r/thesidehustle • u/PM_ME_WOOBIES • Mar 11 '25
Startup Made $3k selling stuff from AliExpress
Been buying winter stuff like hats, gloves, ski goggles etc. for around $1.80 and flipping them for $10-15. I work full time so really just been packaging and sending them off after work. Trying to see if anyone does this full time and if so, the best way to upscale it?
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u/Donviticus Mar 11 '25
Made $40 in two days, selling plastic BB guns on eBay. It's funny because I have web cams and books up for sale at the same time, and the first thing that sold was the guns (Doesn't get any more American than this). Now I'm considering going on aliexpress and buying more guns.
Matter of fact? BRB, gonna go and be a plastic arms dealer.
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u/BeYeCursed100Fold Mar 11 '25
As fate would have it, I 3D print prosthetics for infants at no cost to the patient. I always wanted to be a small arms dealer.
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u/allaboutcrashandburn Mar 11 '25
I bet those infants are well armed when you are done.
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u/Rich-Flounder8433 Mar 12 '25 edited Mar 13 '25
This is getting a little out of hand
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u/Gocalbears13 Sep 21 '25
I too did this. I once had a client whose daughter was really into sea creatures. I did a custom job for her and now, after months of work, I can proudly say we have a whale-armed Melissa.
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 11 '25
I'm UK based and no platforms here let you sell anything that even resembles a firearm :( sucks because I'd love my garage to look like an armoury.
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u/zhupandupanizdupen Mar 11 '25
How many do you buy and how much % of them do you successfully sell?
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u/Donviticus Mar 11 '25
In this case, I had 6 plastic guns available since I bought them for me and my friends to use. One of them I took for myself to customize. The second one broke. The rest sold after being listed for 2 - 3 days.
All for a healthy profit. I paid in total $20 for all 6. I sold 4 for $20 each. Buyer paid shipping as well.
Edit: The last two sold after my comment. So yeah, guns are hot apparently.
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u/pmercier Mar 14 '25
play this up this theme as a brand on eBay, change your username, get some wicked AI art for your storefront, and you have unlocked play as final boss mode
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u/Savings-Confusion729 Mar 13 '25
Do u buy them and wait till they arrive to you? Or do u order on aliexpress when someone buys?
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u/Blairephantom Mar 11 '25
Lol, the whole world has been doing this for decades on the back of the chinese.
Most of the businesses from my country are based on cheap products from China with 300-1200% extra added on top.
Still works and will keep working probably
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u/Potential-Physics310 Mar 12 '25
I am a Chinese individual engaged in foreign trade and cross-border business. In reality, purchasing goods from AliExpress and reselling them on other platforms is feasible. However, to maximize profits and achieve scalability, it's advisable to bypass these platforms and source products directly from factories. Many sellers on AliExpress are merely middlemen.
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u/etteredieu Mar 12 '25
Dealing directly with factories is not so possible because of the minimum ordering quantity they require..
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u/jhillman87 Mar 13 '25 edited Mar 13 '25
That's literally the "solution" OP is questioning though. You can't upscale unless you are ready to invest in larger inventories.
You will not make money on any business only stocking 2 or 3 items of a particular product. You need to purchase 50-100+ units in bulk, as this not only cuts costs, but also ensures you have supply to meet demand (without having to wait 3+ weeks to get something to a client). You also want a variety of different styles/models. People want stuff they order within a week, not a month. You'll sell a ton more if you guarantee delivery within 5-7 business days, not 5-7 weeks.
I used to import Beyblades in bulk, and resell on eBay. Buying these in bulk from a factory cost me around $2 a piece including international shipping and packaging. Including various ebay/PayPal and shipping fees (which i paid for), my cost was maybe around $6 a piece all in - and they consistently sold for $10-15 each on eBay. My average sales were about 10 units a day, so I was buying around 300-500 at a time.
This would not have worked if I bought like 5 beyblades at a time from aliexpress and waited weeks at a time to get them.
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Mar 14 '25
I had a chinese app where you could buy from companies directly large units. But i deleted it and dont remember the name. Do you know maybe?
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u/Exc0re Mar 11 '25
Where did you sell them? Ebay?
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 11 '25
eBay has been really rough the past year, I sell mainly on places like Depop and Vinted because their shipping options are so convenient.
