Jillian Entertainment CD & DVD Wholesale Directory

In browsing eBay recently, I see there are huge DVD sellers opertaing there who sell their DVD's for a penny. They're charging 3.95 for shipping, and I know the Media Mail cost for shipping 1 DVD is 2.65 these days. So obviously the only place they're making a profit is from the shipping charge. They can scarcely be making 1.00 profit by the time one allows for ebay and PayPal fees, to say nothing of their own packaging costs. I had hoped to make at least 1.50 each on any DVDs I sell.

My question is this: In order to really compete w/ these "big league" players, won't I need to price my movies at a penny just as they do, and then have to settle for a buck or less in profits per title sold? Otherwise, it seems there would be no inducement for eBay buyers to buy from me instead of my competition. Am I overlooking something - or will it be necessary for me to accept such meager profits in order to compete?

If you want a lesson on how to compete with the big boys, look no further than Moviemarz. You can read the details in this post. Becoming the top Ebay DVD Seller

Everyone has heard the old saying, "If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck". Well unfortunately, this isn't always the case on ebay. A lot of sellers on ebay are selling bootleg titles and trying to pass them off as legitimate. You can't compete with these sellers on price, but at the end of the day, buyers know the difference. Take a look at any of the auctions closed successfully by Moviemarz. I guarantee you can find 1,000 other auctions for the "same" dvd that sold for far less, but for some reason that buyer chose to pay more and buy from a legitimate seller.

Now there are some legitimate sellers offering 1 cent CDs and DVDs. Jayandmarie are a good example of this. But keep in mind, in most cases they are not offering new product. Most of the product they sell is used and bids up well past the starting fee of 1 cents.

Here is the strategy I use to price my dvds.

Pricing my dvd to sell

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch

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Question: One of the questions I wanted to ask considering the most two popular auction & Marketplace are Ebay & Amazon, Which one is better marketplace to sell DVD or any Hot items in terms of profitablity/Cost(Amazon's Commission is higher than Ebay's combined fees including paypal), probablity of an item selling, ease of listing(Amazon does not offer product page creation for normal seller account) etc.? Also which marketplace would you choose to create a STORE if you have to? Any other differentiating attributes you can think of? What is your experience?

When I started my business, I sold exclusively on Ebay. A dvd is sold on ebay every 3 seconds. Consumers spend an average of 11 million dollars a month on single dvds sold on ebay. It isn't an accident that the top ebay sellers offer dvds.

A couple of years ago, I was invited by Amazon to list my products on their site. I was very reluctant. I had already wasted a lot of time trying to sell on Yahoo Auctions, Overstock.com, and a few others. These ventures turned out to be a waste of time. There was no other site able to provide the number of buyers I was getting from ebay.

After a few phone calls from Amazon, I finally agreed and took the time to list a few items. I was surprised a few days later to notice they actually sold! I listed more items with the same success. Amazon proved to be well worth my time. This year, I will do six figure revenue from Amazon.

I like Amazon because I don't have to pay a listing fee. I pay a flat 15% of the sales price plus shipping and handling. This is a great benefit when you get stuck with titles that just won't sell.

If I were starting my business all over, I'd have my products on ebay and amazon. I've talked to a few sellers that have had good results from half.com. Personally, I don't have any experience with that site.

Why limit yourself to just an ebay or just an amazon store? Why not open a store on both sites once your inventory level is large enough to support both venues.

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch

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Question: Could you please tell me if the DVDs from the USA are the same format as the UK so they will play on UK dvd players as it will be the uk Market that I will be selling to.

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

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Question: I explained a few days ago that I have been approved by ***EDITED*** to purchase videos.

I received a call yesterday from one of their reps about methods of payment. It seems that credit cards, or a debit card are the cheapest ways to pay... however, they asked for a copy of my debit card. I feel this to be a very unusual request. I've had my account compromised in the past with unauthorized use.

I've never been asked for a copy of any credit card before.

You state that you've had experience with this company. Is this a common request from ***EDITED***, or any other supplier you deal with? I would like your opinion on this.

I'll hold off on sending the copy until I hear from you...

I'm not going to recommend you give your card to anyone if you don't feel comfortable. I don't have a credit card on file with this company. I pay for my orders using COD as they arrive at my business. This may be an option for you to discuss with your rep.

