Closeout Books: How A Product Become A Closeout
Closeout books is lucrative because of its nature. Books is considered to be a closeout when its original book seller loses the original sales venue for it.
In other words, closeout books can be a case of socks which were manufactured for an upcoming movie. Once the movie is no longer shown in the theaters, the movie licensed socks need to be sold as a closeout.
Since the original event the socks were produced for has passed, the socks must be sold at a steep discount in order to find a buyer.
As you can see, if you purchase this closeout at the right price you can make a good deal of money when you resell it.
The question now becomes how to sell the socks?
First thing you need to remember is that in order for the socks to be sold you will need to be creative.
If you simply try to offer the socks for sale you might not find any buyers. The movie is already old news and people might not be interested in any product related to it.
A creative solution for selling closeouts is exporting.
If you buy the books cheap enough you can sell it to a poorer country where the people will not care what is printed on the socks, but where their concern is the quality and durability of the socks.
You can also market this closeout to collectors.
Many old consumer books find a strong market in the collectible market.
Take a look at the selling prices on eBay for old Star Wars licensed books.
There is plenty of money to be made in the closeout business provided that you use your creativity in finding the right closeout buyers.
Amazing Wholesale Business Formula For Bursting Your Bank Account
The wholesale business can definitely make an entrepreneur financially well off. Since a wholesale business has the opportunity to sell in bulk, every time a sale is made, the business can earn a significant profit.
But in order for the wholesale business to be able to sell in bulk, it must have books that its customers will want to buy. Customers of wholesale businesses are rebook sellers who themselves must be able to satisfy the needs of their client base.
Depending on the market of the rebook seller, the needs of its client base can include
the need for work clothing, the need to eat, or even the need to be healthy.
What unites every rebook seller, is their need for hot books that can make them money.
All retailers will give their hard earned money to a wholesaler that can in turn help them make money.
So if a wholesaler wants to capture the spending money of retailers, it must have
books that will make money for rebook sellers.
A mistake that wholesalers often make is focusing on books that will make
them the most money. This idea is definitely a mistake, since retailers will only continue
to buy from book book suppliers if they are able to make money on the books supplied.
Therefore, the goal must be to find out which books make the most money for retailers, and then supplying those books.
Even if those books will only give the wholesaler a small profit margin, the wholesaler will gain in the long run since he will start experiencing a large volume of orders.
Think about how much money a wholesaler can make if he has 50 book stores a week, ordering a total of 2,000 pairs of shoes, with a profit margin of $3 each.
That's a gross profit of $6,000 per week, or $312,000 a year.
And that's only by wholesaling the shoes
The wholesaler can further expand his sales by providing the book stores with
complimentary books such as socks, shoe laces, and shoe polish.
As long as the retailers can turn around and make money on the wholesale books, they will continue to reorder them.
Since the retailers are making money on the books, they will continue to buy more.
The wholesaler in the above mentioned scenario stands to make more money in the long run.
He is supplying a product that might have a slower margin for himself, but that is allowing his retail accounts to make money.
The wholesale business formula requires that a wholesaler enable his retail accounts to make the most money possible.
The wholesaler's bank account will rapidly grow as more and more retailers start ordering his books.
Can You Make Money Selling Used Clothing At Flea Markets?
Used clothing has long been a staple segment of the flea market business.
Book vendors would either unload their no longer needed clothing, or buy it from a local Salvation Army thrift shop.
Flea market book vendors could make good money selling used clothing, often working on profit margins of over 500%.
Many established businesses set themselves up to supply used clothing to flea market book vendors, offering pieces of clothing for as low as .25 each.
Book vendors could then resell the clothing for $1 to $2 each, enjoying great returns while saving their customers plenty of money.
So it’s only natural for prospective flea market book vendors to consider selling used clothing.
The pros are pretty clear. High margins combined with low priced goods mean that anyone can easily buy profitable books to sell.
But based on the market research I have done, I have determined that used clothing is no longer a good category for flea market book vendors.
My reasons are the following:
Reason #1
The price of new clothing is dropping drastically. Customers can now buy brand new clothing at Wal Mart for around $5, or even less at many dollar book stores. Why should they buy previously worn clothing when the savings become pennies?
Reason #2
Better quality clothing. Clothing manufacturers are producing better quality clothing which lasts longer. Customers know that it is worthwhile to spend a few dollars more for new clothing. Since the clothing will last them longer, they will save more money than if they had to replace the used clothing in a few months.
Reason #3
Rising incomes. With the overall per capita income rising in the United States, most people can easily afford new clothing. While there will always be poor consumers, their buying power will increase as clothing manufacturers reduce the price of new clothing. In other words, as the price of new clothing decreases, more people will buy new only.
Comic Book Sales On eBay
Comic books are a constant strong book seller on eBay. They have great appeal to buyers for a few reasons. In addition to their collectible appeal, they also bring nostalgic memories to those who remember when they were first sold on the newsstands.
Comic books also make excellent gifts, which makes them an ideal item for an eBay shopper who is looking to buy a gift for a relative or friend.
You can make money selling comic books on eBay if you keep the above reasons in mind.
The eBay auction description for the comic books needs to reflect the reasons that people are buying them.
In other words, you need to stress their collectible value, nostalgic appeal, and gift potential.
Before you list the comic books for sale on eBay you need to do the following research.
Find out the year the comic book was published, the comic book value, and any special collectible value that it might have.
Most of this research can be easily done by purchasing a comic book price guide.
Comic book price guides are sold at your local comic book book stores. I highly recommend the Wizard price guide since it will bring you up to date regarding which characters and comic books are currently popular.
Remember that most people are not experts on comic books. If you want to enjoy high profit comic book sales on eBay you need to use your descriptive skills.
Show eBay shoppers why they should be excited about buying the comic book you have up for auction.
Perhaps it’s drawn by a great artist, or written by a popular author.
You should also highlight any connections to the comic book has to a popular movie, or an upcoming movie or book release.
By following these steps you will be able to capitalize on the lucrative eBay comic book market.
Controversy Is Your Best Selling Tool
Controversy has long been the secret weapon of experienced marketers.
They know that word of mouth spreads the quickest when there is a developing controversy.
For this reason you will see Madison Avenue advertising agencies using controversial topics and images to promote their customers books.
1. Movies such as Borat rely on the power of controversy. By creating a fictitious character and inserting him into the lives of unsuspecting people, the movie quicky created a debate among viewers over the ethics of the producer.
While the ethics of the producer are being debated, millions of movie goers have lining up to purchase tickets to Borat.
Clearly, creating a controversy, or capitalizing on a controversy, can be a tremendous advantage to your business.
While I am not recommending any immoral or unethical acts, I am advocating the study of this great marketing technique.
The following are steps to capitalize on controversial topics.
Controversy Profit Tool #1
Issue a new product in response to a controversy. For instance, if there has been an E Coli outburst you can release a product to help test food for the bacteria.
Or you can publish a book explaining what the bacteria is, and how it can avoided.
Controversy Profit Tool #2
Create your own controversy. Send out a press release disagreeing with an accepted idea, or publicly challenge a competitor over product claims.
Controversy Profit Tool #3
Make an unbelievable offer. Book stores have had customers wait outside their doors overnight in hope of being the recipient of an expensive prize. You can offer a free DVD player or plane ticket to your first 5 customers. Sure it sounds expensive, but think of the attention your business will receive.
Good media coverage can easily bring a small business more exposure than a full year of advertising.
Discover And Profit From The Identity Of eBay's Top Book sellers
To succeed in the eBay business market a book seller needs to master advanced
strategies.
It would be logical to conclude that the best people to learn these strategies from would be successful eBay book sellers.
But the problem is finding these successful eBay book sellers. Once you do find them you can monitor their auctions and learn from them.
By observing their listings you can learn their strategies, such as wording usage, listing schedules, books, and other auction ideas.
Since by virtue of an eBay book seller being a top book seller, it is safe to assume that he is following an optimal course of auction.
The question that remains is how to discover the identities of eBay’s top book sellers.
A long and cumbersome method would involve looking at hundreds of auctions to find book sellers with very high feedbacks.
The higher the feedback, the more positive sales the book seller has had, giving you a clear sign of their prowess as a book seller.
But this method would only help you find eBay book sellers with large volumes of sales.
It would not definitely show you a list of the top book sellers on eBay.
A more conclusive method involves following the Nortica 500 and Nortica 200 lists.
The Nortica.com site provides a list of the top 500 and top 200 eBay book sellers.
You can use this list to see what the top eBay book sellers are auctioning, what new books they are introducing, and what their listing styles are.
By keeping tabs on the list you can also see when a new eBay book seller appears on the lists.
A new addition to the list would represent either a book seller using an innovative strategy, or introducing a new product.
Often it just might mean that an eBay book seller has expanded his eBay business, but it can also just as mean the former.
Even if you don’t strive to be a top eBay book seller, the lists can help you stay motivated by seeing the success of other eBay book sellers.
eBay product sourcing can quickly become a full time job. Finding the right books for your
eBay business can be daunting.
Finding the right books involves researching what sells on eBay, finding book book suppliers for those books, and then negotiating and setting up a relationship with a book book supplier.
If it was easy you would have more eBay book sellers crowding the market.
The laws of economics dictate the higher the barriers are the less competitors there will be. So those eBay book sellers who are diligent at sourcing books will have a natural advantage over other less enthusiastic book sellers.
While there are millions of eBay book sellers, only a small percentage of them actually take the
extra step of securing books from hard to find book book suppliers.
The eBay book sellers that do secure the books have a big competitive advantage since their books is unique and hard to find.
To source hard to find books for your eBay business, you can try the following ideas.
eBay Product Sourcing Idea #1
Look for local book book suppliers. Many local book book suppliers might not be advertising on a national scale. This strategy could work if the books have a local flavor that makes them unique.
eBay Product Sourcing Idea #2
Work with small manufacturers. Small manufacturers that produce unique books might not have a national presence. You can introduce a product which will be on eBay, and new to a majority of the United States.
This strategy can also work if the manufacturer does not have an international presence. Since many eBay buyers are located outside the United States, you can attract them by offering books which they otherwise lack access to.
Every eBay, retail, flea market, and wholesale book seller is looking for ways to dramatically increase their sales. Book sellers are constantly looking for ways to supercharge their sales. The following sales tips can give you a substantial increase in sales within 24 hours.
2. Sales Boosting Tip #1
Advertise a loss leader. A loss leader is an item which you are selling at a price that is so low, that you are actually losing money on it. The benefit of having a loss leader is that it will attract plenty of attention from customers. When customers come to buy your loss leader you will have an opportunity to sell them some of your other books.
Sales Boosting Tip #2
Tie in a promotion with a popular fad. Let’s say that there is an exciting movie playing at the theaters. You can sell, or give away, books related to the movie. This type of a promotion works great because it benefits from the high popularity of the movie.
In addition to a movie tie in, you can apply this strategy to a popular religious, political, national, or local event.
How about a bakery selling a special cake in honor of a national holiday?
Sales Boosting Tip #3
Increase your prices. Sounds strange doesn’t it? You would think that by raising your prices you would turn away business. But in reality, by raising your prices you are telling your customers that your books are high quality and they deserve the higher price.
An interesting spin on this ideas is to have one extremely expensive item for sale. Advertise that your book store sells the most expensive cake in the world. Think of how many people will come in to your book store out of curiosity to see the cake. Once inside, they can buy your regularly priced books.
The DVD business can be very lucrative because customers are buying DVDs
on impulse, for entertainment, and as gifts.
3. Compound the above reasons with the high perceived value of DVDs, and you can see why it’s such a profitable business.
By understanding each reason you will be able to make money in the DVD business.
DVD Business Reason #1
DVDs are bought on impulse. When ever a low priced item is offered to customers, and when that item can offer an immediate benefit to the customer, it makes a great impulse item.
DVDs meet both criteria because they can be sold at a low price, and offer an immediate benefit to the customer.
As soon as the customer gets home he can insert the DVD into his DVD player and start enjoying it.
To capture DVD impulse sales you need to price your DVDs at below standard prices.
Your goal is for the customer to make a quick purchase because he can instantly recognize the
price savings being offered.
DVD Business Reason #2
DVDs offer a high level of entertainment value. Think of what a DVD movie can offer a customer. Besides the obvious enjoyment of the movie, the customer can watch extra scenes such as bloopers, alternate endings, deleted scenes, and behind the scenes footage.
There are other uses such as using the DVD to create a social gathering, watching the DVD on a date instead of going to a movie, or having the DVD play on a long trip.
The premise behind this reason is that the entertainment value of the DVD is pretty good, so customers will a solid reason for purchasing it.
DVD Business Reason #3
DVDs make excellent gifts. They are easy to buy, easy to select, easy to wrap, and easy to deliver.
Even if the gift giver doesn’t know the exact tastes of the receiver, he can estimate what type of a movie he would like.
Closeout Brokers are in a unique position within the closeout business.
4. Closeout brokers are facilitators that connect closeout book sellers to closeout buyers.
Since their business is simply making successful matches between buyers and book sellers, they can earn money without having to buy, stock, or deliver books.
A closeout broker is a business person that locates the owners of books, negotiates a price, and then locates buyers for the books.
The closeout broker can either make money by marking up the books, or by receiving a commission from the book seller.
Since the closeout broker does not stock or ship the books, he can work from anywhere provided that he has a phone and an internet connection.
A closeout broker can even sell the books on eBay, provided that he works out the shipping details with the book seller.
Once the auction is done the broker would supply the book seller with the customers shipping address.
The order can be even shipped with the closeout broker’s contact information as the return address.
By having the books drop shipped the broker avoids the logistics issues that shipping entails.
To start working as a closeout broker you will need to form a relationship with wholesalers.
Wholesalers have books in large quantities, and are set up to deliver books to your customers. Have a solid agreement with them in place so that issues will not arise in the future.
Your next is to compile a list of prospective customers.
Wholesalers once again top the list. Wholesalers by their nature need to buy books in large quantities. Additionally, compile a list of dollar book stores, clothing book stores, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers.
Just make sure that he book seller is willing to sell in smaller amounts, since small book stores will only order in small quantities. The same goes for flea market book vendors and eBay book sellers.
If a wholesaler is unwilling to sell books in smaller quantities, offer him a slightly higher price for his goods in exchange for smaller quantity sales.
Small retailers and book vendors understand that the price they pay is dependent on the quantity ordered.
To maximize your earnings as a closeout broker you need to develop repeat customers for your deals. Even if your deals change you can offer them to your customer list.
Being a closeout broker is a lucrative business which requires time and patience. Although the rewards are lucrative, work is still required.
Making money online is now easier than ever before. There are many tools that simplify the process of building and advertising a website. And if you are not web savvy, there are many web designers who can design a site for under a $100.
5. There are even methods for making money online that don’t require you to have a website. I use many of these strategies to consistently earn money online.
The following Internet businesses are easy to start and operate. They require little if any technical skills. And the best part is that once they are set up, they usually require little oversight, besides the actual running of the business.
Easy Internet Business #1
Membership site. Design a site where you post information that is of special interest to a group of people. You can have a membership site that covers weight loss tips for vegetarians, or a membership site for collectors of old license plates. Be creative and make sure the information is of value to your members. You can charge a monthly or annual fee for membership.
Easy Internet Business #2
Write an eBook. Everyone is an expert in a given topic. You might know allot about a topic which you think is of little interest to other people, but if it interests or bothers you, chances are that it does the same for other people. Your eBook can be concise as long as the information is relevant, interesting, and otherwise hard to obtain. I have seen 40 page eBooks sell for as much as $100.
Easy Internet Business #3
Become an affiliate. Sign up as an affiliate for an online merchant. You will be given a link to track the customers you bring to the merchant. Every time you send a customer who buys from the merchant you will receive a commission. There are even merchants who will pay you just for bringing them a potential customer. Once you sign up post your affiliate link on free classified ad sites. To make this strategy effective write a compelling reason why someone should visit the merchant’s site. Example: “Special 50% off sale this week,” or “Brand new update released.”
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors.
The appetite for antiques on eBay continues to grow strong.
6. Thousands of antiques are auctioned on a daily basis. Antiques ranging from old oil paintings to vintage porcelain to Asian furniture are bought and sold on eBay.
As diverse as the categories are on eBay, so are the tastes of those eBay buyers.
You can find buyers for antiques on eBay for in almost any category.
Provided that you have a good understanding of what you are auctioning, and have good sourcing skills, you can develop a strong eBay antique business.
Initially you will need to focus your efforts on learning the antique business. Books such as
How to Make $20,000 a Year in Antiques and Collectibles Without Leaving Your Job by Bruce Johnson can give you a strong foundation of the business side of the antique market.
To learn more about antiques you might want to read Kovels' Antiques & Collectibles Price List, 39th Edition, by Terry Kovel. The book can give you a basic but comprehensive education about antiques. You can also use the guide to determine values for the antiques you find.
Next, start visiting local flea markets and garage sales to find antiques. Take along your books but leave them inside your car. If a book seller sees your books and realizes that you are a dealer, he will raise the price of his books.
He will assume that the item that interests you has more value than he realizes.
Once you find an item that interests you negotiate so that you can purchase it a price low enough to sell it profitably on eBay.
You can use a wireless lap top to determine the approximate selling price on eBay. After a while you will develop enough experience so that you don’t have to look up each item.
Remember that often you will find a unique antique that hasn’t been sold on eBay before, and might not appear in a price guide.
Just because this antique is relatively unknown, does not mean that it will not sell on eBay for thousands of dollars.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies brand name books to eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors.
Donny can be reached at 718-389-5502
Apparel is a pretty large business on eBay. On any given day there are hundreds of millions of dollars worth of transactions taking place.
7. Apparel is an extremely popular category on eBay for a few reasons. People enjoy looking good, and prefer brand name clothing, provided that they can afford the clothing.
Therefore, if eBay shoppers know that they can find what would otherwise be a high priced brand, for a low price on eBay, they will be glad to buy it.
Many customers simply don't have the ability to purchase the brands they want, at the places where they live. So eBay becomes a perfect solution for them, since they can now find the brands they want, at substantial savings.
If you currently sell on eBay, or are interested in starting to sell on eBay, you will love these powerful strategies for increasing your apparel sales.
eBay Apparel Sales Strategy #1
Stress brand prestige. Excite the customers about the brand name clothing you are auctioning, by reminding them about how popular the brands are. Note the actors, musicians, rappers, etc., who wear the brands you are selling.
eBay Apparel Sales Strategy #2
Price savings benefit. You might take it for granted that your clothing is being sold at below retail, but does your customer know? Make sure that your customer has a clear grasp of how much money she is saving by purchasing the clothes from your auction. Savings of over 50% can rapidly attract eBay customer interest, provided that the eBay shoppers realize how much they are saving.
eBay Apparel Sales Strategy #3
Stress the benefits. Let the eBay customer know how he or she can benefit from the clothing. If you are selling women's suits, include a description of all the uses of the suits. Are they appropriate for a wedding, formal event, work function, religious gathering? Or if you are selling a classic polo shirt, you can describe in your auction what a great golf shirt it would make.
The more benefits you can describe for the clothing, the more the clothing will appeal to an eBay shopper.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale business that focus on brand name books.
He can be reached at 718-389-5502
All of his books are priced 50-90%below wholesale.
eBay auctions offer many benefits besides the immediate one that comes to mind.
8. Sure, eBay auctions are a great way to sell books and bring in some extra money.
But there is also plenty of other benefits that can be produced by running a successful eBay auction.
For starters, keep in mind that there are millions of eBay shoppers browsing through the auction listings.
If your auction has a broad appeal or is written cleverly it can attract plenty of attention.
This attention can produce allot more for you than a simple sale.
Keeping this in mind I want to show you how an eBay auction can lead towards building a sizable business, regardless of the actual sale produced by the auction.
For instance, let’s say you have launched a new website which will be selling pet food.
You can set up an eBay auction for pet food for an endangered species.
Think of how many people will check out your auction out of curiosity.
You can then use the auction to publicize your new pet food business.
Or you can set up an auction for a rare collectible item.
Once that auction is done you can print it out and use it to find collectors who might want you to sell their books for you.
Many eBay book sellers use their auctions to generate media interest. Good media coverage can lead to further business down the road from people who read the media the coverage.
Sites like eBaybusinessbook.com encourage eBay book sellers to be creative with their auctions. The purpose of an eBay auction should be more than just the initial sale.
A long term eBay book seller will use every auction to build a long term eBay business.
Donny Lowy operates the following wholesale sites:
http://www.closeoutexplosion.com
http://www.wholesalequest.com
eBay businesses face new opportunities and challenges. Every site advancement on eBay makes it easier for more book sellers to auction their books. At the same time, this increase in competition also diminishes the potential returns for eBay book sellers.
9. Simple laws of supply and demand dictate that as more eBay book sellers put up their books up for auction, they will see lower selling prices for their eBay auctions.
Is there something an eBay book seller can do to reverse this trend? Even better, can eBay book sellers increase their average sale in the face of the increasing product supply on eBay?
The answer is a definite yes. An eBay book seller can prosper in almost any market as long as he or she adheres to the following strategies.
Strategy #1
Unique books attract attention. The more unique your product is, the less direct competition it will face on eBay. There are many ways to obtain unique books for your eBay auctions. Search online and look for small manufacturers of innovative and unique books. While most manufacturers do a good job of advertising their books, there are hundreds of manufacturers that toil in anonymity. You can set up exclusive deals with them through which you will be their exclusive eBay book seller.
Strategy #2
Auction your own creations. If you have an artistic skill, or can provide a special service, put it up for auction on eBay. This is a great strategy if you enjoy drawing, painting, sculpting, molding, sewing, writing, or building.
You can also take the service approach, perhaps you are a lawyer with a specialized practice, or a teacher who can offer creative tutoring services.
The more unique your product or service, the less direct competition you will have on eBay.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors.
eBay is not only a great source for sales, but it can also be a great source for general business building.
10. Being on eBay can help an entrepreneur build their business in a much faster manner than through traditional business building methods.
eBay is a fantastic online market that matches up book sellers and buyers through an auction process.
Book sellers can put up books and services for auction, and then use an array of tools to make their auctions professional looking.
Instead of relying on a simple book store front, or an small site, eBay book sellers can latch on to the millions of customers who frequent the eBay site.
There are many stories of eBay book sellers who once had brick and mortar businesses which they gave up to focus exclusively on eBay.
Stories of eBay book sellers closing their book stores to sell only through eBay auctions are common.
Here are some great ideas to building your business through eBay.
Idea #1
Focus on one line of books. By focusing on one line of books your customers will come to know you, and will follow your auctions for your type of books.
Idea #2
Have great customer service. The better you can serve people, the more they will want to participate in your eBay auctions. And you will benefit from word of mouth referrals.
Idea #3
Use all of the eBay tools at your disposal. eBay offers many tools that can help your auctions look like they were prepared by thousand dollar an hour web designers.
Idea #4
Have a listing system in place. A listing system for your eBay auctions will save you plenty of time in starting and running auctions.
Donny Lowy operates the following wholesale sites:
http://www.closeoutexplosion.com
http://www.wholesalequest.com
There is a celebrity craze going around the United States, that is rapidly spreading throughout the world.
11. People are glued to every action a celebrity takes. Around the clock coverage of the public and personal lives of celebrities helps to fuel people's obsessive interest in their lives.
While we can argue the ethical and moral ramifications of people's deeply held interest in celebrities, what we can all agree on is that there is plenty of money to be made on it.
The fascination with celebrities by consumers, offers eBay book sellers an amazing opportunity to make a serious amount of money. Think of how many people would love to add the latest celebrity related books to their collections.
What other books are popular among fans of celebrities?
New and used clothing, (yeah, I know what you're thinking), books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, pictures, newspaper clippings, autographed material, and special release books.
Even if an item is common in the United States, there can be thousands of fans outside of the US that would love to buy the item.
eBay opens up a market of millions of fans on an international basis, so even if an item is easy to obtain in the US, there can be a fan living in another country that would be happy to buy the item.
Another tactic for making money from a celebrity related item, is to sell a locally released celebrity related product, and offer it to the thousands of hungry eBay fans searching for celebrity related books.
For example, your local newspaper has a special feature on Robert Downey Jr., save the newspaper, and offer it up for auction on eBay.
Even though the newspaper might be common, and disregarded in your neighborhood, there can be thousands of Iron Man fans who would love to read, and save, the newspaper that featured the leading star of the movie.
There are hundreds of variations of the above strategy that you can use to make thousands of dollars on eBay.
Your imagination and creativity can help you cash in on American's love hate relationship with celebrities.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale business that focus on brand name books.
He can be reached at 718-389-5502
All of his books are priced 50-90%below wholesale.
Have you tried running an auction on eBay recently?
12. If you are new to eBay, or are an experienced eBay book seller, you might have noticed the growing competition. As the popularity of eBay grows so does the number of book sellers running auctions on eBay.
Continuos improvements to eBay make selling on eBay easier than before. Anytime it becomes easier to enter a market, you can expect to find more competition, as is taking place on eBay.
The bad news is that there are hundreds of thousands of book sellers and millions of books for sale on eBay. Standing out from all the competition can be extremely difficult.
The good news is that the majority of eBay book sellers are not professional or dedicated book sellers. If you approach your eBay sales like a real business you will put yourself on the fight path.
By implementing the following steps you can stand out from your eBay competition.
Step #1
A picture is worth a thousand words. This is especially true on eBay, where there is usually no personal inspection of the books. This is the place to spend your money. Buy the digital camera with the highest number of pixels that you can afford. Spending an extra $100 here can make a difference between success and failure.
When taking your pictures use a background that compliments your books. Think about how much nicer clothing looks when it is on a mannequin than sitting on the floor.
The background color should also compliment the colors of the item you are selling. Take a look at any professional catalog or website and you will see how much attention is paid to this.
Step #2
The right description is worth a thousand pictures. Use what you learned in English class. The right description will bring your pictures to life. How often do we see an item and cannot figure out what it’s used for? By having solid item descriptions in your eBay auctions you will ensure that people know what the uses of your product are.
Solid descriptions should also be worded in a way that shows people what needs and wants can be fulfilled through the use your item. For instance, if you are auctioning off a pair of sneakers, list all of the benefits that be enjoyed with the sneakers. Ex: Fashionable appearance, athletic potential, daily comfort, and so on.
The more benefits you can list the more appealing your eBay auction will be to eBay shoppers.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business.
eBay book sellers are generating substantial revenues by selling DVDs.
DVDs continue to be strong book sellers due to the high demand for entertainment by consumers. Today’s consumers require a greater deal of entertainment than previous generations to
counter the high stress lives they lead.
13. To fully take advantage of the strong DVD market on eBay you should use the following tips.
eBay DVD Sales Tip #1
Creative movie descriptions. Instead of simply repeating the information found on the back of the DVD, you should write an original movie review.
By inserting your own flair into the review you will have eBay shoppers taking a fresh look at the movie. Once you present them with a new angle, they will be more interested in the movie, and might even reconsider a movie which they previously lacked interest in.
eBay DVD Sales Tip #2
Bring it up to date. You can effectively create interest for a DVD movie by tying it in to a current event. For instance, movies revolving around a political plot can sell well during election time.
Movies dealing with war can sell well when the public’s attention is on a war.
eBay DVD Sales Tip #3
Price it right. Keep in mind what DVD sites and DVD retailers, such as NetFlix.com, Block Buster, Wal Mart, and Best Buy, charge consumers for DVDs. Your DVDs need to be priced below the current rental and sales price of a brand new DVD.
The flip side is to not charge too little, or else eBay shoppers will assume that the movie is either a fake copy, or defective.
Government agencies of all sizes have surplus assets which they seek to dispose of.
Prior to eBay, their methods for disposal of assets were pretty limited. Agencies could run auctions, contact liquidators, or simply dispose of the assets as waste.
