I want to buy a wholesale lot of Gas scooters and sell them on ebay & my website. What advice can you give me?

Question

I've never really done any importing before, but I manage a furniture store that gets a lot of furniture from China, so I know a little bit about how it works. Is Alibaba.com a good place to start? Can I make FOB arrangements through these wholesalers? i.e. 10net30/net60 arrangements? What kinds of licenses/permits would I need to obtain to sell scooters? Will I need a dealers license if I'm selling on the internet?I live in Memphis, TN. Thanks in advance for your time.

Answer 1

I used to do this and recently sold my powersports company. You have a lot to think about and I will touch on some now.

1. Alibaba is good to find products but most of the sellers there are agents and not the actual manufacturer. This poses 2 issues. 1. Parts availability will be hard to come by and 2. you will not get the best price and have the direct relationship with the factory.

2. Depending on what state you are in or where you will sell the scooters depends on what licensing you will need. Since these are on road vehicles you will need some kind of license if over 50cc. If 50cc or under, some states dont require anything but you need to check with your local DMV.

3. Product liability is a must. If you are the importer, you are then considered the manufacturer. These things break and people get hurt. We carried a huge policy and had a few injuries but I could sleep at night.

4. Before buying a container, why not contact a few distributors and bring in 10 or so to see how they sell. If you they sell well, find the factory that makes them and contact them directly and then private label them with your name. One of the biggest chinese importers is Sunl (dot) com. They are out of Dallas and probably sell in excess of 100,000 scooters per year.   One thing is these are probably the same scooters that the guy around the corner is selling, but it is best to try it before you invest your time and money on a large shipment.

5. If you sell them on the internet, chances are you you need to get a license wherever you end up selling them. Some states are easy to get and others very difficult.  If you sell to a state and dont have a license, than the buyer cannot get it tagged in their state and it will cause you many problems.

Overall, the scooter biz is booming right now. When I did it it was kids atvs and we sold tons of them.  Expect to see many more like you getting into the scooter biz now, so before you invest, do your research with the other local sellers to see their pricing before you make such a commitment.

Hope it helps.