groovinjello

Several years ago I had a friend who would take trips to Asia, while there buy a bunch of trinkets and "collectibles" and bring them back to sell on eBay. This pretty much paid for the cost of the trip and a little extra cash. It was by no means enough for a full time job.

I've heard others talk about buying up things in the US, like Jeans or other hot fashion items and selling them in Europe, etc. Or buying Jeans in Japan and selling them in the states.

Understanding that there are customs laws and assuming these people abided by those laws, does anyone here have experience in this type of travel funding? Is there another name for it that I might be missing when I do my Google/forum search?

Cheers,
GJ

Doc Savage

This becomes sticky in terms of customs if you are importing things to sell them.

I suspect it would be hard to find things upon which you could make much of a profit, anyway. I'd say "Not worth the hassle."

YMMV

dvs7310

I do it, from the US & Europe to Japan. Not going to say what exactly as I have a pretty good run on a niche market at the moment. Only customs issue I have is 8% consumption tax in Japan as what I sell is otherwise duty free. On average I can make an extra $50-70k a year in addition to my regular income, so I suppose if someone actually wanted to they could do it full time. It definitely provides me with travel money plus some, so if it's something that interests you, I'd recommended finding something fairly niche with a high margin in the country you'd be selling in, that way you don't deal with so much volume. Also very helpful to do duty free goods or very low duty.

Adam1222

if you are actually interested in effectively becoming an importer, I would consult a trade or tax lawyer, not Flyertalk.

RustyC

I'm a bit like dvs7310, though it sounds like he's got a more lucrative area, whatever it is.

One area where there's a surge in demand lately is for certain U.S. and UK cultural exports. If u can get your hands on some old Pink Floyd LPs in decent shape, for example, prices in better-off third world countries are more insane than in the U.S. due to supply/demand imbalances.

UltraRant

Living in Norway, I can strongly relate to this. Prices on basically anything are insane here. So, sometimes I go abroad to do some gift shopping, for example for Christmas or birthdays. If I combine it with a visit to a hair dresser in for example Germany or Holland, I usually save much more than my ticket costs (even with the current crappy Norwegian kroner course). And I get a nice trip in addition.

A serious trade in anything isn't profitable here. The market is just too small and a lot of Norwegians are scared to death of touching anything foreign. So as long as I don't tell where it's bought, it's all ok.

Steve_19

I knew someone on a few of my trips to Asia who would buy fake designer headphones to sell in the US - besides the ethics involved with doing this, they did not make a huge amount of money even passing them off as real.

I may be in the dark about this topic, but would be surprised if this is possible to do with a lot of items. From my travels I have never run into many products that are significantly priced differently then in my home market (my home market being the US) to make this strategy work (unless of course you buy a huge amount of that product - but then getting it back home may be an issue). I think the easiest way would be to buy fake products and then try to sell them as real to get the best return, but I would not say a very ethical thing to do

DaveBlaine

groovinjello

Join Date: Feb 2012

Posts: 1

Welcome to FlyerTalk. Glad you found something post-worthy.

BorussiaMG

That is rather fraud than an unethical thing to do.

I have heard of people making good money selling printed t-shirts in Europe. No fake desginer shirts but custom ones. During my studies I thought about importing beer condoms and having a brewery add them to a crate of beer. Imo a nice give-away during a summer promotion or during World Cup. Howsoever I did the math and didn't have the balls to give it a shot. I don't regret it though. Otherwise I would try it now instead of writing it down. Nevertheless I still think it is the "rubbish" that is most profitable.

RustyC

The last thing you want to do is try to pass them off as real, but that doesn't mean money can't be made on fakes. Way back around 2000 and before, when eBay was smaller and didn't have huge attention all around, a few sharp people living in places like Bangkok were doing very well selling knock-off purses. Maybe something ridiculous would be on "Sex and the City" or somewhere else for $500-$1,000 and they'd sell something that'd look just like it for $125-150 on a $25-40 cost basis.

The last thing they wanted was for someone buying to think it was the original item, and 95-98% of buyers knew it wasn't and just wanted something just like it for a fraction of the cost. Listings would hint at the non-original nature but usually couldn't come out and say it.

But the heyday of that lasted only a few years, and by the mid-aughts everything was getting heavily lawyered and the brands got all upset and even got the French government to criminalize trafficking in the fakes (yet more draconian punishment for non-violent crime at the behest of powerful special interests in the name of revenue).

MSPeconomist

It's against the law in many developed countries, including the USA, to import fake copies of trademarked items.

UltraRant

That'd be straight criminal behavior. If you get caught you can get into some serious trouble. I don't think (at least I don't hope) this is what OP meant...

What would work is region bound things that are small and have no weight, like coins, stamps, spices like saffron, et cetera. And even then you should be aware that there technically may be limitations and applicable customs regulations.

boboqui

I read that a guy was caught taking iPhones made in China back to China, he had dozens strapped to his body.

BuildingMyBento

On a few KCR (now MTR) trips up to the Shenzhen Luo Hu border from Hong Kong, I noticed a bunch of suitcases stuffed with toothpaste and bog rolls.

Sad, really.

Steve_19

I am not endorsing the strategy the person I know used, but just saying I really think this would be one of the few options to get a good return on a product.

Was common in Asia, at least a few years ago, to be stopped there coming back to the US and have your bag checked for goods. If you had 3-4 pairs of fake sunglasses / headphones, normally OK as could be gifts for friends. But getting above this number of items usually resulted in them being confiscated, from my experiences.

We live in such a global world I am not sure what products you could find in person and bring back to sell in another region that someone else could not find "online" for close to the same price.