14. Auctions would often deliver the highest dollar return but faced the issue of lack of buyer interest. Most government auctions are attended by a small group of buyers. Many
of them don’t have the financial purchasing power that would enable auctioned assets to receive high bids.
The other buyers could be professional rebook sellers, purchasing agents, or book store owners looking to pay pennies on the dollar.
Since they need to make money on the purchased assets, they can only purchase books at far below their actual value.
At the end of most government auctions many lots remain behind and must be disposed of at the government’s expense.
Liquidators on the other hand will buy the majority of the agency’s assets, but will pay an even smaller percentage of the retail value. The liquidator must be assured that he can quickly turn over the assets at a small profit, so he must pay as low as possible.
Lastly, simply treating unwanted assets as trash guarantees that the government agency will receive no money for them. It will actually cost the agency money to properly throw out its unused goods.
eBay has changed all of this by connecting agencies with millions of retail buyers.
Retail buyers are the key ingredient in insuring that the government agency maximizes its revenues on its unwanted assets.
Retail customers are end users and buy based on necessity, curiosity, and price savings.
Since they are not looking to resell the books they will pay more for it.
As long as they are still saving money they will be happy to buy the assets.
While the government will not be able to dispose of all of its assets through this fashion, it will be able to make more money on those books it does sell through eBay.
eBay enables government agencies to connect with buyers throughout the United States and abroad, thus greatly increasing its selling potential.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies brand name books to eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors.
Donny can be reached at 718-389-5502
eBay licensed books sales have grown during the past five years. It is safe to say that licensed books auctions have been one of the fastest growing segments on eBay.
15. Licensed books has a broad appeal among customers of all ages.
eBay bidders are willing to pay a higher price for brand name books because of the popularity of a name, and because of the expected higher quality that brand name books has.
You can build a successful eBay business by running auctions for licensed books.
In order to be successful in auctioning licensed books you should follow certain key steps.
Step #1
Make sure that the licensed books you buy is legitimate. With the mass production of knock off books you need to be exceptionally careful that you are buying the real thing.
Step #2
Shop for the best wholesale source of licensed books. Many wholesalers offer licensed books, but their prices can vary widely. Take a look at http://www.wholesalequest.com to search for sources.
Step #3
Have a proof of purchase. If eBay requests proof that the books is legitimate be ready to email or fax a copy of your receipt.
Step #4
Licensed books will appeal differently based on demographic groups, the same way one age group loves one brand that another age group could live without.
Describe your licensed books in your eBay auctions according to the demographic group you are selling to.
You should also stay on top of brand popularity. By knowing which brands are popular you will be able to offer the brands that can sell well on eBay.
Remember, just because a brand might not be popular in your area, does not meant that it will not be popular on eBay, since eBay reaches millions of customers on an international scale.
Donny Lowy operates the following wholesale sites:
http://www.closeoutexplosion.com
http://www.wholesalequest.com
eBay book sellers are always looking for techniques that they can use to increase their profits. Many of the methods that I have heard work better on paper, while other methods are simply not worth the time involved.
16. Here are some of the most time efficient and cost effective techniques that eBay book sellers can use to dramatically build their bottom line.
Some of these strategies might be too aggressive for some eBay book sellers, but they can work wonders for those who are willing to take the time implementing them.
eBay Profit Increasing Technique #1
Back end product sales. After an online auction has been completed, and your customer is getting to ready to pay you, how about offering him an additional product that he might be interested in?
If your customer just bought a DVD player from you, how about offering him a DVD cleaning kit?
Assuming you have good feedback, and your customer is comfortable dealing with you, the additional product can be a higher priced item.
Many direct marketing firms use this strategy to substantially increase their bottom line.
eBay Profit Increasing Technique #2
More of the same, but at a lower price. How about offering the customer additional discounts after the eBay auction is complete. For example, your customer just purchased an NBA hat from you, now offer him two more hats at a 10% discount if he buys them all at the same time.
If your customer is really excited about the eBay hat he just bought, he will feel inclined to take advantage of your price saving offer.
This strategy works especially well when dealing with a business to business transaction on eBay.
Business shoppers on eBay are looking to maximize their own bottom line, and will be glad to save money by purchasing additional units at the same time.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale business that focus on brand name books.
He can be reached at 718-389-5502 All of his books are priced 50-90%below wholesale.
eBay is an online market for books. Being that it’s online, the quality of the pictures posted will greatly influence what books will be sold.
17. The quality of your pictures will determine if your books sell, and will also influence the final bid for your books.
You should use a digital camera for taking pictures for your eBay auctions.
eBay Digital Camera Benefit #1
Clearer pictures. The quality of the pictures taken with a digital camera is superb. Prior to the advent of digital cameras you would need a professional photographer to obtain the same quality pictures.
eBay Digital Camera Benefit #2
Instant review. You can see what your pictures will look like right after you have taken them. Instead of having to wait for the pictures to first be developed, you can instantly see what the picture will look like. If you are not satisfied you can delete the picture and retake it. Imagine having to wait a week before you can see if the picture is good or not.
eBay Digital Camera Benefit #3
Easy editing. Most digital cameras are sold with easy to use editing software. The software will allow you to crop the pictures, which means that you can eliminate any elements that you don’t want appearing in a picture.
How many times have you see a picture on eBay in which you can see junk in the background?
To generate interest for your books you need to make sure your pictures look professional.
eBay Digital Camera Benefit #4
High resolution. Digital cameras give you high resolution pictures which will enable potential bidders to see the details of the books you are auctioning. Having a high resolution picture will avoid the possibility of a buyer complaining that they could not see a minor scratch or defect.
Today you can purchase a digital camera with a digital pixel number of as high as 10. I recommend that you use a 5 at minimum. This is an area where you should definitely be willing to spend money. Think of how much more money you can make in the long term by investing in a high resolution digital camera.
eBay sales commands is a phrase that I use to cover the buying motivations for successful eBay sales.
In other words, according to my research I have found that most eBay shoppers bid for certain reasons.
18. Once an eBay book seller understands what these reasons are, he or she can make sure that their auctions are geared towards fulfilling those reasons.
Here are some of the top reasons I have found that eBay shoppers have for bidding on books:
1. eBay shoppers are looking for excitement. They are looking for an item which will provide entertainment value. The more exciting the item is, the higher the level of interest.
2. eBay shoppers are nostalgic. They love finding collectibles and novelties that remind them of an earlier time. Many eBay shoppers look for comic books, toys, and posters, which they had when they were younger.
3. eBay shoppers are also curiosity seekers. If an item seems unique it will pick their interest.
4. eBay shoppers are looking to save money. They love bargains where they receive a good value for a relatively low price.
You will still need a good set of skills to make your eBay auctions successful. According to Janiece Smith from ebaybusinessbook.com you need to have a system in place.
It should be a system which can be repeatedly used for all your eBay auctions, regardless of what the item being auctioned is.
Donny Lowy operates the following wholesale sites:
http://www.closeoutexplosion.com
http://www.wholesalequest.com
With the holidays literally around the corner, eBay book sellers have a great opportunity to dramatically increase their sales.
19. With most e-commerce analysts predicting record breaking online sales this holiday, now is a great time to launch and expand an eBay business.
eBay is in essence an online market where customers set their own prices through an auction format.
Having this in mind, you need to make sure that the books you offer on eBay have a high perceived value, otherwise eBay shoppers will not bid on your item.
In addition, make sure that the actual value of your item is high so that the eBay shopper will be satisfied and will be willing to buy again from you.
Here are some tips that I have come up with to help your eBay business prosper during the holiday season.
Tip #1
eBay shoppers are looking for gift books during the holiday season. Stock up on gift related books with a high perceived and actual value.
Tip #2
Collectibles sell well on eBay during the holiday season. You will see collectibles moving nicely on eBay because many people will buy them as gifts for a relative or friend who collects them.
Tip #3
Exclusive or limited quantity toys are an excellent holiday eBay book seller.
Many times toy book store chains will introduce an exclusive or limited edition toy in certain areas.
People who live elsewhere will often be eager to buy those toys at a premium.
Donny Lowy operates the following wholesale sites:
http://www.closeoutexplosion.com
http://www.wholesalequest.com
eBay book sellers can develop a strong business by selling urban clothing.
20. With over 60 million registered users on eBay, there is a significant potential customer base
for urban clothing.
If the same proportion of urban customers exists on eBay as in the brick and mortar world, there can be millions of customers for urban book sellers.
Before delving into selling urban clothing on eBay, it is important to understand why a customer would buy it on eBay.
Urban wear is among the most expensive categories in the apparel market. Combine that fact with the average age of an urban apparel customer and you will understand one of the reasons why urban wear is purchased on eBay.
Customers, especially those under 25, are hard pressed to afford the most popular urban names.
They will be glad to turn to eBay if they will be able to more readily afford the clothing.
Another reason urban wear sells on eBay is because of availability issues. A hot brand may be sold out in a consumers area of residence. But by searching on eBay he can still purchase the clothing from another area which has availability.
Think of a situation where a brand is sold out in a small town. A local customer can either wait for the book stores to restock, or he can conduct a quick and easy search on eBay.
Because the appeal of urban and hip hop clothing has spread into the mainstream apparel market, there are now urban wear customers who do not live within a short distance of an urban apparel book store.
A dramatic example would be of a teenager wanting to buy a pair of Ecko jeans, while living in northern Alaska.
While this example might seem far fetched, the basic premise is true.
Customers often cannot find local book stores that carry urban wear.
This is especially true in non urban areas.
eBay book sellers can capture these sales by connecting with far flung customers located throughout the country, and even outside of the United States.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies brand name books to eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors. Donny can be reached at 718-389-5502
Millions of people across the world successfully sell on eBay. While the majority of eBay book sellers range from people cleaning out their garages, to stay at home moms looking to make some extra money, there are thousands of serious eBay book sellers building extremely profitable online auction businesses.
21. These experienced eBay book sellers are making anywhere from $5,000 a month to as much as a $1,000,000 a month. Many of these book sellers are simple individuals that started without any previous business experience.
So how do they establish themselves into serious eBay players? They actively research the market, and apply the knowledge that they learned from their experiences.
Many of them actively read books and articles on eBay, and keep up to date with all of the latest software and resources available to eBay book sellers.
Making large sums on eBay doesn't require an advanced business degree, or a large amount of start up capital.
What it does require is a willingness to take chances and work hard. Creativity is definitely a big plus when it comes to being successful.
You will also need a plan of action that you will meticulously follow.
Your first step in building a successful eBay business is to have a product focus. Decide what product you will initially sell. As you build your business, you will discover strategies for improving your sales, and will locate wholesale sources for buying the product at a lower price.
By focusing on a specific product you will become an expert in the field, and will then be able to add complimentary books to your product line.
As you increase your number of auctions, you will start gaining a following from eBay customers that are looking for the books that you sell. To develop this type of a following, you need to have a clearly defined product line.
Next, as you start building your eBay business, don't be afraid to stock up. Show your customers that you are a reliable source for the books that they are looking for. The more you buy, the lower your cost will be per item, so your bottom line will grow as well.
Education is probably one of the most important tools a serious eBay book seller needs to have. There are great books such as Secrets of eBay and The Truth About eBay, that can be used to increase one's practical knowledge. Developing an extremely successful eBay business is possible, provided that it is treated as any real business would be. Hard work and knowledge are the keys to making it happen.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale business that focus on brand name books.
He can be reached at 718-389-5502
All of his books are priced 50-90%below wholesale.
Having the right books for your eBay business can make the difference between having a super successful online auction business, and simply having a hobby that generates a few extra dollars.
22. So how do you find the right wholesale books that can super charge your eBay business?
The following eBay strategy can be effectively used to find the hottest wholesale books.
What are some of the top eBay members selling?
You can search auctions, and look at the book sellers with the highest feedback.
Take a close look at their auctions and see what books they are selling on eBay.
If an eBay book seller has a long history of selling on eBay, and has plenty of positive feedback under his belt, chances are that he his making a good amount of money on eBay.
It would make allot of sense to search for wholesale sources for the books that he or she is selling.
Next, start contacting wholesalers that specialize in that particular product.
You can find thousands of wholesale sources by using search engines such as wholesalequest.com
Do your due diligence when dealing with a new wholesaler.
Another approach is to visit clearance outlets that focus on the books that you are looking to auction online.
Especially right after the holiday season, you can find many bargains at the outlets.
To find the best supply of a particular product, at the lowest possible price, you are always better off dealing directly with a wholesaler that focus on that particular product line.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale business that focus on brand name books. He can be reached at 718-389-5502
eBay offers book sellers the opportunity to instantly connect with millions of customers.
23. eBay, the giant online auction house, offers the opportunity for book sellers and buyers of almost every type of books to connect. Buyers can search eBay for deals on brand name clothing, hard to find collectibles, and rare antiques.
Inside eBay you will find categories, and subcategories, covering thousands of different books.
A browser can easily spend countless hours searching eBay for unique books that match almost every type of interest, no matter how eclectic.
eBay has developed a strong online auction that has enabled thousands of people to set up full time businesses, based exclusively on eBay.
So how can you enter the lucrative market of eBay?
1. Know the eBay market. Before you decide to sell on eBay you want to research what sells and doesn’t sell on eBay. You would be surprised at what sells, and what doesn’t. Remember that people shop on eBay for different reasons than they shop at a local mall.
2. Review eBay product sales. How does your product sell on eBay? When does your product sell for the highest price on eBay? What are buyers on eBay really looking for, when it comes to your product?
3. Frequency of eBay auctions. How many auctions are being finalized on eBay for your product? A high number of finalized auctions on eBay, indicates a high level of interest on eBay for your product.
4. eBay profitability for your product. Are the auctions on eBay ending at a high enough profit to give you a profit? The profit can be low, as long as the volume on eBay makes up for it.
eBay definitely offers plenty of opportunities. eBay businesses can develop six figure sales while avoiding many of the high fixed costs of non eBay businesses.
You can be successful in the eBay marketplace provided that you have fully researched eBay, and you understand what it takes to be successful on eBay.
eBay book sellers are always in search for new books to sell on eBay. Since most wholesalers are now advertising online, it can become difficult to have a product that will be unique on eBay.
1. Here are some exciting eBay auction ideas that will definitely make your eBay auctions unique.
eBay Exciting Idea #1
Is there a unique rally taking place in your area? Is it a rally that has strong political meaning for people living in other places? Then attend the rally and collect books such as signs, leaflets, banners, and other books related to the rally. You can then auction them on eBay to people who would love to have an item by which they can remember the rally.
eBay Exciting Idea #2
Think about how many people look up to movie stars. People love original memorabilia related to their favorite movie stars. The next time a movie is being filmed near you make plans to attend the shoot. If you are polite, and wait for the right time, most directors will allow you take pictures. You can then auction your original pictures on eBay.
eBay Exciting Idea #3
Do you live in a historical or otherwise popular location? How about looking for souvenirs that are only sold locally. People living in other places who once lived or traveled in the place where you live would be interested in those souvenirs.
You can also take this strategy and use it regards to colleges, sport stadiums, and religious institutions. Just make sure that the books you sell on eBay are genuine, and are only available locally.
Include these ideas in your eBay auctions and you will soon have many eager buyers.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors.
While the success experienced by eBay book sellers continues to draw attention, what is usually left out is the corresponding growth in competition. eBaybusinessbook.com has introduced innovative methods for outselling the competition.
2. Most eBay book sellers are highly educated entrepreneurs. They have access to hundreds of eBay books, eBay software packages, and eBay ebooks, which guide them through their eBay business.
The level of information available does place those eBay book sellers who have access to it, at an advantage. But since the majority of this information has been disseminated throughout eBay forums and chat rooms the applicable value of it has dropped.
Practical advice and guidance has always been what has distinguished one eBay book seller from the next one, but this advice and guidance decreases in value as more eBay book sellers have access to it.
So in response to this there are now various sources of eBay business information which have set up methods to limit the access of this information.
There are paid membership sites, and eBooks, which provide eBay book sellers with advanced business strategies to outpace their competition.
But even this type of exclusivity has a downside to it. Since as more eBay book sellers access these ideas by paying for them, then those same ideas decrease in value as more competitors have access to it.
To counter this trend eBay authors and consultants have made sure to update their writings and resources.
“What was once effective on eBay diminishes as time passes, since more and more eBay book sellers are trying the same strategies,” said Donny Lowy, who is the author of Secrets of eBay.
One interesting site is http://www.eBaybusinessbook.com which provides an eBay book which is periodically updated by the author, Janiece Smith, an experienced eBay book seller.
Another component of her business model is that she provides a member’s section where updates can be accessed by eBay book sellers.
While this approach is not infallible it does accomplish two important things.
It limits access to information by charging a price for it, and provides updates which can help eBay book sellers try out new selling strategies which their competitors have not yet learned.
“The key to growth with any business is to be able to develop strategies that allow you to stay one step ahead of your competition.”
One method that eBay book sellers use to distinguish their business from the competition is through the books that they sell. But this method alone does not always sufficiently alone help them stand out.
The reason for this is because it is up to the eBay book seller to market their books their books in a way that attracts attention. Now compound this with the thousands of other eBay book sellers selling books in the same category.
At the end it comes back to the ability of an eBay book seller to have a strong grasp on selling strategies that will enable him or her to stand out from the competition presented by other eBay book sellers.
Donny Lowy is the CEO of http://www.closeoutexplosion.com, an online wholesale and closeout business
The urban market is unique in the sense that the customer base buys out of a sense
of popular appeal, as opposed to practical considerations.
3. While the business attire market buys based on practical considerations such as
corporate dress codes and client interactions, the urban market buys based on
other criteria.
Customers buying urban clothing will opt for extra large sized clothing, even if their regular size is smaller.
To maximize your urban wear sales you need to use these urban fashion tips.
Urban Fashion Tip #1
Concentrate on large sizes.
Large sizes sell well because the style is to wear baggy and extra large looking clothing.
While the customer may only need a medium sized shirt, he will often prefer a 2X or larger sized shirt.
Urban Fashion Tip #2
Bright colors rule.
The name of the game is flash appeal. The louder the clothing is, the more it will stand out.
With prices ranging over $100 for a pair of jeans, urban wear customers want their clothing to
be noticeable.
Urban Fashion Tip #3
The name is worth gold. Before you check the quality, check the name. Retailers of urban clothing know how important the name is. Customers want the brands which are hot, and will vote with their wallets for the hottest urban brands.
Urban Fashion Tip #4
Jeans sell. Simply said, urban and hip hop jeans sell. Jeans are considered an intrinsic element of the urban wear wardrobe.
Urban Fashion Tip #5
Outfits outsell single pieces. To experience skyrocketing urban wear sales retailers should stock up on sets. While customers will be willing to buy assorted clothing, and put together their own sets, nothing sells as well as complete ready to wear sets.
Wholesale sources are an especially valuable commodity for eBay book sellers.
4. If you have been selling on eBay for some time you might have noticed the following.
More and more eBay book sellers seem to be obtaining their books from the same places.
Not only does this make the resale value of their books worth less, but it also crowds the market with the same books, which drives away buyers out of boredom.
To keep eBay shoppers interested in your auctions, and to sell your books at decent prices, you need to have books which few, if any, eBay book sellers carry.
How do you accomplish this?
You can locate hard to find wholesale sources through the following methods:
Method #1
Search for locally based wholesalers who do not have a large presence on the Internet. The harder these wholesalers are to find, the less will eBay book sellers know about them.
You can gain a competitive edge by using locally based wholesalers. You will be saving on shipping costs since you can pick up the books yourself.
Method #2
Use wholesalers which offer a changing line of closeout books. As a wholesaler, I always make sure that my site closeoutexplosion.com has new closeout books. I realize that new closeouts books will enable eBay book sellers to stay competitive by differentiating themselves from other eBay book sellers.
What should you do when you cannot find any new wholesale sources?
Use every educational resource available to you. There are great eBay related books which can help you maximize your auction potential. This way even if another eBay book seller has the same books, your auctions can still be more successful. Take a look at ebaybusinessbook.com for a great eBay related book.
Donny Lowy operates the following wholesale sites:
http://www.closeoutexplosion.com
http://www.wholesalequest.com
Flea markets are great retail marketplaces. Flea market book vendors are in a marketplace where the customers have a made a predetermined decision to buy.
5. Unlike people in malls and people walking in the streets, flea market customers are more than just browsers. They are serious customers who have a trip to the flea market to buy books.
But just because flea market shoppers want to buy, does not mean that they will buy from you.
To make sure that they do buy from you, I have compiled some great flea market insider business ideas. Use these strategies and your flea market sales will go through the roof.
Flea Market Business Idea #1
Make your booth stand out. Flea market shoppers are surrounded by hundreds of flea market book vendors. They start developing tunnel vision as they walk through the isles. You need to make your booth stand out so that shoppers will focus on your booth. One way is to use bright table cloths and a bright tent. Yellow and white are great colors since the sun will reflect on them and catch the attention of people.
Flea Market Business Idea #2
Flea market book vendors need variety. Even if you have the world’s lowest price on socks, your customers can only buy so many socks from you. If you want to increase your flea market sales you need to diversify your books. There is definitely a correlation between flea market sales and product variety.
Flea Market Business Idea #3
Professionalism is key. Just because you are selling at a flea market doesn’t meant that you can drop your professionalism. Flea market shoppers want to be treated right. They will give their business to the most organized and polite flea market book vendors. After all, who doesn’t want to be treated well.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors.
The flea market business has been an integral part of the American economy since its founding.
6. Many early settlers bought and sold books at open air markets, which were the predecessors of today’s flea market business.
To have an idea of how large the flea market business is, think of how many flea markets exist in your immediate area.
Now multiply the number of those flea markets by the number of cities in the United States.
There are so many flea markets because the flea market business is a substantial and viable business which enables hundreds of thousands of individuals to earn a secondary and primary source of income.
If you would like to join these people by starting your own flea market business, I would recommend the following.
1. Treat your flea market business like a real business. Set regular hours and have a weekly schedule.
2. Expand beyond the local flea markets. To really make money in the flea market business you need to travel to other flea markets, especially if they are larger than your local flea markets.
3. Always have a large assortment of books. Flea market customers can only buy what you sell, so always make sure to be fully stocked with inventory.
4. Stay competitive. Make sure your prices are under local retailers, including Wal Mart. If you buy right, you can keep your prices low.
5. Use the Internet to build your flea market business. Find flea market wholesale book book suppliers by using wholesale search engines such as http://www.wholesalecentral.com and http://www.wholesalequest.com
The flea market business has been an integral part of the American economy since its founding.
7. Many early settlers bought and sold books at open air markets, which were the predecessors of today’s flea market business.
To have an idea of how large the flea market business is, think of how many flea markets exist in your immediate area.
Now multiply the number of those flea markets by the number of cities in the United States.
There are so many flea markets because the flea market business is a substantial and viable business which enables hundreds of thousands of individuals to earn a secondary and primary source of income.
If you would like to join these people by starting your own flea market business, I would recommend the following.
1. Treat your flea market business like a real business. Set regular hours and have a weekly schedule.
2. Expand beyond the local flea markets. To really make money in the flea market business you need to travel to other flea markets, especially if they are larger than your local flea markets.
3. Always have a large assortment of books. Flea market customers can only buy what you sell, so always make sure to be fully stocked with inventory.
4. Stay competitive. Make sure your prices are under local retailers, including Wal Mart. If you buy right, you can keep your prices low.
5. Use the Internet to build your flea market business. Find flea market wholesale book book suppliers by using wholesale search engines such as http://www.wholesalecentral.com and http://www.wholesalequest.com
Flea market business. Does that phrase make you excited, but anxious at the same time?
8. If it does it’s probably because although you know that there is money to be made, you also realize how much competition exists in the flea market.
To make money with your own flea market business you need to have good quality flea market books at low prices.
But the other ingredient that is often overlooked, is that you have to have the ability to outsell your competition.
How do you outsell your competition from other flea market book vendors?
Think of what a dollar book store would do to stand out from other dollar book stores in the neighborhood.
You want to emulate this dollar book store, and apply its strategies to your own flea market business.
Here are tips that you can use to outsell your flea market competitors.
Tip #1
Customer service is crucial. People want to be treated well, regardless of where they are shopping. Be the flea market book vendor that is known for friendliness and helpfulness. Shoppers will be glad to buy from you, even if your prices are the same as other flea market book vendors.
Tip #2
Always have an organized and pleasant flea market booth. Shoppers will enjoy visiting your booth if your books is displayed nicely. Wouldn’t you?
Tip #3
Keep track of other book vendor’s prices. Your prices always should be at, or below their prices.
Even if lowering your prices cuts into your profits you need to adjust them. You can always make up the lost profit on higher sales.
Tip #4
Be positive. Shoppers want to buy from positive book sellers. Shopping at a flea market is supposed to be fun, make it fun for your customers.
Tip #5
Introduce a new variety of books. If shoppers know that you always have a nice variety of new books at your flea market booth, they will go to you first to see what new books you have.
Make sure that the books you introduce fit into your current books. You want your customers to know you for a certain product category.
Donny Lowy is the CEO of the following wholesale and closeout businesses.
http://www.closeoutexplosion.com
Have you ever wondered how some flea market book vendors seem to build strong businesses, with high profit margins, and strong sales?
9. The answer to their success might surprise you.
Instead of their success being based on an esoteric formula, the real truth is actually deceivingly simple.
The reason successful flea market book vendors make money is because they understand their customers.
Understanding your customers is actually the answer to success in any type of business situation.
Once you understand the needs and wants of your customers you will be able to better serve them.
But the problem that arises is that most flea market book vendors proceed to overlook the obvious and think too deeply when it comes to their customers.
They forget that their customers are guided by a very simple set of desires.
Here is a sample of important elements that constitute the reasons customers shop at flea markets.
Flea Market Customer Desire #1
Saving money. Yes, most flea market customers visit flea markets simply to save money.
They know that they can buy most of what they need at the local Wal Mart or Dollar General.
This type of customer is simply shopping at a flea market to save money.
Present the customer with substantial savings and you will have a good repeat buyer.
Flea Market Customer Desire #2
Entertainment. Okay, a flea market might not be the most exciting event, but believe me that plenty of people are excited to see what they can discover there.
If you want to sell to this type of flea market customer you will need to have books such as
collectibles, DVD movies, CDs, comic books, and other entertainment related books.
Flea Market Customer Desire #3
Exporting. Yes, you read that right. Many flea market customers are looking for inexpensive books to send back home, either for their families or for business purposes.
To sell to this type of customer you will need high end books at below wholesale prices.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies brand name books to eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors. Donny can be reached at 718-389-5502
Flea market book vendors have been seeing increasing sales as more and more customers shop at flea markets.
In the past, flea markets were seen as places to buy used goods, or places to simply spend a free day at.
10. But now flea markets are seen by many shoppers as sources for their consumer books, at substantial savings off their regular prices.
You can take profit from this consumer trend by setting up as a flea market book vendor.
To become a flea market book vendor you will first need to have a rebook sellers tax ID number. You should speak to an attorney or accountant to see what you need to get started.
Most flea markets will guide you in this process, since it is in their interest that you start renting a booth at their flea market.
Once you have the proper licenses, you will want to decide on what type of books to sell.
Flea markets can also be of help in this regard. You can ask the management of the flea market what books they feel will sell well.
They should tell you what books are not being sold, or what books can be sold more of.
You can also focus on the basic books that all flea market shoppers need, like T-Shirts, socks, underwear, towels, toothpaste, soap, etc.
As long as your prices are cheap compared to local book stores, and to those of other flea market book vendors, you should be able to sell those books.
Most flea market book vendors stumble when they try to sell either novelty books, or unique esoteric books.
Stay to the basics and your flea market business should prosper.
You should obtain a list of wholesalers who carry the books you want to sell. Narrow down the list to wholesalers who specifically cater towards flea market book vendors.
These wholesalers will have experience in what books will sell well at the flea market.
You can use search engines such as http://www.wholesalecentral.com and http://www.wholesalequest.com to compile a list of wholesalers.
