HELP! Any tips on starting an ebay business?

laura_tyne

Hi all, this is my first post but I've been lurking for a while.

I'm 23 and I'm expecting my first child this summer . To get a lil more income, I want to set up a work-from-home business.

I want to sell personalised T-shirts on ebay for birthdays, stag/hen nights etc..

Does anyone have any tips regarding ebay, pricing and advertising?

Many thanks

Laura

cafenervosa_2

laura_tyne wrote:

Hi all, this is my first post but I've been lurking for a while.

I'm 23 and I'm expecting my first child this summer . To get a lil more income, I want to set up a work-from-home business.

I want to sell personalised T-shirts on ebay for birthdays, stag/hen nights etc..

Does anyone have any tips regarding ebay, pricing and advertising?

Many thanks

Laura

Get some nice t-shirts made and then take so nice pics with your digital camera & see how much they sell for. It's all trial and error at first until you find a trend.

angelcake

cafenervosa wrote:

Get some nice t-shirts made and then take so nice pics with your digital camera & see how much they sell for. It's all trial and error at first until you find a trend.

Hi Laura! Congratulations on having your first child! I had a look on ebay to see what tshirts like you want to sell - are going for! There doesn't seem to be much so it could be a good market! - although it could mean there is no demand fot them! here i one

What you could do is buy/make a batch of 10 (Start small) just to test the water and see how you go - what about doing childrens/baby birthday tshirts or bibs for special occasions?

Watch a few similar items on ebay to see how they go and decide from there!

I wish you all the luck with baby and business and hope it all goes well!

Browntoa

remember to factor in

1) the costs of placing adverts where you may not sell any items but still have to pay e-bay
2) if you use paypal then they take a percentage, Nochex is cheaper

venace

Like you i want to start a ebay business but i lack idea's of what to sell. Ive sold some old stuff but thats now run out, ive also sold some wristbands but i dont make much from that. Remember you need to spend money to make money.

cafenervosa_2

venace wrote:

Like you i want to start a ebay business but i lack idea's of what to sell. Ive sold some old stuff but thats now run out, ive also sold some wristbands but i dont make much from that. Remember you need to spend money to make money.

Its true that it helps to have money to invest in more expensive products that are likley to jump in value in the future.

I learned a lot yesterday, i'm not saying what it was but 6 months ago it was selling for £16.99 on amazon and another site, the RRP is £99.99. Now its so rare that its selling on ebay for just a wee bit under £200!...amazing.

laura_tyne

Thanks for your help and ideas. I love the idea of personalised bibs!

A friend of mine has suggested retro designs on Fruit of the Loom T-shirts that a few other ebay sellers are doing, so I might start off with a small sample and see how it goes!

I've also mocked up some prototypes to include in the auctions!

Wish me luck......

Ampalian

eBay is great for getting rid of your stuff but for a commercial enterprise the costs are very high. It's a bit like gambling. The bookie always wins. Well eBay always wins too. Sale or no sale eBay takes your money in charges.

But lets be sensible and understand that eBay is also a very powerful marketplace. Be smart and harness that power. Use eBay, don't be suckered to them.

How? well here is a strategy for you.

List you best half a dozen products on eBay, regularly. Aim to break even or a bit better after their crazy charges and think of it as cheap advertising to 114 million registered eBay users. In your listings make sure to point out that you have more available on your own site but don't create a direct hyperlink to it, that's against eBay rules. Users are savvy and if you say that you have more at your own site (name) they'll find you.

As for a site. Dead easy. You probably have free space available from tour internet service provider. But this shopping cart for about £17, once and forever ($30). For a bit extra they'll even install it for you. http://esmistudio.com/pp7.php

With your own site, linked to your PayPal account, you can display as many products as you like without paying any fees.

culpepper

You could put a link to your site when you email people who have won bids.
I noticed someone who was buying from me had done that.

Ampalian

Good tip culpepper

Fatboy_NSS

The problem with ebay (and indeed any auction) is that it's the buyers who decide the price. Therefore if only one person wants your item then the price isn't going to go up, even though they might have been happy to pay more. I wouldn't say ebays charges are particularly excessive, especially compared to selling in the "real world", but it does get pricey considering you'll never get the best price through them.

Agree with above posters that starting on ebay may be a good idea. If you pick a decent user name (something like "laurastshirtsdotcom") anyone will obviously be able to see that's your website but you wouldn't have actually posted the URL in your listings so wouldn't be in breach of the rules.

Also, have you looked into selling them offline? I seem to remember a craft shop where I used to live that would sell anyone's stuff, as long as you'd made it yourself. They took a cut of about 25% of the sale price then you would get the rest. Though this seems a lot the prices in the shop were relatively high, so you could probably price handmade shirts at £15-£20, especially if you were making them personalised to order. At these prices you'd get £11.25-£15 per shirt, and assuming your costs are £5 a shirt then a pretty decent markup.