Do they actually buy from a supplier?
or, do they have another way of getting stock?
2007-07-12 23:25:35 · 11 answers · asked by True_Brit 3 in Business & Finance ➔ Small Business
I have been selling on EBay for over 5 years. Some items I get from a central supplier. Others I get from going to auctions. It really depends on what you sell as to were you purchase your items. If you can get them at a deep discount price, you can then pass that savings on to your customers.
Hope this helps!
Kali :-)
2007-07-12 23:30:55 · answer #1 · answered by Kali_girl825 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ebay businesses can pull it off for one reason- They are making the sell for more than wholesale but less than retail. There are five levels of cost- Material, manufacture, wholesale, retail and MSRP.
Material- the cost of the actual materials needed to make a product
Manufacture- the cost that wholesalers pay to get a product from the company. This includes the cost of materials, plus labor to produce the product.
Wholesale- The price that the wholesaler sells the product for. This includes the manufactures price, plus the extra profit for themselves.
Retail- The price that the store sells it for. This price is usually much lower than the MSRP, but still produces an average of 47.3% profit that goes no where but the big guys pockets. Everything else goes to wages, packing, shipping, warehousing, and covers the wholesalers price.
MSRP- Manufacture's Suggested Retail Price- How much the manufacture SUGGESTS the Retail store should charge.
All an Ebay store has to pay is the wholesaler, and some times just the manufacture's, price and they get lots of sales because these products go for so much cheaper than retail does. And who doesn't want to save money and buy for cheaper than retail?
2007-07-12 23:37:45 · answer #2 · answered by Shel K 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Big stores such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc charge you usually 10 times what the damn thing is worth (production cost, transportation, warehousing, retail + reasonable profit). Guys on e-bay charge only 5 to 7 times.
eg - a 99 cents cigarette lighter is made in china for 2-3 cents a piece, add another 2-3 cents for transport maybe 3-4 more cents for warehousing and yet another 3-4 cents for retail expenses. That's up to 14 cents so far. Add a reasonable profit of 100% that's up to 28 cents total. The rest of it is rip off.
All the stores do it. Guys on e-bay do it too, but they rip you off less than the stores. It is called capitalism, dude.
2007-07-12 23:33:57 · answer #3 · answered by doruletz1999 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A lot of the products come from China and they may have an agent over here to list for them. China is very very cheap if for goods. Also bulk buying from a wholesalers is cheap if you have the determination to re sell. Most of the designer products on E bay are fakes. EBay can't regulate all auctions to weed out the crap.
2007-07-12 23:32:36 · answer #4 · answered by chicky 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well think about it. What's missing here. What is someone on ebay missing that a real store would have.
Employees, buildings, bills. Ebay stores can get away with minimum overhead because they're just online, so they can give a deal.
As well some make a lot of money on shipping, a LOT. Not for shipping but for "handling".
But mostly it's the different overhead.
2007-07-13 02:11:42 · answer #5 · answered by Luis 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1) They are selling second hand, "seconds", obsolete or bankrupt stock that has already been written off ... so anything they get is profit ...
2) They are sourcing direct from the Manufacturer .. most electronic goods in UK shops are half the price in USA and half again at the Manufacturer ..
3) They are con-merchants or criminals and can sell at any price because they either never deliver, deliver empty packages or (in the case of USB memory sticks and similar devices) items than have been reprogrammed to appear as something they are not ..
2007-07-12 23:35:15 · answer #6 · answered by Steve B 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes.
Lots do use a supplier. Wholesale dropshipping.
If your interested in such a site, we invite you to visit
www.stockmysite.com Over 3900 wholesale items, no fee dropshipping, in fact no setup or membership fees either.
See it, List it with your mark up, sell it..order it, it gets shipped to your customer.
No up front money, and you don't have to house the inventory.
Best of Luck,
D
www.stockmysite.com
2007-07-13 00:21:00 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
They buy and sell in wholesale quantities, so they get better deals than us, end customers.
there is really no mantra for that. Just order a 1000 PCs for 10% less market price, and sell for 5% profit.
Easy!
2007-07-12 23:29:13 · answer #8 · answered by Ev!lOnE 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Tiny overheads + big margins, = Profits
They buy a load of bulk inferoir rubbish, and then sell on it using the above method
2007-07-12 23:32:36 · answer #9 · answered by superliftboy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's called dropshipping. Google it.
2007-07-12 23:28:14 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