Is it worth it to sell on Australia eBay?


i-know
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  • Karma:
20 May 08 08:23:25 am
Hi All,

I am in Australia. I have witnessed quite a few items selling on eBay.com.au for a lot less than what I can dropship or get them for wholesale. Has anyone else had any experiences? Is all the research, time, & effort really worth it when I can buy something from a wholesaler and sell it for a loss!

Your thoughts....


grboutique
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20 May 08 09:09:03 am
My thoughts are if you're in a business that is profiting at a loss then you might as well close that business. I mean it's common sense, you're in business to profit. If you search and you can see that a product will give you a loss, why bother investing on it? :shock:


gulfy13
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20 May 08 06:21:11 pm
Most of the items you see selling on ebay for less than what you can buy them from a 'wholesaler' are because of several different things..

First, most wholesalers who sell to you, also sell their goods on ebay. Naturally they can sell their own stock cheaper than you can..

Secondly, there are a ton of people out there who claim to be 'wholesalers', selling you goods at 'wholesale' prices, who are really just 'middlemen' who are in fact, just really buying their goods from a 'true wholesaler' and then marking up the goods and selling them to you at a price they claim to be wholesale, but in fact really is not..

Thirdly, some of the larger sellers buy their goods in very large quantities and therefore are getting 'bulk prices' which enable them to sell at a very cheap price. They make their profit buy selling large amounts of goods and only profiting a small amount of each item, but due to the large amount of items, enables them to make a nice overall profit...

There are several thing that you can do.

First you too can buy in bulk and sell at a reduced price to beat your competition..

Next, you can try buying 'liquidated' and 'surplus' goods. You can get liquidated and surplus/closeout goods at litterily pennies on the dollar..This will enable you to undercut your competitions prices and yet still mark the item up enough to make a nice profit..

In addition, and I've said this many times, don't always try to sell what everyone else is selling. Take a look at common 'everyday items'. Things that people use and need everyday. Common household items and things like that..These types of items are easily aquired and normally can be found at local thrift and dollar stores at very cheap prices...

Most people get hung up on thinking that they should be selling all of the 'designer goods', fancy electronics and things of this nature, and are unable to find these types of products at a price to be competitive..There is simply too much competition and too small of a profit margin to survive selling these types of items.

Think 'outside of the box'. Remember, not everyone lives close to a shopping center, or works normal hours. These people normally shop online and they can easily become your customer, since they are normally overlooked as a potential customers...As I've said before, one of my daughers makes several thousand dollars per month selling coffee mug and kitchen decorations. Gets them at the local dollar stores for about a dollar apeice and sells them on ebay for 10-15 dollars a set. That's an example of an everyday item that most sellers simply overlook, because they think no one will be interested...

Think about things that you might want and need, but don't really have the time to run into town to get...These types of things will be wanted and needed by others people as well...

One of my biggest sellers was a brand name cosmetic makeup line, that only sold through it's own boutiques. I use to buy the stuff at the boutique for retail price and resold it on ebay at a very large markup...All of my customers were people who liked the makeup, but did not have a boutique in their town, so they happily bought from me....

So don't get discouraged. It just takes some homework, research, and a bit of trial and error, but if you stick with it, you can and will make money....


bayericlowe
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21 May 08 12:50:28 am
For eBay or uBid its only worth it for niche type items. There are many other places to sell the rest of the stuff and mark it up.


userexists
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23 May 08 11:49:27 pm
I also once bought a product at a local dollar store for $1.50 - a magnetic innersole for aching feet - intending it for my son. He didn't need it after all and I listed it on eBay at 7.95. Surprisingly it sold as a Buy Now item so I went back and purchased all the remaining stock - about 24 items. All sold on eBay at 9.00. The store doesn't stock this item anymore but I've recently seen the same item selling for up to $14 on eBay. As Gulfy said above, you can find items all around you if you think outside the square and market your product well. When I listed the item mentioned above, I didn't use a gallery picture of the actual item but made a big red sign in the gallery which read 'OH MY ACHING FEET'. They sold like hotcakes. Not everybody lives near a dollar store, specially in Australia.


Difficult I can do right away. Impossible takes a little longer

davisec52
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26 May 08 02:40:36 pm
The advice and comments given are excellent. What I have to add echoes the thoughts above. At one time, I was trying to sell a very cool gadget designed to work with media players, very high quality, and distributed only through WYNIT. WYNIT was dropshipping them for me so my purchases were essentially one by one. I was almost always getting way undersold on eBay. My sales rep explained it essentially saying that other sellers had negotiated a per item price based on a large bulk sale. No secret, really, but something that's often overlooked by eBay sellers trying to figure out some of the other sellers are able to offer such low prices.


topdeals08
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21 Jun 08 02:09:45 am
thanks for the advice Gulfy!


 

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