Hi Tom,
Actually, I dealt with this with another person I was coaching..
SEVERAL APPROACHES:
FIRST:
I am guessing you do have some stores in Hawaii, hopefully some of the big ones, such as Walmart.
Well, the idea is that I get product in the form of "salvage", which is basically overstock and return items from Walmart, Best Buy, Sears, etc..
So, if I was in Hawaii, and I wanted to get product cheap, I would be going into some of the large stores on the island and asking the customer service what they do with return items. Do they sell them to some company, give them away, etc.
Usually, they sell them to some company, who in turn will sell pallets of it to small businesses.
So, I would walk into say Walmart, go over to the customer service, ask them what happens to all of the returns they get. If they can not answer, ask if you can speak to their manager about it, indicating that you are a small business interested in buying returns.. Eventually, someone should be able to tell you where all the returns go.. From there, you could buy them from whoever is getting them.
Usually, the pricing is like 30% of wholesale, which is like 1/4 of retail. Then, you can turn around and sell them on eBay for 1/2 of retail.
REGARDING SHIPPING FROM HAWAII TO ANYWHERE:
Buy items that are small but expensive.. For instance, PDAs, Camcorders, Cameras, Software, Car CD/MP3 players, phones, etc.
Anything that is expensive and small can be shipped from just about anywhere in the world and you can still make good profit..
SECOND:
Actually, you might have one advantage over all of us here in the 48 states.. Well, often, companies will import from China and then sell on eBay. I have done this..
Generally, they come from China to California. Hawaii isn't exactly on the way, but it sort of is.. So I suspect some of those barges come by Hawaii on the way to California.
It might be cheaper, or maybe the same price to get it shipped to you from China. I don't think it would be more as its less distance to you than to California.
SO, you could possibly save a little on shipping there..
The TRICK with imports is to do it by barge and train, rather than plane and semi. Barge and Train are always cheapest.. But, to be honest, I have no clue if Hawaii even has a train system. But, doesn't matter, it would then be barge/semi if no train..
Shoot, you might be able to drive to where the barge comes in, if its not too far away. Thats if you had a vehicle you could pallets in.
I can give you some companies that I have used for importing.. They are good priced companies..
THIRD:
If you did buy salvage from someone in the 48 states, you might find the shipping not to be as outrageous as you think, IF you choose this method:
TRAIN to California/BARGE to Hawaii
Generally, if you are buying enough pallets, it could EASILY be as cheap as me having it shipped to me by Semi. This is no JOKE.
Why? One time, I had 5 to 6 pallets come from CHINA to me. It costed me about $650 when all was said and done.. NOW, if I order about 5 or 6 pallets from a place in Texas and have it shipped to Michigan, it could easily cost me $400+.
So, just using a Train/Barge, rather than a semi/plane saves you TONS of money!
SO, DO NOT RULE OUT BUYING FROM THE 48 STATES.
Check out this scenerio:
Buy a few pallets full of small items, such as camcorders, pdas, xboxs, car audio, etc..
They can put 40 smaller items on one pallet.. You get 3 pallets.. Thats about 120 items.. It could come to you for an easy $450 from the 48 states if by train and barge..
Here is one salvage company that claims they do it for Hawaii residents..:
Not sure if the salvage company is any good, I just noticed they did what I am saying here..
So, it is definitely feasible.. Only $450 for 120 items, all expensive items you could sell for $200+ each.
Sincerely
Tony
Tom Ledford <big_tom50@hotmail.com> wrote:
Aloha Tony,
Thanks for getting back with me. The person that I saw selling the coaching had her own website but you are the first that I have seen on ebay doing this. Anyway, I'm in a quandry here. I live in Hawaii and shipping costs are outrageous. If I was to purchase from a wholesaler I would have to have a huge quantity of whatever I chose to sell shipped here and then I would have to ship it back out. I have thought of selling services, ebooks (not much mark up on ebay), but better yet and I think this could possibly work is to sell Hawaiian themed items what do you think? I know someone that sells these on ebay and does ok but I would of course want to take it to another level. The products that I already have are as follows from websites that I'm putting together. I have a recipe disk that has one million recipes, I have a website that has a service showing people how they can drive their car for free, I have some martial arts cd's that I have resell rites to, I have a golf super discount list and I have a couple of different business ideas that are on a disk that I can resell as well. My problem is learning how to create a really good looking auction with good ad copy. As far as auction creators I just found two yesterday that seem to be the best two out there, at least what I've seen, they are andale and marketplace pro. Do you have any suggestions other than these? Also, what kinds of services do well? I see that you sell the hunting trips and I have a credit repair service that I can offer as well. I hope that I have given something to go with. Mainly as you can see I don't have much trouble coming up with ideas or things to sell rather I just don't know how to sell them properly and I have no idea what sells the best on ebay either.
Mahalo for the help as always,
Tom