Personally, if I decided to use a credit card for payment, I wouldn't have any problem sending a copy to ***EDITED***. They are the second largest dvd wholesaler in the country. I don't know if there is much difference in giving a supplier your credit card number and sending them a copy, other than a copy allows them to verify you actually have the card in your possession. It is most likely a safeguard for them to prevent unauthorized card use.

Another option you can consider is giving them a credit card versus a debit card. If someone makes an unauthorized charge on your debit card, the money is immediately withdrawn from your bank account. It can take months to get this money replaced. You can completely avoid this problem by using a credit card.

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch

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Question: I have already been selling dvds, cd, and books on ebay this summer and have reached silver level powerseller status as of last month after just starting in May. I bought your information becasue I am basically using another retail site as my supplier. They are not really a dropshipper. I have been using them as one though.

I have run into a snag with the big suppliers you have recomended. They want to do a credit check in order to qualify for the "direct to consumer" method of internet sales. For example, ***EDITED*** requires an open credit line of $25,000.00 to do "direct to customer' fullfillment. To be honest, there is no way I will qualify for that. I have been laid off from a job in the past that seriously affected my ability to keep up and my credit rating was damaged. Just recently I had surgery and was on short tern disability and am currently a tad behind. Now I have a good job and can catch up quickly, however, with my initial success on ebay i was hoping and dreaming to corner more of the market that I am in. My store is very small (300+ items) yet I am being very successful.

My question to you is this. What options do people in my situation have in order to have the opportunity to be as successful as I know I can be in this industry? I'm gonna go forward with ***EDITED*** to see what they say. I do know it will not be good. I know they have other options of payment that would entail them sending the product to me and then me forwarding on to my customer. I want to avoid that. That delays the process and customer service is one place I have an edge so far on ebay. I look forward to hearing any suggestions you may have. Thank you for your time.

Congrats on your success so far. It sounds like you are on the right path.

I have never drop shipped a single dvd that I have sold. Basically, if I don't have it in my possession, I don't list it. Customer service is important to me to. I don't want to take the chance that a title I sell is going to be out of stock when it is time to ship to the customer. Sure you can always check inventory levels before listing, but consider the following scenario.

You check with your supplier and feel comfortable listing a time that they have 1,000 of in stock. You list your item on a 7 day auction. Even if your auction ends successfully, not everyone is a fast payer. What happens when it takes your buyer a full 10 days to pay? Regardless of your terms, ebay allows buyers 10 days to make payment. In this case, 17 days have passed from the time you checked the inventory level to the time you are ready to drop ship your product. Are you confident your supplier is still going to have the title in stock? I wouldn't be.

With that said, it seems what you are doing is working well for you. If you can stick to your current model, then go for it. I don't have any magic words to convenience someone to approve you for $25,000 of credit. But maybe you can come up with some arrangement with the dvd supplier.

If you can't, you still have two options you can consider.

1. You already have some sales under your belt and have a good feel for titles. You can continue to use the supplier you are currently using to drop ship the bulk of your orders, and then use the top supplier on my list to order the titles you know are going to be good sellers. This will allow to establish a relationship with this supplier and maybe in 3 - 6 months you can ask them to reconsider a drop shipping arrangement.

2. You can use your knowledge of titles to order all your titles in advance. This is the method I use and recommend for most people. However, if drop shipping is working for you, then that would be my first choice.

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch

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If you take a look at the top ebay dvd sellers, you'll notice one thing. They all have an ebay store. With a listing fee as low as
5 cents, ever serious seller should consider opening an ebay store.

There are a couple of drawbacks to an ebay store. The final value fee is higher than an ebay auction. Most dvd auctions will sell for under $25. Ebay will collect 10% of the final value of all store items sold at $25 or less. Another drawback is store items do not show up in ebay search results except in rare cases.

The top sellers run the bulk of their items as store listings. They run auction listing that provide links to their store and encourage buyers to click through. The most successful strategy is to include a navigation bar in your auction that lists your movies by genre. This is one of the most successful strategies I have found to encourage buyers to visit my store.

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch

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Question: I have sold on Half.com and Ebay. I was wondering what you recommend about Half.com?. Do you sell on that site? I know there are drawbacks and advantages. The advantages in my opinion are that you do not have to pay listing fees. However, I don't think you get the exposure like you do on Ebay. I welcome your thoughts!

