Why you should choose the unbranded products route this Christmas…
Every day I always try and make time to have a quick browse of the Daily Mail online just so I can escape my ‘eBay Bubble’ and to catch up on what’s going on in the world. So earlier this week I was browsing online and chanced across an interesting article that was all about counterfeit products and the fact that record numbers have been seized on their way into the
That’s really bad news for the sellers who purchased these goods with the thought that they could make a packet from unsuspecting buyers - because the importers of these goods will find that their orders are destroyed and there will certainly be no compensation – that’s money down the drain. It’s good news for buyers though because they won’t be scammed out of their hard earned cash – and in the current economic climate we all know that every hard-earned penny counts.
So with only 9 days to go, if you are in a frenzy and buying last minute Christmas presents online this year, bear in mind that the top 12 recently seized fake seized goods were:
Jo Malone scented candles
Hello Kitty jewellery box, lamp and headphones set
Beats by Dr Dre headphones
Pandora charm bracelet
GHD Precious Limited Edition Gift Set
Links of
Little Life dinosaur animal daysack
Walt Disney complete DVD set
Cath Kidston Day bag
Bobbi Brown make-up brush set
‘Ugg’ boots
It’s a very interesting read and you can see the article in full here
Now I’ve talked about counterfeit goods before in my eletters and so you’ll know that it’s an absolute big no-no to attempt to sell these fake goods online – it’s illegal for a start and very dishonest and sooner or later you will get caught so it’s just not worth it – unfortunately though it does go on and typically on eBay and even Amazon – and sometimes the fakes are really hard to spot…
I was browsing eBay very recently and I happened to be looking at designer dresses (I won’t mention any names) for the party season. Several nice ones caught my eye – one which was in the official designer outlet on eBay plus a couple more being listed by other sellers. The one I liked the best was listed by a seller who had a feedback score of over 300 and a 99.8% feedback record. The pictures were good, the dress looked perfect close up, the seller was selling due to weight loss – no alarm bells ringing, it all looked fine to me. So, hey presto, the dress went into my ‘Watch List’ and I sat back to bide my time until I could put in a super-snipe bid as the auction was ending.
I don’t know why, but I did have a little niggle going on though and over the next few days I revisited the listing several times and couldn’t quite decide whether I really did want to bid for the dress or not. Something was stopping me. So I decided to investigate further starting with the feedback score of 99.8%. Where had the 0.2% gone and for what reason? So I crawled back through three pages of feedback before I found it…the negative comment!
‘Fake’ it screamed, accompanied by a big red dot.
And from there it didn’t take me long to notice that the seller had actually sold 9 of these designer dresses over the past few days. Looking closer I saw that the same reason for the sale had been used on each occasion – weight loss – nothing extraordinary about that in normal circumstances…. but the hilarious thing about it and the thing that had me shaking my head in disbelief was that each of those 9 dresses was a different size – ranging from a size 8 to a 14. Now either this seller has got a serious yo-yo weight problem going on or there was something fishy here!
I plumped for the latter explanation!
So you see, even seasoned eBayer’s like myself can almost get taken in!
It’s not all bad news though! Everything you’ve just read above is easily avoided if on the buying side you always check the seller’s feedback thoroughly and on the selling side if you follow my strategy of selling unbranded goods online rather than trying to get into designer markets.
The key is to sell ‘similar but better’
There are far more advantages to selling unbranded products (which I will explain in just a moment) than there are if you go down the ‘branded’ route. Of course if you really want to sell ‘branded or designer’ then please do feel free, but make sure you’ve sourced the real thing! I always concentrate on un-branded products for eBay selling and my home study courses deal mostly with un-branded products with a little bit of branded thrown in!
If you really want to make a proper income using eBay then you need to find some hot products that you can source easily and at the best price and list correctly that will then give you an income almost on auto-pilot with no hassle and this is where selling un-branded products comes in to it’s own. ‘Unbranded’ products are generic items that you can source and sell that come with no brand name or at the most just a number, so your un-branded product might have packaging that says: Digital Photo Frame HS-2087 - just what it is and then a kind of product reference number.
So, what’s so great about that? Well, to start with, all manner of un-branded products can be sourced from almost anywhere in the world at extremely competitive prices. I’m talking about MP3 Players to Digital Cameras, Beauty Products to Car Accessories, Baby Clothes to Pet Products. Anything goes and you should be considering
The great thing about un-branded products is that buyers cannot easily compare like for like and this is a huge advantage for you as it means you remain competitive at all times with whatever product you are selling. Contrary to popular belief, not all eBay buyers are looking on the site for designer or branded bargains. Yes, of course many people do visit eBay to specifically search for that must have SuperDry jacket or the latest Apple iPod or whatever, but many more just want to find the item they want at a good price and that’s where un-branded products do well.
You will also discover that there are no listing restrictions on un-branded products either. You can list as many un-branded items as you like in as many different niches as you like, another immediate advantage for you!
So just to summarise; if you choose the unbranded products route:
- You will have a wider product choice
- You will find better wholesale pricing
- You will encounter a larger number of suppliers
- You will have less competition on eBay
- You will not encounter any selling restrictions
- You will not have to deal with VERO restrictions
- You will always know that you have the genuine article
Like I have said, I have absolutely nothing against selling branded or designer goods on eBay and if you choose to do so that is your decision, but un-branded is my main chosen route and it continues to consistently bring in the profits and so that is why I believe that it is a sure-fire way to success.
As always I wish you the very best of success,
Amanda
