Wow, A Must Have EBay Sourcing Secret!

Some great while ago I came away from the Salehoo forum and brought with me a new way of looking at eBay. The fact of the matter is, I had never thought of eBay as wholesaler’s environment. That’s right–if you are selling on eBay, you may want to start thinking of yourself as a wholesaler, not a retailer. Think about it. If you have studied eBay or tried to sell products on eBay, you have probably wondered how it is that the prices can be so low. I’m sure you’ve noticed just how competitive a selling environment eBay is. Items are sold at wholesale and below wholesale prices.

Now, when you think about wholesale distributors, and I mean the real wholesale distributors who are as serious as a heart attack about you having your sales tax permit in order, you have to understand that the wholesalers are there to sell to retailers, not other wholesalers. Thus, when you buy from a wholesaler to sell on eBay, you may not always get the price you need to effectively compete. Hard news, but if you are coming to this pretty new, this could be a cool epiphanal moment.

Just the other day I published a post about how wholesalers, such as WYNIT, may sell at a fairly low fixed priced if the buyer is willing to buy in large quantities, such as lots of 1000, for example. And even wholesalers closeout stock, and so you can pick up really low prices there IF you can buy in really big quantities. The successful power seller who sells thousands of items a month can pull this off but not the small seller.

My point is that in order to compete on eBay, you have to be able to sell at wholesale and below wholesale prices. How do you do that? Well, you buy big lots of close out and liquidation stock. Big lots. Yes, you really can pick up DVD players at $30 a piece if you can buy them in bulk when they come through the Closeout Club, for example. Or Via Trading.

In my opinion, eBay works best when you are selling items that buyers cannot easily purchase elsewhere. For that reason, liquidated and close out stock items do very well because from your buyers’ perspective, your auction is cheaper than any other source, and they cannot easily click onto another auction selling exactly the same thing, and nor can they run down to mall and find the same thing at the price you are offering. Even better are antique, surplus, and junk (yes, junk) items for the same reasons. They are one-off items and the buyer may not have another chance.

Man, I’ve given you some real “secrets,” here. You may be thinking to yourself that you can’t afford to put down $5 or $10k for a shipment, even if the per piece price averages out to $20 or $30. What if you had the opportunity to purchase small lots but get the same kind of price reduction with big lots? Well, I know this is shameless, but in my opinion, one of the best kept “secrets” to finding small lots is the Salehoo forum and other resources. I’m talking about small bulk lots, here. Small lots mean big discounts. Discounts that will allow your prices to be competitive. Discounts that will allow you to turn a profit. If you are interested, you can find out more about Salehoo by signing up for the free newsletter. Now, if you decide to click through, Salehoo, like other reputable directories, only provides the sources. However, the forum will allow you to network with other members as well as Salehoo staff to find sources not listed in the directory. It is up to you to establish a relationship with the sources and to sell the products. Remember, too, that Salehoo, just like other reputable wholesale dropship product directories, is not a click-you-way-to-riches-overnight scheme. Just want to warn you. Consider this a “real deal” alert. (More info here . . .)

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