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Low Money, What To Do
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by: awptic
New SaleHoo Member
8 posts
Low Money, What To Do
Posted 8 May 09 8:55 pm.
Hi, first of all I would like to say that I'm sorry about this thread because I'm sure that there's one that's just like it, but I haven't had any luck finding it. Onto what I need to say / ask...
I have been reading a lot of the threads about making a profit, but it seems like everything leads me to buying items in bulks; and pretty much all of the bulks that I have found are either over the amount of money I have to spend, or they are for things that won't sell. I have about $500 to spend towards this new way of making money and honestly I would like to spend less than that, or at least for the first time buying and selling. All of the wholesale items I have looked at are over the price that people on ebay are buying them for, obviously. So, my question to you (the very nice and helpful volunteers out there) is how am I supposed to make a profit with the amount of money I have, so that I can make more money to start buying in bulks of items that sell? Also, if you would, could you please provide me with any suppliers and / or products that I can buy / sell that goes along with your answer.
Thanks and I Greatly Appreciate It! -
by: fudjj
SaleHoo Staff
2969 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 8 May 09 9:26 pm.
I would suggest that you have several options to chase, but with a start up budget of $500, wholesale is not one of them.
1. Drop Shipping
Those that know me know that I am not a big fan of this method myself, but if you can find a legit supplier selling products with some margin in them, and that are not already saturated on ebay, then it is a low cash flow business model.
2. Second Hand
Never overlook the second hand, places like yard sales, thrift shops, auction houses, weekend markets and so on. If you are a smart shopper and not afraid to talk a hard deal with the seller, then you can find plenty in this market to sell on ebay, and if you buy right second hand can provide you the BIG margin on your investment.
3. Liquidation (surplus)
If you are in the US, you should also take a close look at liquidations. That is a source that can provide bulk products at well below wholesale prices.
Ask plenty of questions if you choose this method, because there are a truckload of pitfalls for inexperienced dealers in this area.
Those are the three options that I think would serve you best. Are you guaranteed to make money from these sources?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!
I would hate to even try and think just how many people get so desperate that they take their last few hundred dollars and flush it in this type of situation.
IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE IT, DON'T INVEST IT!!!
You are talking about retail business here, and you are entering the market at a time when businesses are closing the doors all over the world due to the worldwide economic down-turn.
What is the best product to sell?
The simple answer is just about anything will sell if it is sold at the right price in the right market!
OK, so it's a non-descriptive answer, but it's the truth. I could tell you that iPhones sell well, and they do, but is that a market you will be able to compete in with $500.................
You've picked a business that is built on research, and that is a question you alone will need to answer through that research.Marc Ransom
Community Manager
SaleHoo.com
About the Community Manager -
by: planes
Forum Moderator
843 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 9 May 09 3:30 am.
Fudjj pretty much nailed it with his post.
The only other advice I could add would be to use Terapeak auction research services.
For 15$ per month and a free trial you can research any eBay auction on the planet. You can also research any eBay seller on the planet. The fees go up when searching outside the US but US eBay would be fine for now.
The best way to use it is to search for the items you want to sell. Once you get to Terapeaks research page you can see what sold and by whom. You can then bring up sellers of your choice and view every last detail of their sales. From sell through rate to the day of week the item sold.
Then go to their listing and see what they are doing to attract sales.
In my opinion, this is a must have tool for a new seller. -
by: awptic
New SaleHoo Member
8 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 9 May 09 8:36 pm.
Ok, I've been looking at auctions going on at liquidation.com But I'm kinda confused what would be good to sell. Would something like a huge bulk of ipod covers be good to sell on eBay? -
by: raiderjake
SaleHoo Master Member
248 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 9 May 09 9:32 pm.
im a bit of a newb here myself, but if i was contemplating buying ipod covers and selling them on ebay, i would do a completed listing search on ebay. there you can see what they sell for, and how many sell or dont sell -
by: awptic
New SaleHoo Member
8 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 10 May 09 12:14 am.
Right, but they come in a bulk of 300+ usually. So, if I were to sell them then I'd probably keep them in that bulk. So, I'm wondering if people would buy a bulk of that size on eBay usually. -
by: fudjj
SaleHoo Staff
2969 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 10 May 09 12:30 am.
