E-commerce, Internet Trading...a Waste Of Time?

[phuky1]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this lot, but I've read the etiquette bit, so I think I'm quite safe.

Righty then. I'm relocating to sunny chon buri in the summer to work with a property development co'...Thing is, the money won't be great initially, so I'm hoping to continue doing what I've been doing in the UK to supplement my income, namely: Internet trading through the likes of classified sites and ebay...That sort of thing.

So what I really want to ask you guys (as you will obviously have more experience with Ex-pat culture than I will), is...Well, does it work over there??? I am pretty confident that there are major trust issues with any transaction/business arrangement (My dad ((who lives in Pattaya)) took his lawyer with him to buy a scooter...Has the world gone mad?)...and I also know that there are limited outlets with regards to buying and selling (through the net) in Thailand, however, I did find www.thaibay.biz which gave me a bit of hope...But as good as that looks (it seems to do everything ebay does), it's still pretty new and there aint much kit on it yet.

The bottom line is: Things like Thaibay form the basis of a fledgling industry in Thailand (for the Ex-pat anyhow)...Is the market ever going to take off??? Or am I going to have to hire a couple of street peddlers to sell my nik-naks???

I'd also like to appologise in advance to people who visit other web-boards, as I will be posting this question on a couple of other ex-pat forums (call it market research if you like) to see what advice I can get...So basically I'll be copying and pasting, as I'm a lazy BSTD.

Any words of wizdom that you are able to give will be very much appreciated.

Thanks - and oodles of love to y'all

[solo siam]

Buy In Thailand and sell/send back home?

[listenup]

That's the way to go: buy here, sell there.

[phuky1]

That's the way to go: buy here, sell there.

Thanks for the advice guys...It is a bit worrying however, that what you are saying is: 'There's no trading culture amongst the Thai ex-Pat community'...I had this vision of Utopia, where everyone was doing deals and selling there wifes mother, to raise a bit of capital...Surely the 'classified rags' are full of junk that's being bought and sold? (Humble, hypothetical question).

I hear what you're saying about exporting...But I bet I'm going to be hard pushed to find 'produce', that I can make a significant mark up on (to cover airmail/insurance etc)...Break even at best?

I guess I'm going to have to watch Thaibay closely and hope that is grows into a monster.

[PRGUY]

There is literally no trading culture let alone a culture to help each other among the expat community here but you cannot balame them all as there have been many expat crooks , cheaters, scammers,liars and the lowest types here that have caused this general environment. There are some nice people here though as you can sometimes come across them in the forums here but most are just whiners. Suggest to try something else.

[Heng]

They aren't off to a good start not having secured the top tier .com extension for their domain. Not to mention, they might want to change that color arrangement if they don't want to infringe on the eBay logo, especially considering that the name of the website is a play on the eBay brand.

Otherwise, it's a good idea.

Edited April 8, 2007 by Heng

[solo siam]

There's plenty of products that you could buy in Thailand cheap and sell abroad at a significantly higher price, Registered airmail (small packet) is very cheap for products up to 2kg and I have never had a parcel go missing (I sent around 75+ over the years).

For example, Computer games here in Thailand are typically 1/2 to 1/3 the price of what they are in the West, Spa products are cheap, t-shirts, clothing, handicrafts, paintings etc... Or you could sell Thai foodstuffs like packets of dry sauces for Thai curries or something else thats hard to get in the West.

[Thaddeus]

They aren't off to a good start not having secured the top tier .com extension for their domain. Not to mention, they might want to change that color arrangement if they don't want to infringe on the eBay logo, especially considering that the name of the website is a play on the eBay brand.

The 'Wanted' section has started as it probably will carry on.

http://www.thaibay.biz/wanted.details.php?id=6

[dave111223]

Change your logo while you can, all it will take is 1 email to your host from ebay and your site will be gone.

[smartecosse]

Change your logo while you can, all it will take is 1 email to your host from ebay and your site will be gone.

thats not the OPS site

[phuky1]

Change your logo while you can, all it will take is 1 email to your host from ebay and your site will be gone.

thats not the OPS site

What's the OPS site???

[LivinLOS]

The OP (Original Poster) doesn't have a site of his own mentioned..

Because the OP mentioned sites he might use people seem to assume they are his.