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Selling computer hardware/accessories on ebay

U

UnderPantKnome

Senior member
Hi everyone,

I know an acquaintance who orders computer hardware/accessories in bulk from a supplier around our neighborhood (we live pretty close to each other), and he resells it either on Ebay or Amazon.

I have no experience in E-Commerce, but I am very interested in this venture just to earn a little extra income. I have a few questions hopefully someone can help me with.

1) Why would anyone purchase from me instead of reputable online stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc? I am afraid my investments will be for nothing.

2) Is there profit to be made in this?

I don't want to jump right into this, so I like some insights, opinions, suggestions. Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.


 
are the parts new or used?

the only reason people would buy from you was if they were new and cheaper than other online stores.

places like newgg and zzf are almost always way cheaper than CC or BB


hell, i just bought 3 new books from a guy on ebay and he ordered them from amazon and had them shipped to me. i paid more through him that i would have if i went straight through amazon. his prices seemed lower than what everyone else was selling it for so i thought i was getting a deal until checked amazon after i received them. bastage.
 
I'd buy from you if you were cheaper.
I guess... people make a lot of money off eBay

and you need to post more 😛 😉
 
Ebay success stories aren't as common as people want you to think.

The problem lies in the fact that, in order to sell, you profit margins are much smaller. It's too easy to find items from vendor for cheap, especially with computer parts. If a person is buying just the parts, then they usually know enough about computers to know that it's easy to get the parts cheap.

Secondly, the initial investment is quite large.

Assume for a second that you make a 5% profit on goods sold. This is knowing that some parts might go for only a little bit above the amount you got them for and some might go a lot... while some loss may be taken if parts are DOA or buyers screw you or threaten with neg. feedback.

Now, assume that your life requires that you make at least $500/ wk to pay the bills... (which means you probably aren't a home owner, or you don't have your dream home.)

$500 is 5% of $10000... which means that you must invest $9500/wk to stay afloat and make the money you need... even if the business gets to a point where the sales allow you to support it, you'd still need an initial investment which may not be returned until all of the goods are sold... and unless you are stupid and list them all at the same time, may be up to a month or two... then another month or two for the next batch and so on...

 
Posts: 19
Joined: 11/13/2004

Wow

IMO, if you can buy popular stuff for cheaper than you currently see it on ebay then you can make money.
Always do a ton of reasearch and ask your friend for specifics.
 
If I do invest in this, I will sell the items (which are new) at a lower price. I'm having second thoughts though from Injury post.

In the meantime, I am researching around. I still have to get in touch with the supplier to see what he has to offer.

I don't post much, more of a lurker here 🙂 I only post if I could answer someone's question or if I need help myself.

Anyway, thanks again.

Oops, sorry for the blank post. Made a mistake.

So, is being a lurker a bad thing?

 
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