The three things to look for in a product is that the product is a good size, has minimal electronics and is not a product that people only buy brand name.  Once you have these steps down you are ready to contact a supplier.

The product I am deciding to do for this example is leather journals. Leather journals meet all of the qualifications of being a good size, having minimal electronics and not being a brand name product. I got the idea from my girlfriend who recently bought a journal off Amazon. I looked online and saw that some journals were going for as much as $30!!! You can buy any NYT Best Seller for under $20 and at least that book will have words in it.

One example I found was this:Image

and                           Image

 

The links can be found HERE and HERE accordingly.

As you can see above, the journal the supplier is selling on Alibaba.com has a MOQ (minimum order quantity) of 5,000 pieces. I don’t believe them… I know I can get a much smaller order quantity, especially if I say I want a sample order of say, 25 journals.

I am going to email the supplier asking for a catalogue/price list so I may see all the products they make and decide which one has the best price to quality ratio. Keep your emails short and simple. Many suppliers’ first language is not english, so there is no reason to get fancy – in the end it will only confuse them. Do not add any useless information that they don’t need. Since it may take a whole day to get back to you (because of time zone differences), you don’t want to waste time having your supplier emailing you just to clarify something that doesn’t even matter.