Thread: Is anyone in wholesale product distribution?

Originally Posted by Forfend

Im not doubting you, make a new identity and ask about 1,000 or 5,000 units. I guarantee the price will change.

agreed, problem here would be that someone small starting out would have to come up with a couple hundred thousand dollars to get in

Originally Posted by Stance

Anyone have experience in buying closeouts / overstocks?

Usually they are close out for a reason eg; obsolete, old, etc etc. a lot of the close out "packages" I've seen don't allow you to see what's included usually a gamble that pays off for the seller of the package.

^ or because its excess inventory.

I'm looking at starting a liquidation business, buying HD TV's. Eventually moving into other consumer electronics like home theater equipment and car audio.

I talked to the GM at Bestbuy today and asked about their TV closeouts and "open box" (Some were the wall display and some were returns). They had 15 or more flat screen HD TV's and I asked if I could buy all of them at 80% off retail. The General manager said that these TV's were already marked down as much as possible and would be sold at cost. According to their policy, bestbuy cant sell anything below cost.

I asked about the items that eventually never sell, and he said that the manufacturer buys them back. I don't understand... Why does the manufacturer want these TV's?... They'd probably only pay pennies on the dollar and liquidate them anyway, so why wont bestbuy not sell to me, what's the difference. I passed on buying these TV's because I'm going to resell, and the profit margin simply wasn't there.

On to HHgregg.

Had more luck with these guys. Again, I asked if I could take all their HD TV's off their hands at 80% off retail. The manager said the TV's were already marked down pretty heavily (so they say), but he was willing to cut deeper for me on some of the models. Cool.

In the end I worked it down to 45.72% off retail..not too bad I suppose? Original retail value was 8700 and I got 3745.00 . Average price per TV is 749

I then called UPS and asked for a shipping quote and was told it would cost about 250 for packing and shipping one of these TV's. One of the big 60'' ones anyway. Smaller ones would be less.

One of the most expensive items on the list was $2499. $949.00 after mark down (about 35%)...

My problem is I need to mark these TV's up, include the cost of shipping and STILL look like a good deal in the eyes of consumers..

This wont be easy.

Taking a look at the numbers again and unless I can get better offers, it just wont work. Ebay + paypal is 11.9% alone in fees.

Theres not silly amounts of money to be made in your example, on each iphone i sell i make about £30, after fees tax and postage. But i sell 10 of them a week.. Which is why smaller expensive items are better to sell than massive tv's.

I actually sell more books than i do electronics and the profit margins are miles higher. No need to insure them either. A book i bought on a market stall for 15p I sold for £60!

If your going into wholesale product distribution then you need to buy from the manu, or atleast the distributor for your country. Buying off the guy at the bottom of the pile just wont work, as everyones already had a cut of the profit you make.

^ check these guys out and tell me what you think? http://www.thebargainwarehouse.com/a...t.php?cat_id=5 I'm calling them on monday with some questions. But maybe your right..maybe electronics is not the best market to focus on, but its what im passionate about.

You sell on Amazon yes? How difficult is that to set up and maintain?

Easy, unfortunatly though all the ebay scammers are starting to use Amazon instead, who because of the nature of their primary business, always side with the customer :/

I take about 20% a month in profit loss because of scammers, and because of the way feedback works you have to try very hard to please your customers, including the scammers, its all reputation based really.