Forum

Sigh...the good ole days
 

What happened to the days when you could easily purchase products from an import website, and make a living on eBay?

If it isn't eBay restricting you from selling multiple quantities of a product, it's some goofy seller DRASTICALLY under-cutting your price.

Nothing on the importer websites are sacred either. The Chinese are eBay sellers themselves. So the only way you can compete is to take a risk sending them a boatload of money for a HUGE wholesale order of a product. It's hit or miss!

Good ole days passed. Times are different.

It's hard work, research, hard work, research that is the way forward now.:juggle:

There are lots of things in which the Chinese simply can't compete with you. You'll have to do some research yourself.

It keeps getting more difficult. I NEVER stop researching new products. You don't know when someone else will discover your little - but profitable - niche and drive the price WAY down.

And with the economy in the tank, it seems like everyone and his brother wants to be a seller on eBay/Amazon.

Yea its rediculous!!
one minute im like the only one banking on my "niche" next thing i know.. about 20 different sellers selling it im like Wth, where did YOU come from?
I RUN THIS GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!! :rant:

There is no way for chinese control all the markets.If you make great effort,there are lot of market for you to make money .On the other hand,a lot of foreigners made a great success in china,so that the world is fair for everyone .

Keep your eye on the market,and keep searching all,keep trying all .

I would hazard to bet that it is Nearly Impossible for ANY Market to be controlled.

As for a "Niche" Product,,,,Well Honesty I Do NOT Believe in that,,,The word "Niche" is Thrown around quite liberally,,,

Unless you have a product that you Invented, Manufacture, and Create Demand for ALL On your own, then you do not have a Niche,,and even then you may not have a Niche for very long,,

You see there are THOUSANDS of sellers searching under EVERY Rock 24/7 for a "Niche"

I find that it is Easier to make Money Sourcing and BUYING Correctly. Put a Nice FAT list together of Products that you can Purchase from "THE SOURCE" Products that you KNOW you can buy at SAME Price as ANYONE Else, This now Puts you in a Situation where you can "Compete"

Now you begin to Keep your Eyes Open for 2 Things,

1) Periods of time when some of the Items on your list has More Buyers than Sellers allowing you to make a Decent Profit,,so you sell those iitems and NOT the others.

You will see that these periods will CONSTANTLY change,,So you have to Constantly change.


2) Look for Closeouts on the Products where you KNOW the LOWEST Direct from The Manfacturers price is. If at Some Warehouse Liquidation, Going out of Business, or Chapter 11 Liqudation you can get these Products at Substantially lower than Wholesale Prices, this gives you A LOT of Leverage.

It is NOT that rare or Hard to do,,You just Need the desire to do it,,

There are definatley lots of opportunities in non-china made products, if you do your homework and source the products from the right places.

Also if your a serious seller you should make a trip out to china for yourself to see whats on offer dont just rely on sourcing products from the same places as everyone else. Theres so much choice accross the country from one region to the next, youl probably spot good products for your market that havent already been covered by other sellers.

Bear in mind most of the china sellers if you look closely enough are all selling the same things in each field, theres very little product differentiation, all trying to undercut eachother by a $.

A trip to china is also a good opportunity to network direct with some suppliers, visit some trade shows, factories/wholesale markets and probably secure yourself better prices than buying of alibaba or one of the other platforms. Also a good opportunity to develop some new products or make amendments to existing ones.

As a side note i wouldnt recommend visiting a trade exhibition if you plan to buy at the show, as the prices are usually seriously over inflated such as at the canton fair. This year for example prices had gone up by aroud 30% compared to last year and there were very few people attending in any case.

The trade shows are good to see what new products are available in the market under one roof and get a vey rough idea for prices. The next step is to go out sourcing what you found for the best price available from other suppliers.

Its not hard its just a process as with everything else and will pay out in the long-term if you get it right..

The two examples above are REAL, but the people capable of doing that are not your average forum member. Especially the newbies.

Why? Because both scenarios require something called WORKING CAPITAL.

To buy the inventory of a company that is in Chapter 11 takes MONEY. So does a round trip ticket to China (about $2,000 or so from the USA).

The newbie posts that we see here all seem to want things for FREE or at least EXTREMELY CHEAP. They consider $5 for a gift card too expensive. Ditto on spending $5 for a phone number.

They want suppliers to drop-ship for them, but first they need a way to get around the PayPal 21 day holds, as they do not want to put ANY of their own money at risk to actually purchase the item. Of course, they also want to maximize their profit, so they tend to go with the cheapest drop-shipper and don't bother to check to see if they are RELIABLE or not.

Then, when things go south, they want the buyer to take it up with the drop-shipper. They feel they are not responsible for the order after it is placed. :doh:

Then, when their account gets cancelled because of it, they say that selling on eBay doesn't work! :doh:

These are the same yahoos that see an episode of "Storage Wars" on cable, then head down to their local storage unit auction with $300 and expect to find $10k+ worth of stuff in the unit they buy, because that is the way it is shown on TV. They never stop to think that maybe 100 hours of filming go into each 30 minute episode....

The SAD PART about that is they may even find a locker with $600+ in stuff that could be profitably sold on eBay and double their money. But that is too much work. :doh:

They want huge amounts of instant, risk-free cash with no work involved. And when they can't get it, they cry like a baby who just had his lollipop stolen.

OK.... RANT OVER....

Yyyyyuuuuuupppppp ;)

Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk

VERY, well Done,,,,It feels Good to get your Fustrations out, doesn't it?