[AMA] Importing & wholesaling for resale on eBay.

[CarrieW]

I am sure ebay doesn't let you sell sex related products...apart from condoms.

um have you ever looked for them? they definitely allow them all of them. go do a search for sex toys and become enlightened. (frightened possibly traumatized) don't say you weren't warned LOL

 

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[Ecom man]

I am sure ebay doesn't let you sell sex related products...apart from condoms.

A quick search on eBay quickly reveals you are wrong. Searched "sex toys" and came up with 75,000 items for sale. The word "sex" brings up 185,000 items (some are lingerie obviously)

 

[Mike.B]

@Ecom man What's your opinion on pricing when setting the price for a generic product against an obviously better US product? The product I'm competing with is $300 to $355, and I've started out in the $300's with a "best offer" option. I originally thought about pricing it lower, but I thought I'd test this price point first.

 

[Ecom man]

@Ecom man What's your opinion on pricing when setting the price for a generic product against an obviously better US product? The product I'm competing with is $300 to $355, and I've started out in the $300's with a "best offer" option. I originally thought about pricing it lower, but I thought I'd test this price point first.

It really is all about testing. If branded sells for $300-$350 I personally would start in the $275 range and then go from there. I try to look from a consumer point of view. What discount would make me want to buy the generic over the name brand?

 

[Mike.B]

It really is all about testing. If branded sells for $300-$350 I personally would start in the $275 range and then go from there. I try to look from a consumer point of view. What discount would make me want to buy the generic over the name brand?

This makes sense. That's the price point I originally thought of, but I think I might have been a little greedy.

 

[YMCMB]

Do you suggest staying away from ALL electronics? ie, speakers, mice, etc?

 

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[Ecom man]

Do you suggest staying away from ALL electronics? ie, speakers, mice, etc?

As long as it isn't a name brand then I don't have a problem with it. It's just that phones and tablets etc dont sell for a good price unless name brand.

 

[Guest23565]

Hey Ecom man,

Do you have advice on approaching a business to offer them a product to sell and do you have any experiences you could share?

I'm interested in importing different products to sell not only online, but also to small businesses, but I don't know where to start.

 

[Villain]

Any tips for negotiating down an MOQ without looking like small fry?

I was sent a catalogue quoting MOQ as 800 but I only really want 100...

 

[Villain]

I have received a quote from another supplier (on Alibaba) who has asked to me "complete the attached PI". I'm not sure what this means...there are no file attachments.

 

[K.Y.]

Hey Ecom man!

Thanks a ton for the insight you've given.

Have you ever had to deal with buying product that was simply bad? Product that breaks down after a little while?

Thanks!

-Kenny

 

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[Ecom man]

Hey Ecom man,

Do you have advice on approaching a business to offer them a product to sell and do you have any experiences you could share?

I'm interested in importing different products to sell not only online, but also to small businesses, but I don't know where to start.

In my opinion there is great opportunity in importing things then reselling to small local businesses. I have not done it as of yet so I cant give you much advice on it. Sorry

 

[Ecom man]

Any tips for negotiating down an MOQ without looking like small fry?

I was sent a catalogue quoting MOQ as 800 but I only really want 100...

Tell them you like their products and would like to stock it in your store, but currently you only have enough room to stock 100. Emphasize that you will be making many repeat orders and you want to have a long term business relationship with them.
If that doesn't work you either have to order the 800 or find someone who will sell in smaller lots.

 

[Ecom man]

Hey Ecom man!

Thanks a ton for the insight you've given.

Have you ever had to deal with buying product that was simply bad? Product that breaks down after a little while?

Thanks!

-Kenny

You will come across products that are complete crap. It is a part of the business. I will normally do a couple things when I get bad items.
1. Contact the supplier and tell him the products are all breaking after a short time of use. See if you can get him to send replacements at his cost.
2. If he refuses to send replacements etc just drop it. It isn't worth the hassle, just move on.
3. Never order from that supplier again. I don't want to be working with someone who doesn't care if he sends me crap.
There can be times where you will get a couple of bad items out of 100 or more items. I am fine with that as you will have defective items in every manufacture process. If it is anywhere near 10% + that are junk I just move on to a better supplier.

 

[Kelly C]

A quick search on eBay quickly reveals you are wrong. Searched "sex toys" and came up with 75,000 items for sale. The word "sex" brings up 185,000 items (some are lingerie obviously)

I am in the UK and it is definitely in their policy that you can't here. You can find them on the ebay UK too but their policy states that you can't list them as its something I looked into. You can list items like "massagers" as long as you don't say its for sexual use but I would rather not live on the shady side when it comes to selling a product obviously for sexual use.

