By opening up a web-based business selling wholesale DVDs, you are giving yourself the ability to work from home. Ask any random group of ten adults if they would enjoy working from home and you’ll receive an overwhelming response. For million of Americans, working from home is the ultimate job and with a successful online business selling a product that can help you turn a real profit, you’ll likely be able to quit your day job after your web based business is established. It is a luxury that few people are able to enjoy, but it could be your daily reality with a little bit of hard work.

Probably the best thing about a wholesale DVD based home business is the fact that you are selling a product that just about every American over the age of 13 buys on a weekly basis. You would probably have to sell air to have a product that is more in demand that DVD movies, television shows and special interest programming. Think about it, do you know a single person that doesn’t have their own DVD collection? By buying wholesale, you can establish an impressive inventory and still have enough room to increase the prices so you make a tidy profit. It really is a win-win situation.

If you are a tech savvy consumer, you have probably heard about the eventual switch from DVD to Blu-Ray discs. Blu-Ray technology is the next generation. These DVDs can hold far more data than a regular DVD. Some people have questioned opening a DVD store online if the format is close to dying out. The truth is, most people don’t even know what a Blu-Ray disc is yet, and since many people are still smarting over the fact that they had to switch all of their VHS tapes to DVD, they aren’t exactly chomping at the bit to replace their entire movie collection all over again. The switch to Blu-Ray will happen eventually, but it will likely take decades, just like the switch from VHS to DVD did, so you have very little to worry about. If you want, you can also sell a few Blu-Ray discs in your online store, as well.

Know Where You Stand

The first thing you need to do is find out how your feedback looks for the last 90 days. There is a free tool at Toolhaus that will examine your feedback for the last 90 days and report where you stand. If your negative and neutral feedback is less than 3%, you are probably doing a good job and don't need to worry. If it is more than 5%, chances are you have already been targeted by the new policy or will be soon.

Dealing with Neutrals and Negatives

Most weeks I ship over 1,000 packages. Mistakes happen. I understand there are times that I deserve a negative or a neutral feedback. I have no problem with this. When this happens, I always write to these buyers and offer an apology and correct any problems that resulted in the bad feedback. Once I am sure the situation has been resolved, I'll send them a request to withdrawl the negative or neutral feedback. In most cases, this is successful.

There is another aspect of negative and neutral feedback that is not deserved. When I examined the negative and neutral feedback left on my largest account for the last 90 days, I found 75% of it was left by buyers with a rating of 5 or less. Nearly 25% of it was left by buyers with a rating of 1 or less. In my experience, these buyers never write or call about a problem. They are quick to leave feedback for problems that are usually of their own creation. When I examined the account of one buyer that recently left me a negative, I found they had left neutrals and negatives for 6 out of 10 purchases they had made from 10 unique sellers.

I don't waste a lot of time playing nice with these buyers. In my opinion, they are a problem that eBay should address. At the very least, they should not have any weight in the seller non-performance policy that eBay has started enforcing.

When I determine that a buyer left me negative or neutral feedback and it was undeserved, I always respond with a negative. I usually put something like, "Buyer left bad feedback with no contact about a problem" or something similar. I immediately send a request to withdrawl the negative or neutral feedback. In more than 50% of the cases, I never hear a word and the buyer withdrawls the feedback.

In those cases where a buyer chooses not to communicate and doesn't withdraw feedback within 7 days, I file a Square Trade case. Square Trade is a mediation company that has the ability to withdraw feedback left on eBay provided both parties agree or one party never responds to the Square Trade emails. In my experience, more than 75% of these dead beat buyers do not respond.

If a buyer doesn't respond within 14 days, you can pay ST a fee of $30 to review the dispute and contact eBay to remove the comment left for you. I don't always pay the fee. I am pretty selective about the feedback I pay to withdraw. I'll usually pay to remove a negative provided there is only one negative per user. In most cases, I never pay to remove a neutral. The only circumstance would be if my 90 day percentage was creeping above 3%. In that case, I might consider it.

I started implementing these techniques over the last 4 months. When I started, my 90 day feedback rating was 1.5% negative and 2% neutral. Currently, I have my rating down to less than 2% negative and neutral feedback for the last 90 days.

Good Luck and Happy eBaying.....

There are 8 region codes used by dvd manufacturers. In the United States, our dvd players are configured to play dvds sold as region 1. In the UK, the dvd players sold are configured for region 2 dvds. You can't play a region 1 dvd in a dvd player configured for anything other than region 1. So basically, you can't order dvds from a region 1 dvd wholesaler, and plan to sell them to customers with region 2 dvd players.

My list contains a handful of UK suppliers in addition to the top supplier for the UK market. You can get more info at the following link. UK Dvd Supplier

I also found a very good article on dvd coding. It is worth reading and can be found at the link below. DVD Region Coding

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch

You are correct. You absolutely have to consider the shipping costs for your wholesale lots. I am amazed at the number of people that don't take this into consideration. It is a must.

There is no rule of thumb for how much to pay per dvd. It all depends on the titles you are getting. I once paid $7 each for a wholesale lot of 500 dvds on ebay. I was able to double my money on this lot because it contained mostly box sets and tv series. It turned out to be a great deal.

In most cases, I never spend that much for used dvds. But once again, it is all about the titles and takes a little time to learn. The best advice I can give to a new buyer is spend time researching what used titles are selling for. It should be fairly evident which titles are going to be good sellers.

Another thing new buyers should be aware of are filler titles. If you buy a wholesale lot on Ebay make sure the seller names every single title you are getting. If they don't, don't buy it. If a seller only takes the time to name a few titles then you can be sure those are going to be the best titles in the lot. The other titles are probably worth less than $1 each and are known as filler titles.

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch