Resale Arbitrage

Hi all. Looking for some suggestions or advice. I am in Austria, I always wanted to try resale arbitrage but unfortunately we do not have the same opportunities that you guys have in the usa. So I decided to ask several people I know there if they would like to do it with me. Basically my offer was, 1) I tell them what store to go to, what items to buy at what prices, I would pay for this first order (or test phase). This would be on a day they have off, stores would be within 2-10 miles from their homes. So we can assume this would be 2-5 hours of work for them...Then i put the products up on ebay, one day per week they package and ship the products off. As this is a test phase, we can assume we will do well and sell out quickly, or it will take us x months to sell out and we will decide it was not worth it, and stop. Worst case scenario it does not work, they lose 5 hours of their time, i just sell the stuff in one auction to get back what I can. Best case scenario, we turn the $200 into $400, we see it works, we both make money, and then they can decide if they want to be 50-50 partners (which they would) or if they just want to get paid $x per package they mail. In short, I am frustrated because even those with little money and a lot of free time, everyone, seems to be like everyone else; if i don´t get rich quick, it ain´t worth it. So the advice/suggestions I have is this; I really hate doing this with someone I do not know, simply because who can you trust? People are greedy, a stranger ie my new partner would do it behind my back if he sees it works. I would be left with nothing except knowing i gave an idea to some dishonest loser. How exactly do I go along in finding honest and reliable yet realistic people whom I can trust? I have tried a few forums, but like the others they are looking for easy money and get rich fast schemes. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

So, if I understand this correctly, you want to buy items at your local stores and then re-sell them for a profit online? Do you have actual products in mind that you could buy for X and then sell for 2X (or more) online? If you do, why do you need help to prove out the business model? Why can't you do everything for now and have to trust no one but yourself to get the business started? If the sales and revenues you generate warrant it, you can then look for employees or partners to scale the business.

 

In general, you will never make money by paying retail then selling higher. The margins are simply not wide enough. You need to buy at (or lower than) jobber prices (which are lower than wholesale prices) then sell at or near retail on eBay. Even then you will be working harder than you ever dreamed possible.

Ideally, you need to make a product and sell the product at wholesale to others and let them to the heavy lifting of selling to the fickle public.