Stay away from membership sites, since most wholesalers are listed openly online.
Your next step is to jump in. Over analysis will only discourage you from selling at the flea market. Instead of focusing on how much you can make, you need to focus on selling and building up your flea market business.
Make sure you start your first day at the flea market with a full assortment of books. This will make a great impression on customers, and will help you sell a good amount of books.
Donny Lowy is the CEO of the following wholesale and closeout businesses.
http://www.closeoutexplosion.com
Flea market wholesale books can help you build a successful flea market business, as long as you have the right product mix.
11. Flea markets are really another version of corner retail book stores.
Customers who shop at flea markets are looking for the same types of books that they would look for in a retail book store.
While this is generally true, there are some differences.
Customers who frequent a retail book store are generally looking for a specific product, while flea market customers are looking to see what books they can discover.
Another difference between flea market customers and “book store” customers is the following.
Flea market customers usually are bargain shoppers, and will prefer to save money on a lesser known brand, than on a more expensive well known brand.
Practically speaking this means that flea market book vendors need to buy wholesale books which reflect the budget preferences of their flea market customers.
Flea market book vendors need to look for high quality wholesale books that are targeted to budget minded consumers.
While a “book store” customer might buy a $50 Ralph Lauren jacket discounted to $30, a flea market customer will typically prefer to buy a no name jacket for $10, assuming the quality is high.
Many flea market book vendors who frequent my site, http://www.closeoutexplosion.com, have agreed with me that their customers prefer savings over brands.
The wholesale flea market books that you purchase should reflect the needs of your flea market customers.
Flea market books are the fuel for flea market book vendors.
12. Flea market book vendors who have access to the best wholesale flea market books are similar to race cars running on premium fuel.
They not only will have higher flea market sales, but their customers will return to them to buy more of their books the next weekend.
Flea market book vendors who are focused on the long term need to have high quality flea market books so that their customers will select them for their weekend shopping.
From the flea market book vendor’s perspective this is fine, as long as he or she can find high quality flea market books at the lowest possible wholesale prices.
If you are a flea market book vendor, or are considering selling at a flea market, I would recommend the following.
1. First visit a flea market and see what books customers are buying. This will tell you what you will be able to sell.
2. Speak to a knowledgeable wholesaler who has experience supplying flea market book vendors.
3. Ask him for his prices on the books that you see being sold at the flea market.
4. Shop and compare those prices with other wholesalers.
This process should help you find the lowest wholesale prices for the flea market books that you need.
What should you do when two wholesalers have the same price, or are within a few cents of each other?
I would recommend buying your flea market books from the wholesaler who you fell will be able to help you grow your business.
The knowledge and experience that a wholesaler can share with is worth more than the few pennies you might save from buying from the cheapest wholesaler.
Flea markets are great places to make some extra money on the weekends, or to even make enough money to supplement a lost job.
13. As part of my wholesale business I once sold at flea markets, and now supply flea market book vendors with wholesale books.
Based on my experience, and feedback from flea market book vendors, I have come up with a list of strategies for making money at flea markets.
These strategies require you to apply them to the flea markets that you sell at. You might want to make modifications based on the shoppers at your flea market, and the books which you sell.
Strategy #1
Always have a large quantity of books at your booth. People are attracted to quantity, so if you want customers to come to your booth, make sure your booth looks fully stocked up.
Strategy #2
Variety is the key for your flea market business. Your customers are looking for more than one item. The more books you offer them, the more that they can buy from you.
Strategy #3
Always price your books so that multiple purchases receive a discount. Your goal should be to sell out your books at the end of the day. You can always reorder, so why not sell out?
As long as you make a profit on the sale, always encourage your customers to buy more by giving them a lower price.
Strategy #4
Set up your flea market books so that your booth looks like a professional business. If you treat your booth like it’s a real book store, so will your customers.
Strategy #5
Have a flyer printed up with your business name, booth number, and books offered. Enclose a flyer in each customer’s bag, this way they will remember you and come back next week.
Donny Lowy is the CEO of the following wholesale and closeout businesses.
http://www.closeoutexplosion.com
Although it is crucial to advertise your online business, this does not mean that you need to go bankrupt in the process.
14. There are many techniques that allow you to advertise your site for free.
While most online business owners are familiar with how to spend money to advertise, few understand how to promote their businesses for free.
Before I explain what some of these free advertising techniques are I want to make it clear that they cannot replace the power of paid for advertising.
The reason being because paid fpr advertising can produce immediate results, and can be controlled.
You as the advertiser can decide how much traffic you want your site to receive, and how much you are willing to pay for that traffic.
But this does not meant that you cannot benefit from free online advertising.
I am sure you can see that the customers you receive from free advertising are more profitable to you than customers who came as a result of paid advertising.
The profit you earn on sales to them does not have any advertising expenses subtracted, so the net profit is higher.
Among the free online advertising techniques you can use are, destination sites.
Destination sites are sites where your potential customers visit to look for information. You can supply information to these sites in return for listing you as a source of that information. This technique will give you traffic from customers who are eagerly looking for your product or service.
Another free advertising technique is starting a forum covering your market. By being the moderator of this forum you can interact with potential customers without having to coax them to your site.
Lastly, you should post messages at forums that cover your market. Make sure your posts are relevant and display your level of knowledge.
If you are able to clearly convey your expertise you will have potential customers contacting you to find more about your books and services.
Free online advertising offers many benefits for online and offline businesses.
15. Obvious benefits of free online advertising include increased exposure, sales leads, and additional sales.
Some of the less obvious benefits that can be obtained through the use of free online advertising are increased search engine ranking, greater product awareness, and credibility acceptance.
When you use free online advertising you will be receiving in most cases links from other sites.
This links will point back to your site and will count towards your link count.
Most search engines, including Google, use your link count to determine your search engine rankings. The more links pointing to your site, the higher your rankings will be.
Another benefit is that the more ads you receive, the more people will see your site, and in turn they will be aware of your books and services.
Credibility acceptance is another important benefit of using free online advertising.
The more times prospective customers see your ads, the less skeptical they will feel towards your books and services. This assumes that your ads are well written and that your books and services are in fact legitimate.
While many entrepreneurs discount free online advertising, I can assure you that it works.
Free online ads work because your prospective customer does not care of you received the ads for free. As long as he or she is interested in what you are offering, they will respond to your ads.
The question is whether people will actually see all those free ads.
While a majority of those ads might not be seen by prospective customers you will still benefit.
Even if only one sale a day is produced from free online advertising, wouldn’t you agree that it’s worthwhile?
Hip hop and urban wear book sellers need innovative ideas to increase their sales.
16. The following 3 great ideas are perfect book sellers for retailers, eBay book sellers, and online businesses looking to tap into the hip hop and urban market.
Hip Hop Book seller #1
Rap CDs from up and coming rappers.
This strategy has two important components to it.
By offering CDs of rappers which are not well known you will be standing out from your competition.
Since most other hip hop and urban book sellers will not carry the CDs, you can capture more sales.
The second component is an increase in your street credibility. Buyers will consider you a serious hip hop book vendor since you carry books that other book sellers don’t. You will also gain a reputation as someone who has his finger on the pulse of the hip hop scene.
Hip Hop Book seller #2
New urban wear brands.
Many urban brands start gaining popularity on the street before national book vendors carry them.
Stock these brands and you will be staying one step ahead of the competition.
Using this strategy will also ensure that you are seen as a trend setting retailer, which will result in your developing a strong following.
Hip Hop Book seller #3
Publicize news, events, and new books on the hip hop scene.
By being a source of information you will gain a base of customers that will turn to
you repeatedly to learn the latest developments.
Once you have their attention you can capitalize by selling your other books.
Hip Hop Book seller #4
Reading material.
Once you have your customer in your book store, you need to serve his needs.
Besides your customers desire for hip hop books, he also wants to be informed and entertained.
Hip hop related books and magazines are a great way to achieve this.
EBay wants its buyers and book sellers to register with eBay. This simple process takes no more than 10 minutes to complete (one has to have credit card for this purpose). Once you have registered yourself with eBay, you can now start bidding or buying from eBay.
17. The buyer should go to home page of ebay.com and start looking for the books he is interested in purchasing. Alternatively, one can browse the books portfolio through search function provided. When a particular product of interest is ascertained, the buyer will have a list of all the books from different book sellers on the page. Buyer can sift through the listed books on display, and decide the one he is interested in and finds the value.
Each product on the list will have a minimum price to bid on with increments in the bid price. There will also be a reserve price for the product. Once the buyer places a bid amount on the product of interest, his bid will becomes the maximum bid unless other buyer places his bid for the same product. This bidding goes on till the end time of the bid (which ranges from one day to 10 days). If your bid happens to be the maximum bid amount, you are selected as the winning bidder. One you have been selected, you will receive an email from eBay for the product you have placed bid on. You have to effect the payment through the specified route, and you will receive the product through the specified shipment mode. That’s it to eBay.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors.
Stated simply, like any other auction site eBay functions in the same manner. The only difference between eBay and other similar auction sites lies in size. No other site comes even closer to eBay in terms of number of books on sale at any given point of time.
18. It is very easy to understand the basic functioning of eBay. This functioning is similar for book seller and buyer. Both the parties have to register themselves on eBay. Registration process is easy to understand and follow.
Once the book seller has registered himself on eBay, he can think of putting an item on sale. This item could be new or old. This has to be specified at the time of putting the item on sale or listing the item. There are charges in the range of 25 cents to $5 for listing an item for sale.
Then you have to define the time period of bid – in other words, how long this item will be on sale on eBay. In addition to this, the book seller has to decide the minimum amount for the bid i.e., the amount below which the book seller will not accept the bid for selling the listed item. People interested in buying the listed product start bidding for the item. After the expiry of the time frame, the person (buyer) with maximum bid gets the item for the amount he has placed the bid for. The book seller has to make arrangements for delivering the item (as decided at the time of listing the item) after receiving the payment from the maximum bidder.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors.
eBay book sellers are engaged in a constant search for the hottest selling books.
19. Online auctioneers have now more auction sites at their disposal than ever before.
Sites such as eBay, Amazon, and Yahoo all offer selling opportunities for online entrepreneurs.
But having a place to sell your books is only part of the battle.
The next step is knowing how to sell your books.
Gone are the days when someone could simply place an item up for auction and expect to receive bids.
Now the same book seller must be educated in terms of online selling to experience a decent level of success.
Sites such as ebaybusinessbook.com offer the type of information that an eBay book seller can use to build their online auction business.
But the question that still begs to be asked is, “What should I sell?”
This is where both eBay and Amazon come to the rescue.
Both of these online giants share information on their sales with the general public.
Their purpose in sharing this information is to help book sellers grow their business so that they can conduct more auctions and sales on their sites.
While it might be a self serving action, it can definitely benefit eBay and Amazon book sellers.
For instance, Amazon and eBay announced that during Thanksgiving of 2005 their top book sellers where electronics books.
As a book seller you can use this information to gear up your electronic sales.
You can use wholesale search engines such as http://www.wholesalequest.com to find wholesale electronic sources.
Remember that staying on top of sales trends is the third and most important ingredient in your online auction business.
EBay is that magical word that sends people laughing to their bank. EBay has provided employment to millions of people directly or indirectly. EBay has taught a new way of conducting business on the net to an extent that many firms were compelled to look at this business model. Although this business model is not new, eBay used it to advantage of all the people involved in the process.
20. When you register on eBay, you can immediately start your buying activity. This doesn’t apply for book sellers. Book sellers have to go through few more steps to become a registered book seller on eBay, the largest online place on earth.
Book seller account on eBay is needed due to transaction fees charged by eBay to book sellers (buyers are not charged anything or stated other way round, the fees is included in the final price). The simple book seller’s account set up wizard guides you through to set up the account. You will be asked to furnish your credit card details (number, expiry date, etc) and your checking account number. You will have to fill in your checking account details like bank name and account number. You will be asked to place your priorities for the fees deduction source. You may select either of the two – your credit card or your checking account.
Once you have furnished these details, your information will be submitted to the central processing system. You may have to wait for one to two days to commence your selling operations through eBay. You will receive a confirmation mail from eBay to this count.
s bidding system is basically on ‘bid increments’. A ‘bid increment’ is nothing but the amount by which a bid will be increased every time the current one is out bidden. eBay has an automatic bidding system. You need not do anything to setup, the system is already in place and is convenient.
21. When you find an item on eBay which is of your interest, assess it carefully and then click on the link “place bid”. Here, enter the maximum bid and click the button “continue”. Carefully go through your bid and once you are sure click the “confirm bid” button. Now eBay will come into play and bid on your behalf up to your max bid. You will then get a confirmation email for your bid. Later you will receive another mail to tell you whether you are the one who has won the item, along with what you have to do next.
For successful bidding of an item on eBay never bid on exactly alike books in different listings. This is because if you are too lucky and win both, you will be required to buy both. There are chances that the bidder who has won withdraws his or her bid and your bid might then become the winning bid. So, always wait until the auction ends before placing a bid on an equivalent item. You can though place the identical item in the list of books you are reviewing, in “My eBay”. If you want to change your bid amount you can do so by clicking on the “back to item” link available at the bottom of the page.
You might be a visitor to eBay who doesn’t know for sure what you are looking for exactly or you may be the one to just explore what all books are listed on eBay. For this, you can browse through the eBay’s listings. There are many links that you can use to browse on eBay. There is a link ‘browse hub page’ that has different paths by which you can browse on eBay. It includes category, book stores, themes and featured books browsing. When you are not sure where to begin browsing this page is the best way to start. You can even go to the link ‘browse by category’ on eBay where books are listed under various categories and sub-categories. You may then click on the category of your interest.
22. Featured books link ‘browse featured books’ has books listed for which book seller has paid additional charge to highlight. You can find books here that are rare or unique or books of special interests. If you are into charity or want to help any non-profit organization, you can browse for benefit books for sale on eBay by clicking on the link ‘browse charity books’. If you want to browse for books on sale by an experienced, high volume book seller you may go to the link ‘browse eBay Book stores’. There is another link for browsing viz. ‘browse eBay Motors’ where you can find trading of two-wheelers, four-wheelers, other commercial or personal vehicles, their parts, etc. Your browsing will become easier and time saving now that you are aware of all these links.
The wholesale business is differentiated from the retail in business in the following respect.
23. While retail book stores are selling to end users, wholesalers are selling to rebook sellers.
End users are less concerned with the price than with the benefits that the books will give them.
Retailers are concerned with earning a profit from sales to the end users of the books.
These distinctions between wholesalers, retailers, and end users, provides plenty of information on how to build a volume based wholesale business.
Since retailers, who are the customers of wholesalers, are interested in the profit margin that the books will give them, a wholesaler needs to focus on the profit margins of the retailer.
The higher the profit margins of the retailer, the more eager the retailer will be to reorder books from the wholesaler.
The wholesaler that offers the highest possible profit margin to retailers will see a dramatic growth in the volume of their business.
To ensure that a wholesale business can sustain its sales volume it needs to periodically introduce additional books.
Retailers know that their customers are always looking for something new.
To really build a wholesale business it must have new books on a weekly basis.
And since retail customers want variety, the more variety a wholesale business has, the more it will be able to supply to retail accounts.
One important aspect to remember is that the goal of a wholesale business is not to profit from single item sales, but to grow its business by building the business of its retail accounts.
In other words, as flea market book vendors, eBay book sellers, and dollar book stores grow their business, so will the business of the wholesaler expand.
The level of profit you can earn selling in a book store, flea market, or on eBay,
is based on how low you buy your books for.
24. Let's assume you are a rebook seller that focus on brand name clothing.
You come across a lot of Polo Ralph Lauren shirts with an original retail price of $80.
Your goal is to offer your customers a 50% discount on the clothing.
A 50% discount on the clothing is a sizable enough savings for your
customer. Most department book stores run sales of between 25% to 75% off on their clothing,
so if you can consistently offer your customers a 50% discount, you will pull them in to
your book store.
The same applies to eBay and flea market book sellers.
Now since we know that you will be selling the Polo Ralph Lauren shirt
at $40, your goal is to buy the shirt for below that price.
Below you will find some of my best tips for buying books
at the lowest possible wholesale prices.
Wholesale Buying Tip #1
Last season books. By buying wholesale books from the previous season, you will be able to buy at dirt cheap prices. Even though the books is from last season, it will still be relatively current. If your customers are in rural areas, or outside of the United States, they will be fine with buying clothing that might not be the latest fashion being sold at Macy's.
Wholesale Buying Reason #2
Ask for volume based discounts. Wholesalers make their money on volume, especially since they work on small profit margins. Wholesalers keep their prices low because they know that their business is based on the profitability of the resale potential of their books. Provided that you can buy in large quantities, wholesalers will be more than happy to give you lower prices.
Wholesale Buying Reason #3
Slightly irregular books. Often a manufacturer makes slight errors in production that lead towards the rejection of books. Errors can include pattern variations, color schemes, and size discrepancies.
As long as the error isn't anything major, the clothing will be still be highly sellable. Customers love buying this type of clothing, since they know that the irregularity is hard to spot, and that they are still getting to wear the brands they like, at prices substantially below the original retail price.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale business that focus on brand name prodcuts. He can be reached at 718-389-5502 All of his books are priced 50-90% below wholesale.
You can also search for more wholesale books at http://www.wholesalequest.com
You can make money online. But it is up to you to find the best route for making it.
25. There are two basic approaches you can take to making money online. One involves starting an online business based on an idea you have. This would be an idea which you either came up with yourself, or was inspired by something you saw or heard.
The other approach to making money online is based on the copy cat formula. This formula simply consists of watching what other successful online entrepreneurs are doing and copy them.
While this approach does not conjure any heroic ideals, it can definitely provide a short cut to fast Internet profits.
And if you still insist on developing your own business idea, why not at least copy the technical and strategic steps that other successful online entrepreneurs used?
By using the copy cap formula you will save time otherwise spent on research, and you will avoid plenty of trial and error mistakes.
For starters you need to find these highly successful online entrepreneurs before you can start copying their strategies. How do you find them?
Simple, go online and see who the top advertisers in your field are. If they can afford to spend a great deal of money on advertising, it would seem to indicate that they are making money. Even better if they have been advertising for at least a year.
Next, study in detail their advertising strategies. Are they offering free samples? Do they have a free ezine visitors can sign up for?
Check out their pricing structure. What is their minimum purchase? Are they focused on price or quality?
Compile a list of the key words they use in their advertising and sales copy.
Finally, implement what you have discovered. Without implementation your research will not make you money.
Start slowly and see what the response is to your campaign. If you are not receiving positive results you need to go back and reexamine their business strategy.
Once you have a close copy of their business strategy you should start seeing substantial profits.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors.
If you run a clothing business in Brooklyn you will want to
take advantage of local clothing wholesalers.
26. By visiting the warehouse of a Brooklyn clothing wholesaler
you will be able to see first hand his books.
Even though today the Internet can help you find clothing from wholesalers
from around the country, it can still be beneficial to see first hand the
books when possible.
Another advantage of dealing with a Brooklyn based wholesaler is that you
will be able to develop a personal relationship.
Having a personal relationship with your wholesale book book supplier is beneficial for a few reasons.
For starters, the wholesaler will think of you first when he comes across a new wholesale deal.
Second, you will have an easier time obtaining lower wholesale prices, since the wholesaler will
appreciate your business relationship.
So how do you find Brooklyn based clothing wholesalers?
Step #1
Visit the New York wholesale shows. Many clothing wholesalers set up booths at the
wholesale shows.
Step #2
Network. Let other retailers and wholesalers know what you are looking for. Everyone in business works on building networks, so your best source of information is other retailers and wholesalers.
But why would they share the information with you?
Either from their desire to build a business relationship with you, or to earn a commission from the wholesaler they send you to.
Step #3
Conduct an online search for Brooklyn based clothing wholesalers.
You can conduct a search through a search engine such as Google, or you can use a more specialized wholesale search engine such as wholesalequest.com
Once you locate the contact information of the wholesaler, you want to make sure you are well prepared before setting up a time to meet with him.
You will want to have your sales tax id number, and a clear idea of what kind of books you are
looking for.
If you are not sure exactly what books you want to purchase, then at least have an idea of the category of books you want to sell.
You can select this category by thinking about the customers you will be selling to.
If your clothing book store will be located in an urban area of Brooklyn you will want to carry urban brands such as Ecko, Sean John, Enyce, Rocawear, Phat Farm, and Akademiks.
For a clothing book store located in a more yuppie area, like Park Slope or Brooklyn Heights, you will
want to carry brands such as Polo Ralph Lauren, DKNY, and Nautica.
Keep your ears on the ground so that you will know which brands are gaining in popularity, and which brands are fading out.
Next you will want to determine the price range you need to buy at. You determine this price range by examining the purchasing power of your average customer.
If your customers will be willing to spend $50 on a Tommy Hilfiger shirt, you can afford to pay up to $25 for it.
Always try to work on at least a 100% mark up.
When an item is really hot, and you will know it will sell quickly, you can take a chance and work on a smaller profit margin. Since the item will sell, you know you will make money on it.
Let’s refocus on your meeting with the wholesaler.
When you speak to the wholesaler schedule a definite time to meet at. This will show your seriousness and will ensure that the wholesaler is available to see you.
Remember that the wholesaler is looking for a long term business relationship.
Convey to him your shared interest in developing a solid relationship and you will be able to receive competitive prices and fast moving books from the wholesaler.
In your search for clothing wholesalers, you can use these categories:
Wholesale Designer Wear
Wholesale Dress Wear
Wholesale Urban and hip hop wear.
Wholesale Children’s clothing.
Wholesale Men’s clothing.
Wholesale Women’s clothing.
Wholesale Junior clothing.
Wholesale Baby clothing.
Wholesale New clothing.
Wholesale Used clothing.
Wholesale Salvage clothing.
Wholesale book store return clothing.
You should mix and match categories to further refine your search.
Don’t be discouraged if the first wholesaler you contact does not have the clothing
you are looking for, often the wholesaler will be able to point you in the right direction.
Once you start making contacts with clothing wholesalers you will start developing your own ideas and strategies to help you navigate the wholesale landscape.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies brand name books to eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors.
The strongest factor that holds back wholesale buyers is the inability to know for certain what books will sell.
27. Many times retailers, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers are offered great wholesale and closeout deals, but they hesitate and miss the deal.
For the most part this happens because the wholesale buyer spends too much time pondering the profit potential of the wholesale books. By the time the rebook seller makes a decision the books has usually been sold.
What also takes place is the rebook seller will start thinking of every negative reason why not to buy the wholesale books, until even the best wholesale deal appears to be unattractive.
This thought process is the reason why most retailers, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers stay small.
Does this mean that I am suggesting that rebook sellers should simply jump into a wholesale deal?
No, I am actually from the school of thought that says that research and strategic thinking lead to success.
So what would I recommend to rebook sellers who are not able to make a decision when it comes to new wholesale deals?
I do understand their reluctance in buying some wholesale deals, after all they do not know for certain what books will sell in the respective markets.
Here is what I believe every retailer, flea market book vendor, and eBay book seller should do when considering the merits of a wholesale deal.
The rebook seller needs to look at the buying habits of his own family.
Would his family buy those books? Chances are that if his family would buy those wholesale books at some point, that there are plenty of other families that will also buy that wholesale books.
Many times we forget that our customers are very similar to ourselves.
If there is an item that we would buy, chances are that there are thousands of other people who would also buy those same books.
So the next time you are offered a wholesale deal, ask yourself if you and your family buy those types of books.
If the answer is yes, then you should be taking steps to buy that wholesale deal.
Donny Lowy is the CEO of http://www.closeoutexplosion.com, an online wholesale and closeout business.
Closeoutexplosion.com supplies brand name wholesale and closeout books to dollar book stores, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers.
Have you considered buying wholesale books from China? If you have, you are
among the millions of rebook sellers attracted by the extremely low product costs that China can offer.
28. But are you making the best decision by ordering wholesale books from China?
Sure, the price seems to be right. You can order books for as low as
75% below the prices of American made books. With such low prices, the retail mark up is unbelievable.
Profit margins of those sizes would seem to guarantee instant success to any retailer.
Imagine purchasing a par of socks for as little as .10, and then reselling it for a dollar a pair.
You are turning every $1 that you use to buy the socks, into $10 when you resell the socks. $1,000 used to buy socks from China, can turn into $10,000 when sold at the retail level.
You must be wondering why everyone doesn't buy wholesale books from China if the profit potential is so high. After all, everyone goes into business to make allot of money.
Here are the following reasons why a retailer would still buy American made books, even with a lower profit margin, than Chinese produced books, with gigantic margins.
Wholesale Buying Reason #1
Quality attracts customers. Most American made books are of better quality, and therefore are more attractive to consumers. People want to enjoy what they buy, and will prefer to buy higher quality books over lesser ones.
The above is true when dealing with customers that are not under financial duress.
A struggling single mom, or an unemployed individual, unfortunately can be forced to sacrifice quality for price.
Wholesale Buying Reason #2
Quality premium. Based on the understanding that customers prefer quality books, they will also be willing to spend more money on better quality books. So even though an American made product might cost you more, you can also charge more for it.
Wholesale Buying Reason #3
Brand name recognition. Customers love brand names, and will buy books that are branded. This is especially true when dealing with customers between the ages of 15 to 35. Customers in this age range will spend more money on the brands they like.
Since most genuine branded books are not available from China, a retailer will want to focus on American based wholesalers that supply the branded books.
Important Safety Tip:
While many wholesalers located in China will offer branded books, these books
are usually either knock offs, or unauthorized booksd produced by a licensed factory.
In any event, that type of books can be seized.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale business that focus on brand name prodcuts. He can be reached at 718-389-5502 All of his books are priced 50-90% below wholesale.
You can also search for more wholesale books at http://www.wholesalequest.com
Nigeria is experiencing an economic boom. The combination of this past year's run up in oil prices, and a sweeping government reform aimed at eradicating corruption, has helped the economy in Nigeria prosper.
29. The economic betterment of Nigeria has lead to a direct increase in the prosperity of its expanding middle class.
With a growing banking, oil, and tourism sector, the trickle down effect has put more money into the pockets of the Nigerian middle class.
The middle class, comprised of fashion conscious consumers, is using its new found spending power to purchase brand name clothing.
While the clothing market in Nigeria is saturated by Chinese manufactured clothing, there is a scarcity of American brand names.
An exporter, whether a single individual bringing clothing to Nigeria, or a large established apparel wholesaler, can make a good deal of money by supplying brand name clothing to Nigeria.
Currently, Nigerian consumers are seeking out well known American brands such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, and other internationally recognizable brands.
The Nigerian market has a well developed media sector, which has the spread the popularity of American brand names to the far reaches of the country.
Supplying these lucrative brand names to Nigeria is feasible when the clothing exporter understands the market.
Because using shipping services such as UPS, Fed Ex, and DHL can be expensive, the use of a freight forwarder is highly recommended.
Freight forwarders aggregate shipments from various senders, and through their bargaining power are able to offer shippers a much lower shipping rate.
Another advantage of using a Nigerian freight forwarder is that they can clear the apparel through customs on behalf of the sender.
What is perhaps even more helpful to exporters dealing with the Nigerian market, is their freight collect services.
Payment for the shipping is made by the customer when he or she picks up the order from the shipper's Nigerian office.
Some of the freight forwarders also offer direct shipping to the customer's residence or place of business.
For people sending clothing to Nigeria, where the shipment is relatively small, the US Postal Service can be used.
But while a freight forwarder might charge as low as $2.90 per pound, the US Postal Service charges close to $6 per pound.
Most freight forwarders have a minimum of 60 pounds, while the US Postal Service has no minimum shipping requirements.
Which ever option you use, it is highly recommended that the clothing exporter feels comfortable with the shipping service.
If you are using the freight forwarder for the first time, feel comfortable in asking them for references.
