The Wholesale Forums

[wowser]

Hi guys,
I've just started out on my own and am intending to sell (you guys will hate this...) laptops.
I know most new comers probably sell similar stuff but my main reason I wanted to get into it is because i've just graduated in Computer Science and know about computers inside out, I genuinly believe I can offer good pre and after sales, + I know what spec I'm after at what price etc.

What i've done is signed up to a few distributors, these are ingram micro, westcoast and also another one which I cant even remember the name of at the moment.

My question was am I going about this the right way, at the moment ingram micro's pricing does'nt look too bad but there still does not seem to be that much margin in it, what attracted me to ingram were that they were one of the biggest suppliers, should I be looking at wholesalers instead?, I dont really need the service as much as I need the stock at a good price, I did think about contacting manafacturers like Acer directly but i'm just starting out and dont have massive amounts of money to hand, I have about £5k to spend on stock.

I'm not asking to be fed a list of good suppliers, I am willing to do the hard work, just a little guidance would be very much appreciated as at the moment i'm very confused, I dont mind doing the hard work as I'm determined to make this a success, even if its not I can say that I tried

[Beneddie1112]

Elf are a very good supplier. They sell refurbished laptops.

[addlo]

Even though your outlay is just £5000 I'ld say contact Acer and other manufacturers and ask them if they can give you the names of their trusted reliable distributors. They should have no problem doing this. Persistence wins the day over things like this. You go down the line of supply until you find a supplier willing to sell you stock at a price that you can make a good profit off.
This way you will be able to cut out a couple of middlemen who would otherwise be eating away at your profits.

[wowser]

Thank you very much for the replies, I am now contacting Elf to see if that will lead me anywhere (however looking at the special offers I could buy new ones at the same or cheaper price!)
I will also try contacting Acer but because of my low buying power i'm pretty sure they will refer me back to the suppliers I already researched, I had chosen Ingram micro because they are one of the biggest, theres also C2000 however I cannot use them because they need a VAT number to open an account.

[addlo]

You're wellcome, I have a special interest in computers as well and will let you know if I come up with any thing new and useful.