wholesale/import ideas

dollyd1980

Hi Guys,

1st post in the forum so go easy!!

Ive been looking at starting a small business to supplement my working income and have decided to either buy wholesale products/import from the far east. Ive got a few ideas such as importing batteries/zippo lighters both of which can be sourced from abroad but just wondered if anyone had experience of a similar nature and if you guys had any ideas that you think could be money spinners. From a distribution point of view the lighter/smaller the better really.

thanks

Noname29

we've been looking into something similar so looking forward to some ideas.
Best of luck.

weaver33

Where are you thinking of selling? Ebay? Markets? Party Plan??

Are you going to travel to Far East and select goods yourself? Or, rely on a distributor??

Hopefully this won't happen to you, but I ordered a bulk lot of fashion polo shirts once from China and when I received my shipment:mad: Most of the garments were of total poor quality etc etc...

The lesson here is to visit the wholesaler/distributor first and handpick your order!

Of course, I guess you can't go wrong with lighters? But still worth negotiating with the supplier first to build up the trust and get some samples before you make your first order!

Richard019

weaver33 wrote: »

Where are you thinking of selling? Ebay? Markets? Party Plan??

Are you going to travel to Far East and select goods yourself? Or, rely on a distributor??

Hopefully this won't happen to you, but I ordered a bulk lot of fashion polo shirts once from China and when I received my shipment:mad: Most of the garments were of total poor quality etc etc...

The lesson here is to visit the wholesaler/distributor first and handpick your order!

Of course, I guess you can't go wrong with lighters? But still worth negotiating with the supplier first to build up the trust and get some samples before you make your first order!

Unless the safety standards are lower at origin than where OP intends to be selling them to, like certain oriental fireworks which have a reputation for being unsafe. Would a licence also be needed to import and stock/store lighter fluid in business sized quantities?

weaver33

Good point!

A really helpful business help sheet can be downloaded from Trading Standards:

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi-bin/hillingdon/bus1list.cgi

shim_2

Hello,

It's my first post too, so I'm sorry If this has already been covered before.

My wife is actually from China and we run our own importing firm, we can source pretty much anything between us. We just sourced an alarm system, and digital video camera for one of our clients.

Quality is an issue, but as long as you know what you are doing it shouldn't be a major concern. It's a good idea to request samples, you might have to pay for postage but that shouldnt be that costly. Also make sure that the products already have the CE mark, if they don't then this can be very costly.

You should never pay all of the money to a chinese firm up front before you get the products, it's common to pay 30% up front then the remainder when it's loaded on the boat and you have the bill of landing.

You should also make sure that the firm you are dealing with has an export licence, if they dont then this can increase the cost as they will have to find another company that has one.

Hope that was some help! If you need any thing else then don't hesitate to ask.

I was interested in Mobile phone watches, blank CD's/DVD's, and cable. What you want to import does depend on where you will sell it though, as ebay is saturated with many of these things already!

Andrew

loofer

Haven't really got anything to add about the selling bit but you might find this as a starting point if you're wanting to import and have little experience.

I have no experience of the firm so you will have to make your own mind up
http://www.easyimex.com/

dollyd1980

thanks for the replys guys, all good info much appreciated

mjl_3

I bought some really nice necklaces and bracelets from a really good supplier in China.
The cost of the items wholesale was about £90 inc postage.
The supplier sent the items with ups, they were fully tracked.
When they arrived at my doorstep there was extra duty to pay,
Off the top of my head I think it was ... vat, import duty @ 30% and a ups handling fee.. summat like £60 ish.
So there went my big idea to import quality jewellery on the cheap !!
The extra duty I paid took a large chunk out of my intended profit.
BTW I listed on e bay uk and the stuff only sold 2 pieces, its saturated with cheap jewellery.

EvilDaz

A good idea is to get hold of some wholesalers catalogues, scan one of the pictures of an item in and put it on ebay for sale. If it sells THEN go to the wholesaler and buy a few in. Its the best way to get an idea if anything will sell or not. I think it would work best if you put a dozen or so auctions on to finish at the same time, then if you have managed, for example out of 30 auctions, to sell 10 then you can pop down to the wholesaler, buy 10, or more if you think they will sell, and then send the 10 to the buyers then start some more auctions

Daz

summermummy

I have done a little bit of research and apparently sites that the blue chippers use include a site called alibaba and another site called the wholesaler- apparently they only use gold suppliers . On the good sites you can check the top sellers and popular catergories as they have a top sellers category. Another tip is to look at ebay pulse and this gives you a good indication of current trends in the market place.