and title. Model numbers etc) The big one I saw That would put up a flag was no response to email and that you have to open an ebay case. I would not buy from him

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[s168]

I forgot to mention a few other things:

Add related parts to the listing, such as other replacement parts that are also stocked such as oil, cleaning solutions, etc.

Add snippets of feedback comments from previous sales of these items to the listing.

Add a discount for bulk orders, or a link to a listing of this.

Add a prominently placed contact phone number if applicable.

Mention call-to-action and trust building phrases such as "limited stocks", "buy now", "trusted US seller", etc.

Add an FAQs section at the end, covering any questions previously asked and answered.

I'm sure I've missed a few more things...

 

[Ecom man]

He posted a few of mine. (Better more detailed copy, and title. Model numbers etc) The big one I saw That would put up a flag was no response to email and that you have to open an ebay case. I would not buy from him

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Exactly what I saw. Look at all his negatives. They mention a few specific problems that can be learned from.
1. Answer peoples questions
2. Don't sell items before you get them in stock.
3. Be professional (many of his responses to the negative feedback are VERY unprofessional)
4. Don't make excuses as to why you can't do what you promise.
5. People are relying on the products you are selling. They need it to fix a specific problem. Meet that need on time like you promise and they will be happy. Don't and they will be upset.

 

[Ecom man]

I forgot to mention a few other things:

Add related parts to the listing, such as other replacement parts that are also stocked such as oil, cleaning solutions, etc.

Add snippets of feedback comments from previous sales of these items to the listing.

Add a discount for bulk orders, or a link to a listing of this.

Add a prominently placed contact phone number if applicable.

Mention call-to-action and trust building phrases such as "limited stocks", "buy now", "trusted US seller", etc.

Add an FAQs section at the end, covering any questions previously asked and answered.

I'm sure I've missed a few more things...

I love the adding a contact number idea! You can get a prepaid phone for $40 a month or less. Make it your business only line and encourage people to call or text you. That's an awesome idea!

 

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[s168]

He posted a few of mine. (Better more detailed copy, and title. Model numbers etc) The big one I saw That would put up a flag was no response to email and that you have to open an ebay case. I would not buy from him

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I'm clearly missing something. Where did you figure out that there was no response to email and that you would have to open up an ebay case? I don't see that for some reason.

Are you saying there is no email address to write to the seller, or that the seller is no replying to emails?

 

[CarrieW]

I'm clearly missing something. Where did you figure out that there was no response to email and that you would have to open up an ebay case? I don't see that for some reason.

Are you saying there is no email address to write to the seller, or that the seller is no replying to emails?

it was in the listing. I think it was an image. maybe for some reason it didn't load for you? it was where the description should have been LOL

 

[Ecom man]

I'm clearly missing something. Where did you figure out that there was no response to email and that you would have to open up an ebay case? I don't see that for some reason.

Are you saying there is no email address to write to the seller, or that the seller is no replying to emails?

All from his hundreds of negative feedback. He doesn't reply to any eBay messages which is complained about over and over again. His response to the feedback is "too bad should have opened an eBay case." Also what Carrie said

You can learn a lot about what competitors are doing wrong by checking their neg and neutral feedback. Fix what they are doing wrong and when someone complains about you see if there is any validity to it. (Everyone gets some negatives at some point some buyers are just plain jerks)

 

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[KLaw]

I see that soliciting here was a mistake and I won't be doing that again. I was simply trying to add value to this informative discussion and offer a product I had success with. My intentions are good and I don't appreciate the insults. This is Ecom mans thread so I will bow out and let you all get back to business.

@Skins no need to bow out. I'll take you up on your offer. I will purchase a sample of 5 for $75. I know nothing about this business but Im willing to learn. If I get scammed by you (I don't think I will) then it's a cheap $75 lesson. Only condition is we document our activities / transactions on this thread so that I can get input from yourself and others. Deal? I look forward to a working relationship with you. @Ecom man are you cool with me sharing the details in this thread? Thanks for all of your sharing.

