Bass importing?

[Visirale]

My close friend and I are looking for a business to get started during school next year. I know there is at least some demand on here from Europeans wanting to buy bass gear new or used in the states, but a lot of the sellers don't want to bother with the international shipping. If I could learn the tools of the trade, would it be worth starting up an import/export business? Or would taxes/tariffs/customs fees/VAT make it not worth it? I'm sure it could be expanded to anything that could be shipped, and given the current exchange rates, I think it could be popular.

Is this worth pursuing or not?

Tips/tricks/ideas?

Thanks,

-Ted

 

[IanStephenson]

What sort of capital do you have?

The problem I see is that unless you can turn over serious volume it's not going to work, and one deal that goes bad couple cripple you.

Are you going to buy these in advance? How many can you afford? What if one or two don't sell quickly? Can you buy enough volume to get a better deal than other guys? (or are you going to just grab bargains when they turn up, which means holding stock). What if it goes missing in transit, and I stop the credit card payment as non-received goods?

If it's just a side project, I'd start with smaller stuff like parts which go cheap. That way you can hold inventory, and absorb bad deals without going out of buisness in the first two weeks. You can learn from the mistakes at low cost, and use any profit to build up to bigger items.

Ian