Auction Power Guide

Do they steal them??? I don’t get this whole ebay thing when the sellers have their own store where they sell things such as pottery barn returns, when there is nothing wrong with the items and they are not discontinued. Where are they getting them? Please explain this to me.
What’s a "drop shipper"?

There are many sources where sellers get their merchandise. If you buy in bulk, you can get a good deal from a wholesaler. Depending on the item, you may have to buy several hundred units at a time which you can sell indiviually for a profit.

You can also purchase products from liquidators. Again, you have to buy by the truckload. Not all the stuff you get is resellable, but there should be good stuff mixed with the bad. You can also find liquidators that will sell by the pallet.

Major chains have factory outlets and closeout centers. If you happen to live near one of these stores, you are really lucky.

Less frequently, you can find clearance items in the stores. However, these are hard to come by.

You can find some good deals at going out of business sales, and business liquidation auctions. You need to know what you are looking for or you can easily overpay of stuff.

Garage sales and flea markets are another good source of finding bargains. Again, you need to know what you looking for.

Thrift stores like the Salvation Army and Goodwill will occasionally have a diamond in the rough. If you can spot one of these, you can make a huge profit.

If you live near one of the large liquidation resellers like Big Lots or Tuesday Morning, you can often find things that you can resell on eBay.

Of course there are tons of knock offs available most of which come from China. Having a connection with an import exporter can get you some of this questionable merchandise.

But most people sell what things they previously bought and no longer want. Much of the items you see are from these types of sellers.

Finally, there are the countless dropshippers on eBay. These people try to sell goods from various dropship suppliers. When they make a sale, the item is shipped directly from the dropshipper to the buyer and the seller gets a cut of the proceeds. This is a cut throat market and in my opinion a huge waste of time.

We won’t even discuss the dealing of stolen goods on eBay. You know it is there, but you can’t stop it.

Good Luck,
Bill
Visit http://www.newlifeauctions.com for more eBay tips.

If you make money what are you selling and where do you get it for cheaper than you sell it? Give me some tips please. Thanks for being so sweet!!

Julie,

The real goal behind making money on Ebay is to find/sell those ‘items’ that a large consumer market are always ‘buying’, regardless of the market.

To find the ‘hot items’, for a lack of better words, that are sold month-after-month, check out these two (2) Ebay references:

* http://pulse.ebay.com

Here, you can find a LOT of GOOD information, such as what ‘categories’ on Ebay are hot and/or what the hot selling ‘items’ are as well.

* http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/hotitems.pdf

This second resource is a MONTHLY PDF File, composed and maintained by Ebay, which will tell you what categories/items have been consistent ‘hot items’ from month to month. While the PDF file will change with each passing month, the URL above WILL NOT! So, bookmark it and continue to review it every month.

The next thing to consider is finding ‘drop-shippers’ of some of these products. The benefit to having a ‘drop-shipper’ is that when your auction is over, you send the request to the drop-shipper, they then take over the ‘customer experience’ and will handle everything from shipping the product to the customer, dealing with charge-backs and most everything else you can think of that would be common place in any type of transaction.

Another key to being highly effective/successful with Ebay Auctions is understanding all the different types of ‘auctions’ there are and how each one can help increase your sales.

A great resource that I recently came across which outlines everything there is to know about ebay auctions and making money is found in an ebook I came across not to long ago and you can get a copy if you’re interested in taking your auctions from ‘somewhat profitable’ to ‘hugely profitable’. The link is here:

http://fhurl.com/b663

Remember though, nothing is ‘easy’ when it comes to making money on ebay. If it was, then everyone would be selling on ebay, but since we know that’s not happening, you CAN profit from these techniques!

Hope this helps?

Cheers,

Jack G.

Yeah, I know you sell items and hopefully make a profit. However, I was looking for more information on legitimate wholesalers, if it’s smart to only use dropshipping wholesalers, or to just drive around and hopefully find goods that are popular on sale or clearance and resell them using ebay.

Thanks so much, just trying to get started.

It is difficult to make any money by buying wholesale and reselling on eBay because so many other people are already buying things from the same wholesalers. It is very competitive so you have to keep your prices low to sell so there is usually a very low profit margin on each item sold.

Drop shippers can be kind of scary because you have no control. You can’t see the product before it is shipped and you need to depend on them to ship the item promptly. If things ship slow or arrive damaged it hurts your seller feedback and you get negatives. It can also be a mess to deal with returns of damaged items since you have to deal with the drop shipper. I have used a few drop shippers, but only those that I have tested several times by making purchases and have the items shipped to me to make sure they are dependable.

People who make the most on eBay are the ones who search estate sales, garage sales, swap meets, liquidators, quitting business sales, Craig’s list, etc. for items that are being sold at well below their value and re-sell them. Of course you need to become knowledgeable about the value of the items you see and spend most of your spare time looking for items to sell.

