I am trying to sell these keychain breathalyzers

[Stu_Hefner]

I have found the real manufacturer that is offering different models for as little as $1.38.

Walter, any tips on how you tracked down the direct manufacturer?

 

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[Walter Hay]

Walter, any tips on how you tracked down the direct manufacturer?

Hi Stu,

You're going to hate me for this, but that is a trade secret. It took me less than 3 minutes because I have been doing this for many years. I do reveal the method in my book and it is not just a few words that would constitute a post on the forum.

I must add that sometimes it takes a lot longer than 3 minutes, and there have been occasions when for a product that was very important to me it was worth taking the several hours that were required.

 

[snoop]

I am just hoping they will sell

With all due respect, "hoping" will not be enough. You will need to BELIEVE in this product and it will sell. This product has potential, if you took the correct approach. I would brand the item and start pitching! The number one key to success if having a belief system..

 

[Ronnie]

Seems a little risky... one false reading resulting in an arrest or accident has the potential to bring an entire army of ambulance chasers to milk your company dry...

 

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[Deleted28123]

Seems a little risky... one false reading resulting in an arrest or accident has the potential to bring an entire army of ambulance chasers to milk your company dry...

I am planning to brand it as a novelty use only product

 

[Lathan]

 

[Deleted28123]

The breathometer is great, but they are retail $49.99 if I can get something to the market for under$20, then I am winning, as I am aiming at a colllege demographic, and not all college students are willing to drop $50 bucks on a breathomter

 

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[Deleted28123]

heres my current update, sorry I havent updated in a bit
I have the site setup at http://a2breathalyzer.com/

We are only taking orders locally, based on what my partner thinks is cost effect for shipping

please feel free to take a look at the site tell me what you think, we are selling them at 9.99

 

[ChickenHawk]

Neat site! One quick point...On my laptop, the pix are huge, maybe double the size of my screen, so I can't see the whole product. Plus, this might just be my own preference, but find the scrolling side-to-side a bit distracting. Like just when my eyes are ready to get a good look at one image, whooosh, the image is gone, and onto the next. Of course, I'm in my forties, so maybe I'm a little slow on the draw these days. (Below is a screen capture to show what the images look like, size-wise, on my screen.)

I noticed that you lowered the price. Just curious, did you think $12 was too much? Because personally, I think you could sell them for more than your current price point. Even $12.99 to me seems like a good deal.

Most of all though, really great progress, and congrats on taking action!

 

[Deleted28123]

Neat site! One quick point...On my laptop, the pix are huge, maybe double the size of my screen, so I can't see the whole product. Plus, this might just be my own preference, but find the scrolling side-to-side a bit distracting. Like just when my eyes are ready to get a good look at one image, whooosh, the image is gone, and onto the next. Of course, I'm in my forties, so maybe I'm a little slow on the draw these days. (Below is a screen capture to show what the images look like, size-wise, on my screen.)

I noticed that you lowered the price. Just curious, did you think $12 was too much? Because personally, I think you could sell them for more than your current price point. Even $12.99 to me seems like a good deal.

Most of all though, really great progress, and congrats on taking action!

View attachment 9286

My partner and I are purchasing these for $4. We are selling them at 9.99 do double our original investment that we can throw back into the company. I wil modify the site to to fit screens, as the setup of that site only took me 20 minutes, it has much more tinkering, Imay however raise the price higher, depending if they sell at 9.99. We just want our initial local sails to prove we can do.

Any ideas or suggestions on shipping locally? we plan on just dropping off packages in peoples mailboxes. MY partner was worried that if we dont stamp the packages ups might take them out of mailboxes if they are unstamped/labled?
this true?

 

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[Mattie]

It sounds like a great idea. Ha ha! But remembering hanging out at Western Michigan and other areas around Michigan, the fires are going and other things, and I can see it possibly being a fad for fun, but how many people really care when they're drunk. Most of them pee where ever they want too, drive regardless because they're fine in their opinion and get nasty when you try to take the car keys away. I can see your point to save lives, but I've seen enough people just be stupid drunk. Which means at that point at parties, they don't care. At least in my group, we just had a packed that we crashed at the party on the floor or didn't party farther then we could walk.