It does let you sell things like bondage items etc as long as they aren't on a model too....certainly a lot of rules around it.

I was specifically wanting to sell vibes which it doesn't allow.


On another note.the sample i got...I found another hole in it after the first - the supplier just kept telling me they ship out thousands of them so we decided to drop them as a potential supplier as they didn't seem to want to do much about it...weren't open to sending us a small batch to test quality seeing as their sample was poor. They said they checked them too! Both holes were manufacturing errors where the material had been missed. Shame but not dealing with product that could potentially have a lot of duds in it!

 

[CarrieW]

it may be banned here as well. but as you can see apparently no one knows (or maybe cares).. they may get shut down. until they do they are selling tho...

definitely need to check the tos agreement before you build a business around it

 

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[Wuz]

In my opinion there is great opportunity in importing things then reselling to small local businesses. I have not done it as of yet so I cant give you much advice on it. Sorry

it is legal to resell import products locally?

Because we must have some kind of license to sell to stores...

 

[Ecom man]

it is legal to resell import products locally?

Because we must have some kind of license to sell to stores...

As I said I am not an expert on selling to local people but idk why it wouldn't be legal. Ask walmart how they are doing selling imported products locally. They might be some additional paperwork to fill out in your state but every place is different.

 

[Ecom man]

I am in the UK and it is definitely in their policy that you can't here. You can find them on the ebay UK too but their policy states that you can't list them as its something I looked into. You can list items like "massagers" as long as you don't say its for sexual use but I would rather not live on the shady side when it comes to selling a product obviously for sexual use.

It does let you sell things like bondage items etc as long as they aren't on a model too....certainly a lot of rules around it.

I was specifically wanting to sell vibes which it doesn't allow.


On another note.the sample i got...I found another hole in it after the first - the supplier just kept telling me they ship out thousands of them so we decided to drop them as a potential supplier as they didn't seem to want to do much about it...weren't open to sending us a small batch to test quality seeing as their sample was poor. They said they checked them too! Both holes were manufacturing errors where the material had been missed. Shame but not dealing with product that could potentially have a lot of duds in it!

I would drop them as well. If someone isn't worried about putting out a quality product I am not interested in working with them.

 

[Ecom man]

EBay's TOS says the following about selling adult products.

Policy overview
Sexually-oriented adult material is meant for people who are 18 years and older. We allow the sale of this material, but you can only list these items in theEverything Else > Adult Only category.

These guidelines explain what's OK to list, what you can't list, and where you should list these items. Additionally, you need to follow any applicable laws or shipping restrictions for adult material.

Make sure your listing follows these guidelines. If it doesn't, it may be removed, and your buying and selling privileges could be restricted.

Sexual Wellness category

We let pre-approved sellers list certain bondage items, sex toys, and sex accessories in the following categories:

• Health & Beauty > Health Care > Sexual Wellness > Sex Accessories
  
  
• Health & Beauty > Health Care > Sexual Wellness > Sex Toys
  

Seller accounts are automatically reviewed for pre-approval at the time of attempting to list in these categories.

In addition to pre-approval, sellers listing items in these categories must meet the following listing requirements.

• Listings can't contain images of nudity
  
  
• Listings can't use language in violation of our profanity policy
  
  
• Items can't be modeled on a real person or mannequin
  
  • Items must be new, in their original packaging
    

 

[Villain]

This might be a daft question, but when you are making an order on alibaba, what do you put in the "airport" option?

I'm guessing it's the airport at the supplier end, not the one at my end.

 

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[Ecom man]

This might be a daft question, but when you are making an order on alibaba, what do you put in the "airport" option?

I'm guessing it's the airport at the supplier end, not the one at my end.

If you are referring to when making an offer to someone i always contact the supplier first. I explain I want to order samples of their product and wondered what would be the cost for 10 including express shipping to the US. If you try and buy through alibaba escrow offer thing the supplier will just reject you almost every time. If you don't want to deal with messaging sellers then dhgate or aliexpress is better for you.

 

[jazb]

when you cross reference items, how many items do you consider niche enough to sell. for example, i found an item, it has 250 results ebay. is that too many results?

 

[Ecom man]

when you cross reference items, how many items do you consider niche enough to sell. for example, i found an item, it has 250 results ebay. is that too many results?

That would depend on what those results are. Are they all the same identical items with 250 different sellers? Are they 1 seller with 250 different auctions? I am not looking for a niche, I am looking for as many sales as possible with as few competitors as possible.

