How to become a successful ebay trader?

First_Time_Saver_2

Hello There, I am not sure if this is the correct section to post this question so I have also posted it in the earn extra income section.

I am interested in becomming a full time Ebay trader, I have dabbled a bit with some electronic items and some sports supplements. But nothing to successful at bringing in a regular income.

How much start up investment would be required to get a good line of stock on offer? I am working around the 10 grand figure.

Are there any tricks to the trade I should know about?

And finally what products do you think would sell well? I am stuck on this as I can't seem to think outside the box of mp3 players etc.

All help will be greatly appreciated

Thank you in advance for your replies

Michael.

cyril82

As an ex professional ebay seller who has moved on to other business projects i have nothing to lose so here is my advise.

Buy from the far east, practically everything is made there these days and if you buy from any other source you are likely buying from a "middle man".

The two best trade websites for china and Japan are www.globalsources.com and www.alibaba.com

My advice on products is steer clear of branded goods, they are almost always classed as high risk by ebay and attract unwanted ebay and vero attention.

Memory cards sell well on ebay, you can shift 1 to 2 thousand a month if you have the stock. You will only make around £1 per sale but they are a "stack em high sell em cheap" product.

Compatible ink cartridges are another good product as you can sell them as much as 75% cheaper than a branded cartridge and manufactures are now chipping their ink cartridges to stop cartridge world refilling them.

Lingerie sells well, as do women’s shoes, both of these can be sourced from within the UK but you will get bigger profits by buying in bulk from china.

Electricals such as mp4 players and sat nav’s are not selling like they used to but if you can negotiate a good price they may still be worth stocking.

Failing this you can buy returns from agros which should give decent margins, just google "argos trade auctions returns" and you'll find the website, (i cant remember the url it's been so long since i looked at it).

That should be enough to start you off...Good luck!!

bo_drinker

cyril82 wrote: »

As an ex professional ebay seller who has moved on to other business projects i have nothing to lose so here is my advise.

Buy from the far east, practically everything is made there these days and if you buy from any other source you are likely buying from a "middle man".

The two best trade websites for china and Japan are www.globalsources.com and www.alibaba.com

My advice on products is steer clear of branded goods, they are almost always classed as high risk by ebay and attract unwanted ebay and vero attention.

Memory cards sell well on ebay, you can shift 1 to 2 thousand a month if you have the stock. You will only make around £1 per sale but they are a "stack em high sell em cheap" product.

Compatible ink cartridges are another good product as you can sell them as much as 75% cheaper than a branded cartridge and manufactures are now chipping their ink cartridges to stop cartridge world refilling them.

Lingerie sells well, as do women’s shoes, both of these can be sourced from within the UK but you will get bigger profits by buying in bulk from china.

Electricals such as mp4 players and sat nav’s are not selling like they used to but if you can negotiate a good price they may still be worth stocking.

Failing this you can buy returns from agros which should give decent margins, just google "argos trade auctions returns" and you'll find the website, (i cant remember the url it's been so long since i looked at it).

That should be enough to start you off...Good luck!!

M aybe being nosey here but why did you get out of it?? What you have moved on to is that internet based ??

matt1987

Here is my two pence worth. Oh, I shall just add that I do not own a business, do not trade on Ebay ( seriously ) nor have I ever owned a business although I would love too!!

My workplace recently went into adminstration, and I was asked to stay with the company and help the administrators clear the stock out, as I worked in the warehouse.

We had roughly 900k's worth of stock in the warehouse. We sold it for nearly 300k.
Now, this was a real big eye opener to me. An ebay trader actually bought up a fair bit of stock off us. They got all the stock they bought off us for 10p in the pound!!!!! basically 90% off cost price... not retail price!!!

We did a certain product that we used to sell for £150. We had roughly 150 units of this product and they bought the lot.... for £13 per unit! It was ridiculous.

So, what I would do is make enquires with insolvency firms. They are doing a roaring trade at the moment, and they are always looking for people to buy up liquidated stock from companies in administration. I would be doing the same if I had the money!

I would say that the Ebay seller who bought a lot of stock from us will go onto make thousands of pounds pure profit!

Good luck

RFW

matt1987 wrote: »

We had roughly 900k's worth of stock in the warehouse. We sold it for nearly 300k.
Now, this was a real big eye opener to me. An ebay trader actually bought up a fair bit of stock off us. They got all the stock they bought off us for 10p in the pound!!!!! basically 90% off cost price... not retail price!!!

We did a certain product that we used to sell for £150. We had roughly 150 units of this product and they bought the lot.... for £13 per unit! It was ridiculous.

So, what I would do is make enquires with insolvency firms. They are doing a roaring trade at the moment, and they are always looking for people to buy up liquidated stock from companies in administration. I would be doing the same if I had the money!

I would say that the Ebay seller who bought a lot of stock from us will go onto make thousands of pounds pure profit!

Its not as easy as it sounds sadly.

Please, anyone, be careful dabbing in things new where you are laying out lots of money.

Importing carries lots of obstacles, so now the ins and outs before you start. HMRC is a good place to start.

