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Re: I don't get Alibaba largest IPO offering ever?
09/20/14 07:02 AM
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> How can it be the largest IPO offering ever? > > I have tried MANY times to buy stuff off of Alibaba... and have NEVER been > successful. > > They DON'T sell anything!
Yes they do. They just don't sell in the pathetically tiny quantities you want. It's not consumer-focussed.
> If you find anything you like, the seller is like "Minimum order... 10,000 units." > > Well, I don't want 10,000, I just want one.
Yeah, well you're not the target market. Their target market is retailers who can then sell the stuff to you > It IS NOT an Ebay rival... Amazon... or even Itsy... > > I've actually bought things from those... sales actually take place.
No it isn't an ebay or Amazon rival, it's aimed squarely at a different market segment. Professional ebay sellers can buy crap in bulk from Albaba and then on-sell it to consumers with comfortable market. They're symbiotic.
> Alibaba seems just like a manufacturers wish list of stuff they COULD make if you > order enough to make it worth their while retooling an entire sweatshop to make them > for you at mass-production. And even at that, importing the damn thing is your > problem... you can pick it up from their warehouse in China. Under that premise, > hell, I'll list new manufacture Star Wars cabs with vector monitors for only $1,500 > each (minimum order 10,000). To actually sell an item to an actual customer? Not so > much.
Most of the stuff they're ready to produce with minimal reconfiguration, like configuring it to print your logo on each widget. They're also happy to deliver it or organise to deliver it, but you might need to get on the phone to sort out the details. Big packages cost money to transport.
> I don't get it. And I think the news is blowing it out of proportion calling it > bigger than Ebay... bigger than Amazon. HOW? There's nothing actually for sale there.
Because each Alibaba sale is far bigger than each ebay sale. That's the advantage of ignoring the consumer market. You can make far more on each transaction with less overhead.
> Has ANYONE here EVER ACTUALLY successfully bought anything from Alibaba?
Yes. I've bought hard-to-find semiconductor parts from Alibaba. These are usually offered with a small minimum quantity (e.g. five or so). There's a bit of a scam going on with this stuff. They'll quote you a reasonable price for postage, say $5 for sending you ten chips. Then they'll call you and say something like, "I'm sorry, the postage will actually be $50 for ten chips, but the good news is you can increase your order to 500 chips with no increase in postage. Would you like to increase your order?" But they do take "no" for an answer, and I've never failed to actually get the parts I wanted. I just expect to pay ten times the initially quoted postage price.
The other thing it's great for is branded merchandise. Want a carton of 2GB USB drives with your logo on them to give away at a careers fair? Alibaba. Branded playing cards? Alibaba. Branded anything? Alibaba. There's no faster, cheaper way to get a whole lot of crap with your name on it.
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