855 Comments (page 1)

Awesome Blogpost! Really a lot of great content in this and your previous post. I actually started importing just a few days before finding your post which is kind of funny! I agree on everything you say! For now i don't have any more questions... just wanted to say thank you for the great articles! I will be following your blog in the future that's for sure. ;) BTW i think you forget to post an image in your article if i am not mistake: After the quote: "Can you tell me would a typical Ebay/Amazon listing for one of your airsoft guns looked like, as an example? What would the description say about the gun? The maker? The supplier?" There is nothing related to your listing. ;) regards Peter

Hi Peter, Thanks a lot for reading and taking the time out to comment! Glad to hear another importer agrees with the ritual I've formed :) I did forget to post that link - I knew I was forgetting a link somewhere. Thanks for telling me, I am going to add it right away. Thanks again for everything, Will

Once again, amazing blog post! I'm sure many people appreciate what you're doing Will, keep it up! I think you forgot to insert an image (or link) at the part where you're talking about how your listings look like.

Hi Lamine, Thanks a lot for reading and taking the time out to comment again, the only thing better than feedback is consistent feedback :) Thanks for letting me know, just added the link now! Hope you got some value out of this one Lamine, and I'll try to keep up the good work. Will

Keep up the good work, man. Thanks for another great post.

Thank you so much for all the info....really good of you to share...

Thanks a lot Brian, hope it helped!

Thanks for reading and commenting MissKeda :)

This post is pure awesomeness. I'm a web developer that suck at marketing, and this kind of post is really usefull. Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed guide.

Thanks a lot for reading! Glad I could help :)

Hi Will, This is a really great article! Thank you for sharing such valuable knowledge on how to start this daunting process.

No problem Robert, hope it helps you get through it :)

Great article, one question...What percentage of return did you shoot for before giving a product a pass or a go?

Hey Marco, I recognize your name from the Adwords Coupon I sent you, hope it helps :) My goal was to stay under a 2% return rate, but anything over 5% would be unacceptable to me. Hope this helps, Will

How can I tell if a certain product is selling well/poorly on Amazon?

Hey Isaiah, Though you can't see the exact amount sold in any given period, you can try to look at how quickly prices are changing, the "Bestsellers" number of the product (#x,xxx bestseller in x category), or ...that may be it. It is a bit tougher to get an idea of volume on Amazon, that's why I recommend eBay for that phase. Hope this helps, Will

Thanks. Great advice. But I would buy thru AliExpress, I'd avoid AliBaba, I've heard that AE's escrow is far far safer than AB's.

This was awesome, truly powerful information and I have to thank you for sharing! One Question: How do you deal with force majeure? Especially with the turmoil in China and any unlikely weather disasters? Thanks

Thanks for reading, and thanks for the advice!

Great post outlining this method. Does eBay have to many of these'niche sellers' or are new niche products emerging rapidly enough for new comers to make a buck with this technique? Thanks you all the info Shout out from your home 813

Thanks a lot for your kind words Bar! Good question, I have never had any issues like that, so I am not sure how it would be handled in an air order. I want to say when shipping by air there may be some sort of insurance by the shipping company, but I am really not sure. Really good question though, I will have to look into it. Thank god I never had any issues like that! I have had some issues with container shipments, but never something like a ship sinking or any complete loss. I will definitely have to look into it. Hope the rest of the article helped, Will

Hi Ryan, New products are coming up all the time, and there are millions of great niches out there. I cant believe all the great niches people have been finding! Thanks a lot for reading! Will P.S. - I'm in 727 :)

I looked up airsoft guns on Alibaba but there were no listings.

Hey Stephen, China made airsoft guns illegal, so they now need to be smuggled out of the country and are much more expensive to produce. Factories definitely don't want to attract attention by listing illegal items on Alibaba. If you search for something an airsoft factory would legally produce, like airsoft clips, airsoft parts, bbs, accessories, etc - you should find some factories. My bet is they just don't openly advertise the "weapon look-a-likes" (that is what is illegal in China). My supplier is still going strong, I just put in some orders with him last week to test the waters again. Same exact guy as years ago! Hope this helps, not really sure if you had a question or what... Will

Haha yeah it was essentially a question. So just link up with a supplier that sells airsoft products and ask them if they have any guns available? I know you said airsoft accessories didn't sell well for you. Did you try selling CO2 cartridges and if so what were your results? Thanks for answering my question so quickly.

