Insider Secrets to Trade Shows & Incredible Wholesale Deals by Charlie Choo - HTML preview

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Contents

Introduction.................................................................................................................................................. 6 

 

8 Outside-the-Box Techniques to Uncover Wholesale Items.............................................................. 7 

 

Friends and Family................................................................................................................................. 7 

 

Garage Sales and Yard Sales.............................................................................................................. 8 

 

Charity Shops ......................................................................................................................................... 9 

 

Local Businesses ................................................................................................................................... 9 

 

Estate Sales.......................................................................................................................................... 11 

 

Advertising for merchandise............................................................................................................... 12 

 

Liquidation sales................................................................................................................................... 13 

 

eBay ....................................................................................................................................................... 14 

 

Sourcing Products from Abroad............................................................................................................. 15 

 

Dealing with Cultural Differences....................................................................................................... 17 

 

My #1 Favorite Wholesale Sources Directory...................................................................................... 20 

 

Trade Shows for incredible wholesale deals........................................................................................ 22 

 

Top 15 eBay Selling Success Tips........................................................................................................ 25 

 

Tip 1: Choose your niche or market wisely...................................................................................... 26 

 

Tip 2: Watch your competition but don't copy them........................................................................ 28 

 

Tip 3: Imagine the next sale. .............................................................................................................. 29 

 

Tip 4: Start small and grow your business....................................................................................... 31 

 

Tip 5: Try, Try and Try again.............................................................................................................. 32 

 

Tip 6: Use a standard template for all your eBay auctions............................................................ 33 

Tip 7: Stay up to date. ......................................................................................................................... 34  FREE Gift: Receive a FREE “Auction Secrets Exposed” CD ($47 Value) at:  http://www.AuctionSecretsExposed.com 

Tip 8: Use Skype!................................................................................................................................. 35 

 

Tip 9. Find Alliances............................................................................................................................. 36 

 

Tip 10. Outsource.................................................................................................................................37 

 

Tip 11. The W.I.I.F.M Complex.......................................................................................................... 37 

 

Tip 12. Start a mailing list or newsletter............................................................................................ 37 

 

Step 13: Automate as much as you can........................................................................................... 38 

 

Tip 14. Never Underestimate SEO.................................................................................................... 38 

 

Tip 15: Don't Give Up! ......................................................................................................................... 39 

 

Conclusion................................................................................................................................................. 39 

 

Recommended Reading ......................................................................................................................... 40 

 

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Introduction

 

Starting out on eBay can be a challenge. There was a time when all a seller had to do was list an item and wait for it to sell. Nowadays, it’s a little harder; with such a huge number of other sellers who are already making a full-time living from eBay, it can be hard to keep up.

Essentially, there are two skills that you need to master to succeed on eBay: 1) Sourcing products for resale, and 2) Selling techniques. In this eBook, you will learn the basics of both and learn to compete with those long standing sellers.

The first challenge for new sellers is where to source items to sell on eBay. Many believe that they need to find a wholesaler to be able to get the best products and the best prices. Using wholesale suppliers is a fantastic way to source merchandise, and I’ll be talking about how to find them with tradeshows later on.

But wholesale suppliers aren’t your only option for getting hold of stuff to sell. There are actually dozens of other ways to get great items to sell that will be extremely profitable on eBay. Read on to find out what they are! Because so many people overlook them, this means there is an incredible opportunity for those who are willing to detour off the beaten track.

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8 Outside-the-Box Techniques to Uncover Wholesale Items
Friends and Family

Selling stuff from around the home is an excellent way to start building feedback and cut your teeth as an eBay seller. Once you’ve emptied the garage, basement and cupboards of stock you no longer use, why not check if your friends and family have anything they want to get rid of?

Lots of people have plenty of stuff they want to turf, but lack the time and the willpower to sort through it. Let me tell you, they will be delighted when you ring up offering to do the job! In many cases they will probably be glad for you to just take the goods away, but for big ticket items you can negotiate a fair split on the profit.

