Buying from wholesale to sell for profit

Hammyman

pleasedelete wrote: »

Have you looked at auctions at auction houses. Some do bankrupt stock etc but often best buys are a general auction which often has new stuff.

Not the case anymore. One auction I used to go to, John Pye in Nottingham, regularly has ex-display and clearance laptops from CPW and Dixon Group. When I first started going you could get a brand new sealed in box laptop for £80. Once Joe Public turned up, the second hand models of that laptop were touching £150. I stopped going once it got to the point that the ex-display stock was going for more than you could pay going to Currys and buying one off the shelf.

Check terms as you pay more than you bid with buyers premium and vat.

Indeed. At Pyes it is 15% commission + VAT on the total so something with a hammer price of £100 costs you £138. At the auctions I currently go to it is 10% commission plus VAT on commission only so £100 hammer price costs you £112 - £26 extra in my pocket.

RFW

Hammyman wrote: »

At the auctions I currently go to it is 10% commission plus VAT on commission only so £100 hammer price costs you £112 - £26 extra in my pocket.

Presumably that's on non vat registered goods, most new stock would have VAT on the items too.

pleasedelete

Doesn't add vat on goods at our auction house. It is a weekly general clearance auction. Hard to define new goods as much is pre owned but unused.

You pay vat on the buyers premium. Roughly a £15 bid costs a fraction under £19 and a £7 (starting price) bid about £9. Premium is 20 per cent plus vat on the 20 per cent.

RFW

pleasedelete wrote: »

Doesn't add vat on goods at our auction house. It is a weekly general clearance auction. Hard to define new goods as much is pre owned but unused.

You pay vat on the buyers premium. Roughly a £15 bid costs a fraction under £19 and a £7 (starting price) bid about £9. Premium is 20 per cent plus vat on the 20 per cent.

It varies as to how VAT is interpreted and some auction houses won't charge VAT if the vendor is not registered, something to which, last time I went into it, people at HMRC couldn't agree on.

So anyway back to the topic, if you are buying at auction make sure you know what you are paying in addition to the hammer price and indeed what is being sold, some auctioneers are fast and can seem (if not always intentionally) a bit tricky.

pleasedelete

pleasedelete wrote: »

Doesn't add vat on goods at our auction house. It is a weekly general clearance auction. Hard to define new goods as much is pre owned but unused.

You pay vat on the buyers premium. Roughly a £15 bid costs a fraction under £19 and a £7 (starting price) bid about £9. Premium is 20 per cent plus vat on the 20 per cent.

The premium varies from auction house to auction house.

lovinituk

Goodas1980 wrote: »

I thought that may the response but I thought it was worth a shot lol, I was mainly hoping for a point in the right direction really.

Anyone with good suppliers will not want to give that info away as it will just lead to another competitor. I spent months researching for some of my suppliers and spent money on test orders with others that came to nothing - unfortunately you need to be realistic and realise you need to go through the same.

Check out The Wholesale Forums - http://www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk/ - loads of advice and some wholesalers there, you mind find something you're interested in.

FattyBettyBoo

I read an article about a woman from Wales who went on holiday to China and realised that baby shoes are 5th of the price there. She bought 10 pairs the sold them on ebay for a massive profit. She managed to negotiate with a whole saler in China and started her own business - making a huge profit!

I think the moral of the story is that you have to know the market you are selling in first to be able to find the stock at bargain price in the first place. You'll also enjoy selling more if you know and beleive in what you are selling. I know about selling horsey thing and did know about baby stuff. I used to go to car boot sales and know imediately if something was a bargain and would sell for a profit. After a while I bought in bulk from Galllop Equestrian and from someone who supplied Tommee Tippee products and made a good profit. If I tried this again now it wouldn't work as the market for these products has been saturated as everyone jumped on the band wagon.