Companies such as Grandbelle International and Express Air Freight Unlimited, are able to ship and clear orders for Nigeria, on a freight collect basis, which makes them ideal for business to business transactions.
While book sellers might be concerned due to media reports concerning fraud, payment for the books can easily be done by wire transfer, since Nigeria has a sophisticated and well developed banking system.
From my experience, the majority of Nigerian business people are hard working and honest, and I would not allow a few negative stories to distort the perception to what are otherwise honest people.
If you are a clothing wholesaler or exporter, and you are looking for a market with a strong appetite for high quality brand name clothing, then Nigeria might be the perfect market for you.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale business that focuses on brand name books. He can be reached at 718-389-5502 All of his books are priced 50-90% below wholesale.
Digital books are special files or information that you can access online. For example it can be a software package that you can install on to your system after paying it at eBay. All these books are sold on eBay at a ‘buy it now” price, that is, you are not required to bid on that item, you can instantly place an order.
30. Digital books can be found by browsing on eBay’s category listing or searching by keywords. While going through the lists of books you may find a “digital item” filter on the left hand side of the page. You may not find such filters on all pages. If you click the “yes” button on this filter, you will see only digital books. The best keyword to search for digital books is to type ‘digital item’. Then select the option ‘search title and description’. Digital item book sellers use these words in their description.
It is not difficult to view and differentiate a digital item since eBay flashes a standard message “This is a digital item” at the top of the item description. Review the listing properly to see if the item is of real interest to you and is easy to install. For this check “file type and requirements” portion to see if this item is compatible with your computer system and software. Now that you have decided finally to buy this digital item, click the link ‘buy it now’. Since you can instantly place order and can download, you need to pay the book seller immediately too. For this you can use “PayPal” which will help you to pay quickly and safely online using your credit card or bank account number. After receiving the payment the book seller will instruct you either to visit a website and download the file, or will send the item to you on your preferred email.
eBay is best known for its consumer to consumer sales. Most of the books sold on eBay is by private book sellers who end up selling to other private users.
31. When you search on eBay you will see that the majority of eBay auctions are for single books, or at best small lots of five or six units.
While the fact is that currently the majority of eBay buyers and book sellers are private consumers, there is a growing business to business market on eBay.
Many wholesalers are starting to use eBay to sell wholesale books to rebook sellers.
Wholesalers understand that just as there are people searching for books for their own consumption, there are also individuals who are looking for books for resale purposes.
If you are an eBay book seller, flea market book vendor, dollar book store owner, or even a wholesaler, you should be using eBay to find good wholesale deals on the books that you need.
Did you know that pretty much every category on eBay now has a sub category called wholesale?
This means that if you are an eBay book seller of clothing, or a flea market book vendor who specializes in clothing, you can now visit the clothing category and click on wholesale. You will then see all of the wholesale deals dealing with that type of books.
At this point you may wonder why everyone doesn’t simply buy at wholesale and then resell in individual lots.
Part of the reason is because many eBay book sellers do not have the storage capacity, or the money, to buy large lots. If you have the storage capacity, and some extra money to spend, then you should definitely think about buying wholesale lots on eBay and reselling them in smaller lots.
There are times when you can buy a wholesale lot for a low price, take better pictures of it and write a better description, and sell it for up to double the price of what you paid for it.
To be successful at finding wholesale lots on eBay you need to understand the product. Make sure that the product being sold in the wholesale lot still is in demand.
Just because it’s not in demand on eBay does not mean that it will not be in demand elsewhere.
Many book store owners and flea market book vendors will buy wholesale lots on eBay and resell them at a profit in their own book stores and flea market booths.
Reasons that will create situations that enable you to buy wholesale books on eBay at a low price, can be because the eBay book seller might have just closed his business, a flea market book vendor might be moving, or the distributor’s books is simply not selling in his area.
You can fully maximize the potential of your business by buying wholesale lots on eBay.
The retail business is a very competitive business. Retailers, eBay book sellers, and flea market book vendors are all competing with each other and with large box book stores like Wal Mart, K Mart, and Target.
32. Customers are highly educated and know what they should be paying for the books they need.
So in order for a retailer, flea market book vendor, or eBay book seller to succeed, they need to be able to compete based on price.
To have the lowest price they need to be able to buy from real wholesalers who can offer real wholesale prices.
So how does a rebook seller ascertain if a wholesale source is legitimate, and how does he find it in the first place?
One effective approach for finding wholesale deals is to visit wholesale specific search engines like http://www.wholesalecentral.com and http://www.wholesalequest.com
The retailer would then compile a list based on the type of books he is looking to sell.
After compiling this list he would start researching prices by first visiting large box retail book stores and seeing what their prices are.
For an eBay book seller or a flea market book vendor to compete, their prices must be at least 10% lower.
They should only deal with wholesalers who can supply them with wholesale prices which allow them to make money while pricing their books under the large box retailers.
Before ordering from a wholesaler it would be recommended to conduct a search on Google to see what people are saying about the wholesaler.
If everything is positive, the wholesaler can be tested by placing a trial order. As long as you the wholesale books is satisfactory the flea market book vendor, or eBay book seller, can then proceed and continue to do business with this wholesaler.
They can also search for wholesale book book suppliers by contacting industry associations. There are industry associations that represent every market segment that exists.
These associations are set up to bring more business to their members. They are waiting for businesses to contact them so that they can refer customers to their members.
Many of these industry groups have ready made directories that give you a complete listing of all their members.
These directories are a gold mine for wholesale businesses because they represent access to manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors, who themselves have thousands of books for sale.
The top book sellers in the retail, flea market, and eBay business even have staff who are constantly searching for new books to introduce to the book stores, flea markets, and eBay book sellers that they sell to.
Donny Lowy is the CEO of http://www.closeoutexplosion.com, a wholesale and closeout business that supplies dollar book stores, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers with wholesale and closeout books.
eBay is a true global market place. There are millions of customers shopping for thousands of books in hundreds of subcategories.
33. Auctions for cars, computers, boats, and shoes close every few minutes on eBay.
The demand for books on eBay is greater to the demand than most of the largest department book stores experience during their busiest shopping seasons.
eBay book sellers who have the right product mix have the opportunity to turn their eBay business into a full time income, or at minimum to provide them with a nice sized additional source of spending money.
Many eBay book sellers rush into eBay with dreams of riches only to be confronted with the actual reality of the eBay market place.
The reality is that while there is a strong demand for many types of books, an eBay book seller cannot simply put up an auction and expect to make money.
Millions of eBay book sellers are on the site listing their books.
This competition makes it challenging for eBay book sellers to build their businesses.
After years of supplying eBay book sellers with wholesale and closeout books I have found the following.
There are requirements that must be met in order for the books to sell well on eBay.
The two requirements are either that the books must compete on price, and be priced well below other listed books.
Or, the books must be unique enough so that there is none or little competition from other eBay book sellers.
One way to have books that meets both of these requirements is to buy wholesale and closeout books.
Many times you can buy unique books as closeouts that most book sellers will not have.
You might buy an item made in limited quantities, or a collectible which is no longer available on the market.
Since the books that you are buying is wholesale and closeout books, the prices you are paying should be very low.
These low wholesale prices will give you an advantage over other eBay book sellers.
Keep in mind that most eBay book sellers only think they are buying from a wholesaler.
If you do your research carefully you can ensure that you are buying from a real wholesaler.
Once you start working with authentic wholesale businesses, you will have the right books for successful eBay sales.
Donny Lowy is the CEO of http://www.closeoutexplosion.com, an online wholesale and closeout business.
EBay is not only the largest online market place on earth, its organization is too large for an individual to understand with few clicks. One can imagine he size of the website when one thinks of more than 20 million books on sale and more than 120 million people from all over the world accessing the site. That’s really huge.
34. EBay knows this well, and they have offered (just like any other site) a site map to navigate.
When you open the site map, you will find all the links related to eBay for your buying and selling activities. This one single page on eBay is like a magic wand. You will everything laid out here for your ease of navigation. You can look for product categories for selling or buying. All the help needed for buying and selling is available from this section on the site. If you otherwise try to browse through the different pages on eBay site, it will much longer time to surf through and learning curve will also be steeper. Site map can also direct you to community pages on the market place. The entire help file section can also be accessed from this page.
Major advantage of using this site map page at the starting point is to centralize all your buying and selling activities from one page. You can sign in your account from this page and come back to this page after signing in. You can even think of saving this page in your favorites and make it your passport to enter into eBay world.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors.
Despite its colossal size, navigating through eBay pages is not a problem at all. Here is a quick summary of how to find your way at eBay.
35. If you want to sign up at eBay (that’s the first thing you will have to do, if you want to take active part on eBay), look for ‘Register’. If you have already registered yourself with eBay, click on ‘Sign in’ to enter into the most exciting market place in the world for participation.
If you want to buy something on eBay, look for ‘Buy’ on the main page. Once you have selected an item for purchase, and you happen to be the highest bidder after the expiry (delisting of item), you have to click ‘Pay’ to facilitate the payment for the item won by you. Similarly if you want to sell something, simply clicking ‘Sell’ on the page will redirect you to desired place.
After having registered at eBay, your account is opened at the market place. This can be accessed by clicking ‘My eBay’. EBay’s efforts on making the website user friendly are laudable. You can have help two ways – through ‘Help’ or having a live help (through chat).
EBay also offers host of other services for the buyers and book sellers. Click on ‘Services’ to have a look at the services offered by eBay to its members.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors.
The wholesale business is an extremely lucrative business that
can allow a hard working entrepreneur to develop a six figure income.
36. In essence, the wholesale business involves suppling books that retailers
can resell. The industry covers a wide range of product categories including, apparel,
general books, electronics, novelties, food, and many other books.
While traditionally the wholesale trade focused on supplying retail accounts
such as book stores and flea market book vendors, the customer base has expanded to include
eBay and other online rebook sellers.
Due to the wide customer base available to a wholesaler, the wholesale
business has now become even more lucrative.
It is more common to hear of new and established wholesalers earning a
six figure income.
How can you, as a wholesaler, earn a six figure income?
Below are some great tips to show you how.
Wholesale Six Figure Income Tip #1
Focus on a hot product niche. Visit book stores and see what people are
eagerly buying. If customers are actively searching for urban style jeans, then you
might want to focus on wholesaling urban jeans.
Wholesale Six Figure Income Tip #2
Develop a reputation as a product source. You want to focus on a specific product
line. You want your wholesale business to be synonymous with a selected product,
this way customers will always think of you when looking for that product.
Wholesale Six Figure Income Tip #3
Strive for repeat business. Repeat business is the key to financial success in the
wholesale business. The more often your customers reorder from you, the more money you will
make.
You can expand and adapt these tips based on your target market.
Some of your retail accounts will be more impressed by product variety, while some of your
accounts will be drawn by product cost.
Due to the high income potential of the wholesale business, there are always competitors entering the field. In order to keep one step ahead of the competition, and to ensure that you have a firm grip on your customer's business, keep an open level of communication with your customers.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale business that focus on brand name prodcuts. He can be reached at 718-389-5502 All of his books are priced 50-90% below wholesale.
You can also search for more wholesale books at http://www.wholesalequest.com
The wholesale business has a great deal of profit potential. Provided that you buy wholesale books that people want, and you make sure to buy them at the right price, you can make plenty of money.
37. Thanks to the Internet you can easily view the wholesale books of thousands of wholesale book sellers. You can quickly compare prices, brands, and product selection.
Even better, you can ask your customers what books they are interested in, and then only buy those books that they want.
Once you find the wholesale books that you decide to sell, you need to know how to sell them.
Here are my top selling tips for wholesale books.
Wholesale Product Sale Tip #1
Rent a flea market booth. Most flea market book vendors are still dealing with local book book suppliers and are not shopping online. This means that if you buy your wholesale books online you will have much better pricing, and possibly a better selection. You should have little competition at the flea market if you buy right.
Wholesale Product Sale Tip #2
Sell on eBay. There are millions of shoppers on eBay looking for an alternative to the high prices they are used to. These eBay shoppers want the convenience of buying on eBay. Make sure your prices are low and you will see a nice turn over on your wholesale books. Remember that eBay shoppers love brand name books.
Wholesale Product Sale Tip #3
Open up a small book store. Opening up a book store is not as complicated as you think. Many landlords are sitting on empty retail spaces. Every month that their book store sits empty they lose money. In these situations rents can be negotiated in your favor. Make sure to order the wholesale books that are in the area where your book store will be located. You might want to consider testing out the market by selling at a flea market before renting a book store.
Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay book sellers, retailers, and flea market book vendors.
The advent of the Internet has enabled small retailers, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers to find wholesalers from across the country.
38. Many times these wholesalers can be located on the opposite end of the country, making a warehouse visit impractical.
There is a dilemma in these situations because many times these wholesalers will have really good wholesale deals. But since the wholesaler is located far away from the retailer, is difficult, and sometimes nearly impossible to inspect the wholesale books.
While this situation might discourage many book stores, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers from dealing with far away wholesalers, there are steps that can be taken to make these transactions safer.
The best way to ensure that the wholesale deal is legitimate is to make sure that the wholesaler is reputable.
So how do you ensure that a wholesaler is reputable?
For starters, see what kind of treatment they extend to you over the phone.
You want to make sure that the wholesaler is patient and fully answers all of your questions.
Make sure you he gives a very clear description of the wholesale books you are buying.
A legitimate wholesaler will be happy to supply references upon request. So make sure you ask for them if you are not sure about a wholesaler.
You can also search on Google and see what comes up when you type in the wholesaler’s name in the search box.
By using this technique you will uncover any positive or negative reviews about the wholesaler.
While a new wholesaler can be just as honest as a long time established one, you might want to stick to the more established wholesalers until the new ones prove themselves.
Lastly, perhaps the most realistic method for researching a wholesaler is to place a small trial order.
You will then be able to see the quality of the wholesale books. You will also know if the wholesaler has accurately represented the quality of the wholesale books which you have ordered.
I would strongly favor any wholesaler that calls you after you receive your order. If a wholesaler calls you, or emails you, after the sale it shows that he is concerned with your satisfaction.
This type of follow up by a wholesaler means that the wholesaler wants your repeat business, not just a one time sale.
Donny Lowy is the CEO of http://www.closeoutexplosion.com, an online wholesale and closeout business.
Closeoutexplosion.com supplies brand name wholesale and closeout books to dollar book stores, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers
Classified ads have been a long time staple of the mail order business. They are relatively low priced, and can attract plenty of attention when used correctly
39. The same applies to Internet classified ads. They are a great resource since they are priced inexpensively in terms of their exposure, and can often be had for free.
Online classified ads are often offered to advertisers for free to build traffic for the publisher.
The publisher wants to create an audience of visitors who will come to his site on a regular basis.
One way to build that traffic is by having classified ads that visitors will frequently read.
Since the publisher has other means of earning revenue for the site, he often will provide free classified ads on his site.
These classified ads should not be dismissed due to the fact that they priced low, or that they are free.
On the other hand, when used correctly they can be a great business building tool for any online business.
As a matter of fact, the Google Ad Words and Google Ad Sense program use the classified ad structure in their advertising programs.
Even though free classified ads might only attract a small amount of traffic, when used repeatedly, or in combination with other free classified ad sites, they can soon start proving the advertiser with a strong flow of online visitors.
For online classified ads to work they need to be used as lead generators. The purpose of the online classified ad is only to bring potential customers to your site.
If you are advertising a phone number, or a brick and mortar address, use it to generate leads.
Sales are difficult to obtain through the limited text available through an online classified ad.
But leads, which are the life blood of all businesses, can be quickly obtained through these ads.
Your Internet classified ad should be written in a realistic tone. You want Internet surfers to know that there is a real legitimate Internet business behind the ad.
To obtain a high response rate from the classified ad, and possibly even some sales if you take that route, stress benefits in your online classified ads.
Benefits are what motivate people into trying a new books and services.
There can be different payment modes on eBay, decision depends on the book seller, and how he or she accepts. Each book seller being unique can accept different payment methods listed. If you go through the item description before bidding you will find the payment method the book seller is wanting. Best way to pay on eBay is to clicking on the “pay now” button. You will see such a button appearing on the web page when you have selected the item you want to buy and also in the email sent to you by eBay confirming your item selection.
40. PayPal is, as the name suggests, very user friendly and hence the easiest and fastest way to pay for books on eBay. It helps you with various options for paying like credit and debit cards, bank accounts or electronic payments. It is best if the book seller of your item chooses PayPal. In that case you simply have to click on the “pay now” button. After reviewing your purchase you can soon pay with PayPal. The book seller will then be immediately informed about your payment.
But if you are opting for some other kind of payment option like sending a cheque or a money order then after clicking on the “pay now” button you will get details on such kind of detailed payment procedures. In this you will get to note down the address where your payment has to reach. Here, where PayPal kind of reliable body is not involved, you have to be very careful. You should try to bid on books where you have the freedom to choose the payment type. For instance, if you want to send a cheque but the book seller is pressing upon to pay via money order, sounds fishy. It is obligatory to pay to the book seller using one of the methods stated in the eBay listing. If some book seller changes such methods below the entire listing, you should press upon paying through one of the methods specified.
The high level of competition at the retail level, whether on eBay, at a flea market, or at a shopping center, means that success is often dictated by who has the lowest price.
41. Customers can easily see who has the lowest price by conducting a simple search on eBay, walking around at a flea market, or visiting a few book stores in a shopping center.
Long gone are the days when a consumer had to limit his choices to a few local book stores.
Today, in large part because of the Internet, dollar book stores, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers, all have access to many different types of books.
In the past when the wholesale business was based on connections, a rebook seller would have to endure a difficult and time consuming search to find book book suppliers of books.
But today any retailer, flea market book vendor, or eBay book seller can simply go online and order pretty much any type of wholesale books.
So to make money the book seller needs to ensure that what he is buying will give him a good profit margin while charging less than his competitors.
To accomplish this the book seller needs to be able to pay the lowest possible wholesale prices.
So how can you as a rebook seller pay the lowest wholesale prices?
For starters you need to know the market wholesale price of the books you are looking for.
You find this price by calling a few wholesalers that deal with the wholesale books you want.
At this point you will know what the actual wholesale price of this books is.
Your next step is to obtain the lowest wholesale price by calling each wholesaler and telling them what their competitors’ prices are.
It is important that you quote them the actual prices, otherwise the wholesaler will know that you are fabricating the numbers.
Once these wholesalers see that you are serious, and honest, they will compete amongst themselves to earn your business.
While they might already be at the lowest prices that they can offer you, you might benefit by receiving a discount in the shipping, or extra books thrown in for free.
Once you find the wholesaler that will give you the best price on the wholesale books you need to move to step two.
In this step you ask him how much he can lower the price if you increase the number of units that you are buying.
It is usually worthwhile buying 5% more wholesale books that you need right now, in exchange for obtaining a 5% discount on the wholesale price.
You can always sell the extra books in the future.
And you will benefit this way since you will now have paid a lower wholesale price than the majority of your competitors.
Donny Lowy is the CEO of http://www.closeoutexplosion.com, an online wholesale and closeout business.
Closeoutexplosion.com supplies brand name wholesale and closeout books to dollar book stores, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers
A successful clothing book store can make an entrepreneur extremely rich, and in a
very short period of time. People are always shopping for clothes, and are willing to spend their hard earned dollars on the clothing they like.
42. Some of the most expensive retail rents are being paid by clothing book stores. The
owners of these clothing book stores understand how much they can make with their book stores, that they are willing to pay a premium price for having their clothing shops in the right location.
If you are thinking of opening a clothing book store, or already run one, you will love
the following tips. These tips can help you quickly increase the sales level of your book stores,
even if your book store has been struggling until now.
Clothing Book store Sales Tip #1
Bright lighting. Sounds simple? You would be surprised at how
many clothing book stores have dim and dreary interiors. When possible, bring in as much
natural light as possible. In set ups where there isn't allot of natural light, use extra bright
illuminating lights.
Studies have shown that people are happier in bright environments, and those same people will be willing to spend their time, and money, in a clothing book store that makes them
feel happier.
Clothing Book store Sales Tip #2
Fashionable posters of stunning models. Clothing shoppers want to look great. They are spending their money in their quest to look good, impress their families and friends, and maybe even attract romance.
By displaying posters of attractive models wearing the clothing sold, you will imprint the
idea in the shopper's mind that they too can look great. Think about how much money Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie and Fitch make by implementing this strategy.
Clothing Book store Sales Tip #3
Sales. I can't repeat this enough, customers love sales, and will flock to book stores that
regularly conduct them. Look at how aggressive large department book stores are in promoting their sales.
Do you know why?
Because they work
Sales generate customer traffic, and customer traffic leads towards transactions, which give you an ever expanding bank account.
One key factor to succeeding in business is having books that are in hot demand.
43. Your wholesale business needs to have the books which rebook sellers are being asked for by their customers.
Since your sales are driven by the success of your customers, who in turn need to sell the wholesale books they buy from you, it would make sense for you to offer the hottest books available on the market.
But how can you determine which wholesale books is in the most demand?
One way to ascertain this is by polling your wholesale customers.
Ask them straight out what line of books they need for their customers.
Since your customers are in business to make money, they will be glad to share this information with you.
They realize that as a wholesaler you are not going to compete with them on the retail level.
For this reason they will be secure in telling you the exact type of books they need.
So next time you are trying to figure out what the hottest wholesale books is, simply ask your customers.
Remember, the wholesale deals that your customers need, is the hot books as far as you are concerned.
Because even if for example DVD players are a hot wholesale item, if your customers are looking for good wholesale deals on televisions, then as far as your business is concerned, the hot item is currently a television.
Keep this in mind while you develop your wholesale business and you will have a very good chance of always selling your wholesale inventory.
Most eBay book sellers specialize in selling books for which they have small quantities. Since the average eBay book sellers is a home based entrepreneur she has to work within certain constraints.
44. The limits the average eBay book seller faces is a small budget and scarcity of space in which to book store their books.
So while most eBay book sellers will only stock a small quantity of goods, there are times when an eBay book seller will find herself with a large quantity of an item.
While some might see this as a disadvantage for the eBay book seller, it can actually represent a significant opportunity.
If you are familiar with the phrase that “adversity creates character” you will understand how this situation can actually help the eBay book seller to rise to a higher business level.
The eBay book seller now has to devise a strategy for selling this larger quantity of books.
Here is how an eBay book seller can successfully sell a large run of an item on eBay.
For starters, the eBay book seller should carefully inventory the books he or she has.
The eBay book seller would want to know what sizes, colors, and styles, he has.
After carefully noting the type of books he has, he would want to start categorizing it.
This would entail the eBay book seller listing every possible category and sub category that the books could fit under.
For example, crew socks with a nice cartoon logo can fit in the following categories and sub categories:
Apparel, socks, men’s socks, children’s socks, sport accessories, sport’s apparel, athletic wear, novelty books, collectibles, licensed wear, etc.
The key is to be imaginative.
At this point the eBay book seller would create multiple auctions and list them under different categories and sub categories.
The eBay book seller will then be able to sell more of the same item, without over saturating eBay.
Dollar book stores are great customers for wholesalers.
45. They are usually located in high traffic locations which means that they have plenty of customers on a daily basis.
A high number of customers translates into large volume sales for dollar book stores that have the right selection of wholesale books.
This is what makes dollar book stores idea customers for wholesalers.
The owners of dollar book stores are always looking for high quality and attractively priced books for their book stores.
Since they are also selling their books at the dollar range, most of their books move pretty fast.
This high turn over means that dollar book stores need to reorder books at a frequent basis.
A wholesaler who has a dollar book store as a customer will be able to move plenty of books since his customer is moving that same books out of his book store at a rapid pace.
To be able to wholesale to dollar book stores you need to do the following.
1. Ask dollar book store owners what type of books they need. Then look for sources of this books.
2. Find out what price they are paying for their books. Most people will tell you this information since they want you to be able to offer them a lower price.
3. Price your wholesale dollar book store books low. This way the dollar book store owner can move volume and reorder from you more often.
These three steps might sound simple, and they actually are. But you would be surprised at how many wholesalers forget this simple formula.
Use this formula and you will soon be enjoying the benefits of wholesaling to dollar book stores.
Donny Lowy is the CEO of http://www.closeoutexplosion.com, an online wholesale and closeout business.
His business supplies wholesale and closeout books to dollar book stores, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers
Every retail business needs strong selling books to make money. The books must be of high quality, and must provide clear benefits for the customers.
46. The books must also be priced at or below the prices of the competition.
Whether a book seller is on eBay, or at a local flea market, he will be faced with other book sellers who are selling the same, or similar books.
If his prices are not the same, or lower, than those of his competitor’s, he will have a difficult time making any sales.
For this reason every retailer needs to have a strong relationship with a good wholesale business.
Another reason why a retailer should have a solid relationship with a wholesaler is because it needs a steady supply of wholesale books.
Since retailers want to enjoy ongoing sales, they need to have an ongoing source for their wholesale books.
A good wholesaler will have a steady supply of wholesale books, and at low prices, which makes the relationship that much valuable.
But surprisingly, wholesalers do not want to deal with every customer who is out there.
The real wholesalers only want to conduct business with retailers, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers who they feel they can build up a long term business relationship with.
The reason for this is because a real wholesaler that has real wholesale prices is working a small profit margin.
He will only start making money on a retail account when the level of volume builds up.
This does not mean that this type of a wholesaler will not deal with small accounts. But it does mean that the wholesaler will only deal with a small account if he feels that there is a mutually beneficial future in this relationship.
So if you are looking to buy from a real wholesaler you need to make sure that you present yourself as a serious business person.
The size of your budget is not important. What is important is the seriousness and dedication to your business that you will convey to the wholesaler.
Donny Lowy is the CEO of http://www.closeoutexplosion.com, an online wholesale and closeout business.
Closeoutexplosion.com supplies brand name wholesale and closeout books to dollar book stores, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers
A wholesale business can be a very lucrative enterprise. It is one of the few businesses where a substantial amount of money can be made from single sales.
47. Unlike in the retail business where revenue is produced one dollar at a time, in the wholesale business you can make anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars at a time.
Since your customers are rebook sellers they will need to buy wholesale books in volume, so that they can have enough books for their customers.
To enter the wholesale business you do not need to have a sizable amount of capital.
What you do need is organizations skills to compile a list of your book book suppliers and customers.
Many of your book book suppliers will drop ship to your wholesale customers. Through this method you do not need to stock any books.
You can also advertise your book book suppliers wholesale books and order them as your wholesale orders start coming in.
Although you do not have to carry inventory it is always advisable to have samples on hand.
This way your wholesale customers can see and feel the quality of your wholesale books.
More importantly, to successfully start a wholesale business you need to be on top of product trends.
Always be up to date on what types of books are hot, which books are staple books, what books sells in each season, and the actual market wholesale and retail prices of the books you are selling.
Implement these basic steps and you will soon be on your way to starting a solid wholesale business.
Remember what made your wholesale business work. Don’t get tempted to stop working these basic steps when you start achieving success.
As your wholesale business grows you might want to consider hiring a part time employee to make these calls for you.
This way your time can be better spent on making sales and bringing in revenue to your wholesale business.
You should also focus on developing a reputation for your wholesale business.
Customers must know what it is that they can buy from you.
Just like you know where to go when you to want to buy milk, you want your customers to know where they can go to buy wholesale books.
The more defined your wholesale business is, the more customers will think of you when it is time for them to order their wholesale books.
The Internet is constantly producing opportunities for online entrepreneurs. These opportunities are sometimes created because of a new need that people have, such as the need for lower priced medication, or a new want, such as the desire for people to gamble online.
48. There are also many opportunities created online by the ability of companies to offer their books and services online. Look at the dramatic changes that took hold in the travel industry.
Airlines eliminated commissions to their travel agents, and switched to online compensation to sites that could bring them customers.