What I’ve done several times in the past is send out a group email to all my contacts asking them if they have anything in saleable condition that they want to get rid of, and offering to pick it up on a certain date. Usually you get at least 10 responses and then on the specified day, you can drive around with a trailer and pick everything up.

This sourcing method is quite time consuming as you have to prepare items for sale by doing a bit of cosmetic work, then write up descriptions and photograph everything. However, these types of everyday items are in HOT demand on eBay, so your efforts will be well rewarded. You can easily make $5,000 plus with this method – more than enough to invest in a wholesaler or to go on a nice holiday.

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Garage Sales and Yard Sales

 

Not a weekend goes by in my neighborhood when there isn’t at least a couple of people having a garage or yard sale. I also like to check the Classified section of my local newspaper to find other garage and yard sales in the area.

Garage and Yard sales can be gold mines for clothing, household items, antiques, CDs and DVDs.

This sourcing strategy does require a bit of time on the hoof, but you won’t be able to source goods any cheaper than with this method. I often pick up CDs for 0.50 cents that I can easily sell on eBay for between $10 and $30, which is a huge profit, and well worth my time.

My advice is to set yourself a budget. Take cash and don’t spend more than $5 on any single item. That way, your loss won’t be that great if you can’t resell it for much (or at all).

The other key with garage and yard sales is to get in early. All the good stuff will be gone a couple of hours in, so make sure you turn up at opening time (or I actually like to turn up 15 minutes before the start time for any yard sales I suspect will have good potential – they’re usually more than happy for you to have a rummage while they are still setting up.).

Don’t worry if you are quite slow at first. When you start out with this technique it can be difficult to know what to look for. But if you stick to your budget, you’ll soon come to know how valuable certain items really are, without losing much money at all.

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Charity Shops

 

Every community has at least a couple of charity shops. Many of them have fill-a-bag deals or sell clothing by the pound. The key to this sourcing technique is to read the fashion street-style blogs so that you are up to date with current trends.

Use this knowledge to select vintage clothing, shoes and accessories similar to what you’ve seen these people wearing and you can guarantee they’ll sell well on eBay. Label clothing in good condition also sells really well.

As with Garage and Yard Sales, it’s important to stick to a budget. Don’t get carried away and over spend on something – if it’s not under $5, don’t buy it. Preferably you don’t want to be spending more than $1 on charity store items.

Local Businesses

 

If you’ve got an Ikea or a Walmart in your area, then you are lucky. Not everyone has the luxury of driving 15 minutes down the road to these stores for everyday consumables.

That’s why you can do really well by buying items from these stores and reselling them on eBay. Don’t be mindless about this though. Check what stock is only available instore and not on the company’s online shop. The ‘Reduced’ area at Ikea is also a great place to find stuff to sell.

I know a guy who used to go to Walmart on the first day of a big movie to DVD release. He’d buy up dozens of the DVD and list them on eBay, one per hour. Because Walmart

 

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often sells these items at a loss to bring in customers, and because not everyone can access Walmart and their amazing deals, you can do really well selling these on eBay US and eBay international for the first week of release. Yes, this is a very short-term strategy, but hey, it’s almost sure to give you $600 or so in return!

If you live in a major city, then lucky you. Make sure you attend the stock-take, mid-year and end-of-year sales held by the big department stores. There is often between 30%70% off major brand name items at these sales, and guess what, not everyone can get along.

Use this to your advantage and carefully select classic styles from popular brands to sell on eBay. You can either flip the items right away, or swhat’s even better is to hold items from say, the end of winter sales until the beginning of the following winter, and then list them to catch demand at its peak.

So that’s one option for using local big business outlets to make money. The other is niche and specialty stores. Down the road from me is a great family-operated store selling handmade wooden toys. These toys are one-of-a-kind and you can’t buy them anywhere else – but I bet lots of people would like to!

As long as this shop doesn’t have a policy on eBay that you can’t resell their items there (as some companies do), then there is nothing stopping you from purchasing a few and selling them on eBay for a decent markup.

Finding opportunities like this is just a matter of taking a good look at what is available in your area that isn’t likely to be universally available. If you travel, this can also alert you to opportunities on a larger scale.

