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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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