How much dosh can one realistically make??

Zyckel99

I've been buying and selling on ebay for about two years and would like to make a full time go of it as well.

The main problem that I see is that by the time goods reach the UK then the price leaves very little room for added profit. If you could buy it at source then the rewards would be much greater.

Recently I bought 2 MP3 players from China (for Christmas presents) at about half the UK price, including shipping. So that got me thinking and a bit of work on Google soon turned up manufacturers in China willing to sell as few as 100 units per shipment. So if they cost about £10 each then I'll need £1000 to buy them, some sort of brokerage to get the money to China, a day or two with Customs & Excise to sort out import duty and VAT, a carrier to bring them across, time with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to see if I'm breaking any trade agreements, a couple of hours on ebay to list them, package each one and take them to the Post Office, pay my ebay and PayPal fees and then sit back and enjoy the profits. What profits???

I've since given up on the idea!
;D

Iffy_Wallet

Don't like to be a party pooper, but has anyone had any close shaves with the authorities?

I know that there is talk of a few people having parcels intercepted by HMCE that for example contain electrical goods from the US. Saying that it is a gift from your uncle Bernie in Boston might work once or twice, but if the same items are sent in boxes of 10 or 20 every fortnight, then the story might unravel a bit !

And with the power sellers, has anyone heard any disquiet about the Inland Revenue announcing their interest in ebay recently?

I would think that if someone had turned over 100k of goods that were VATable, then they might have an uneasy nights sleep if it hadn't declared them and also perhaps if the Revenue were starting to take an interest as well.

I enjoy a bit of buying and selling on ebay now and then, so don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to stir it. But doesn't the recent interest shown in ebay by the IR make it a little worrying for power sellers operating outside of a corporate structure? (I'm sure that this doesn't apply to anyone on this forum unless someone had heard stories from mates down the local !)

Any comments?

trumbo

I have some ideas of things to sell on Ebay for a small profit.... but I have a full-time job.... so would I need to register self-employed aswell?

What is the easiest route to doing things by the book? contacting the IR? will things get complicated?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

rtm

. Obviously the more expensive something is worth, the more time I spend designing the listing. That is also why it annoys me so much when people just copy my auction! >:(

See http://forum.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Ebay;action=display;num=1102446472

There are HTML tags to prevent highlighting and right clicking

JPS

See http://forum.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Ebay;action=display;num=1102446472

There are HTML tags to prevent highlighting and right clicking

Cheers I saw that on the other thread and I am now using it on most of my auctions a great tip!