here is my latest rundown on dhgate:
27 total orders placed. of these they include:
>> 8 orders cancelled before they left the dealer. 7 of these were completely hassle free and involved ordering errors either on my part or the sellers but communication was great and refund was prompt. the eighth order was the 10 week ordeal i mentioned in my previous posts. one was for something i ordered that wouldnt work in the US and the seller caught it AND helped me find one that would.
>> 3 orders i have made for the same product because i found a local buyer on craigslist (cant beat craigslist ads) and a pretty good market on ebay for selling what this guy doesnt. Same single buyer has led to...
>> 3 more orders for some cool electronic gadgets that there isnt really a market for that i have found, but when he buys one, i get one for free so... cool toys for me!
>> 2 orders for some led lights that dont sale that well but they do sell so after ive felt the market out for them and got a good supply route i can keep the auctions up and running.
>> 1 mini computer that was for personal use that the quality wound up being a little low but for hitting the net and the price i swallowed the cost and counting it off on my taxes! worse comes to worse i could disclaimer the quality and still at least get my money back.
>> 1 order for some rifle scopes that i made my money back on and kept one for myself, so free scope and they were extremely nice! not sure about the reorder thing here yet.
>> 3 orders for some clothing that im feeling the market out on. no sales yet but the orders were dirt cheap anyway.
>> 1 order with a reorder on the way that i found a better market for selling it on the street through craigslist than i did on ebay! go figure.
>> 2 orders for USB drives that i nearly lost my ass on. total loss between the 2 were about 260 dollars. they are going to make a wicked dirty santa gift this year though. hope my friends arent on here!
>> a couple of smaller cheap orders that im feeling around a little bit, no big investments (under a hundred total) that i can sit on for a while and see where they go. pretty tough when the economy is doing what it is doing.
so, 27 total where 3 were bad puts them at around a 90% success rate for a going in blind user. now that i feel that while i may not be a pro, i certainly have learned the ropes fairly quick. and READING THE POSTS ON HERE HELPS. I cant stress this enough. Situation could have been a whole lot worse had I not got advice from here. ESPECIALLY THE WARNINGS FOR DHGATE threads. Pay attention to them and dont take my threads as an all clear by any means.
If anyone wants help or advice about a specific product or idea, hit me privately and lets talk frankly about it. Ive got my own market and not looking to steal your ideas.