 

[Ecom man]

@Skins no need to bow out. I'll take you up on your offer. I will purchase a sample of 5 for $75. I know nothing about this business but Im willing to learn. If I get scammed by you (I don't think I will) then it's a cheap $75 lesson. Only condition is we document our activities / transactions on this thread so that I can get input from yourself and others. Deal? I look forward to a working relationship with you. @Ecom man are you cool with me sharing the details in this thread? Thanks for all of your sharing.

Anyone is welcome to post anything that is helpful to others, as long as they are honest and upfront about what they are posting and not a "sales pitch"

 

[KLaw]

Anyone is welcome to post anything that is helpful to others, as long as they are honest and upfront about what they are posting and not a "sales pitch"

Cool. We shall see where this goes from here...

 

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[jon.a]

@Skins no need to bow out. I'll take you up on your offer. I will purchase a sample of 5 for $75. I know nothing about this business but Im willing to learn. If I get scammed by you (I don't think I will) then it's a cheap $75 lesson. Only condition is we document our activities / transactions on this thread so that I can get input from yourself and others. Deal? I look forward to a working relationship with you. @Ecom man are you cool with me sharing the details in this thread? Thanks for all of your sharing.

Why not start a fresh progress thread?

 

[Mike.B]

I finally sold my first item today for a loss, so that sucks. I also settled my dispute with Aliexpress and I'll get a partial refund.

so far I'm bleeding money ... not good.

 

[Ecom man]

I finally sold my first item today for a loss, so that sucks. I also settled my dispute with Aliexpress and I'll get a partial refund.

so far I'm bleeding money ... not good.

Yeah that does suck unfortunately losing money in business is a part of life. You are one product closer to hitting THE ONE.

 

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[KLaw]

Why not start a fresh progress thread?

Because he was called out in this thread and I figured it would give him a chance to prove he was only trying to add value. It doesn't matter to me if we do it here or start a fresh thread. Whatever the masses want is cool with me. I guess we can worry about where to post it later. First thing is first - need to get a reply from him first.

 

[jon.a]

Because he was called out in this thread and I figured it would give him a chance to prove he was only trying to add value. It doesn't matter to me if we do it here or start a fresh thread. Whatever the masses want is cool with me. I guess we can worry about where to post it later. First thing is first - need to get a reply from him first.

Well if he comes out to play, start a fresh one.

 

[CarrieW]

wth costs so much with shipping? the items I am working on are super duper light and fairly small. I don't understand how the shipping can be so drastically different. one place said $45 for shipping for samples (20 pcs) but only $165 for 1000? how is that even possible?

and then the order price is .87 per piece full order but they want $50 for 20? I told them I was going to find somewhere else. seems like they are playing games to me... they wanted $35 for 2 pcs of samples to start...

I am going to go back and check out 10 more suppliers(for each of the 3 products I picked) and send a new request for sample pricing delivered for 20 pcs. and then their pricings for 500-1000 delivered.

so far out of about 6 places I have contacted for this product I will only consider ordering from 2 of them... to even test.

I have one place that wants to charge higher prices and reasonable shipping with a discount of the difference on my full order. ding ding ding... this place hands down wins first sample order!!!

so I know I read before... what is the best way to pay/order? they said dhl or paypal. I am not sure what dhl is. is it a shipping co?

 

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[CarrieW]

update- I emailed the one place back that was insanely high for samples. told them I was going elsewhere, just opened a reply. they want to know how much I am willing to pay for the samples

 

[Ecom man]

wth costs so much with shipping? the items I am working on are super duper light and fairly small. I don't understand how the shipping can be so drastically different. one place said $45 for shipping for samples (20 pcs) but only $165 for 1000? how is that even possible?

and then the order price is .87 per piece full order but they want $50 for 20? I told them I was going to find somewhere else. seems like they are playing games to me... they wanted $35 for 2 pcs of samples to start...

I am going to go back and check out 10 more suppliers(for each of the 3 products I picked) and send a new request for sample pricing delivered for 20 pcs. and then their pricings for 500-1000 delivered.

so far out of about 6 places I have contacted for this product I will only consider ordering from 2 of them... to even test.

I have one place that wants to charge higher prices and reasonable shipping with a discount of the difference on my full order. ding ding ding... this place hands down wins first sample order!!!

so I know I read before... what is the best way to pay/order? they said dhl or paypal. I am not sure what dhl is. is it a shipping co?

