Selling Iphones legit gets you limited....$10000 Gone.

bigtimeseller · #1 06-15-2012

Had a service on a site where i would hire ebay sellers, and turns out i ended up sticking with this 1 guy. Great guy, was 21, and we were making good cash for a while. He paid me how i wanted, items got on time, sellers had to problem.
Worked for 3 months perfect, he made i think $15,000

Then, PayPal
Can we get your supplier?

We get are supplies from a person who works With Apple, and he sells them to us, part of the factory. We say we got them cheap sold em higher, gave em some recepts.

Everything goes fine, PayPal decides, sorry we limited your account because of all the risky things, we ended up getting ****ed.

He cant use PayPal nor can i get my items.

Also any ideas how i can start up?

Im young so cant do alot of that, and i got paid in a different method.

ANy ideas how i can start up?

I currently have an Iphone provider, where should i sell now?

jeffweico · #2 06-15-2012

To sell something as hot as iPhoes ANYWHERE you are going to have to prove that you have a LEGITIMATE source supplying you. The fact that you stated "We get are supplies from a person who works With Apple, and he sells them to us, part of the factory" tells me the items are most likely COUNTERFEIT. Apple does not do business that way. PayPal knows this. That is why the seller got canned.

There is no legitmate "secret source" of real Apple products, especially if your "insider factory guy" is in China. And, even if I am wrong and they are 100% legitimate, an employee of Apple selling their stuff out the back door of a facotry is stealing. Again, Apple does NOT do business that way.

So, PayPal may not have any proof of wrongdoing, but they know that you do not have a legitimate source of supply. There are only a handful of real suppliers of Apple products, and if you provided one of their receipts, you would be OK - but PayPal would most likely call them to check to be sure the receipts were real.

I don't believe that you are intentionally doing anything wrong, but when someone offers you a "fantastic deal" on a hot, name-brand product you really need to investigate to make sure the source is legitimate. iPhones are heavily counterfeited and plenty of unscrupulous "wholesalers" who sell them will claim up and down that their product are "guaranteed" legitimate, when they are not.

Companies like Apple, Coach, Rolex, etc. have carefully selected and monitored distribution channels and the margins on their lower priced products for retailers (anything under $2,500) are really not all that great. Retailers carry them because they know they will sell a lot of them and it brings people into their stores. That iPhone that sells for $600, Best Buy is probably paying at least $500 for.

So, how to start up? Find a legitimate product that has a decent profit margin (it will probably be generic or at least not a top brand) that you can make money selling on eBay or Amazon. Keep finding niches, and after a while you will have a solid, REAL business that will make some money for you. But it takes time. There are no shortcuts in life, and there are no free lunches. A normal retail markup is - depending on the product - anywhere between 1% and 25%. If someone tells you that you can make 100%, 200%, 300% as a markup, they are usually selling counterfeits.

And that is actually a business too. Not a legal one, but it IS a business. The problem is, with those supercharged profits, there are also risks that come along with them.

I hope my response has not upset you too much. I don't know you and I am not judging you. I am only telling you this to hopefully save you some grief in the future.

Good luck!

unkown5454 · #3 06-15-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffweico

There is no legitmate "secret source" of real Apple products, especially if your "insider factory guy" is in China. And, even if I am wrong and they are 100% legitimate, an employee of Apple selling their stuff out the back door of a facotry is stealing. Again, Apple does NOT do business that way.

THIS ^^^...you are either selling coun.ter.feit nonsense and are too ignorant to research the products you sell or someone is ille.gal.ly traf.ficking products through some illegitimate "backdoor".

Like jeffweico said, you did not magically stumble upon some super secret source.

bigtimeseller · #4 06-15-2012

I see where your coming at with this, but really its not legal, because Im not suppose to be getting the Iphones from him anyway, but he knows how to give us the receipts to make it seem legit. Where im getting at is, it took PayPal 3 months, they saw everything is legit, they just didn't want to risk it.

bigtimeseller · #5 06-15-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by unkown5454

THIS ^^^...you are either selling coun.ter.feit nonsense and are too ignorant to research the products you sell or someone is ille.gal.ly traf.ficking products through some illegitimate "backdoor".

