As your business grows, you may choose to start buying from wholesale sources and selling on eBay at retail. This can be very profitable, but only if you choose the wholesale wisely.
The Internet is full of opportunities to buy lists of wholesalers, often for just a few dollars. Save your money. You can get the same quality of information (or maybe even slightly better) for free by using any of popular search engines andplugging in keywords such as “wholesales,” “manufacturer”, or “drop ship.” But even that is not the best route to take.
Instead, be more specific in your approach. Think about the type of products you want to sell, and then look for manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors you can work with. Find companies whose products meet your quality expectations, that have prices and terms you can work with, and that deliver the service level you want to provide your customers. Get sample products so you can see the quality yourself. Some companies send free samples, while others charge a nominal fee-either way, don’t try to sell something you’ve never seen. Be sure it is truly worth what you expect to sell it for.
Be sure you’re dealing with a true manufacturer, wholesaler or distributor, and not another middleman who is markingup his prices and increasingyour costs. Ask for and check references. You want to talk with others who are buying from these sources. In addition, check with the Better Business Bureau, any industry associations, the consumer protection agancy of the state in which the supplier is located, and any other source that may be able to verify their claims.
You will find, that when you do find online wholesalers, that they will tend to have very specialized sets of stock. This is generally good, and going in your favour-try to find wholesalers who specialize in your niche. For instance, on AV Wholesale (www.avwholesale.com.au) they have ONE brand of Digital Set Top Box (and PVR) available, and while it isn’t a specifically name brand, it is a well respected PVR. There’s a lot of support for it on the internet, plus lots of positive reviews. Now, I won’t go into their wholesaling prices-but if you scan for the “Legend Digital standart definition Digital Set Top Box with twin Tuner & 160GB Personal Video Recorder” on eBay, you will find a few scattered instances of it, but it is on the whole pretty rare. So there is one niche to be filled right there-cheap, non-name brand Personal Video Recorder. It’s that easy-you pick a vague niche, and then compare those wholesalers’ products with their availability on eBay. You will often easily find a niche that is rare, even completely unfilled which you can then exploit wit great deal.
Finding Wholesalers is something that is entirely up to you-if I gave you a list of wholesalers it would be somewhat redundant. Look throughyour local yellow pages and find wholesalers there. Also try searching via googles with ‘use pages from (your home country)’ tagged.If you’re feeling really lost, start with www.dealsdirect.com.au and work your way along from other. What you really want, however, is to find wholesale directory. These are actualy harder to find than the dropship directories available. Ironically enough, the easiest to find is on eBay.
Wholesaling, while being a highly profitable way of making an existence if used correctly, can also spell disaster if you haven’t chosen your avenue of product carefully. This is mainly due to the fact that you spend a large chunk of money buying many of the same item to get the wholesale price, and then you find yourself out of pocket when the item doesnot sell correctly. This can mean that if you are not careful, you could have lots of products and no money. And on topof this, even if you do find you can sell the items, where are you going to store them all? If you feel like you are willing to take the challenge and make the extra money that selling the wholesale items through eBay can give, go forth, and make your fortune! And if not, (or if you fall into the category I was just talking about-that is, you lack stirage space) you should consider drop-shipping.
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