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Importing and selling on ebay.

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

CSRelentless

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Hey guys, I figured I would make a progress thread about getting started with importing and selling on ebay. I feel like I am hopping on a band wagon but It's time I take action and this is my way of doing it just so I can get my feet wet. I have a problem with over analyzing and analysis paralysis. I have learned that if you stop and think instead of just doing at the beginning you will end up over analyzing. I don't have anyone to talk to or keep me accountable in my life right now so I figured this might help me stay on the right path even if no one reads it. And maybe I can help some people out even though there are plenty of threads on this topic.

So far this week I ordered my first product from dhgate. I did most of my research using terapeak and ebay completed listings. The numbers are there, and there is only one other seller in the US and he is selling about 10 per day right now. I could of got the product a little cheaper on alibaba, but dhgate kinda simplifies things I feel like as far as having the shipping included and all and I just wanted to dive in. I ordered 10 units just to test the waters out. I used dhl for shipping and they should be getting here by Thursday. I am already looking at a couple other products and the numbers are looking good so I should have some more orders before my first product arrives.

I am sorry for making another importing thread but I feel like this will help me out and maybe some other folks. Anyways I will be keeping this thread up to date as I receive my first shipment and any steps or thoughts I have as they arise. Thanks for your time.
 
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PTP

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Good luck. I wish you the best!
 

DWX

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I, too, can suffer from over-analysis at times - it's crippling. The rush you get from taking action is far better.

Make that your drug. Best of luck, man!
 

CSRelentless

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I, too, can suffer from over-analysis at times - it's crippling. The rush you get from taking action is far better.

Make that your drug. Best of luck, man!
Thanks man!
 

Walter Hay

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@CSRelentless,You might like to have a look at my post on the subject of B2B scams: Sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist.

I also posted again in answer to a specific question sent to me by someone who had been scammed by a seller on DHGate. Sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist.
DHGate have a huge number of complaints against them.

Walter
 
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CSRelentless

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@CSRelentless,You might like to have a look at my post on the subject of B2B scams: Sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist.

I also posted again in answer to a specific question sent to me by someone who had been scammed by a seller on DHGate. Sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist.
DHGate have a huge number of complaints against them.

Walter
Well I just received my first shipment from dhgate and I've got to say I'm disappointed. The product I ordered is made of Quartz and everyone of the pieces have inconsistencies, different sizes, rough edges, couple of them just look deformed. I'm kind of lost, because the seller feedback rating and number of transactions looked good and all that. So now I don't really know what to look for, I guess I can't trust the feedback and seller rating on dhgate? I have I few more products I want to order but I'm kind of lost now.
 

Walter Hay

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Well I just received my first shipment from dhgate and I've got to say I'm disappointed. The product I ordered is made of Quartz and everyone of the pieces have inconsistencies, different sizes, rough edges, couple of them just look deformed. I'm kind of lost, because the seller feedback rating and number of transactions looked good and all that. So now I don't really know what to look for, I guess I can't trust the feedback and seller rating on dhgate? I have I few more products I want to order but I'm kind of lost now.
Feedback reports on B2B sites are rarely reliable. There is a thriving trade in the sale of feedback. Some of the sites won't publish negative feed back, and others have a default feedback system, so that the seller gets a positive feedback if the customer doesn't post any feedback.

Alibaba has come under fire from China's consumer protection watchdog because of (among many other things) their feedbacks are unreliable.

Don't give up. It is possible to make a great business out of direct importing. Many people, including some of the regulars on this forum have done it.

Walter
 
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4x4ord

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Well I just received my first shipment from dhgate and I've got to say I'm disappointed. The product I ordered is made of Quartz and everyone of the pieces have inconsistencies, different sizes, rough edges, couple of them just look deformed. I'm kind of lost, because the seller feedback rating and number of transactions looked good and all that. So now I don't really know what to look for, I guess I can't trust the feedback and seller rating on dhgate? I have I few more products I want to order but I'm kind of lost now.

Whatever you do, don't give up. You've taken one baby step and learned from it. Use that knowledge to make another step forward. Trust me, keep taking steps and it will pay off.

I've had good luck using Alibaba, but being very conservative and using every means to back check to suppliers I start communications with. Read @Walter Hay 's thread. He gives great advice on how to have the best odds of landing a good supplier.

Remember, your first product doesn't have to be a homerun. If you can successfully import any product and not completely loose your a$$ by making dumb decisions, what you will learn will pay off immensely down the road.
 

CSRelentless

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Update: Friday June 3

Okay guys, out of the first order I made there was a couple that were good, less than half but I decided to go ahead and list them on ebay this morning just to see if I should order more from a different supplier. I just got a notification couple of hours ago saying I had made my first sell. Enough of the product is good to at least make my money back. It feels good to make my first sell, but now its back to the drawing board, because I have two more products I want to order but I need to do a little more research on bettering my chances with finding a good supplier. It feels good making a sell though, feels really good, I haven't been this excited in awhile, I am ready to take more action and keep the ball rolling.
 

