Running a semi-busy business on ebay (need help speeding up the process)

TKPeters

We only use 1st Class Recorded & our local postmaster prefers them to be prepaid (as it saves time when there is over 500 every week) & he just puts them through the system & gets paid the same amount as he would if he was printing the postage labels for us.

downs523

hi, what do you guys sell in your shops?? also is there money to be made doing this will all the ebay/paypal fees??

StaffsSW

downs523 wrote: »

hi, what do you guys sell in your shops?? also is there money to be made doing this will all the ebay/paypal fees??

I've recently moved out of selling DVD's - there were a lot of changes in the DVD supply chains, and combined with various changes on eBay over the last year, the margins were reduced and competition was cut throat, and he returns earned for the time and efforrt spent were not worth it. I am lucky enough to be in the position to have effectively 3 full time incomes, only one of which is/was ebay, so cutting back on this and looking at other markets was not a difficult choice.

To be blunt though, it's rare that it's the product that makes the money, but more the way it is sold. Do something better, quicker, more efficient but not necessarily cheaper than your competitors, and you will sell pretty much any product. One thing I would say is to stick with selling a product you know very well, and not just one that looks interesting, fun or just seems profitable.

Oh - and get the best accountant you can afford. For example, you can pay one accountant £1000 and pay £5000 tax, or pay another £2000, and end up paying £3000 tax, all perfectly legitimately.

downs523

stevew8975 wrote: »

I've recently moved out of selling DVD's - there were a lot of changes in the DVD supply chains, and combined with various changes on eBay over the last year, the margins were reduced and competition was cut throat, and he returns earned for the time and efforrt spent were not worth it. I am lucky enough to be in the position to have effectively 3 full time incomes, only one of which is/was ebay, so cutting back on this and looking at other markets was not a difficult choice.

To be blunt though, it's rare that it's the product that makes the money, but more the way it is sold. Do something better, quicker, more efficient but not necessarily cheaper than your competitors, and you will sell pretty much any product. One thing I would say is to stick with selling a product you know very well, and not just one that looks interesting, fun or just seems profitable.

Oh - and get the best accountant you can afford. For example, you can pay one accountant £1000 and pay £5000 tax, or pay another £2000, and end up paying £3000 tax, all perfectly legitimately.

i just dont get where people get there stock from to sell on ebay, as ebay is already cheaper than most shops.

StaffsSW

downs523 wrote: »

i just dont get where people get there stock from to sell on ebay, as ebay is already cheaper than most shops.

The million dollar question! And sadly it takes nearly as much to get a foot in the door with most of the big distributors. If you have a £10-15k initial investment outlay, you may just get an appointment with one of the big DVD companies, such as Cinram or Entertainment UK, and even then they will want longer term buying commitments, and proof of trading status etc.

The easiest way to find a good supplier is to buy the product from somebody else, then look at where the packaging says it was made, and work from there. Outlandish, but worked for me with DVD's.

windym_2

My friend has a very busy Ebay shop and uses Royal Mail Business.

Each parcel is wrapped then much like the PO they are put in huge RM sacks. The bag is weighed and divided by the number of parcels to give an average weight of each parcel. She has a special rate postage (called Packetpost Daily Rate) which is considerably cheaper than normal RM postage. This is then entered into her online RM account. RM then call at her home (her converted garage is her office) at 4pm they collect all the sacks of mail.

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?catId=44100684&mediaId=44100690