surely it can't be this easy can it?

ballisticbrian

No ones really hit the nail on the head. The question isn't whether you can make money on eBay. It's this;

He seemed to have a lot of money but was not working.

The answer is no, making money on eBay requires quite a lot of work.

sequence

Perfectly possible... And no one will tell you what they sell or where they get it, there's enough competition as it is!

ballisticbrian

And no one will tell you what they sell or where they get it

But this person doesn't have a product, as they sell "whatever they can get" meaning second hand shops and car boot sales.

corbyboy

Buying stock, attending auctions, trawling antique and second hand shops, researching prices and the state of the market, listing products on eBay, communicating with buyers, purchasing wrapping materials, envelopes, boxes etc., wrapping and packaging items, regular trips to the post office, dealing with complaints and items not being delivered, processing returned items and constantly having to keep on his toes about what is selling and what is not.

Sounds like work to me.

He isn't "not working", he is self-employed.

soolin

ballisticbrian wrote: »

But this person doesn't have a product, as they sell "whatever they can get" meaning second hand shops and car boot sales.

You'd be surprised what turns up at auction sometimes, a lot of new stock goes through B and M houses, some of my dealer friends have done very well from the collapse of some of the big High Street names. As for myself, I couldn't possibly comment

I have for instance over the last few years bought part of the stock from a small independent music producer who happened to have produced early works from some major stars. several thousand assorted cards from a major card retailer (although I did finally dump the last few thousand last year as even selling in batches the return was not worth the effort), boxed and brand new ornamental items , boxed jewellery, household items - the list is endless.

Oh and several years back when I only sold books I bought 244 identical books direct from a publisher. £12 the lot with a selling price in amazon as high as £10 a book, although of course the price did fall once I started drip feeding the stock onto the market.

magumba

I smell b.s too...your friend is getting involved with a drug dealer/slave trader/budgie smuggler etc

Now how are you going to deal with that information ?.....

lovinituk

an9i77 wrote: »

Yes of course there is work involved, I guess I just meant that he has not had to have an 'employed by someone else' kind of job too ie he's been able to live off doing this alone. my bad.


I was just surprised he managed to make so much money as I thought ebay was very difficult to make money from. I know he has stopped doing it now and is looking for a job (his words - I'm not saying ebaying is not a valid job) so not sure why it's stopped working for him after so long.

If you put it like that then yes it's entirely possible. We sell on eBay and also Amazon and our own website. We started it from nothing and our annual turnover is well in to 6 figures now. But it's a full time job for me (9-5 mon-fri), my wife works every morning in the business mon-fri and we have 1 part time staff member (mon-wed).

I also wouldn't tell you what we sell. Too much competition already

RFW

ballisticbrian wrote: »

But this person doesn't have a product, as they sell "whatever they can get" meaning second hand shops and car boot sales.

I agree with Soolin, "whatever they can get" can be new stock, not just from auctions, anyone with cash in their pocket can easily go round companies and pick up decent clearance stock they can earn money on. It just depends how and what you're doing.
It is even possible to do without handling stock, a phone, a computer and a money supply can run quite a successful business.

As several have said there's no knowing what this guy is doing, he may be full of it, he may be a millionaire, or somewhere in between.

It's not too difficult to find out the person's Ebay account and see if there is any germ of truth in it.

Irn-Bru-Kid

magumba wrote: »

I smell b.s too...your friend is getting involved with a drug dealer/slave trader/budgie smuggler etc

Now how are you going to deal with that information ?.....

She's dating a pair of Speedo's?

PasturesNew

It's surprising how and where money can be made, seemingly easily, by the few who are tapped into what they're doing.

I met a young lad a few years ago that was earning £1000/week probably (or more) by driving for two days.

What he'd done was research on the cars market - and he focussed on one specific type of car. He'd pick one up at particular car auctions he'd researched/visited and knew, then drive it to Ireland, where he had contacts that could sell those cars on. Then he'd go home and repeat it the next week.

It takes a lot of knowledge to be able to get that knowledge in place.... and he was away from home 3 days a week. With the rest of his time he played poker, often pocketing a couple of £000 here and there for being better than a lot of others (but never mega great).

Nice bloke. Not flash, didn't wave his money about - and he invested it in property and the leisure business next.