I sell my items from SMC on Ebay. After paying the cost for the SMC products, paying the listing fee for Ebay, and then paying PayPal a percentage, there is no cash made. To top it off, because I believe the $7.00 drop shipping fee is too much, and the ordering site doesnt give you the option to enter different addresses for the various items ordered, so basically you do have to pay $7.00 for each item shipped. Then in addition you are charged a $2.50 service fee.
So in order to avoid the fee and to gauge whether or not the fee is a hidden profit for SMC, I have opted to have my items dropped shipped to my house, and will mail each items individually. I listed about 200 items on Ebay out of the 200 items thus far only 11 items have sold. I am sure I will lose money or break even. More than likely i will give SMC the boot as well...
I agree I have saw the exact same items offered with SMC, at my local dollar store. I have also checked with overseas vendors, and the prices are cheap however they do require large quantities on each item. But I will do more research. The claim that you can make money at the flea market, most flea markets are already satuarated with people peddling SMC, I refuse to force my family and friends to buy the items.
Someone stated in a previous post that they inform you in the monthly letter that the item is "Out of Stock" that claim is not true. Before posting my items on Ebay, I 1st verified that the item was in stock, and then offered it.. however on 2 items that sold, when i went to order it at the end of my day (at 1st it was avaliable) I had everything in my check out, (with the SMC website it doesnt have the feature that times out if it is idle for an extended period of time so you can select the items as needed ) so when I refreshed my screen the items were out of stock. So I offered my customers a refund or a similair item.
Luckily they opted for the later of the 2, now about the direct mail option, its kind of un professional to mail out a book with one name on it, and then have a little homemade sticker with your business name on it, that doesnt give the buyer confidence, so more then likely they will not order, especially with so much identity theft.
So basically the investment put into SMC, will not yield a return. Also take note that the little old man from "Happy Days" has been replaced, I am guessing he no longer wanted to be associated with the company, so they replaced him with a look-a-like of the side-kick from "Home Improvement". LOL Yawl have a good day!
Jimmie
fort worth, Texas
U.S.A.