Selling bottles of vitamins/supplements

[cat3]

I'm going to be selling a large amount of vitamins/supplements on eBay.

Would this be an issue if I were to just be starting out on a stealth account? I have 0 feedback and this is the only thing I have to sell.

I was reading this post on eBay but I'm just not entirely sure still (I never know with eBay) http://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive.../td-p/18934571

Been lurking this website and finally made a post, go easy on me :P

[Play]

I'm sure US works the same way as UK, whereby the first thing you need to ensure is such supplements are safe for consumption, as the seller is held legally responsible for what they sell.

As for risk, I used to sell something similar and there was no issue whatsoever. However just wait for someone else to chime in. But I am quite certain you'd be fine selling something like this. Just don't go listing large quantities straight after signing up to ebay.

[jeffweico]

While there ARE some special rules for these supplements (like listing the expiration date) and they will want to make sure these are manufactured by a reputable company and NOT in your garage, you CAN sell most of them.

Where they will have a serious problem is if you start making certain claims about your supplements. For example, the sellers of diet pills have a hard time, because you cannot make unsubstantiated weight loss claims.

I would say the problem supplements would be diet pills, sleeping pills, anything designed to mimic the pain relieving properties of opiate drugs, sexual enhancement pills, etc. The more popular ones, of course. But if you are just selling Centrum multivitamins, you should be fine.

Just make sure you read up on eBay's rules for this category, because they change from time to time. I used to sell diet pills, but have not listed in this category for several years.

[jeffweico]

Oh, I almost forgot. Don't even think about selling the herbal blends for "legal high" drugs. That is absolutely not allowed on any reputable site.

[cat3]

Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it. Also I want to note that there are many other sellers selling the same thing. Could their listings stay up because they have higher feedback/more sales?

[jeffweico]

No matter what the item is, vitamins or iPads, when someone gets banned, they come back here and say "but 100 other people are selling the same thing!!!"

Sorry, but that is just the way it is. eBay kicks some sellers to the curb and leaves other sellers alone. Only THEY know what their reasons are. Once banned, you can forget about the account. But at least with stealth, you can set up another account.

So, to answer your question, YES, that IS a possibility. It could be the way their listings are worded, they could be an authorized distributor for the vitamin brand, or it could also just be that they got lucky.

If you are so afraid of this, I would list on a stealth account, not your real account. At least that way, if you lose it, you only lose the stealth account.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by cat3

Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it. Also I want to note that there are many other sellers selling the same thing. Could their listings stay up because they have higher feedback/more sales?

They may have just been lucky to stay under eb radar OR they have experimented and tried/tested what works...possibilities exist

[cat3]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

While there ARE some special rules for these supplements (like listing the expiration date) and they will want to make sure these are manufactured by a reputable company and NOT in your garage, you CAN sell most of them.

Where they will have a serious problem is if you start making certain claims about your supplements. For example, the sellers of diet pills have a hard time, because you cannot make unsubstantiated weight loss claims.

I would say the problem supplements would be diet pills, sleeping pills, anything designed to mimic the pain relieving properties of opiate drugs, sexual enhancement pills, etc. The more popular ones, of course. But if you are just selling Centrum multivitamins, you should be fine.

Just make sure you read up on eBay's rules for this category, because they change from time to time. I used to sell diet pills, but have not listed in this category for several years.

Didn't even put a description of it just to be safe, since it's popular enough people will find it anyways.

I have a few hundred of these bottles. Do you think it would be alright to have a listing with a bulk pack of 5 and another listing of the same product at just 1 bottle?

[MM78]

Only one way to find out cat3, list them and pray.

[yankee]

I like listing groups or 3 or 5 like you are saying. I determine how many fit in the packaging I want to ship and at what weight for the best/lower shipping costs.

I have some items people will buy at 8 in a group. They average MORE profit that a single package and I move 8 times as much with 1/8th the work. Not every item is like that though....so you have to test it.

[desikanjar]

best sell cheap low risk items to get your account going then introduce vitamin tablet sales.

[cat3]

Someone was telling me I could sell on Amazon instead, only problem is I guess it's really hard to get approved in the health section. Anyone have experience with this?

[TeamUp]

Originally Posted by cat3

Someone was telling me I could sell on Amazon instead, only problem is I guess it's really hard to get approved in the health section. Anyone have experience with this?

As long as you have an official invoice from the distributor, I think you should be fine.

[bluegrass1]

i was selling weight loss drink mix and was removed stating i was selling expired medicine ..
wasnt expired and wasnt medicine but thats the waters