Buying from charity shops and selling on Ebay.

Nice_Username

Hi, I was thinking about doing this as a way to raise extra money. Does anyone know which items they feel would be most successful for doing this? A friend advised me to maybe start with kids clothes and toys, particularly branded items like Next and Gap. Maybe Barbie stuff, and porcelein dolls (which are collectable I reckon). Those collectable teapots perhaps? Are there many potential pitfalls?

What do you think?

theonlywayisup

If you buy with the intention of selling, you are techincally in buisness and as such will need a buisness account on Ebay and to notify HMRC.

McKneff

Have you seen the price of some fo the stuff in charity shops these days:eek:

cyberbob

The first thing is you will need have declared to the HMRC that you are a business because as soon as you but to sell you are a business in their eyes. It's a possibility but you really need to know what you are looking for. It's very easy to end up buying a load of Tatt that is unsellable anywhere. Charity shops are rife with fake designer clothes in certain areas so you need to be very wary of this also.

It's better if you are going to be selling goods on to buy things you are familiar with and know about. There is no point trying to sell porcelain dolls if you know nothing about the subject. You might get lucky and make money on some but in the end your lack of knowledge will let you down

It's do able but like any sort of trading don't expect to make huge amounts of money but if you just want to earn a little extra cash and stick to things you know about and sell on ebay. You can make a little extra money. Remember though you will need to take in all overheads such as ebay and paypal fees and packaging materials all before you will show any profit.

missbishi

Personally, I would avoid any sort of clothing like the plague! Seems to be one of the main areas of discontent with Ebay, as per other threads on here. Why not check completed listings for toys to see what sells?

2Sheds

A lot of the charity shops have their own ebay depts now.

I think a boot sale might give you cheaper stuff than a charity shop.

soolin

2Sheds wrote: »

A lot of the charity shops have their own ebay depts now.

I think a boot sale might give you cheaper stuff than a charity shop.

I'm doing another car boot this Saurday, as that's where I dump all the stuff that doesn't sell on ebay.

2Sheds

soolin wrote: »

I'm doing another car boot this Saurday, as that's where I dump all the stuff that doesn't sell on ebay.

Same here, although with ebays and paypals fees now I sell stuff at boot sales that I would have once sold on ebay.

Probably selling them to ebayers looking for cheap stuff to sell on ebay !

Nice_Username

Thanks for the feedback. I have a work colleague who told me his daughter does this to earn a bit of extra cash and has been pretty succesful. I know it won't be a fortune but over the course of a year I'm hoping I may be able to make a few hundred quid perhaps. I think I'll also look out for the cheap listing days on Ebay and only list all my goods then, which will increase the profit margin.

I think I may just try to concentrate on stuff I think is collectable like dolls and ornaments, paintings, toys, and maybe a few bits of kids clothing and see how it all gets on.

Mrs_justjohn

Nice_Username wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback. I have a work colleague who told me his daughter does this to earn a bit of extra cash and has been pretty succesful. I know it won't be a fortune but over the course of a year I'm hoping I may be able to make a few hundred quid perhaps. I think I'll also look out for the cheap listing days on Ebay and only list all my goods then, which will increase the profit margin.

OP - You have not addressed the fact that if you are buying to sell on for profit (even if you make a loss) you MUST register as a business on ebay (which comes with all sorts of rules/regs you have to follow) AND declare it as 'additional income' on a tax return (unsure what your current employment status is?)

iieee

I don't think children's clothes sell very well these days - baby/toddler clothes at least. The market is flooded since ebay introduced 99p free listings. I had a look recently as I was getting rid of some of DD's clothes, they were all good names e.g. Next, Gap, John Rocha, Jasper Conran, but similar items were selling for 99p or not selling at all, and I personally wouldn't consider that worth the effort after fees, I took them to charity. I looked at selling as a bundle as well but no-one seems to pay much for those these days either.

I would stick to something you know as PPs have said, and something you know the value of. Then you have a good start in knowing how much to pay to make a profit.