SaleHoo Dropship & Wholesale Directory

[mabullas]

Hi,

I'm in Melbourne and on a shoe string budget (meaning that I'm trying to start a part time ebay selling business to supplement my carers' pension out of the money I receive as a pension - and yes, Centrelink says it's OK and has given me a nice bunch of bureaucratic forms to fill out so that it's all legit and above board.....)

I'm interested in selling ipods to begin with, basically because I've been tracking ipod sales on ebay and there just seems to be plenty of ipod demand to go around (always way more bidders than ipods and plenty of people searching for them), but I'm open to suggestions as long as we could establish it as a hot item.

I'm also interested in selling digital photo frames, which have only just arrived in Dick Smith in the past week at $299 retail. Maybe there is some scope here, and I think an Aussie ebayer could certainly ride on Dick Smith's advertising coat tails once he starts promoting them a bit more. But they're also pricey unless you are buying in bulk..... (although there is definitely a lot of price variance out there - some models are nicer/uglier than others, however). I've been thinking of ordering at least one sample item and if I like what I see, ordering another and trying to sell it, if successful, then buy 2, gradually increasing my stock levels and so on.

Anyway, I am potentially interested in opting into an Aussie buying cooperative if it is still going. My order would be pretty minimal to start with, as at the moment even a few hundred dollars is a stretch for me, but if I somehow manage to build up a bit of profit from each sale, then eventually I'll have money to buy bigger lots with more profit (at least that's my theory, anyway...)

[saledoc_au]

Any updates on this?

Please let me know!

[mabullas]

No updates yet. Still chasing the elusive ipod; however, I'm also looking into ipod voice recorders, and have been getting a couple of dozen Chinese companies replying about it - some good prices, but not genuine ipods or ipod voice recorders.

Will post when something happens.

[discount_digital_au]

Hi there,

I am from Adelaide. This idea sounds like it has potential. I am interested in electronics such as iPods, mobile phones, laptops, game consoles (I heard they can be difficult to import due to import rights breaches though).

I can put in a good amount of money.

Please let me know when something eventuates from all this...

** Link Removed: Only Available to Registered Members**

[mabullas]

I'm also in Melbourne and interested.

I don't have a lot of money yet - more than about 5 ipods at any one time, for instance, would send me broke at this stage (unless I could bring the cost per unit down below what is currently on offer). I'd be happy to stretch my credit card a little more than that if it was an electronics item that was a really hot item and I knew that it would sell its socks off and I wouldn't be left with 20 expensive items I couldn't sell.....

But basically I have to build up gradually (like most other newbie sellers here probably), and if we could get enough sellers together to corner the ebay market maybe all of us little guys in the same situation could do that.

Count me in, depending upon how many units I'd have to order (because my credit card has a limit, too!!!)

[jole13y]

Im in Perth Region and would like to deal with surf clothing Brands such as Billabong Quiksilver Rusty Ect.

If i could join with someone or anyone has any info.

Thanks

[traceym]

:D
Hi There everyone. I am in a small Central QLD Town called Springsure and I am interested in buying any clothing for less then what I do now. Let me know if anyone has any ideas
Tracey

[mabullas]

I've got another potential idea for group buying amongst cash strapped Aussie sellers - Harry Potter!!!

The new Harry Potter novel is completed and will be released soon - not sure when, but Dymock's is already taking pre-orders for it. Now when the last novel came out, The Warehouse took preorders and I took a chance on buying my copy from there because their stuff is usually cheap, and it really paid off. They were WAY cheaper than all the major bookstores, and they don't have anything like the buying power of Dymocks, Readings, Borders and the like. This got me thinking - why couldn't we do the same? We could settle on a minimum price, and we wouldn't be really selling against each other because new Harry Potter books are a bit like ipods - everyone wants one. We could do a large group buy from the publishers - maybe there wouldn't be quite the same markup as a Playstation, but it's the chance for volume selling would be there if we were offering it the moment it came out on release day.

What does everybody else think?

[jole13y]

i think you could be rigt on the harry potter idea, heaps of people should buy it, would they think to check on ebay,that is a good idea though, or anything else thats new to come out and is going to have a strong demand for i cant think of anything at the moment.

[mabullas]

Ooooh, I'm getting more daring!

In a flash of inspiration I visited Bloomsbury Publishing's site, got the details of their Australian representative and dashed off an email to their marketing department.

I don't know what I have to do to get approved as a trade buyer, but I flashed my ABN, which should get my leg in the door, and I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope that I don't have to give any more than one trade reference (because I've only made an official B2B transaction with one company that would be recognised so far). I've got to start somewhere!

If I get access to the catalogue, I will let you all know what the dealer price is for this book and what sort of quantities etc.

It also occurs to me that if people aren't necessarily looking on ebay for Harry Potter, they will most certainly look on Google for it, and I've noticed that for certain search terms, ebay auctions and stores seem to get to the top of the search list (and not just the paid sponsored bits at the top, either). That says to me that there must be some way of maximising the way the HTML is set up so that you get pretty much near the top of the list.

