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Buyers contacting me about wholesale buys
 

Anyone ever have eBay buyers contact you asking if you have more of a certain product? This particular buyer wants to buy a wholesale lot of one of my products for a nice price, but I'm kind of leery about it. I have plenty of inventory so I could easily supply them AND still make %100 profit on it.

Anyone ever make wholesale deals with eBay buyers?

Re: Buyers contacting me about wholesale buys
 

Yes, I've done it. I see no reason to not do it if there's decent money involved.

One large sale usually trumps ten small ones.

Re: Buyers contacting me about wholesale buys
 

I would definitely give it a shot......

Re: Buyers contacting me about wholesale buys
 

Can't hurt to communicate - look at feedback and reliability, etc.

Re: Buyers contacting me about wholesale buys
 

Why are you leery? I've done it a lot.

Re: Buyers contacting me about wholesale buys
 

I would definitely avoid it. You are a retailer not a wholesaler.

You may be saying at this point why can't I be both. Wholesaling is just retailing where you sell a lot more items to one customer, right? WRONG!!!

When you become a customer of a wholesaler, there is a ton of paperwork and usually some level of verification. That is because wholesalers have a lot more exposure and lower margins as a wholesaler. You cannot afford any chargebacks or fraud of any kind.

Right now you may see one scamming customer every 50 items you sell and you lose a few dollars. Now imagine that one scamming customer takes you for 100 items.

Re: Buyers contacting me about wholesale buys
 

Let him buy one small item from you so you officially have their contact info from ebay.

Then call them up, see if they are legit. If they are they can transfer money by wire to your bank account. This is how the big boys play. No paypal, no CC.

If the amount is huge enough, then use a letter of credit.

Re: Buyers contacting me about wholesale buys
 

Over half of our business is low-end wholesale customers - many of which order through forwarding companies and have the stuff sent to South American countries. We do extremely well with these customers since most sellers aren't willing to sell to them even in small amounts. I haven't been scammed by any of them and many now contact me directly on a regular basis. In most cases it's just another merchant trying to source inventory.

I guess it's got a lot to do with what you sell. Wholesale customers are what keep me profitable and keep my cash flow high enough to get bulk discounts with suppliers.

Re: Buyers contacting me about wholesale buys
 

Just be sure what you warranty, if any is. The only problem I've had doing wholesale is one of their customers has an issue or is scamming them, they come back to you for refunds or exchanges.

Re: Buyers contacting me about wholesale buys
 

Yes I've made wholesale deals. It was great to liquidate some old inventory. We did payment through PayPal to make sure we were both covered.