No problem Stephen, thanks for replying so quick :) I never tried doing CO2 cartridges, I am really not sure how they would do. I never got into any of the gas powered stuff. I can tell you though, it is going to be tough to compete with me if I get back into it, my supplier for airsoft rocks :-P Good luck, Will

Thought I read one of you guys were from tampa. ... O well :P

I'm in Palm Harbor - quick drive away :)

I know you didn't really do much yourself as far as taxes go, but what about the setup like obtaining a resale certificate or anything? Did you need to do anything like that? What about charging for sales tax for your state (if applicable). Or did you literally just keep all records and hope for the best when it came to tax time? Thanks!

If I find a supplier that is "Gold", "Onsite Checked", and "Escrow", but NOT an "Assessed Supplier" is this a deal-breaker? What does "Assessed Supplier" mean?

Hey Joe, Not being an Assessed Supplier is NOT a deal breaker for me. The only deal breakers for me are if they are not gold members, or if they do not take PayPal/Escrow. Assessed Supplier I believe means that they paid for a third party to come in and inspect their factory, a little expensive, and somewhat rare still. Gold + Paypal/Escrow is my minimum, everything else is a bonus :) Hope this helps, Will

How do you find out if they sell actual airsoft guns? It seems like they wouldn't just go around telling anyone who messages them. Or would they?

Quick question: How did you identify the worth of an airsoft gun? I'm looking at a few manufacturers' catalogs and most of the guns just have pictures and not model numbers that you could identify on eBay/Amazon. So how did you estimate the value?

Great article! Do you have any advice for a broke college kid? This seems really awesome but I'm worried it would take make me forever to save up enough to get started. Any advice on low start up costs?

Thanks, Will!

I would just ask them, I am honestly not sure exactly how it works now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_in_airsoft#China

Hey Isaiah - If by value you meant your cost of goods (inventory), then you need to ask your supplier. Hope this helps, Will

Hey Max, Thanks a lot for reading + commenting! The way that I wrote this out is basically my "bootstrap" method for this. $500 would be a good starting amount with this method, but you could even go lower. If you don't have $500, walk outside! College is a massive pool of hungry buyers with other people's money! Easy money to be made all over the place. Hope this helps, Will

This is a great follow up post Will. I'm gonna read back through it a second time; lot's of good details. I have a good idea of a product I'm working on with a friend - I'll let you know how it goes. I'm glad I could be a inspiration for your first importing post which has BLOWN UP. Keep up the good work!

How many samples do you recommend we buy? And has anybody ordered anything yet?

Who did you set your courier account up with?

Hey You say revenue.. but can you give us an idea how much profit he made? THX! """"I have a friend who started out selling car audio sub woofers just like I describe here. He started selling 2-3 units per week on eBay. Within a couple months he had expanded out to Amazon and started putting his own brand name on the sub woofers he was ordering. Within a year he had a website for his brand and began bringing in more and more products to sell. He also began thinking of ways to turn Amazon and eBay customers into recurring revenue by signing them up for his email list and social media profiles. Now, not even 2 years since he started, he is set to clear $700,000 of revenue for 2012 at just 20 years old."""

Hey Teddi, Sorry I missed your comment somehow. Never again! I didn't have a resale certificate until after a good year after starting this. I don't see any use in dropping money on bureaucratic formalities until I know that it is going to be advantageous to me. After a year I had built up a good amount of cash flow and it was obvious that I would be continuing to operate the business for the foreseeable future. At that point, I filed for an LLC and Sales & Use Tax license. My LLC for that was filed in Nevada, so I got a Resale Certificate in NV and collected & paid sales tax for orders from NV. That was the extent of it though. If you keep your records in order any accountant will be able to do it for a few hundred bucks. Don't stress the bureaucratic crap so much - it is just there to steal your time and money. Hope this helps, Will P.S. - The only way I would stress this stuff is if you live in one of the really anti-business States like Cali or NY. If I lived there, I would probably get an LLC before doing anything for any business.

