4 ms·

That's not wholesale. Margins like that mean he's buying liquidation.

by ikeboy 7y ago

j-c-hewitt 7y ago
Maybe his profit quote was vague or excluding Amazon fees. That's not that far off without having to do liquidation. Which is also a viable way to make money selling on Amazon.
- ikeboy 7y ago
  Amazon fees using FBA typically run around 30% depending on average price. More if you do private label and have to pay advertising. Talking about gross profit without including fees is effectively meaningless. My rule of thumb for a successful wholesale business is 50% cogs, 30% Amazon fees, 20% margin. There are companies that do a lot worse, and I'm sure some that do better but it's extremely difficult to beat 30% margins at any kind of scale without doing liquidation, getting some lucrative exclusives, or otherwise find a very uncompetitive niche. Source: have done several million in sales across hundreds of thousands of units on Amazon in the last few years.
  - davinic 7y ago
    You were higher volume than I, and my Amazon fees across the board ran about 35%, so I completely agree with your assessment. However I was buying liquidation and my cogs tended to be lower, although my processing time/expense likely higher to compensate.
thaumasiotes 7y ago
> Margins like that mean he's buying liquidation. Not really. https://www.amazon.com/Polyhedral-Dungeons-Dragons-Pathfinder-Gaming/dp/B07BMX9JMV/ https://www.amazon.com/Polyhedral-Dungeons-Dragons-Pathfinde... is selling for $10.98 the same thing you can buy wholesale for $1.50. Of course, you can get it from https://www.krakendice.com/faux-stone-green-jade-dice-set-for-dungeons-and-dragons/ https://www.krakendice.com/faux-stone-green-jade-dice-set-fo... for the bargain price of $8.95. https://www.krakendice.com/dice-by-collection/pearl-dice/ https://www.krakendice.com/dice-by-collection/pearl-dice/ is selling sets for $5.95 when the wholesale price is $0.49. Even after accounting for the cost of shipping, I'm pretty sure these are margins of over 100%.
- doctorpangloss 7y ago
  Amazon prices in shipping. Retail at prices around $10 is all about psychology.
- ikeboy 7y ago
  Where are you getting those wholesale prices from? Do you mean the price you can buy an unbranded generic version? Because that's not wholesale, you can't buy it and sell against a listing that's branded. In general the products that sell well will have a very competitive wholesale market and you'll be lucky to squeeze out 20% margin. It's certainly possible to get large margins in closeouts if you buy items that aren't popular, but it's difficult to scale that. And that's arguably liquidation anyway.
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    I'm getting those wholesale prices from hengdadice.com, the same wholesaler those two merchants both use. Factory prices, we can only assume, are much lower. I don't know what you mean by "unbranded generic version". For reselling purposes, you can order a little card with a design of your choice on it (1 design total, 1 card per set of dice) from hengdadice.com, and both merchants I mentioned do that. That increases the wholesale price by a few cents. The dice themselves are unbranded in all cases.
    - ikeboy 7y ago
      HDDais is trademarked. https://trademarks.justia.com/877/27/hddais-87727674.html https://trademarks.justia.com/877/27/hddais-87727674.html You can't sell on that listing legally, unless the goods were authorized by the brand owner. Wholesale would be buying directly from the brand owner, in this case which would be "Shenzhen Lichen Trade Co.,Ltd.". I don't know if they'd even sell you but if they did they'd definitely charge more than that.
      - jrochkind1 7y ago
        In the United States, you can resell any product you legally acquired from any source, you do not need the permission of the original producer/brand owner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine

That's not wholesale. Margins like that mean he's buying liquidation.

by ikeboy 7y ago

That's not wholesale. Margins like that mean he's buying liquidation.

Maybe his profit quote was vague or excluding Amazon fees. That's not that far off without having to do liquidation. Which is also a viable way to make money selling on Amazon.

ikeboy 7y ago
Amazon fees using FBA typically run around 30% depending on average price. More if you do private label and have to pay advertising. Talking about gross profit without including fees is effectively meaningless. My rule of thumb for a successful wholesale business is 50% cogs, 30% Amazon fees, 20% margin. There are companies that do a lot worse, and I'm sure some that do better but it's extremely difficult to beat 30% margins at any kind of scale without doing liquidation, getting some lucrative exclusives, or otherwise find a very uncompetitive niche. Source: have done several million in sales across hundreds of thousands of units on Amazon in the last few years.
- davinic 7y ago
  You were higher volume than I, and my Amazon fees across the board ran about 35%, so I completely agree with your assessment. However I was buying liquidation and my cogs tended to be lower, although my processing time/expense likely higher to compensate.

thaumasiotes 7y ago

> Margins like that mean he's buying liquidation. Not really. https://www.amazon.com/Polyhedral-Dungeons-Dragons-Pathfinder-Gaming/dp/B07BMX9JMV/ https://www.amazon.com/Polyhedral-Dungeons-Dragons-Pathfinde... is selling for $10.98 the same thing you can buy wholesale for $1.50. Of course, you can get it from https://www.krakendice.com/faux-stone-green-jade-dice-set-for-dungeons-and-dragons/ https://www.krakendice.com/faux-stone-green-jade-dice-set-fo... for the bargain price of $8.95. https://www.krakendice.com/dice-by-collection/pearl-dice/ https://www.krakendice.com/dice-by-collection/pearl-dice/ is selling sets for $5.95 when the wholesale price is $0.49. Even after accounting for the cost of shipping, I'm pretty sure these are margins of over 100%.

doctorpangloss 7y ago
Amazon prices in shipping. Retail at prices around $10 is all about psychology.
ikeboy 7y ago
Where are you getting those wholesale prices from? Do you mean the price you can buy an unbranded generic version? Because that's not wholesale, you can't buy it and sell against a listing that's branded. In general the products that sell well will have a very competitive wholesale market and you'll be lucky to squeeze out 20% margin. It's certainly possible to get large margins in closeouts if you buy items that aren't popular, but it's difficult to scale that. And that's arguably liquidation anyway.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  I'm getting those wholesale prices from hengdadice.com, the same wholesaler those two merchants both use. Factory prices, we can only assume, are much lower. I don't know what you mean by "unbranded generic version". For reselling purposes, you can order a little card with a design of your choice on it (1 design total, 1 card per set of dice) from hengdadice.com, and both merchants I mentioned do that. That increases the wholesale price by a few cents. The dice themselves are unbranded in all cases.
  - ikeboy 7y ago
    HDDais is trademarked. https://trademarks.justia.com/877/27/hddais-87727674.html https://trademarks.justia.com/877/27/hddais-87727674.html You can't sell on that listing legally, unless the goods were authorized by the brand owner. Wholesale would be buying directly from the brand owner, in this case which would be "Shenzhen Lichen Trade Co.,Ltd.". I don't know if they'd even sell you but if they did they'd definitely charge more than that.
    - jrochkind1 7y ago
      In the United States, you can resell any product you legally acquired from any source, you do not need the permission of the original producer/brand owner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine