eBay Sellers: Learn The Lingo If You Want to Buy Wholesale

August 27th, 2007 by Skip McGrath

The wholesale industry is like most others in that is uses specific jargon, abbreviations and lingo. If you don’t know the lingo they will know you are an amateur.

I got an email from a reader who had just attended her first trade show. She told me she had heard all kinds of terms and initials. She was looking at some nice beaded jewelry and asked the lady working in the booth what they sold for. The answer went something like this: “They go for in 12 in case lots. Our MOO is only $200 and we will give you free shipping if I can get a PO today?

She looked blankly at the lady and said: “Moooo?”

So as I was working on my monthly newsletter that will come out next week, I decided to work some wholesale terminology into the section on new wholesale sources. Rather than provide a glossary of terms there, I decided to do a blog post on the subject just in case some of you are talking to wholesalers before you read my newsletter. So here are some of the more common terms and abbreviations you will encounter when buying wholesale: (not in any special order)

PO	Purchase Order
MOO	Minimum Opening Order
Keystone	The ability to double your cost
FOB	Cost before shipping from a stated location. Ex: Fob Atlanta, means you pay the shipping from Atlanta to your destination.
MSRP	Minimum suggested retail price
MAP	Minimum Advertised Price
CC, Net 30 OA	We take credit cards or you can get 30 days credit on approval
PoA	Point of Origin (where something is made)
USL	Upsell Line – means this is a good product to upsell. Example if you sell BBQ sets, then BBQ tools would be a good USL
SST/EIN	You need a state sales tax number and a federal EIN number to do business with this vendor.

There are many more terms but these are some of the most common. The other issue is paperwork. If you would like to learn more about buying wholesale, take a look at The Wholesale Buying System where I explain all about the wholesale industry, how it works, how to negotiate with wholesalers, how to get into trade shows and wholesale merchandise marts, the paper work and terms and much, much more including access to my wholesale member’s site.