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Buy Goods From Wholesalers and Sell At Massive Mark Ups on eBay by Avril Harper author of 'Bank Big Profits Selling Vintage Topographical View Postcards on eBay' and 'Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines and Selling Them on eBay'.
Wholesalers typically offer products in bulk at a significant discount on retail value and represent one of the easiest ways to locate products with regular high profit potential on eBay.
They deal with trade only because selling to private individuals is rarely profitable and will alienate them with commercial buyers. And that’s the reason most wholesalers ask for proof of trading status before allowing you to enter their premises. As an eBay seller you can prove your business status by creating your own letterhead or business card in Microsoft Word, add your business name and eBay ID. Alternatively, open a business bank account, have your cheque book printed with your business name, and use that to gain entry.
Most people think wholesalers operate from huge warehouses in major towns and cities, which many actually do, but there are numerous other places to locate high profit goods in bulk at massive discounts.
You can obtain virtually any product you care to name from wholesalers, even antiques and collectibles, but sometimes excluding designer brands whose makers prefer to sell direct to the public through approved retailers.
Because so many items are available from wholesalers - some specialising, others selling countless different goods - you can research any product fetching regular high profits on eBay, then obtain just one sample to test the market, and later decide whether to purchase goods in bulk to add to your permanent eBay stock just as we did for sourcing fancy dress items earlier.
Buy Wholesale on eBay
It may surprise you to know that eBay is one of the best places to buy goods wholesale without ever leaving home in the process.
For a personal example, an American wholesaler, operating on eBay, charges $50 (about £ 32.50 including postage) for units of 20 pins (we call them ‘badges’) which I sell at ten to twenty pounds each on the UK site. I can’t give his contact details, at his request, because he has all the business he wants and can not supply more than a couple of new clients per listing and I don’t want anyone to say I sent them his way. But he’s easy to find if you search for ‘wholesale’ on eBay and work your way through the listings.
GREAT IDEA: You’ll find hundreds of people selling wholesale goods on eBay which are listed on one country site and not obvious to potential buyers for those items elsewhere. So, for example, you’ll find US sellers listing wholesale lots of Masonic rings on the US site which are excellent sellers in the UK, and well worth importing to sell individually on eBay UK.
The beauty of buying bulk lots from the US and other non-UK eBay sites is that people seeking those rings and other goods as gifts or for personal use do not want to buy in bulk and prefer to purchase on their own country site. That’s because they feel better protected against scams or non-delivery from domestic suppliers because they expect Trading Standards and other consumer watchdogs to get involved if they feel cheated. Additionally, they pay less postage and don’t wait so long for goods to arrive from UK sellers and there are no import taxes to inflate their costs.
It’s important to order just one item to test market on eBay’s UK site or ask the seller if he’ll let you use his product images and descriptions. One you know you have a best seller it’s time to buy your goods in bulk, preferably from the same supplier, and say you’ll consider buying larger lots for an agreed discount.
Test Market Products Without Buying in Bulk
Some wholesalers sell in big bundles, say ten or twenty, sometimes hundreds of items and others require a minimum spend on single unit items. Either way you’ll usually need to spend a hundred pounds or so minimum to locate just one item to test market its value on eBay. That’s because if wholesalers sell low price items individually they’d probably go out of business considering high overheads required for rent and rates and staff in massive warehouses. So they make their living selling in bulk meaning more profit per sale and requiring fewer staff and less parking space and other facilities for buyers.
Imagine, for instance, the wholesaler offers 100 bottles of shampoo for £50 with unit profit about £25. If he sells those items individually, to one hundred customers, that’s 100 individual transactions for less than £1 pure profit each time, and probably means 100 people needing help from staff and places to park their cars. Compare that to selling in bulk to recognised traders where the wholesaler earns £25 from just one transaction!
BUT WAIT, that doesn’t mean you have to buy goods in bulk to test market their profitability only to find they don’t sell and you’re left with surplus stock tying up space in your garage! That’s because some wholesalers will allow you to use their product images and descriptions in your eBay listings as long as you ask their permission and open an account with them for future buys. Do not be shy to ask because I have asked hundreds of times to use another person’s product images and I’ve only once been refused!
HOWEVER, if you really are too shy to ask permission to use another person’s marketing materials, you could buy just one unit of your chosen product to test your market before buying in bulk, but not from wholesalers of course. But you could buy from a fellow eBay seller and you can spy on how that person packages your goods, how he or she handles queries, what other items you’re offered later which can be added to your own product range. But be careful, you don’t want to antagonise fellow traders when they spot you selling their goods, so it’s a good idea to have two eBay accounts, one for buying and one for selling.
Wholesalers Large and Small
There are literally thousands of places in the UK, millions worldwide, where you can buy goods wholesale, sometimes at ten per cent of their resale value, and presenting outstanding profit opportunities for all kinds of goods.
Wholesalers range from massive chains such as Costco and Makro with branches nationwide and promoting hundreds of thousands of very different products, to smaller concerns with just one or two outlets with a limited product range but still offering high profits for you.
Strange though it might seem, these smaller wholesalers with their limited range of goods can be more profitable for eBayers than big name counterparts like Costco and Makro. The reason is they usually offer products not available from larger wholesalers so they’re unlikely to be known by more than ten per cent of eBay sellers. That’s because many smaller outlets market within a short radius or base, or they rely on word-of-mouth recommendation and don’t have web sites or pay to be listed in wholesale directories.
So I recommend you make these smaller wholesalers first port of call for your eBay business, you’ll usually find them in ‘Yellow Pages’ available in local reference libraries or try online at www.yell.com.
As an example, I spend at least half an hour each day looking for local suppliers of pet products, notably for dogs and cats, and always for products offering high profit margins per sale. I also check out suppliers before ordering and I never order by telephone or online without speaking to suppliers face-to-face. And because I don’t want to fill my entire day travelling to view stock, leaving little time to upload products to eBay, I only work with suppliers within thirty miles of home.
Believe me that does not represent many suppliers but all I need is one good product source for dog and cat products which I found by keying product details, such as ‘flashing dog collars wholesale’ with a choice of topographical locations into the box at Google.com. That took me to a supplier of pet products in Darlington selling goods at around one third their resale value. I haven’t contacted them yet, but I will, and when I do I’ll ask to use their images in my eBay listings. So you see, just a few minutes’ work has led me to a supplier of products I might sell twenty or thirty times a week for ten or twenty pounds pure profit each time.
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Avril Harper Titles
Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines and Selling Them on eBay
Bank Big Profits Selling Vintage Topographical View Postcards on eBay
The Ultimate Guide to Becoming an eBay Trading Assistant
The Ultimate Dropshipping Report
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