Product Condition Selection (Part 2)

Refurbished products fall somewhere in between new and used products.Refurbished products are not new, but they aren’t used either. In case you don’tknow what refurbished means I will explain:Most retail stores offer a money back guarantee, sometimes the costumer thatbuys the product returns it for a refund, the item is then returned to the factory,given an inspection and sold as refurbished.The packaging of an item can be damaged during shipping. In that case the itemis sent back to the manufacturer, repackaged and sold as refurbished.Items that have a slight defect of flaw like a scratch or mechanical flaw arereturned to the manufacturer. The manufactures repairs the items, repackages them and marks them refurbished.Demonstration units are also considered refurbished, but only when they arereturned to the manufacturer, inspected and repackaged.Brand new overstock items can also be marked refurbished. These items arebrand new, but sold as refurbished.Sometimes the packaging of an item is opened; this is also marked asrefurbished. The only thing “wrong” with these items is; the box was simplyopened.Refurbished items almost always come with manufacturers warranties, althoughsometimes the warranties that come with refurbished items are for a shorterperiod of time, the products are usually in mint condition.Most refurbished items look brand new and some are overstock, damagedpackaging, open box etc. But are marked refurbished and come with shorterwarranties.Selling refurbished products is in more ways than not more profitable thanselling new or used products. Refurbished products have many advantages and afew disadvantages;
Refurbished products advantages:
• Refurbished products are much cheaper than new products, even thoughthey come with warranties, boxes and everything else new products comewith (including the smell). Refurbished products are just like newproducts but cheaper, many people that buy refurbs can’t tell thedifference between refurbished products and new ones.
• Selling refurbished products is more profitable, even though refurbishedproducts cost much less than new products. On eBay refurbished productscan sell for the same prices as new ones. If you sell refurbished products,you can sell them for 50% off the MSRP and still make a big profit!
• Refurbished products are sometimes new! When you buy a lot ofrefurbished products they might actually be overstock items or factoryoverruns. In that case you would be buying new products at a fraction ofthe price.
Refurbished products disadvantages:
• Refurbished is not NEW, even though refurbished products can be exactlythe same as new ones, people simply want new stuff. That’s why so muchstuff has big yellow NEW stickers on it.
• Refurbished products are sometimes last year’s models. With products likewatches it won’t matter, but if you are selling computers or electronics itmight bring the selling prices down.Refurbished products can be very profitable, even more profitable than newproducts. The fact that refurbs come with guaranties and boxes makes them asgood as new but much cheaper.Here are a few examples of websites that sell refurbished products:http://www.refurbdepot.com – you can see that the prices are extremely low, butremember this website makes a nice big profit off of each product. Imagine howcheap these products can be had if you buy bulk directly from the supplier!http://www.hotbuy4u.com – also has very cheap products, they also providedrop-shipping for eBay sellers. But I do NOT recommend using them as asupplier, everyone seems to use them and there is way too much competition ifyou chose to sell their stuff.http://www.swissoutpost.com – sells mainly new watches and knives, but alsosells refurbished products. This is a great supplier if you want to start sellingwatches. Their refurbished products are very cheap and sell well on eBay.By visiting the websites above you can see how cheap refurbished products are! Ifyou are thinking of making one of the above websites your supplier:don’t just buy from them, contact them first and try to get a discount. Most ofthese websites are run by people that are interested and open to new things, sotry and work out some sort of bulk discount deal.There are thousands of similar websites on the internet and most wholesale listsare made up of them. The thing about these websites is they sell to the end user,they are not actual suppliers and their prices are much higher than a realsupplier’s prices.That still doesn’t mean you can’t make any profits, just remember to contact thecompany first and try to work out a bulk discount.