Need an extra income - help please

windswept

sci-fi collectables are doing well at the moment, but only in certain genres, and no I'm not telling which!
It looked like the sci-fi market was in freefall for a period last year and stuff that I thought would have sold at xmas , didn't.
Now that market has over taken my normal selling field, which is weird because it's now nearly summer and my stuff that should be selling, isn't.
Even when you know your chosen area back to front, you can never predict the vagueries of ebay, there is no set pattern, things that flew out 2 months ago, are going unsold.
I did a completed items search as I was concerned about the amount of my unsold items, my competitors are doing worse than me, they have 5 times the number of items listed, and 5 times the number unsold, which made me feel a bit better.
A product that I really thought would do fantastically well is hardly selling, even though it is totally unique, and no one else in the UK is selling it, not on ebay or anywhere else.
The problem seems to be that unless people have been to the orlando theme parks, they have never heard of them.
when we do outdoor events , we have them on display and they sell really well, but as you can't show them "working" on ebay, unless people already know what they are , they don't buy them, even though they get plenty of visits. I tried a big featured listing and it didn't bring in one sale!
I think that to have a really big seller on ebay you have to just be lucky and drop on the right items at the right prices, if you can get hold of stuff from poundland and flog it for a fiver then that means better profits than normal retail.

MoaningMyrtle

Ooh, windswept, what is this unique item you speak of? I'll have a look for it when I go to Orlando in the Summer.


When I sell items on Ebay, I don't have any specialities as such. Before the postage rates changed I used to buy books for 20p and sell them for £1.00-£2.00, now the postage costs make it too expensive for the buyers.

I look for good quality clothing to auction, Boden, Per Una, Gap and Next do sell well. I purchased loads of Almay make-up at £1.00 per item in a chemist and sold it for £2.00-£3.00.

I buy most stock from Car Boot Sales and Charity Shops. I aim to make 100% profit and always achieve this.

Contains_Mild_Peril

MoaningMyrtle wrote: »

When I sell items on Ebay, I don't have any specialities as such. Before the postage rates changed I used to buy books for 20p and sell them for £1.00-£2.00, now the postage costs make it too expensive for the buyers.

Have you tried looking for books slim enough to post at Large Letter rates? I've got one currently listed at 99p start with 90p p&p. I'll have to wait and see whether it sells now. I didn't buy it specifically though: I bought a box of books at my local auction room, containing a few I wanted to read and a lot that I didn't.

jasmineswhiskers

I get my items from car boots and also have done quite well buying from retail shops. My main criteria are that the item has to be Good Quality/ a premium brand and most importantly Cheap! Last week I found some items in a sale for £1 each. Bought 4 and put them on as BIN. They sold within several hours for £6 each in total. Went and bought all the rest the next day and they all sold. I have managed to do this with all sorts of unrelated items. I tried books and don't bother with these now as they rarely do well. It is a learning curve as mentioned before.

Snooze_Control

MoaningMyrtle wrote: »

Ooh, windswept, what is this unique item you speak of?

I know what it is!

For Bebay though, there's no point asking for ideas on here because many of us are sellers with our own niche markets. I am one myself and use the knowledge of the industry I work in to have items manufactured locally and then sell them on Ebay at a profit margin of between 100-200%. I'm only getting away with those profit margins because no-one else sells them on Ebay and there are only 3 other manufacturers of the item in the country to my knowledge and they sell them from their premises via mail order at far more than what I do, so it's win-win for me.

If I were to divulge what the item was, either directly to you or on the forums then I could guarantee that within a couple of weeks I'd had competition on Ebay and would have to start lowering my prices! I could share/tell you what my business plans are if you really want to know, but it'll cost you £100,000! Your call!

SC

windswept

Snooze_Control wrote: »

I know what it is!

For Bebay though, there's no point asking for ideas on here because many of us are sellers with our own niche markets. I am one myself and use the knowledge of the industry I work in to have items manufactured locally and then sell them on Ebay at a profit margin of between 100-200%. I'm only getting away with those profit margins because no-one else sells them on Ebay and there are only 3 other manufacturers of the item in the country to my knowledge and they sell them from their premises via mail order at far more than what I do, so it's win-win for me.

If I were to divulge what the item was, either directly to you or on the forums then I could guarantee that within a couple of weeks I'd had competition on Ebay and would have to start lowering my prices! I could share/tell you what my business plans are if you really want to know, but it'll cost you £100,000! Your call!

SC

SC, I know you know,:p
anyone could know just by visiting my website:cool: (check my profile);)
I think that a little competition on ebay may be a good thing for sales, if people saw a few people selling them, they might be more interested. (The supplier has a large min. order so it would stop bedroom sellers who would be happy to make only £1 profit on them.)
btw, have you checked out the new site? 123-reg were a complete waste of space so I went with do your own site and built it over the weekend , it's far better all round, it costs, but the shop is better, you dont have to register your personal details to be able to shop and the customer service is excellent, any queries were answered within the hour, even over the weekend! Just waiting for them to integrate google checkout and it will be bye-bye paypal.
I am now busy with seo, I have registered with shopzilla and a few other comparison sites, I have to create a product listing data feed to upload onto shopzilla and I don't know what I'm doing!:o

MoaningMyrtle

I've seen it now!!!;)

bella4uk

jasmineswhiskers wrote: »

I get my items from car boots and also have done quite well buying from retail shops. My main criteria are that the item has to be Good Quality/ a premium brand and most importantly Cheap! Last week I found some items in a sale for £1 each. Bought 4 and put them on as BIN. They sold within several hours for £6 each in total. Went and bought all the rest the next day and they all sold. I have managed to do this with all sorts of unrelated items. I tried books and don't bother with these now as they rarely do well. It is a learning curve as mentioned before.

So it's you who bought all the stick-on bras from the pound shop!!!!!!!;)

baffcat

rls1973 wrote: »

ooh i feel a bit patronised now.

rare_stuff, will you come round and do my pesky tax return for me, as i just don't think i can get my fluffy little head round it. :rotfl:

I didn't think it was a patronising comment. The number of times I've seen people come on here, or more particularly onto the Business to Business ebay forum, asking about when would be a good time to register as self-employed and asking about tax implications, really doesn't bare thinking about. Especially when those people have often been buying to resell for a year or more.

There are THOUSANDS of people (yes, some ARE SAHMs) who sell for large, little or no profit, not paying tax, who may well, one day, be caught up in the revenue's net and get a very nasty surprise, even more so if they haven't kept records to prove ANY income is not from a self-employed basis.

Ok, that's my lot. Going to go to bed shortly and wake up to some sunshine (okay, so the sunshine isn't due until Thursday. Can't a guy dream?) so I can go ride the hog for the first time in a week

Baff

syanide

No one here will tell you their sources as I would'nt myself. But most of us started off buying from car boot sales / clearance shops / closing down sales and house clearance shops. To find a good net source as the others say you will have to put the time and effort into researching what you want and the companies that do that sort of stock. It took my company over 6 months reseach and contact effort to get reliable sources for our products. A place to start if you may want general products (they also do nursery stuff) is here:

http://www.ekmpowershop.com/ekmps/shops/crbrighton/

you buy by the pallet but can make good profits on ebay..