Wholesale

[240SX2S15]

Hey i dont know if this is the right forum but i was wondering how do you order stuff in wholesale? do you need to get a license or can you join a wholesale member place? Im interested in all types of parts for all cars. maybe start a shop one day (i need money though but it is my dream, screw the counsler crap of being a computer engineer. but yeah start small. but if you guys can help me out any all is appreciated. thank you
jared

[SilviaDriver]

you cannot buy wholesale by yourself unless your some sort of dealer, or your in a group buy, even in a group buy you still cannot buy at wholesale, you need a store. nd you need to buy in mass quantity

[240SX2S15]

Is there any type of Wholesale Club crap like buy a membership. Like what is all that crap on ebay on the wholesale lists

[SilviaDriver]

its called a "Scam"

[live2drift2live]

Ohh damnit than thanks for the help.

[boosteds14]

you have to be licensed also

with some manufactures, you may need to do a buy-in.

plus, you get a bigger discount when you place a mass quantity order.

[live2drift2live]

Even though this is not my thread (you guys scared 240SX2S15 away) I think I will ask some questions. How do you get to be on a list and what about dropshippers and everything like how did you guys start out CIP. I want to do something like an ebay thing out of my basement. Get some extra money. Thanks
JBM

[240racer]

most of the time manufacturers and distributers will only sell you products at pre-consumer pricing if you have a Tax ID number from the state where you company is registered. Otherwise you are just a consumer. Wholesale is a different thing all together, it involves just buying left overs or mass quantities. usually you can't get whatever you want and you probably don't need a business.

[boosteds14]

well drop shipping problably wont happen. only some of our wholesellers will do that. too much reliablility. how do you get on the list? talk!

talk to ppl, like manufactures. I acutally started selling F-Max because i talked to them and became friends. they then gave me connections to other ppl, and those ppl gave me connections to other ppl.

you can do it out of your basement, but 80% of the time it wont work out. you will need money to make money. there is a catch though. you stock parts, new parts come out and your stuck with the old parts. to sell them is a pain. I have 5 s-afc in stock. the new one is coming out and nobody wants the old style any more.

Plus the mark up is horrible. you would need to sell alot to make a good profit. example: the apexi s-afc. I sell them for $325. list is $439. I dont get them alot cheaper than $325. since the market is so big now, lowering prices lowers the gross margain. which sucks.

to be honest with you, our local sales is awesome. because what i have instock sells for a little less than retail. i sell the s-afc for $400 locally. its because ppl coming into the store either a) dont use the internet or b) want the product right now!

so to sell on ebay, profit be very small and in some cases it will not be worth it.

there are some many stores on the internet and on ebay that to compete with their prices means you may be gaining nothing but a customer.

hope this helps.

more than welcome to call the store for more info.

later

Jeff

[live2drift2live]

Awesome. Thanks guys. I mean I do this little thing around here and at my school were people who are getting cars want systems they come to me. I ask them what they want, actually its me telling them what they want. But I get what they want off ebay for cheap compared to crutchfield and other places. But I charge a helping fee like 30% of what I saved them. So I make profit and also I install their speakers subs and etc. But yeah thats what I want to do, have a business of my own. I know you will make sacrifices in the beginning but you have to push it to get it off the ground and next thing you know you are the pimp of your sport compact local scene. but thanks again and hope to talk to you guys on this amazing forum. Ohh one more question, in college in business classes do they teach you how to do this type of stuff. Thanks alot
JBM

P.S. This is my thread now bitch leave the forums 240SX2S15

[drift freaq]

Wholesale is a different thing all together, it involves just buying left overs or mass quantities. usually you can't get whatever you want and you probably don't need a busine

no you are wrong on this. Wholesale means wholesale. Which translates to significantly below retail(most but not all of the time) allowing you to make a markup. You usually need to have a resale license issued by your state to get these prices( or be extremely savy and know how to make profit) . Which leads to the next stage of yes a tax ID and filing state sales tax forms usually on a quarterly basis, Unless your in Nevada(no state sales tax)
Now the thing about it is there are sometimes different levels of wholesale. This is due to the fact that some people can buy wholesale on a larger scale thereby possibly getting the product for a better price.
Usually small business's have to buy wholesale from a parts warehouse or distributor rather than directly from a manufacturer. In this case you may be getting a WD price or warehouse direct price .
Some parts warehouses have there own pricing structures based on how big the particular buyer is or how much they purchase. Other times manufacturers will sell direct, but fix there Wholesale price at one rate.
leaving it up to the buyers to set the market rate based on a suggested retail price the manufacturer decides on.
Other times manufacturers will leave little room for profit on the wholesale level because the force the wholesale customer to purchase at prices slightly below retail. This is starting to happen more and more in the import parts business especially with alot of the JDM stuff.
Thats why you see some of the JDM parts sellers here in the states dropping lines because they cannot make enough profit to warrant carrieing the product.
A lot of times this is being caused by illegal sellers in Japan putting stuff on ebay for what the product would sell for wholesale imported to the states or below. Quite often(not always) these are people in the military that are actually bending military rules to make profit on the side( a few actually figure out a quasi legal way to do it as well).

does that sum it up in a nutshell?

oh yeah, basically if you are a enterprising person and can get the stuff people want and need you can start a business . If you do that then things start to fall into place and you make some money. As you do you realize it needs to be legal if you want to do it as regular business. at which point you file for resale licenses and tax id and then doors start opening when you talk to wholesalers.
At that point its up to you what you make of it . ;)