Who's making a profit on Ebay?

AndyD_OHD

soolin>> Thanks for your comments and advice. Very fair comment on the "popularity" of so-called suppliers.

angelcake>> Fair comment, makes me think there's not much point in pursuing this avenue.

AndyD_OHD

soolin>> Thanks for your comments and advice. Very fair comment on the "popularity" of so-called suppliers.

angelcake>> Fair comment, makes me think there's not much point in pursuing this avenue.

But I think I'll persevere a little more and give potential niches a little more thought.

Cheers
Andy

steve1905

AndyD_OHD wrote:

soolin>> Thanks for your comments and advice. Very fair comment on the "popularity" of so-called suppliers.

angelcake>> Fair comment, makes me think there's not much point in pursuing this avenue.

But I think I'll persevere a little more and give potential niches a little more thought.

Cheers
Andy

that's a quick change of heart

AndyD_OHD

Snooze_Control wrote:

I found my niche from the industry I work in. No-one on Ebay was selling one of the most frequently bought items except the very occasional secondhand one so I looked up shop prices and found they were charging between £500-600 per item. I then went out on a hunt for metal fabricators who could basically knock me up a replica. As luck would have it, I found one very close to where I live, got them some measurements and had a sample made up. Very impressed with the results, we sat down at the table and battered out a price we were both happy with and the rest as they say, is history! I sell the item on a buy-it-now (mostly) at £300 and after fees make £164 profit on each one I sell.

Up until now I was concentrating on just the one model but now I've decided to expand the range and am having the first of the new range made up as I write.

I also occasionally sell old receipts for things I no longer need! Might sounds daft, but you'd be surprised at how quick they're snapped up from self-employed folks who want to reduce their tax bills.... Obviously one doesn't make much on them, but how difficult are they to pop in an envelope and bung a stamp on the front? I find fuel receipts are particularly popular by the way and if the price is right I would probably buy some myself...



SC

Old receipts eh? Now that would be a niche.... and I've got plenty of those.... lol. Good luck with the new fabrications....

Pound

I make a profit buying large quantities (ie. a box of) of items at auctions then selling them individually. The profit margin is quite small though so I consider it a hobby more than a source of income.

greeneye

Snooze_Control wrote:

I've tried quite a number of different things in my time on Ebay. You can sell on most things at a profit if you know where to buy them cheap enough (stating the obvious) but to start off you'll find that your profits are quite small. This soon gets tedious because you're spending a lot of time listing auctions, managing your sales and of course packing and postage which are all very time-consuming and you start to realise that it just isn't worth it for the small profits you're making.

I found my niche from the industry I work in. No-one on Ebay was selling one of the most frequently bought items except the very occasional secondhand one so I looked up shop prices and found they were charging between £500-600 per item. I then went out on a hunt for metal fabricators who could basically knock me up a replica. As luck would have it, I found one very close to where I live, got them some measurements and had a sample made up. Very impressed with the results, we sat down at the table and battered out a price we were both happy with and the rest as they say, is history! I sell the item on a buy-it-now (mostly) at £300 and after fees make £164 profit on each one I sell.

Up until now I was concentrating on just the one model but now I've decided to expand the range and am having the first of the new range made up as I write.

I also occasionally sell old receipts for things I no longer need! Might sounds daft, but you'd be surprised at how quick they're snapped up from self-employed folks who want to reduce their tax bills.... Obviously one doesn't make much on them, but how difficult are they to pop in an envelope and bung a stamp on the front? I find fuel receipts are particularly popular by the way and if the price is right I would probably buy some myself...



SC

snooze your on the wrong board M8. Wait till the cronies get wind of that your gonna get slaughtered.... ;+)

greeneye

edited

Not gonna explain anything about this post to anyone! In fact I'm gonna edit it later tonight but OP if you read it and can figure how to make some money good luck to you and a happy new year ;+)

apprentice_tycoon

greeneye wrote:

snooze your on the wrong board M8. Wait till the cronies get wind of that your gonna get slaughtered.... ;+)

Can I have a go?

It's a really novel idea, selling the invoices and receipts for everything that you've bought because you won't be needing them to do your tax returns - but what happens when you do get that knock on the door?
If you still had them perhaps you could claim that there was some kind of temporary madness that stopped you registering but at least you could show where your money has been going, without them they will be forced to do some interesting guesswork to find out out what you owe them.

The thing is you know all this - you're not a kid starting up and not realising that you are in a taxable situation, you're a wheeler dealer and 2 steps ahead of everyone else but you really shouldn't be advising that getting rid of your documents is a good idea :eek:

Snooze_Control

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

Can I have a go?

It's a really novel idea, selling the invoices and receipts for everything that you've bought because you won't be needing them to do your tax returns - but what happens when you do get that knock on the door?
If you still had them perhaps you could claim that there was some kind of temporary madness that stopped you registering but at least you could show where your money has been going, without them they will be forced to do some interesting guesswork to find out out what you owe them.

The thing is you know all this - you're not a kid starting up and not realising that you are in a taxable situation, you're a wheeler dealer and 2 steps ahead of everyone else but you really shouldn't be advising that getting rid of your documents is a good idea :eek:

Eh? What ARE you on about? Who said anything about them being MY receipts? I obviously keep all my receipts as I'd be dim not to, BUT obviously the more receipts you can get hold of, the less tax you pay. They don't have to be from people already self-employed or with their own company, just some random bloke buying tools in B&Q for a DIY job who would normally throw the receipt in the bin on the way out is the kind of thing I'm after. :rolleyes:

SC

greeneye

Snooze_Control wrote:

Eh? What ARE you on about? Who said anything about them being MY receipts? I obviously keep all my receipts as I'd be dim not to, BUT obviously the more receipts you can get hold of, the less tax you pay. They don't have to be from people already self-employed or with their own company, just some random bloke buying tools in B&Q for a DIY job who would normally throw the receipt in the bin on the way out is the kind of thing I'm after. :rolleyes:

SC

How do you offset a B&Q DIY bill against an ebay based business tax bill?
Not dubious just interested.