 

[splok]

To back up what some of the others have said, me and my friends would have definitely bought these while we were in college, and we most certainly would have abused them. So ya, there's a market, but if you actually want to make people safer, selling these to college kids is not the way...

 

[Deleted28123]

To back up what some of the others have said, me and my friends would have definitely bought these while we were in college, and we most certainly would have abused them. So ya, there's a market, but if you actually want to make people safer, selling these to college kids is not the way...

Like pharmaceuticals, this device can be used medicinially (used to monitor acohol) or not medicinially (see how high you can get). I think any sort of product is to be used appropriately at the discretion of the consumer

 

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[Deleted28123]

How are you going to handle the possibility that $5 electronic devices from China might fail?
Like somebody said earlier, what if somebody blew into this thing, thought they were fine to drive, then got a DUI, or God forbid, died? Do you have an LLC for legal protection, or are you not worried about this?
This was a product that I considered selling several months ago, and the things DO sell on Amazon and Ebay, you just need to make sure that you are comfortable selling a product that can irreversibly change somebody's life if it fails.
I think the University logos are a great idea, but you'll need to get the universities to agree to having their logos on breathalyzers, and I'm not sure that's something many would be interested in (I could be wrong, maybe some will love it), since many schools like Michigan don't want to be associated with the drinking culture.
Also, this is a light, cheap, easy to ship product that you can get off Alibaba. Just selling it online with Ebay or Amazon won't make you much, as those markets are saturated (I know that wasn't the market you mentioned in your post, I just wanted to point it out).

Enough being negative, here are some ideas for this product that may help. Hitting the college student market with key chain breathalyzers is great and all, but if you want to create a brand with these (and not get people killed) you may need a nicer product. Alibaba has some more expensive, more premium looking models, but that's not really what I'm talking about. I think that if you were to find a decent American/Taiwanese/Korean/Other first world country supplier that had a good product you were confident in putting your name behind, you'd have to charge more, but it'd also be easier to have schools agree to put their logos on it and to get people to buy it. I think that the college breathalyzer market is a ripe one, as I have never seen an advertisement for a breathalyzer on campus or nearby, but I know for a fact people would buy one.

Here's a company I've seen that you could take a look at, it's called Vipertek. It only exists on Amazon and Ebay (as far as I can tell). All they do is sell tasers, but they have TENS OF THOUSANDS of review for their products. The products are relatively cheap, look decent, and work. If I had to guess I'd say they have some deal with a factory or something to brand their products for them, since I can't imagine they wouldn't have a website if they were the manufacturer. It seems like a great example of importing a high(enough)-quality product and reselling it with all sorts of flashy colors to make tons of money. All you have to do is find a good manufacturer/product (they have really good reviews, which is surprising since they are selling stun guns for $9 a piece) and build a brand, Vipertek literally has people raving about them, you won't get that with a keychain.

Anyhow, I hope that helps somehow. I'm not exactly an expert, but what I'm saying makes sense to me, so maybe somebody can tell me if I'm horribly mistaken.

PS - You'd need to do some marketing for this, at least compared to the marketing Vipetek does (none) since getting a DUI may not be as large an impetus (though it should be!) as getting stabbed by a hobo with a rusty screwdriver.

I may file for an llc, as I will need legal protection. We are about to start shipping and advertisting, but I am wondering if we should seek legal protection before any some sort of launch

 

[SirTristram]

Get that first customer yet Jeff?

 

[Deleted28123]

Get that first customer yet Jeff?

we have not started advertising or launched per se

 

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[Mcslothin]

I am having a hard time determining a business model, who to order bulk from alibiba? I heard they can scam. As well as whether its easier to start shipping locally or should i immediately scale this to all schools

I would start out by selling them to people you see while on campus. I would imagine it won't take long for people to start wondering where everyone is getting them from. During that time I would work on building a good looking website and by the time that's done you should already have a steady stream of interested people. Once you get that up and running then I would start trying to branch out to other campuses.

