Q&A: Can you import contact lenses for resale?

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

There are some things that are much more expensive in some countries than others, simply because industries have lobbied for monopoly control or price protection for the government. There are a lot of examples of this, and if you have traveled abroad a bit, you might've noticed this yourself. And one of the best examples is glasses and contact lenses. Now, I wear contacts, and when I was traveling abroad much more regularly, I would always need to plan to buy them when I was overseas. Inevitably, it was cheaper.

I didn't need a prescription. It was just easy, simple. And a listener discovered this recently himself. He saved a lot of money, and it also got him thinking, because I encourage you listeners always to practice the power of observation and ask, what could the business opportunity be here? Or why are things this way?

Might there be some way to profit from it? Maybe help some other people at the same time? That's the ideal world. And so it got him thinking, since the price is so much lower outside the US, and a lot of Americans wear contacts, could he buy them in bulk while he's traveling, or perhaps even pay to have them shipped over, import them, and start his own resale business? You might be thinking there are a couple of problems here, and indeed there are.

So we're gonna talk about that. But let's look at the idea, can this listener or anyone import something like contact lenses from outside the US, where the price is much lower, and then resell them at home? The detailed question and my answer coming up in this episode. [Music]

Hi Chris, this is Brad, and I've been following the show for a while now. On a trip to Argentina a while ago, I learned that it's possible to buy the same brands of contact lenses in countries outside the US for much cheaper, like sometimes 40 to 50% cheaper.

Sometimes the brands use a different name, but the product is exactly the same. This makes me think there's a market opportunity here. Could it work to buy them overseas and sell them here, maybe on eBay or Facebook Marketplace? You also need a prescription to buy them in the US, but in other countries you just walk in and tell them what you want. I'm not sure how I'd handle that part, and if I need to do some sort of verification or not.

What do you think? Thanks. [Music]

Hey Brad, I respect the hustle, but there is a problem here. Could you do this, possibly? Is it legal to do this?

No, and that's the big issue. So the reason why contact lenses and lots of things cost more is because it's a regulated industry. So it's not really an inefficiency, it's actually by design. And the FDA, this is in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, FTC, have confirmed that it is illegal to sell contact lenses, including cosmetic lenses, without requiring a prescription. So when it comes to doing it on eBay or Facebook Marketplace, that kind of thing.

The reality is you could probably do it at a small level and no one would care, but if your business took off, if you were actually successful, then I'm sure you would be noticed and reported and you would be in some real trouble. It looks like the fines are something like $11,000 and you just don't wanna mess with that, right? So even though I agree it's frustrating, this isn't the kind of thing you can easily take advantage of unless you find a legal loophole that you feel confident in, okay? Otherwise, just stick to buying them for yourself and maybe for your friends next time you're in Argentina. Listeners, if you've got a question, any kind of question or an update on your side hustle, let us know, sidehustleschool.com/questions.

We will continue to feature them along with case studies, ideas, all kinds of action-packed content, new episode every day. Thanks for listening. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

from the Onward Project.