This is a problem that we deal with in both our personal lives and our businesses. When should we pay up for quality, and when should we go for cheaper brands because the well-known ones are clearly over-charging?
As resellers, we understand better than most people just how much people overpay for items. The markup just because of a brand logo, for example, can be crazy. If you have ever done Private Labelling and worked with a supplier in China to create your own products, you will have seen the extremely low price per unit that many of the items people pay up for on Amazon are actually bought at from the supplier. Or if you’ve ever browsed AliExpress as a consumer, you’ll have seen that many of the exact products you can buy on Amazon are also available on AliExpress for half the cost.
So the thing we all need to figure out then is – when should we be trying to find cheap no-brand alternatives, and when should we be buying the ‘real deal’?
View Your Tools and Tech as an Investment
I don’t mean you should view your new TV as a good financial decision. Generally, computers and other tech are items that depreciate in value. Therefore, they’re not really investment assets. But if you are buying tech to help with your business, this is an investment because of the money you can make by using the items.
The key is to ask yourself this question. “Will this purchase save me time or save me money?”.
If the answer is yes to either time or money savings, then it is a good item to buy. Of course you then need to figure out if the price you need to pay is worth the time or money savings you’re getting.
The thing with technology is that it is temporary. A new laptop is not like a new set of sturdy quality shelving that may last you 10 years. You would be lucky to get a few years of solid use from the laptop. But when it comes to computers, paying more is always a better strategy, because there are a ton of hidden time savings in buying a better computer.
Have you ever bought a $400 laptop only to have it start to slow down within six months? The result ends up being a replacement purchase within a year or two, whereas a good laptop would have lasted you 3 – 4. But the extra expense of replacing the cheap laptop so soon is only half of the true cost. The extra time it took you to do all of your work on a slow laptop for months before finally deciding to replace it is the other half. It’s hard to quantify, but those extra seconds of waiting for your listing software to open, or extra time taken for Excel to crunch your graphs all add up substantially.
This same idea applies not only to laptops, but also to other tools such as printers and scanners. Buying cheaper items in many cases will not save you money in the long run because you’ll spend more time trying to use them, and eventually have to replace them earlier.
Some tools in your reselling business that we recommend to avoid buying low end include:
- Laptops
- Thermal Printers
- Regular Printers
- Barcode Scanners
- Shipping Scales
- Tote Bins
- Lighting for Photos
- Clothing Steamers
- Desks and Chairs
- Shelving and Pallet Racks
- Pallet Jacks and Hand Trucks
Quality is Important, but Top of the Range May Be Unnecessary
There’s no need to buy the best of everything either, though. A $4,000 MacBook Pro is likely way more than you’ll ever need to run your reselling business – even if you do the most intensive of tasks (such as video editing).
The key is to find a balance somewhere in the middle. Don’t buy cheap technology, but don’t pay too much for the top of the range stuff either. At the higher end of technology, there is often a flattening of the return on investment that you get for each extra dollar you spend. In other words, the value you get from spending the first $1,000 on a laptop is much greater than the additional value you get by spending an extra $1,000 to buy a $2,000 computer. The first $1,000 already unlocked your ability to do most of the tasks you need to do, so you probably didn’t need to spend another $1,000.
The same principles apply to furniture. When it comes to furniture for your office, warehouse, or listing and storage areas, it’s important not to buy top-end stuff. High end desks and chairs are likely unnecessary, and you don’t want to spend unnecessary time and effort trying to protect a nice desk from being scratched as you dump boxes full of items to be listed on top of it.
However, you definitely need office and warehouse furniture that will help you to get the job done, and will stand the test of time.
This is more important in some categories than others. For example, a top brand pallet jack such as Crown will last a lot longer than a low end one. Good quality shelving could be the difference between an accident happening or not, as lower quality shelving may be more prone to collapsing under the weight of your growing inventory.
Buy Quality Stuff at Discounts
So how can we save money while also making sure that the tools we buy for our business, such as technology, furniture, shipping supplies or other, are good enough quality to help us fulfill our business tasks quickly and efficiently? Find ways to get them at deep discounts!
For furniture, buying used stuff is an incredible way to do this. Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, OfferUp and other local marketplace sites are full of people who want furniture removed quickly, and are prepared to give them away for free or for low prices. This is not only for home furniture. You can find excellent warehouse and office furniture too if you live in a city. Good quality shelving, for example, can be purchased for pennies on the dollar by a warehouse in liquidation.
With technology, there are still huge opportunities out there in terms of buying used, but it is not as easy. Take care when buying a laptop used, for example, and make sure you know what you are buying. Our recommendation would be to only buy laptops and expensive technology from reputable sources. If you want to buy used, a good way to do it would be to go to eBay and find a seller with a high feedback score.
Overall Approach
You may be confused as to the specific direction you need to take. Unfortunately, there’s no hard rule here, but overall, our suggestion is to avoid buying cheap tools and equipment for your business where possible. This even applies to shipping material such as tape and labels. Cheap tools will end up costing more in the long run.
We also recommend not buying the top end stuff in most cases, as it can be more than you need.
For every item you are buying for your business, do some research. Look for mid-range options that are not crazy expensive but have excellent reviews. Try to leverage other people’s experiences with those items to make informed decisions. Watch comparison reviews with the high end alternatives to see if the mid-range version will meet all of your needs.
After some time, you will become a pro at buying tools and equipment in smart ways that save you money but also give you excellent quality and help you to fulfill all of your business goals.
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Do you think it is important to invest in good quality tools? Let us know in the comments below!
