My £5k by Christmas challenge

kriss_boy

Well why aim to turnover 5K. why not aim to make X amount of profit.

My turnover in 2 years of selling guitars was well over a quarter of a million pounds...

redmandarin

kriss_boy wrote:

Well why aim to turnover 5K. why not aim to make X amount of profit.

My turnover in 2 years of selling guitars was well over a quarter of a million pounds...

Whoohoo, bully for you! If you have so much money already though, why are you logging on to a money saving website? :rolleyes:

kriss_boy

redmandarin wrote:

Whoohoo, bully for you! If you have so much money already though, why are you logging on to a money saving website? :rolleyes:

Read my post again... my TURNOVER was over a quarter of a million... ie profits were considerably less, so I just wondered why someone would aim to turnover X amount of money...

nielingren

OK sorry to put this is and its prob wrong but can i see you ebay shop and know what you sell

cazmanian_minx

kriss_boy - turnover's just an easier figure for me to calculate quickly than profit. I know roughly what profit I'll get off a £5k t/o but I wanted something I could track accurately to spur me on without it taking up too much time in number crunching. I'm self-employed and the bulk of my income comes from eBay, though I also work as a writer and freelance researcher. However it's perhaps fortunate that my mortgage is tiny and my monthly outgoings are less than £300 £250k pa is impressive though - are you still selling guitars?

nielingren - I mentioned up-thread what I sell, jewellery making components. I'm pretty certain it's against board rules for me to post my username/shop name here as it would be considered advertising, but I can send it to you in a PM if you'd like?

kriss_boy

nielingren wrote:

OK sorry to put this is and its prob wrong but can i see you ebay shop and know what you sell

What do I sell? Or do you mean what the OP sells?

kriss_boy

cazmanian_minx wrote:

£250k pa is impressive though - are you still selling guitars?

Not sold one since January.

I basically started importing them from the US, exploiting the difference in there RRP over there compared to here.

Trouble is everyone started doing it. For example, when a new model came out, I managed to sell 3 of them at around £500 to £700 profit each, selling them for around £1900.. but then inevitably within a few months, weeks even, people copy you and import the same guitar. Next thing you know your competing to scrape a £100 profit on it and selling it at around £1200. After paying a good £1100 and risking all that money for a month.

I still look out for bargians.. I see guitars all the time that have possibly a couple of hundred profit in them but the risk of them selling slow or just breaking even is too high to waste my time doing it at the moment.

PLUS, worst of all is the guitars have gone up in price in the states, by a good 25% or so but thats not been reflected over here in the UK yet so its hard to get them cheaper abraod anymore.

It was a great experience tho. Playing some of the most expensive and sought after guitars money can buy. Signed ones. Ltd Editions. Vintage models n stuff.

cazmanian_minx

kriss_boy wrote:

It was a great experience tho. Playing some of the most expensive and sought after guitars money can buy. Signed ones. Ltd Editions. Vintage models n stuff.

Really interesting, thanks for sharing :T

kriss_boy

The possibilities are endless.

I originally used to sell t-shirts of lesser known bands. Buying them in for literally 2 or 3 quid each and often getting as much as 20 but regularly 10/15. You cant do that now of course because powersellers have 99% of the market covered and are selling tonnes of items at very small profits. Same with most things these days.

My advice to anyone is jus do research. Search completed auctions.

Or... be crafty and list things you perhaps dont have but can reliably get. A local record store had 7 copies of a particular Guns n Roses LP and one buy one i sold a few of them on ebay. That way theres no outlay.

I even got bored one nite and wrote a guide on avoiding fraud. Spoof emails. Hijacked accounts. Signs to look out for etc. Sold 3 copies for a fiver each which wasnt much but still 15 quid all the same. Got a lot of abuse from other members saying how much of a loser i was for trying to sell "advice" but jeez if someone offered me that for only 5 quid Id take it, esp knowing what I know now.

I evny the guys who first sold things like those wrist bands, u know fads, stuff like that, the people who got their first and probably made a decent amount outa it.

I often look for the next thing.. but its not easy. Ive got my eye on a few things but just working out the logistics of it all.

cazmanian_minx

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!:mad:

Earlier in this thread, someone suggested doing multipacks. I stuck one up a week ago on Thursday for 10 days (so it ends tomorrow evening) and bidding was trotting along nicely.

This morning I get three emails from eBay about bid cancellations. They've NARU'd one of my repeat customers (no idea why as she's not got any negs and she's always paid me within minutes of buying) and as a result the top bid on that multipack auction has tumbled from about £12 to £1.46.

I've emailed the customer to alert her to the NARU and ask if she wants the other items she's bought from me (she was waiting until the auction ended to pay for them all at the same time) - just hoping she can get the account reactivated before tomorrow evening and re-bid...