Selling Your Products

[aking]

Does anyone here buy large bulk (say 100-500 items) at one time? What is your strategy? Do you buy the items first or do you list and sell them first to make sure they sell and then order the products?

I am trying to decide which route to go. I have a good deal on 500 quantity wholesale lot. I just need to sell about 15 of them to pay for all 500 items. Should I sell them and just let buyers know it is on back order and will take a few days to arrive?

[JamesNorth101]

Depends totally on the product

Its always dangerous though to sell items without first having them in hand. I do do it myself sometimes but only very a very certain type of item that I am 100% sure I can get hold of and I know the delivery time and quality of. I also make it clear to my buyer that the items will only be shipped on X date.

The problem with selling something before you buy it a lot of the time is 1 - the wholesaler could run out of stock 2 - there could be issues importing the items - 3 the quality may be really low.

Sometimes its a case of risk v reward but generally if you are 100% sure your items will sell then I would just order them in first, get them in hand and then sell them.

[Play]

James is pretty on point here.

I would also add, it depends on whether you have ordered a sample batch and sold it on ebay before. If there have been a flux of positive ratings, then I would go ahead with a 500 or 1,000pcs order.

But if you haven't tested the waters first with the sample order, you could be in for a shock, especially if the product is 'electronics'. I've been bitten by that snake before. We all get a little to excited when the margins just look so damn good!

[yankee]

Have you been selling this exact item form this exact source already? If not, I would consider this size order a sample order. You really can not trust 1-100 pieces as a sample. They can send high quality and then on the large order send lower quality. Im sure my business is quite different but my sample orders are usually 2000 pieces and oftentimes those first runs go straight to the trash or sold over seas to a secondary market such as Brazil.

With margins like you are saying, upfront cost is very very small. I would not take any chance on having upset customers by selling 15 items to get the other 485 free.