Selling jewellery online

lucky_me_2

Hello all,

I would love some advice on buying and selling jewellery online, I like my vintage jewllery and have always had an interest in 'vintage' jewellery, other than that I have no knowledge or experience when it comes to selling jewellery, however I would quite like to start buying and selling jewellery - not really for profit but as more of a hobby, I would not mind breaking even at all, so long as I could cover costs, so I would love some advice guidance on the following:

If buying from sites like eBay could I re-sell via a private website/ facebook etc?
Would I be best specialising in just vintage or could I sell a variety of pieces with a 'vintage' theme?
Does anyone do this already for a hobby and have any useful tips or guidance?

I'd be really grateful for help with this, as I said not really looking to quit my job and make money from this, more of a hobby to keep me occupied.

soolin

Jewellery, both home made and vintage is quite a popular niche and it might be difficult to even cover costs. Do work out all your costs, including things like site fees, web page building and even payment methods before you spend too much money in buying any stock.

As soon as you buy to sell you will be a business and would need to declare yourself to HMRC. However, you would only be liable for tax on profits, and that is after all your costs and expenses.

I have sold vintage jewellery in the past both online and at fairs but the market was too saturated and for online sales postage became a problem as it is not insured standard mail if item gets lost. There is nothing to stop you from buying on eBay and reselling, the margin though might be tight. A lot,f my stock came from bricks and mortar auctions where I bought 'lots' and sorted the good stuff from the rubbish.

Send a bipod time doing research, work your costs out exactly, and good luck.

lucky_me_2

Thank you so much for the really helpful reply, I am off to research :-)

I plan to visit a few vintage fairs too before I get started.

soolin

lucky_me wrote: »

Thank you so much for the really helpful reply, I am off to research :-)

I plan to visit a few vintage fairs too before I get started.

I did one yesterday, but not for jewellery, it was a disaster. The cheapest stall was £35, two stall holders (one of which was jewellery) took nothing at all, and I came out with £51 which covered the stall but barely the cost of the items I sold.

lincroft1710

soolin wrote: »

I did one yesterday, but not for jewellery, it was a disaster. The cheapest stall was £35, two stall holders (one of which was jewellery) took nothing at all, and I came out with £51 which covered the stall but barely the cost of the items I sold.

Does this mean the money has dropped out of the vintage jewellery market, or it was the wrong time of year, or the fair was in the wrong place, poorly advertised or wrong type of clientele?

Even if you just about covered the stall and item cost, no doubt you had petrol costs and the time you took getting there and back, setting up and packing away, plus time actually trying to sell.

soolin

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Does this mean the money has dropped out of the vintage jewellery market, or it was the wrong time of year, or the fair was in the wrong place, poorly advertised or wrong type of clientele?

Even if you just about covered the stall and item cost, no doubt you had petrol costs and the time you took getting there and back, setting up and packing away, plus time actually trying to sell.

I moved into vintage and I could do 2 fairs a week within a distance of 15 miles if I chose. I just don't think people have the money to spend on frivolous things, I did well at one in the summer but only because at the last moment I put a box load of fans and retro parasols in the car and sold the lot as it got to 90 degrees in the shade.

Yesterday was my last one though as I've decided to give up and concentrate on selling online. I cannot spend all day at a fair and store all my stock and barely break even. Most of my stock sells for a great deal more online anyway.

I did buy a lovely pair of earrings yesterday on silver wires, the lady was also clearing her stock as she said she was barely making 50p profit an item before paying for her stall and petrol costs.

p00

We did a table top sale yesterday. I sold 3 pieces of silver jewellery and the rest was baby clothes and toys. Took £50 plus the £5 fee so not too bad.

We priced up craft stalls prior to this and the cheapest was £15 a table. I cant see the profit is there anymore after petrol, time etc.

Two other tables selling hand knit cardies etc yesterday didnt sell a thing!

soolin

p00 wrote: »

We did a table top sale yesterday. I sold 3 pieces of silver jewellery and the rest was baby clothes and toys. Took £50 plus the £5 fee so not too bad.

We priced up craft stalls prior to this and the cheapest was £15 a table. I cant see the profit is there anymore after petrol, time etc.

Two other tables selling hand knit cardies etc yesterday didnt sell a thing!

Locally we used to be able to get tables at a good fair, well advertised and with amenities for £15, then a couple of the big fairs increased their fees to around £35 and everyone followed them. £35 is about normal now, some of the bigger ones (we have several huge 2 day events) can cost £70 for the weekend.

The daft thing is that if I go back to selling vintage at a collectors fair for antiques and vintage I would expect to pay £20 a day or £35 for 2 days and get hundreds of attendees including some from Europe, so I may well do that eventually.