 

[ProblemSolver]

My first package arrived today! GAME ON!

 

[exclusives88]

This is a great thread and made me start e-mailing suppliers from Alibaba. This is my first post, I've been a lurker for quite some time. I've been reading on several threads about success stories - mainly marketing affiliating, self publishing, and now this thread. I really like this thread because you did a great job explaining the process along with other links that was posted in the thread.

I was wondering if you can help answer a couple of questions. I am sorry if this has been covered in your thread. I did read through all of it late last night though!

1. What do you prefer on payment method for samples and actual orders? I have heard paypal is best.

2. Can you explain what T/T payment method is? Do you know if a US bank such as Bank of America will accept this method to send money? Will you need a merchant account?

3. A lot of the suppliers will give me the shipping cost (which most of the time is extremely high). Most of the supplies ship FOB to the sellers port instead of CIF. Can you tell me your process on buying using FOB? What type fees are incurred after the FOB point or do you ask for CIF pricing?

4. I have a few items in mind to sell. Do you mind if I reach you via e-mail or PM? I understand that I just need to pull the trigger and buy/sell but it would be nice to get your thoughts.

Thanks!

-Mike

 

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[exclusives88]

One more question

Let's say I am buying manufactured tennis balls from China for sampling purposes. I would expect them to package these balls in a large box with 100 tennis balls (let's just use 100 as the sample size). If I am planning on selling these sample tennis balls in 10 per package, wouldn't I need to buy packaging and brand (add in logo, description...etc) the package? OR do you just ship them how it is since they are just samples?

Another example is bed sheets. They usually come in nylon bags but do you label any type of branding on it so you are not selling a product with no labels?

 

[Ecom man]

This is a great thread and made me start e-mailing suppliers from Alibaba. This is my first post, I've been a lurker for quite some time. I've been reading on several threads about success stories - mainly marketing affiliating, self publishing, and now this thread. I really like this thread because you did a great job explaining the process along with other links that was posted in the thread.

I was wondering if you can help answer a couple of questions. I am sorry if this has been covered in your thread. I did read through all of it late last night though!

1. What do you prefer on payment method for samples and actual orders? I have heard paypal is best.

2. Can you explain what T/T payment method is? Do you know if a US bank such as Bank of America will accept this method to send money? Will you need a merchant account?

3. A lot of the suppliers will give me the shipping cost (which most of the time is extremely high). Most of the supplies ship FOB to the sellers port instead of CIF. Can you tell me your process on buying using FOB? What type fees are incurred after the FOB point or do you ask for CIF pricing?

4. I have a few items in mind to sell. Do you mind if I reach you via e-mail or PM? I understand that I just need to pull the trigger and buy/sell but it would be nice to get your thoughts.

Thanks!

-Mike

1. I prefer either paypal or the escrow that is provided by Alibaba. Most of the time I will use escrow for the samples and after using that I will swap over to just paypal payments for the normal orders.

2. T/T is basically a wire transfer to the supplier. A lot of suppliers prefer this but it leaves you with no recourse if the supplier is dishonest.

3. I always ask for the price including express shipping to my door. I try not to mess with FOB on any orders but especially samples.

4. You are welcome to pm me with any questions.

 

[Ecom man]

One more question

Let's say I am buying manufactured tennis balls from China for sampling purposes. I would expect them to package these balls in a large box with 100 tennis balls (let's just use 100 as the sample size). If I am planning on selling these sample tennis balls in 10 per package, wouldn't I need to buy packaging and brand (add in logo, description...etc) the package? OR do you just ship them how it is since they are just samples?

Another example is bed sheets. They usually come in nylon bags but do you label any type of branding on it so you are not selling a product with no labels?

You could ask the manufacture to put them in packaging of ten or just sell them in lots of ten and leave them open. It wouldn't bother most people that they arn't sealed. With samples it is all about testing, you just want to see how many you sell in a certain time period. If you are selling tons of them you can then add logos, labels, etc.

 

[Meynstey]

Thank you for starting this thread, it's helped answer so many questions I've had about this process. I've ordered my first batch of samples this week and am waiting on delivery.

I have a couple of questions coming out of this process:

1. Is it ever worth shipping larger volumes via freight? I've found a number of great products that have an awesome price/pc, a ton of commerciality, but where the air express shipping destroys profit due to weight. My suppliers keep telling me it really should be shipped freight.

2. Similarly, I'm finding that if I order a larger volume after samples, the profit margins go up quite a bit. How many pieces are you purchasing once you find a product and supplier you trust?

Thanks again!