My £5k by Christmas challenge

pomeroy

If you are serious about selling on Ebay full time then you need to find something else to sell, the margins you are quoting are awful.
For every £100 I sell on Ebay I expect to clear £40 after Ebay/Paypal/Postage/product Costs, and I do.

cazmanian_minx

pomeroy wrote:

If you are serious about selling on Ebay full time then you need to find something else to sell, the margins you are quoting are awful.
For every £100 I sell on Ebay I expect to clear £40 after Ebay/Paypal/Postage/product Costs, and I do.

On normal margins I do - the above example of £12.99 on £10.68 of stock was break even point. On my current listings, that £10.68-worth would sell for £23.90 + P&P. My P&P is standard for the category and covers the jiffy bag and stamp as well as a bit extra for my time and shoe leather (which covers the ebay fees). So, taking out the Paypal fee from the sale price, I clear around £52 from every £100-worth of sales (before tax and NI) which leaves me enough wiggle room for the 15% of listings that end unsold.

cazmanian_minx

Quick update: turnover as of yesterday £998.38 plus a £10 cheque in the post and 3 eCheques worth £30-ish waiting to clear - so that's the first £1000 :j :j

Going to have to up my selling rate significantly to do another £4k though - time to phone the wholesaler this morning and find out where my last order is.

cazmanian_minx

Another quick update:

I'm getting close to £1500 (yay!) and sales are increasing all the time as I expand stock, but am not going to make the £5k unless I do something drastic.

I sell jewellery-making components and it struck me, while I was wandering round the shops last week, that a lot of what's on the high street this year is a) badly made b) very expensive and c) very easy to make similar versions of. Take, for example, the diamond-shaped pair of silver chainmail earrings that Monsoon/Accessorize are selling for £9. That's about 45p of materials and 20 minutes with a pair of pliers.

I now have a second eBay ID and am going to use it to sell handmade jewellery - cheap and cheerful to start with, as people are naturally wary of a 0-rated seller, but there are several established jewellery sellers on there regularly selling their own work for around the £30 mark. I did think about selling it off my main ID, but decided if I want to get decent prices for necklaces, earrings etc., it probably isn't a good idea for someone to be able to click on View Seller's Other Items and see how much I sell all the components I used to make it for.

Onwards and upwards :beer:

apprentice_tycoon

Could you swap them over and put the components of the new ID? I know that a buyer could look at your previous sales and see the components if they wanted but I expect that no-one will.

cazmanian_minx

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

Could you swap them over and put the components of the new ID? I know that a buyer could look at your previous sales and see the components if they wanted but I expect that no-one will.

Fantastic idea in theory, but I couldn't move my shop over and all my existing components customers (about 150 regulars now) would wonder where I'd gone.

I suppose I could buy a few bits and pieces on the new ID, but there's nothing I really need at the moment!

BlueSkyDay

cazmanian_minx wrote:

I sell jewellery-making components and it struck me, while I was wandering round the shops last week, that a lot of what's on the high street this year is a) badly made b) very expensive and c) very easy to make similar versions of. Take, for example, the diamond-shaped pair of silver chainmail earrings that Monsoon/Accessorize are selling for £9. That's about 45p of materials and 20 minutes with a pair of pliers.

I now have a second eBay ID and am going to use it to sell handmade jewellery - cheap and cheerful to start with, as people are naturally wary of a 0-rated seller, but there are several established jewellery sellers on there regularly selling their own work for around the £30 mark. I did think about selling it off my main ID, but decided if I want to get decent prices for necklaces, earrings etc., it probably isn't a good idea for someone to be able to click on View Seller's Other Items and see how much I sell all the components I used to make it for.

Onwards and upwards :beer:

People don't know that it only takes 20 mins with a pair of pliers, though. Jewellery making is very fiddley and not everyone could do it. You're also using your skills in knowing which beads to put with which thingy, knowing what's in fashion and what is selling.

Good luck with this - hope you reach your target.

Blue

Kaminari_2

For selling your own items you could try https://www.etsy.com it has just had a relaunch and is very populer with a lot of international media. It is all handmade stuff. I sell on there and the one thing i found is that is is quite competative, probably not the best environment for moving closer to the £5k but worth a shot? Every little helps...

kriss_boy

what exactly are you selling?!?! If you can make 5 grand in months then surely you should be doing this for a living?

apprentice_tycoon

kriss_boy wrote:

what exactly are you selling?!?! If you can make 5 grand in months then surely you should be doing this for a living?

I think that you missed the plan to have *turnover* of 5K not profit of 5K