Buying from charity shops and selling on Ebay.

Nice_Username

Mrs_justjohn wrote: »

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?)

Will do, thanks.

I was mainly just after advice on what items may have the best mark-up etc. to give a reasonable chance of making a few quid.

lindseykim13

Nice_Username wrote: »

Will do, thanks.

I was mainly just after advice on what items may have the best mark-up etc. to give a reasonable chance of making a few quid.

You'll also find as a business you don't get cheap listing days all listings are at least 10p

Mrs_justjohn

lindseykim13 wrote: »

You'll also find as a business you don't get cheap listing days all listings are at least 10p

Unless you have a shop and do BIN's.....but the shop fee's would probably wipe out any profit:(

FLD are normally for private buyers nowadays:cool:

Strapped

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.

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.

You can do well out of dolls and toys (I do :cool:) BUT you need to study the market. It is very competitive and fast-moving. It's easy to get stuck with stuff you can't give away when fashions change. Also, watch out if you want to sell dolls to collectors - collectors are VERY picky about eg face paints - your stock must be perfect or expect returns (and often they order two, keep the best one and return the other :mad:) You will also need to sell worldwide to make the most of the collector's market. But - get it right and the margins can be terrific :beer:

coldstar

I actually run the eBay "dept" for a small group of charity shops!

We try and pick up all ebayable stuff before it gets put out on sale and have managed to make quite a lot of money for the charity using this method. I know we dont catch everything but I think we get most of the potentially valuable items. I give talks to the other shop volunteers to try and get them to spot the right sort of item before it goes on sale and have had a few very interesting items which have made quite large sums.

We know the regular "ebay hounds" who visit our shops and I watch the sort of stuff they buy. I dont think they make much profit as they arent that good at spotting good items. Sometimes they are a bit boastful after buying something "valuable" and tell us how stupid we are selling an item for £5 when they know they will get £100+ on eBay. When asked to dontate some of this excess profit they always refuse. Most of these "valuable" items I have seen them buy are NOT what they think they are and are worth no more than they paid for them. On one occasion someone actually asked for their money back when they tried to ebay one of these valuable finds (bought for £2) only to discover it was not valuable at all. Not surprisingly I refused!

The point of this is to say your not going to make much selling charity shop items on eBay these days. eBay savy people work in almost all charity shops and are quite good at finding the "gems" before they go on sale and using the profit for the benefit of the charity for which it was donatated, not for personal profit. But there is still a real personal thrill in finding a hidden gem and then seeing it sell for hundreds of pounds (which happens a few times a year to me!)

Pembroke

Bit of advice I was given when first starting out selling collectors items was scout around your local boot fairs and buy up old copies of 'Millers Antiques Guide' they produce a new one every year and although the prices will be out of date they're great for getting a feel for the collectors market and what to look out for.

richardvc

Mrs_justjohn wrote: »

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?)

I think the OP hasn't addressed it because he didn't ask about it !

He wanted to know what would sell etc etc not whether he needed to register it as a business, notify the HMRC and so on.........

Mrs_justjohn

richardvc wrote: »

I think the OP hasn't addressed it because he didn't ask about it !

He wanted to know what would sell etc etc not whether he needed to register it as a business, notify the HMRC and so on.....

I am well aware of what they did and did not ask. However it is amazing how many people do not want to start their new 'business venture' when they realise just how much it entails for a 'few extra quid'. Better that they know now and can make an educated decision as to whether they wish to proceed before buying their stock and ending up 'Naru'd for being an unregistered business or getting too many 'disputes' making them a NPS...or worse still having the inland revenue on their back.

I have lost count of the number of friends/aquaintances that say 'if I had known it was this much work/agro I would never have done it......' usually when they have a pile of stock and no way of shifting it!

thepedestrian

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.

Gawd not them old Bills and Moon bodice rippers again !

-do yourself a favour Soolin and read some Stephen Slaughter or the old faithfull Rankin sometimes !! :beer:

thepedestrian

coldstar wrote: »

I actually run the eBay "dept" for a small group of charity shops!

We try and pick up all ebayable stuff before it gets put out on sale and have managed to make quite a lot of money for the charity using this method. I know we dont catch everything but I think we get most of the potentially valuable items. I give talks to the other shop volunteers to try and get them to spot the right sort of item before it goes on sale and have had a few very interesting items which have made quite large sums.

We know the regular "ebay hounds" who visit our shops and I watch the sort of stuff they buy. I dont think they make much profit as they arent that good at spotting good items. Sometimes they are a bit boastful after buying something "valuable" and tell us how stupid we are selling an item for £5 when they know they will get £100+ on eBay. When asked to dontate some of this excess profit they always refuse. Most of these "valuable" items I have seen them buy are NOT what they think they are and are worth no more than they paid for them. On one occasion someone actually asked for their money back when they tried to ebay one of these valuable finds (bought for £2) only to discover it was not valuable at all. Not surprisingly I refused!

The point of this is to say your not going to make much selling charity shop items on eBay these days. eBay savy people work in almost all charity shops and are quite good at finding the "gems" before they go on sale and using the profit for the benefit of the charity for which it was donatated, not for personal profit. But there is still a real personal thrill in finding a hidden gem and then seeing it sell for hundreds of pounds (which happens a few times a year to me!)

Rubbish ( imho )

if what your selling for in a shop / carboot / Ebay jumble whatever and someone gambles on buying it and thinks that they can do a better job of presenting / selling it to turn a profit for their enterprise - whats your beef ? - youve sold at the ticket price that you stipulate - why begrudge someone putting in the time and more effort than you to make ( or maybe not make ) a couple of quid ??