Two pronged approach
July 19, 2009 by MindanaoBob
Filed under Feature, My New Journey
As I make plans for my re-entry into the Online Auction business, I have decided that I am going to go for a little different approach to the business this time around. I’m going to use a “two pronged approach.” Hmm….
What do I mean by a “two pronged approach?” Let me explain a bit, and after a few paragraphs you should have an idea what I am talking about.
You see, when I first started selling on eBay, in 1998, I lived in the USA. I had lived in the US all of my life, except for a short 2 year stint in South Africa when I was a young child. But, my mindset and my business practices were decidedly American.
From 1998 until 2000, I was a regular fixture on eBay, selling all kinds of goods, and making some nice money doing it. In 2000, I relocated to the Philippines, and began a new life here. In 2002, I decided, at the urging of my wife, to get back into online auction selling to make some extra money. We were still fairly new in the Philippines, and needed to learn how to make a decent living here.
2 Prongs!
Naturally, my mind instantly went to selling things on eBay. For me, that meant selling things to people in the USA. Being in the Philippines, I could see a number of items that I could buy cheaply here in the Philippines which would also be in demand in the USA, so I could see that there was money to be made. I got started, and I did really, really well on eBay from here in the Philippines.
eBay Philippines got started sometime around 2004 or so, as I recall. I’m sorry, I don’t remember exactly when their Philippine site went live. However, when eBay Philippines came on the scene, I had little interest in it. It was my feeling that there was little value in selling on eBay Philippines. At first, I think my thoughts were correct. But, after some time, eBay Philippines began to take off. Of course, eBay Philippines is not as mature as eBay is, but it is moving ahead.
Now, with eBay Philippines becoming a better marketplace, and also with me having lived in the Philippines for an appreciable amount of time, I see opportunities that I didn’t see before. I can see opportunities to source items from the Philippines and sell them to American customers via eBay, and I can also see opportunities to source items from the USA to sell to Filipino customers on eBay.PH. There is a market, and I intend to tap that market.
One of the advantages for me is that having lived in both places, I know what is available in each place, and I also know what is in demand in each place.
So, my approach will be two-pronged. Get it now? What I mean is that I will source products in the USA to sell in the Philippines on eBay.PH, and I will source products in the Philippines to sell on eBay.
I believe that with my knowledge, and my ability to source the right products, this is a winning strategy. I will soon find out.
About the Author: Bob Martin is an Internet Entrepreneur living in Davao City, Philippines. Bob is an American, but has lived in the Philippines for about a decade now. Bob got started in the Online Auction business in the early days of the Internet, selling on eBay while it was still in it's infancy.
MindanaoBob
Hi Bob,
I like the two-prong approach as this may apply to me in the near future. I dabbled in eBay several years ago only as a wager. I dared a friend of mine here to see who could be selling on eBay within 30 days. Since I have a database of wholesale suppliers, it was easy for me to locate merchandise. To start the wager, I visited a local dealer here in Chicago and made my test purchase. I began with a dozen listings for one week and all sold successfully! Within 5 weeks time, I had sold 144 products and achieved a 100% satisfactory rating. I stopped selling on eBay since that local supplier relocated to a distant suburb (and I lost interest). Had I continued with selling on eBay, I’m sure I’d be a Powerseller by now. Thus, I plan to get back into online auctions. I’m not sure if I told you this story before.
Hi there Henry! Hey, it seems like I know you from somewhere! Have we met before?
Seriously, though, welcome to my new site! Congrats on your successful start on eBay! Wow, 100% sales! That’s super success, and you deserve it, Henry!
Don’t worry about that one supplier moving away, there are lots of places to find merchandise, and I will be talking about that on this site too!
Hi Bob
Welcome back to the online auction world. I just celebrated my 10th year anniversary as an ebay user and seller. I started out selling sports cards on ebay and it has been a side business lately. I am interested in your two prong approach and will be keeping up to date on your progress as I plan on using ebay Philippines when I make my move to the Philippines.
Hi Dan – Nice to see you here on my new site! I hope you will keep visiting!
I didn’t realize that you had been an eBay user, and especially for that length of time! Congrats on your long term use of the site! I have always enjoyed my eBay experience, and I’m excited to be getting back to it!
Hi Bob
Interesting,
What is the situation regarding tax, importation (or export) duty etc etc.
I asumme you need to pay Philippine tax on the income you make from ebay or can this be ignored?
Hi Bacolod – I would never advise anybody not to pay taxes that are due.
Hi Bob,
Glad to see this underway, drawing comments and I am sure soon, profits as well.
Onwe thing I noticed. The links from your former Virtual Earner blog aren’t redirected here. You mwentioned this new venture and I carelessly thought I was still subscribed and that perhaps you hadn’t yet gotten time to actually start writing. All is well now, but there might be some other “orphaned readers” out there still.
Hi Dave – I decided not to redirect. I want this to be something different, not just a replacement for Virtual Earner, so I cut all ties! Those who are interested will find it!
Yeah, probably stupid, but that’s OK. 
Hi Bob
Sorry, I didn’t ask my question correctly.
What I was trying to ask is what is the situation regarding paying export/import/income and such tax. I mean do you just declare it on your tax form as income, or what? I know almost nothing about such things and was hoping for some insight from you as you have knowledge & experience of this. Obviously this issue would also be helpful for other readers to remain om the right side of the law.
Anyway, good luck with this ‘new’ venture. MillionaireMindanoBob, sounds good eh
Hi Bacolod Barry – Firstly… I am not anywhere near a millionaire. I work hard just like you probably do! Right now, times are tight, which is why I want to work on a new venture!
Truth is on this, I am not an accountant. The questions you are asking are more for a tax accountant. My advice is that any profit you make, you have to pay taxes on it, and you should do that. If you are not trained in how to determine how to determine how much of your income is a profit, I would advise that you should get a tax accountant. I don’t want to give advice on this, because it is not my area of expertise, and also if I give bad advice it could get you in trouble. I’ve never had any training in accounting.
Now, if you are shipping stuff across borders you may or may not have to pay customs duty. That also depends on many factors. In my past experience, if I was shipping out, and the customer was in another country, then the customer was liable to pay the customs agent whatever was due. I am using a method of inbound shipment on goods I will be selling that does not accrue importation duties.
ha ha .. got it Bob … keep one step ahead of the creditors that way LoL. On bacolod Barry’s question … indeed a tax professional should be one of the first ‘freinds’ a start-up business should have … there is a lot of conflicting and not so accurate information floating around the ‘Net. But in general … at the basic level, running a business in the Philippines, selling into the US and other countries is not all that different from running a buisnes from inside the US.
You keep business records, you record expenses like cost of goods acquired for sale, advertising, shipping, etc., and you record income like sales made. At the right times you sit down with yur tax professional and fill up your tax forms and write the IRS checks. Death and taxes, *sigh*
Customs duty that you might have to pay is just another business expense, and as you correctly point out, customs duty on items shipped into the US would be the responsibility of the purchaser … in fact it’s almost impossible for the shipper to ‘pre-pay’ the customs duty anyway … just make the buyer aware they will have to pay and if they agree, sell and ship the produict.
Hi Dave – The Virtual Earner site made so little that the Creditors probably owe me money!