Or look at the opportunity for a small website to receive advertising revenue without soliciting ads, which can be done through the Google Adsense program.
The only problem is that most people only take advantage of online opportunities when they are widely known. At that point the profit potential promised by these opportunities is greatly diminished since there have been many entrepreneurs who have taken advantage of it.
To capitalize on new online opportunities you need to be aware of them before your competition is. So how can you discover new unfolding online opportunities?
Tool #1
Monitor news related to the online business world. You can search on Google News and Yahoo news to monitor the latest articles that cover Internet businesses. Many times an Internet company will announce a new affiliate program, or discuss a new market initiative, through the release of a press release.
Tool #2
Visit online forums. There are hundreds of online forums that are specifically dedicated to the subject of doing business online. Check out Web Master World for instance. It’s an interesting forum where online entrepreneurs discuss all of the latest online developments that relate to making money online.
Tool #2
Subscribe to online ezines. There are many online ezines that cover online business opportunities. Some cover marketing issues, search engine optimization, and affiliate programs.
Find these ezines by searching for ezine directories through Google and Yahoo. You can also find them by visiting the sites of well known online marketeers.
The eBay market place continues to grow by leaps and bounds. There are now over 100 million registered users world wide. These means that any given time there are millions of consumers searching for books on eBay.
49. This sizable demand also means that there is a demand on the part of eBay book sellers who are looking to supply eBay shoppers with the books they are looking for.
I recently read that there are over 400,000 full time book sellers on eBay.
This figure does not include all the incidental eBay book sellers, meaning the people who periodically list books for sale, or temporary eBay book sellers, the people who because of temporary situations look to start selling on eBay.
Based on these three types of eBay book sellers, I would estimate that there are over a million people who will sell books this year on eBay.
I am sure you would agree that the high number of book sellers represents a substantial market for any wholesaler, manufacturer, importer, or distributor.
Another reason why you would want to wholesale to eBay book sellers is because of the turn over that they have. Most eBay auctions are three days long, meaning that in many cases the books will be sold and the eBay book seller will now need more books.
If you are convinced that it is a good idea to wholesale to eBay book sellers you now need to know how to do it.
I recommend the following steps should be taken in order to wholesale to eBay book sellers.
You need to investigate which books are in demand on eBay. If you find books that are in demand, then you will know which books eBay book sellers will be interested in buying wholesale.
You should also research the closing prices of auctions on eBay. This way you will know how much the books is sold for on eBay, and how much you can realistically wholesale the books for.
Lastly, since you cannot contact eBay book sellers directly, you need to get your wholesale business listed in directories and eBooks that eBay users use.
This way when eBay book sellers search for wholesale book book suppliers, your wholesale business will come up.
Remember, in order for an eBay book seller to know to contact you, he needs to know that you sell to eBay book sellers. Always make that clear in all of your advertising.
Have you ever wanted to know how to quickly and easily increase your web profits?
50. If you have been operating your web business for any length of time you have seen all off the sites promising to teach you the secrets of Internet wealth.
While there are many techniques, tips, and strategies that can help you make money online, most of the eBooks being sold don’t teach them.
If you want to succeed online you need to copy the strategies that offline marketeers have been using to make money for years.
One of the favorite offline marketing strategies has always involved giving something away for free. By offering something for free you are fulfilling a desire that every person has out there. After all, who doesn’t want something that can benefit them, especially when it doesn’t cost them anything?
If you want to use the power of free to build your online business you should use the following strategies.
Strategy #1
Offer a free ezine. Your site visitors are interested in the topic of your website. They have only agreed to spend time at your site because they are interested in the general topic that your Internet business is involved in.
Since you know that they are interested to begin with, it’s a great time to offer them a free ezine on the topic that interests them. You can then use the ezine to send out special offers to your subscribers and remind them to visit your site in the future.
Strategy #2
Offer them a free newsletter. In this case I am referring to a hard copy newsletter which you send out by mail. While strategy #1 is more cost effective than sending out a print newsletter, strategy #2 still has many benefits over strategy #1.
When you send out a print newsletter you are assured that your subscribers will receive the issue you sent out. Spam blockers are now stopping up to 25% of all emails from reaching their intended recipients. Compare that to the US Post Office’s 99.9% delivery rate.
Another important benefit of sending out a hard copy newsletter is that the recipients will hold on to it longer. Instead of simply deleting your email after they have read it, they will have the newsletter sitting at their desks for a couple of days. Every time they look at it you have another chance of capturing a sale from them.
Strategy #3
Offer a free eBook in exchange for their contact information. This is a great strategy because it accomplishes three objectives. You will have their contact information which you can use to sell contact them with your offers. Every time they read your eBook they will think of your site and might even visit it. Third, it establishes your credibility as an expert in your field.
Since all of these strategies involve giving something for free to your visitors, you will quickly build up a database of potential customers that interested in your books and services.
There is plenty written on Internet businesses. Topics covered range from how to write ad copy, formulating pay per click ads, and writing emails. But there has been little written on the topic of setting prices online.
51. Setting the right price online can mean the difference between a 1% and 5% sales conversion ratio. In other words, by having the right pricing you can sell to as many as five times the amount of customers that you could otherwise.
The reason pricing is so important is because people respond differently to different numbers. For instance, by pricing an item at .99 instead of $1, the illusion is given that the item is cheaper. This approach is used by high priced item book sellers when they sell a car for $19,999 instead of $20,000.
Price your books similarly and you will see less hesitancy on your customer’s part when you sell high priced books.
You should also price your books so the last digits are the same. Look at the difference between the following two prices:
$199.99
$199.93
Most people will focus more on the second price, and even though it is lower, they will hesitate since the number has caught their attention.
When setting prices you might be tempted to simply offer a low price and hope for the best. This strategy is far from effective. If your books are priced too low people will assume that your books are of inferior quality.
You need to charge a decent price, and sometimes even a high price, in order to increase your sales. Support your pricing by explaining to your customers why they are paying more for your books.
I sell brand name clothing to retailers for as much as $25 a unit. My price might seem high, but once retailers see that they are purchasing a $300 jacket for less than 10% of retail they are glad to pay for it.
My wholesale business, http://www.closeoutexplosion.com needs to supply rebook sellers who in turn need to make a profit on the books they are selling. I have shown my customers that they can succeed by focusing on higher priced books, and expensive books, as long as they communicate the value of the books to their customers.
All of these strategies work on eBay too.
When you list an auction on eBay use a starting price that will call attention to your auction. A price too low and eBay shoppers will assume that your item is inferior.
I have seen the other extreme take place on eBay.
When an eBay auction has a very high starting price the auction attracts allot of attention.
eBay shoppers assume that the item being auctioned is of very high value, otherwise why would the starting price be so high?
Remember that pricing is only one ingredient in the success of your online business. Your actual long term online success is dependent on the quality of the books and services that you offer.
When launching your internet business you need to keep in mind who your visitors are.
52. Most online businesses are launched only with a product or service in mind. This approach only works on paper, not in the real world.
Real people want to be presented with the benefits of books before they make a buying decision. In other words, when you write your ad copy, set up a site, or send out an email, remember what it is that people want to really know.
They are concerned with the direct benefits that your books and services offer them.
Internet customers are also shopping in an extremely competitive environment.
All it takes is one click of their mouse and they will completely abandon your site and delete your emails.
To succeed with your online business, you need to keep track of the various needs that your books and services fulfill for your customers.
According to the degree of clarity that your benefits are showcased will also be the degree of success you will experience.
My wholesale business, http://www.closeoutexplosion.com supplies wholesalers, retailers, and eBay book sellers with wholesale and closeout books. While my product line is wholesale books, the actual benefits that I deliver are the ability to earn a livelihood and a source of part time income.
By focusing on the profit potential of my wholesale books I enable my customers to grasp the benefit that they will receive.
You need to implement the same philosophy in your internet business.
Many times the true benefits are not the apparent ones. Think about the reason people purchase brand name clothing. Are they buying to clothe themselves? Or are they really looking to have a more attractive appearance?
It is up to you to determine the true benefits of your books and services. Once you have a list of them make sure to build your site content around them.
Internet comparison sites are internet resources that compile and list sites that deal sell books. Traditionally, they will tap into an existing database and list all book sellers of a product or service.
53. In other words, an internet comparison site would show a customer a list of sites that sell wholesale books, and then sort out the list according to customer reviews or prices.
Most internet comparison sites will make money by receiving a commission from the merchant, or will charge each time someone clicks on a link to the merchant’s site.
Your internet business can profit from the widespread popularity of internet comparison sites. For instance, my wholesale business, http://www.closeoutexplosion.com sells wholesale books.
Visitors who search for wholesale books can see my books along with the books of many other wholesale businesses. Even if I’m not the lowest priced wholesaler on the site, I can still attract customers who might be interested in seeing other books that I have.
Your Internet business can benefit as well by attracting customers with your lower priced books, and by attracting curiosity seekers.
Another method for attracting customers through an Internet comparison site is to list a few loss leaders. The loss leaders are a great tool to bring in business off the comparison sites.
Even if you don’t make money on that product, it’s worth having a loss leader since it can gain you a new customer.
And once the customer starts buying from you your profits will increase as he buys other books from your site.
You might even decide to start your own Internet comparison site. Since you will have created a destination people will repeatedly visit your site. You can profit by giving your own business the most prominent ad on the comparison site.
The IPOD craze is sweeping across the world. With millions of units sold, and millions more on order, it has become clear that there is allot of opportunity for an enterprising entrepreneur.
54. An IPOD is a portable music player than allows you to download music from a computer and play it where ever you are. You can now download and book store hundreds of songs on an IPOD. Compare that storage power to your standard disc player that is limited to the number of songs on a compact disc.
You can capitalize on the growing popularity of the IPOD with these innovative strategies.
Strategy #1
Sell IPODs. You have two approaches you can take. Buy brand new IPODs from wholesale and overstock sources, then resell them at a decent profit. Or you can advertise that you are looking to buy used IPODs. People who are upgrading to a newer model, or have simply grown bored of it will be happy to sell you their IPOD for a fraction of what they paid for it.
You can then sell the IPOD on eBay, at a flea market, or through a book store front.
Strategy #2
You don’t have to sell IPODs to profit from their popularity. You can also make money by selling accessories to IPOD users. Contact manufacturers and wholesalers that provide IPOD accessories and set up an account with them. You should consider importing IPOD accessories since you can sometimes obtain them for pennies.
Then use your regular sales channels such as eBay, flea markets, and book stores, to reach IPOD users.
Strategy #3
Launch a website geared towards the IPOD market. You can write articles on the latest developments, including song availability, new models, and new accessory sources. Once your site is set up take advantage of the affiliate opportunities available online. Many IPOD related sites will give you a commission for referring IPOD customers to them.
Finding your wholesale niche should rank as one of your top priorities.
55. If your business is retail oriented, or e-commerce based, the following is just as important.
Developing a business focused on a targeted niche can be the difference between long term success and a flash in the pan experience.
While you can make money in the short term by simply buying and selling books, you will retain more customers in the long term by focusing on one specific niche.
The reason why focusing on a niche will help your business is because your customers will know what you offer.
The next time they are in need of a product, if they instantly know that you specialize in that product, they will come to you.
But if your inventory, and your type of inventory, is always in flux your customers will not have a clear picture of what your business offers.
Even supermarkets that offer thousands of books will ensure that they all fit in their niche.
Your niche can be based on a product category, price point, or customer type, but it must be a very defined niche.
My wholesale business, closeoutexplosion.com, primarily offers wholesale apparel deals.
While I do carry other books my customers know that they can come to me for wholesale deals on clothing.
I only offer a wholesale site because I want my customers to know that I am a wholesaler.
Your business must be developed within a targeted niche to survive in today’s highly competitive marketplace.
Liquidation sales are sales that retailers use to move books before clothing their doors for good. They are usually run by professional liquidators whose job is to liquidate the contents of entire book stores.
56. You need to know that in most cases the liquidator first buys the books from the book store and then sells it from the book store location. Liquidators will pay roughly 5 cents on the dollar for the retailers books, and then make their money by selling at highly discounted prices.
This is important to know because it means that the liquidator can make money even if he or she sells the books for 6 cents on the dollar. Be prepared to offer him a really low price since he himself has bought the books for even less.
And since the liquidator has at most a couple of weeks to sell all the books he will be under pressure to move it. Once the lease is up the retailer needs to vacate the premises, which means that the liquidator must sell out before then.
Spend your first day at the book store making notes of the books available for sale. Next, research those books on eBay and see how much you can sell them for.
If you sell at a flea market or out of a retail book store, you would follow the same steps.
Go back to the book store and offer the liquidator a bulk amount for all of the books that you want. Show the liquidator that you have done your research, this will show him that you are serious and that your prices are based on research.
The reason you want to offer a bulk price is because the liquidator will be more willing to make a deal when he sees that you are interested in buying in quantities.
Remember that the liquidator is interested in selling as much as possible before he needs to vacate the premises.
Flea markets are a great place to make hard cold cash.
Millions of customers visit flea markets every weekend. There isn't a state in the
United States that doesn't have a local flea market. So regardless of where you live, you can
travel and set up a booth at a flea market.
57. Some flea markets attract up to 10,000 people over the weekend. That's 10,000
people with money in their pockets, ready to buy on an impulse.
How can you take advantage of the popularity of flea markets, and make up to $1,000 a
day?
$1,000 A Day Flea Market Tip #1
Plenty of books. Customers can only buy what you have to sell. If you want your customers to buy allot, you need to offer them allot of books. There definitely is a correlation between the amount of books a book vendor has, and how much he makes.
If your budget is small, look for cheap trinkets that you can use to fill up your space.
The majority of your budget should be spent on your fast selling books. If you can fill your space with only top selling books, then only buy those books. But if you still have empty space after displaying your fast selling books, look for a cheap wholesale source of trinkets or dollar books.
Remember, customers will only frequent book vendors that have allot of books to offer.
$1,000 A Day Flea Market Tip #2
High quality wins over low price. Customers are educated and know that low price often equals low quality. Your goal should be to always have high quality books, even if that means charging more than other book vendors in the flea market. Customers will appreciate your books, and will be willing to spend more money on it.
It's for this reason that flea market book vendors can make money selling brand name
books. Even though the brand name books cost more than their generic counterparts, customers prefer branded books and will pay more it.
$1,000 A Day Flea Market Tip #3
Build customer loyalty. You want customers to see you as a steady book vendor. Rent the same spot, carry the same type of books, and always offer great deals.
A great deal doesn't mean that your prices have to be low, it just means that your prices have to be lower than the original retail.
A $100 shirt is a bargain at $10, $15, and even $20.
To supercharge your eBay business you need to find a way to stand out from the
crowd.
58. You need to develop a strategy that will allow you to distinguish your auctions from those of other eBay book sellers.
One of the top selling strategies for eBay book sellers involves having books which other eBay book sellers do not have. While this is a simple strategy which is devastatingly powerful, it is very hard to implement.
As the number of eBay book sellers grows so does the competition for wholesale sources.
Even small wholesale book book suppliers are contacted on a daily basis by eBay book sellers hungry for books.
But there is a solution that can keep your eBay product source off limits to other eBay book sellers.
That solution involves forming exclusive arrangements with your book book suppliers.
An exclusive agreement guarantees that you will be the only eBay book seller offering their books. The book book supplier can continue to offer books through his regular channels, but he limits you to be the only book seller that can offer his books on eBay.
To encourage a book book supplier to form an exclusive arrangement with you, you need to do the following.
eBay Exclusivity Agreement Strategy #1
Show the book book supplier you are a real business person. Present a business plan, display your organization skills, and explain your method of selling to him.
eBay Exclusivity Agreement Strategy #2
Guarantee volume. The book book supplier will not want to enter into an agreement if it does not help
him sell a decent amount of books. Negotiate the sales volume you are committing to.
If you cannot meet the required sales volume, then have an option for voiding the agreement.
eBay Exclusivity Agreement Strategy #3
Be serious. Show the book book supplier your faith in your sales potential by placing a sizable order.
Even though you can later buy according to your sales volume, show the book book supplier you believe in what you are doing. The best way of showing a book book supplier that you are confident in your ability to sell on eBay, is by ordering a decent amount of books.
Always have an attorney review any potential agreements and sizable business deals before undertaking them.
If you have started a wholesale distribution business already, or are planning on starting one, your most important question is the following.
59. How do I market my wholesale distribution business?
You can have the best prices, the highest quality, and the most sought after names, but you will only make sales if book store owners know what you have.
So how do you market your business?
As the owner of a wholesale business, http://www.closeoutexplosion.com I have the daily challenge of exposing my wholesale business to book store owners. Like I said before, until they hear about me, they won’t be able to buy my books.
So here are my recommended marketing strategies for wholesale distributors:
Marketing Strategy #1
Hit the streets. The most direct way to introduce your wholesale distributor business to retailers is by meeting them in person. Walk into their book stores and show them your wholesale books. Don’t fear rejection. Book store owners are always looking for good deals on the books they sell.
Marketing Strategy #2
Print up a flyer showcasing your books. Include clear pictures, product descriptions, and prices. Call retailers and let them know that you will be mailing them out a flyer listing your wholesale books. Follow up the mailing with a call requesting a time to meet in person. You can find a list of retailers by using your local yellow pages.
Marketing Strategy #3
Advertise your wholesale distribution business through online search engines. There are search engines that reach specific market segments, such as http://www.wholesalequest.com which is aimed specifically at wholesale buyers. The key is to ensure that your ad is seen by people looking for wholesale books.
Here are the top ten negotiating tips for wholesale buyers. These tips are great because they rely on the power of win/win arrangements.
60. The key to success in business is having good long term relationships, both with your customers and your book book suppliers.
By following these rules you will negotiate in a professional manner, gain respect, and obtain better results.
Negotiating Tip #1
Research the market. By fully researching the market you will discover what prices you can expect to pay, and at what prices you can expect to sell the books at.
If you offer a price that is too low you will lose the respect of your wholesale book book supplier, he will simply assume that you have unrealistic expectations.
Negotiating Tip #2
Pre determine what your goal is. By having a firm goal in mind you will do a better job of negotiating. Don’t lose track of your goal. It is very easy to lose track of what your original goal was when you start negotiating the fine details of a business deal.
Negotiating Tip #3
Compromise. Compromising shows that you are fair business person who understands the position of the other party. While you might have the upper hand and not feel the need to compromise, you would be better off still compromising to keep a positive relationship with your business contact. Even if you don’t plan on doing business again with him, you want to maintain positive goodwill since you never know when you might need the contact again.
Negotiating Tip #4
Understand the goal of the other party. Know what it is that the other party is trying to achieve. Price is sometimes a minor issue in a negotiation. The wholesaler might be more interested in moving his books in volume, than on selling it any given price.
If you cannot discern the goals of the wholesaler ask him what it is straight out. By understanding his goals you will be able to negotiate a better deal in a faster and more efficient manner.
The flea market business in New York offers
a great deal of potential for hard working entrepreneurs.
61. Flea market book vendors in New York can easily supplement
their income, or even build a full time income, by selling books
on the weekends.
New York specifically offers a vast market for flea market
book vendors due to the number of flea market shoppers that live in NY, the number of
tourists that visit flea markets, and the good reputation as a shopping place that flea markets enjoy.
The following tips are crucial for potential book vendors, or current book vendors,
looking to be a book vendor in New York.
Tip #1
Focus on brand name books. The cost of books has dropped substantially
in the last few years, to the point where you can sell brand new books close to the price
of used books.
Tip #2
Carry authentic brand name books. Educated customers know the value of brand name books, and can spot the difference between authentic and knock off books. Customers will be willing to pay a premium for genuine brand name books.
Tip #3
Always have a full display of books. Customers are attracted to flea market book vendors that have a large quantity of books. Even if an item isn't the fastest book seller, you should carry it if it will expand your books offering.
Remember, the more books you display, the more customers you will attract, and the more customers you attract, the more books you will be able to sell.
Tip #4
New York is known as a melting pot, due to the number of ethnic and religious
groups that reside here. You can super charge your flea market business by offering books geared towards the various ethnic and religious groups that call New York home.
Nigeria is an African country with a growing middle and upper class.
The spending power of consumers in Nigeria has been growing along with the expanding
economy.
62. Increased government regulations, the rising price of oil, communication advancements, and travel options, have all led towards a growing market for brand name books in Nigeria.
American brands especially enjoy an increase in popularity, and consumers in Nigeria are willing to spend a good deal of money to acquire them.
Brands such as Polo, Nautica, Calvin Klein, DKNY, Levi's, Nike,
and Adidas are in heavy demand. Jeans, dress shirts, dresses, and high end women's suits
are sought after by eager customers. Consumers appreciate the high quality that the brands stand for, and are educated regarding the value of the books.
Wholesalers selling to Nigeria have traditionally exported used clothing. Used
clothing was a prime product since it was geared towards customers in a third world country where the per capita income was extremely low.
Now that the spending power of the average Nigerian is rising, wholesalers are focusing on brand new books.
Since the cost of shipping is still an issue, bulky books such as electronics and furniture can be difficult to export in a cost effective basis.
On the other hand, due to the light weight nature of clothing, wholesalers have a much
easier time exporting, and making money on clothing.
Since China has been flooding the market with cheap generic clothing, the best approach is to focus on brand names.
The more popular the brand, and the higher the quality of the item, the more it will stand out from the generic clothing being sold by the Chinese wholesalers.
The Nigerian economy is booming, and so is the demand for brand name clothing by its consumers.
Exporting to Nigeria requires a deep understanding of consumer tastes and
market characteristics, which once understood, can lead a wholesaler to having a very profitable export business.
NY wholesalers have been known to carry the best selection and lowest prices by the retail industry. Many retailers travel come from all over the country, and even from as far away as Australia and Africa, to visit wholesalers in New York.
63. The New York wholesale district has long been known as the wholesale center of the country.
You can find wholesale deals on brand name clothing, electronics, perfumes, handbags, and almost any other type of product that you can imagine.
Visiting the NY wholesale district can be an exciting experience. You will be surprised at the extensive selection and competitive prices that you will find.
But before you arrive in NY, you need to know how to find the wholesalers you are looking for.
For starters, you should first call the NY Chamber of Commerce. They can supply you with a list of wholesalers that are members of the Chamber.
Second, get hold of a New York city Yellow Book. The phone directory has a section devoted to wholesalers.
Next, visit the wholesale district. It's located between Broadway and sixth avenue, from 20th to 29th st. Be ready to spend an entire day visiting showrooms.
Be ready to make a deal when you find a wholesaler that has the books you want. The wholesalers in NY are serious and will work with you, provided that you are just as serious and are ready to commit to making a deal.
There are also mini wholesale districts in outlying areas. For instance you can find a wholesale district in Greenpoint, which is a neighborhood in Brooklyn.
For instance, you will find a complex at 276 Greenpoint Avenue that houses over 30 different wholesalers.
You will usually find the best wholesale prices in areas immediately outside of Manhattan. Since the rents are lower, the wholesalers can afford to offer lower prices on their wholesale books.
The profit potential of information is unrivaled.
64. By having the right information at the right time, a business person can profit handsomely.
It goes without saying that the profit results from taking action, but taking that action is first dependent on access to the information.
With the potential to make money on eBay, it only makes sense that eBay book sellers would want to stay on top of all developments, trends, and news that relates to the giant auction site.
Once an eBay book seller learns of a new tool he can quickly add it to his arsenal.
Another scenario where an eBay book seller can profit from information is when a new product takes off.
For instance, if an eBay book seller reads a news article on the resurgent popularity of records, he can start securing records to list on eBay.
If an eBay book seller reads that the top eBay book seller deals with brand name clothing she can also auction the same type of books.
So how can eBay book seller stay on top of the hottest books, software, and eBay trends?
Here are my favorite eBay news sources.
eBay News Source #1
Auction Bytes. The Auction Bytes site offers an online newsletter dealing with eBay, and with general online business trends.
Many dedicated eBay book sellers rely on this online newsletter to stay on top of the latest eBay and online business developments.
eBay News Source #2
Ezine Articles. Experienced authors write articles on a wide range of articles, including eBay.
The majority of these authors are drawing upon their personal experiences as eBay book sellers.
You can always determine the pedigree of the author by reading his bio and taking a look at his sites.
eBay News Source #3
Barnes and Noble. For that matter Amazon, Books A Million, or any online and offline bookbook seller. Professional authors are constantly writing books on eBay. Take a look at eBay books by Donny Lowy.You can see how helpful the books are by reading the book reviews.
To succeed with your online business you need to understand why customers buy from you. Customers buy online for very specific reasons. Once you have a clear grasp of these reasons you can use them to further grow your online business.
65. Many online entrepreneurs assume that people shop online for the same reasons they shop offline. But this can’t be true for the following reason. People understand that there is more risk while shopping online than there is shopping offline, so if they do decide to purchase online it must be for a compelling reason.
As an online business owner, I have come across the following reasons when I research why my customers buy online.
Here are the top reasons why our customers buy from us online:
Reason #1
Online exclusives. Many times a customer wants a product or service that is not available in their area. They can only buy it by searching online. You can make money by specializing in online exclusive product deals. Books can be digital downloadable eBooks or hard to find collectibles. The harder your books and services are hard to find offline, the more of a demand you will have online.
Reason #2
Convenience. Online buyers love the fact that they can place an order from their computers and have it delivered directly to their homes. There is no need for them to stand on line, or spend time talking to a sales person. Highlight the convenience you offer and you will see an increase in sales.
Reason #3
Price savings. Online shoppers want to save money. They are selecting to shop online, and giving up the ability to see in person the books, so that they can save on the price on the item.
Many times they are already familiar with the books you are selling, and are buying them online because they want to save money and time. Make sure your books are priced below those of offline retailers.
Retailers face an intense competitive environment. With the growing availability of retail space there are more book stores joining the marketplace. At the same time there is also a great deal of money to be made at the retail level.
66. Consumers have more disposable income to spend, and have become accustomed to experience shopping as a form of recreation.
Here are some strong selling strategies that can be used by retailers to produce more sales.
Retail Selling Strategy #1
Display the original retail price, or manufacturers suggested retail price, next to your price. Make the two prices very clear so that shoppers will realize what a great bargain they are receiving.
Retail Selling Strategy #2
Offer free promotional books. If you want to increase your retail sales you should strongly consider using promotional books. Promotional books should have a high perceived value, such as a free DVD or CD. Give them away with every purchase over a certain amount. You can offer a higher priced value giveaway for larger purchases.
A clever retail idea is to figure out what your average retail sale is, then offer a give away for sales higher than that average. This strategy should increase your average sale since people will want the giveaway.
Retail Selling Strategy #3
Offer a loss leader. A loss leader is a product which you sell to bring attention to your book store. If customers are used to paying $1 for a pair of socks, but you sell them for .05 each, you will have customers lining up to buy them from you.
You will be losing money on the socks, but think of how many other books your customers will buy once they are in your book store.
Flea market book vendors need the fastest moving wholesale books,
at the lowest possible wholesale prices, to make the highest amount of money possible.
67. Experienced flea market book vendors know that they can develop a full time income,
while only selling part time at flea markets.
How can they make so much money in what is primarily a weekend business?
They utilize genuine wholesale sources that can provide them with popular
books that shoppers actively search for.
True flea market product sources are hard to find, since successful book vendors don't
want to invite competition by revealing their hidden book book suppliers.
As a former flea market book vendor, and a current wholesaler, I can lift the curtain and share with you this information. The following flea market product sources can help you develop a full time income from a flea market business.
Flea Market Product Source #1
Direct importers. Direct importers are businesses that bring books from overseas, and sell them at prices substantially below wholesale. Since these importers bring in books by the container, they want to be able to sell in volume. Their books are often priced at pennies of the original retail, and can give a flea market book vendors a significant profit margin.
The key to dealing with direct importers is to buy in volume. They will offer their best
prices to rebook sellers that can buy large quantities. If you are not ready to purchase in large volumes, the next source should work better for you.
