Cameras at wholesale

[Jebus Christ]

I am a college student currently looking for a summer job to make some money. As a side project and a way to bring in a bit of extra money I would like to get into the ebay business. While shopping around for a camera myself I saw that the market was pretty good and there were many bidders.

The thing is I have no idea where to look to even get the merchandise to sell. Does anyone have any tips as to where to get a supplier or something along those lines?

Thanks for any help in advice.

 

[JerryPH]

Manufacturers or wholesalers offer the prices that they do to retailers for several reasons, mostly becuase they can prove to be able to provide service and a certain level of experitise along with marketing abilities.

The other and more important reason is that they can sell quantity, hold many items in stock and can order minimum quantities (usually that means 5-25 of each or more).

Being a Nikon or Canon retailer (which is how you would get those wholseale prices you want) also places you in head to head competition against people like Best Buy, Costco, and yes, our forum vendors. Could you meet their level of service? That would be my FIRST question as a wholesaler before I even looked if you could carry a minimum of 50-75 cameras in stock before I would say "ok".

So... maybe the big names are out for you, that leaves the smaller companies. Ever consider doing the obvious and contacting them directly?

My biggest thought is that you would not have near the necessary cash flow needed to run anything more than small one and two item purchases at a time. If I was a wholesaler or manufacturer, I would not be interested. This is not an insult, just trying to show you how the other side of the fence thinks.

 

[Jebus Christ]

I understand its not an insult and that you are right just wondering if anyone had any ways to get a source here online. I could contact a smaller business around here but I doubt they would be willing to share their supplier with me.

I obviously don't have a license so I cant go directly to manufacturers.

In terms of what I would be able to purchase I was thinking of starting off with the cheaper $200 cameras which still sell pretty well. Assuming(I could be way off) I can get them for about $150 I would be able to buy around 6-7. of them. Still no hope?

 

[jg123]

IMO the only way for a small ebay store to compete is to buy used stuff at bargain prices and clean/fix them up and resell.

 

[Dao]

If you get a reseller license, maybe you can approach some local retailer (of course not bestbuy type company) and see if they have some different pricing for reseller. If they do, maybe you can try. But it is not going to be high profit margin.

Or, once you have a reseller license, you can see if you can open an account with them.

www.dandh.com

 

[Village Idiot]

Usually certain companies has criteria you must meet before they'll even consider you, one of which is a Federal Tax ID (in the US). Then some require a store front or something similar.

Other than that, you can try and go through a distributor. They charge more, but sometimes that's the only way to get merchandise from certain companies. I doubt any of the big DSLR companies would give you the time of day if you said you wanted to buy some of their cameras at price then sell them.

Some manufactures even have a required price point at what their merchandise must be sold.