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All just about AdSenseBe realistic once
commerce on eBay....
by:
Richard Grady
Copyright 2005 Richard Grady
As several of you know, I spent many a years purchase
and commerce several on and offline and several of my products are based upon my own experience in this area. I cognize that the brobdingnagian majority of my customers and subscribers have an interest in commercialism whether it be on eBay or at the local market but more and more I am seeing folk with all delusive expectations of what they wish be able to do. Most ordinarily these delusive expectations are in respect of how more it actually cost to purchase specific products and what they can then be sold-out
on for.
I on a regular basis
get emails from folk who want to cognize wherever
they can purchase products such as mobile (cell) phones, new release DVDs, Playstation games and similar at, say, a 50% discount to sell
on eBay. The fact is that such a thing is not accessible - it is a simple case of supply and demand and competition.
Take DVDs for example, most folk think that these are fantabulous products to sell
on eBay because they are really popular, not particularly costly and easy to package and ship. Unfortunately, they could not be more wrong. The DVD market is one of the most competitive that there is - take a look for yourself and see how many a auctions there are on eBay for DVDs at any one time. I have just looked and counted all but 300,000! At any one time there wish only be a certain number of buyers wanting to purchase a particular DVD and if you take into account the many
several places there are that each client could purchase from, it is likely that in general, there wish be more copies of an individual DVD accessible than there are buyers to purchase them. This situation causes prices to fall. The different factor that forces prices down is the fact that one DVD is the same as another. By this I mean that from a buyers point of view, there is no difference to a new DVD purchased on eBay to one which is purchased from their local DVD store. Often the only way to differentiate is on cost and of course, the only way to do the cost more attractive to a client is to lower it.
The above reasons help to explain why the wholesale discount on a new release DVD is just £1 or £2 at most ($2 or $3 roughly in the US). Once
you take into account the fact that the large retail chains can purchase thousands of DVDs at a time and obtain a bigger discount than individual traders, you before long see why it is really difficult for a small business to contend
in such a competitive industry. You just cannot purchase new release DVDs at 50% discount and even as if you could, it wouldn't be long before prices were forced down as there is always being willing to sell a little bit cheaper than the next man.
It isn't just DVDs that fall into this category. Take mobile (cell) phones. Here in the UK you can walk down just just about any high street and get the latest phones either free or for a bottom token payment. The stores are relying on fashioning their money from the line rental contract that you wish have to sign in order to get the phone. Of course, the actual cost of the phone is not free - most new mobiles are actually worth £200 or £300 which means that if you want to buy a batch of phones at wholesale, you are going to be looking at a pretty high unit cost. As with most electrical products, the market is competitive and prices have been forced down which means that the difference between your wholesale purchase
cost and your retail commerce cost is minimal.
There are many
products that suffer from the same market conditions as DVDs and phones and new/small traders actually should avoid trying to sell such items at all cost because it wish commonly be frustrating and ultimately not financially rewarding. Once
trying to decide what products to sell, you need to be thinking just about the type of market that a particular product is sold-out
in. If there are already many
sellers and many a large companies commerce at extended discounts this is far from ideal. The exception to the rule is if you are able to add value in several way to do your 'offering' more unique. I wrote just about adding value last year in one of my newsletters - you can see it here: http://www.thetraderonline.com/jul2204.html
At the end of the day, it is all just about research, being realistic and having an understanding of the market that you want to operate in. Whilst it would-be be great to be able to buy and sell new release DVDs (or whatever) all day long, doubling your money every time, I am afraid that this is just not going to happen.
Just just about the author:
Richard Grady has been serving ordinary folk earn online since 1998. He writes a free account which is publicised every two weeks. To subscribe (and claim your free gifts), visit: http://www.thetraderonline.com/newsletter.html
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