13/11/09 eBay Powersellers Secrets Newsletter

“In this week’s newsletter Amanda loses the will to live whilst in a carpet shop.”  

Hello!

We have had new carpets fitted upstairs in our house this week - mainly because the builders trashed the original ones when they demolished half of upstairs during our recent loft conversion, unfortunately a dust sheet the size of a postage stamp doesn’t really keep huge lumps of plaster and bits of ceiling at bay!

Anyway, when I was choosing the supplier of said replacement carpets, the first thing I did was to take a browse through the Yellow Pages to see what my options were with regard to carpet suppliers and fitters because this was the obvious place to start looking.

Of course I wanted my carpets to be of good quality and I also wanted a reliable fitter who would do a great job. So I made a shortlist of three suppliers and then visited each of them to see what they could offer, and it was whilst I was visiting these various flooring establishments (and increasingly losing the will to live as I examined the 15^th carpet of the day) that it struck me that it would be very easy to become slapdash and just choose something on a whim from a less than top-notch supplier and possibly not what I really wanted, simply because I was getting fed up with looking.

And that’s exactly what can happen to you when you are choosing suppliers and sourcing products to resell on eBay.

As you are probably more than aware, one of the hardest things to do when selling on eBay as a business is to find reputable suppliers that will provide you with products at great wholesale prices, enabling you to make a profit and also a decent living and so it’s very easy to jump at the first product you see that looks like it can make you some money.

But, that product must be a hot seller on eBay and it must come from a reliable, genuine supplier and if you don’t do your research you might find yourself in a bit of a situation.

In last week’s newsletter I talked about using China manufacturers, trade and wholesale sites to source your products because you can often get much better pricing and quality products, so long as you check the suppliers out thoroughly first.

So this week, I want to give you some further information about finding  UK suppliers, sourcing your products and particularly the use of ‘wholesale directories’ which is kind of linked to me using the Yellow Pages to check out carpet suppliers!

I am very aware that you are probably much more comfortable using UK suppliers for your eBay products purely because you feel safer using suppliers that are ‘close to home’ and I agree that this is a perfectly valid reason to use UK sources over China or other international sources and a great place to start if you are buying wholesale goods for the first time. In addition to this there are other advantages to sourcing from within the UK:

• You can visit your supplier’s warehouse or factory in person  
• You will not have to pay any import or customs charges  
• Delivery will usually be quicker  
• Any problems with stock / delivery can be sorted out easily  
• Faulty goods can be returned quickly and cheaply  

Sometimes though, even though you have these advantages, you just won’t get the best prices when sourcing this way, even taking in to account extra customs and import charges.  

As you will know from previous newsletters, I do particularly favour international suppliers but I consistently use UK suppliers too for some of my products – some of which I have discovered through UK trade sites and UK wholesale directories.

When I first started selling on eBay, in my quest to find products and suppliers, I was taken in by offers of ‘UK wholesale supplier lists’ and ‘directories’ available to purchase on the internet because I thought I could just pay my money, get the ‘list’ and that would enable me to find a supplier for absolutely anything I wanted, quickly and easily.

I wish!

Through experience I wised up and yes, wouldn’t it be fabulous if there was one ‘list’ out there that gave you all the full and up to date details of UK based wholesale suppliers that could furnish you with the exact goods you require at a fraction of the true retail price and for absolutely any product you could think of!

But I have learned a lot since my first foray in to the world of UK supplier directories and lists and the truth of it is, there are very few lists like this around and quite honestly, sometimes finding a good UK wholesale directory can be almost as difficult as finding a genuine supplier! But over the years I have found a few, two of which I will tell you about in just a moment.

Right now there are hundreds of UK wholesale directories out there, all claiming to be the best, but only a tiny percentage of these are actually established, up to date, reliable and well known. Unfortunately so many of the paid for lists and directories that you can easily find on the internet and are even advertised on eBay itself, contain out-dated information, dead-links and not a lot else.

So if you want to find suppliers and source your products from the UK, how do you decide whether a wholesale directory is right for you and isn’t full of absolute rubbish?

Well, once again it’s all about research. A good wholesale directory will provide you with details of genuine wholesalers, usually all in one place such as on a members website that you can log in to at any time, and almost certainly won’t be supplied as a 2 page e-book or 3 minute CD and be available for sale on eBay for 1p.

So, if you want to subscribe to or purchase a UK wholesale directory you will have to think 'outside the box' a little bit, but this is very easily done. You can go online and read some reviews of wholesale directories to find out which are the best ones. You can also visit wholesale forums such as www.onlinewholesaleforums.com or www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk both of which can provide you with valuable information about UK suppliers in general and also UK wholesale directories.

More often than not, on these sites, members are really helpful and will recommend the best UK wholesale directories and suppliers. And as I’ve said, there are only a small handful of genuinely good directories, so it's imperative that you know everything about them before making your decision.

A great UK wholesale directory and one that I refer to often is www.thewholesaler.co.uk which was launched in September 1999 so has been around for just over 10 years now. It’s totally free to use to genuine traders and I certainly recommend that you take a look at the hundreds of categories and suppliers available and see what you think.

Secondly, if you haven’t already, try looking up www.esources.co.uk – a cross between a wholesale directory and a trade site. It’s a member’s site but you can get a free or a paid membership depending on how often you think you will use the site and what kind of suppliers you are looking for. I found an excellent UK supplier with great prices on this site that I have done business with for the past few years and continue to do so now! There’s a huge selection, so once again, head on over if you haven’t already and take a look.

So, my message is, if you want to use a UK supplier and are looking at wholesale directories, make sure you choose the right one and they can help you find excellent UK suppliers that will provide you with the genuine services that you require. But choose the wrong one and you could end up losing your hard-earned money and you will be no closer to finding a UK supplier that you can really trust.

As always I wish you the best of success,

Amanda

P.S If you have already purchased my eBay home study course, I have added a new wholesale site that deals in liquidation stock, to your bonus page this week.

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I produce this newsletter on the understanding that these are my own personal opinions and experiences, which are as accurate as possible at the time of publication. I cannot be held responsible for any error in details, accuracy or judgment whatsoever. 

© Amanda O’Brien 2009 

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