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For example, Victoria’s Secret is very accessible in the United States, but although the brand is well-known in Australia, there are no stores there. So it’s no surprise to see that Victoria’s Secret has a very high success rate on eBay Australia!

Estate Sales

 

When people die these days they often leave behind a heck of a lot of stuff. This may sound a bit callous, but the reality is that it is often a huge burden for the family to sort through everything and arrange to get rid of it. That’s why many families have estate sales. This is where – apart from a few mementoes that are especially significant to the family – everything the deceased person owned is sold off by a company paid to organize the sale.

Because an experienced company is handling the sale, estate sales don’t yield up bottom-dollar bargains like garage sales. However, they are still good places to source antiques and collectibles so I definitely recommend them as a sourcing option for sellers with a special interest in, and knowledge of, vintage items – whether that be coins, clothing, books, art, furniture, jewelry or what have you.

The most important tip I can give you about estate sales is that you should do your homework first. The ad is likely to list the categories of items in the sale, so this will give you a general idea of what to expect. Then you can do some research on eBay and find out which of those items is likely to be profitable.

Make sure you turn up early so you have a chance to take a good look around. Only buy something if you are sure that it will sell well – iPhones are a godsend for this process as they make it possible to research an item on the fly if you are unsure!

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If you find something interesting but aren’t sure about it, take a photo. You can research it later when you get home, and even though you may have missed out on it this time, at least you’ll know for the estate sale you attend.

What you don’t want to do is get carried away and end up spending lots of money for items that turn out not to be in high demand. As I said, estate sales are best for people who already have experience in the antiques/collectibles industry.

Advertising for merchandise

 

 

Sometimes you’ll buy something from a yard sale or pick it up from friends and then find that it sells really, really well. You are desperate to find more to sell - but how?

A fantastic technique is to advertise. Use Craiglist, Gumtree or your local newspapers to advertise for the items you are looking for and you’ll be amazed at how many will turn up. You should offer people an amount of money that is reasonable and makes it worth their while to call you, but you don’t need to let on the true value.

For example:

 

Wanted: Oak sideboards in good condition. Will pay $200 for tidy pieces. Call 98023989

 

This is just an example mind – I actually have no idea what the going rate is for oak sideboards right now!

 

You may wonder whether people would actually want to sell stuff like this – why would they not list it on eBay themselves?

 

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Quite simply, most people can’t be bothered. It’s one of those rainy day tasks they never get around to, but the opportunity for some quick cash is always appealing. You’ll always get a couple that try and haggle, but most people will be only too glad for you to take whatever it is away.

Liquidation sales

 

Going into business today is tough, and nobody knows this better than liquidators who make a living buying up the plant and equipment of failed businesses, and then selling it on for a profit.

Liquidators usually offer the now defunct business a lump sum for everything, which means they can still make a big profit reselling expensive items on for pennies on the dollar.

The best place to find liquidation sales is the classifieds section of your newspaper. Sometimes you’ll also see big ads scattered throughout a local newspaper, listing all the categories of items that are going to be sold.

Liquidation sales are usually held on a weekday, so most regular people can’t get to them. The range of merchandise you can pick up at these sales is incredible, and most items will be in reasonable to excellent condition, and below 50% of the retail price.

I especially love liquidation sales for getting big ticket items to sell on eBay that most other sellers avoid because they are too difficult to deal with. For example, office furniture, kitchen islands and sideboards, top-of-the-range professional cookware,

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laptops, carpets, filing cabinets - even things like pianos and pool tables. There is usually a viewing time before the actual sale, so you can go along and scope out items with good selling potential.

eBay

 

 

Nope, that wasn’t a typo. eBay is a great place to find stuff to sell on eBay, even if that sentence does sound a bit weird.

Lots of businesses (both online and off) use eBay as an easy way to do their own bit of liquidation, and there really are some incredible bulk buys to be had. I have bought wholesale lots on eBay of everything from clothing to makeup to dehumidifiers and wedding cake toppers.

