I’ve been MIA the last few weeks… this post will detail one of the main reasons why.
A lot of people have asked what I’ve been doing – since well, I stopped a lot of the site flipping, and said I was moving onto something else. The “something else” was offline marketing, specifically starting a clothing business… but while I was doing that I thought I might as well look at other ways to bank offline.
I’d heard a lot about Alibaba (it’s basically a wholesale marketplace) from various people that were making money off it… my dad works in shipping so he’s used it quite a few times. I knew that prices there were cheaper than they would be if you bought from a store, but not much more than that.
I’d started to get more and more involved in Alibaba, just looking at various things for the clothing business – how much it’d cost to get shirts printed, how much jewelry, shades etc cost if I bought them in bulk. I plan to order a few things from various suppliers on there, but that’s for a different post.
On my browses, I also saw that you could find almost anything on there – stuff for gardening, health stuff, toys, even sex toys (hehe). I’d only been using Alibaba for a few days, but it looked a definite banker if it was used correctly.
Anyways, here’s how I made $3,000.
There are a lot of places offline – the classifieds section of your local paper, for one, and then sections in niche magazines that are more targeted… that will have a “wanted” section. People hiring for jobs, and people looking for various items.
My dad gets a few shipping newsletters, and one of those had a wanted section. Anyways, one day when I was playing games using his computer I accidentally opened one of those newsletters, and saw that a company was looking for a supplier of alcohol breathalyzers (testers)… and willing to pay $400 USD each for them.
I had no idea how much they cost, but thought that they were small things and certainly couldn’t cost as much as the company wanted to pay for them. I decided to check out my new favourite business website, Alibaba to see how much they were available for on there. This took me all of ten seconds.
You can see the search results here.
As you can see, a few have prices listed, ranging anywhere from $0.2 (twenty cents… lol) to around $80. I talked to a few suppliers, looked at shipping costs, got a few quotes and managed to find a supplier who had a minimum order criteria of 10 and was selling them for around $5 (shipping not included).
I emailed the shipping company which had placed the ad and gave them a quote of $300 per alcohol tester (which is $100 less than what they were willing to pay!). I got a reply within a day saying that they were happy to deal with me as long as they could pay after receiving the items. As they were a relatively well known organization, I had no problem with this.
I shipped them a dozen alcohol testers, they deposited $3,600 into my bank account. The shipping took around 4 days, and they were happy with what they got. Taking into account shipping charges (speed courier) and the cost of the alcohol testers themselves, I made a bit over $3,000 myself with no experience, no reputation whatsoever and… the potential is there to do it again.
This was easy money… the company was happy because they were saving, I was happy because I made bank and they said they’d come to me if they needed anymore, and this showed that the potential is certainly there. I’m going to look at magazines, read the newspaper a bit more carefully now, and do similar kinds of searches to see if I can make money off anything else.
You can do the same, of course.
Read your local classifieds paper, check out niche magazines, and email people. Sure, you may be unsuccessful a few times, but some time you WILL hit it off… and the profit margins are huge.
When using Alibaba, make sure you ask questions, if you’re going to order large quantities ask for samples first (be willing to pay, of course), look at many suppliers before deciding on which one to use. A lot of them don’t have prices displayed publicly, and they are willing to haggle… so don’t pay what’s asked straight up, see if you can get a discount. They have a chat system which is pretty cool and very easy to use if you want to talk to suppliers.
Ultimately, although online activities CAN make you a shitload of money… offline activities can send that money through the roof. By combining both, you can sometimes get the best of both worlds.
If you have any questions, post a comment and I’ll get back to you!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
March 15th, 2009 at 11:32 am
That was a home run, Jason!
this shows how a little bit of creativity and keeping your ear close to the ground can make you so much money!
[Reply]
March 15th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Jason, since your dad works in shipping, you must be aware of some online shipping newsletters. It may seem like common sense to you, but it is harder to find niche magazines for people who have never had any kind of exposure to them. I will go to my local library and ask them, but do you know any particular magazines that we can go to that have global distribution?
[Reply]
March 15th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Congrats on the sale!.
