Wholesale & eBay Forum » Selling Products Online » eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
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by: petter268
New SaleHoo Member
8 posts
eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 17 Feb 09 10:58 am.
I have been searching for some days now. And when I find any item I maybe want to sell, I see ebay powersellers are selling them cheaper. I don't know how they get the item so cheap! Please help. -
by: richellemonfort
SaleHoo Staff
3746 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 19 Feb 09 2:54 am.
Hi Petter,
That's the case because ebay powersellers buy their items in bulk and as a result they can sell their items for very competitive prices. They order huge quantities at a time - ie. they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single bulk order and that considerably reduces the price per unit.
By the way what are you interested in selling? We'd love to help you out.
A product with a high profit margin usually means finding a niche market.
One of the best ways of doing this is just by selling some stuff from around the house that you no longer need any more. In the process, you will often stumble across items that sell really well that you would never have otherwise picked!
Hope this helps - Good luck :)Richelle
Customer Support
SaleHoo Group Limited
Sell more with your own professionally designed and search optimized e-commerce website. Check out SaleHoo Stores now! -
by: planes
Forum Moderator
843 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 19 Feb 09 3:27 am.
Additionally, many are major retail distributors selling under cloak. -
by: petter268
New SaleHoo Member
8 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 19 Feb 09 12:16 pm.
Okei. But is ebay a good place to sell my stuff I have home?
And can you say some items that sells good. I have research for MANY hours now, but can't find any.
Or, I have found out Ipods, etc. But this is electronics and the buyers want Warranty I guess. -
by: wholesalelist101
SaleHoo Master Member
505 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 19 Feb 09 12:41 pm.
Since eBay has allowed huge retailers like Buy.com to start selling it is tougher than ever for a single individual to compete with that kind of pricing power.link hidden WHOLESALE LIST
link hidden DISCOUNT ELECTRONICS -
by: petter268
New SaleHoo Member
8 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 19 Feb 09 12:57 pm.
But how can I start selling then? If I can't sell. -
by: wholesalelist101
SaleHoo Master Member
505 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 19 Feb 09 2:49 pm.
If your new to eBay I would suggest maybe start off by selling some items from around the house. Shop yard sales and thrift stores for good buys to turn around and resell for a profit. You can also go to these auctions at storage facilities where people don't pay on their unit and they auction off the contents to the highest bidder. By doing this you will get a feel for what sells and what doesn't and then maybe you will want to pursue finding a wholesaler for the products that you have had success with.link hidden WHOLESALE LIST
link hidden DISCOUNT ELECTRONICS -
by: planes
Forum Moderator
843 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 19 Feb 09 5:58 pm.
But how can I start selling then? If I can't sell.
You can sell, you just can't sell stuff like Ipods and other electronics. -
by: bayericlowe
SaleHoo Master Member
485 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 19 Feb 09 11:14 pm.
Depends on what it is you sell.
With eBay you have to start with alot of niche items since most retail channels sell all over eBay at wholesale. I would guess they have been doing it since 1999.
Still a good option, if you know how to use that option. You must make your advertisement really stand out and do so carefully.
What I did is created my eBay feed usually took a few hours to do, then I just fed it through my store itself and at my store I made all the sales because all the traffic would go through my store, **THEN** it would go to ebay listings (or craigslist, too)
When that was going full steam it worked instantly. Usually thousands upon thousands of people went through there. Occasionally I still do so but more or less, I do the majority of merchandise through Amazon as well as iOffer and other direct sales channels.
But that is a choice, as again I didn't see much coming from auctions anymore and auctions seem to be an unfriendly environment. You can't sell ANY designer products at auction, really just try it and it turns into a fiasco.
Direct sales yes, the argument could be made that you can VERY easily sell any products which are designer in direct sales. But only APPROVED products, apparently. If it has a logo on it or anything of someone's designer brand, they'll still try to come and take it all down much like ebay does.
It's just alot more ruthless and unapproachable at ebay, because there even design inspired merchandise isn't allowed. At all. Even though this is all technically fine if it doesn't use someone's copyrighted trademark, they don't give anyone that option.
On the other hand, at places like I OFFER and craigslist they fully give you that option and understand all your rights as a store. Or ultimately your rights as a buyer, because whether we like that or not alot of people buy designer inspired goods which might be based off somebody's brand. And it's a giant thriving community.
So selling into that, or just in general selling anything except for computer software(due to copyright cases) is just alot easier at other places then eBay. And probably my first choice would be Godaddy. 1) They have integrity in what they do. 2) They're lenient enough to not infringe on anything you do, so long as its not anything that actually makes legal trouble for them
So that pretty much means you can do whatever you wish & you have the opportunity to sell anything anytime.
Did I mention any payment method is accepted? These are what *ACTUAL* ecommerse is really about, the freedom of choice -
by: bayericlowe
SaleHoo Master Member
485 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 20 Feb 09 2:30 am.
Wholesale Joe works for himself, not for anyone else.
