Shipping and handling - the debate rages on

There was a thread recently on bonanzle about what someone should charge for shipping and handling.

Let me say right off the bat: if you tell your customer you charge x dollars to help cover your costs of boxes, bubble wrap, tape, labels, gas and your time...stop selling - get out of the business - find something less destructive to do. Because when you do that, all your are doing is (short-term) lining your pockets with a few extra coins and (long-term) making the on-line buying experience more painful for your customers.

So, seriously, go away.

I want my thingie I bought from you, and I will pay a reasonable charge for shipping. And I'm not so stupid that I think a 3 pound item will cost 12 bucks to mail, especially since I know I can go to the USPS website and figure out the cost myself.

So...in the name of fairness, I want to present to you the basic S&H models. Each takes some (in the words of Ricky Ricardo) 'splaining to do", but I think it will all be worth it.

Wholesalers: how you can find them

Ask someone if they want to donate you a kidney, and you'd have better luck getting a "yes" out of them than you would if you asked them to tell you their wholesalers and suppliers.

Finding a reputable wholesaler can take a huge amount of time and research. And once you find one, you want to do all you can to keep it to yourself.

Now, having said that, please do not expect me to tell you mine.

But...I can tell you how I found them.

1. the web. I have heard so many sellers say that you just can't find wholesalers on the web, that legitimate wholesalers don't "do the web" and that you need to use business directories to find true ones.

Poppycock.

It took me close to 3 weeks, but I managed to find about EIGHT wholesalers that I have or want to develop a business relationship with. What do they offer? The same (or similar) stuff I sell now...toys, home goods, garden items, etc.

You can find true, legitimate wholesalers on the web. Yes, it's true that a lot of them don't have (or want) a web presence, but there are plenty out there. Read on for hints on how to find them.

2. the products. One of the best ways I was able to find these wholesalers was by going directly to their web site. You'd be amazed at how many of them have links to let you create a wholesale log-in, which lets you see their wholesale prices. Sometimes you need approval, often an hour- or day-long process. But once you're in, the prices you can get from them is simply phenomenal. Like %50-75% off their retail price.

3. the box. I LOVE going to stores when they are unpacking stuff. Not so much that I can see the cool new stuff they have (I rarely buy anything new...auctions/used is my way of life) but rather to see where the stuff comes from. See some cool stuff? Look on the box it came out of...lo and behold...there it is in clear black print: the name of the manufacturer or distributor of the product. Now...go back to step 3 and see what else you can learn about them.

Now I need to warn you about something. There are lots of sites out there that call themselves wholesalers. There are two tests to verify that they are legitimate wholesalers and not a purely retail shop masquerading as wholesalers.

• Real wholesalers will not automatically show your the wholesale price. If you find a site and they have a "wholesale" price displayed right off the bat, that price is either a marginally marked down amount of their retail price, or it's really just their normal retail price, often with one of those quantity matrices that say "1: $19.99 / 2-4 $17.99 / 5 or more: $16.99". That's not wholesale pricing...that's a sale.

• Real wholesalers will ask you for your tax ID. Wholesalers sell to real resellers without charging sales tax, and they need proof that you are a legitimate reseller by asking you for your tax ID (or whatever your state calls it). If they don't ask for this before showing you their wholesale prices, they aren't a real wholesaler (or at least, not a legal one).

So...where do you get your stuff? The Next Generation

OK, so we covered getting items to re-sell via normal channels you go to everyday (big box stores, discount stores, etc.).

But you need more perhaps. You are tired of driving around these places almost every day to see what new stuff they got in.

You need a more consistent source.

You need...a wholesaler.

Wholesalers open up a HUGE world of opportunity to you. Plenty of supply, great prices, and there about a gazillion wholesalers out there.

Good luck finding them. Or at least, good luck finding one that will deal with you.

I'm gonna tell you right off the bat that if you are looking for a wholesaler who will sell you a bunch of iPhones or Wii game stations, you got yourself one heck of an uphill battle. Who wouldn't want to sell these?!?! Just about everyone wants one. And you can get them, too. You really only need a couple of things:

• a significant business presence (think Toys 'R Us, rather than a bonanzle booth)
• a significant amount of money/credit (think purchases by the truckload, rather than 2 or 3 units).

If you take anything from this blog, let it be this: don't try to repeat the success of others, find your own thing...PLEASE!!!)

OK...back to our story...

