Hello everyone! I am absolutely green to this venture. I am excited, but a bit overwhelmed. Like most in my position, I have other duties, and have been doing research for a couple of hours per day (which is easy to do). I want to make sure that my first time buying wholesale, and selling, will at least lead me to break even. I do not want to dropship, at this time, because I like the security of having my own inventory.
I would like to start off by selling no more than two items. Of course, I look at items that are in demand at any time of year, have a low buying point in bulk and yada yada. One item I am interested in selling, is the backpack. I made contact with Surplus Giant, and they seemed to have backpacks being sold for very cheap per unit. (We are talking about under $10) But when I go on Ebay or Amazon (both of which I do not like, but have unparalleled traffic), I see the same backpack being sold (with free shipping) for around $5 more per unit than what I can buy for, from SG. Taking into account Ebay and Paypal fees, if I were to do the same, I would make $2 per backpack, if I did the same. Sounds great if I sell a few hundred; I have no doubt I COULD sell that much.. over the span of a year or more. In which case, the effort would be in vain, considering the time I would spend packing and shipping.
What is more perplexing, is that the sellers who can offer such rates are not necessarily gargantuan, established entities with 5000+ feedback (and obviously have great buying power). Some of them seem to be relative newbies. I have looked for these backpacks with other wholesalers, and failed to find similar prices (albeit I admit I have only contacted a few others).
Earphones are another item I looked at with hope, at first. But then I realized that while I could buy some of these cheap earphones for around $1 each, on Ebay they are selling for that much, with free shipping.
Just for the record, I have read many threads in the forums, and the beginner's guides offered by Salehoo. I take to heart that I must distinguish myself from the crowd, for example by emphasizing I am a US seller, and having creative listings. I know that I must utilize other areas such as Craigslist and the paper. But finding my niche seems like hardest part of "getting up and running". I have found niches that seem open, only to realize upon further inspection that the sell-rate is very low and/or I just don't know enough about the items to feel comfortable describing them (e.g. jewelry).
Argh.. I am not sure where I was going with this. I don't want to dawdle for too long making a decision, thus being in a perpetual limbo. Anyway, any advice is appreciated, and sorry to ramble.