Your average consumer does not want a bulk lot of children’s playing swords and wouldn’t even think to search eBay for them. To you on the other hand, spending $30 on a lot of 10 swords is a pretty good deal, and still leaves you with room to offer a good price to your buyers for a single sword and make a profit.

So many new eBay sellers dismiss the idea of sourcing items to sell on eBay from eBay without even trying it, but let me tell you, it’s well worth giving a go. And if you stick to a budget of $50, you don’t really have much to lose!

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Sourcing Products from Abroad

 

It’s always a worrisome endeavor to trust people to do business with you and your customers if you don’t even speak the same language. But even with such barriers, sourcing items from overseas is well worth the trouble; it gives you access to new and unique items, greatly increasing the chances of you being the only seller on eBay with a product. Best of all, the prices are amazing!

Many other sellers use overseas suppliers, and all those who have been doing so for years have made it easier for you to get started. There are companies and strategies in place that have been laid down and smoothed out before you even came onto the scene. Now it is up to you to decide how to identify the best products from wholesalers abroad. This is where you will need to do a bit of homework and ask some pretty tough questions about the nature of your business.

My biggest thing is to know supplier in person. Not just in emails and on the phone, but in person. When you meet people in person, it brings on an entirely different element to your business. It actually transforms your business through the contacts that you have made and the networking that has been established. This is why I heavily encourage you to join a trade association.

When you join a trade association and start attending trade shows, the people that are either in the association or attending the shows will, most likely, refer you to some of the more proficient companies that offer the best products for the best prices.

Some of these trade associations that may be in your industry will host international supplier’s exhibits to help people like you connect to the right people to help deliver the best products to your customers.

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You need to attend these international trade shows where they are exhibiting the products that you want and to start getting your business out there.

Many new sellers expect that when they start an eBay store that they are just going to find the perfect product supplier for their company by searching on the internet. That is simply not the case. You need to get out there and be ferocious about your business.

Now that I hope I have convinced you that you need to attend international exhibits, what are you to do? Network your business with other businesses that are doing the same or similar things as you and consult each other. Your goal is to find as many friends and find out what they are doing and – maybe more importantly – not doing.

The Federation of International Trade Associations has directories of companies that you can even search by region and industry to help you pinpoint those you need to communicate with.

The U.S. government’s Export.gov Gold Key Matching Service can help you find overseas suppliers in your industry as well. It might be helpful for you to research a bit on your state’s Commerce Department website to see if they are able to help locate some pockets of valuable contacts too.

Sometimes a state will have more information about a certain industry than a national website only because the city that is in a state may be an international hub for commerce traffic.

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Dealing with Cultural Differences

 

You need to not only keep an open mind, but you need to keep a sense of reality about it as well. Countries that are less developed than yours don’t charge as much, but are also less regulated. Unless you keep a good eye on the regulations and how the products are actually being developed, there’s always that chance that something bad will happen, with no chance of recourse.

But that is what scares people away. I’m just covering all the basics for you. I want to make sure that you are looking into the best deals from companies in other countries but also to be thorough and honest with yourself. It’s just good to have the big picture in mind and to look at it through their eyes as well.

Products that you source from more developed countries may cost more, but it may be worth it because of the comfort of knowing that they probably have all their ducks in a row and everything is legit. Those companies in those countries usually have more protection of international transactions as well where everything is properly documented and accounted for in the event that something should become an issue.

Take all your costs and risks into consideration. Yes, it’s nice to have the lowest cost on the products that you want, but you may soon find out that you really do get your money’s worth.

Here’s what you are going to need to do. Find three companies in a certain region of the world that you want to get products from and write the pros and cons of each. Evaluate the risk and cost factors of each. This will be easier to evaluate the three companies side by side because they will be similar with slight differences.

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These differences will show which one you should go with. If you evaluate one company from Australia, one from China and the other from India, it might seem a bit confusing and neglect the opportunity to make a clear decision.

Even though they are all foreign to you, the more you learn about several companies in one region, the more familiar you will become of what is considered the norm and what is considered uncommon practice.

For each supplier on your list from

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