More then one reason. Making 30 cents profit is pointless to us, sure. But if you sell 500 items a day thats pretty good in China. That money goes further. Some do it just to get your info too. I receive the odd promotion [free cruise or whatever] to stealth names and address that could only come from someone I bought off ebay
Shipping from China I suspect is pretty cheap. The items are pure junk most of the time too. Literally costs them 10 cents on the dollar anyway. Just because a wholesaler charges $1.20 for a cell phone case doesnt mean they are not also selling the same item on eBay for 99 cents. I suspect all the dealers you see on dhgate have ebay accounts as well... They make the items they sell. Just run by staff
I also notice as a certain item becomes less available it goes up a little. A PC remote that I have bought 4 went from $3.99 to $7.99 when there were less sellers. They manufacture this crap in HUGE numbers and just piss them out until stock gets low and move on to next product
Last edited by pod; 01-31-2012 at 01:37 PM.
The Following User Says Thank You to pod For This Useful Post:
I bought 4 things from a Chinese eBay for 1 cent, with free shipping and they had a ton more listed at the same price.
I just bought an iPod wall charger for $2.50 with free shipping and they live on the other side of the country. It's hard to imagine 2.50 covers eBay fees, PayPal fees, the cost of the item as well as the cost of shipping.
Yeah I've bought 100's of items from china for .01 with free shipping, after the fees they're obviosly not making a profit on those, hence another purpose was intended.
The Following User Says Thank You to jbluntz For This Useful Post:
It is not just on ebay that you can buy for $0.99 with freeshipping. It is on actual web stores as well. such as focalpoint .com and just google china wholesalers.
during the holidays esp, these cheapo chinese sellers can pay off big time for us local boys. people dont want to wait 2 weeks to get their crappy item from, china but they love that same crappy item when its already in country and available from me
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stealth (n): the act or action of proceeding furtively, secretly, or imperceptibly
I haven't even bothered to sell most of mine yet, I've still got a huge box of ds pens, screen protectors and iphone cases, unless there's a large profit involved just seems like a waste of time.
i do the same thing for my compnay sell 100s items at a loss but make massive profit on the bigger items.They are not making profit on those 99 cent items china post costs about 1usd for a letter international they are making a loss 100% , like bluntz said its email marketing or more than likely to sell some higher end items .I do this on my stealth accs too then you can shift alot more risky products.
So I sell designer sunglasses is it best to buy really cheap items and sell those first just to get seller feedback up? What kind of items can you sell in those quantities without ebay shutting you down. Cant you just sell digital pics for a penny and just keep the auction private or does ebay frown on that too? I am not new to ebay but obviously still have a lot to learn, id appreciate any feedback or comments
No rsot - no one 'takes a loss' - that is a total fallacy - in this day and age everything has to make a profit unless you are a huge multi national conglomerate with multiple income streams
0.99c they sure make profit on most items.
But look at the thousands of styluses being sold every day under 0.06c, among thousands of various other stuff selling for almost a penny. Reality check duh!
Its not people from china its people dropshipping from sites with free shipping like dealextreme and they just put there location as honk kong in the listing ,thats why they show up in your countrys listings