Flea Market Product Source #2
Flea market wholesalers. This type of a book book supplier specializes in providing books for flea markets. The wholesaler actively researches the market, and stays on top of flea market trends.
He will know what books sell the best, and at what price his customers need to buy to be able to make money.
Since his customers are book vendors, he will always receive feedback on his books and
prices. By working with this type of a wholesaler, you will be assured of receiving advice based on actual market conditions.
Remember, not every wholesaler specializes in flea market book vendors. Just because he has customers that sell at flea markets doesn't mean that he is an expert. You want to deal with a wholesaler that has many customers actively working the markets.
Special Tip:
If a wholesaler has customers in your local flea market, he will be able to give you solid advice on what books actually sell in the flea market.
If you have recently started in the wholesale business one of the first challenges you will notice is the highly competitive nature of the wholesale business. For starters, pretty much anyone can enter the wholesale business and call themselves a wholesaler simply by having a case of books that they are looking to sell.
68. Then on the other end of the wholesale spectrum you have large wholesalers who work hand in hand with manufacturers and importers who can offer close to cost prices simply because they are working on volume.
While the average wholesaler is looking for special deals, many times the true deals are reserved for large wholesale customer who can buy in volume directly from manufacturers and importers.
So how can a new entrant to the wholesale market place stay competitive, and at the same time beat out the ever growing level of competition?
According to Donny Lowy, the CEO of http://www.closeoutexplosion.com and http://www.wholesalequest.com, “For starters, the first decision that a wholesaler needs to make is to decide what his or her focus will be.”
By selecting a niche within the wholesale business, the wholesaler will be able to learn how to serve that niche well, and will soon learn the ins and outs of that segment of the wholesale business.
Once the wholesaler has made that decision the next step in developing a solid wholesale strategy is to find books that are needed in that niche that have unique features to them.
So if a wholesaler is selling to retail watch book stores, and the wholesaler has decided to focus on selling silver watch bands, then the wholesaler might decide to offer glow in the dark silver watch bands.
While that type of product will definitely need some selling to be introduced into the retail market place I can assure you that it will help the wholesaler capture a decent percentage of the market place if done successfully.
The key is to select a niche within your wholesale business, and then introduce a unique product to that marketplace that the more established and larger wholesalers are not offering.
By following this effective strategy with your wholesale business you will be able to gain a foothold in even the most competitive wholesale markets.
Buying and leasing decisions for small business owners need to be carefully considered.
69. Often people having small businesses need a certain piece of equipment. On determining which may be the best option, to buy or to lease, the banks having online services can offer valuable advice. Other than the unique features of the business, decision is made regarding four factors: length of ownership, cash flow, ability to obtain financing and tax advantages. For the length of ownership, if the client wants his equipment on a long term (seven years or more), the best option is buying. In this case the bank can help with a loan, and the equipment can already be considered an asset and offer equity value.
However, if the equipment is for short term use (three years or less), like technology equipments for example, the client is advised to lease. Other than that, you can upgrade your equipment more easily. Therefore, cash flow is essential in this decision. By leasing, the client has immediate access to the equipment, freeing up cash for other investment. Buying is a better option, but only if the business can afford to take the loan. Ability to obtain financing is also important. If the business needs financing for other things as well, it may have difficulties in accessing another loan for the new equipment. Still, leasing does not affect this ability. Besides, leasing gives the client several tax advantages. Up to 100% of the lease payment can be deducted. With the loan the equipment is depreciated as an asset, which can be translated in a smaller tax.
eBay attracts millions of visitors a day. Many of these eBay browsers are located outside of the United States. While many eBay book sellers are leery to sell to international buyers, there are methods for eBay book sellers to protect themselves.
70. For starters we need to understand why overseas buyers would visit the USA site for eBay. After all, there are now many international eBay sites that cater towards these overseas buyers.
The reason that you will see many overseas buyers visiting the USA eBay site is because they are often interested in American produced books.
American books have a great reputation for high quality around the world. There is also more trust in the brands being genuine when they are sold in the United States, as compared to in other countries.
For these reasons you will see many overseas buyers purchasing collectibles, electronics, and brand name clothing on eBay.
But the issue is how to protect yourself from fraudulent international buyers.
Have you considered buying book store returns?
71. Every wholesale buyer eventually comes across offers for book store return books.
It’s a difficult decision wether should someone get involved with book store returns.
While the profit potential is definitely there, there are also adverse factors to consider.
To start with we need to have a clear understanding of what book store returns are.
Most major retailers have a program where they accept returns from their customers.
Keep in mind that the returned books does not always have to be in its original packaging.
For instance, one major retailer, allows returns of children’s clothing for any reason for an extended period of time. I have been told that this period is now 6 months.
Since the major retailers want the repeat business from their customers, they will even accept books which might have been damaged by consumers.
So what do retailers do with these book store returns?
They have a program where they contract out with salvage dealers, wholesalers, and fulfillment centers, who then sell this books for them.
So if the books is likely damaged, why would you even consider buying it?
For the reason that book store returned books is usually sold for as little as 10% of the wholesale value.
Assuming the wholesale value is half the retail value, there are times when you can buy $5,000 worth of retail books for as little as $250.
But before you decide to stock your business with book store returns you need to realize the following.
About 50-75% of the books will be clearly damaged. The remaining 25-50% will be books returned because of size or taste issues.
Meaning those customers are returning books which doesn’t fit them, they changed their mind about it, or received it as a gift.
This means that in reality the price you are paying will only be giving you 25-50% of the books that you originally planned on receiving.
So the $250 is really only buying about $1,250 worth of retail books.
Remember, realistically you should only expect 25% of the books to be in decent condition.
At this point you are actually paying about 20% of the original retail value.
$250/$1250
If you are in the retail business you still have room to markup the books.
But if you are in the wholesale or closeout business, you are in a difficult spot.
How will you resell this books to wholesale or closeout buyers who need to sell it themselves?
Also keep in mind the time it will take to sort out the good books from the damaged books.
Sourcing wholesale books for your distribution business can seem challenging at first. You need to have a good assortment of quality books at competitive prices. Since book store owners are constantly being offered wholesale deals, you need to make sure your wholesale books stand out.
72. Wholesalers need to find new books for their retail accounts, the same way that retail book sellers need to find new books for their retail customers. Having a steady source of new books will attract and keep customers.
Here are my suggested sourcing strategies for finding wholesale books:
Sourcing Strategy #1
Visit local manufacturers. Manufacturers need to produce books in large quantities. They are always looking for distributors who can help them move their production. Find distributors by visiting your local library. The librarian can give you a guide that will list manufacturers by product category and by geographic area.
Sourcing Strategy #2
Get in touch with wholesalers. Introduce your business to wholesalers. Let them know that you will be supplying retail accounts with specific wholesale books. They might even have suggestions of what books to sell, and they can definitely give you advice on how to sell their books. Search for wholesalers online through online wholesale directories.
Sourcing Strategy #3
Speak to importers. Imported books are priced at up to 90% below domestically manufactured books. While quality can be an issue, imported books definitely comes out ahead from a price perspective. Deal with actual importers, and not middlemen when possible. You will obtain a lower wholesale price and will have the opportunity to request product changes.
Sourcing Strategy #4
Become an importer. You can import the books you want to distribute. Overseas manufacturers will be glad to work with you, even if your first orders are relatively small. You can even have your first orders shipped with UPS, making the shipping process relatively simple.
Importers can be found through online import directories.
We all know the basics of selling books.
73. Buy low and sell above your cost.
Sounds pretty straight forward doesn’t it?
But what about when you want to sell high end books?
Many retailers are moving away from low end books and are starting to focus on higher end brand name books.
Retailers and eBay book sellers know that the real money is made with higher end books.
Customers value the brand names and are willing to pay more for them.
So what can you do to successfully sell higher end books?
Here are some suggestions:
Suggestion #1
Presentation matters. Customers need higher end books presented as being higher end.
They are spending more money and want to be sure that they are receiving a strong value for their money.
It is for this reason that you see many boutiques spend a great deal of money on the book store furnishings. Their customers want to be sure that they are receiving a “high end” experience.
Suggestion #2
Stress the value. It is important for your customers to know why they are paying a higher price. Remind them of the brand recognition and the higher quality of brand name books.
These two suggestions are simple and straightforward strategies that you should implement when you sell higher end books.
The failure of many Internet companies during the late 90's discouraged many online entrepreneurs. Many came to believe that it was nearly impossible to make money online. But in reality, there is plenty of money to be made online.
74. Even though many early Internet companies failed, they did achieve one major breakthrough. They convinced millions of people to do their buying online. Shoppers have now been educated to buy online.
What is even more beneficial to the development of the E-commerce aspect of the Internet is that this breakthrough enabled hundreds of thousands of people to start selling online. Tools have automated and simplified many of the steps required to start conducting business online.
From eBay to affiliate programs there are now thousands of distinct opportunities to earn money online. What clearer proof is there to this than the hundreds of thousands of eBay book sellers selling online?
So how can you join the rising number of entrepreneurs who earn a substantial income online?
For starters you need to be well informed. You need to read up on all of the latest online developments taking place. Message board sites such as Web Master World and Digital Point Forum act as a virtual community of online entrepreneurs. Valuable tips and ideas are being posted on a daily basis.
Based on my years running online businesses I have compiled the following list.
In it you will find the current top methods for making money online.
Online Income Strategy #1
Google Adsense. Google Adsense is an advertising program launched by Google. It allows you to place ads on your site which are provided by Google. Google will then share with you the amount it is charging those advertisers. Since the advertisers are paying per click, you will earn a commission every time a visitor to your site clicks on one of the ads. Your income will increase based on the number of pages you have on your site, since every page can display the Google Adsense ads. Traffic is always key, like with any online program, so plan out a strategy to attract visitors to your site.
Online Income Strategy #2
Clickbank. Clickbank is a rebook seller of digital information in the form of eBooks. By signing up as an affiliate for Clickbank you can profit when one of your visitors buys any of their more than 10,000 digital books. They have a tool that enables you to create a text or html link to any of their digital books. You should promote a digital product which closely fits your audience. The more targeted the product is the more your customers will be interested in it. Commissions are as high as 75% on sale prices of up to $100.
Online Income Strategy #3
Set up a membership site. Membership sites are a great source for earning revenue online.
They can earn revenue through multiple sources of income. For starters, you can charge a monthly or annual membership fee. Provided that your members are satisfied you will make more money when they renew their membership fees.
You can earn additional revenue by having Google Adsense ads throughout the site. Every time a member logs in to the site they will be exposed to the ads, potentially increasing the
number of times the ads will be clicked.
Clickbank can be used in the membership site by having articles which recommend clickbank books. There are business and non business categories, so finding a product that will match your online audience should be pretty easy.
Online Income Strategy #4
Sell advertising. You can also build a focused niche site and sell advertising on it. For example, let’s take a site geared towards single people in your local community. You could approach local restaurants and bar owners and ask them to place an ad on your site. In this situation the key to success is making sure that the site is reaching your intended audience. You can accomplish this by making sure the content of your site repeatedly focuses on the topic you have selected.
Online Income Strategy #5
eBay selling. eBay is probably one of the top methods for making money online. You can sell almost any product, new or used. Instead of having to attract customers, eBay supplies you with over 60 million potential customers. Since there are no membership fees or investment costs I definitely recommend this strategy. Start slow by selling your unwanted books, and then ramp up your business by ordering from wholesalers.
Online Income Strategy #6
E-zine. An E-zine is an electronic newsletter which is sent out by email. An E-zine is a very powerful online earning tool because it builds a relationship between you and your subscribers. Subscribers will appreciate the information you are giving them and will follow your product recommendations.
Think of how many times you checked out a website and made a purchase based on a recommendation you received by email. Your buying decision is heavily influenced by the trust you have in the author of the email. For this reason you need to build a strong relationship with your E-zine subscribers. Accomplishing this level of trust is based on giving your subscribers honest and reliable information.
How do you build your E-zine list?
Have a registration link on your site. Every time a visitor sees your site he or she should have the opportunity to subscribe to your E-zine.
At this point I am sure you want to know how to make money with your E-zine. Money is made by sending visitors back to your site where they can buy your books or by sending them to your affiliate links, whose merchants will give you a commission every time you send them a customer.
Remember that once you have mastered any of these online strategies you can apply them to all of your online ventures. Learn how to sell online, and you can sell any product or service you select.
Business Loan Application
75. In order to have success in obtaining a credit, you must formulate a proposal in written form. Your aim is to persuade the loaner as best you can. If you don’t succeed to do so the result will be not getting the loan and jeopardizing your company. Answer questions and show that you know what you want. You have to make a good impression as a skilled entrepreneur. You will need to show some information to your loaner. Here are Business and personal financial statements: Business and Personal Tax Returns. Business Plan with Projected Budget and Repayment Plans. Also be ready to demonstrate some means of guarantee.
It comprises any assets and goods. Guarantee is possessions satisfactory as security for a credit or other responsibility. If you for some reason cannot pay the money, guarantee will be taken instead. Keep them informed about how your business is going. You have to notify the good and bad news, moreover when you are not able to make a payment. Make clear all the motives why you are having difficulties and any measures you are going to take to fix the problems. Many lenders are flexible; they need to see that you are really preparing on paying them back.
Banks, usually, offer around 6-9% interest, and lend $50,000+. Banks offer both short-term and long-term credits. Have a look at the way you present yourself. 50% of the agreement is gained by the appearance. Speak clearly and do not beat about the bush.
Remember that although banks will make final decisions based on a credit score and financial formula, your presentation and character can help influence the bank's decision.
eBay book sellers can place themselves at a big advantage by specializing in
hot books.
But to find these hot books they need to understand the mentality of eBay shoppers.
76. eBay shoppers are guided by their desire to save money, be entertained, and gift giving.
Many customers buy on eBay to take advantage of price savings not offered in the offline
world. To win over these customers you need to focus on books which you can sell at a drastic discount off of the original retail price.
eBay customers looking for entertainment are either searching for hard to find books, are collectors, or are motivated out of curiosity.
You can combine these needs with the need to save money, and lend a further boost to your eBay sales.
Finally, the last category of eBay shoppers is comprised of people looking to purchase gifts.
These shoppers are looking for clothing, collectibles, movies, music, antiques, and novelties.
To capture sales from eBay gift givers you need to sell unique books.
You can also sell books which you can describe in a way that shows their gift potential.
Keeping in mind the previous reasons for eBay purchases, you can start developing selling strategies.
Instead of simply buying inexpensive books to sell on eBay, look for books which would serve the interests of the customers described here.
Once you do select the books you will be selling, make sure to market it so that it fits the needs of one of the three types of customers.
You also want to make sure to use an auction description that points out why they should be interested in your books.
For instance, an auction aimed at a gift giver should have a phrase such as “Great gift for your best friend.”
Or if you are putting up an auction aimed at an entertainment oriented eBay shopper make sure that the fun value is stressed.
The key is to match up your auction descriptions with the eBay customer you are hoping to sell to.
Are you looking to find a new wholesale customer that can buy up your wholesale books in large quantities?
77. Do you want to find a customer that can buy up your books by simply looking at pictures of it?
This wholesale customer exists, and his name is the Internet.
Okay, let me clarify.
The actual customer who will buy your books in large quantities is not the Internet itself. But the wholesale buyers can come through the Internet.
The Internet at its best is a mass communication medium that allows buyers and book sellers to connect to each other.
When used properly it can play the role of a sales person.
Besides the practical features available online for a wholesale business, there are also revenue building benefits.
Using the Internet a wholesale business can market its books to all types of buyers, who are scattered across the world.
But to obtain these benefits for your wholesale business you need to know the best strategies for selling wholesale books online.
Before we proceed, I will assume that every wholesaler, or prospective wholesaler, knows that high definition pictures and clear product descriptions are essential.
With that in mind, here are some of my favorite strategies for selling wholesale books online.
You can start out by using eBay. Find the best category for your books and list it under the wholesale sub category.
Be very clear in explaining why a rebook seller should want to buy your wholesale books.
The more a buyer understands how much he can make by buying your wholesale books, the higher he will be willing to bid on it.
Another great strategy for selling wholesale books online is to advertise in wholesale search engines. These wholesale search engines attract buyers who need books for their book stores, flea market booths, and eBay businesses.
Take a look at wholesalequest.com for an example of a wholesale search engine.
There is another site that will sell your wholesale books for you. While this site can move your wholesale books pretty quickly, you need to realize that the final sale price will usually be pretty low.
This site is best used when you have a very large quantity of an item, or you simply want to sell wholesale books which is not moving.
The site is liquidation.com
You can also post your books up for sale. There are wholesale forums, such as wholesalecloseoutforum.com that will allow you to post messages for free.
Use these posts to tell wholesale buyers about the wholesale books you have for sale.
Since these posts are free you are not risking anything while having the ability to make sales.
Another great strategy for selling books online is to find closeout brokers to sell your books.
Closeout brokers will usually market your books at a mark up. When an order comes in they will make the sale, then place an order with you, and have you deliver the books directly to their customers.
This is a great way to do business, since an experienced closeout broker will know many ways to advertise your wholesale books.
And since the closeout broker is making money by marking up the books, you are still receiving the price that you wanted for your wholesale books.
You can discover many other innovative methods for selling wholesale books online by searching online for wholesale sites. You never know what ideas you might find.
Are you planning on starting an Internet business? If you are you can count yourself among the millions of people who dream of making money online. Every day thousands of new domains are registered by online entrepreneurs who are looking for the hidden pot of gold.
78. The only problem is that in reality there is no pot of gold online, hidden or out in the open. Most online entrepreneurs quickly discover that making money online requires the same persistence, activity, and knowledge that brick and mortar businesses do.
So why start an online business?
The biggest advantages of starting an online business is that you can start one with a low budget, and you can build it as your time allows.
A retail book store requires your full attention, including long 12-15 hour days of work. But an online business can be run on the weekends, or even in a spare hour when you come home from work.
But even with these advantages you will still have to approach your online business like you would if it was a brick and mortar business. You will have to truly understand the needs and wants of the market that you are serving.
Hours of research, followed by disciplined implementation are required.
You will also need to periodically reevaluate your course of action. Experienced online entrepreneurs measure the results of their online businesses. They know which books are making money for them, and they keep track of which advertising campaigns are producing results.
While you need to give your online business time to develop, you also need to be honest with yourself and make sure not to throw away good money after bad money.
By being focused on your online business, and treating it like a real business, you will be able to experience the rewards of running an online business.
Replica handbags are in essence knock off books. Factories located primarily in Asia will design handbags that are very similar to the designs used by the brand name designers. These replica handbags hope to skirt the law by copying the designs used, but using a slight pattern variation.
79. While the slight design variation might in fact make the replica handbag an altogether different product, it is clear what the intentions of the manufacturer are. It is for these reasons that replica handbags are routinely confiscated by authorities and book vendors are incarcerated. While it can be legal to base a design on the patters of a brand name product, it is illegal to copy the design, even if a slight variation is implemented.
Commonly used variations are misspellings of trademarks, similar emblems, and patters with a 95% similarity. While the Internet has been used by replica manufacturers to promote their handbags, and has even given them a sense of legitimacy, their books will still be subject to confiscation. eBay has limited the sale of brand name handbags to book vendors that can provide a certificate stating that their books is genuine.
In addition to the legal and ethical issues faced by a replica book seller, there is also a very basic business issue. Customers prefer original brand name handbags, and will prefer to pay more for them, provided that they are assured of their originality. People by their very nature enjoy being law abiding citizens, and will patronize wholesale, retail, and eBay businesses that deal in legitimate books.
You can discover wholesale handbag sources through the Wholesale Handbag Directory:
http://www.topwholesalesecrets.com
Brand names such as Prada, Fendi, Dior, Gucci, Channel, Coach, Burberry and more.
These are legitimate wholesale sources for brand new designer handbags.
The appeal of starting a business is universal. While there are many reasons for desiring to launch a business, there are definitely needs that are universally fulfilled by starting one.
80. As you have read many times, and as you might well know, starting a business can help you manage your time, supply you with a supplemental or full time income, and help you improve your quality of life.
But the reason most businesses stay in the drawing board, or in our imagination, is because of the financial resources that they require.
Most businesses need a capitalization of upwards of a $100,000 just to open their doors. That sum does not include variable expenses such as advertising, employee salaries, and insurance.
So what can entrepreneurial minded individuals do when they are faced with small budgets?
Speaking from my own experience, one of the easiest businesses to get into, which requires minimal spending, is the wholesale and closeout business.
I have been running my own wholesale and closeout business, http://www.closeoutexplosion.com, for the past 3 years, and I can tell you that besides the fact that its potentially lucrative, it also doesn’t require a large budget.
There are many scenarios where you can enter the wholesale and closeout business without having to buy books up front.
By using this strategy you would locate wholesale and closeout books, advertise it, and when you find a buyer, you would then buy and sell the books.
You can also become a closeout broker and simply match buyers with book sellers and receive a commission from the book seller of the wholesale or closeout books.
The level of success you will attain in the wholesale and closeout business is not based on your budget, but on your willingness to pursue and stay on top of deals.
Especially with global trade booming, there are opportunities for wholesale and closeout businesses to bring in five revenue figures with nothing more than a well equipped home office.
If you have a retail business you are always looking for methods for increasing your average sale. The reason is pretty simple, if you have 500 sales a week, and your average sale is
$50, you will gross $2500 a week.
81. But if you can increase your average sale to $100, and your number of sales stay the same, you will now gross $5,000 a week.
Assuming you are working on a 50% profit margin, your net profit will increase from
$1,250 a week, which is a respectable figure, to $2,500 per week. At this rate, you will earn $130,000 a year. Formerly you were only earning $65,000 a year, so it definitely makes a great difference if you double your average sale.
What if you tripled your average sale?
You would then earn an annual profit of $195,000.
So how do you triple your average your average sale?
You need to give your customer's an overwhelmingly good
reason to spend more money.
Here are some of the most powerful tools you can use to increase your average sale.
Sales Tip #1
Sell complimentary accessories. If your customer is buying a dress shirt, offer him
matching cufflinks, neckties, and pants. Or if you sell non apparel books, such as a cell phone,
offer your customers a car charger, cleaning kit, a Bluetooth headset, and a cell phone case.
The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
Sales Tip #2
Offer warranties and service agreements. How about a suit book store offering a cleaning service? The suit book store can make a deal with a local dry cleaner to provide cleaning for its customers. If the customer buys the cleaning offer, the book store would give the customer a receipt to
have his suit cleaned, and the dry cleaner would receive a discounted payment from the suit book store.
Car dealers make a great deal of money by selling extended warranties and service agreements to their customers. You can implement the same strategy by modifying the offers to your product line.
Have you ever noticed that most retailers, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers, are all selling the same or similar books?
82. The reason that most rebook sellers have the same books is because they are all using the same wholesale sources.
While there might be some rebook sellers dealing with small unknown wholesalers, for the most part they are all dealing with the same sources.
This presents two major problems.
One, since all rebook sellers carry the same or similar books the challenge of standing out in the marketplace is large.
Second, since they are all selling the same books the price they can charge for those books drops dramatically.
This drop in price is created because of the abundance of supply. Customers know they can buy the product at any retailer and will only buy it at the lowest priced book seller.
Your challenge as a rebook seller is finding a wholesale source of books that everyone else isn’t using.
Unless you want to compete strictly on price you will need books that your competition does not carry.
There is a clever method for gaining access to books your competition does not have.
That is by looking for unconventional wholesale sources.
An unconventional wholesale source is a source of books which people would not think of.
Remember that you want to discover a wholesale source of books that your competitors would not think of.
The more unconventional the source is the less other rebook sellers will be looking for it.
Here are suggestions for unconventional wholesale sources.
1.- A local thrift shop. You can set up an arrangement with the manager of the shop to buy all of his unwanted goods. Since many of the donated books are brand new you will have access to plenty of brand new books for a fraction of the wholesale price.
2.- Schools. Many schools find themselves with an oversupply of books at the end of the school year. Since schools are always strapped for cash they will be happy to unload their excess supplies for a fraction of their original cost.
3.- Concerts. Have you ever seen the preparations that concert planners undertake? They will stock themselves with paper goods, printed T-shirts, posters, disposable utensils, soft drinks, and many other books that they plan to use or sell during the concert.
Once the concert is done the organizer has no need for these books. He would rather sell them and raise money than pack them up and book store them, or simply dispose of them. Offer him a fair price and all his excess books can be yours. Develop a good relationship and you can be their steady excess buyer.
Retailers that stock urban wear clothing know the importance of the right display.
83. National retailers believe so much in the art of books display that they employ full time staff members for that purpose.
If you have ever walked by a the display window of a department book store you will have noticed the hard working staff arranging and rearranging the books in the window.
Having the books displayed correctly is even more important in the urban wear market.
Customers shopping for hip hop and urban clothing will desert a book store which doesn’t present the right image.
While the following display secrets are meant for book stores, they can also be used by flea market book vendors.
Display Secrets #1
Create an image. The image which you create will dictate the customer reaction towards the clothing you are selling.
You can create the right image by adding accessories to the clothing.
Accessories such as jewelry, belts, and hats will further instill a genuine hip hop image.
Display Secrets #2
Use the right imagery. Pictures of rappers such as 50 Cent, Busta Rhmes, Jay-Z,Snoop Doggy Dogg, Kanye West, among others, will give a retail establishment the authentic feel of a true urban and hip hop book store.
Display Secrets #3
Book store colors. The colors used in the display racks, walls, tables, changing rooms, and even by the cash register, should match the atmosphere of the book store.
Urban retailers should ensure that their book stores are bright, and use colors that are complimentary to the clothing being sold.
Display Secrets #4
Professional appearances.
Urban wear customers are savvy shoppers. They are fully aware that the market is saturated with knock offs. For that reason a retailer needs to keep his book store looking professional. Only a truly professional book store will convince a customer that the books being sold is in fact genuine.
The urban wear market is picking up steam, as its appeal spreads beyond the confines of the urban market.
84. Spreading due to the popularity of rap music, rap inspired video games, and films featuring rap artists, the urban wear market has been steadily rising.
Many retailers have been trying to increase their sales by tapping into this lucrative market.
While the urban wear market does present many compelling opportunities to make money, retailers need to be aware of the fickle nature of the market.
For instance, brands gain and lose their popularity in relation to the level of popularity of the rap performers that market the brand.
In other words, for a retailer to carefully decide which urban brands to stock, he needs to keep track of the popularity of the musicians who wear and promote the clothing.
By reading hip hop magazines, and following media reports, retailers can gage which urban brands are experiencing demand, and which are experiencing a diminishing level of popularity.
For example, when 50 Cent, a well known rap artist, appeared in a major film his clothing line experienced a strong level of demand.
On the flip side, FUBU saw a strong drop in demand for its clothing line due to the lack of a popular rap musician promoting its clothing line.
Other brands such as Ecko have been more aggressive in developing lines inspired by well known rappers, as they did with 50 Cent.
But all of this can be meaningless to a retailer unless he knows which rappers are considered to be in the spotlight.
The best way to conduct this research is through an ongoing online search using news sources and rap related forums.
While I have never wholesaled used clothing, I am aware that there is a very large market for it.
85. Used clothing usually is collected by charities such as your local thrift shop to national organizations such as the Salvation Army.
The purpose of their collections is usually to provide homeless and poor people with clothing.
But in reality they receive more donations than they can use. And since they have limited amounts of spacer at their disposal they need to get rid of much of the clothing that they receive.
So what happens to all the donated used clothing?
Much of it ends up in the hands of exporters.
These exporters will send the clothing by container to poorer countries in Africa and South America, where people are willing to buy used clothing.
A significant percentage of the used clothing also stays in the United States, where it is sold to lower income people who are happy to buy what is often high quality, but previously worn clothing.
Can you make selling used clothing?
It all depends on your clientele, and at the price point that you purchase the used clothing for.