Hi Stephen, Thanks a lot for commenting. I would recommend you buy 1-2 samples from 2-5 factories per item. Obviously if you are thinking of importing something like jelly bracelets you'll want more than 1-2 units, so use your judgement depending on whatever product you're looking at. A lot of readers have already bought samples, I have probably heard from 20-30 people that are waiting on their first batch of sample orders as we speak. I am sure there are many more who didn't email me! Hope this helps, Will

UPS, but now I am with FedEx. They switch their rates around a lot, so just see what you want to do.

Hi, Thanks a lot for reading/commenting. I believe he works on around a 40-50% gross margin, but we will be having him in for a podcast interview within the next couple weeks and I'll be sure to ask him for his latest numbers. Of course, how much of that goes into his pocket? Not a whole lot right now, because it is all being reinvested (he still has 100% equity). He could take money out or take on investors and take money off the table, but he doesn't want to. Equity is always better than cash if you're confident in your ability to grow the company. Hope this helps, Will tl;dr - 40-50% gross margin

Thanks for the interesting article, I'm really enjoying looking around for products to sell, still nervous about spending my money on something that won't sell though. What kind of percentage for sales should I be looking for on items (on eBay), as in percentage of listings that sell. And what constitutes high, medium and low volume. Thanks

Do you check the rate on shipping through your courier or do you have the supplier do that for you?

Great post once again Will. You are inspiring a new generation of young import entrepreneurs. Have a happy holiday and enjoy the weather down there in Florida. Heres to a great 2013 with new opportunities!!

Hey another question! So when you search the top sold products on Amazon. How do you really know what you are looking for. I mean, I've found some products I can import for a good price, but all those products seem to be sold by tons of people on eBay. How do you personally, tell what is being imported and what isn't by other people, and what you can actually sell, and whats over saturated. Thanks again for the great article!

How do you keep shipping costs down on pretty small products? It seems like even with a product like a 24 pack of batteries, the shipping would cost at least $5. I know that this can't be the case for all sellers because some products with free shipping would cost more to ship than they are selling it for.

This is a great article! Extraordinarily informative and probably the best source for advice on finding products to import! I fully agree on the advice to only buy from suppliers that accept PayPal and Escrow. Does anyone else find it odd that many vendors "lose" their PayPal accounts right before you're ready to place an order with them?

I am guessing the best way to counteract that is to buy in bulk once you know you have a sellable product.

Should we be negotiating with the suppliers? If so, how much wiggle room is there usually? What percentage of their initial asking price should we be starting at ? And thanks again for another great article!

Great article, one question though: If you are using Aliexpress with free shipping do you still need a 100% markup on the product? It seems to me that you could be profitable even with much slimmer margins.

Hi - I am a newcomer to your site but I wanted to start off by telling you how I am thoroughly blown away by the content in this article and the top 10 on your site. I already added your blog to my RSS reader and someday soon I will definitely be reading some more back posts! You offer so much value here and I am really grateful and excited to have found you! Now on to my question - I am looking at products on alibaba and eBay and I think I have a couple of good ones that might be viable - but they look to be low volume. Does that matter starting out? On one product, there isn't even a relatively good match at all (I suspect it is an untapped market) but the ones that are there do sell consistently, just not often...I think because the ones that are there suck. And on the other one, the volume is more like 30 sales over about 3 weeks across all buyers. Do you ever throw out a product because it's just not selling (enough)? Again thanks so much for the article!

Hey Aaron, Sorry about the delay on the response, I was out of town for the holidays. I would also be nervous about spending money on items that won't sell! That's why I go through this process to test each product and each supplier to make sure everything runs smoothly before I start buying in bulk. It really depends on your item, but I'd say anywhere over 75% not selling is too much. You're looking for volume too, so look for listings with multiple items. Some will be selling a couple units, others hundreds. Once you start comparing items you'll start to get an idea of averages and how to compare them. Hope this helps, Will

I usually just let the supplier deal with all of it. If I feel inclined to I'll check shipping prices to make sure I'm not getting ripped off, but it is really rare I have ever been slighted on shipping price. Hope this helps Stephen, and thanks for commenting!