Like jeffweico said, you did not magically stumble upon some super secret source.

It is backdoor, thats the biggest problem. Read my other response right above please

jeffweico · #6 06-15-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigtimeseller

I see where your coming at with this, but really its not legal, because Im not suppose to be getting the Iphones from him anyway, but he knows how to give us the receipts to make it seem legit. Where im getting at is, it took PayPal 3 months, they saw everything is legit, they just didn't want to risk it.

It really makes no difference. PayPal will never see this as a legitimate soure, because it is not. Amazon will shut you down in 10 seconds. That would leave a website, or maybe try craigslist? But obtaining a merchant account for a site based on this will be difficult and craigslist cancels ads as well.

bigtimeseller · #7 06-15-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffweico

It really makes no difference. PayPal will never see this as a legitimate soure, because it is not. Amazon will shut you down in 10 seconds. That would leave a website, or maybe try craigslist? But obtaining a merchant account for a site based on this will be difficult and craigslist cancels ads as well.

Craigslist is horrible, Idgaf about Paypal, so easy to pass there system, just a problem to keep doing it.
AMazon---no thanks

unkown5454 · #8 06-16-2012

Yea, he is right. Crai.gs.List and Ap.ple products is one huge pain . Already been there. Are you opposed to alternative sites to EB and AZ? I mean, profit margins will never match those two, but they certainly aren't the only outlet in the world to move products, especially ones as high in demand as App.le.

bigtimeseller · #9 06-16-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by unkown5454

Yea, he is right. Crai.gs.List and Ap.ple products is one huge pain . Already been there. Are you opposed to alternative sites to EB and AZ? I mean, profit margins will never match those two, but they certainly aren't the only outlet in the world to move products, especially ones as high in demand as App.le.

You make your own site, get a live chat, still people will say use EBay for safe trade. And when you have your site you still need paypal... eBay isnt the problem, paypal is

unkown5454 · #10 06-16-2012

There are a lot of other merchants other than PP. Your problem is that all of them are going to want receipts for the level of products and revenue you are trying to move. If it was smaller, you'd be better off. But, what you are trying to sell is one of the most highly demanded consumer products in the world. There aren't going to be too many shortcuts.

bigtimeseller · #11 06-16-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by unkown5454

There are a lot of other merchants other than PP. Your problem is that all of them are going to want receipts for the level of products and revenue you are trying to move. If it was smaller, you'd be better off. But, what you are trying to sell is one of the most highly demanded consumer products in the world. There aren't going to be too many shortcuts.

exactly the only way I could do this is getting another eBay seller.
I have receipts and ****.

Nissan2nr22 · #12 06-16-2012

Sorry to hear about you loss, unfortunately it's nearly impossible to selling high amounts of iphones anywhere

newjerseymax · #13 06-18-2012

You would need spread your sales through multiple accounts...

TowelKing · #14 06-18-2012

I support that - spread your sales.

The only way to survive with that product is to open many accounts and sell a few on each account - how many were you selling per month?

rsot · #15 06-18-2012

On this account, you wait 180 days to receive funds. Analyze your business model and spread sales via stealth. All the best.

Sandy D · #16 06-18-2012

I cannot believe someone would put themselves in a position to lose 10,000 by not thinking.

Believe me, if this could have been pulled off someone here would have long beat you to it.

99.9% it has been done and tried.

If you think you are the first or came up with a new grand idea, in all likelyhood you are not.

cortex · #17 06-18-2012

Can you imagine how rich someone can get by working at paypal?
They have supplier info on ALL the biggest and best sellers on ebay!!

Sandy D · #18 06-18-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by cortex

Can you imagine how rich someone can get by working at paypal?
They have supplier info on ALL the biggest and best sellers on ebay!!

They sure would. Can you imagine the info at your lap?

In fact, Meg Whitman knew this and for someone to be in the dept that handled this she would only hire a certain type of person with tons of background checks, not in business, not selling on ebay etc.

She is gone so I bet that has changed.