I want to go over many things with new members and teach you a little about the marketplaces in which you are trying to get into.
We are going to go over many myths that many new sellers come here believing
Myth #1 Wholesale Is 50% or more Below Wholesale Pricing.
This is one of the biggest myths that many people believe. In reality. Wholesale is only 10% to 15% Below Retail Pricing. This can be much lower if your looking for wholesale electronics. So consider this when searching for a wholesaler.
Myth #2 Designer Goods are the best thing to sell on eBay.
Another myth that is widely exaggerated. In reality designer goods are the hardest product to acquire. If your lucky you can acquire authentic goods. But you will not sell them for massive profits like you may believe. Designer goods are very high risk especially for new sellers. 95% of suppliers online sell Very convincing Fakes. In many cases even the supplier has no idea they are fake.
Myth #3 The best authentic goods come from China
Absolutely. Alot of these goods are made in china. However chineese manufacturers are not authorized to sell these goods. If a chineese supplier has enough material to make 300,000 pairs of shoes. And NIKE GLOBAL only orders 250,000 Pairs. These manufacturers make the remaining shoes and sell them on basically a black market. Small chineese sellers that will sell them to you. These are not officially licensed by NIKE and are considered Fakes. You can get into alot of trouble selling these shoes. This is the situation with all Designer manufacturers. They cannot curb this problem but they still have their goods made in chineese factories because the labor for them is unbelievably cheap.
Myth #4 Electronics is the best and most profitable field to get into on eBay
Absolutely not. Electronics are the worse possible items to sell. Yes they are popular sellers. But not the most profitable for the sellers. Most of your sellers that are titanium powersellers make money on sheer volume. Not per unit. Most sellers only make a few dollars profit on each item. There are DVD sellers that make more money then a electronics seller. And DVDs are hardly profitable on eBay for a new seller.
Myth #5 eBay is the best marketplace to sell my goods
This has quickly become untrue. eBay is only a place to get rid of your stuff fast. But not without a loss of value on the item. Everything on eBay sells for below wholesale or way below wholesale. This has a lot to do with recent seller strikes. Changes to eBay's system that have made sellers and buyers leave in masses. And the fact that everyone buying on eBay expects to get everything for dirt cheap prices. And that many good products are flooded so bad on ebay the value of the item has died.
It is still a great place to sell if you do your research.
Other very popular sites are:
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Generally you can make more money on other sites then you can on ebay. Ebay still only gets 3% of the online shopping marketplace. Thats a big percentage to have but still you can do better then ebay. Dont let anyone make you think any different.
Myth #6 paypal is the best payment processing service for US sellers
Actually paypal is the largest but its far from the best. Paypal is geared more for buyers then sellers. Expect poor seller support. Never winning a dispute with a buyer and them letting every chargeback go through at your cost. Paypal also has the worst customer service department and many of their staff are trained to lie, and do anything they can to delay your requests. They are also the only company that has a proven track record of freezing your account and stealing your money. You can visit Link hidden: Login to view for more info on this.
One of the best alternatives is Using First Data Merchant Services Link hidden: Login to view. It takes about 24 hours to setup. And you can use your own bank account. You can accept credit cards, fight charge backs yourself.And basically manage every financial aspect of your business without worrying about a frozen account or the high fees paypal charges.
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Well that ends the most common myths of selling online. We just wanted to educate you a little before your quest begins.
We recommend that many of you consider buying in bulk. Yes it costs some money. And we know that many of you have little startup money. But we would suggest you save up your money and buy in bulk then try to jump into something now and loose that money on products that offer no big potential but high risk.
Buying in bulk and buying into liquidations is the most profitable area you can get into online. Dont fall for the dropshipping schemes you will find all over the internet. Most of them just arent worth it. Some make money on dropshipping but the majority end up loosing a huge amount of money.
Liquidations is a 480 BILLION DOLLAR A YEAR INDUSTRY. Many people make a good living buying liquidated merchandise and reselling it. Alot are millionares after doing this for several years, being smart and making proper business decisions. This is exactly how I started myself and now I run a company that buys and sells truckloads of liquidated merchandise.
I would recommend you review and read all of the stickies and Announcements on the forums as they will teach you alot.
So once again we welcome you to salehoo and we cannot stress enough. If you have a question. We are a community of sellers. We are not just here to help ourselves and we are here to help others. We are a family here and we will do what we can to help each other. You will find out that the forums alone are worth the price you paid for membership. So dont be afraid to ask us for help with any situation that may arise.