Can you really make a living selling stuff on eBay???

Thick_n_Thin

Hi, i have been following a few accounts on Instagram, people who claim to be making in excess of 2k per month selling stuff that they find in charity shops. I have been an eBay seller for a number of years, just selling my own unwanted items, old clothes ect and have had some small successes, my best month was just over £600 however I am mindful that this wasn’t all profit as I had originally paid for the items. Intrigued by some of the claims I visited some charity shops and paid the best part of £200 for some stock only to be disappointed when I barely broke even. My question is ... do any of you make a living by buying and reselling and if so what would be your average profit each month and is it worth revisiting this as a sideline or possible full time venture in the future? 

soolin

Thick_n_Thin said:

Hi, i have been following a few accounts on Instagram, people who claim to be making in excess of 2k per month selling stuff that they find in charity shops. I have been an eBay seller for a number of years, just selling my own unwanted items, old clothes ect and have had some small successes, my best month was just over £600 however I am mindful that this wasn’t all profit as I had originally paid for the items. Intrigued by some of the claims I visited some charity shops and paid the best part of £200 for some stock only to be disappointed when I barely broke even. My question is ... do any of you make a living by buying and reselling and if so what would be your average profit each month and is it worth revisiting this as a sideline or possible full time venture in the future? 

If you know what you are doing then it is perfectly possible to sell  as a reseller , however the people I know that do it have other sources and don’t rely solely on the Fickle stock of a charity shop.

if you want to see real profits then join some of the US reseller groups, they can make thousands a month and many support full households with extra to spare. They use goodwill outlets though and buy in bulk. 

kangoora

There are a number of people making a full time living on Ebay selling used items they buy cheaply, charity shops are one source but car boots, general sale auctions, gumtree, local facebook selling groups, closing down sales and even 'special offers' from supermarkets can be used to generate cash. I did it for a few years part-time and was making about 6-7k profit a year but to earn a good wage you need to be prepared to treat it as a full-time job (or even 7 days/week if sourcing from car boots) - and you could end up working for less than minimum wage if not very good at it.

Like all businesses you need to understand your market, by barely breaking even you were a) paying too much or b) selling too cheaply. Ideally you'd sell things you know about that have value, personally I used to specialise in general electronics, cameras and vintage toys/games - all things I had knowledge of and a reasonable idea of value and I still made loads of mistakes/chucked stuff in the bin/barely broke even. Clothes I steered well clear of, although, yes, some people make decent money selling 2nd hand clothing. You pretty much need to become an expert in 'something' and then extend your repertoire. It could be, for example, barbie dolls or playmobil or computer games or designer brand jeans/trainers, etc to start with.

To make a good go of it be prepared to visit charity shops regularly, get to car boots at opening times (sometimes 6am), trawl through general auction listings and, if unsure, just check on Ebay what something sells for before buying it - although before you become experienced be prepared to lose a lot of nice items by someone grabbing it whilst you're away checking prices on your phone (I presume you wouldn't check prices in front of the seller).

Nowadays I just treat it as fun and go to car boots at a 'sensible' time without any real expectation of making money. I still know a variety of good items that I can reasonably expect to buy for £1 - £5 and flip for anything from £30 - £150 if I see them. Buying that camera for £5 you know will sell for £180+ is the fun of it. These are reasonably rare/uncommon but I'll probably still manage to get a  few each carboot season. Before you ask, no, I won't say what they are as enough people are in the know already and adding more competition would reduce my chances of getting them

Google 'ebay reseller youtube uk' for some videos - just be careful about the age of them if using for tips. Ebay 2nd hand sellers quickly jump on easy to obtain, decent margin items (especially if posted in youtube vids) - they all start doing it and 6 months later the price is through the floor due to them all undercutting each other but people keep finding old videos and keep the price low - then people complain they aren't making much money from these 'sure things'.

Hope this helps, watching a few youtube videos will give you an idea, there is one particularly prolific youtube couple (UK based) that should turn up on a search but nothing beats having your own knowledge of what items you are going to be selling..............

messia07

 maybe if you set up a house clearance business you would have a regular amount of stuff to sell on ebay and at carboots.

i sometime go to carboots. like kangoora, i might get lucky sometimes but i find it extremely hard to find anything of great value to resell.. especially on a regular basis. 

i don't find car boots very nice places as the there tends to be a lot of unhappy sellers/buyers desperate to make money.. also i think the golden era of carboots is long gone.

RobM99

I think bargains are rarer because of ebay!   If I find something that I think might be worth a few bob, I check on ebay first - as many people do.

Thick_n_Thin

thanks all... I definitely think I overpaid for my charity shop stock and then probably took a hit when it came to reselling as I wanted to make my cash back quickly. Definitely agree with the comments about car boots, not as much fun as they once where! 

JWM

Sorry if this is a silly question, but I thought sales above £1000 in a tax year were taxable so doesn't that hit into profit big time?

I was under the impression that HMRC have access to PayPal info?

Would be interested in anyone's thoughts as I have a small eBay resell sideline but stop as soon as I sell £1000. Which was August in the last tax year.

theoretica

JWM said:

Sorry if this is a silly question, but I thought sales above £1000 in a tax year were taxable so doesn't that hit into profit big time?

I was under the impression that HMRC have access to PayPal info?

Would be interested in anyone's thoughts as I have a small eBay resell sideline but stop as soon as I sell £1000. Which was August in the last tax year.

At £1000 sales you need to do the income tax paperwork.  Whether you pay tax or not depends on if you have other income - if you don't then you have your normal personal tax allowance and tax is only payable on your profit, not your sales.

Like you I ensure I stay just below the £1000 limit - have quite enough paperwork in my life already!

soolin

theoretica said:

JWM said:

Sorry if this is a silly question, but I thought sales above £1000 in a tax year were taxable so doesn't that hit into profit big time?

I was under the impression that HMRC have access to PayPal info?

Would be interested in anyone's thoughts as I have a small eBay resell sideline but stop as soon as I sell £1000. Which was August in the last tax year.

At £1000 sales you need to do the income tax paperwork.  Whether you pay tax or not depends on if you have other income - if you don't then you have your normal personal tax allowance and tax is only payable on your profit, not your sales.

Like you I ensure I stay just below the £1000 limit - have quite enough paperwork in my life already!

It’s £1000 Income before costs, so would include postage as well. So less than £20 a week so hardly seems worth the trouble. 

RFW

I've been a full time online seller for nearly 20 years now. Prior to that I was an auctioneer.

A few years ago I had an idea to do a little project that involved buying from charity shops to resell and try and make a quick profit. I couldn't do it, the pricing in charity shops and the stock available made it prohibitive. Charity shops tend to sell on Ebay so they cherry pick a lot for themselves. Unless you have a contact with one or two charity shops to get first pick at their goods then I can't see how anyone could do it professionally.
One possibility would be upcycling, so buying an item and adding/modifying it before reselling.

fenwick458

I think if you put the time in, it will pay enough to make a living from. It will take a lot of work though, and when you do your accounts i wouldn't be surprised if you realise you could probably earn the same for less hassle with a low paid job!