[Afarang]

so in about 5-6 months after Australia I plan on doing a long trip in Asia. I want to go and ship products back to the UK and sell, or either start up a business in country X and ship worldwide using whatever gumtree/ebay etc.

Just at the brain storming stage, but has anybody done this before? what cities would you suggest. China and Vietnam seem my best bet currently, but I have not done any research on cities to visit.

[T and A Man]

Mate of mine from the UK set up in Thailand.

He did belt buckles, seems to make livable amount of money.

Depending on the scale and size of the product, mailing costs can be a major factor. HK for example has a reciprocal mail treaty, that's why you can get items for $1 incl. postage sent from HK to Australia, Australia post covers it all.

Manufacturing is the easy part, I wouldn't worry about that. I'd be focused on customs, mail costs and the honesty of the mail system.

[Afarang]

thanks I never knew why postage was so cheap in HK untill now. I'm now thinking if you could bring something from mainland china to HK, and send it from there, hmmm.

[Kdog]

Same thing as China to the USA some sort of treaty so it's cheap shipping. There's many cheap things you can export from Thailand also it's insane what you find when you ask around about bulk purchasing. It's just getting around that bitch that is shipping. Make sure it's an item with a decent margin and something you can ship easy. I was thinking t-shirts and knockoff sunglasses as I know where to get Raybans and other good quality knockoffs for $1, but I'm sure there's some legal issues with that one as well as shipping crushing profit margins.

[Parlay44]

China sells stuff on eBay directly. They ship straight from Hong Kong.

[Afarang]

well I think the two biggest problems are going to be

1) shipping
2) commutation and making sure I dont get scammed/ripped off

Selling counterfeit goods are against the t&c on ebay, so if I am not using a live market place, I would have to go with gumtree or direct cold calling and selling. Problem with gumtree and the like is they would want the product before handing over cash.

[Belgrano]

I haven´t been there yet, but from what I´ve read and heard, Yiwu seems to be a good option.
Yiwu market

Quote:

The International Trade Mart (Futian market) is the main one and the biggest. It currently covers an area of 4 million square meters, with 62,000 booths inside. 100,000 suppliers exhibit 400,000 kinds of products almost every day from 9 am to 5 pm (except the holidays of Chinese Spring Festival). The products are from around 40 industries and of 2,000 different categories. 65% of these products are exported to over 215 countries and regions. Futian market is more like a permanent fair instead of a traditional wholesale market. It has developed into an information, innovation, exhibition and distribution center for consumer goods.

[Tail Gunner]

(04-10-2014 10:32 AM)Parlay44 Wrote:  

China sells stuff on eBay directly. They ship straight from Hong Kong.

I had always wondered how merchants could sell and ship so cheaply from China. Some stuff from China sells for dirt cheap on ebay, so definitely compare prices on ebay before importing anything from China to sell.

I read this article earlier in the week, which seems to fit the theme of this thread:

Quote:

April 3, 2014
Santiago, Chile

Buying movie tickets online hardly seems like an earth shattering concept.

The idea has been around for at least a decade or more, especially if you're from North America or Europe.

But in parts of Latin America, they're still working out the kinks. And that created an opportunity.

A few years ago, a team of entrepreneurs founded a company called CinePapaya in Lima, Peru. Its objective was simple-- sell tickets online to any movie, in any theather in Peru.

Basically it's the Peruvian version of Fandango. Nothing particularly original about the idea.

But because it wasn't already being done in Peru, they had no competition... and they were quickly able to dominate the market.

Today they've managed to apply the same model across nine countries in Latin America, including Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.

The company is thriving. And the founders have made a fortune on an incredibly simple idea that had already become successful in North America and Europe.

A few years ago, a Swiss business student did the same thing, bringing a taxi-hire service to Latin America that is similar to Uber. It's called Safer Taxi. And it has revolutionized the taxi industry in the region.

This is a common approach in developing countries.

Places like Chile, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, much of Asia, etc. have rapidly growing middle classes. Disposable income is rising. People are going out more, spending more, consuming more.

But in many of these countries, there is a distinct lack of what westerners would consider 'basic' services... like being able to buy movie tickets online for any theater in the city.

Things that have become ubiquitous in North America and Europe often don't exist in the developing world. The demand is clearly there. But the supply isn't.

This creates huge potential for you to build a successful business in growing countries, often by simply using the exact same business model that works so well back home.

And there's a key benefit in doing this: when you export that model overseas, the risk is substantially lower because it has already been tested in a much more competitive environment.

Overseas, there is no cutthroat competition... no billion dollar companies or "me too" followers breathing down your neck.

Plus, given the lack of competition, the locals will often adopt your product much more quickly.

Even if you don't fancy yourself much of an entrepreneur, it's still possible to participate in many of these opportunities as an investor.

Startups need cash, at a minimum to fuel growth. CinePapaya, for example, participated in the Startup Chile incubator, and ultimately received venture capital last year.

In this part of the world, though, there is a dearth of funds or even angel investors who invest in startups or early stage private equity.

Places like San Francisco are crawling with cheap money and seed capital. Latin America is not, despite the region's overwhelming growth prospects.

So not only is there little competition for entrepreneurs who create new businesses or import great business models, there's also little competition for investors who want to get in on the action in a thriving market.

More on that in a future letter.

http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/hones...eas-14077/

[Cyclone]

Shenzhen, easily. It's right above Hong Kong and you can find literally *anything* there. good luck navigating though the heaps of warehouses and markets though. If you do go to Hong Kong, stop in "Sham Shui Po" where there are a multitude of wholesale-electronics shops i.e. you can ONLY buy wholesale, to ship anywhere you like
.

[Afarang]

(04-11-2014 04:02 AM)Cyclone Wrote:  

Shenzhen, easily. It's right above Hong Kong and you can find literally *anything* there. good luck navigating though the heaps of warehouses and markets though. If you do go to Hong Kong, stop in "Sham Shui Po" where there are a multitude of wholesale-electronics shops i.e. you can ONLY buy wholesale, to ship anywhere you like
.

interesting thanks, wonder if I can make an account on the amazon market place/play and sell via there.

[Cyclone]

(04-13-2014 06:02 AM)Afarang Wrote:  

interesting thanks, wonder if I can make an account on the amazon market place/play and sell via there.

Well i'm not sure what your target audience is, but if tons of people want ghetto/cheap devices and tons of fake brands, rolexes; you would make a killing. You'd have to hide the true description on Amazon somehow. But i would just browse Shenzhen for a few days i'm sure you'd get tons of ideas
.

[Afarang]

(04-14-2014 12:50 AM)Cyclone Wrote:  

(04-13-2014 06:02 AM)Afarang Wrote:  

interesting thanks, wonder if I can make an account on the amazon market place/play and sell via there.

Well i'm not sure what your target audience is, but if tons of people want ghetto/cheap devices and tons of fake brands, rolexes; you would make a killing. You'd have to hide the true description on Amazon somehow. But i would just browse Shenzhen for a few days i'm sure you'd get tons of ideas
.

I wont be selling fakes, but other stuff, I have a few ideas of what I can sell. Never good idea to sell fake stuff on amazon, gonna get perm banned sooner or later

[T and A Man]

You can sell genuine Relox's

[samsamsam]

Afarang, just curious if you decided to make a visit and are you going to market anything?

A general question. Is it easy to find a service to take your product made in China and send it from Hong Kong? Just curious if anyone has dealt with that. I wonder how they structure the fees for that service. Thanks!