DHL is a shipping company just like FedEx etc. They are quite fast in getting things here from China. Best way to pay would be Paypal or Alibaba's escrow service. If you pay through Paypal make sure to mark it as you are buying something and not as a gift. If you put that it is a gift you have no protection through Paypal.

 

[Mike.B]

DHL is a shipping company just like FedEx etc. They are quite fast in getting things here from China.

DHL was surprisingly fast; I had my order in 3 days (when it finally shipped) and I live in the middle of nowhere.

 

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[piti]

update- I emailed the one place back that was insanely high for samples. told them I was going elsewhere, just opened a reply. they want to know how much I am willing to pay for the samples

Carrie,

I have similar experience with my recent interactions with multiple vendors. Their initial quotes are definitely not final one and its always good to ask for better deal. In my case it is very cheap item as well (sub $1) so for initial quote of 120 items they asked $240 plus $60 DHL shipping - I ended up getting them for $120 and $30 shipping after just couple emails - should get samples this week. With other manufacturer I just waited couple days after initial quote and they came back saying they could send samples for free to get my business. In all cases I indicated I'm talking to multiple other manufacturers and used their own quotes against each other to get better deal. It takes few days but you can really get those prices down significantly.
I'm assuming that will also work to bargain lower MOQ and volume pricing although not expect that significant discounts.
Getting my first samples in few days

 

[Harley]

Carrie,

I have similar experience with my recent interactions with multiple vendors. Their initial quotes are definitely not final one and its always good to ask for better deal. In my case it is very cheap item as well (sub $1) so for initial quote of 120 items they asked $240 plus $60 DHL shipping - I ended up getting them for $120 and $30 shipping after just couple emails - should get samples this week. With other manufacturer I just waited couple days after initial quote and they came back saying they could send samples for free to get my business. In all cases I indicated I'm talking to multiple other manufacturers and used their own quotes against each other to get better deal. It takes few days but you can really get those prices down significantly.
I'm assuming that will also work to bargain lower MOQ and volume pricing although not expect that significant discounts.
Getting my first samples in few days

Appears par of the course - I had a similar experience, item price is $5 and they will ship one to test, but want $65 for shipping. So, I ask "if shipping is so high, maybe best to ship 5-10" and they reply "if we ship 5 the shipping costs will be 5 times higher". These items can easily be stacked in a slightly larger box. So, I asked "well what if down the line we get to your MOG of 500 items, am I then going to have to pay 500X for shipping" No answer back. As indicated Ecom man, finding a good supplier is a good portion of the battle.

Don't know if anyone has read this guide - http://www.startupbros.com/step-by-step-guide-on-how-to-find-a-profitable-product-to-sell/
Good information here too.

 

[Tyman]

So happy I found this thread and read the book that lead me to this forum. Just put up my 2nd product and have sold 3 already with a $15 profit on each. If I continue selling 3 each day that would be $15,000 for the year which is a few thousand more than I make right now per year (last year of university, just working part time) This is amazing! Thank you very much to everyone who has participated in this thread and especially you @Ecom man, never would have thought this was possible.

 

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[Ecom man]

So happy I found this thread and read the book that lead me to this forum. Just put up my 2nd product and have sold 3 already with a $15 profit on each. If I continue selling 3 each day that would be $15,000 for the year which is a few thousand more than I make right now per year (last year of university, just working part time) This is amazing! Thank you very much to everyone who has participated in this thread and especially you @Ecom man, never would have thought this was possible.

Awesome! Just awesome! I love hearing success stories from people that take action. All it takes is 1 more item and you double your income to $30,000 a year... Bump it up to 7 items total and you are pushing 100 grand a year. It is so worth the time and effort put in to not have to work a 9-5 job!

 

[MMatt]

Awesome thread man, I read the whole thing a couple days back and it was inspiring. Ive dabbled in this for a couple of years now and still have not found any products that sell regularly and produce sustainable income. Ive scoured ebay, I know to check completed listings, check your competition when you find a product, I've scoured alibaba, aliexpress, and dhgate for hours and hours. It seems all of the products I've found with good margins are flooded with thousands upon thousands of listing. This game is getting saturated and I really want to get it before it explodes even more.