Insolvency practitioners tend to only deal with people they know, you can buy insolvency stocks from auctions, but again be careful, even if you are paying 10p in the pound some items don't shift that quickly, so you may end up paying storage and have other obstacles.

I've been in the auction and wholesale business for over 20 years and I still don't know what I'm doing!

If you want to sell on Ebay start with stuff you know about, if you don't know anything about memory cards you could likely come unstuck dealing in them. Which ones sell best? do they need special storage? What if they're faulty? Do they have a shelf life (ie if you buy 10,000 and sell 1000 a month can you be sure that they won't be obsolete or superceded in 6 months time leaving you with 4000 useless items?).

Some wholesalers will supply you on an adhoc basis so you don't have to invest huge sums in one go others will want guarantees and wads of cash before they'll deal with you.

My advice would be pick a market you know and source product in it. Check completed listings on Ebay and check what sells, check the opposition and see what you can do better. Know everything there is to know about it and then some more. If you want to sell memory cards, become an expert in memory cards.

cyril82

RFW wrote: »

Its not as easy as it sounds sadly.

Please, anyone, be careful dabbing in things new where you are laying out lots of money.

Importing carries lots of obstacles, so now the ins and outs before you start. HMRC is a good place to start.

Insolvency practitioners tend to only deal with people they know, you can buy insolvency stocks from auctions, but again be careful, even if you are paying 10p in the pound some items don't shift that quickly, so you may end up paying storage and have other obstacles.

I've been in the auction and wholesale business for over 20 years and I still don't know what I'm doing!

If you want to sell on Ebay start with stuff you know about, if you don't know anything about memory cards you could likely come unstuck dealing in them. Which ones sell best? do they need special storage? What if they're faulty? Do they have a shelf life (ie if you buy 10,000 and sell 1000 a month can you be sure that they won't be obsolete or superceded in 6 months time leaving you with 4000 useless items?).

Some wholesalers will supply you on an adhoc basis so you don't have to invest huge sums in one go others will want guarantees and wads of cash before they'll deal with you.

My advice would be pick a market you know and source product in it. Check completed listings on Ebay and check what sells, check the opposition and see what you can do better. Know everything there is to know about it and then some more. If you want to sell memory cards, become an expert in memory cards.

On the whole good advice, in particular about making sure you understand the importing process, i would say in particular knowing how import duty and vat are applied. This is where a lot of people lose money, they think they have agreed a good price with the wholesaler/manufacturer but fail to take into account the import duty which then wipes out their profit.

Remember when negotiating with suppliers you are agreeing a "base Price" your supplier will then add shipping to this so you should ask for quote.

When your goods arrive in the UK they will be subject to import duty, this is applied to the total invoice price, this means including what you paid to ship the item if it is included in the invoice from the supplier. Once import duty is applied then vat is charged on the total invoice price including the import duty.

Import duty is calculated based on what you are importing so you would need to get confirmation from HMRC Classifications.

One thing i would personally disagree with from the quote above is i don't think you need to be an expert in everything you sell, i certainly wasn't an expert in everything i sold, sure it would help, but it is not a necessity.

Regarding your budget, don’t buy £10,000 worth of stock up front, buy a small order first to test the market then grow your orders according to demand.

RFW

cyril82 wrote: »

One thing i would personally disagree with from the quote above is i don't think you need to be an expert in everything you sell, i certainly wasn't an expert in everything i sold, sure it would help, but it is not a necessity.

Despite what I said above I agree with that. If you are new to buying and selling though you'll be better off as an expert than a simple amateur. The easiest way to lose money is to buy overpriced poor quality stock that doesn't sell. If you have a knowledge of something it generally gives you an edge on competitors who don't.

scarlettinlondon

I am an experienced (and successful) smallish ebayer. My advice is to go with what you already know, or SERIOUSLY become expert in a single field. The best way to use ebay is to supplement your income. In my eyes, it is too easy to lose it these days as an income stream and it is safest not to have it as your only income. Get into the niche side of things and you will be OK. And sell something that interests you otherwise you will go OUT OF YOUR MIND with the boredom. Ebay listing and packing is NOT stimulating!

Brooker_Dave

First_Time_Saver wrote: »

I am interested in becomming a full time Ebay trader, I have dabbled a bit with some electronic items and some sports supplements. But nothing to successful at bringing in a regular income.

Sell things people want and have a high mark up, at least 50%.

TBH you've missed the boat as ebay not the place it used to be.

HTH.

StaffsSW

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Sell things people want and have a high mark up, at least 50%.

True to an extent, but it depends on the cost of the item. On low cost items I'd be wanting closer to 4-500%!

(Not seen you around for a while?!)

cyril82

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

TBH you've missed the boat as ebay not the place it used to be.

HTH.

I agree with this comment, it certainly is not as easy to make money on ebay as it used to be, but it is still possible.

Just start off slow, don't tie up too much money in stock upfront and respond to demand, don't buy a wgaon load of stock if it will take two months to sell, ebay is a super fast paced market place and sale prices for in demand products change regularly, factors such as competitors undercutting each other and demand for a certain item falling as well as seasonal retail trends will affect prices and usually drive them down so if you overstock you run the risk of losing alot of money.