How to Import Products from China: Part II

In a previous post I showed you five tips on how to import products from China for resale on eBay. In this article you will learn five additional tips to further improve your shrewdness as a wholesale shopper. If you want to know how to import products from China and successfully resell them on eBay for profit, this is an essential skill.

Study these five precepts carefully:

6.Examine contact emails closely.
If a Chinese wholesaler’s contact email ends with “@yahoo.com” or “@hotmail.com” they are probably a scammer. Most legitimate suppliers will host their email directly from their own website. If their website is www.chinawholesale.com then their contact email address should read something like “contact@chinawholesale.com.”

7.Use WhoIs.net to screen wholesale websites.
WhoIs.net is a free tool that you can use to gain information about any domain name on the web. When you enter in the domain name of the wholesaler that you plan to do business with, WhoIs.net will give you back two essential items of information.

Firstly, they will tell you how long the domain name has been registered. The older the domain name the better. If the company has been around for a long time it is less likely to be a scam.

Second, they will give you the name of the person or company that owns the domain name. If this matches the information provided on the wholesale website, this is also a good sign.

8.Examine the pricing.
Do your research before hand, and know how much the product you intend to buy should be worth. If the wholesaler is selling these products for prices that are far too high (or far too low) this is a very bad sign. If you also notice other strange pricing issues such as whole pages of dissimilar products with the same price, don’t waste your time. This is almost certainly a scam operation.

9.Search for your wholesaler on Google.
Now that you have been learning how to import products from China for a while, this tip may seem a little too obvious. Still, it’s best not to skip this step. Go ahead and do the search. If their website doesn’t come up or is difficult to find, beware! Sites that are used with frequency should be easy to find on Google.

10.Last but not least: Just use common sense!
This is the last tip that you need to learn and you will know how to import products from China successfully. If a wholesaler’s products or prices look too good to be true, that’s because THEY ARE! It’s tempting to just get exited and buy when you see a good deal. However, you will only be successful in your attempts to import and resell on eBay if you expose every wholesaler to the utmost scrutiny before conducting business with them.

One last point before I bring this article to a close: Following these ten steps is really only the beginning. Now that you are able to subject your wholesaler to a strict process of evaluation it’s time to actually test them out. Try sending messages to their contact email and see how long it takes to get a response.

Before you place a large order, try placing a small one. Do anything that you can do to establish confidence before actually putting your money on the line. Believe me, if you follow this advice, the chances that you will get scammed will be greatly reduced. And not only that, you’ll also be on your way to exploding your eBay business beyond what you’ve ever dreamed!

eBay Strategies: How to Import Products from China - Part 1

There is a significant amount of money to be made on eBay. All you need to know in order to access it is which products to sell and how to sell them. As reselling inexpensive products from China is a key strategy for many successful sellers, this article will teach you how to do this effectively. Learning how to import products from China should greatly boost your productivity.

Three BIG Blunders that You Need to Avoid!

In order to stay safe when buying wholesale lots from China make absolutely sure that you do NOT buy any of the following types of products.

* Brand Name Electronics
If these come directly from China and are being sold for a very low price, they are counterfeit. This is actually quite common. Counterfeit products are useless as far as resell value goes. If you try to pawn them off as genuine, you could face serious consequences from eBay or the law!

* Designer Clothes and Accessories
Just don’t do it! The case for designer clothes is the same as that for brand name electronics. There is no way under the sun that you can get Nike shoes or Gucci bags for half price by “buying them direct.” Take my word for it and stay away! Getting cheap knock offs and reselling them is definitely NOT how to import products from China.

* DVD Box Sets
This is another hot scam item. Fraudulent websites will try to sell you these with the promise that they are genuine DVD releases. More than nine times out of ten, they are fakes. Just like selling fake designer clothes and brand name electronics, selling pirated DVD’s could get you in big trouble. Avoid it like the plague!

Now that I’ve given you a few key examples, you are probably starting to get a good idea of how to import products from china without getting ripped off. But in order to further tune your scam radar, take a look the five key criteria for evaluating a Chinese wholesaler that follow:

1.Take a long look at their products.
Do they sell already branded products like the ones mentioned above? If so, avoid them like you would a rabid skunk. They will only ruin your clean eBay reputation. Instead, look for wholesalers that carry quality UNBRANDED products.

2.Check out their Alexa.com rank and Google page rank.
Alexa.com and the Google page rank are to very useful tools for finding out how much traffic is being driven to a particular site. The general rule for wholesalers is that the more traffic they get the more likely that they are legitimate. Therefore, look for wholesalers whose Alexa rank and Google page rank shows a high traffic flow.

3.Does their domain name contain branded product names?
Don’t buy from any site that has a domain name like “Nikeland996.com” or “iPods000.com.” These websites are trying to use the popularity of established brands to boost their traffic and are probably operating a scam.

4.Look for their contact information.
If the website has no contact information other than an email address, don’t buy from them. While a physical address and phone number is no guarantee for reliability, having a lack of this rudimentary information is bad news indeed!

5.Look at the types of payment that they accept.
First of all, any website that accepts Western Union or Money Gram is almost certainly a scam operation. However, there are many legitimate wholesalers that accept wire transfer. Since wire transfer is still very risky, make sure that you only send payment to a wholesaler’s BUSINESS account and never a personal account.