As some of you may know I am starting my own business selling flashlights. I am trying to build my inventory slowly. I am currently a dealer for XTAR, ThruNite and I am now a dealer for NiteCore.
I am trying to gauge interest in their products. I know I will be carrying their 2600mah batteries, i2 & i4 charger, MH25, P25, EA4, EA8, EC25, and of course the TM26. There are a lot of lights that didn't make the list because the demand isn't high enough.
Do any of you feel that I am missing a "must have" light that NiteCore carries? All of my research tells me the products I listed are very popular right now.
You would appear to have performed due diligence. I’d not dare tell you that I knew better when I’m messing with your livelihood.
Go with what you think/know - it is your income you are messing with.
And no - I’ve no recommendations.
And in your position, I’d think very, very hard about the recommendations you get.
30 years ago I worked in a camera shop. One rep had a wonderful new lens. So we prevailed on the owner to buy a lot of them. He sold 5 of them - to the 8 staff in the shop. At around 80% staff discount.
And I sold off the one I bought at about 4x what I paid for it.
Beware of recommendations from people who may have a stake in the outcome.
Turned out I didn’t need/want what that lens offered.
And 30 years later I still don’t know why they didn’t sell an awful lot of them. Even if it turned out I didn’t need/want what it offered.
Thanks for the recommendation Don. My research was done using mostly eBay transactions done in the last 2 weeks. I used that because it is a free and easy way to determine product demand. My main selling outlet right now is also eBay so I need to see what my competitions are offering. I then create a tally of all of the flashlights NiteCore offers and determine the number of sales each light has generated in the last 2 weeks. I also spend about 1 hour for each flashlight on forums and elsewhere trying to find customer feedback on these specific flashlights. Simply because I don't want to run into another TN30 type issue.
I can totally see where you are coming from. Whenever I hear a recommendation for someone who is vested in the company I don't really take it as the truth. My main goal with my business is to provide my customers with timely customer service, fast shipping, great products, and a great price.
I know as a consumer I love Fasttech but as a dealer I hate them because I don't know how they make any profit. I'm not sure how they get away with selling everything way under NiteCore's "Minimum Advertised Price". If I sold most of my lights for the same price as Fasttech sells them for I would loose money. You have to figure shipping and PayPal fees on my end. When I sell them on eBay they take an insane chunk of my profit as well.
However, after looking it over I can match every NiteCore flashlight they carry that is over $50.(for BLF members of course)
My only suggestion is this... StockNeutral Whites .
I do not purchase Cool White flashlights anymore.There seems to be a demand on this forum for Neutral Whites as well. The past two BFL Edition lights were both NW and they were two completely different types . One was a small EDC and the other was a much larger 26650 A8(?).
The very big deal with accessories is how long they will take to sell. It simply isn’t possible to have great prices and hold stock of hard-to-sell stuff. Look at what borrowed money is going to cost over several months.
It is only possible to hold stock of stuff that sells well and quickly.
The camera shop I worked in had to sell all it’s stock in 6 weeks or lose money on the stuff in stock. At much higher interest rates than today.
It is financial suicide to hold stock of stuff that won’t sell out in days.
If you want great prices, you are going to have to wait.
Or deal with some dodger on the other side of the planet.
You want immediate delivery (and who doesn’t) you are going to have to pay for it. You expect typical US levels of service, well you have to pay for that too. Suddenly a 500% markup doesn’t look so good.
