@luckythewinner wrote:
The 10x math will never work for the retail sellers who are buying higher dollar merchandise wholesale to sell retail.
Large online retailers add value because they use economies of scale to lower the cost to the buyer.
And because they can reach almost any consumer (think Amazon, Walmart, etc.) the days of being a middleman who simply tacks on an additional layer of profit are pretty much over.
That small town main street "middle man" business model may have worked last century, but in today's world a middle man must add real value in order to justify his profit. Simply "buying wholesale" and tacking on a profit is not enough.
And frankly, I do not see many eBay sellers who actually add much value - they are just adding to the buyer's cost, and their profit keeps getting squeezed as their selling costs rise and competition moves in.
Secondary market sellers can pick up some items out of free boxes or get goodies for less than a buck that they can flip for 10 - 100 times what they have into it, but that is not consistant money as that merchandise can not be found consistantly.
I disagree. It's just not as easy as placing an order with a wholealer.
I find that most small retailers that "buy wholesale" seem to be focused on listing, marketing, promoting and curating their stores. To me, that is a failing business model. Instead of spending 5% of their time buying and 95% of their time decorating their stores, IMHO small sellers should be spending 95% of their time with boots on the pavement searching out inventory that sells itself with little fussing about.
I find that most small retailers that "buy wholesale" seem to be focused on listing, marketing, promoting and curating their stores. To me, that is a failing business model.
While I agree with the underlined - one of the things I have noticed is that most of the newer small ebay sellers that buy wholesale are more into listing, shipping and sitting back counting their money and dreaming of gettng bigger. They look at the work of promotion as necessary but are counting on the fact that their new items already have a market and that they are on ebay which does promote - but is the only place with traffic (insert eyeroll). The sellers you describe are the ones on Etsy.
That small town main street "middle man" business model may have worked last century, but in today's world a middle man must add real value in order to justify his profit. Simply "buying wholesale" and tacking on a profit is not enough.
I do not understand your phrase add real value, if you are just talking about free shipping or free returns, that is the cost of business that is passed onto the buyer, if you run your business properly, it does not add value to the buyer - it is just a ploy used to manipulate the buyer into thinking they are getting something better. And to be honest, I am shocked at just how stupid buyers are today by falling for some of the tricks being thrown at them by marketing.
I disagree. It's just not as easy as placing an order with a wholealer.
My point was that sellers that depend on free stuff and cheap garage sale finds can not have the depth of duplicate merchandise as a wholesale reseller. My $30 freebie was something I bought to craft (that would bring the value down to almost nothing) and have never seen it before and didn't know it existed....I will probably never find another again. That was my point, if someone wanted two of them, they are out of luck.
But I probably have better variety of stock than the people who buy wholesale. They have better control over what they have, but I have lower aquisition and higher profit, but very little duplication to depend on steady money from easy repeat business.
The real value I add is the old antique sellers creed - I find it, I clean it, I am giving it space for you to look at it. In my field, I also add my knowledge and experience. Because I get most of my goodies cheap, my prices are usually less than most sellers in my genre. To me that is real value. Very few pople actually realize tht internet selling is nothing more than mail order.
(*Bleep*)