 

[D11FYY]

we have not started advertising or launched per se

Get out there as quick as possible and capitalize on your potential.
I would be heading down to the campus with even 40 key-chains to sell right now. Nevermind all the marketing mumbo jumbo (its going to happen shortly anyway) sales comes first.

 

[Thenernsauce]

Sell it to the concerned parents who are paying the 100k for the education, not the kids.

 

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[camcam]

IMO i don't like it. If you're going to drink, don't drive all together.

To me this product promotes it 'here take this, go have a drink and keep checking if you're 'ok' '

People react to alcohol differently, just because they may be under legal limit, doesn't mean they are going to be responsive and drive well.

 

[D11FYY]

IMO i don't like it. If you're going to drink, don't drive all together.

To me this product promotes it 'here take this, go have a drink and keep checking if you're 'ok' '

People react to alcohol differently, just because they may be under legal limit, doesn't mean they are going to be responsive and drive well.

I totally agree, I actually very rarely drink.
But for the next day or something I would like to be able to check better to be safe than sorry, Especially for the price that was first offered.

My Dad has recently purchased a handheld breathalyser out of Costco and serves him well but it was £60.

 

[camcam]

I totally agree, I actually very rarely drink.
But for the next day or something I would like to be able to check better to be safe than sorry, Especially for the price that was first offered.

My Dad has recently purchased a handheld breathalyser out of Costco and serves him well but it was £60.

I understand that bit, but the next problem is the accuracy.

again, imo leave it 24 hours before you dive in a vehicle. I've lost several people to drink driving so my opinion may be stronger than others.

 

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[CommonCents]

the accuracy is critical for me before i'd consider buying one, even for novelty.

 

[exclusives88]

How is this going? I used one last week. My friend had one that was very modern looking, made out of metal or glass (I forget) and was small.

 

[Mineralogic]

This is genius. Not sure if anyone has done this but you can create a site that sells breathalyzers with each university logo. You may have to get some sort of licensing agreement, etc but start researching. This can be gold for the college scene.

wouldnt univeristies or anyone putting their LOGO on these be saying they approve of drinking? don't know about this

 

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[Deleted28123]

my website is now up, and we can ship to you, anywhere in the U.S
http://a2breathalyzer.com/

 

[Legitimate]

Sell for $19.95ea

Edit: Website is really bad.

Remove everything and only have the single item on front page since that is all you are selling.

Visitors will load page and see item right away and instinctively buy.

Edit 2: Make the entire page the box with quantity + "add to bag" etc. and at top put: "use promo code: 25OFF for 25% off your entire order"

Increase the price to $19.95 (mentioned above) and when they use code you still make $5 more per unit then now and your customers feel even better (they feel better spending $14.96 and "saving" 25% than paying $9.99 at 100% (of course they don't know about $9.99)).

 

[Deleted28123]

removed the slideshow.
may look into a web coder

 

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[Legitimate]

IMO i don't like it. If you're going to drink, don't drive all together.

To me this product promotes it 'here take this, go have a drink and keep checking if you're 'ok' '

People react to alcohol differently, just because they may be under legal limit, doesn't mean they are going to be responsive and drive well.

Can you please elaborate.

I'm not saying you're wrong, just want to know why you feel this way.

Can't speak for OP and his/their motives, and personally I find this to be something MADD endorses (don't know for certain) - imagine a MADD conference, something like this is seemingly at the top of their giveaway list (not this one in specific, just saying keychain/handheld/pocket breathalyzers in general).

 

[camcam]

Can you please elaborate.

I'm not saying you're wrong, just want to know why you feel this way.

Can't speak for OP and his/their motives, and personally I find this to be something MADD endorses (don't know for certain) - imagine a MADD conference, something like this is seemingly at the top of their giveaway list (not this one in specific, just saying keychain/handheld/pocket breathalyzers in general).

Not sure what else you expect me to say seen a I've already given my opinion and reason on it.


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