Hey there Alex, Sorry for the delay on the response, hope you had a great Christmas Thanks a lot for reading, I'm glad you liked it :) Let's kill it in 2013! Will

Hey Zak, That's what this article is supposed to be - How I personally tell what is being imported and what I can actually sell! There is no way to be sure without taking a risk and trying, that is business. This is the exact process I use to test products to see if it is profitable for me to move forward with them. Every product is different. Airsoft guns I was importing an exact make and model and killing it, but with the knives example I could import any decent quality knife and kill it. Hope this helps, Will

Hey again Isaiah, For very high volume sellers, they likely work out bulk deals with UPS/Fedex as well as have their entire company streamlined for these types of shipments. That is why I suggest not trying to compete with things priced lower than $10-20. Batteries are also generally a high volume low margin market, the type I'd suggest not going into. You want a higher margin. Hope this helps, Will

Exactly right, thanks

Thanks a lot for reading! Glad you liked it. I don't have much of that specifically, but I'm sure it happens. Gotta avoid those scams.

You can and should negotiate with them, but know that you don't have much to bargain with at first. At best you can bluff. Once you start buying a lot, you become more valuable and reliable to them, and they will work with you more. It is much easier to negotiate your costs down when you are already buying a lot consistently. Hope this helps, Will

Ok, So I listed my product on ebay and it has been about 4 days. At this point should I assume my product is a dud?

Great article guys! You said somewhere that one way you try to figure out how good a product is, is by looking at how many of that exact product was sold on Ebay that week using the completed-section. When I go to the completed-listings I can see how much the items sold for... but not how many were sold. Where do I look to determine this??

Hey Will, thanks for taking the time to sit down and write this follow-up to your previous post. Just wondering, but could you elaborate on your record-keeping for tax purposes? You mentioned handing over your records to your parents accountant, just wondering what your system for that was. Once again, thanks for the content! I found you guys a month ago and have definitely been pushing your blog on my friends.

It depends... are similar products with better descriptions selling? Are your listings getting views but no bites? You may be able to just change your description and make some sales. It just depends on your problem.

Could I send you a link to it?

Hi Will, Can you give me a quick step-by-step for finding the percentage of completed sales on ebay? Thanks, and thanks even more for writing these articles.

Hello, I am a consistent reader of your blog, and i was inspired so i created a eCommerce website called thetabletmarketplace.com, which launched today. Given that it is a marketplace, it is nothing without traffic from buyers and sellersI was curious if you could check it out and maybe give me tips on marketing and or give me a shoutout. thanks.

Not necessarily a dud, but it definitely isn't a good sign. You will have to try to figure out why it isn't selling and move from there. It may be the price, it may be the headlines/titles, it might be any number of things. Definitely not as ideal as hitting it right away, but I would encourage you to drop prices until you sell your samples so you can make some money back and see what price things start moving at. Hope this helps, Will

Hi Sean, If you click on the sold auctions, you will sometimes see that they were selling multiple pieces under one listing. It will say something like "xx sold" or something near the price/quantity information. Apart from that, you should be able to get a good idea of the price that your item sells at and what percentage of them sell just by looking at the completed listings results page. Hope this helps, Will

Hey Chase, Thanks a lot for commenting, and for helping spread our content around! Really appreciate the help! I handed over all my transaction data pretty much. This means report printouts from Amazon, eBay, PayPal, credit cards, banks, etc. Pretty much just put these things together and handed it to them (and obviously there were a few more things they needed as they went through that I got for them). Not all too far off from how I do my taxes now, except now I use some creativity :) Hope this helps! Will

Definitely - send it to either of us via email and we can check it out. Will [at] startupbros

Hi Adam, Unfortunately I don't really have a system for finding out the exact percentages, I just kind of relate them to the other products I am looking at and see if more or less are selling that others. You can get a good idea of what price your item starts selling at, or if your item is the kind of item that no matter the price is only bought a few times per month. Ideally you'll be looking at 20+ products, so after a while you should get an idea of the "sales volume ranking" of each compared to the others... Hope this helps, Will

Hey Dan, That is awesome! Congrats on the quick execution! The site looks great. Like you said, the tough part is getting people there. You will have to spend some money to get people in and hope you have the back end system built up to retain enough people to turn your investment into a return. If you want to bounce some ideas around email me! Hope this helps, and good luck with the venture. Will

What's your email address?

