Thinking about opening an online store.....

Korishan

Korishan

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Hey guys, I'm thinking of opening an online store for the DIY powerwallers and future powerwallers. Well, this would be for the US group, anyways.

I was thinking of buying in bulk the stuff from China that we all use, and get it locally and resell it at a slight markup. The advantages would be that the locals would get the parts in days, instead of weeks.

There's plenty of guys on eBay who sell in the US, but they sell quite high of a markup. I'd have to look up some of the local parts so I can market it correctly.


What do you guys think?
 
How much do you guys mark up from what you purchase by? I was thinking around 15%-20%. Not sure if that'd be too much. I haven't done any comparisons yet. Just tossing idea atm
 
Maybe doing group buys would be an option? Say 15 people go in on X product. Korishan could coordinate it and make some $ for the trouble. Just another idea. The group buy could be done in addition to your other idea.
 
on the other hand, this could also be done by mike, who sells stuff via ebay anyway, so hm, its US only anyways so...
 
Yeah, Maj, I kinda thought of that too, with Mike. But, I'm in the US and was trying to help local US residents save some extra $$ and time by trying to be local myself. ;)

Alec, I like your idea, I will put that under consideration.

Toochi: thanks for the post. I'm actually watching one of your items of 125 precut sleeves ;)

I was kind of thinking of going more into the electronic area of things: tp4056's, other chargers, cell holders, solder wire, pre-made buss bars, etc. But am also willing to go the route of other stuff like the sleeves and such.
 
Korishan said:
I was kind of thinking of going more into the electronic area of things: tp4056's, other chargers, cell holders, solder wire, pre-made buss bars, etc. But am also willing to go the route of other stuff like the sleeves and such.
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My thoughts are that , by far the greatest expense for powerwallersare one item ..CELL HOLDERS light plastic very cheap to ship ....

When I saw Hb's price breakdown of his expenses I was flabbergasted I think he spent$600 on holders ... everything else was insignificant ..(I can't put my fingers on this threadnow to check)

Powerwallers only buy chargers and electronic stuffone time, solder/copper istoo heavy to ship economically, but cell holders !! that's where the market is ..

I don't know of the costs involved in 3D printing , but someone on Youtube is printing his own different style ofcell holders ...worth checking out!
Might be best to just copy the the ones we're used to , but you could make them in other colours
 
I don't think 3D printing can compete with chinese injection molding cost wise. Especially if you need lots of something.
 
3D printing is definitely not the way to go. It's way too slow, expensive and inefficient for the small individual holders. For the larger 24 cell holders like Paul Kennett uses 3D is perfect. I am surprised at the cost of the Chinese individual holders. They are making a huge profit from those. I have no problem with profit motive, just pointing that out. That may well be the place to do some importing. When I was young I worked in an injection molding plastics factory for a short time. We were making aircraft interior parts. I would make thousands of parts a day back in the 80's. I can only imagine the volume they are putting out now.
I think Korishan has a brilliant idea. I am having a hard time finding fuse wire. I ordered 36g fuse wire from GB. The wire was 4$ the shipping was 12$. Not very efficient. I scoured the interwebs for tinned copper wire and could not find 36g in the US. Anyone have a source?
 
Well, glad several of ya are in agreement with me on the idea of a US based store for use DIYers :)

I think I'll start working on putting up the store. I'll post a spreadsheet with prices and such and see what ya think.

Thanks for the input, guys (and gals, if there are any (??), or is this just a guys thing :p )
 
Make sure you throw up all your links to products here! share the love! Might have to do just a ForSale section just to promote your ebay links
 
3d printing is actually more expensive when you factor in the material. Not including the cost of the machine. I've been printing mine only because I have access to it at work when the machine is not running any jobs. And I don't have to pay for material.
 
The markup isn't that great when you take in to account fees and shipping. I do move quite a few cell holders, but would prefer not to disclose my margins. Having them be light weight doesn't mean anything, it's the size that matters here. People don't order 2 cell holders, they order packs of 50, 60, 100, etc. To ship 60 holders, I use a flat rate box since that's the cheapest way to ship. Weight is irrelevant.

You might mark them up 30% but at those prices, you'll sell one per month, if you're lucky. I agree with what Keith said earlier too, you have to invest in large orders, buying $1000-$3000 of product at a time is pretty normal. Don't expect to buy 100 cell holders and flip them for a profit. You'll spend a lot of time (hours/days easily) hunting on alibaba (not aliexpress) and making deals directly with manufacturers to receive low enough prices for profit making.

Also, keep in mind our market is small and we already have several people selling different things. Maybe try to find something that isn't already being done. If we all start selling the same items, we're going to be price competing with each other.

I'm not trying to discourage you, but I've been selling on eBay/Amazon for a few years now and have personally lost thousands due to poor product choices that never sold or I had to practically give away to make some kind of money back. You should expect to loose before you figure out the ins and outs of selling and the profits start.
 
True. I didnt think about alibaba. That would make a difference.

I was also thinking of including the other parts of what we use. Switches, buttons, shunts, maybe a few other things. Probably even proto boards of a few different sizes.

I know that it'll be rough starting as the store is new and takes time for ppl to find it. But, with a little luck and a little spit shine, maybe I can turn a buck or two ;)
 
Ok, so I made my first purchases. I didn't go for the $1000+ range to start off with.

I did a few miscellaneousparts as well. If I dont sell them, I'll end up using them. :p

* 100pcs/Set 10 Values Potentiometer Trimpot Variable Resistor Assortment Box Kit
* 600PCS 30 Value 1/4W 10 - 1M? Metal Film Resistors Resistance Assortment Kit Set
* 120pcs 12 Values black 1uF~470uF Assorted Electrolytic Capacitors Assortment Kit
* 600pcs 30 Values Assorted Zener Diode Assortment Kit Set 2V39V 1/2W 0.5W
* 100pcs TP4056 5V Micro USB 1A Lithium Battery Charging Board Charger Module
* 1000pcs 50 Values 50V Ceramic Capacitors Kit Assortment Set 1pf-100nf
* 600pcs 30value 1ohm-3M 1/4W Carbon Film Resistor Assortment Kits Set 5%

I'll break down the kits into probably 5 units each.

The reason I went with this whole list is because they were all coming from the same seller. So everything "should" show up at the same time.

I'll post when I get them and rough prices before I put them up on the eBay store to get feedback.
 
Just giving a quick update.

I'm still waiting on the parts to show up. They should be soon showing up next week, maybe next week. So hopefully I can get this going soon :)
 
Korishan said:
Just giving a quick update.

I'm still waiting on the parts to show up. They should be soon showing up next week, maybe next week. So hopefully I can get this going soon :)
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Hopefully? they come in undamaged.
 
Ok, got the stuff in today. I'll need to go through it tomorrow to make sure I get everything and to catalog what I have (the variousresistors and caps come in one bag together).

So, hopefully tomorrow evening I'll have the spreadsheet posted. :)
 
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