Now don't get too upset. There are actually a lot of wholesalers who will work with you, even though you aren't a Best Buy and you don't have a million-dollar line of credit.

They just don't sell Wii's. But they do sell toys, games, clothing, home goods, food, cooking supplies, sports equipment, craft supplies, big/small appliances, blah blah blah.

And this is where you can make some serious money. I'm talking serious serious money.

Where are they?

Sorry...that would be telling.

But I will give you a hint...soon...very soon.

So...where do you get your stuff?

There are several questions that always pop up in forums where sellers discuss their topics:

• Do you declare your income on your taxes?
• How much is this item worth?
• Where do you get your stuff?

Well, asking this question is usually gonna result in a whole lot of flaming from other posters. Sources for goods to sell are hard to come by and usually closely guarded.

But...here are a few hints I can give you (without divulging any of my sources, of course).

FYI...this topic covers new goods, not antiques and collectibles. That's for another thread.

1. Look around you. I can tell you I have gone into local big-box retail stores, purchased items at their retail price and sold them for about 4 times what I paid.

Now don't go fill up a dozen shopping carts at your local wallyworld and expect to make a fortune. It takes research and just plain dumb luck to find these items. But they are out there. And it's not a one-time thing. I do this regularly with about 5 items I know I will sell for at least 150% profit.

2. Look around you part deux. You know those stores that have "the names you know, at discount prices"? Well, they are sometimes a fantastic source for good items to re-sell. Case in point: we came across about a dozen Dept. 56 halloween sets. Original price: $55. Their price: $15. What we sold them for: $65.

3. REAL discount stores. There are stores out that that specialize in close-outs, overstock items, returns, etc. About 95% of their stuff is, well, junk. I mean, it's fine stuff, nothing wrong with it. Just not worth trying to re-sell. But that remaining 5% can be pure gold. There is one store in particular that I can go to about every week and easily spend a few hundred bucks on stuff that I can easily turn around and gross about 2-3 times what I paid.

Basically, if you want good, new, sellable items, you need to stick with the locations that have these goods, do your research, do your research again, and keep on doing it until you find a source.

And if you find a source, don't stop looking for others. That one source you found may just be a flash-in-the-pan and never have decent stuff again. If it is or not, don't stop looking for more sources.

I got about 4 fantastic sources in my back pocket, and I have about 10 that I'm looking into right now.

Don't stop looking. Ever.

The joys of waking up and checking out your Amazon sales

I sell on Amazon and only via the FBA program. Expensive, yes. But also usually advantageous.

I mentioned a while ago about the motorized Banzai bumper boats. I sent them two and sold both in about 10 days (one just sold this morning...a great thing to see first thing when you get out of bed).

Paid $20. Cleared about $75.

Now, this is the icky part: I paid close to $30 in fees, including their selling fee and the fees with them packing and shipping the bumper boat for me.

So there are two ways of looking at it:

"Dang, I could have made more if I shipped it on my own."

...or

"Excellent, I just cleared $75 and I didn't have to do squat!"

So...time? Or Money? Which is more important to you?

The Danger of the "all your eggs in one basket" mentality

Many a seller had hitched their wagon to ebay, thinking that it would be the only venue they'd need to become big-time on-line sellers (or at least sell enough to help pay the bills).

Ah...reality.

When ebay decided to alienate the smaller sellers and focus on the big box stores and manufacturers to become a venue for overstock goods, many of those smaller sellers felt like they were being pushed out.

And they had no place else to go.

They had fallen prey one of the biggest pitfalls of the small seller: dedication to a single venue for your sales.

Whether you sell on Amazon, ebay, bonanzle, ebid, ecrater or even your own site, it's important to realize that any one of these could fail, stumble, or in some way seriously hurt your business on it. Even having your own site doesn't make you immune. There are others out there looking at your site thinking "Yeah, I can sell that, too" and POOF - there goes whatever exclusivity you may have.

Lesson 1: if you want to sell and even think of being able to make a living at it, you need to look at all venues out there. You may not need to necessarily sell on them, but at least be aware of them and perhaps have a presence there, just in case your current venue decides to "ebay" you!

Lesson 2: be sure to have a contingency plan. Do you sell your hand-made items on ebay? Excellent! Have you looked into bonanzle? Or etsy? No? Then why not? Etsy is a fantastic site for artisans and crafters to sell their wares. If ebay starts to fail you, where will you go? Or is the market already dried up for your handmade toaster covers made from recycled Bud Lite cans? Ok...so what you gonna sell now?

