Hi, I know I can like sell 10-80 flashlights a month. I would buy them with either free shipping or as little shipping as possible and use shipping cost as profit. F. E. Ultrafire C8 cost 9 dollars, free shipping on fasttech etc… add a free non-ultrafire 18650 & plastic carrier all for 24 bucks. HD2010 at 45+15 or ~ 55 plus add in charger + 26650 (30) or 85 buck etc… Ebay 85w at 200 usd etc….
Do you guys think I can make ends met? I live in/near an asian population who IMO are about 2/10 interested in modern flashlights and won’t mind paying 50-300 dollars for good stuff.
You will have returns up the wazoo, product abuse can be staggeringly high and no one wants to take personal responsibility, they just want to return it or blame it for being defective instead of being abused. Also li ion batteries being used by people who don’t know how to take care of them and won’t learn is asking for trouble
If you want to go into business, ask what distinguishes you from others. Are you going to compete on price? service? delivery speed? proximity? slick marketing? quality control? (And there’s bound to be many other things you could compete on that don’t spring to mind immediately.)
If you deliver what customers want and can still make money at it, then you’ll do fine. It probably isn’t easy, though.
And building a reputation from scratch takes time, even if you do stand out as exemplary in one aspect ( service/ price/delivery speed/etc)
Don’t expect quick returns.
One huge issue IMHO—is balancing how much stock to keep on hand for immediate
sale vs drop shipping items to you on demand to keep inventory levels reasonable.
Given quality control lol (lack of more like), I wouldnt consider drop shipping as an option if reputation is at all relevant to you. And im not talking exemplary reputation here, even a decent reputation will suffer if you rely on distributors to control quality. There just isnt reliable quality control from solely Chinese operations, they dont seem to value it or see its importance.
Fly by night, set up under a new name when necessary. Rinse and repeat.
What might help is a partner who not only understands but will enforce your views rigorously in China to receive and inspect all merchandise prior to distribution.
Thanks guys I might just sell from under my basement until things get better. There’s these semi-annual conventions and I feel like I can sell alot of them but not sure if it’s worth it. But yea I’m just sad that many people do like this hobby but can’t get access to them that’s all.
Start with small quantity and only sell the quality products. Yes you can sell a C8 (maybe Convoy C8) but include a quality charger and battery as well. Quality charger like Xtar MC1 is a good low priced charger and also consider battery with Japanese protection circuit like Keeppower.
people are more hard to make business nowadays ,it is so competitive
and it is what we all knew that .
but some people will be top of this market ,i think they got their own
advantage to compete it . trying to find your advantage for yourself ,
i believe you gonna make it with your persistance and effort