There are bulk buyers everywhere, and ebay is no exception, however I would suggest that if you are considering selling in bulk then you take a look at buying these types of items direct from a liquidator instead of buying from liquidation.com.
What most people do is buy in volume from liquidators, then break those loads down into smaller lots to sell on sites such as ebay or liquidation.com.
It's quite popular because there are lots out there that can't afford to buy in bulk to get the volume discount, so they hit sites like ebay and liquidation.com to try and pick-up smaller lots.
Great for the sellers, all they have done is bought in bulk, broken a few loads down and then make their margin on the smaller lots. It gives them lower margin in most cases thank selling the items individually, however if the products are popular then it creates high turnover, low labour output, and all that adds up to more profit in the long run.
We sell liquidated stock and have two customers that I know of that buy in volume from us then turn around, break the load down into smaller lots, auction it off at liquidation.com and do well, at least I assume they are doing well because they have become very regular buyers with us.
Sourcing your products from liquidation.com, then breaking them down to resell is probably going to make the items a bit too expensive for smaller retailers to make margin on, unless of course you get a killer auction deal.....not easy to do on there these days.
As I said, if you can afford to buy in bulk, then I would be looking at a liquidation supplier direct to create as much margin as you can get.Marc Ransom
Community Manager
SaleHoo.com
About the Community Manager -
by: awptic
New SaleHoo Member
8 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 10 May 09 12:47 am.
Oh ok fudjj. Also, when you refer to 'buying from us' who's us? -
by: fudjj
SaleHoo Staff
2969 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 10 May 09 1:29 am.
Sorry, I was referring to us as in liquidityinc, it's my liquidation resourcing agency.
We sell liquidated stock of our own, as well as source stock through our affiliations with other suppliers where required by clients.
We are actually a Registered Seller here on Salehoo, however my ID doesn't reflect the blue seller stars, it reflects the red stars of a forum moderator.
Feel free to visit our booth an Bonazle to take a look at our current loads, and you can PM me with any inquiries if you like.
link hidden
I can tell you that we don't currently have the type of stock you have mentioned here in your post, but I am happy to chase up some contacts if you like.
CheersMarc Ransom
Community Manager
SaleHoo.com
About the Community Manager -
by: sillcool1
SaleHoo Junior Member
15 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 12 May 09 3:30 pm.
Hey Fudgi have checked out your booth on bonanzle. Looks good. I will be contacting you to do some business. as some of the items you have are what I'm looking for. Thanks and talk soon/ -
by: fudjj
SaleHoo Staff
2969 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 12 May 09 10:30 pm.
No probs.......Marc Ransom
Community Manager
SaleHoo.com
About the Community Manager -
by: awptic
New SaleHoo Member
8 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 14 May 09 6:36 pm.
I'm always afraid to buy pallets that are customer returns, salvage, anything not new because of the chance that things will be missing, not working, etc. Also, those pallets that have a random number of certain types of products. Like it may say that the pallet comes with cds, vcrs, dvds players, etc. but it may have 8 cds, 1 vcr, and 1 dvd player so I'm a little bit scared to buy those kind of things. What's the best thing I can do right now, so I know that everything will turn out fine and that I will 100% make a profit, because I just really can't lose any money right now. -
by: fudjj
SaleHoo Staff
2969 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 14 May 09 9:35 pm.
Best advice anyone could give you is the oldest, if you can't afford to lose it, don't invest it!
No one is going to be able to give you a guaranteed profit, even if you got the best possible deal on your purchase, your have external market forces to compete against
If you or anyone else wants a guaranteed pay cheque at the end of the week, you're going to have to get a job....not go into business!
Having said that, it looks like you are looking towards liquidated stock, and in so your point about buying customer returns is quite relevant.
Customer return means just that, a customer has returned the product. Now customer's return products everyday for a variety of reasons, not all of them mean that the product is bad.
For example:- A customer may return a piece of clothing because it is the wrong size, changed their mind about the colour or it was an unwanted gift and so on, so what you will usually see in a customer return clothing lot is a high percentage of good products.
If you are talking about electronics, the number one reason a customer will return an electrical product is that it does not perform as indicated or expected. Leading to a customer return lot having a higher percentage of damaged products.
That in it's self is not a guarantee, but quite the norm.
