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You can find a company that will sell to
you at a real wholesale price and if. You have space to warehouse the
quantity of products you will need to buy to qualify for a wholesale
price and if You have the time
and inclination to pack and ship all those products yourself.
Why do I say this? It's because, in my
experience, the alternatives just don't work well.
Flea markets and garage sales
Some experts suggest that you work
garage sales and flea markets to find items to sell. There are two
problems with this. First, you have to know what specific items will
sell for on eBay in order to know what to pay for them. This means you
have to do a lot of research so when you see that nice, blue glass plate
for $3.00, you know it will sell for at least $15 and not $3.50.
Second, if you depend on flea markets
and garage sales for your auction items, you will never have a
dependable supply of product. In other words, you might find a lot of
good stuff one month and clear, say, $200. But the next month you just
can't find as many items and your profit drops to $50. This means you've
averaged just $125 for the two months. And how much driving and walking
around did you have to do to earn that $125?
Drop shipping
A second alternative is a strategy
called drop shipping. The way this works is you create a relationship
with a wholesaler, put its products on eBay, sell the products, and pay
the wholesaler who then packs and ships the products for you.
Here's the catch. Your profit is the
difference between what you have to pay the wholesaler and what you can
sell the products for on eBay. And there's the problem. Since you know
what you will have to pay for a product, say $25 for a nice lambs wool
sweater, you have to either start the auction at around $25 to avoid
losing money, or do a “buy it now” for maybe $40 to get a $15 profit.
Oh, wait a minute. You have to pay the
drop shipper to pack and ship the product – say $5 -- so your profit
drops to $10. Plus, you check eBay and find that similar sweaters are
selling for around $25. So, what are the chances you'll be able to sell
yours for $40 or even $30?
This leaves the two alternatives where
I believe you can build a business on eBay, again assuming you find a
good niche. The first is to make the products yourself. The second is to
find a company that will sell to you at a true wholesale price ...
assuming you have the space and inclination to warehouse and ship
everything yourself.
If so go for it. I wish you success.
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