I don't have any experience with Half.com. So I can't help you much with that site. For the first five years, I sold exclusively on ebay. About two years ago, I received an invitation to sell on Amazon. I was a little reluctant at first. I wasn't sure Amazon could provide the amount of buyers I was getting from Ebay. Nothing could be further from the truth. This year my business is on track to do six figure revenue from Amazon alone. It was well worth the time.

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Question: Guess what, I'm glad to purchase your Wholesale Directory. Considering that I'm determined to make this path a success, thus seeking your wisdom of experience.My First question:

You mentioned in your hype report in Myth #2 Make Big Money from a Few Sales Each Week' that this is a volume business and thus for increasing your sale per week you have put together a 'Automated System' (from listing to shipping) which may automate 90% of this tasks.

I have a system in place that automates a lot of my ebay auction management. It isn't something I put in place overnight. It was built piece by piece as my business has grown. I wouldn't recommend a new seller put the complete system in place. As you need more automation, consider adding another piece.

1. For the process of posting auctions, I use a piece of software called Auctiva Poster. There is a free version that was released a couple of years ago. I tried it and it didn't provide the functionality I was used to in the Classic Edition.

If you relist the same dvd titles every week, this software will let you do the work once. Once you save an auction listing, you can relist it over and over with the push of a button. It also features the ability to group your items in batches and schedule listings. Once a week, I open my batch, choose the times I want it to run, and everyday the program will list my 1000s of ebay auctions. This is a must have tool for anyone starting an ebay business.

2. For my post auction management tasks I use a software offered by ebay called Seller Manger Pro. It automatically emails all my winning bidders with payment instructions and provides an easy to use interface to manage my payments. This is also another auction management software I would recommend even for new sellers.

3. I use another free software provided by ebay called Ebay Accounting Assistant. I wouldn't recommend it for the new seller. It is for high volume sellers that want a way to automatically import paypal payments into Quickbooks Accounting Software.

4. I use another software called Platinum Shipper provided by Endicia. This software allows me to print postage from my PC and automates the task of linking my customer files from Quickbooks.

For most new sellers, I would recommend Auctiva Poster and Seller Manger Pro. The other software packages can require expensive hardware and you really shouldn't even consider adding them until you are selling 300+ titles a week.

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch

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Question: Hi Brent, thank you for offering the results of your hard work at such a decent price. Just looking it over for the last couple of hours proves it to be worth much more. There is one question I hope you can answer for me. I recently tried to list DVD's on eBay and twice they removed about 25% of the listings they said for reasons of copyright infringement. The first time I listed the DVD's I used pics and descriptions of the internet (blockbuster, amazon, ...). After they removed the listings the first time I took pics myself of the actual DVD and didn't write any description other than the stars and directors and such, and they still removed them. Do you have that trouble? How do I list them without having them removed? Thanks for any help.

Chances are there isn't a problem with the pic or description provided by the studio. The problem is most likely a word or words you are using in the auctions that leads ebay to believe these items are bootleg dvds. If you purchased them from a dvd distributor that advertised them as imports, dvd-5, dvd9, or sold them without the case, chances are good that ebay is correct in removing them.

Some of the bootleg dvds are so sophisticated that they look identical to the legitimate factory dvds. There are a few giveaways that is usually an indication that a dvd supplier is selling bootlegs.

1. If the product is advertised as Region 5, DVD9, or DVD-5, then I would be very suspicious of the copies I were getting. These are code words used to describe bootleg movies.

2. Bootlegs are usually sold without the cases. They often come in clear plastic sleeves.

3. Bootleg dvds usually do not have the special features. The dvds are not the normal capacity as a factory dvd and do not have the room to hold them.

4. Bootleg dvds sometimes have low quality printing and sometimes have Asian writing on them.

If you purchase dvds that fit any of these descriptions, you should question if the dvds are legitimate factory copies or bootlegs.

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch

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Question: Hi..I was looking at you CD & DVD wholesale directory ...are these contact you will have online or will you mail it to me...

I advertise the Jillian Entertainment CD and DVD Wholesale List as Instant Access because it is available by download only. At this time, I don't offer a hard copy of the list.

When you pay for your directory, paypal will immediately direct you to the download page. I also send an email that has the download link to the email address you have registered with paypal.

If for some reason, you paid and still don't have the directory, you can simply email me a copy of your paypal payment at brent at jillianentertainment.com and I will resend you the download link.

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch

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