People buy and make good money on customer return electrical pallets all the time, however you have to be switched on to get the most out of a lot like this, and I would personally never suggest that an inexperienced buyer deal in such a lot!
Liquidations covers quite a lot of genres, including New Overstocks, products that never made it out the door and still retail ready. always a good place to start for the inexperienced in my opinion.
Are you guaranteed to make profit by buying New Overstocks, of course not, but can be sure of the products you are buying, always allowing yourself about a 5% damage rate just for shipping incidents.
Lot's of inexperienced buyers always ask for a manifest, but a manifested load won't guarantee you of success, it may tell you to the piece what you will get, but it will not always tell you the condition of the items, and often lead inexperienced buyers straight into a false sense of security.
What really concerns me about liquidations is that so mane look at it as a short term venture for profit, and it should never be considered a short term venture.
You have to always remember the market you are dealing with when it comes to buying surplus, and look at it as a long term investment to reap maximum gain.
When dealing in this type of stock there will be low points with some purchases, and you will cash in on others, but you have to ride the train to the end of the line to average your results.
I know jimmy's sample packs created some expectation of the liquidation market being a super cheap and great way to get started, and I hate to pour cold water on that whole idea, but that could be further from the truth.....just my opinion of course.
If you are going to deal in this business you need to school yourself very well, and then have some cash to keep you in the game long term, that's how the successful surplus sellers do it.
Can it be done on a budget, some will be able to do it, no doubting that because grasp knowledge a lot better than others, just a fact. However, wasting your money by buying something for $50.00 from any liquidator on the planet will usually see you return $25.00 in profit or close to it if you are lucky.
You need to a bare minimum of a few hundred, I would suggest around $700, that will buy you a range of pallets and get it shipped. Carton lots will kick you off at around $200 - $300, but of course will only give you a limited range of stock to choose from.
These are bare minimums, if you can't afford that sort of money with some comfort, people should seriously look elsewhere for products, not the liquidation market.Marc Ransom
Community Manager
SaleHoo.com
About the Community Manager -
by: awptic
New SaleHoo Member
8 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 14 May 09 10:01 pm.
I can invest around $700 or so. But, I'm not really wanting to have a big pallet of items sitting at my house lol. Do some people do dropshipping liquidation? -
by: fudjj
SaleHoo Staff
2969 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 14 May 09 11:33 pm.
Some will drop ship, including ourselves, but we drop shop by the load, not by individual products.
You would need to chase down an actual drop shipper for that kind of service, not a liquidator.Marc Ransom
Community Manager
SaleHoo.com
About the Community Manager -
by: Zaltark
New SaleHoo Member
9 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 14 May 09 11:58 pm.
Im gonna make it my goal to see what the possibilities are with dropshipping. It follows the mantra fudjj said:Best advice anyone could give you is the oldest, if you can't afford to lose it, don't invest it!
Dropshipping has the lowest investment amount vs liquidation or wholesale. This is countered by the fact that it's slightly harder to make a profit with it, and since you don't directly own the product, some things are beyond your control, but still.
Granted I probably won't be making money like the big timers, but when you're low on cargo space, and low on starting funds, I think dropshipping is plausible. I wouldn't say 'best' because it differs per person per item/market. Hopefully you find the answer you need. :) -
by: artpants
SaleHoo Senior Member
96 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 15 May 09 2:02 am.
dropshipping is about my only option right now, but it's too nerve wracking, bc they are unreliable, they dont always deliver on time, they might not have items in stock, and its difficult to make any worthy profit. what to do, what to do........... -
by: Georgia
New SaleHoo Member
2 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 17 May 09 10:33 am.
Hello to all ,
i am new here and i am confused ...as many others probably .My problem is that i am from an east european country, Romania ,that doesnt have access to ebay or amazon .... we do't have a good reputation there unfourtenly .
Anybody here from east Europe that can advice ???
Thanks a lot -
by: raiderjake
SaleHoo Master Member
248 posts
Re: Low Money, What To Do
Posted 17 May 09 1:53 pm.
im in the u.s. so i dont what its like there but, maybe you could look into some suppliers that would ship stuff to romania, stuff you couldn't normally get in romania, and try selling in flee markets or your own store, im still new at all this myself, im sure some people who know this business better will drop by sooner or later and give you some advice. it might help to give some info on some things you would like to sell and how you wanted to go about it