However, not of caution, are you a registered business or legal entity?. As far as I’m aware, here in the US, wheeling and dealing like this always takes place, but legally, you only get the wholesale price of any product if the entity you’re purchasing from and the entity that’s buying these goods are registered businesses with a sale and resale license. Not to mention, the costs of shipping from China to the US!.
cheers
[Reply]
March 15th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
@ Nick – thanks for the well wishes mate.
@ ghuraba, to be honest I don’t know much about shipping newsletters, just that he’s subscribed to a few. I found the listing by luck as much as anything (although I plan to use that and try again with different magazines here).
You can use Google… “your city magazines” or “niche magazine”… you’re looking more for local than global. You could also try your newspaper classifieds (most big newspaper have a classifieds section).
Lastly, you could also look at online sites like Craigslist etc if you live in the US to see what people want (Google “your city classifieds” if you live elsewhere). One of my readers on TUK has been making reasonable sums of money doing this – read the below comment
http://theuniversitykid.com/whats-up-with-me/#comment-47667
@ John, business here runs a bit differently but I have access to a trade license which allows me to buy and sell anything that’s legal. Shipping costs were a bitch, though.
[Reply]
March 15th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Unique angle on the whole wholesale thing…there are many companies paying way too much for supplies we -as internet saavy ppl- could provide for far less…
Thanx for the tip!
[Reply]
March 16th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Hi Jason,
That’s pretty cool! I sent this post to my husband so he could get a few ideas. Hopefully it turns out well for him too.
Keep us updated on how this works for you. I’d love to hear more.
Thanks,
~ Annie
[Reply]
March 21st, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I see you have been quite busy, Jason
Thanks for the tip and now I’m out searching myself!
-Mike
[Reply]
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:18 am
Dear, John,
This is an wonderful article, what would i know is could i update is on alibaba.com?
I am Carol, coming from alibaba.com
[Reply]
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:47 am
@ Caleb, Annie, Mike; hope you guys have some success. Let me know if you have any problems.
@ Carol; sorry, I couldn’t really understand what you were trying to say. If you need help, email me.
[Reply]
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Hi Jason,
Very cool to hear your success on Alibaba.com. I work here in the Alibaba.com office in Silicon Valley, CA. Would love to hear your story in detail and see how we can help you get more success through the marketplace.
My email is cliffhsia(at)alibaba-inc.com.
Cheers,
Cliff
[Reply]
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:42 pm
@ Cliff,
I’ve been emailed by an Eric who also works with you guys. If you want to contact me, send me an email.
Cheers,
Jason
[Reply]
March 31st, 2009 at 12:48 am
Hi,
Thanks for this post.Is there any website other than alibaba?
Is it true people said alibaba support scammer supplier?
[Reply]
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:17 am
Appreciate the info guys, thanks
[Reply]
June 18th, 2009 at 2:19 am
Dear Jason
What if the buyer does not want to pay you after they think your product cant pass their standard test? Then you would have lost your money due to back and forth shipping, right?
How do you manage your risk?
[Reply]
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:46 am
Great Idea Jason
I’m gonna try it myself and let you know about it
[Reply]
December 15th, 2009 at 7:29 am
yes jason i would like more info on how you did this because ive been trying to get started in this for awhile and you just gave me hope. What is the chat system and how do i acquire a trade license?
[Reply]
May 11th, 2010 at 12:50 am
I actually just recently sourced a few products for a new online store I’m beginning. I found a supplier and haggled them down to nearly 50% of the asking price from their competitors – all it really takes is a bit of social engineering by telling them the others quoted much lower. Generally they will drop their prices just to get your business.
From there I had them send me samples which I immediately placed online to do a test turn to see if they turned a profit. Sure enough, a few days later, the samples were sold out and I was up a few nice notes in my wallet.
I’ll now be placing a very large order soon and finalize the online store.
Murlu´s last blog ..An Introduction To Blogging
[Reply]
July 27th, 2010 at 2:00 am
what a nice way of earning money !
Harshit Singhal´s last blog ..IFSC Codes for Transfer of Paypal Funds to Indian Banks
[Reply]