So my question to you, if you were starting from absolutely nothing so you didn't know what was selling well, if there a certain method to finding new, non commodity products using ebay and alibaba? Maybe there are advanced search methods to getting better results?

For example, I will go onto alibaba and scour through several categories, If I see a product that fits the import criteria (not too bulky, not too complex, usually avoiding electronics) I'll do some google and ebay research and so far most of the products have been too small of margins, sell too infrequently, or are over saturated.

If there are flaws in my formula or major pieces I'm missing I'd appreciate some guidance.

 

[ZCP]

..... Ive dabbled in this for a couple of years now and still have not found any products that sell regularly and produce sustainable income. Ive scoured ebay, I know to check completed listings, check your competition when you find a product, I've scoured alibaba, aliexpress, and dhgate for hours and hours. ....

How MANY different products have you looked through? If the answer is less than 2500, then you have your answer.

 

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[Ecom man]

Awesome thread man, I read the whole thing a couple days back and it was inspiring. Ive dabbled in this for a couple of years now and still have not found any products that sell regularly and produce sustainable income. Ive scoured ebay, I know to check completed listings, check your competition when you find a product, I've scoured alibaba, aliexpress, and dhgate for hours and hours. It seems all of the products I've found with good margins are flooded with thousands upon thousands of listing. This game is getting saturated and I really want to get it before it explodes even more.

So my question to you, if you were starting from absolutely nothing so you didn't know what was selling well, if there a certain method to finding new, non commodity products using ebay and alibaba? Maybe there are advanced search methods to getting better results?

For example, I will go onto alibaba and scour through several categories, If I see a product that fits the import criteria (not too bulky, not too complex, usually avoiding electronics) I'll do some google and ebay research and so far most of the products have been too small of margins, sell too infrequently, or are over saturated.

If there are flaws in my formula or major pieces I'm missing I'd appreciate some guidance.

Ok so the issue with doing this in a forum is the product will probably be burned out in a couple weeks but here goes. I hopped on dhgate and hit up a super broad keyword "kitchen". I just started looking through the results and found a couple that looked promising. Nope, they didn't have any profit at all. I looked some more and came across this item http://www.dhgate.com/product/jewel...g-electronic/179033480.html#s4-4-1|1483590410
Looked it up on eBay and seemed like another failure, but then I saw a listing with better keywords selling at $39 each and he has sold 120 of them. http://www.ebay.com/itm/AWS-2000-Di...784?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2334e42ed0
This is how i find products just randomly wandering through dhgate, alibaba, and aliexpress.
This product has a decent amount of competitors but one seller pulling in that many sales means he is doing something right. You can use multiple keywords to pull in sales for people looking for all sorts of different scales. I would order the minimum order and see what happens. That is how I do it.

 

[MMatt]

How MANY different products have you looked through? If the answer is less than 2500, then you have your answer.

Probably 10k in the last year or so. Like I said I have made profit doing this, but no products with enough margins to justify my time and effort.

Ok so the issue with doing this in a forum is the product will probably be burned out in a couple weeks but here goes. I hopped on dhgate and hit up a super broad keyword "kitchen". I just started looking through the results and found a couple that looked promising. Nope, they didn't have any profit at all. I looked some more and came across this item http://www.dhgate.com/product/jewelry-equipment-new-2000g-x-0-1g-electronic/179033480.html#s4-4-1|1483590410
Looked it up on eBay and seemed like another failure, but then I saw a listing with better keywords selling at $39 each and he has sold 120 of them. http://www.ebay.com/itm/AWS-2000-Di...784?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2334e42ed0
This is how i find products just randomly wandering through dhgate, alibaba, and aliexpress.
This product has a decent amount of competitors but one seller pulling in that many sales means he is doing something right. You can use multiple keywords to pull in sales for people looking for all sorts of different scales. I would order the minimum order and see what happens. That is how I do it.

Hmm well that particular product he is selling is "aws" American Weight Scales. It may be American made so people are perceiving higher value. It may even be made in china but rebranded, either way it's the word "american" or the brand giving the buyer more confidence.

Either way I appreciate you taking time to respond and by no means am I asking for a handout, just seeing if there's any more vague tips to refine my search process.

So far it's looking like test, rinse, repeat until hitting a home run.