Now, you may ask, "What about you? Did you have other venues in line?" Well, I started to ween myself from ebay long before they started to become closeout city. When I saw the disaster eBay Express turned into, I knew they didn't have any idea how to re-invent themselves...at least without hurting its then-present seller base.

So, yeah, I had contingency plans. I went from selling antiques and collectible to selling new goods. It took me like 3 1/2 weeks to convert, including suppliers, venue, and profit required to make it at least match what I was doing on ebay.

I'm not bragging. That's just the benefit of planning.

And so far, the plan is working pretty nicely.

In other words, if you need to change venues, product lines, or any serious portion of your business plan, PLEASE have a folder in your desk (or in your head) labeled "what if's" to fall back on just in case that great venue is still a shooting star, but no longer wants your wagon hitched to it.

The challenges of on-line marketing

Yesterday afternoon we stopped in the antique store (the Eclectic Mixx in Lakewood, Ohio). The owner and his partner were there and I mentioned that I spent a good part of the morning working on my blogs and getting myself on Twitter.

They hate Twitter.

Now, don't get me wrong. If you think it's worthless, that's cool. I personally want to give it a try.

But they just opened the store and they are trying to get the word out about the store. Perhaps they don't realize that "viral marketing" (despite the fact that it's a very old term) is still alive and well.

My blog is only a week or so old, and I have 4 followers. OK...not a lot I know. Some people have dozens.

But it's a start. And if it leads to one sale for me or for someone following me (or someone I'm following) then it was all worth it. Because that's how the virus spreads!!!

Wow...just joined twitter

Hmmm...I just signed up with twitter. I feel so...young.

Don't know why....the "I feel so young" part, I mean. I kind of assumed that twitter was for the skateboarding/young go-getter types.

Then I saw who's on it. Al Gore, Kevin Spacey, Weird Al Yankovic. Not exactly the youthful types I imagined I'd find.

So I have an account there. ID: richincleveland.

But...why did I do this?

One word: networking. Get my life out there, maybe get someone out there to look back. Maybe they'll see what I do, maybe contribute to my blogs, maybe learn something or correct me on something.

And maybe...take a look at what I have to sell.

We'll see.

Resources: packing materials

In my slowly-growing list of resource for you guys, I present: bubblefast.

I have found no seller of bubble wrap that's cheaper than bubblefast. They have great deals on envelopes, bubble mailers, packing tape, and so much more.

Uline is also a great site. But I'm committed to bubblefast. I really like them. Great service, too.

You want to sell stuff on line? Ok...what do you want to sell?

Selling on-line is cool. Fun. Rewarding. Boring. Monotonous. Frustrating. Profitable.

Plenty of positives...plenty of negatives.

What you can do to help get more positives in the experience?

Define what you want to sell.

I sell stuff I like to sell. I find no joy in selling offset printing presses, engine blocks, hdmi cables,...oh, lots of stuff.

I do enjoy selling 50's and retro items. Nice items for your home. Cool toys. Halloween stuff.

I like that stuff...so I educate myself about this stuff because I like it. So when I sell it, I can back it up with my spirit and reputation. When I buy it to re-sell, I know if I'm getting quality stuff at a good price.

In other words, I am connected to it. My heart is in it. My passion is in it.

If I didn't care about what I was selling, it would show.

There's a great book out there with a title that I remind myself of everyday: do what you love, the money will follow.

If you don't love selling 60's kitchen decor, don't sell it. Remember, you want to sell on-line to get away from a job you probably don't like anymore. Don't jump from one job like that to another.

Profit - it starts with your buying price

So many people think profit is determined by what you sell your item at.

I feel different. Profit is defined by what you buy your item at.

Your selling price has already been determined for you. You have little control over it. Take laptops for example. People spend easily close to $1500 for one. They also spend only $400 for one. Despite this, the general price range is there, and you have to work with it.

So...if you sell laptops, are you going to pay $1400 to sell one at $1500? Or would you rather buy it at $800?

OK, you may ask "what about antiques? Their prices aren't predetermined!" Well, for the most part they are. Otherwise, there would not be a gazillion books out there pretending to be price guides for antiques and collectibles. If you have an extremely rare piece, I would agree the predetermined part might not hold true. But can I see a show of hands out there of people who have such pieces and can't get any info at all on what it might be worth?

So...your profit is based on what you buy it at.