CSRelentless

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Whatever you do, don't give up. You've taken one baby step and learned from it. Use that knowledge to make another step forward. Trust me, keep taking steps and it will pay off.

I've had good luck using Alibaba, but being very conservative and using every means to back check to suppliers I start communications with. Read @Walter Hay 's thread. He gives great advice on how to have the best odds of landing a good supplier.

Remember, your first product doesn't have to be a homerun. If you can successfully import any product and not completely loose your a$$ by making dumb decisions, what you will learn will pay off immensely down the road.

Thanks for the positive words. I am for sure going to do some more research and check out walters thread and see if I can learn a little bit more before I jump into ordering my next product.
 
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CSRelentless

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Update: Sunday June 5

So after my first order failed and and was poor quality with cosmetic defects, I have decided to sell the whole lot at a very discounted price to at least try to break even, even though it was not that much money but every dollar counts. I have another product I am in the process of finding a supplier. I am going to find at least 10 suppliers before I choose and do some research on each one to make sure I am buying straight from the manufacture and not a trader. It was a big let down failing on my first order but at least I learned something from it.I suffer with anxiety and depression and I know thats no excuse but some days are really hard for me, I feel like the weight of the world is on my back and I can't process thoughts clearly but I am doing my best and trying to stay positive. My anxiety is through the roof today and I am not wanting to do anything, but I am pushing through and trying to make some progress with the research.

On a positive note my best friend said if I would take pictures of his car(since I have a expensive camera) and take care of listing it, he will give me $200 if it sells.

Got me thinking about finding car listings on craigslist with crappy pictures and poor description and contacting them and saying something along the lines of coming to them and taking professional pictures and I will take care of listing the car across multiple platforms with a professional description and them paying me a small fee only if the car sells. I am going to send out some emails tonight and see if anyone would be interested, might as well try. I know this does not have anything to do with importing, just trying to unload some thoughts.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!
 

Carnage

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Glad to know you took action!
I have been doing something similar since September have been doing fairly well, with many failed products along the way.
You should read Walter's book and every page in the Ecom-man thread.
Don't worry about failed products, everyone has had them and you can take a small financial loss everytime because you only order a small quantity to start, but you learn a lot about why it failed.
Just keep hacking at it and don't give up.
 

CSRelentless

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Alright guys last time I posted on this thread was a month ago, I started doubting myself and making excuses, and the stress from working all day doing construction in the sun got to me and pretty much gave up. Well I had a complete mindset shift in the past couple of weeks, and I can see where I want to be and I am making progress everyday to get there, I put a pause on importing so I could get my funds up, so I started hustling and flipping. I have been going to yard sales, estate sells, buying off craigslist and facebook and reselling on ebay. Now I have some money to dive back in to the importing.
So far I have ordered samples for 4 different products, this time all from alibaba and researching the supplier, instead of going in blindly, thanks to e-comm man. In the meantime I am still flipping items and saving all my money to order more samples.

I have seen more progress in the last couple of weeks than I have in years. I used to be tired throughout the day no matter how much sleep I got but now now I wake up with 5 hours of sleep and I am excited to start the day and feel so energized and excited about researching products and flipping and every thing I have been buying I have been selling quick.

I wake up at 430am, do some research, then off to work at 6, then i get off at 2:30, then I go to the gym, after that I start grinding, and go to bed about 11, then repeat. I am so obsessed with making this work, I got rid of my tv and xbox so I want be tempted to waste time, I have stopped reading forums and anything for that matter because I have consumed enough and it is time to take action.I have cut off ties with people who drag me down and I also dont go out on the weekends anymore, only to yard sells and estate sales,so I can save as much money as possible and since I have the weekend off thats the best time for me to grind. If I run into a problem then I will research it but other than that I have one focus right now and thats getting this damn importing business off the ground and moving out of my parents house and no longer working this shitty construction job.

I know it was real shitty of me to post a progress thread then drop off, I just didnt have my mind aligned to what I really wanted and I was an example of action faking at its finest.

I will try to update every now and then when big events happen that I think is important or something that can help someone who is on the same path. But right now Its time to stop running my mouth and actually do something and I want to be able to report back with progress. So no more talking about it time to get shit done.
 

CSRelentless

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Well I woke up early this morning and hit some estate sales and garage sales, didn't find anything (sad face). But I sold some items that I had bought last week on facebook. Now I am going to spend the rest of my day researching for some more products and get some samples, I will be receiving some samples next week, feels like christmas! This whole thing of researching products, contacting suppliers, etc... is exciting to me, I can literally see profit everywhere.

