Ipod scams and selling guide : eBay Guides

Hi, this is rockonspeakers with the first guide ever made! This guide is from personal experience, and before you think about trying to sell ipods for business, you must read this guide.

When i first came on ebay, I found that the hottest selling electronic item was the iPod. People were selling them left and right, so i thought since its so hot why can't I make money as well selling ipods too? 

So, I looked into all possible things trying to find a loophole or good way to buy ipods in bulk, and along the way i saw 3 scams that should be avoided. But before I tell you about the scams I encountered, you must know some background about Apple and the ipod business.

Apple cuts the middleman

What I mean by this is that Apple has three routes to selling to the consumer:

a) They sell directly (manufacturer --> Consumer)

b) They have assigned distrubutors that sell to resellers. (manufacturer --> (apple) distributor --> reseller --> Consumer)

If you go the usual way, there is usually a wholesaler that fits into the equation, and thats how many make their money if they want to buy bulk. Apple CUTS this and therefore the only way to go is through the distributor.

Requirements to buy from a distributor or from Apple

As of 2006, If you want to buy from apple, you have to buy $100,000 USD worth of merchandise per year from apple if you want to buy directly. If you do it this way, you will be recognized as a distributor, and probably can make a good profit from selling ipods as well as imacs.

If you want to buy from a assigned distributor, each has their own rules and regulations like buying a account for access, but as far as this goes, you probably will have a REALLY HARD time finding a distrubutor that will allow you to make margin profit, and that makes it even harder to sell on ebay because ipods usually go about 25-50$ under the retail price.

So why are so many selling ipods on ebay?

There are countless reasons why someone would sell ipods on ebay, but you have to note that it is very hard trying to take the legitamate business path and make money selling ipods. Here are reasons I can think of:

A) Personal item - The seller recieved a free ipod/bought a new ipod/cannot return the ipod so therefore will sell it on ebay

B) Bulk selling - The seller wants to get rid of bulk for a slightly cheaper price but usually not too much cheaper.

C) Off the truck - The seller stole the items or bought it from black market and resell it for a cheap price

D) Refurbished goods - the seller is a distributor that wants to sell goods that were returned from the consumer (and tested)

Scams That I've Encountered:

Here are the scams that I saw on ebay on regards to ipods:

A) Selling outside the ebay system - These guys are the most obvious scammers. What they do is post something like "100 60gb ipods" in the 1 cent bin to catch your attention. Then you see the description it reads something like "BUY 100 ipods for some real cheap but reasonable price". Sounds good right? Heres the catch, what they do is say something like "since our ebay email system isn't working" or " we rather prefer you email us here" and put a email address up. Then when you email them, they give you a real sweet and geniune sounding blog about how you are protected by ebay and trust us, then say send us the money by :WESTERN UNION. This is the ticker folks, IF YOU TRANSFER MONEY BY WESTERN UNION AND YOU DO NOT USE A LEGITAMATE ESCROW SYSTEM TO FACILITATE YOUR TRANSACTION , YOU ARE NOT PROTECTED BY EBAY BECAUSE EBAY DOES NOT HAVE A PROTECTION POLICY FOR WESTERN UNION. Even more obvious, Western union themselves state that if you and your transaction buddy do not know each other personally, you are at risk to send money to the other guy. So the point is, what seems too true is probably too true

B) Wholesale list ebooks - Although I have not went through every single seller that sells a wholsaler list for ipods, i have went through 2, and let me tell you, its not worth even a penny. Let me remind you, apple has cut the middleman, so what the seller of these ebooks claim to be wholesalers are actually retailers that may sell slightly less than retail price. Its like a salehoo, except what salehoo has done is find you the best retailers availible. Seriously, how much margin profit can you make trying to buy from bulk from retailers. Its legit, but badly misadvertised.

C) Sellers that sell cheap but don't allow paypal - Even though I am partially anti-paypal (due to heavy fees and some unrealibility of hackers), paypal protects you from seller fraud to the extent of 1250$ USD. Scammers that don't want to look as obvious as example (A) can still scam you by only allowing money orders or credit cards. This is a general safety issue for all items. Go through paypal if you want to buy things from ebay.

Not to discourage you from selling ipods on ebay due to its popularity, but I think the only way to make a constant stream of money from selling ipods is to become a distrubutor for apple. As simple as that.

Alternatives:

1) Selling accessories - Since the accessories for ipod are not from apple, if you find the right ipod accessory to sell (like ottarboxes or car adaptors) you can probably make some money due to the fact that there is alot of wholesalers for that. I found it much easier to make margin profit from selling the right accessories than trying to sell ipods themselves.

2) Liquidation.com or other bulkselling websites - Liqudation.com I saw sells bulk returned ipods through an excellent escrow system, so you can bet youre getting your items. However, The ipods are essentially returns so although most ipods will work, some won't (so sell it for parts). Also, lots of people know this secret already and try to bid against you, so be careful about the amount you bid if youre going this pathway.

Last thing i want to say and this pretty much summarizes my point: Margin Profit is the key to any business. If you don't make margin profit, then why do business? Ipods, although a very hot item, are very hard to find margin profit through legal paths. If you want to sell ipods, plan far ahead of time, find a good distrubutor that will work with you, or go through Apple themselves. Otherwise, steer clear of trying to sell Ipods.