OK...so...what should your profit margin be? Patience, grasshopper. Don't jump the gun.

Profit...greatly discussed - seriously misunderstood

Profit should be basically mean the same to anyone in business.

Sadly...it's not the case.

So if I buy something for $5, sell it for $10...that's $5 profit right?

So many sellers think this way. What they sometimes fail to think about: cost of driving around to get the item, listing/selling fees, paypal fees, mailing supplies, and so on.

Do that item on ebay, and you're probably making closer to $3, especially if you get the extra bells and whistles on your listing.

Granted, that's more or less a newbie error and they usually find out later when they (hopefully) crunch some numbers to see how profitable they are.

But I can tell a lot of them don't. I see their listings, the prices, and wonder why they are happy to make a buck or two off of a single sale.

Do you know how profitable your business is? Do you know how profitable you want it to be?

Had another "A-Ha!" moment last night

Ever get the feeling that no matter what you do, or what you sell, or how much you try to make your customers happy...you still feel you aren't doing enough, or maybe it's just not worth it?

I get that way occasionally. Usually when I go a day or two without a sale, which happens more often than I want to admit.

But last night, I went out with friends for a few drinks, which of course usually leads to people complaining about their jobs/co-workers/"in-a-rut" lives.

I have plenty to say about those topics personally. But I do have something going on that they don't...selling on-line and making a few bucks.

I don't have a lot of co-workers I don't like (hard to when there's only two of you). If the business tanks, I can't blame anyone but myself. If it succeeds, I am the one who reaps the rewards.

In other words, I have control, I have freedom.

So when I saw I had no sales last night, I wasn't upset. Because I know I will have some sales coming in the next day (which turned out to be true!), and I'm doing something I love.

Sometimes you have to be reminded that even though it's a lot of work, running your own business can be liberating, rewarding and just plain fun.

And that's just cool.

And don't forget it. Try to remind yourself of that once in a while.

A note on Fulfillment By Amazon

As I mentioned in the prior post, I really like FBA. But if you are interested in it here is a little quirk about it (or pain, actually) you need to know.

I sell a lot of things, but I usually only get 5-10 of any one item. Some are big, some are small. Some are already on AZ, some not. Here's where it gets tricky.

• And some are on AZ more than once...which itself causes me problems. If there are two or more listings for the exact same item, I can still use FBA but I also need to put a label over the item's bar code so AZ can process it. Other items, I usually don't need to do this. If they need a label, they can't be shipped with items that don't need a label...hence, they need to go in a different box when I ship them to AZ.
  
• Some items are oversize (not USPS oversize, AZ's version of oversize). Oversize items need to go to a different warehouse...hence, they need to go in a different box when I ship them to AZ.

Starting to get the picture? When I pack things up to ship to Amazon, I may need to make up to 4 different "types" of shipments:

1. not oversized, and don't need a label
2. not oversized, but DO need a label
3. oversized, and don't need a label
4. oversized, but DO need a label.

How do you avoid this?

Well...you don't. Not unless you want to walk away from a good deal from some stuff that may need a bif of extra processing on your part to ship for FBA.

Yes, it can be a serious pain, but I get a lot of good stuff to sell, and it sells well and for a decent profit, so I guess I'll put up with the hassle.

Hmmm...........profit.............what a great topic for another discussion!!!!!

ebid, wagglepop, blah blah blah

So...who's in competition with ebay?

Well, nobody, really.

Huh?

Well, there are sites out there that let you auction off your grandma's old knick-knacks, but they are all pretty bad. Bad as in not known, not a lot of listings, sometimes just plain ugly.

There's ebid, for example. Hate it. Sorry to be so blunt. Looks confusing. Not really a great selection. Horribly policed. Looked under collectible lamps and found 2 cheap new radios...both with no pics!!

There's wagglepop. Oh, wait. No there isn't. Wagglepop is going under on 6/30/09. Some would say good riddance. They came storming out of the gate with their "we're gonna beat ebay attitude" and prompty ticked off their new-found customer base with poor support and no advertising for the site.

There's CQout. Decent site, but the prices are all in pounds, even when I change to the US listings. Decent # of listings, but not much impressive stuff.

There's blujay, whose home page has a showcase of items hovering around $3 each. I did find some decent, impressive items, but not lots. Besides, they don't do auctions.

So in general there is no "next ebay" on the horizon.

But don't fret. There are some decent alternatives slowly rising.