I have sold through many different venues. Auction venues like eBay, Bidville, & ubid and also other direct selling venues.
From Amazon, to Clickbank, to I Offer, and Big Ticket Depot and obviously Craigslist.
Working for eBay is not something *anyone* here actually does, I can assure you. The fact of the matter is alot of whole sale joe's merchandise is junk you wouldn't get caught dead with normally.
But it sells great at flea markets. Another place I've sold alot, the classifieds. So everything has a certain place, and a certain strength to it. Everything fits a certain category but in no way does eBay or even ubid dominate that area. In fact they are all opposites of each-other normally good at only 1 thing.
Buying wholesale joe's stuff its alot easier to sell it through craigslist in the end. That's the venue for this, its just cheap but well made cheap junk. eBay doesn't do good with that, craigslist & classified ads do though and I don't know why. -
by: jimmy_huber
SaleHoo Master Member
2868 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 20 Feb 09 2:32 am.
Actually wholesalelist101 is a good site they actually try every site they post. They have even ordered from me. Anyways In conjuncture to what was said before. Its not really people spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for bulk orders.
Ebay has several kinds of sellers.
1. Actual company selling their own in stock products.
2. Bulk sellers that buy their items through liquidations.
3. Drop shippers that never store products.
4. Average home seller
Now out of all these kinds of sellers the most profitable sellers of course buy their items in bulk. I buy items buy the truckload so I can afford to sell items for less because I only pay a percentage of the items retail cost. Very low as much as 10% of its original retail value. I can sell that item for 50% less then retail price and still make a killing on the item.
Now you can get items that are brand new and you choose the item. But the discount varies. If your a big company that can push $120K orders sure. But in reality those people are only getting these items about 10%-15% below retail.
Is this worth it? In my opinion absolutely not. Poor profit margins
Now then you have liquidators. We buy items so far below the retail value that it blows the socks off our competition. Imagine buying a pallet for $600 and making another $600 to $1,000 on it in a week or two. Imagine getting 24 pallets and flipping them in a few months. Thats big money for anyone and your competition is slim because your selling many different things. Your not selling an ipod that has 40,000 similar auctions to compete against.
There are several forms of liquidations:
You have new product inventories.
These are a bit more expensive but they are still avaliable.
You have Store Stock Inventories
These are new items the store stocked but could not sell so they cleared them out. Much better pricing and affordable to even smaller sellers
Then you have customer return liquidations These are mostly open box, Store display and even some damaged products. They are considerably cheaper and generally 80% of the items are perfect for ebay. My personal favorite category. They do require more work then the other 2 noted above but for cost versus selling value there is no comparison. This is the most profitable thing in my mind to sell on ebay.
The choice is yours on how you want to sell online. You can check liquidators and even my site on pallets and even truckloads you may be interested in. My site also has a guide that can teach you about liquidations in more detail.
Its free and I wont charge you anything to read the guide.Wholesale Directory by SaleHoo
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by: bayericlowe
SaleHoo Master Member
485 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 20 Feb 09 2:43 am.
Yep when you buy in bulk liquidations that's really the best venue for eBay auctions and Bonanzle auctions & it works really, very well.
Only thing with liquidations that you have to really watch out for is damaged products. When you get them in nice size pallets then you can dig in and just fire off on automatic, but if some of them are damaged you got to be responsible to that of course etc.
And in dropshipping or wholesale to retail selling, that is much more rare. And you have control of the inventory I would say. However it just doesn't work in auctions for some reason. On the other hand it works for all ecommerce sites and if you have big ticket items I just vouch for Big Ticket Depot.
In the end high value items require systematic care relative to the offer and BTD is very good about taking care of all that and letting you own your own merchant account. Affiliate sales are nice yeah but its not as good as having your own place to sell all the high dollar items & let them take care of it. Monthly fees come with most ecommerce sites so that's the trade off. -
by: petter268
New SaleHoo Member
8 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 20 Feb 09 10:39 am.
jimmy_salehoo,
I have seen your Ebay store. And do you sell all your stuff? Or is it sometimes you can't sell it? -
by: jimmy_huber
SaleHoo Master Member
2868 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 20 Feb 09 9:19 pm.
Yes most all of my items sell. I do allot of Buy it now auctions and sometimes it takes a few weeks to sell them but they do sell. But at my price. I only run auctions on items I know will generate bids and get more people to my store.
Right now im averaging about 55 Auctions a week with about 40 sales mostly at my prices. There will be items you cant sell, It is the nature of supply and demand and who has the right price. But if you put it at the right price it will eventually sell. I try to get the highest value I can out of each item. If I dont think it will sell well at auction I will make it a buy it now.
For instance. I had some suitcases up a few weeks ago. I had them at a $1.00 starting bid. Note that these units were all in ranges of $250-$399 a UNIT. Mostly designers.
1 Set sold for $35.00
1 Set sold for $19.00
1 Unit sold for $5.65 Very bad on a $350 item.
Now these were test auctions to test the market for them.
