Thinking of starting small Ebay business can anyone help ???

dblue75

Hi all.

Thinking of starting a small Ebay business. basically selling L'oreal products and other cosmetic bits n pieces....have a few quid for a decent outlay to start with and take it from there.

Does anyone/can anyone assist me in contacts for wholsale goods/deals/prices etc.....

Sent a few emails to Ebay company's and awaiting replys at the mo.... any info/help would really be appreciated.

:T

RFW

Not sure you're going to get anyone giving you wholesale suppliers on here.

Have you checked which products you are allowed to sell before you start?

Lots of cosmetic manufacturers don't allow their goods to be sold on Ebay or only allow pre approved sellers to do so.

As far as sourcing goods goes, start from the manufacturer, ask them who their wholesalers are. Failing that get some trade magazines and start from there. Cosmetics and toiletries are quite a difficult market with low margins so be careful, you could end up buying £1000 of cosmetics at wholesale prices for more than they are being sold in the supermarkets. You need to know your market inside out and back again!

Also spamming Ebay sellers (which is what it sounds like you are doing) asking them questions not related to the item they are selling could get your account suspended.

dblue75

Emmmm...excuse me !!! I am not spamming anyone and would never do that. I have been asking sellers on Ebay who sell loads of the products i am interested in and a few have now started to respond to me with wholesale lists and prices.

Don't know where you surmise SPAMMING from ???

On the other hand thank you for some of the advice you have given me....appreciated.

soolin

dblue75 wrote: »

Emmmm...excuse me !!! I am not spamming anyone and would never do that. I have been asking sellers on Ebay who sell loads of the products i am interested in and a few have now started to respond to me with wholesale lists and prices.

Don't know where you surmise SPAMMING from ???

On the other hand thank you for some of the advice you have given me....appreciated.

Can I suggest you look at this from the sellers point of view. You email me saying you like my products and can you know where I buy them so cheaply so that you can go into direct competition with me?

Do you see the problem here?

dblue75

The Ebayers who have so far got back to me....advertise that they also sell wholesale and are happy to do business. That is why i asked them.

martindow

Anyone can offer 'wholesale' prices but clearly they are charging more than if you got things directly from the company. You have no guarantee that what they supply is genuine (see the link below).

Many well known manufacturers do not like sales on Ebay devaluing their brand. There are a string of court cases with l'Oreal and Ebay

http://insitelawintellectualproperty.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/case-note-27-august-09-loreal-v-ebay-case/

which could scupper your plan.

TurkishDelight

dblue75 wrote: »

The Ebayers who have so far got back to me....advertise that they also sell wholesale and are happy to do business. That is why i asked them.

But they are selling it on ebay, and from your wording they are selling it as consumer sized orders as well.

So you will be directly competing with the exact same people who sold you the items.

They can undercut you even if you get desperate and sell it at cost, because they will have made a profit on what they sold you.

If you're going to do this you have to be a bit less.....obvious.

Think outside the box.

When we were thinking about going into sealed products we asked the company, who wouldn't tell us their supplier.
But then we asked a company in the same area and they had no trouble telling us and it turns out that the wholesaler is also the only UK wholesaler for the first company.

In the end though it became obvious that with a popular product and only one wholesaler it becomes a bit of a race to the bottom and just depressingly competitive.

dblue75

You know what ??? !!!! IT !!! LOL

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paulofessex

Overheads for Ebay will be sky high, would suggest you look at Party Plan or leaving samples at places where parents hang out i.e. playgroups, schools , daycentres, coffee morning that type of thing