There must also be other low cost ways of advertising that you've got Harry Potter for sale. So maybe the challenge would be to get the ebay auction message somewhere where people will be looking for Harry Potter. A lot will be riding on the catalogue price. If the dealer price is enough lower than the huge retail price, then there would be a lot of parents who don't have that sort of cash around with kids pestering them for Harry Potter that would jump at the chance of a decent price reduction.

There's about 3 and a half months to sort out some way of getting the message out without running into costly overheads. Could work theoretically. In practice? - will try and see. If anyone is interested, I will post more info as it becomes available to me.

[Dotesie]

Hi there,

I am from Adelaide (this is my first post) and I am trying to find products to sell effectively on ebay as I have been searching high and low for products with a decent margin and that someone else isn't selling at $.99 (how do they make any profit????)

Anyway I would be in on some of these ideas - particularly like Harry Potter idea, but also kids designer clothes (Osh Kosh, Fred Bare etc) or Cosmetics stuff (Clarins, Clinique etc), but really am open to anything

Sounds like a great option

[cazzabangeramshank]

I'd help out too. I'm from Melbourne. Let me know any details and I'll see how I go?

just PM me with more info, that would be great.

[bayericlowe]

Ooooh, I'm getting more daring!

In a flash of inspiration I visited Bloomsbury Publishing's site, got the details of their Australian representative and dashed off an email to their marketing department.

I don't know what I have to do to get approved as a trade buyer, but I flashed my ABN, which should get my leg in the door, and I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope that I don't have to give any more than one trade reference (because I've only made an official B2B transaction with one company that would be recognised so far). I've got to start somewhere!

If I get access to the catalogue, I will let you all know what the dealer price is for this book and what sort of quantities etc.

It also occurs to me that if people aren't necessarily looking on ebay for Harry Potter, they will most certainly look on Google for it, and I've noticed that for certain search terms, ebay auctions and stores seem to get to the top of the search list (and not just the paid sponsored bits at the top, either). That says to me that there must be some way of maximising the way the HTML is set up so that you get pretty much near the top of the list.

There must also be other low cost ways of advertising that you've got Harry Potter for sale. So maybe the challenge would be to get the ebay auction message somewhere where people will be looking for Harry Potter. A lot will be riding on the catalogue price. If the dealer price is enough lower than the huge retail price, then there would be a lot of parents who don't have that sort of cash around with kids pestering them for Harry Potter that would jump at the chance of a decent price reduction.

There's about 3 and a half months to sort out some way of getting the message out without running into costly overheads. Could work theoretically. In practice? - will try and see. If anyone is interested, I will post more info as it becomes available to me.

Interesting Maballas. How do you get an ABN exactly I am very curious.....

[mabullas]

This is the online link to all the Australian Taxation Office's info about applying for an ABN:

** Link Removed: Only Available to Registered Members**

Actually, that seems to be the easy part. The hard part for a start up business is convincing an Australian wholesaler to do business with you. Most expect you to not only have trade references in general, but 2-3 references from trade accounts that you already have set up with Australian businesses.

I'm having trouble with the Harry Potter idea because I have to convince the publishers that I am a legitimate bookseller. Being a legitimate bookseller is defined by them as already having a business relationship with an Australian book publisher. Notice how this makes it difficult for a start up business: you are not a bookseller until a publisher accepts you to have an account with them. But if all of them have the same requirement, and you are a brand new business that has never dealt with book selling before, then you are not, by definition, a bookseller, and never will be a bookseller (because no-one is going to give you a go unless you already have an established account with one of their rivals). And they wonder why people import......

I'm going to try Random House - they do take into account the fact that start up businesses may not have this requirement yet. That would then give me an account which I could use as a trade reference for the other publishers. However, the first order needs to be $500. I don't mind that sort of order once I've worked out what sells and what doesn't, but I don't really want to be left with $500 worth of books that no-one will buy from me at the beginning of my business.

DVD distributors are the same in Australia. But I think they don't require your trade references to necessarily be in the same business or the same country.

So I've basically got to go around all Australian book publishers and try to find one that will let me in - then all the others will let me in also. If I can achieve this by July, I might have some sort of hope of buying Harry Potter. It's like some sort of peverse exclusive club.

I've only just started making my first few orders of stock, and from overseas firms. Only one would be considered a legitimate trade reference - the others are auctions I got lucky with. It's making life difficult. And this is despite the fact that I've got my ABN and the government regards me as a legit business for taxation purposes.

Yet when I talk to Chinese manufacturers with regard to other goods, they practically bend over backwards. Even many US companies have no qualms in dealing with me.

I do think Australian suppliers make life difficult for start up businesses unnecessarily. I'd be interested to hear if any other Aussies here have had the same experience.

[mabullas]

Happy Feet is another relatively low cost investment (well, relative to ipods, anyway!) - it's coming out later this month. But it means getting an account with Village Roadshow. They're sending me out an application, so I'll have to see what happens. I do believe this could be a best seller. However, I've heard (although I don't know it first hand) that there is not much markup on DVDs, so there may be a fair amount of volume selling needed to make up the profit.