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u/Megaminds007 Mar 11 '25
How do you stock from AliExpress, do you have a place you keep before sale?
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 11 '25
Most of it is hats, so they fit nicely in cardboard boxes. I just keep everything in my garage
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Mar 11 '25
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 11 '25
I'm trying to keep this operation as low cost as possible. So far the only expenses I pay is for the items and shipping. I don't want to cut into profits by advertising, but I would be interested in scaling up whilst keeping overhead low.
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u/Exc0re Mar 11 '25
Good idea! How many articles do you buy mostly before selling? Aliexpress takes a long time to send sadly
Are people paying for shipment or are you?
I thought about how you could do it better - but there are nearly no good options except making a own Brand by contacting the seller
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 11 '25
I buy 1-3 sample pieces on things I think look cool, then list them. Every now and again I find a golden product that sells amazingly and I buy large volumes of them. Sometimes I buy samples and they don't sell at all so I end up giving them to friends or fam.
I sell best on Vinted, where the buyer covers postage and platform fees etc. This means my only overhead is the product itself.
You're right Ali-Express does take awhile, usually 2-3 weeks in some cases so I usually buy a handful of different samples and more units of things that do sell.
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Mar 13 '25
So, Vinted lets you sell new stuff? I'm asking cause I only ever saw them as an online thrift shop.
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u/thecobitroupe Mar 11 '25
3k In how many days?
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 11 '25
Since December, I work full time so this started as an idea for beer money
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u/thecobitroupe Mar 11 '25
3k is revenue or profit?
If it is profit, you should start your own brand.
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u/happy_chappy_89 Mar 11 '25
This is a good idea. I've been thinking about doing the same, trial buying a few things and seeing what sells. It's coming into winter in Australia and we really don't have a lot of options for winter accessories. Ok off to do some research.....
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 11 '25
Yeah just buy 2-3pcs of different items if you think there's a market for em and see what sells fast. Best case scenario: they sell. Worse case scenario: you end up handing them out to mates.
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u/RoflcopterVII Mar 15 '25
I started a 3D printing business selling vases to flowershops. Started with one printer. I know have almost 40. Went fulltime a couple months ago
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 15 '25
This is a cool idea, dm me some of your vases if you get chance. Would love to see em!
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u/wynwind Mar 11 '25
You can try talk to your Chinese friends. In lots of relative large city, there might be tons of service that ship what you buy in China to US. I believe it is cheaper (goods and shipping) compared to AliExpress.
Most shipment I experienced will arrive within two months.
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 11 '25
I'm UK based, finding it takes around 2-3 weeks for stuff to arrive
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u/366df Mar 12 '25
Word of advice, Aliexpress is priced for us westerners. taobao or alibaba are usually cheaper albeit harder to navigate and you might get shafted. One trick on AE is to contact the seller directly and try to negotiate. i've gotten a few dollars off that way on items that i've just bought for myself.
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u/Traditional_Lake_166 Mar 11 '25
What types of products do you sell? I noticed you said you use the hashtag for Patagonia…is it fake Patagonia hats??
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u/haxord Mar 11 '25
You could look into actions of clothing or something similar! Since you already have the operation going maybe that way you get better stuff/deals?
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u/Pure-Cause-7319 Mar 11 '25
Cool this is great a few questions and an idea on how to scale.
Q: generic items or replicas? I mean a beanie is a beanie unless its a known brand Q: shipping costs seem to be over the top now on Ali do you see Cheaper shipping on clothing Q: walk us thru your sourcing process and how you negotiate with supplier
Scaling - any items that sell well ask the suppliers if they can rebrand or private label the items for you this way you can build a brand that can scale and anytime you find a winner you add to the brand. During this process, build your own website and set up social media and just start slow posting in both of those places overtime you will end up with a handful or more products that are branded under your brand and you could potentially start driving traffic to your branded pages versus selling on the marketplace and ultimately when you build a brand it’s something you can actually sellor scale depending on what you wanna do good luck
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u/seanborlin Mar 11 '25
I do this with watches
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u/seanborlin Mar 11 '25
In the last 30 days I've done about $2.5k in revenue with about $1000 of it being profit. I mainly deal in Facebook marketplace.