Just keep in mind that as the price of new clothing continues to drop, there is less and less of a demand for used clothing.
If you are ready to start an eBay business your more than likely trying to decide what to sell.
You have many choices, ranging from used clothing lying around the house to brand new books from a local distributor.
86. While selling used books will give you a high profit margin you will face the challenge of securing a steady flow of books.
You might make money selling your used books, but you will soon run out of what to sell.
The other approach will give you a steady supply of books, but your profit margins will be small. And as more eBay book sellers use your book book supplier your profits will drop.
Since more eBay book sellers will be selling the same books, the price of the books being sold will drop, further cutting down your profits.
But there is an alternative available for eBay book sellers.
eBay book sellers can build their online auction businesses by buying and selling closeout books.
Closeout books consists of overstock, going out business, liquidation, and surplus books.
Since the books is sold at pennies on the dollar, it can give eBay book sellers a sizable profit margin.
Another advantage of dealing with closeout books is that the quantities are limited. eBay book sellers dealing with closeout books will not be faced with thousands of other book sellers offering the same books.
And even if there are other eBay book sellers buying the same books, the closeout book seller has a vast advantage since his cost of books is lower.
How can an eBay book seller find closeout books?
There are many closeout businesses which advertise online. Using a simple online search through a wholesale search directory such as http://www.wholesalequest.com can yield thousands of closeout book sellers.
Every wholesale and closeout business is faced with a difficult issue when it comes to selecting the prices for their wholesale and closeout books. To address this challenge,
87. http://www.wholesalecloseoutforum.com has introduced articles written by experts on developing accurate pricing.
Like every business, wholesale and closeout businesses understand the basic science of establishing pricing for their wholesale and closeout books. The most widely used pricing formula is based on factoring in fixed and variable costs, and then adding in the mark up.
But while this formula is true for all business markets, it needs to be modified for the wholesale and closeout business. Just like on shoe cannot fit all feet, one pricing formula cannot be used for all business markets.
For starters, what makes the wholesale and closeout business very different from other businesses is the end user need.
While in most business markets the end user need is based on consumption, in the wholesale and closeout market the end user need is based on resale.
The difference being that while IBM will purchase paper supplies for its offices, and Steve Smith will purchase orange juice to drink, the customers of a wholesale and closeout business have a different purpose behind their buying decisions.
The wholesale and closeout customer is only purchasing books with the intention of reselling at a profit.
As long as the profit margin is high enough to cover his or her costs, and still leave them over with a net profit, will the customer continue to buy from the wholesale or closeout book book supplier.
For this reason, the wholesale and closeout business must factor in what profit will their customers be able to make when they resell their books.
“This equation must factor in the nature of the wholesale customer. Is the customer a dollar book store, flea market book vendor, or eBay book seller?”, said Donny Lowy, who is the CEO of http://www.wholesalecloseoutforum.com and http://www.closeoutexplosion.com
According to Donny Lowy, the success of a wholesale and closeout business will depend on how much their customers can make in the resale market, on their wholesale and closeout books.
Therefore the pricing equation must reflect the profit margin that the rebook seller will have when they take their books to their retail outlets.
To have a further understanding of this subject, one needs to be able to understand that the wholesale and closeout business are based on sales to repeat customers.
As long as the wholesale and closeout customers enjoy a decent profit margin they will return to the wholesale or closeout book vendor.
This relationship can lead to an increase in sales volume which makes it worthwhile for a wholesaler or closeout dealer to sacrifice profit margins for long term sales revenue.
If your wholesale business is up and running, whether it’s a new wholesale business, or a long time established wholesale business, I am sure you would love to double your business.
88. While doubling your current wholesale business might seem to be extremely difficult, I can assure you that it can be done.
Here are some steps that can help you double your current wholesale business.
Keep in mind that these steps to do take effort to implement, and time to see results.
Just like there are no short cuts in life, the wholesale business also requires a long term commitment and hard work.
Try these steps and I am confident that you will see a substantial increase in your wholesale business.
Step #1 Expand your wholesale product line. You need to add wholesale books to your line on a regular basis. This will accomplish two important things. Your customers will buy more books from you. While in the past they could only buy up to 20 different books from you, now they have 25 to select from. The potential exists to sell 5 more books.
Second, your customers will get used to visiting your wholesale business, or wholesale site, on a regular basis. Since they know that new wholesale books are always being added they will keep coming back to you. The more times they visit you, the higher of a chance there is of them buying from you.
Step #2 Make sure you only deal with high quality wholesale books. The higher the quality the higher your sales will be. A reputation for high quality will attract more wholesale customers. Once customers start seeing the high quality of your wholesale books they will come back and buy again. Having high quality wholesale books is a great way to build long term business.
Step #3 Build a customer list. You need to have a list of all your wholesale customers. This way you have the ability to keep in touch with your customers. Just because they are not ready to buy now doesn’t mean that they won’t buy next month. Your customer list will also remind you of the type of books that your customers need. You might find a great deal for a customer who you spoke to a couple of months back.
Keep working on these steps and you will see a steady growth in your wholesale business.
These steps will help your wholesale business reach its full potential when they are combined.
One step without the other is like building a chair without one of its legs.
Wholesale buyers are the lifeblood of every wholesale business. You need wholesale buyers to build a solid wholesale business.
89. While every wholesale business needs different types of wholesale buyers, what they all need is solid long term business from these wholesale buyers.
So how do you find these wholesale buyers? And once you do find them, how do you attract them to your wholesale business?
In order to attract wholesale buyers you need to put yourself in their shoes.
Where would you search for wholesale deals? If you would search using the yellow pages, then you should take an ad in the yellow pages letting prospective customers know about your wholesale business.
If you would instead search at particular wholesale sites, you would want to be listed in those wholesale sites.
Avoid wasting money on advertising by buying ads in publications and sites which are not frequented by the particular type of wholesale buyer which you are after.
Just because a wholesale publication or site attracts wholesale buyers does not mean that it will work for you.
It has to attract wholesale buyers that are specifically in the market for the wholesale books which you offer.
Once you have attracted wholesale buyers to you, the next step is engaging them.
Engage your wholesale customers by being able to offer them a complete catalog of your books, including prices.
I have seen some wholesalers hiding their prices because of fear of their competition.
This is a bad move, since most wholesale buyers will lose interest in a wholesaler which is not forthcoming about his prices.
While your catalog can be in print or online, it is crucial that is clear and informative.
This catalog is often the only communication you will have with prospective wholesale buyers, so make sure it counts.
Wholesale buying by eBay book sellers represents a growing percentage of the wholesale market.
90. With eBay expected to surpass 200 million registered users in the near future, there will be plenty of more opportunities for eBay book sellers to sell books.
The best source for the books that eBay book sellers need will come from the wholesale marketplace.
Here are some great wholesale buying ideas for eBay book sellers.
Wholesale Buying Idea #1
Select a niche. By focusing on a specific niche an eBay book seller will both learn the strong selling points of the books, his customer demands, and the best wholesale sources for his books.
Wholesale Buying Idea #2
Network with other eBay book sellers. While an eBay book seller will not divulge their wholesale sources, they might be happy to refer you to wholesalers for books that they don’t sell.
You can start a good reciprocal relationship by initially referring them to a good wholesale source.
Wholesale Buying Idea #3
Contact local wholesalers. By dealing with a local wholesaler you can save the money you would otherwise spend on shipping. If you find a wholesaler who has the books you want, but is located in another state or country, ask them how much you would need to buy to obtain a reduction in the shipping charges.
Many wholesalers will offer free shipping to their established customer base.
Wholesale Buying Idea #4
Subscribe to wholesale trade publications. These publications can be of great value by showing you what the latest wholesale books to reach the market are.
Wholesale buying is an art which can be maximized by using the following steps.
By learning how to master the art of wholesale buying you can benefit two ways.
91. For starters, you will receive lower pricing which will give you a higher profit margin.
Second, you will have access to higher quality books and better variety,
The key is to implement the following steps according to the unique situation
you find your business in.
Wholesale Buying Success Ingredient #1
Pre sell books. By pre selling books you will know what books
your customers are looking for. Once you have that information, you can confidently order from
your wholesale book book suppliers.
Wholesale Buying Success Ingredient #2
Increase your volume for lower prices. Wholesalers want to move books and will be glad to extend you extra savings, provided that you buy more books.
Demand extra savings for orders that are larger than normal.
Wholesale Buying Success Ingredient #3
Share your customer information Describe your customers to your wholesaler and you will
have his expert guidance. He will be able to make suggestions for books which your customers would like. You can share this information without revealing the identity of your customers.
Wholesale Buying Success Ingredient #4
Work at different price points. By selling books priced at high and low price points you will be positioned to buy and sell a wider mixture of books. Explain to your wholesale book book supplier that you are open to different price points, and he will be able to make more suggestions.
Wholesale Buying Success Ingredient #5
Be flexible. Show your wholesaler that you are open to trying out books from other categories. The wholesaler might have a potentially profitable deal for you in a category
which you normally don’t deal with.
All of these steps can work, but must be implemented in your own business style.
Wholesale brand name clothing is the product category that most flea market book vendors make their money with.
While this means that having access to wholesale clothing can help a flea market book vendor make money, it also means that there will be plenty of competition in the flea market for it.
92. Here are tips specifically geared for flea market book vendors that sell brand name clothing.
Flea Market Brand Name Clothing Sales Tip #1
Separate according to price point. Have your booth set up so that you distinguish between your higher and lower priced brand name clothing. This way a customer will not be turned off by high or low prices.
You can always direct your customer to the price point that he or she is comfortable with.
Flea Market Brand Name Clothing Sales Tip #2
Prominently display the tags and labels. By prominently displaying the tags and labels you are showing your customers the brand names you are selling.
Customers have been known to buy clothing simply because of the brand name, so it is important that they see the brands you have for sale.
Flea Market Brand Name Clothing Sales Tip #3
Let them know your clothing is genuine. Customers know that genuine brand name clothing is of a higher value than the brand name knock offs. And even when the quality is similar most customers prefer to buy genuine and original brand name clothing. Have a large display sign announcing that your brand name clothing is real.
Flea Market Brand Name Clothing Sales Tip #4
Don’t price your brand name clothing below a realistic price. If your prices are too low for brand name clothing customers will assume that they are fakes. By having a realistic price you are telling your customers that your books is real, and that is why you are charging a low but fair price.
Wholesale clothing seems to be abundant these days. A quick click of the mouse and a retailer can find thousands of sources for wholesale clothing.
93. But what retailers need the most, are strategies for selling the wholesale clothing which they buy.
Here are my top tips for selling clothing out of a book store:
Clothing Sale Tip #1
Always have a well lit book store. You can have the nicest clothing in your book store, but unless your customers get a good look at it they won’t buy it.
Clothing Sale Tip #2
Separate the clothing by brand. Your customers know the brands they want. Help them to easily find those brands in your book store by using well displayed signs.
Clothing Sale Tip #3
Full color photos. People are buying into an image when they purchase brand name clothing. Remind them of that image by having pictures in your book store of people wearing the clothing.
You can obtain plenty of promotional pictures from the brands by simply calling them.
They look for opportunities to promote their brands, so they will be glad to send you professionally produced full color pictures.
Clothing Sale Tip #4
Clean book stores. People want to shop in clean book stores. Keep your book store clean and your customers will enjoy spending time in your book store.
Clothing Sale Tip #5
Stay organized. Your book store needs to be organized. Customers want and easy and smooth shopping experience. By having an organized book store you will enable your customers to easily locate the clothing that they are looking for.
Wholesale eBay books are what differentiate successful eBay book sellers from part time eBay dabblers.
94. An eBay dabbler, or inexperienced book seller, is not aware of the wholesale eBay books on the market, so his sales are severely limited.
These eBay book sellers will have to limit their selling to books they have at home, find at a garage, or buy at a thrift shop. While selling books found this way is an easy way to start an eBay business, how far can it go?
Experienced eBay book sellers who know where to find wholesale eBay books are in an entirely different situation.
By buying wholesale eBay books they will have fresh, brand new books, at a fraction of the retail price.
They can then build their eBay sales by offering their wholesale eBay books at a decent markup.
Do you know what the part about buying wholesale eBay books is?
As soon as the eBay book sellers need more books they can simply pick up the phone or send a quick email and have their wholesale eBay books delivered to them.
Think also of the variety of books that are available from wholesale eBay product sources?
You can find electronics, clothing, collectibles, computers, and thousands of other books as wholesale eBay books.
As their eBay business grows, they can start putting up other wholesale eBay books for auction.
How do you find great wholesale eBay books?
One easy method is to search online for wholesale eBay books. You will then have a list of sites that deal with wholesale eBay books.
Check out each site and see which books would fit the best with your eBay business.
You can also find wholesale eBay books by going to clearance sales at large department book stores.
Often you will see brand name books being discounted for up to 90% off retail.
If you put up that books on eBay at 80% off retail, you will still be working on a 100% profit margin.
There also opportunities to buy wholesale eBay books by going to donation centers and making offers for a large quantity of goods.
You will have more books this way than if you shopped for books in the book store section of a thrift shop.
At the end of the day, my experience shows that the easiest and fastest way to find wholesale eBay books is by simply getting in touch with wholesalers that specialize in eBay wholesale books.
They can give you the best selling wholesale eBay books as soon as you need them. Which saves you the time of having to find wholesale eBay books on your own.
Wholesale eBay books are a great way to make inroads on eBay. While the majority of eBay book sellers are focused on selling books they find lying around in their homes, or on selling books they find at garage sales, you can develop a profitable eBay business by setting up a system to sell wholesale books.
95. If you are looking for a great wholesale product to sell on eBay you should consider wholesale socks.
Wholesale socks make a great eBay book seller because they are a product which is desired by a large customer base.
And since you want to build a repeat business for in your eBay business, it makes all the more sense to deal with wholesale socks, since customers repeatedly will use them.
How can you find wholesale socks?
The following are the best methods for locating sources for wholesale socks.
1. Call manufacturers of wholesale socks, ask them for their overstock and discontinued inventory. This is a great way to purchase wholesale socks at below the list wholesale price.
2. Contact wholesalers and find out if they have wholesale socks from last season.
Even if you have to hold the books for another 6 months, the savings you will be able to obtain will translate directly into your profits.
3. Look for wholesale socks which were made for a specific occasion and are now sitting around collecting dust. While they might have a logo on or a distinct look to them, eBay buyers will look at them if the price is right.
Wholesale socks can be a perfect item for eBay provided that you have the right wholesale supply.
Wholesale electronics offers rebook sellers high profit margins along with high volume sales, when done right.
96. Rebook sellers, whether flea market book vendors, eBay book sellers, or dollar book stores, will be faced with competition from online and offline retailers who can buy wholesale electronics at a lower price.
To outmaneuver this competition in the wholesale electronics business, rebook sellers need to have a strategic plan in place.
Part one of their plan deals with finding the best sources for wholesale electronics at the lowest possible prices.
For this reason I would recommend rebook sellers to stay away from drop shippers when looking for wholesale electronics.
Since the drop shipper is set up to offer his books to thousands of other rebook sellers, you will not be able to compete based on price. All the rebook sellers are paying the same price to the wholesale electronic drop shipper, so how can your prices be lower?
When looking to buy wholesale electronics you want to get as close to the source as possible.
Since you will not be able to buy brand name wholesale electronics for a lower price than major retailers can, you will want to look for lesser known wholesale electronic book sellers.
For instance, ABC Electronics might not have the name recognition that Sharp enjoys, but you can show customers that the quality is the same, and as long as your prices are lower some customers should buy the wholesale electronics manufactured by ABC Electronics.
When you contact these companies looking for wholesale electronics ask them for their overstock, overrun, and closeout deals. You would be surprised at the wholesale electronics deals you can find from small manufacturers that are looking to move books out.
You can find great wholesale electronics deals but it will take some solid leg work.
Wholesale exclusivity can be a highly profitable arrangement for both wholesaler and rebook seller.
97. Through a wholesale exclusivity arrangement both the wholesaler and rebook seller make business commitments to each other.
There are various forms of exclusivity that can be engaged in, but I would like to focus on the following three.
Arrangement #1
Through this arrangement the wholesaler agrees to only sell his books to one rebook seller per market. A market can be defined as a set geographic area, or as a type of market segment.
For instance, a rebook seller can have the exclusive right to sell the wholesaler’s books to dollar book stores, or to sell the books in a specific city or state.
Arrangement #2
The agreement between the wholesaler and retailer can stipulate that as long as the rebook seller maintains a level of buying volume he will have first call on new books.
This is a great arrangement for rebook sellers when the product is available in short demand and there are many rebook sellers who want it.
Arrangement #3
An exclusive wholesale arrangement can be based on price. Provided that the rebook seller can buy at a set volume, he or she will be entitled to buy their wholesale books at a greater discount than offered to other rebook sellers.
Wholesale exclusivity arrangements are beneficial to both wholesalers and retailers for the following reasons.
Wholesalers benefit since they can count on a certain level of repeat business, which is especially important to wholesalers who have high customer acquisition costs. Once they have formed a customer relationship with the rebook seller they can count on repeat business.
Having a rebook seller buy in larger volume is also beneficial to wholesalers who work with small profit margins.
Rebook sellers also gain from these arrangements because they can receive exclusive access to the wholesalers’ books, the right to buy books first, and larger price discounts than their competition.
As the popularity of flea markets grows so does the number of flea market book vendors who attend them.
98. Many of these flea market book vendors are turning what was once a nice way to make some extra income, into a full fledged full time business.
Flea market book vendors are discovering that budget minded consumers are heading in droves to their local flea markets, sometimes driving close to an hour to get to one.
People are aware of the great deals available at the flea market and are starting to do a large portion of their shopping there.
Flea market book vendors who want to profit from this growing trend need to stock up on wholesale flea market books.
One way for flea market book vendors to find wholesale flea market books is by searching online for wholesalers.
The flea market book vendor should start by dealing with wholesalers that do not have a minimum order. This way the flea market book vendor can sample the quality of the wholesale flea market books.
Another reason to buy from a wholesaler without a minimum order is to that the flea market book vendor can test out new books.
A flea market product which the book vendor is unsure of could be easily tested out by ordering a few units.
If the flea market book vendor decides to order a small sample of wholesale flea market books, he needs to realize that if the number of books he has is too small, customers will not stop at his booth.
The key to attracting customers to your flea market stall or booth is to have plenty of books for sale.
Customers like to frequent flea market book vendors who can offer them a good quantity of books, a nice variety, and low prices.
Flea market book vendors should also concentrate one on line of wholesale flea market books.
This focus will help the flea market book vendor, since his customers will remember him for those types of books.
Starting a jewelry business is a great way to make more money, whether you are looking for a primary source of income, or you are simply looking to develop a secondary source if income.
99. Jewelry has historically been a very popular book seller.
People buy jewelry for many reasons, including gift giving, for marriage proposals, as investments, and for personal indulgence. Think of all the different types of people who are in the market for jewelry at any given time and you will realize why there is so much money in the jewelry business.
When you start calculating how many people are looking for engagement rings, wedding rings, anniversary rings, etc., you start getting an idea of how large the marketplace is for jewelry.
And the above only includes the number of people looking for a ring for marriage related events. What about the number of people looking for rings for other purposes, such as for their personal fashion sense, and for investment purposes? Then put all of that aside and consider all the people in the market for earrings, necklaces, bracelets, pendants, and studs.
If you think you have an idea of how large the jewelry market is, think of the following. There are also thousands of fashion designers and theater producers looking for jewelry to use for their professional work.
Now that you have some idea of the number of people who are in the market for jewelry, you should think of how big the market is when you look at it from an international perspective. There are literally hundreds of millions of people in the market for jewelry.
And to give you an idea of how profitable it is, an engagement ring with a retail price of $3,000, can cost as little as $300 when bought wholesale.
Think of how much money a jewelry book seller can earn if he sells one ring per week.
Multiply that by 10, and you will see how a jewelry business can make so much for its owner. And as we discussed earlier, there are hundreds of other types of jewelry buyers looking for thousands of different pieces of jewelry. So if there are so many potential customers, and there is so much money to be made, what stops more people from selling jewelry?
The biggest challenge is the high cost of keeping inventory.
A decent amount of stock can easily run a book seller into the tens of thousands of dollars. Even if the book seller has the budget to keep the jewelry in stock, there is no guarantee that he will be able to sell it before it is out of style, and there is no guarantee that he will be able to find customers for it. For the above reasons the jewelry business has traditionally been controlled by entrenched jewelry book sellers who have a tight rein on the market.
The business has started to change with the introduction of jewelry drop shippers. A jewelry drop shipper allows a book seller to market the jewelry, and only make a commitment to buy it once he has received a paid order for it.
For example, John Doe can list the jewelry on eBay, once an auction has ended with a successful bid, and the customer has paid John Doe for the jewelry, John pays the drop shipper for the item.
The jewelry drop shipper will then ship the jewelry directly to the customer, without John having to stock and ship the order.
John Doe can repeat the process an unlimited number of times without having to risk a single dollar in purchasing inventory. He can also advertise the jewelry by placing flyers in his neighborhood, at local schools and supermarkets, and can distribute flyers to his friends and relatives. The drop shipper will also give John Doe a ready made website that is stocked with thousands of pieces of jewelry. John Doe will have to bring people to the site, which can be done by using pay per click engines, press releases, classified ads, posting signs, flyer distribution, and word of mouth.
In other words, the drop shipper stocks the jewelry and processes the orders, while the book seller, in this case John Doe, markets the jewelry to potential customers.
When the customer places an order, John Doe accepts the payment, and in turn places the order for the jewelry with the drop shipper. John Doe keeps the difference between the amount of money he charges for the jewelry, and the wholesale price which he pays the drop shipper.
It can be a very lucrative business, especially for someone who is creative, and can effectively market the jewelry.
A customer called me recently and asked me whether I think he should focus on non branded clothing or brand name clothing.
100. His question is based on the following idea.
Brand name clothing is highly recognizable by customers because the brands spend millions of dollars marketing themselves. Non branded clothing, basically clothing by smaller labels or imported from overseas, have no name recognition. But the flip side is that non branded clothing can be purchased and resold for allot less than branded clothing.
So how do you decide between selling non branded and brand name clothing?
For starters you need to know who your customers are.
Although the following might not be politically correct you need to understand this.
Lower income customers might want brand name clothing but they cannot afford it. So even though they would love to have brand name clothing they will usually settle for non branded clothing.
On the other hand more affluent customers will want only branded clothing because they have more pressure in terms of keeping up with the latest styles.
Now the above is true in the theoretical world. But in the real world everyone wants brand name clothing.
So how do you as a rebook seller buy brand name clothing at prices low enough to sell to your poorer customers?
You need to purchase overstock clothing.
Overstock clothing consists of clothing which a department book store did not sell within a set period of time. A department book store wants to always have new books on its racks. Whatever does not sell within a set period of time will be sold out as overstock.
Since the overstock consists of brand names you have a great opportunity.
You can get a hold of brand new clothing by leading brands at a fraction of the regular wholesale price.
What’s the catch?
When you purchase overstock clothing you will receive a wide assortment of styles and sizes.
You can’t specify the number of pants or skirts, or sizes for that matter.
So while this might discourage some people from purchasing overstock clothing, just think of the advantages of buying brand names like Polo Ralph Lauren, Tommy, Liz Claiborne, Ecko, and Baby Phat, for a fraction of the regular wholesale price.
I stress on my site, closeoutexplosion.com, that customers will receive an assortment of brands and styles, and also the average retail price of the books that I have.
This way rebook sellers can decide the merits of buying and selling overstock books for themselves.
While overstock clothing might not work if you need a full range of sizes for a given item, it definitely works if you want to buy brand name clothing at the lowest possible wholesale prices.
It might seem funny for me as a wholesaler to give you tips on negotiating.
101. After all you might end up calling my wholesale business one day and using these negotiating tips on me
But that concern aside, I do believe that the more knowledge there is in the wholesale business, the more all its participants will gain.
Before I offer you my negotiating tips I want you to understand my position as a wholesaler.
I buy books in large quantities. Quantities can range from a thousand units to an entire container load. Since I work on small profit margins I need to move volume in order to make money.
Given that I have a large overhead in terms of rent for a 2,200 sq warehouse and daily advertising, I need to move allot of volume to stay in business.
If you haven’t already got an idea of what my negotiating tips are, then you need to reread what I just wrote above.
Since most serious wholesalers operate the same way the tips I will give you now are universal.
Tip #1
Since wholesalers buy in large volume they want to sell in large volume. You can obtain lower prices by offering to buy a larger volume of books. Even though I have no minimum order requirements, I am happy to offer further discounts for a decent sized order.
Tip #2
Wholesalers want to have long term customers. It’s allot easier to serve a steady customer than it is to look for new customers. Show wholesalers that you can buy regularly and ask for a discount in exchange for your steady business.
Tip #3
Ask for slow moving books. Every wholesaler has books that for one reason or another isn’t moving. Maybe the style is out of fashion or the colors are kind of funny.
You just might have the right customers for that slow moving books. Offer to buy it at a reduced price.
I hope you enjoyed these negotiating tips. Try them out and see what happens.
Wholesale plus sized apparel is a great market to be in. Wholesale plus sized apparel consists of plus sized for women.
102. Since very few book stores specialize in plus sized apparel, you can build a profitable business by buying and selling wholesale plus sized apparel.
You can capture even more business by selling wholesale plus sized apparel if you take your business online.
Online sales are perfect for wholesale plus sized apparel since women would prefer to shop from the comfort of their home than visit local book stores.
The need for privacy is also important for plus sized consumers. They would rather people not see them shopping for plus sized clothing.
You can help plus sized customers, and make money at the same time, by finding wholesale plus sized apparel, and then retailing it from your own site or on eBay.
When you look at a market you need to see what the future holds for that segment. Since most studies agree that people are getting heavier, it looks like there will be a continued increase in the number of plus sized women.
To enter this market you will need to have sources of high quality wholesale plus sized apparel.
You can find the best sources for wholesale plus sized apparel by contacting manufacturers that specialize in wholesale plus sized apparel.
Find these manufacturers by calling apparel trade groups.
These apparel trade groups will point you in the direction by giving you the contact information of wholesale plus sized apparel manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors.
Request a catalog from each book vendor, and start comparing prices, quality, and variety, until you find the right wholesale plus sized apparel book vendor that you would like to deal with.
The wholesale plus sized apparel market is a lucrative market with less book book suppliers than customers.
This imbalance in supply and demand explains why the profit margins are so high in the wholesale plus sized apparel business.
Wholesale prices enables book sellers to attain a high profit margin on their books, which leads to higher profits on their sales.
103. But wholesale prices can also offer another advantage. This advantage is the savings that can be obtained by buying books at wholesale prices.
Why should you buy books at wholesale prices?
You will end up saving money on books which you regularly purchase at retail prices.
If you are interested in buying many of the books which you currently use at wholesale prices, you need to be ready to do the following.
For starters, be ready to buy in slightly larger quantities than you regularly do.
Most wholesalers are able to offer their wholesale prices because they expect to make their money on volume.
Since they are selling in volume they can afford to charge their customers less than half the price for most books that they offer.
These quantities are not usually large, but be ready to buy a dozen socks at a time instead of a single pair at a time.
The advantage is that even though you are purchasing a dozen at a time, your actual cost might be less than if you bought 3 or 4 at the regular retail price.
And since you will end up using all 12 pairs, your money has been well spent.
To make sure that you do receive the best wholesale prices shop around.
Wholesale prices can vary from one wholesaler to another by as much as 50%.
You can also obtain wholesale prices by using wholesale search engines such as http://www.wholesalequest.com
Even though most wholesalers have minimum orders, you can order an assortment of different books.
This way you are not forced to buy too many of an item.
I hope you enjoyed this article on helping you find the best wholesale prices for your personal purchases.
