eBay Millionaires

[Grateful11]

http://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshows/ebay?slide=1

Click through all the slides.

[Mike Sellers]

I wonder if they had to verify that they are milliionaires. $2 million in sales doesn't mean $2 million profit.

[blusubaru]

I'll be on that list someday...

[jdc]

is there a prize at the end?

[Tofer]

The scary part is that they are all younger than me. Until now, I still thought I was somewhat young...

-Tofer

[Grateful11]

Mike Sellers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if they had to verify that they are
> milliionaires. $2 million in sales doesn't mean $2
> million profit.
>
>
I was thinking the same thing. I saw this magazine on the
newsstand and I picked it up and started looking at it and I
told my wife, "a million dollars in sales doesn't mean a
million dollars profit." Many of the item s these people
are selling, except the drop-off centers, at cut throat
prices.

There's a guy near me that started selling
motorcycle helmets on eBay a few years back and was getting
them through a guy in Texas, well the guy in Texas made the
mistake of leaving a shipping label on one of the cases of
helmets where he got them from Asia. He, being the ruthless
businessman he is, contracted directly with the guy in Asia
to buy whole containers at a time of helmets and leather
goods. He's doing really well now. Not that he needs the
money, he sold a pet supply business that he started from the
ground up a few years ago for $4mil and he's heavy into
real estate. He says he does it for fun, for something to
do. He has 3 employees now with the eBay business. I
haven't looked at his stuff lately but I see he is doing
quite well and has excellent feedback.

Here's his store:

http://stores.ebay.com/Factory-Overloads

[tuqqer]

Great link, Greatful. I love threads like this.

I'm sure those figures were gross sales. Perhaps they only clear 10-20% profit. Still, they're great bootstrap stories. I never get tired of hearing about them.

[SteveJobs]

It just goes to show that if you can get you some slave labor, even by proxy, you can make money on their backs/sweat/blood/tears.

WHERE IS CHUCK NORRIS?

[mrbigstuff]

is it just me that would like to see eBay lose some business to a rival? i am happy for these people, but eBay fees and charges have made it a lot less tempting to sell quantity there. unfortunately, it's still the only real game around for quantity selling.

[rz]

Grateful11 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> There's a guy near me that started selling
> motorcycle helmets on eBay a few years back and
> was getting
> them through a guy in Texas, well the guy in Texas
> made the
> mistake of leaving a shipping label on one of the
> cases of
> helmets where he got them from Asia. He, being
> the ruthless
> businessman he is, contracted directly with the
> guy in Asia
> to buy whole containers at a time of helmets and
> leather
> goods. He's doing really well now.

Reminds me of a story. My wife and I were in a store where they sold unique dishes and pottery. My wife really liked a certain dish pattern and asked who made it. The woman who owned the store wouldn't tell us. We went back the next day, and another employee let slip the name of the company. I searched for them on the internet (this was back in about 1997, so there was no Google). I found a phone number and called. The guy was happy to sell the dishes to us for the same price he sold them to the store owner... which was about 1/3 of what she was selling them for. We bought 12 full place settings (dinner plate, salad plate, dessert plate and two different bowls) for about $500.