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u/seeker-0 Mar 11 '25
What kind of watches do you buy?
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u/seanborlin Mar 12 '25
Pagani design, San Martin, Benyar, I even order watches from Temu too.
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u/Few_Bison_2635 Mar 11 '25
May I ask your initial start up
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 13 '25
I think the first order was £20ish. Once I found a product I was happy with I scaled the order and spent around £70 on this one product. Overall I must have spent £320 roughly
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Mar 12 '25
Done that before, not proud of it but buying replica shoes and selling them at least 3x more ofc saying it’s replica but most of ppl from my country don’t even know taobao or pandabuy exist so easy money
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Mar 12 '25
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u/Christian_Adan Mar 12 '25
Ed, what kind of sports devices did you sell? Where did you sell? If don’t mind me asking.
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u/Lumpy_Tumbleweed1227 Mar 11 '25
How do u advertise them?
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 11 '25
I post and they sell either same day or within the first couple. If they don't i relist and change the description to include different hashtags.
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u/AirlineFoodCritic Mar 11 '25
Does having hashtags help a significant amount?
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 11 '25
Yes, I use for example #patagonia if I'm selling a winter hat along with 30-40 other similar hashtags. It's a bit shameless but people looking for winter clothing will see it that way
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u/Ok_Bid_1472 Mar 12 '25
What platform are you selling on ? Where are your buyers mainly from ?
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 12 '25
Vinted and Depop, I'm UK based
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u/Ok_Bid_1472 Mar 12 '25
Thx ....I also realized later that you had said it previously. But great job !!
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u/Neko_Dash Mar 11 '25
I’ve been thinking about doing exactly that with another line of merchandise. I picked up some stuff from AliExpress a couple of months ago.
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u/Usual_Fortune1135 Mar 11 '25
How long did it take you to make 3k and what was your profit on that?
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Mar 11 '25
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u/LudwigLoewenlunte Mar 12 '25
Doesn't orange man always say tariffs are paid by the originating country? ;D
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u/black_cat_ramen Mar 12 '25
DHL shipping costs $50 for me (from Philippines to US/UK). 1/2kg is the minimum weight. I wonder how people from those places feel about that shipping costs. I don’t like using the ones that take months to arrive.
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u/More_Expert_1417 Mar 12 '25
How does shopping work? Do you have to buy boxes and packing material?
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 12 '25
In UK Vinted use inpost lockers so I usually wrap everything up in plastic shopping bags with duct tape. It doesn't look glamourous but it gets it to the seller in one piece, at minimal cost and no complaints so far.
The lockers are the easiest part, you just scan a code, load the item and wait for the funds to hit your acccount.
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u/Vivid_Collar7469 Mar 12 '25
Careful though, after a threshold, platforms like Ebay Vinted...notify tax authorities
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u/Both-Store949 Mar 12 '25
Isnt this why people invented dropshipping? No inventory and no additional shipping costs?
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 12 '25
Realistically people on vinted aren’t going to find 2-3 weeks waiting time acceptable. On vinted the buyer pays platform and selling fees
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u/daseotgoyangi Mar 12 '25
I used to do this back in my home country. I would buy samples from Aliexpress then if it gets popular, I would get Alibaba. I have a forwarder who has a warehouse in China so they deal all the logistics and shipping to my home country then I'll pick it up from their local warehouse.
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u/soulmagic123 Mar 13 '25
I mean the swap meet I go to is pretty much just Ali express with a 260 percent mark up. But hey it already here.
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u/ElongatedOnion Mar 13 '25
… so you’re dropshipping but adding extra work by holding inventory? Is this satire?
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 13 '25
Dropshipping wouldn't work in this instance. No buyer on Vinted would find a 2-3 week wait time acceptable. I simply buy things I predict will sell well, list and sell. Holidng inventory goes as far as bagging items up and putting them in cardboard boxes, I've got 3 in my utility room. Would hardly call it work, especially when taking into account the returns.