I have since listed another 8 sets on ebay all of them with a minimum $59 Price
Up to a $79 Buy it now. In 2 weeks
1 unit sold for $69.99
1 Set sold for $59.99
1 unit sold for $79.99
1 unit sold for $96.00
1 set sold for $59.00
1 Set sold for $49.99
And all remaining sets have as much as 6 watchers.
After knowing how well they sold my next order will have 3 pallets of luggage because I know I can sell them well. Just imagine if I had 100 Sets up per week.
Out of that pallet there were 35 sets. This was also the cheapest pallet avaliable as I was testing to see if I wanted to sell luggage.So far I have made $474 on that pallet. I paid $280 for it.
I have 11 more sets I can list the rest were damaged beyond my ability to repair. But I will still find a way to sell them. Most likely in a bulk lot or as a damaged item sale so someone that can fix it can fix it.
So yes you can sell anything and everything. You just need to be creative and find a way.Wholesale Directory by SaleHoo
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by: voodootwothree
SaleHoo Senior Member
80 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 21 Feb 09 3:29 am.
some things ive found for people selling really cheap is that some are essentially buying sales. by this i mean that they are keeping or trying to get their powerseller status or simply increasing their feedback statistics. a good example is the 1 cent CD or baseball card with free shipping. now you know that there is absolutely no way to make money on that! same thing applies with higher end products, they just obviously have more money to do it with. another way to make your end of the money is the shipping and handling. make something worth your while to 'handle'. too keep you encouraged, finding something you WANT to sell can be TOUGH. i got in this looking for paintball equipment and still havent found any, BUT, i found 5 other things so far in a week i know will turn a profit... but other than the profit, i have zero interest in them. one more thing.... there is no such thing as the quick buck but there are a lot of fast ones running around out there. be patient, nothings gonna sell for a thousand dollar profit but a thousand of them may make you a dollar each!! im having an absolute BLAST in the chinese markets. ill let you know how it all turns out, ive got about 2 weeks before i start turning any profit and really weigh in on the whole salehoo thing. and like another guy posted, its not all about ebay... craigslist is still pretty good. -
by: hako1
New SaleHoo Member
1 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 22 Feb 09 12:28 am.
Hi Jimmy - my first post in one of your forums!
Just looking at the pallets available and am wondering about ones that have electrical goods - which country are they made for? If I ended up with say some coffee machines that were made for the US market (so US plug, and can only work on 110V etc) I'd probably lose out since selling larger items to the US from Australia is just not economical. I'd usually only sell items like this to my own country - Australia.
Just after your thoughts before I commit to anything :)
Bryan -
by: fudjj
SaleHoo Staff
2969 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 22 Feb 09 1:56 am.
Hi Jimmy - my first post in one of your forums!
You're better off posting your inquiry in jimmy's feedback thread Bryan, more chance of him seeing it there.
Just looking at the pallets available and am wondering about ones that have electrical goods - which country are they made for? If I ended up with say some coffee machines that were made for the US market (so US plug, and can only work on 110V etc) I'd probably lose out since selling larger items to the US from Australia is just not economical. I'd usually only sell items like this to my own country - Australia.
Just after your thoughts before I commit to anything :)
Bryan
I can answer your question regarding the electrical items on jimmy's pallets, they are US voltage and no good to sell in Oz.
Of course the point is actually mute, as jimmy doesn't actually ship these pallets to Oz.
CheersMarc Ransom
Community Manager
SaleHoo.com
About the Community Manager -
by: wholesalelist101
SaleHoo Master Member
505 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 22 Feb 09 2:26 am.
there is much of this that sounds great,but how many of you are working for ebay? (link hidden) wow! only another
I can assure you that I am not working for eBay! It's people like you that think people like me and Salehoo are always out to screw you over and take your money. We are here simply trying to provide a service to help people not hurt them. We don't show you how to make money! We simply provide you with the tools to do so.
$19.99 and we'll also show you how to make money$$$$$$$$$
yeah ,good luck..link hidden WHOLESALE LIST
link hidden DISCOUNT ELECTRONICS -
by: wychewes
SaleHoo Senior Member
117 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 22 Feb 09 5:08 am.
'I have been searching for some days now. And when I find any item I maybe want to sell, I see ebay powersellers are selling them cheaper. I don't know how they get the item so cheap! Please help'.
Easy don't follow the herd be different sell stuff the others don't for what ever reasons ie low margins who cares . Don't forget most powersellers have been doing it for years so they can afford to big at Liquidatios etc as they have the cash behind them. -
by: jimmy_huber
SaleHoo Master Member
2868 posts
Re: eBay Powersellers - How can they sell goods so cheap?!
Posted 25 Feb 09 3:50 am.
That is one reason why liquidated items are much better to sell. You never know what you will get and you will always have something different to sell each pallet. The only research I do it to find the lowest price and beat that price. I don't even pay attention to who is selling what and for how much because I WILL beat that price. I may even price higher and let my highly detailed auctions beat that seller out of a sale.Wholesale Directory by SaleHoo
