Making A Return On Tattoo Supplies |
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 Oct 6 2008, 08:10 AM
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#1
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Im thinking about investing some of my savings into getting some supplies to sell on, just ebay probabaly and maybe some marketing to local studios
im just saving for the future with a friend, we both plan on starting a studio together and i was just wondering if its fully possible to make a return on everything i buy, and whether anyones acutally done it before. nothing large scale, just lookign to maximise my savings regards, |
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Oct 6 2008, 08:17 AM
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#2
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if u buy in bulk then its not bad but u got to buy ALOT to make a decent profit. then u got ebay fees, paypal fees etc they really rob u blind... i had to pay a few hundred quid to ebay fees already. not to mention so much competition on ebay its almost impossible to sell anything. i was same needles as everyone else and cheaper than everyone else but still took ages to sell them... like months lol. im sticking to certian items to stock now. shipping costs a fortune from china too. if you make any supplies yourself like binders etc its worth doing but again ud only make a quid or so profit on machine parts
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Oct 6 2008, 08:31 AM
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#3
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hm.. do any companies offer drop shipping?
it jsut sucks how saturated the ebay market is! |
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Oct 6 2008, 08:36 AM
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#4
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not sure about drop shipping... what exactly is it?
ebay is over loaded with supplies lol i had to close my ebay shop and website cus its just wasting money. theres certian items you cant sell... like skincandy ink.. only powerline can sell them in uk and they take you to court over it if you dont take it down lol. so its hard to know what you can and cant sell. if you stick to 1 or 2 specialist items its not to bad.. you get a profit but not alot. you can get cheaper shipping by sea but it takes upto 4 weeks or more so its not worth it unless you have enough stock to last 4 weeks. have a look around ebay though if you see a gap then search for that product. thats what i did with the p/s but now theres alot more ppl selling them so be prepared for people to copy the stuff you sell and force you to lower prices -------------------- |
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Oct 6 2008, 09:59 AM
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#5
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that really sucks
the only other thing i really wanna think of selling is a split set of flash im doing with a friend but im not sure htere's a huge market for it |
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Oct 6 2008, 10:39 AM
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#6
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making flash for sale is probably the best return you will get for your money
one real copy then run a few of at the printers doesnt cost much put as many designs on the sheets as you can and make it at least 6 or 8 sheets |
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Oct 6 2008, 10:42 AM
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#7
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make sure you copyright them though etherwise there be all over ebay lol. as far as i know the guys with the legal rights to sell flash make a killing on it so if you got your own sheets cant go far wrong
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Oct 6 2008, 10:58 AM
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#8
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well we gradually working towards getting onto gentleman's tattoo flash which should be nice.
how do i copyright an image?! |
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Oct 6 2008, 11:08 AM
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#9
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copy right doesnt work proove in point the amount of it thats on all the file sharing sites
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Oct 6 2008, 08:56 PM
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#10
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I would think of alternative ways of marketing besides having your main target customer base as ebayers.
numerous reasons for this.... 1. there is a ton of competition, and some do an extremely high volume of business allowing them to undercut others since they buy is such massive bulk. 2. ebayers like their stuff cheap. sure there are a lot of people out there like many on this site that go for quality, but for the most part, selling on ebay can be frustrating at times. 3. ebay no longer allows sellers to leave bad feedback for buyers... meaning if someone isn't pleased with the product or service, they won't hesitate to leave negative feedback which can quickly hurt your satisfied customer percentage and on ebay thats pretty much all you have going for you... also competition would not hesitate to buy a few cheap things from you and leave you negative feedback just out of spite for cutting into their business. with no fear of receiving bad feedback in return, this has really changed the dynamic of doing business on there... even the best sellers have their share of bad feedback due to this policy change... it wasn't always like that. 4. after ebay listing and final value fees, and paypal fees (a lot of buyers stick to paypal items only just cause its so much easier and offers a degree of protection) you may not have all that much of a profit margin left over, I often wonder how some of the sellers on there even manage to turn a profit... and if an item or lot doesn't sell, you are out the listing fees if it doesn't sell after relisting it once more. 5. ebay used to be a lot better in my opinion but fraud from both sellers and buyers have ruined it unless you are a buyer and stick to sellers that have a good history and have been around for a while. case in point... in the past I have purchased precious metals on there... the values of metals fluctuates daily... I have had sellers wait on shipping, and after seeing prices take a bit of a jump simply tell me they are out of stock and refund my money and waste a lot of my time when the auction was for a specific item and not just some generic picture. I would just be careful, I have had some especially bad experiences... a couple years back I decided to give the machine selling business a crack and teamed up with a machine seller on there that I had done some business with, I put up a couple thousand USD as startup for the components and he got greedy and all I got was excuses and lies about how the machines weren't moving etc. and there wasn't a thing I could do about it short of take a flight out and beat him into the ground, which would have just cost more money lol.. just had to cut my losses and learn from the experience. not trying to completely discourage you here, just saying I would have other avenues of getting customers than relying on ebay to fill that requirement of your business... cause odds are you are going to be pretty upset with the outcome. hope this helps. |
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Oct 8 2008, 03:05 PM
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#11
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knew a link they sell armrests at ridiculous price, like 17$, but you have to buy 30 minimum. their client in europe who sells individual lets the go for 60- 70 euro, thats like 90$ each approx. they sent me to him when i asked if they sell any less. if interested pm me and i ll look up the link.. if you feel good about it i d be happy to get one at cost price or close to it from ya, but that s up to you
-------------------- remember to always be yourself! unless you suck.
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Oct 8 2008, 09:26 PM
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#12
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waste of time.
-------------------- Love it or Leave it...
check my portfolio @ http://www.myspace.com/sioneproduktions |
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Oct 9 2008, 03:05 AM
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#13
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Ok ive decided to buy in a bunch of thermal copiers from a supplier in china and im going to sell them on for around 300 - 350 GBP, 500 - 600 USD
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Oct 9 2008, 03:19 AM
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#14
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QUOTE (infinitum @ Oct 9 2008, 04:05 AM)  Ok ive decided to buy in a bunch of thermal copiers from a supplier in china and im going to sell them on for around 300 - 350 GBP, 500 - 600 USD i would say dont dude... you are spending out too much too soon.. start small.. -------------------- Nosferatu1812@yahoo.com
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Oct 9 2008, 03:49 AM
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#15
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dont thermal copiers do the same as a dot matrix?
can get em on ebay for a tenner and print stencils perfect. just be careful with electrics from china i had alot of stuff break on me and one even blew up lol theres a guy on ebay selling them already real cheap.. he got family in china by the looks of it who send him shit over to uk probally for free and he sends em like 10% back or something crazy. he doesnt usually stock alot of them though so you might get lucky man and receive the when he is all out. -------------------- |
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Oct 9 2008, 04:58 AM
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#16
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;o
this is all a bit complicated haha and no, dot matrix involves scanning and using a seperate computer, these things you jsut feed it through This post has been edited by infinitum: Oct 9 2008, 04:58 AM |
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Oct 9 2008, 06:01 AM
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#17
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At least if the copiers don't sell right off you can sit on the a while. As you get started, beware buying bulk in items you don't know will sell fast. Both due to experation(ink,needles,etc) and waiting on your return. If you lookin to buy from China, I recommend the Cylone clones. They could be bought for $20 each there, maybe less in a bulk situation, You could sell them in the states for around $90-100. And you'd sell alot more at $100 than you will the thermals for $500.
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