My short term goal right now is to replace my income from my construction job which is only about $400 a week. And when I think about it, this is so obtainable. Lets say I have a product that is netting 80 dollars profit a week, that may not seem like much but what happens when you have 5 products making $80 a week, or 10, 20, 30, you can literally keep scaling, just find more products, make your own website, branding, etc... the possiblities are endless it's just a matter of how much time you want to put in and right now I am focused and squeezing every last second out of every day to make this work and once I can quit my job I can really focus on this venture, which I will f make work no matter what.

I hope everyone is having a great Saturday, grind on my friends.
 

CSRelentless

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Okay so I should be receiving samples for two of my 4 products by Friday.I will post an update once I inspect and get them listed. I am still researching products every night and running on no sleep the past couple of weeks, I am addicted to the whole process and the suppliers are waking up about the time we go to bed, so every time I do try to go to bed a little earlier I receive messages and I have to check them of course, I get to excited.
Most of the products I am going to sell are only going to profit me 5 to 10 dollars but its triple my investment, I am having trouble finding a product that will net me a 20 dollar profit or more, but at this pace I am guessing the whole process of researching and finding profitable products will get easier, I don't care if I have to spend my entire pay check every week and lose every last penny to order new samples until I find products that are a success, but from my research I will sell some I hope, I am still trying to figure out how to know if something will sell just by looking at the completed listings, but maybe its partial luck if you hit it big, I know you can tell a lot from proper research but even then it might be a hit or miss, but I am going to keep going at it no matter what.

I have a lot of stuff that is stacking up from buying and flipping and since I live with my parents and 3 nephews I am searching for a temporary office to rent, to store things and have somewhere I can go and have peace and be able to focus and get shit done, its hard to get my mind right with the kids causing mayhem and me cramped in my 10x10 room. I found some storage units that have turned some of the units into little offices, has wifi, bathroom and water, and it is pretty cheap.

I will have an update when my samples start arriving.

In the meantime time to find more products.
 
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CSRelentless

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7/29/16

So I have received my first sample shipment today and I have to say I am quite pleased with the quality. The packaging is nice and everything works as it should, there is nothing better than receiving good products from properly researching a manufacture than ordering blindly. This particular manufacture responding quick, keeping up with the shipping progress, and everything in between, so I am very pleased.

I purchased a cannon T5i not to long ago to record youtube videos and I am taking my own pictures of the product. I have noticed that most other sellers are using images from the internet and only using one picture, while I am charging a little more, I am also offering priority shipping free and providing quality pictures, so I am hoping it will pay off.

My other samples will not be here till monday or tuesday but I will keep an update on my first sample shipment which I ordered a quantity of 15 and let you know the progress of my sales rather it be all 15 in a day or 0 in a week. If it fails well guess what, I will spend every bit of my paycheck to order more samples until I find a product or products that make me a profit.

I WILL!

I REPEAT.....I WILL.... MAKE THIS WORK!

It is time to commit to something and this is it, it may not be the best choice, but honestly what the F*ck is? All I know is importing can be scaled and I can make six figures a month or more, just depends on hoq hard I am willing to work.

Hope everyone has a safe weekend and for everyone staying in on the weekend,,,,, grind on my friends.
 

CSRelentless

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Here is a little update.
Right now I am sitting in an office that I am renting out. I had to get away from all the noise since I live with my parents and there are 3 grand kids, and I just don't feel motivated cramped up in my room, I need a quiet place to get my mind right and put in work.

So the first product that I ordered a sample of 15 was listed 6 days ago, and so far I have only sold 3, I thought there was more demand but I guess I was wrong. My second product was listed just now. And another product was poorly manufactured and I cannot sell them so that is 100 bucks down the drain.

I am going to spend the rest of my saturday night sitting in this office till I find more products to order samples of and will make me more that 20 bucks profit. Right now the products I have only make me 8 to ten dollars profit.

I hope has a safe weekend and for the ones that are putting in work and staying in tonight, grind on my friends.
 

CSRelentless

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Update:
It is tuesday and I have a couple of days off, dad is really sick and since we work together I cant work. So I am spending my time researching new products, I would consider my first four products a fail, they are not selling like I thought, and it is flustrating.

I am only purchasing from alibaba right now but I noticed that you literally cannot buy anything on dhgate or aliexpress and make money, the prices are usually more than us sellers on ebay, and thats another thing so many people are undercutting prices on just about everything and I do not see how they are making money, even if they are moving volume.

I am having the hardest time finding a product that will profit me at least $20, does and does not have a thousand competitors and good sell through rate.
I dont know if I am overthinking this, or what, but product research is really grinding my gears.

But everyday I keep searching, looking for ideas and running numbers, I have to run up on something sooner or later.

Side note: I started making youtube videos in my spare time, which is not much but it is helping with stress and since I do not talk to many people it kinda helps talking to a camera , weird I know.

I hope everyone is having a great week, I am going to spend most of the night looking for products, maybe I am going about this all wrong I do not know but only time will tell.
 
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