Every day people search the internet looking for that mythical drop shipper that has products at “true” wholesale price. But what does true wholesale price even mean? And, can a drop shipping company ever offer you true wholesale price?

If you want to sell on eBay, the answer is a simple no… No, a drop shipper cannot offer you true wholesale price. It seems everyone has a different definition of what “true” wholesale price means.

Does it mean less than retail price? Does it mean the lowest possible price? Does it mean the price the manufacturer charges when selling the product direct?

The fact is, there is no literal definition of “true” wholesale price. But for simplicity we will consider the “true” wholesale price to be the price of a product direct from a manufacturer.

So, why is it not possible to get true wholesale price as an eBay seller looking to have products drop shipped?  Because wholesale is about quantity… Bulk.

When you have a company drop ship products for you, that means you are generally selling just one at a time. And, while this may equal many product sales over time, it is not viable for a manufacturer or wholesaler to operate their business this way. Sure, there are some exceptions (large items, super-expensive items) but, in general, this is the case.

Now, if you have a large established store that is another story.  Then many manufacturers will happily provide you with catalogs full of products that can be drop shipped directly to your store after a customer orders one. A store will often refer to this as a “special order”.  When you ask a store “do you carry xyz product” and they might respond “we do not have them in stock, but we can special order one”…  That is drop shipping working in all of it’s glory.

But, back to eBay…

When you are selling products on eBay you have no established customer base. Manufacturers who drop ship are not going to want to work with you directly because there are no guarantees to the quantities you can sell.

Manufacturers often have very little markup on their products and they make their money on bulk sales. Selling 10,000 widgets at a $0.50/profit each will mean $5000 for a manufacturer.  Drop shipping one for you means $0.50 for the manufacturer.  Nobody wants to bother with a $0.50 profit sale.  This is one reason most manufacturers will not sell to eBayers. There is another reason however…

eBay sellers expose their products to a low-ball marketplace.

On eBay everyone is looking for a deal. The market is flooded with small sellers, like yourself, who will constantly lower the price of goods in order to generate more sales. This drives the value of a product down and, as you might expect, manufacturers do not like this. Many manufacturers even have what is called MAP pricing. This means Minimum Advertised Price. When a manufacturer requires their retailers to follow MAP guidelines this means that no retailer can advertise the product for less than the price suggested by the manufacturer. Now you understand why every store seems to sell that Xbox 360 for the same price and why Wal*Mart doesn’t offer iPods for any less than KMart. It all has to do with MAP pricing.

On eBay, it is too difficult to enforce MAP guidelines. When a manufacturer sells to an eBay seller they cannot spend the time to monitor the sales price. Also, since eBay is a auction site, the ending sales price of a product often cannot be controlled.

So, don’t be mislead. You are NOT going to be able to buy a new Xbox 360 from a drop shipper, sell it for $10 less than everybody else and make a killing on eBay. In fact, the drop ship price on an Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iPod Touch, or any other hot item is almost always MORE than the selling price on eBay. This is one way of assuring some eBayer doesn’t go and destroy the market value of a product.

Even true drop ship companies — that is companies who ONLY sell their products via drop shipping adhere to this rule. A good example is Mary Kay cosmetics. You are NOT allowed, as a Mary Kay rep, to sell your products on eBay. This includes free samples, rewards, and your base catalog products… Why? Because Mary Kay doesn’t want reps destroying the value of their products by selling them for less than their catalog price. Sure, you will find Mary Kay products on eBay. But they are either being sold IN BREACH of their contract or by a third party; resale.

So, where do you find a real drop shipper with “true” wholesale price that will fill your eBay orders? You don’t.  And don’t be mislead into thinking they’re out there of you only pay enough for the information.  They do not exist — not for the masses.

But if I don’t have a lot of money to invest in products how do I become a successful eBay seller? Is it still possible?… YES!!

It is still very possible to get started on your way to eBay PowerSeller success — without drop shipping. There are a couple of good options.

One option is to learn alternative sourcing methods like the ones taught in the Better Sources Guide.  Alternative sourcing methods is just a fancy way of saying — you can find products that are profitable and do not require a large investment (if any at all) — just like drop shipping but without the major problems. In fact, with the sourcing methods taught in “Better Sources” you can actually get much BETTER than “true” wholesale price. It is simply the best way to get started selling on eBay while avoiding drop shipping.

Another option is to join a sourcing company like WorldWide Brands. They offer some light-bulk wholesalers which means that you can buy only a small quantity of a product and get wholesale price.

But whatever you decide, please, do not fall for the drop shipping hype. Think of it this way, if you see a company offering access to tons of drop shipped products at the best prices — how many people do you think are using that exact company to compete with you?

To this day I have never, and I mean NEVER seen a drop shipping company that can help someone become successful on eBay. Good luck — don’t let this stop you from getting started selling on eBay. Just use it to help motivate yourself in the right direction. Away from drop shipping and towards real success.

anonymous

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