Buying Wholeale and Selling on eBay HELP

The_Casual_Tailor

My advice, for what it's worth, is no, don't do it.

lifesuckssometimes

Don't be put off set up an account with safe storage. store your goods there which is safe and secure. ask buyers to collect for a fee £5 you may get 90% who want it delivered but the 10% will cover off set claims for damaged in transit but you will claim off courier anyway. but check ebay there are sellers who sell alot of refurb goods. see if you can compete, profits will be slim as they have more buying power and can undercut at a loss on some items to squeeze the competition out..

StaffsSW

It only takes one faulty item to wipe out your entire profit on one of the pallets, and as a business seller you will be legally obliged to issue a ful refund, or offer a replacement.

If you are looking to buy pallets of stock, go for grade A, which is unsold, end of line stock with intact packaging. Anything grade B (tested returns) or C (untested returns) should be left to the experts - those with repair facilities, and those with experience of selling in those markets.

Hintza

I have sold a few big TV's and found the margind wafer thin. Cost of P+P is high as some are over 30kg.

Until you build up a rapport with a seller on items like this you will need to be building in 100% profit margin (most of which will possibly be needed for returns).

Assuming they come with full warranty and it costs you say £20 to post (I think for large TV's it might be nearer £35) one return will cost you:-

£20 original postage
£20 To receive it back
£20 To send replacement
£20 to return original to your supplier.

I sometimes sell printers and 99% of them are fine on the odd one that has a problem I just write it off and refund in full because the return costs are so high.

The last TV I sold I had to deliver in person in a 150 mile round trip because the box was damaged when it reached me and I didn't fancy it's chances arriving in one piece or if I sent it all gaffer taped up the buyer might (quite rightly) have rejected it.

You have said yourself you know nothing about sales so strat of small with items that are inexpensive to post and that you have some experience in.

The other point is some of these pallets will already have been through a few folk where the best will have been taken out and all you will be left with will be the dross. Going into this segment of the market is something that you might experiment with once you have got a foothold in the market and some money to burn .

v0n

With plasma's though risk on return goods is much higher though. Returns to catalogue and high street stores potentially have plasma burns where a picture of Sky menu got embedded permanently on £3000 worth of 50 inch screen after owner falling asleep drunk in front of it after footie match, stability problems after some wise guy tried to upgrade firmware on his own, missing stands, damaged HDMI ports etc etc. Too many factors, too high risk, you wouldn't be able to test every possible angle beforehand. If these were £350 LCDs sold for £150, then it's a game, but when people spend £700-£1000, even if it's half price, they will complain about every imperfection possible, and you can't fob them off with "sold as seen" as you would be business seller and therefore must follow distance selling act.

IMSPARTACUS

I've never seen so much good advice on the one set of threads, I would give it a miss. I was looking into it but NOOOO!

steviebabes

If you want to sell on ebay forget anything you can buy in the high street. Go for something hard to find, a niche product, something there isn't a category for in the yellow pages.

Doo_Lally

Will the wholesale warranty not cover the items- I know this puts a timescale on selling the items, but how would the wholesaler warranty effect things?

sneaky

As someone mentioned before only sell electrical items if you have a engineer ready to fix any problems especially selling graded items as you will need to provide atleast 6 months warranty. We have been selling tvs on ebay for a few years and its hard work. A slight knock in transit can make something loose inside and end up faulty with you £300-400 out of pocket. Also there are lots of scammers targeting electrical goods you need to spend time checking every transaction.

Try something simple which you can shift in bulk. Build your feedback and reputation and then consider the higher end of the market

boombap

STOP! DON'T DO IT!

There is still money to be made on Ebay despite what some people say but I would avoid pricey electricals like the plague. In fact I'd aviod all electrical items as the Chinese sellers can knock out the smaller items cheaper than we can dream of.

Selling expensive items will also leave you wide open to people trying to scam you. You've also said you're new to the ebay game and scammers will be able to spot this a mile off and take advantage.

Think about what items interest you - books, fashion, children's things? Although you're new to ebay you still have knowledge in whatever field your interests are. I would go down this route. Say you're really interested in make up then look up wholesalers and suppliers and think about going down that route.

Another thing to watch is BEWARE OF SELLING BRANDED GOODS. A lot of companies don't like people selling their stuff on ebay as it 'devalues' the product. Even though the stuff you're selling may be legit (ie not fake) your listings can be pulled off ebay.

Hope some of that helps.

Good luck in your ebay venture!

Squee