Wholesalers directories-any favourites?

bubbles_2

Hi all,

Just wondering if you would recommend purchasing any 1 wholesale directory in particular over the other.

I have been searching online for suppliers for about 3 weeks now and find that im just hitting the same suppliers on search engines etc.

I seriously want to start a small selling business on e-bay and have been researching many different products that i thought would sell and the results have surprised me no end. If your not very careful and dont do your homework you could be running at a loss or just breaking even is my conclusion here.

Therefore, i have made a decision that maybe i will have to give in and pay to access an online wholealers list and wondered if anyone has experience of paying for these and finding one more worthwhile than the other?

Thanks for you time... bubbles x

biblejohn

To be honest, i expect those wholesaler lists are a waste of money. Ive bought/sold stuff for many many years now, even before ebay was thought off. And in my experience even if you manage to get trade membership to wholesalers you arnt going to get much better prices than what people are paying for the stuff on ebay or the prices some of the main online resellers out there can sell for.

There are a few main "cash & carry" type places out there depending on what sort of stuff you want to sell, but firstly you have to be a trader, have trade references, a business bank account etc.. etc... etc... in order to get an account setup. Its places like that where a lot of smaller corner shops/general stores/garages/car spares places/small electronic retailers get their goods from. But, their resell prices will be higher than on the net which is how they can make a profit.

In order to be able to buy stuff to sell online you`d have to find a seriously cheap supplier. If you do, let me know!

Cheers

ilovefreebies_2

Theres a list of drop shippers on http://thefreebiedirectory.co.uk

I've used couple which are good value.

soolin

I don't think the paid for wholesalers will be any better than the free ones.

If the information is there on Google, even if you have to pay for it, you can bet other sellers have already investigated or signed up and you will just be in direct competition with them.

Drop shippers were discussed on this board recently as well and some of the responses to that might be of interest to you. I don't know how to link to another thread, sorry, but this is the thread title
"Does anyone know any good dropshipping sites? "

I'm sure someone more computer savvy than me can do a direct link!

To run a successful business on ebay you need to find your own niche market, not rely on wholesalers or drop shippers as the competition is to great. Get into something you know or watch for the latest trend or 'must have' and get in quick.

If you ask about the cheapest place to buy small elecrtrical goods (or whatever) on the dedicated ebay newsgroups the answer will always be 'ebay' as most of the time the ebay prices ar eless than wholesale.

Soo

stavros_2

soolin wrote:

Drop shippers were discussed on this board recently as well and some of the responses to that might be of interest to you. I don't know how to link to another thread, sorry, but this is the thread title
"Does anyone know any good dropshipping sites? "

A quick and easy way to do links is to just copy and paste from the address bar and they are automatically linked like so

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=45415&highlight=good+dropshipping

stavros_2

You can also change the text displayed by writing

your text here

except remove the spaces before the "]"

bubbles_2

I appreciate your thoughts-thanks for replying. To be honest im still in a dilemma now then because i want to make just a little bit of extra money, im pregnant with my 3rd child now and wanted something to do online that i could work around the kids, i have looked into homeworking and that isnt an option with 3 young kids running around...at least e-bay i could do after the kids hit bed at nap time or evenings with not too much effort. Back to the drawing board i guess for now..thanks again all

soolin

bubbles wrote:

I appreciate your thoughts-thanks for replying. To be honest im still in a dilemma now then because i want to make just a little bit of extra money, im pregnant with my 3rd child now and wanted something to do online that i could work around the kids, i have looked into homeworking and that isnt an option with 3 young kids running around...at least e-bay i could do after the kids hit bed at nap time or evenings with not too much effort. Back to the drawing board i guess for now..thanks again all

bubbles don't give up on ebay yet. When you have time browse the listings, all categories and all sorts of things and just make a note of what you see.

One of my best ever selling items was something I saw selling on ebay that I realised I could buy locally at half the going price. I would never had thought of selling them unless I had seen them on ebay first.

Also, use your time to buy a few small odds and ends to start building up some feedback before you try and sell.

As you are having a baby maybe start there? If you have an NCT locally they might run nearly new sales where you can pick up bargains and after you've had some use out of them you can sell on ebay to get your money back.

Soo

skdotcom

My wife has just had a baby, and when I was in Boots recently I found loads of Mamas & papas stuff that we had wanted to buy, but at 75% off. Bought multiple items then sold on the unwanted stuff on eBay for a healthy profit. I find its best to stick to things you know about and buy yourself, as you have a good understanding of the market for these items, and whether or not you could make a profit on them.

ROBDOLPHIN66

Don't discount eBay itself as a source of goods to sell on eBay. I regularly buy goods on eBay to resell on eBay.
If you get yourself known as a seller of ?????, with good feedback and customer relations, and put a bit of effort in to your listings, you can easily sell an item on eBay for twice the amount that someone without these would be able to sell it for.
Good luck
Rob

dragonfly02

i wanted a double pushchair for when my nephew comes over and stay with my son, I looked around the net and found that they were around 150.00 each, so i sourced a whole pallet of returned/grade b double pushachairs worked out at 23 pounds each, there were about 13 in total, 2-3 of them were no good and had to be thrown out but the rest were sold for a good profit and of course i got to keep one for me free and made money on top, as someone said before buy something you know about (baby products as you are pregnant and will know prices)
It worked out really well for me anyway.
I have also had similar success with other products that i need the same way
i sold through ebay and found a delivery company who would pick up the items from my home so i didnt have to make loads of trips to the post office.
I did all this with 2 kids running around so it was pretty simple really.
as long as you can make it to the bank if you need to put cheques in to clear then you'll be fine


Hope this helps a little