Product Sourcing News   

I want to sell...

Wait! Why can't I get those?

By: Tisha Rogers
Director of Operations, WorldwideBrands.com

Some of the biggest product lookup requests we get at WorldwideBrands.com are for iPhones and iPods. Well, frankly anything Apple.

So why don’t we have a listed wholesale supplier for these products in our Product Sourcing Tool?

Well, Apple has strict rules if you want to be an authorized reseller of their product line and not just anyone can buy from them. They also do not allow sole internet sales and this information is straight from the Apple site.

So, now you are probably saying, I see other people selling iPhones, iPods, iPod Touch and etc online. How are they doing it?

Well, you can most definitely sell overstock, liquidation and closeout Apple products if you can find a supplier that offers them. But Apple will NOT honor the warranty for any of these products. If you get the products from some other means, Apple will NOT honor the warranty for those products either. They will only honor if you are an authorized retailer.

Here are some more details for you if you have a physical storefront and you still want to resell Apple products...

To be eligible for an Apple Authorized Reseller account you must have the following;
• At least 3 Apple, Client, Industry or Vendor References
• Must qualify for a $25,000 credit line with an authorized Apple Distributor.
• In business for at least 2 years.
• You must meet the $100,000 a year purchase requirement to maintain Reseller account.
• You must provide face-to-face pre-sale and post-sale support.

Our next largest product lookup request is for gaming consoles. Wii, PS3 (Playstation 3), Xbox 360, PSP (Playstation Portable) to name a few of the most popular ones. So why don’t we have a big supplier selection for these?

First, do you see a trend here? Why is everyone looking to resell electronics? Trying not to sound harsh, but do you really think that with your buying power as a new seller that you can actually compete with the big chain stores? Most likely not.

Chain stores buy in quantities that you can only dream of. They have to stock their stores all across the globe so their buying power cannot be matched. And as everyone knows, the more you buy, the cheaper each individual item gets. Which equals more profit for chain stores. As a newbie online seller, you will be lucky to get pennies on the dollar profit for most electronics.

Back to gaming consoles. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have rules and requirements as well. They are not as strict as Apple for most of their product lines, but gaming consoles are a different story.

One of the things that these companies work hard to do is combat knock-offs and fakes. So they restrict who can sell what and where. There are also sales territories because they don’t like their retailers in competition so close to each other if it can be helped. So they govern pricing and govern retailers to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand.

So, in order to retail gaming consoles, you must be licensed by these companies. To be licensed, it usually boils down to being able to purchase a large amount of product annually. So if these are things you still want to pursue, contact these corporate offices directly and inquire.

As you can see all of these above are NOT product lines for new sellers. However, you can always sell the accessories without issues and we definitely have Wholesalers and Dropshippers for accessories listed in our tool. Go here to see a Preview of our Product Sourcing Tool, do some searches and see the types of products you CAN resell on the internet!

Oh and of course.. follow me on Twitter! You are welcome to direct message me with your questions.