23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Advice is either poor or simply not given, March 31, 2008
This review is from: The Maui CEO: Import from China, Sell on eBay, and Live Wherever You Want (Paperback)
If you want to learn how to import, you won't here. There is no meat on this bone! There is no advice on how to really find a supplier and qualify them, and no advice on what type of products to import. From the looks of it he imports pianos. That's fine, but a poor product to start out with!
He talks about importing a full container (20 or 40 foot). You are nuts to do that. You need to start with a LCL (Less than Container Load, something like a pallet or two) which has a significantly lower risk. Getting a warehouse right away? Use your garage or an extra bedroom until you get a good footing.
He talks a lot about the tools on his website. His website is useless! He has links to eBay research tools that do not work. Also, if you sell primarily on eBay you don't need your own website (at least not at the start).
I was amused by a few lines on how you could reduce your costs by flying to China with cash to pay for your purchase ahead of time. This would reduce your invoice amount thus reducing your import duties. Then he says this is illegal and you would likely spend more on the plane ticket than savings on the duties. Huh???? What was the purpose of that?
There is maybe three or four pages with a bit of useful information. Overall, this is a train wreck. The people that give this 5 stars and try his "methods" will likely have a problem.
My advice if you do? Start small and keep your risk down to what you can lose. Find a good customs broker in your locale and get some help from them. They are experts at this despite what this guy says.
Lastly, he should spend a few bucks on an editor!! There are many typos, grammar errors and senseless sentences in this document. It's a disgrace. Is this what U of M puts out(he has an MBA and JD from there)?
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63 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Deceptive Title. Very Little Useful eBay Info. Waste of $$., May 9, 2005
This review is from: The Maui CEO: Import from China, Sell on eBay, and Live Wherever You Want (Paperback)
If you want to sell coffins, pianos, or pool tables on the internet, then this *might* be the book for you. The title is deceptive, as very little of the book deals with building an eBay business. The author's basic recommendations (all very superficially presented) are that you: attend trade shows in China to find products to sell, choose products that must be delivered as freight (your barrier to entry in his scenario is the fact that UPS and FedEx don't ship big things, so many sellers don't want to deal with big things -- me either!), incorporate in Nevada, and lease a warehouse in Long Beach, California. It's a 93-page book, supposedly about selling on eBay; yet hardly any of the book deals with eBay. There's a chapter on developing your corporate identity, but no mention of the logistics involved in getting containers delivered to anywhere but Long Beach. There's a chapter on getting your website up (unnecessary if you're selling on eBay), but nothing specific about an eBay storefront. In the chapter entitled "Ebay, PayPal, Escrow, and Your Security," the author writes: "Ebay is the subject of many books--4,136 on Amazon, to be exact. Why else do you think I have eBay in my book title?" Good question.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book to get started with., May 12, 2005
This review is from: The Maui CEO: Import from China, Sell on eBay, and Live Wherever You Want (Paperback)
I found this book to be full of useful information and references. The author covers a lot of topics and if you don't have the imagination to look beyond coffins, then you won't make it in business anyway. I need broad information at this point, not details about one aspect of starting an eBay business. This book give you a lot to think about that you might not otherwise think of.
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