Where do you get your stock from???

organ-grinder

Try this free site - few interesting articles plus a list of wholesale places and factory outlets

http://www.ebaygoldmine.org

markcrook

stevew8975 wrote: »

Pay anything up to £9.99 for a contact list on ebay, and you will get something like this - http://www.eempire.co.uk/

Somebody has done half the work by finding out who sells what and then listing all their contact details for you to do the legwork in sourcing the actual stock.

Tip of the trade - stick to what you know! If you nothing about iPods, then don't try to sell them in a market full of experts - you'll never win!

great link steve, than i just spent £459 and im getting over 2 grands worth of stock delivered.

patchwork_cat

Hi
Does anyone know anything about lost luggage sales - heard about Heathrow doing it - does anyone know if this is all airports and what about railways etc.?

StaffsSW

When I lived in Stanwell, near Heathrow, there was a small auction house near Harmondsworth that would sell these off, but this closed about 6 years ago now.
The cases were always sealed by baggage handlers, so you were bidding on the suitcase itself - Samsonites and LV's obviously went for a lot more than sports bags and the like.

HOWEVER.... The baggae handlers have a duty to make all effort tor eturn the cases, which involves opening them up for any ID, or way to connect them to an owner, which also means it's VERY rare to find anything of value in them. I never had more than a cheap 35mm camera, binoculars and some half decent perfumes/aftershaves etc. I was paying about £12-£15 for a lot, and after buying half a dozen or so, I gave it up as a bad idea.

It's virtually all unwashed clothes and tacky souvineers, although there were s few items of clothes that were wearable once washed, but it's not something I would recommend as way of obtaining sellable stock! (unless "well worn shoes" are your thing!)

Pretty much the same with police auctions, most of the items are no more than second hand shop quality at not much discount over classified ads prices. A few hidden gems in bikes if you know what to look for, but never anything of real significance.

Look out for liquidation auctions though - where bankrupt businesses go under the hammer. These are normally held on the premises of the former business and can provide rich pickings. The eempire link above has loads of auction houses, and most of them will perform these sales as and when they are needed, but by their nature they are not regular occurances.

If anyone lives in South London have a look at http://www.auction.u-net.com/ - not been myself, but I'm interested to know what it's like?

(oh and avoid the Liquidation Auctions advertised in local papers, normally in hotels or working mens clubs - unless you want a fancy looking box with a piece of cheap far-eastern rubbish electronics with a quarantee that expires the moment you plug it in)

vikingaero

patchwork_cat wrote: »

Hi
Does anyone know anything about lost luggage sales - heard about Heathrow doing it - does anyone know if this is all airports and what about railways etc.?

http://www.greasbys.co.uk/

syanide

I source all my stock from china.. mainly the factories.. But as the others say its all about research... Took me 6 months to built up a solid relationship with the factories.. :eek:

StaffsSW

www.chinavasion.com and www.sellerkey.com are about the only 2 legitimate Chinese wholesalers - and both accept Paypal. They sell non-branded goods, rather than trying to pass off fakes as the real McCoy - ipods, memory cards etc.

blue_monkey_2

Did you check out what else was for sale before buying though? It is easy to get caught up in the Bargain Madness of it all but you have to be sure that it will make you money on eBay after fees and then tax if you have to pay it (if you have another income you'll have to pay tax on all profits you make). Don't forget, you are buying to sell on, you will have to register as being self employed with the Inland Revenue (can get fined if you do not) and you will have to keep accurate records. People selling the same stuff as me put 50p profit on each item now, you really have to sell in high volume to make any money so I don't bother and don't buy the 'bargains' anymore because they make such little profit. Now I put my prices at what I want sell the items for, not what I have to sell them for to get rid of the line and make the return on my cash. I don't get as many customers as everyone else but I am not paying listing fees on top of listing fees knocking any profit out on the items I have sold against what I am trying to sell. The problem being these days that unless you are lucky in having a unique item or unless you have the money to invest in high end items that are going to being profit of £30+ an item then it is just getting ridiculous. I have just one line I sell that has made me money this year - it was something that hardly anyone else seemed to hit on and so I am the only person in the UK to have them in stock now, so they are making me more than they usually would as I would have usually had to reduce the price lower than cost by now. Everything else is pretty much by the by and I take special orders for items through my website rather than keeping everything in stock. Once I clear the stock I have that will be it for my cheap lines. I started working from home so I could be with my kids, spending the whole evening answering tireless emails from people who can't read listings and then spending the whole day packing parcels for a 'wage' of £20 a day is just not my idea of fun these days.

I like to give good customer service and some people don't. i have even lost count of the people I have given lengthy advice to over the last few months for them to turn around and then say 'don't worry, I've found someone else selling it for £2 cheaper - thanks for the advice though'. That is very frustrating - people come to you for the advice but then will buy it from other people who were not so keen in offering that customer service because they are cheaper.

All I am trying to say amid my daily moaning about business on eBay is that you need to check out what you are buying BEFORE you part with your money - a bargain is not a bargain if you are going to be stuck with it. Likewise, if you are selling electricals you want to make sure you have some sort of Public Liability cover (just in case - everyone wants to sue the world for breathing these days!!) and that if something goes wrong you have a way of returning it so you are not stuck with loads of duff stock. I used to buy from a bloke on our local market and the stuff he used to have for sale was great and most of it was not even seconds (or did not look like seconds) - he had been up there for years, longer than I can remember. However, along came eBay and he had to fight for 'leftovers' and the stock he had was crap - everything I bought from him in the last 3 months had to go back for either a replacement or to be exchanged - he did take it back as he had to - and then I would not buy from him again because the stuff he was selling was unreliable now. If everyone else felt the same way then he would be out of business. And now he is. He no longer works the markets, there can only be so much stock you can have returned before it wipes out any profit you might make.

Just make sure you research what you want to buy before you buy it, there is no point in trying to sell something that another 10 people are already knocking out for £1 profit is there?

blue_monkey_2

Oh and also, buying wholesale stock on eBay - it is already being sold wholesale because the person who originally bought it can't make money on it! You might be lucky in finding liquidated stock but any business person in their right mind will not sell for less then they can sell it for will they!! If they can't sell it as separates then they'll bundle it up and sell it as a job lot. Been there done that in the early days!!

peter_the_piper

I grow all mine, It takes a while but I'm patient.