Building My eBay Empire Chapter 3

Just finding us? Well here is the first chapter of our eBay adventures... My eBay Empire Chapter One

After reading for weeks on end, and the green light from my wife to give it a whirl, I was ready to get started... The problem was do I buy inventory, or find a drop ship company to work with. So back to searching, I called every American made flag maker and was turned down everywhere, most want me to buy 10s of thousands of dollars worth of inventory. I stumbled across a website that said wholesale to the public I figured it was another gimmick, but I would give it a shot, imported from china these were not real American flags were they??

A veteran selling chinese made flags, really??? but I figured I had to start some place and these people would sell me flags... With less then 1000.00 I tried to place an order. When the issue of a reseller tax number came up... So it here was another set back, but I wasnt going to let it get me down. I would get all the legal paperwork.

Tax number?? where do I start... I go to the court house to register my business. that will be 75 dollars please.. LOL... Next I go to the bank to open a business account for tax purposes, I am told 10 dollars a month fee, now I have everything I need to file for a federal employer tax id... Which I need to get a New Jersey Sales Tax ID for reselling goods in the state...

My dad telling me all the horror stories of his life time of people dealing with the IRS and the Division of Taxation, true or not, Alzheimer sometimes clouds the truth in ones mind, I was like this is in Gods hands and I already opened that can of worms...

I call to order the flags, and learn that it will be a week before they arrive, so now I have 7 days before I even have the product to sell, so back to reading and preparing the best I can to start selling on eBay.... When I started they didnt have the same rules they have now... I was planning on running auctions 100 at a time with a high shipping and handling, was a common practice when I started, you avoided many of the eBay fees that I happily pay today.. ( I will save why I enjoy paying fees for another time)...

I currently have both inventory and drop shipping sources, and I make damn good money from both, and if you asked me which is better, I would honestly say they are equal, both have alot of problems you need to over come and some are easier then others...

Problems With Inventory

Space is an issue, I started in my dinning room and quickly had to get a storage unit, to a warehouse, to having tractor trailer box trailers parked for storage areas... I was lucky I had the space to work through all these issue, and mom was very helpful through it all...

Stocking the right products, I still have some flags I ordered years ago, that haven't sold yet, then there is the other issue, running out of stock and having orders that you cant fill.

The biggest problem is CASH, getting the money to order flags, while trying to balance the inventory levels so you have enough to make your ebay fee payments... Five years in business and I still run into cash flow problems...

Problems With Drop Shipping

SHIPPING TIME is the number one issue when you sell drop shipped items, dont ship fast enough, DING to your seller rating... Get enough DINGS and you will be limited on eBay, I promise you until you are a major player with your dropship company they wont give two damns about your feedback rating...

Out of stock, the drop ship company is slow in letting you know, not sure why but it seems I never know until I order an item that they are out... it is really hard to deal with on ebay... but it can be done with great customer service and follow up...

Profit margin is normally very small on eBay when using a dropshipper, price matters until you have a customer base, but even then most people shop price on ebay for the item... brings up the reading thing again, if you dont stay on top of your market as a leader, you can only do one thing, follow the leaders...