<p>During my freshman year there was these students down the hall in my dorm that made tons of money (for a college student), by buying cell phones in bulk and selling them individually on eBay. This year I thought why not do something similar. I am going to try to ask an Indian friend (who is there for the summer) to find a supplier, of something simple (a product yet to be determined) that we can get there cheaply in bulk and sell in the U.S. for a nice profit. Do you guys think is doable?</p>
<p>Does anyone know how the import/export laws and tariffs for India or China > U.S. are, basically how hard it would be to ship stuff here?</p>
<p>How much say it would cost to ship crates of products to say Champaign, IL?</p>
<p>Any suggestion for a good product?</p>
<p>Anyone knows how to find good suppliers?</p>
<p>Any other venues, other then ebay that we can sell to?</p>
<p>Those are pretty specific questions. Things you'll probably need to research yourself. Doing anything like that will take a fair amount of your time, which may put additional strain on you during college.</p>
<p>Don't let Mavin scare you. Do all your research before you leave for college. I started eBay this summer and plan on going more in depth this fall in college by buying wholesale and selling individually. You find wholesale suppliers on google. Don't ever pay for a list of wholesale suppliers. There's too much I have to say about this topic, IM me.</p>
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How much say it would cost to ship crates of products to say Champaign, IL?
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<p>A whole lot!! Think of how much it costs to send a 12 by 12 box from Tucson to Jacksonville. Sounds to me like a lot of money is going to be wasted on shipping alone.</p>
<p>I heard that a cousin mine, around 15 or 16 years old, buys shoes from China and sells them on Ebay and nets around $1500/month.....not too bad for someone his age. I haven't talked to him about it so I can't give you any details but I bet his mother (who earns a lot of money as a physician) probably gave him some start-up money.</p>
<p>what??? that's ridiculous. Ebay doesn't care where buyers/sellers are selling. I think as long as this guy doesn't start his own business with loads of inventory and online advertising, it'll be ok.</p>
<p>yo guys. jah dode ebay is the way to go. i aint down for the whole sale, sell retail yet. But i buy designer cloth and sell that stuff to materialistic ass dodes and i plan to sell all my old cloth. i have like 6 TI- 83 calcs as well and if i can get 50 a pop on ebay thats bank too.</p>
<p>Yeah, EBay doesn't care. However, your University sure as hell does. It is in every single dorm policy out there that it is illegal to use your dorm as a place of commercial intent, and that includes any e-commerce. It's fine if you're just using the computer in your room to sell the stuff, but if you also have the products you are selling in there then that is a big no-no. Find your dorm policy and see for yourself because I guarantee that it is in there.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Your looking at possible licensing fees from the certain companies. Which means you will be required to purchuase a seller's license from the company.</p></li>
<li><p>Taxes. Your state might require you to pay both the sales tax and income tax from all PROFITS made on the sale.</p></li>
<li><p>Ebay fees. If you do not have a credit card, how do you plan on paying the ebay fees?</p></li>
<li><p>University restrictions. As another poster pointed, where Iam at (along with most of the colleges and universities in my area) restrict businesses in the dorms. You would be in violation of your contract and you may also bring some unwanted attention to yourself. </p></li>
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<p>Where I am employed at, we had 2 students arrested for tax evasion for not reporting the income. Sometimes the hassle may not be worth the time on ebay.</p>
<p>thanks mom...i mean uc_benz.....you are obviously a rookie when it comes to ebay. kick it down a notch man. its not like the room is filled with shiit to sell.</p>
<p>A rookie? I am far from a rookie son. I have plenty of feedback on EBay.</p>
<p>And if you don't believe me about having commerical activities in your dorm room then that is your problem not mine. Whether or not you choose to acknowledge it doesn't change the fact that is indeed illegal. </p>
<p>Let's take an excerpt from my housing contract:
"A resident may not use any facilities or areas of the residence halls, including the room assigned to the resident, for any commercial purpose or activity"</p>
<p>I think it really depends to in which school you go to as to how strict they will be in their dorms, here in U of I its really lax. Anyway I don't think I mentioned it, but this coming year I am moving into a pretty big house, all my roomates are business majors (which is nice when it comes to accounting, and solving any other problems that come up) . I guess I will check up with the town, make sure we are licensed if we need to, but then again if its just sellin on ebay do we really need to cover our backs that seriously?
Oh yeah I don't think I'm banned or anything, I just fixed my profile.</p>
<p>Yeah but I don't think it's that big of a deal...just don't draw attention....and I mean "I'm selling an old pair of shoes online. I'm selling 25 brand new cell phones from China online..." Who's Counting???</p>