buying out of season items

joeblags

Does anybody else buy anything that's not in season then sell it when the times right? I have been doing so for a couple of years now, I did get stung this year but hopefully I can recoup and break even after some fixing. but I do still have some items I can sell for a decent profit.

rabialiones

what sort of things do you buy?
and sell

soolin

I know of a few people who do that or have done it with varying success. The pitfalls appear to be the limited profit compared to giving up storage room, is it worth storing say several boxes of Halloween items only to make a few pound profit at the end- especially when it is all taxable.

The other issue one colleague faced some years back was that as an online business he obviously has to offer returns, so on one occasion having done very well with Christmas nick nack things, a lot got returned after Christmas as faulty or damaged- and his profit was almost wiped out.

joeblags

im not a business I just sell a few items at Christmas, no returns either. what i buy is outdoor Christmas lights from carboots & facebook buy and sell groups. don't pay more than £5 - 10 and will sell at £20 - 30 each or maybe a tad more if its something which is rare.

the_matrix

Storage is the issue. If you can get that right I think it an be very profitable to buy loads of the stuff when clearance deals are on.

[Deleted User]

I wish you the very best of success with it, joeblags:beer:.
I've thought of trying the same thing myself, although not christmas lights as anything electrical is fraught with pitfalls IMO:(.

My main problem (apart from not knowing what products to stockpile) would be storage. Plus, if you are buying to sell, as opposed to selling off your own possessions, you are a trader and liable for tax. You may not have a business name as such and do your selling through your personal eBay account etc but what you are doing is liable for tax. Please check out the pros and cons regarding tax for your own peace of mind.

soolin

joeblags wrote: »

im not a business I just sell a few items at Christmas, no returns either. what i buy is outdoor Christmas lights from carboots & facebook buy and sell groups. don't pay more than £5 - 10 and will sell at £20 - 30 each or maybe a tad more if its something which is rare.

You are a business as soon as you buy something to sell on and with second hand lights of any description I would advise you to be very careful about the safety issues. Someone might let it go if they bought a faulty item from you, but I think they would probably make more of an effort to track you down if you sold them something that injured them or blew out all their fuses or something.

Flyonthewall

joeblags wrote: »

im not a business I just sell a few items at Christmas, no returns either. what i buy is outdoor Christmas lights from carboots & facebook buy and sell groups. don't pay more than £5 - 10 and will sell at £20 - 30 each or maybe a tad more if its something which is rare.

As already said, if you're buying to sell you're running a business and you need to declare it.

It doesn't matter if you make a profit, break even or lose money and it doesn't matter if you sell one item or one million items. If you've bought something to sell you need to declare that and be registered as self employed.

By law as a business (which you are, despite what you think) you have to accept returns, even if the customer just changed their minds.

If you're selling on ebay then even as a private seller you'd have to accept returns for people claiming the item is not as described. I'm sure it's the same for Amazon.

If you continue doing this you need to register as self employed, declare everything and follow the laws regarding selling. You also need to follow ebay/Amazon rules if selling on there. If you don't and any customers complain you won't have your account long.

joeblags

My ebay account isn't a business account I sell and buy loads of different items, the Christmas lights I do also use then resell the year after but not with them all. selling any electrical item second hand could be classed as faulty, I tend to make sure all items are sold with a plug even if I didn't buy it with one, I use to do electrics a few years back so I check my items over to make sure they are in good working order. As for paying tax, nope , never. I pay more then enough from my 40 hours a week job. if I was selling large amounts of items then im sure ebay would see me as a business not its only a few each year.


ok lets pretend im not a business then , I am just selling last years Christmas lights, how do they prove how much I paid and that im selling them for profit? you CANT


how do you know this thread isn't one big lie? you read that mr taxman, all this could be a big fat lie of a thread. I honestly don't care what any body on this forum says, over my dead body would I pay any more taxes than I already do why them MPs sit on there !!!! destroying this country and claming for expenses they don't even have.

soolin

joeblags wrote: »

My ebay account isn't a business account I sell and buy loads of different items, the Christmas lights I do also use then resell the year after but not with them all. selling any electrical item second hand could be classed as faulty, I tend to make sure all items are sold with a plug even if I didn't buy it with one, I use to do electrics a few years back so I check my items over to make sure they are in good working order. As for paying tax, nope , never. I pay more then enough from my 40 hours a week job. if I was selling large amounts of items then im sure ebay would see me as a business not its only a few each year.


ok lets pretend im not a business then , I am just selling last years Christmas lights, how do they prove how much I paid and that im selling them for profit? you CANT


how do you know this thread isn't one big lie? you read that mr taxman, all this could be a big fat lie of a thread. I honestly don't care what any body on this forum says, over my dead body would I pay any more taxes than I already do why them MPs sit on there !!!! destroying this country and claming for expenses they don't even have.

You may think it unfair to properly declare your sales but many of us in the same situation do and this is MSE and we should not be condoning defrauding HMRC. As for whether you will get caught, possibly not but if you do then HMRC take the worse possible scenario to assess how much they think you have unpaid, and it will be up to you to prove costs, including purchase price, to bring down the tax owed.

[Deleted User]

joeblags wrote: »

how do you know this thread isn't one big lie? you read that mr taxman, all this could be a big fat lie of a thread. I honestly don't care what any body on this forum says......

I'm very sorry you feel that way about the posters who have given you their genuine advice. None of us like paying taxes but I can assure you that the penalties should HMRC find out you are evading paying them are a greater evil:(.

We are trying to help you, after all you did come on here asking for advice. I can appreciate that the advice given isn't necessarily what you hoped to hear but it was well-meant and true nevertheless!