Buying and Selling on Ebay

[S_Tezza]

Hi everyone, I'm at university and have a part-time job however I want to gain some experience of buying and selling so thought ebay may be a good place to start. My interest is in Health and Fitness and I'm a bit of a petrol head so anything to do with cars too. I thought about maybe selling interior car accessories such as gear knobs, handbrake gaiters, gear levers etc. However I'd like to sell genuine brand names e.g. Richbrook car accessories are the official lincensing product for Ford. My question is, what route would i need to take and would I be able to price these products near or below ebay shops? (As I will not be an e-shop). Would it be wise to sign up to esources or somewhere like that to find a supplier? Although i think they supply to trade only.

Sorry in advance for my lack of business knowledge, I just need to find somewhere to start to gain some experience.

thanks, scott

[KidsBeeHappy]

You are trying to buy and sell at retail prices if you are buying and selling on ebay. you need to by wholesale and sell retail.

So, try to buy at places like scrappies, autojumbles, car boots, anything like that and then sell on ebay. Even then, your two venues aren't that different, so you won't be making a huge profit.

From what I hear there are good markets for second hand car parts.

[S_Tezza]

I wasn't planning to buy products from ebay and resell on ebay, I was just wondering if it's possible to buy products wholesale and resell them on ebay for a small profit e.g. esource and simply wholesale. Sorry if i didn't give enough information, I'm interested in aftermarket car accessories (new) such as leather gear stick gaiters, aluminium gear knobs etc so I wouldn't be able to source those from a scrappie.

thanks, scott

[David P]

Going to require A LOT of effort for not a lot of profit I would guess. The key to doing well for most on ebay is having a lot of things listed. Along with offering service at stupidly high standards that would not be expected from most high stores .com services.
Will you be able to send out your items quickly and daily? Will you have time to deal with problems and go online every day?

Sorry for being so negative but I don't want you to start and waste a lot of time starting before quickly realising it is not viable.

[edmondscommerce]

You can always try sourcing some stuff from China but you need to deal in larger quantities.

Profit margins on eBay are very tight - and thats before all of the various fees etc

[MikeH]

We gave ebay a whirl some time ago but we pulled it. For a hobby, or pocket money its probably OK. I mean no offence to anyone that does make a living from ebay but it was just a real pain.

We actually sold items above our normal prices to offset the addional fees (advertising, paypal etc.) The main problem was that ebay attracts a certain type of shopper. We got too many silly questions about products. The advert usually contained the answer, or they wanted the moon on a stick. It became far too administrative to make a few pound a week so we stopped it.

[Christiane]

The main problem was that ebay attracts a certain type of shopper. We got too many silly questions about products. The advert usually contained the answer, or they wanted the moon on a stick. It became far too administrative to make a few pound a week so we stopped it.

Agree entirely. I get far less bother on my website, or rather it is acceptable due to the level of orders. Ebay, you get 1 in 10 asking silly questions or posing problems of some sort. Also payment can be slow, why don't they pay straight away when buying only 1 item!
My partner has sold 2 things on ebay at the weekend (private, not business) and he got so much hassle from one of them, unbelievable.

Don't bother with esources, no need to pay for suppliers you can find elsewhere or, although listed, no longer trade.

[norwichchris]

hi,
I am doing a dissertation on PayPal for city college Norwich the report is on the growth of online fraud for the service.

would it be possible for you to fill in a short questionnaire about paypal. The questionnaire itself is totally annonymous and is hosted by kwiksurvey no personal information is held.

Please see below for the linkL:
http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=KKLJG_3eba4661

Many thanks chris