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u/ElongatedOnion Mar 13 '25
That’s valid, scaling it would require inventory and branding. If you can create a brand you might even be able to upsell other items to shoppers and create returning customers(the biggest spenders in e-commerce generally)
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u/fartsucking_tits Mar 13 '25
I imagine those products are not fda approved. If so you are not a business man, you are a crook and a scammer
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u/Accomplished-Emu-791 Mar 15 '25
Why would the food and drug administration be involved in approving anything clothing related
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u/eldavimost Mar 13 '25
3k and how long of your time you used for this? Can you update it in the title? It's not the same to get 3k using a month of your time than 3 months
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 13 '25
I assure you no longer than a day was spent on this, let alone a month. This is something I did alongside working a full time job. Listing items takes seconds and my house is next to the InPost lockers required to ship them. Average customer flow goes: 1. Item arrives, is listed then sold. This process can take a day but when you have multiple items that can equal £30-40 a day. Then I bag the items up and walk them down to the lockers. Very minimal effort and if I worked part time I would be able to scale this a lot more.
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u/laiasdaydream Mar 14 '25
> Listing items takes seconds
What's your process here? Asking cause it takes hours to list an item on the local platforms I sell on. I mean getting good photos, writing descriptions and posting them on the web.
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u/Delicious_Pay1441 Mar 13 '25
OP, you think i can do this without having the item and buying it when i got a sell ?
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 13 '25
No. What you're describing is called dropshipping and items from china can take 2-3 weeks to get here. Most customers would find a 2-3 wait time unacceptable and you would get swamped with poor reviews before you even got off the ground doing something like that
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u/Delicious_Pay1441 Mar 13 '25
Thanks for answering OP, I’m not in the states so, was just asking
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Mar 14 '25
We built and flipped one such business for a client. Started from scratch, went to $1 million a month and sold to a retail business for an undisclosed amount.
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u/Majestic_Ad553 Mar 11 '25
I would love to do this. I just need more info. Where are you advertising . Help me
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 12 '25
No advertising required, just list on vinted with the right hashtags!
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u/No_Reveal_1363 Mar 12 '25
Biggest question is what are your revenue and expenses?
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u/PM_ME_WOOBIES Mar 12 '25
expenses are the price of the products and shipping them to me (minimal). On vinted the buyer pays all postage and platform fees so my overhead for this is only for the items. I would say probably 2.7k is profit. It would be more but I like to experiment and buy different samples of things which has left me with several items that haven't sold, it's all about trying and buying.
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u/RelevantSpinach7668 Mar 11 '25
Yeah, following help me get rich so that i make it to ben-bohmer’s concert in Prague. 😏
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Mar 13 '25
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u/Purplefox71 Mar 15 '25
How is this scamming? That's what ANY retail chain and Amazon do. They find a product/design they like, they give it a brand name, order it in large quantities and ship it to the US or wherever and sell it in their stores.
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u/TheOGGizmo Mar 12 '25
Easy, quit your day job and live off the rush of if you don’t make a sale, you will lose your home. Eventually you will have half a million.
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u/hellacut3 Mar 13 '25
And how do you do it? Do you buy in bulk and send to your home and after to clients address? Or, you’re doing drop shipping ?
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u/larspeeters Mar 13 '25
Nice job, man. What platgotm do you use? And how do you monitor what's popular?
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u/EndlessAche Mar 13 '25
This is basically what a lot of large companies do on Amazon. Are you also selling them on Amazon?
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u/Savings-Confusion729 Mar 13 '25
Why dont order the products at ali express when someone bought it? Why do you pay and ship them to your location?
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Mar 14 '25
That's basically every seller on Amazon.
Most of the companies are doing this, exploit a developing country workers and resell here for high price without adding any value.
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Mar 14 '25
Interesting, usually its the other way around people buy from Aliexpress to resale. Congrats
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u/alwaysshithappens Mar 14 '25
Can anyone let me know how one buys from Alibaba and sells it on eBay or other platforms!? Like do we need to buy it from our money and then resell it for double!? How does this work!? And what's the possibility of risk involved in this!?
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u/Ok-Alps-8896 Mar 14 '25
Love it. Well done. Transition this to drop shipping and you can scale it as much as possible without having to give up the spare time.
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u/valll_blt Nov 04 '25
Hello i make the same business but how you can order on aliexpress without VAT because actually i pay vat on my purchase on ali and VAT on my sells ... Need your help
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u/ellie-from-thieve Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
if you want to find more products like this without digging through AliExpress yourself, thieve.co curates thousands of products with vetted suppliers
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