Wholesale product lines are the life blood of the retail business. You can be an eBay book seller, flea market book vendor, dollar book store operator, or a wholesaler, but you will have one thing in common with your peers.
104. You constantly will need to update your books to keep the attention of your customers.
Even in my own wholesale business, http://www.closeoutexplosion.com I have certain product lines that represent 80% of my business. But if I don’t constantly update them my customers will look elsewhere.
Remember that it’s human nature to always want something new.
Wholesalers and retailers alike must be able to offer their respective customers with new books that will catch and keep their attention.
At the same time, it’s just as equally important that the your new wholesale books fit with your business image.
If your customers are expecting you to carry brand name clothing, and then you start selling toys, they will become confused. Make sure that the new wholesale books which you add to your product line fit in with the rest of your product line.
When adding new wholesale books to your business you want to make sure that you can offer a decent selection. Your customers will want variety as well as selection, so make sure that the new wholesale books are available in different styles.
Always place yourself in the shoes of your customers when you are deciding what wholesale books to add to your product line.
Your customers will be focused on quality, selection, and prices when placing an order.
This is true for customers on the wholesale and retail level. It does not matter why they are buying from you, at the end of the day they will only buy if you offer a better quality, selection, and pricing than your competitors do.
This is even true for customers who are not looking for first quality wholesale books. In this situation they will still compare the quality of your wholesale books with the quality of the books of your competitors.
Remember that any new books that your business carries must fit in with your current product line, as well as be competitive on quality, styles, and prices.
Wholesale books are the fuel that every retail business needs to ignite their sales engine.
105. Retailers, including eBay book sellers, flea market book vendors, and dollar book store owners, all have one need in common.
In order to be continue attracting customers, and in order to sell to these customers, retailers need a steady supply of wholesale books.
Since the profit margin for these retailers is based on the difference between their wholesale cost and their asking retail price, the lower the wholesale price of their wholesale books the better.
Up to this point we have covered what can be called the basic elementary of buying wholesale books and selling them at the retail level.
What I want to discuss now is how to obtain wholesale books at below wholesale prices.
I am sure you would agree with me that it is profitable for you to learn how to buy wholesale books at below wholesale prices.
Here are some solid ideas for purchasing wholesale books at below wholesale prices.
Keep in mind that most retailers will be paying at best the full wholesale price, if not higher.
Idea #1
Ask your wholesale book book supplier for last season’s wholesale books. Although the wholesale books might not represent the latest fashions, your customers will enjoy the savings you can offer them.
Idea #2
Look for discontinued wholesale books. As long as the wholesale books are allowed to be sold, you should be able to buy useful books which can be sold at a nice mark up.
Idea #3
Buy wholesale books that are slightly irregular. Many times these wholesale books have small design or manufacturing glitches which will not affect the use or look of the product.
Make sure your customer is aware that the wholesale product you are selling him is irregular.
Usually the customer will not mind as long as the price is right.
Wholesaler books are a perfect component of every eBay book seller’s business.
106. eBay book sellers need wholesale books to expand their business, since their initial inventory usually only consists of personal books which they have had lying around the house.
As their eBay business develops they find that they need a steady source for wholesale books which they can offer on eBay.
So how does an eBay book seller procure wholesale books for his business?
There are five steps that every eBay book seller should take when looking for wholesale books.
1. Determine the direction of his eBay business.
Just because the eBay book seller started out selling used clothing, doesn’t mean that she wants to build an eBay business selling used clothing.
2. Decide whether the eBay business will be based on volume or price.
eBay book sellers need to decide if they will be looking to conduct allot of auctions for low priced books, or if instead they will be selling fewer, but higher priced books.
3. Investigate the eBay marketplace.
The eBay book seller needs to investigate and see if there is a viable market for the wholesale books he would like to sell. A good indication would be the number of similar books sold.
4. Search online for sources for wholesale books.
eBay book sellers can use wholesale search engines such as http://www.wholesalecentral.com and http://www.wholesalequest.com
5. Test out the market.
eBay book sellers should test out the eBay marketplace by placing a small order and trying to sell the books they have ordered. There is no better indicator than actual experience.
Wholesale books are in strong demand due to the explosion in the number of eBay book sellers, flea market book vendors, and new dollar book stores opening up.
107. To give you an idea of the demand for wholesale books think of how many eBay book sellers make a part time or full time living on eBay.
If you agree with me that there are at least 100,000 of these eBay book sellers, then you can imagine how much books they need on a weekly and monthly basis.
Then add to this figure the number of flea market book vendors who need wholesale books for every weekend. Many flea market book vendors also sell during the week, so they need wholesale books for those days too.
What about all the dollar book stores, discount book stores, and variety book stores?
They also need a steady supply of wholesale books for their book stores.
So with all of the competition that is looking for wholesale books, how can you find the best wholesale books?
You should start by deciding what category of wholesale books you want to focus on.
If for example you select wholesale clothing, you would then want to conduct a search on wholesale search engines for clothing wholesalers.
Make a list of the clothing deals they offer, compare the brands, prices, and quality, and see which wholesaler can offer you the best deal.
Remember that the lowest price, or the most well known brand name, does not make it the best deal.
Often a brand name will be sold for a price too high for you to make money on, while a lesser known brand might give you more room to make money.
The same is true in the reverse, just because an item is priced low doesn’t mean that your customers will like it and buy it from you.
Wholesale search engines that can be useful are http://www.wholesalecentral.com and http://www.wholesalequest.com
Start contacting wholesalers which you have on your list. To make sure they offer you the best wholesale books you need to let them know that you are a serious customer.
Wholesale rebook sellers need to understand what the motivation of their customer’s is in order to maximize their sales.
108. Any introduction to sales that is worth anything will tell you the following.
The first step to making a sale is understanding the needs of your buyer.
Once you understand the needs of your buyer you can better understand how to sell your books to him.
The needs of a farmer are agriculturally oriented while those of a builder are construction related.
While this is a simplistic approach, the base logic of my suggestion is that you need to realize that buyers have different needs.
To offer your buyers the most suitable books you need to ensure that you are fulfilling their needs.
Here are some general needs that I have found that most buyers have.
As a rebook seller of wholesale books you need to know which of these needs your buyers have.
You can also look for wholesale books based on the needs of your buyers, using a wholesale search engine such as wholesalequest.com
Need #1
To make more money. Most buyers are looking to increase their income. Can your books help them achieve a higher level of income?
Need #2
To save money. Related to need #1, most buyers want to save money on their purchases so that they will have more money for other purchases.
Need #3
Lifestyle improvement. Everyone wants to have a more comfortable and happier life.
Need #4
Be entertained. We all want to have fun times. Leisure related purchases contribute a significant amount to our economy.
Wholesale book sellers can have the most exciting wholesale books, but unless customers know that, the wholesale books will simply sit in the warehouse.
109. The same also applies to wholesale book sellers who are drop shippers, brokers, and closeout dealers.
Unless they find an effective method for advertising their wholesale deals, they will not be able to sell their wholesale books.
So how can a wholesale book seller advertise his books?
Here are some of my favorite methods for advertising my wholesale business.
1. Start a Google Ad Words campaign. You can write a short classified ad either about your wholesale business or your wholesale books. Use the ad to bring prospects to your site.
2. Print out a flyer and distribute it to local dollar book stores, discount book stores, and flea market book vendors. This is a great way to make sure that the right people see your wholesale books.
3. Advertise in a trade publication covering the wholesale business, such as Closeout News. Readers are looking for wholesale and closeout deals, so your ad is being read by a targeted audience.
4. Use wholesale and closeout search engines such as http://www.wholesalequest.com. Wholesale search engines will allow you to update and track your ads. As soon as you have a new product, you can change the ad.
5. Make connections with other wholesalers who can bring business to you. You can offer them a commission, or offer to trade leads. As long as you have different wholesale books, this is a great relationship for both of your wholesale businesses.
6. Pick up the phone and introduce yourself. Although most wholesalers overlook this method, it does work. Call local retailers and introduce your wholesale business to them.
Building a wholesale business requires a deep understanding of underlying essence of the
business.
110. Wholesale is different than retail in the sense that the end customer is not the beneficiary of the wholesaler. The actual beneficiary is the rebook seller who gages his satisfaction by the profit he earns with the wholesale books.
The more he makes, the more he will buy from his wholesale book book supplier.
By understanding this idea the wholesaler can build a successful business.
The following steps will enable the wholesaler to build his wholesale business.
Wholesale Selling Success Ingredient #1
Focus on your customer’s bottom line. A wholesaler’s customer is interested in making money.
The more money a wholesaler helps him make, the higher his loyalty will be towards the wholesaler.
Wholesale Selling Success Ingredient #2
Provide variety. A wholesaler’s customers are looking for variety. The rebook sellers customers are attracted to his book store or flea market booth by variety. In order to build a steady base of repeat customers the wholesaler should offer a good degree of variety.
Wholesale Selling Success Ingredient #3
High quality. While it’s tempting to sell lower end books due to its higher profit margin, the real money is in higher end books. The rebook seller will have an easier time selling high end books, and will be able to come back to his book book supplier quicker.
Wholesale Selling Success Ingredient #4
Provide guidance. Smart wholesalers spend time educating their customers. They understand that the more money their customers make, the more wholesale books they will be able to buy.
Wholesale socks are an integral product which should be in the books stock of every retailer, flea market book vendor, and eBay book seller.
111. Wholesale socks are great retail and eBay books because people need them on a constant basis.
Books that wear out, and that can easily get lost in the laundry, are always perfect book sellers in a book store, flea market, or on eBay.
If you buy wholesale socks you will be able to capture many impulse sales.
For instance, if a customer is already buying from you clothing, he might decide to buy some of your wholesale socks, simply because he knows that he will socks at some point.
If you are able to buy your wholesale socks at a truly low price, you can offer them in small and large lots on eBay.
And if you secure an ongoing supply of wholesale socks, you can start wholesaling them to dollar book stores, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers who themselves buy and sell wholesale socks.
So how do you find great deals on wholesale socks?
There are plenty of wholesalers online whose specific business is selling wholesale socks.
You can also look at the prices of wholesale socks that are charged by general product wholesale and closeout dealers.
Often, a wholesaler or closeout dealer will have a special sale on wholesale socks because of a one time closeout buy that he made.
To be alerted of their deals make sure to add your name and email address to the lists of wholesalers.
By adding your name and email list on these wholesale and closeout sites you will know when they have a great deal on wholesale socks.
Weeks, or months, might pass bye before they have a deal on wholesale socks, so it is definitely staying on wholesale and closeout lists until you see the deal for wholesale socks that you want.
When you find wholesalers or distributors of wholesale socks, make sure to buy from the a variety of all sizes, styles, and colors.
Your customers need all types of socks, so you need to make sure that your inventory has a full selection of wholesale socks.
Also, the larger your variety of wholesale socks, the more of a chance of having multiple item sales from a single customer.
Meaning that a mom will purchase socks for herself, her husband, and her children, at the same time. But this can only happen if your wholesale sock selection has socks for the entire family.
Wholesale sources for wholesale books can be hard to find.
112. When I say that it is hard to find wholesale sources for wholesale books I am not referring to membership sites, wholesale source books, or outdated compiled wholesale lists.
I am referring to genuine wholesale sources for wholesale books.
So how do you locate the wholesale sources that can give you wholesale books to sell?
The wholesale sources that you need are often allot easier to find than you might suspect.
For starters, you can use wholesale search engines such as http://www.wholesalequest.com
Wholesale search engines will allow you to search for wholesalers that deal with the wholesale books that you are looking to sell.
A real wholesale search engine will not charge its users for access to this information.
Be careful when dealing with services that seek to charge you for access to information on wholesale sources.
Another method for locating wholesale sources is by calling up manufacturers that deal with the wholesale books that interest you.
While a most manufacturers will not deal with small retailers or eBay book sellers, they can refer you to wholesalers that carry their books.
These wholesalers will be happy to offer you their books at true wholesale prices.
Always make sure that you are not dealing with a middleman in the wholesale business.
If you can’t deal directly with a manufacturer, then deal with the wholesaler or distributer that represents him.
Real wholesale sources will not force you to make a large initial purchase.
They are looking for your long term wholesale business, and will be happy to let you test out the waters with a small initial purchase.
Wholesale sources that are authentic can help you build your business rapidly.
113. These wholesale sources will have wholesale books that your customers will want, at prices that will allow you to make a profit.
After all, you can have the nicest wholesale books but if the price is too high your customers will not buy it.
On the other hand, the lowest priced books will not sell if the quality is very cheap.
To build your business your customers need to know that you can offer them high quality books at below the going prices for it.
So if you are selling socks, and the current retail rate is $12 a dozen, you would want to sell the socks for below that price to attract customer attention.
But for this to work you would need to have high quality socks that are comparable to the ones being sold for $12 a dozen.
You can achieve this by dealing with authentic wholesale sources.
How do you make sure that a wholesale source is authentic?
For starters, make sure that the wholesale prices are not above the going wholesale rate.
If you see a wholesaler that is charging above the going wholesale price, chances are that he is only a distributor selling another wholesaler’s books.
But if his prices are below the going wholesale rate you are more than likely dealing with an actual wholesale source, not a rebook seller.
Another tip to making sure that you are dealing with an authentic wholesale source is to see if the wholesaler offers lower prices for volume purchases.
Real wholesale sources will be happy to offer these wholesale price discounts because they know that their business is based on volume.
Wholesale sources are not concerned with the price per item, as with the total profit that comes from volume sales.
Lastly, check the wholesale source out. You can research wholesale sources by searching online for reviews and feedback that they have received.
At the end of the day, your experience with the wholesale source will be your best indicator for determining how authentic a wholesale source is.
Are you an eBay book seller, flea market book vendor, or retailer looking for wholesale sources?
114. Finding the right wholesale source can be a daunting challenge, especially if you have no previous experience in the retail or wholesale business.
What makes the process even harder is finding genuine wholesale sources, and then selecting the wholesale source that can do the best job of supplying your wholesale business.
Assuming that you have no experience in finding wholesale prices, I have put together a list of wholesale sources which you can easily use.
Wholesale Source #1
The Internet is your best friend. There are thousands of wholesalers that advertise online. You can find them by conducting a search on Google and Yahoo. While the large search engines will deliver millions of results, most of the results will not be for actual wholesalers, but will simply be for sites that have the word wholesale in them.
Using either of these two search engines is still a great way for quickly having access to a vast array of choices.
You will also be presented with featured advertisers who are paying to have their ads displayed when ever a search is done for the word wholesale. Those advertisers will be in the wholesale business since they are paying to have their ads displayed when ever the key word wholesale is searched for.
Wholesale Source #2
Wholesale niche search engines. Search engines like wholesalequest.com are industry specific search engines. All of the listings will be related to the wholesale industry. Even though you will not receive as many search results as when using Google, you will receive results that are targeted to the wholesale business.
Wholesale Source #3
Wholesale trade publications. There are many wholesale trade publications which will have advertisements and listings for wholesalers. Closeout News is a great example of a publication that is geared towards wholesale buyers.
Specialization is the key to business success. This is especially true in the wholesale business.
115. The majority of wholesalers attempt to be everything to the retailers that they serve.
While it might sound appealing to offer a wide assortment of books to your retail accounts, it can actually be counterproductive.
The reason that having too many different books is counterproductive is because your retail accounts will not have a sound grasp of the product lines that you carry.
In order to ensure that your retail accounts think of you first when they are ready to order, you need to ensure that they know what books you carry.
To achieve product recognition in the wholesale business you should focus on one specific area and follow it up by specializing in specific product lines within the categories that you will be serving.
For instance, if your wholesale business serves dollar book stores you would want to then focus on specific product categories which dollar book stores need.
The reason I am a firm believer in product specialization is because you need to be highly competitive in the product lines that you deal in.
Since you will need to keep track of market changes in the product categories that you deal in, it will be important for you to have the time and resources to follow market developments related to the product categories you carry.
The only efficient way to accomplish this is by having a small enough number of product categories that can be researched while still running your business.
For this reason it is imperative to deal with a smaller number of product categories, since you will then more easily be able to monitor market changes for those books.
Wholesale trends are one of the most important pieces of news that eBay book sellers should be monitoring. Wholesale trends are the changes in demand for books being sold in the marketplace.
116. These trends also include the introduction and demand for new wholesale books into the marketplace.
eBay book sellers of all types need to monitor these changing wholesale trends. By seeing what is becoming popular and what is losing in popularity, eBay book sellers will be able to know what books they should be buying and selling.
Here are three great methods for monitoring wholesale trends. Remember that you want to be able to anticipate product demand before your fellow eBay book sellers do. This is especially important if you want to be selling on eBay popular books before other eBay book sellers start catching on.
Wholesale Trend Monitoring Tip #1
Movies. When a new movie is released you can expect a great deal of marketing to be involved. By the time the movie hits the screens you can expect thousands of enthusiastic fans to be familiar with the movie. You can expect that books related to the movie will be strong book sellers on eBay.
Wholesale Trend Monitoring Tip #2
Magazines. Popular culture magazines are the first ones to showcase a new product hitting the marketplace. Often they will cover the development of a product that they predict will be very popular. And sometimes the magazines themselves create demand for a product by publishing a glowing review of the product.
Wholesale Trend Monitoring Tip #3
Top online searches. There are many free web based services that will show you what the current top searches are. You can use these services to determine what it is that people are searching for. If you see a surge in the number of searches for a certain actor, then you should start selling related books on eBay.
Wholesale drop shippers enable eBay book sellers to auction books without having to stock them.
117. The eBay book seller is guaranteed a sale before having to buy the product, since he will only order it once the item is sold.
Another advantage is that the eBay book seller does not have to pack and ship the item since the drop shipper will ship the item directly to the buyer.
While buying directly from a wholesaler will give the eBay book seller the most profit, an eBay book seller with a very small budget might want to start out with a drop shipper.
Here is a check list for insuring that you find the right drop shipper.
Drop Shipper Check List #1
Will the drop shipper ship single item orders? Most of your eBay sales will be for one item at a time. You need to ensure that the drop shipper will be willing to ship single item orders to your customers.
Drop Shipper Check List #2
Timely shipping. Once you pay the drop shipper for the order you want him to ship it out within 24 hours. Your customers are waiting for their books and will not tolerate unnecessary delays.
Drop Shipper Check List #3
No minimum order requirements. A true drop shipper will have no minimum order requirements. He will let you start out by auctioning one item and allowing you to see how the auction works out. After all, there is plenty of trial and error at the beginning of an eBay book seller’s business.
Drop Shipper Check List #4
No monthly fees. The only fee that a drop shipper should charge is an account registration fee. He has costs related to setting up the account for you so he might decide to cover them by having a registration or activation fee. But I see no reason why there should be any monthly or annual membership fees.
Drop Shipper Check List #5
Cut out the middleman. Often you will be able to save money by dealing directly with the wholesalers that the drop shipper is using. Most of these wholesalers have no, or low minimum order requirements.
Wholesaling to eBay book sellers is a tremendous business. The potential of a wholesale business with eBay book sellers as customers is very large.
118. Think of how the hundreds of thousands of eBay book sellers who need books to sell on eBay.
Then add the number of current eBay book sellers to all the potential and future eBay book sellers that are out there.
You will quickly come to realize that there are millions of potential customers for a wholesaler to eBay book sellers.
If you see the potential of wholesaling to eBay book sellers you will enjoy the following steps. These steps will show you how to find eBay book sellers who need wholesale and closeout books.
Wholesale To eBay Book sellers Step #1
Set up a simple one page web site that advertises your wholesaling services to eBay book sellers.
Have a form that visitors can fill out to receive more information. You would then use their contact information to present them with the wholesale and closeout books which you have available.
Wholesale To eBay Book sellers Step #2
Set up an online, or print catalog, with your wholesale and closeout books. Since eBay book sellers are experienced with using a computer, you can forgo the print catalog and focus exclusively on the online catalog.
Wholesale To eBay Book sellers Step #3
Advertise your site using pay per click search engines. The Google Adsense program enables you to place classified ads on Google and on their partner sites. Your ads will be shown every time a user conducts a search that matches the key words your ads are programmed to run for.
Since you are wholesaling to eBay book sellers you want your ads to show when ever people are looking for information related to selling on eBay.
Follow these three steps and you will soon have compiled a strong list of prospects that are looking for books to sell on eBay.
The sad reality of running an eBay business, is that the odds of you making a sizable amount of money are small.
119. The Small Business Administration has published statistics that state that over 80% of businesses close their doors within 3 years.
The percentage of eBay businesses remaining active is larger only because of the low overhead costs that most eBay book sellers have.
But just because more eBay book sellers stay in business does not mean that they are making a decent amount of money.
The lack of financial success it not due to their level of intelligence, but it’s more likely related to the following reasons.
eBay Book seller Failure Reason #1
Lack of information. To succeed as an eBay book seller you need to be aware of the latest developments concerning eBay, and the online auction business.
Visit forums, read magazine and newspaper articles on eBay, and keep up to date by reading “how to” eBay books.
eBay Book seller Failure Reason #2
Access to books. Not having a steady flow of books is one of the top hurdle eBay book sellers face. Your eBay business can come to a grinding halt if you don’t what to sell.
Avoid this situation by developing a good relationship with a wholesaler.
eBay Book seller Failure Reason #3
Organization. eBay book sellers who are not organized will not send out orders on time. The fastest way to earn negative feedback is by delaying shipment of your customers’ orders.
A filing system will enable you to track pending orders, paid for orders, and processed orders.
Have you heard the expression that one man’s garbage is another man’s gold?
120. The basic premise dictates that what one person no longer needs or wants, might be highly sought after by another person.
After all, if you once loved to stare at an old painting, chances are that someone else will experience the same feelings as you.
Once you look at your garbage in a new light, you will understand how you can make money by selling it on eBay.
So what kind of “garbage” can hold great value on eBay?
Here are some of my suggestions for finding value in your garbage. Once you read my suggestions you can use the ideas behind them to develop your own goldmine.
eBay Garbage Goldmine #1
Newspapers. Every day your newspaper is filled with articles of interest. Articles covering sports, politics, and business appear every single day. Even though most articles can be read online, there are many people who enjoy having the original news clips.
Especially if the press clips concern them, their businesses, their religious organizations, or topics that they hold close to their hearts.
If you see an interesting article in your local newspaper clip it and sell it on eBay.
Your cost is next to nothing, so any profit can go directly to your bottom line.
eBay Garbage Goldmine #2
Vintage books, cards, and comics. Most old paper goods have a collectible appeal to them.
For example, an old post card of Monterrey, Mexico will hold a nostalgic appeal to someone who once visited or lived in the Mexican city.
eBay Garbage Goldmine #3
Unique food packaging. A cereal box that features a popular athlete can hold value in the eyes of a loyal sport’s fan. The same would apply to food packaging that has pictures of religious leaders, politicians, or actors.
As you can see, an item that might hold little or no appeal to you might excite someone else.
By listing the books on eBay you can connect with a buyer who would love to purchase your “garbage.”
If you have considered starting a wholesale business, or you are currently in the wholesale business, you need to use the power of the Internet to grow your wholesale business.
121. Many wholesale business are still operating in the dark ages when it comes to marketing and advertising.
The majority of wholesalers still find their customers by either canvassing, telemarketing, or local advertising.
While these advertising and marketing strategies are effective, they are time consuming and expensive.
Take for instance the process of canvassing. A wholesaler who decides to canvass an area will visit local book stores to see if they are interested in his or her books.
While canvassing can produce immediate sales, think of what it involves. The wholesaler needs to spend time driving to different areas, then walking into book stores where he has to ask for the owner.
Most often the owner will not be in at that time. Even if the book store owner is available there is no guarantee that the owner will have any interest in the wholesale product line of the wholesaler.
Telemarketing is alot faster, since you can reach out to hundreds of book stores without leaving your desk. But think of the phone bill you will soon have. And since the book store owners will not know you, they will be both defensive and suspicious.
You can make a few sales this way, but you will have to make at least 50 calls for every sale.
Local advertising saves you time, and solves the above problem by letting the book store owner call you.
But think of the amount of money you will have to spend advertising your wholesale books. And, what if no one calls?
All of the above strategies can produce sales for a wholesaler, but there is a much more efficient and productive way to market your wholesale books.
Using the Internet you can set up a site that will advertise your wholesale books. You can have your wholesale business, and wholesale books, listed in wholesale search engines that target dollar book stores, flea market book vendors, and eBay book sellers.
You not only will save time, but online advertising is usually cheaper than print advertising.
And since your online advertising is targeted, you will be able to specifically reach out to wholesale buyers.
Interested wholesale buyers can then call or email you. Since they have contacted you to buy wholesale books, they will not be defensive when you talk to them, unlike with a telemarketing call.
One strong benefit I almost left out, is that with a wholesale site, you can show potential customers all your wholesale books without having to print a catalog or visit their book stores.
If they are interested an item, you can always deliver to their book stores, but at point you are making an actual sale, instead of just spending time on a sales call.
Think of all the time and money you will save, and the extra profits you will make, by taking your wholesale business online.
eBay is a great market platform since it allows book sellers to quickly turn over their books.
122. Within 7 days of an auction being created the eBay book seller can receive payment for his books. Since the eBay book seller quickly sees his books being sold he immediately start another auction.
But while it’s easy to sell books, how easy is to track the actual profits being made?
The following expenses of running an eBay business are often overlooked.
It is important for eBay book sellers to have an accurate count of their true expenses. Once their expenses are monitored they can determine the actual profitability of their businesses.
eBay Expense #1
Listing fees. Listing fees do add up. Even though they may be small, they are still absorbing a portion of your sales. While this figure might often be negligible, it is still must be combined with other expenses.
eBay Expense #2
Packing materials. When sending out an order make sure to subtract the cost of the packing materials. When you study this expense you might realize that you need to look for an alternate source for packing materials. Or, you might reconsider the use of your current packing materials.
eBay Expense #3
Rent. Even if your eBay business is currently based out of your home you should assign a rent expense to it. This will help you decide if your eBay business has real potential. If it can’t afford to pay rent, you will not be able to expand into a larger space that would require you to pay rent.
eBay Expense #4
Your time. After calculating your net profits you should divide them by the hours spent running your eBay business. Ask yourself if the time spent is worth the money being made.
If you are home bound, or simply must work from your house, then you can disregard this expense. But if you have other income producing choices, you should make sure your time is being used optimally.
Profit margins seem to be main focus of executives and small business owners.
123. Everyone from the CEO of General Motors to your average eBay book seller is focused on it.
But think fo what a profit margin actually represents. It’s not an indication of how much money you are actually making, it’s only a figure that tells what the profit portion is as a percentage of the total sale.
In other words a $10 profit on a $100 sale means that your profit margin is 10%.
Now let me ask you this, let’s assume your average profit margin is 100%.
That type of profit margin would make any business owner envious.
But what if the total sale was only $2? Your actual profit would only be $1, even though you are working a high profit margin.
I am sure you realize how many books you would have to sell to make any serious money.
But what if your profit margin was only 5% on a $100,000 sale?
Your actual profit would be $5,000. In net terms you are making more money even though the profit margin is 20 times smaller than in the above example.
That’s the real reason your profit margin is not important. What is important is your actual net profit.
Profit margins are good formulas for general accounting and investment decisions.
But as a business owner your determining concern should be your net profit.
Need more convincing?
Let’s look at your average dollar book store compared to your average car dealer.
The dollar book store is working on a profit margin of up to 300%, while the car dealer is working on a profit margin of as little as 10%. Let’s further assume that the dollar book store sells strictly dollar books and the car dealer focuses on $20,000 cars.
Using these figures the dollar book store will have to sell roughly 4,000 books to earn the same
profit as the car dealer does with one sale.
So what’s the important lesson you should learn?
The lesson for retailers, flea market book vendors, eBay book book sellers, and all business people is the following.
Focus on selling more expensive books. You can always use lower end books to attract customers but make your real money with high end books.
You will need allot less sales to make a decent living provided that you sell high end books.