Will [at] startupbros

Thanks Will! Keep doing your thing. -Chase

Hi Will! I absolutely LOVE this blog. This has given me great motivation because I have been thinking about starting to sell things.** Just saying ahead of time, I am a complete newbie in this business and would love your help!** What I'm stuck on and trust me, I have been google searching and trying to find a solution to this but have not yet found one. I found some great products at Alibaba and would love to order them but they do FOB shipping which I have come to an understanding of the term. But what I'm wondering is, what do I do? Do i pay them the FOB price and then also have to pay for shipping and customs? If so, who do I pay it to? The supplier or the shipping company? How do I know the products has been transferred to me? It's just alot of tedious things that I don't know what to do and how to deal with. I guess what I need is directions on what to do after let's say I buy the products from them using FOB shipping. ** As stated above, I am a complete newbie to the trading business but would love to start!

Hi Bao, If it is FOB shipping, you'll need to give them a FedEx/UPS account to charge the shipping to (that would be easiest). Or you can ask them to ship for you for the first couple orders, and they probably will. Just ask them, they want to help you get samples as soon as possible :) Hope this helps, Will

What do you think about bundling a couple unique products together as a "kit"? I feel like you'd be able to charge higher margins

Hey Alex, I think that is a great idea! I once did a Fake ID creation kit with everything needed all sourced from China. It is obviously more complex, but definitely a viable option! Good luck, Will

I found a product that fits all of your criteria. 50% margin. Niche market where brands aren't a focus. It seems as if one a day has been selling on ebay. However it appears that ALL of the sales of this specific kind of product (there are plenty of variations but none that are consistently selling daily (certain size and color) are being sold by ONE ebay seller. What has been your experience in this type of scenario. Is this guy consistently selling because he's the only one selling this product, or (he has a ton of positive feedback) is it because he has built some loyalty with his customers. When you enter into a competition with other sellers, have you run into scenarios where you compete for lower bids and price each other out of your niche market? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Hey Dan, That is a tricky situation. From what you told me, I'd have to guess that the one seller is either loving his single seller status and bring in all the sales - or he is operating on an extremely thin margin and has priced everybody else out. Unfortunately, the only way to know for sure it to buy some samples and try to see what happens. Short of that, you just have to compare and contrast the product options you have come up with. If you aren't comfortable enough to try the samples out, then just find another product. They're out there (as you've tasted). Hope this helps, Will

Will, thanks for the info and the read. I will definitely refer to this when I want to startup my drop shipping business.

Thanks Isaiah, good luck to you when you start it up!

Another great and informative post from you guys! Keep up the good BROS! Thanks for another great post, and I look forward to learning more in the future.

Thanks a lot Rand! Keep up the great stuff at welltraveledmile.com!

Amazing, simply amazing. You have inspired me to get started and I will pick a product ASAP. Would you recommend me to stick with one and only one product when starting or should I diversify and try to look for a winner with many different products?

Hey David, thanks a lot for reading - glad you liked it! I would try to find one good product and sell that one, because you'll be able to scale it up and bring your cost per unit down quicker. Good luck!

ey bro i love you (no homo) your such a good person for posting all this info respect people realy need this. :D

Hey Roy - Thanks a lot! Glad it helps :) Will

Such an awesome post. Thank you so much for detailed explanations. What do you think about glass products? Do you think they worth the risk if there is a good opportunity? Best regards.

Hello Will, Great article! What do you think about selling products with my location being independent? I hope to travel anywhere and simultaneously conduct business as long I have super-fast internet and phone service. I would maintain a PO Box somewhere in the states and meet with clients every so often. Best, NOLAMAN

Hi Nolaman, It is certainly possible, but it sounds like you'll definitely need a dropshipping supplier! If you could get one, you would just need some steady online sales - you could travel wherever you wanted! Hope this helps, Will

what is your opinion on using terapeak to search for products to sell?

Funny you should mention that, I was just talking to my friend Jim yesterday about Terapeak! I think Terapeak is an awesome way to get great data during your research phase. Even better, they have a free 7 day trial :) I'll probably add this into the post (or a future one)

Hi Matt, Thanks for commenting, glad you liked it! There may be some glass products that are good, but I have always considered them too risky. Lot's of shipping risk! Hope this helps, Will