where to buy goods to sell?

bruneythedog

Well, having sold a handful of personal/unwanted items through eBay, and having had reasonable success, does anyone have any advice about selling on a more professional basis? ie - where to get goods at trade prices? I'm interested in selling books - book selling is a career I've always been interested in, and I figure eBay could be a way to dip a toe without needing to buy a whole business, premises etc. But, how and where to get trade goods? I fear it's not as easy as clearing out the attic. I'm already self-employed, so know I'll need to keep the tax man informed. Any advice, or warnings to stay clear??
Thanks! BTD

soolin

Unfortunately buying things that sell well on ebay is the hardest thing about the whole ebay process. You are unlikely to find anyone who will let you know their source as you would then be competition for them.

However, you mention books, that is actually something you will get answered, and I suggest you check out the Amazon thread on this forum. Loads of us sell books and source from many places including charity shops, boot sales, libraries etc.

Soo

bruneythedog

Thanks Soo, will do!

stas4949

I suggest you simply look in the yellow pages under cash & carry or wholesales (use their web version too) then just phone around and see who has something you might be interested in.

This is how I found an extremely good wholesaler!

hope this helps

katchambers

Hi,

Just like soolin I also sell books on both amazon and ebay.

I have been selling ebooks for about 8 months and real books for about 3 months. My ebooks sorta look after themselves, not alot of work involved in that but it brings me in a fairly regular £30-£50 a week.

I haven't been selling real books for very long but I thoroughly enjoy it, mostly because I find amazon so easy to sell on and because I love reading anyway.

I strongly suggest that you check out the amazon thread and have a trial run on amazon with some books and see how it is for you, you can also open an ebay shop and sell books for a buy-it-now price for much smaller fees than ebay charge for auctions. I do both, amazon and ebay, that way I have double the chance of selling the books, but I dislike listing books on ebay because it is terribly time consuming, what will take me 15 mins on ebay will take only 3 mins on amazon, however, they both have their charms and their negatives hence why it is a good idea to do both, amazon may be quicker but their fees are higher, although you only have to pay fees once an item sells.

Anyway, the places that I have been buying books is not big secret, unlike other people I am happy to share my sources with you.

- Charity shops
- Boot sales
- ebay - pallets/wholesale lots
- https://www.the.com

I buy books from bootsales every week and have gained big profits by selling them on amazon. Charity shops can be good too but the books tend to be older, less easy to sell and more expensive.

ebay - I have bought 2 pallets of books from ebay to resell and have found that to be profitable also, you can get some great deals.

https://www.the.com is a supplier of not only books but dvds and cds and games, they sell their items at 35% less than rrp price. I have just opened an account with them so cannot vouch for them yet, but I intend to buy a few books from them to sell on ebay.

I hope you find this helpful, good luck!

Kat x

madnlooney

i think people are starting to import things from the far east too at a cheaper price then selling it on. The advantage here would be the postage to the buyer would be less plus the item is already in the UK meaning they will get it alot quicker. When i buy on ebay i do look at where the item is coming from and normally like the get things which is aready in the country.

bruneythedog

Kat - excellent, generous advice, thank you! I do actually already sell stuff on Amazon - I've been selling off all my old books for a few months now. Now I'm running out of stuff to sell, I needed some idea of where to get trade stuff - you've given me some great suggestions. Do you have any idea about getting books on trade discount through publishers? I had a look at a couple of websites, but they were rather 'mysterious' about trade discounts, and in any case, I know I'm rather small fry!

soolin

I don't think trade discount would give you enough profit margin though as it isn't usually current books that sell, it tends to be the older more unusual titles that people are trying to track down.

The best books are often the ones that Amazon don't stock, so the buyer has to buy from a private seller. Realistically having to buy 100 identical top selling books isn't going to work if you can get that same book at a lot less than half RRP from Tesco.

Try having a read through the seller forums on Amazon, they make really interesting reading.

Soo

katchambers

Like soolin says, the popular books don't sell so well, especially fiction, there is just too much competition which drives down the prices. Personally I sell a lot of student textbooks, they sell very well, as students always need them and they often want to spend less than amazons prices. I get these from bootsales mostly but also ebay wholesale pallets.

I would like to suggest a book to you, it is called "selling on ebay.co.uk for dummies" you can purchase it from the amazon marketplace for around £8 I think. I bought a copy myself and it is very helpful and also has a list of websites where you can get stock from, including liquidated stocks, pallets, government and police auctions etc. I have been tracking some police auction items, tis very good. I haven't had a chance to check out all their websites yet, but you may find this helpful. p.s I am not reselling this item on amazon, in case you think I am trying to get a sale, I haven't finished reading it yet!

Kat x