B&M Ebay Selling Service, good idea or not?

[dominict]

My son is thinking of setting up an ebay selling service, he is looking at a good position in a small city.

Basically people can bring thier unwanted stuff down to him and he will sell it on ebay and send it off for a % commision (not sure how much yet).

So quite simply good idea or not?

Many thanks.

 

[kulture]

People have tried this. It can work. I guess that the pitfalls are avoiding dealing with stolen goods, and what happens if there is a return or paypal chargeback?

 

[sarah@opace]

Hi

I think it is a great idea and wish you all the best with the project, it will be hard work, as anyone who uses e-bay knows, but i am sure if he works hard it will pay off

 

[sarah@opace]

People have tried this. It can work. I guess that the pitfalls are avoiding dealing with stolen goods, and what happens if there is a return or paypal chargeback?

Hi i'm sure these could apply to anyone, with regards to stolen items, i'm not sure about this one to be honest but regarding returns and chargebacks they normally occur soon after closing the sale/customer receiving the goods,so you could always have a clearance period that gives you a week or something after the dispatch to allow for issues to crop up if there are any, also hopefully he will have a bit of wriggle room in his profit to allow for problems,l i am sure anyone who has sold on e-bay has been stung on postage etc. etc. you live and learn

 

[dominict]

This is why this forum is so useful, stolen goods never even crossed our minds. Something to mull over, as well as the returns policy, I guess it is going to be quite rare to get a problem with either, but not impossible.

He has been thinking about it for a while now, and with many people struggling finacially we are hoping that a service to help people get a few extra £'s might be worth wile.

 

[warnie]

My son is thinking of setting up an ebay selling service, he is looking at a good position in a small city.

Basically people can bring thier unwanted stuff down to him and he will sell it on ebay and send it off for a % commision (not sure how much yet).

So quite simply good idea or not?

Many thanks.

Do a search as there was a guy thinking of doing this about a week or so ago. I posted in the thread as I was thinking about it myself 18 months ago.

 

[dominict]

Do a search as there was a guy thinking of doing this about a week or so ago. I posted in the thread as I was thinking about it myself 18 months ago.

I did try but the search returned virtual ebay shops, on ebay, rather than B&M but I will have another look thank you.

 

[Dogsbody]

This was done in my small City a couple of years back, a fairly busy road, not in the center nor the very best of neighbourhoods, but by no means the worst. I think it was a 50/50% split. The people in the shop (Quite reasonable size ex-convenience store) did everything for the sale and then just split the sale price.

Sadly it didn't last long.

I think the rent/rates did for it, I'm sure it would work as a garage/shed type business, but then of course you don't get the passing trade. Certainly wouldn't want to be paying high rents to do it.

 

[dominict]

Found the other thread, thank you.

Its not high rent, infact its a friend of a business associate who tells me they are desperate for some tennants and are offering a % rental at 15% of takings, could be heresay will have to get my son to check this out.

With everything worked out on percentages, he can only but try, as he hasn't got too much to loose.

The only problem I can see is that although he has sold some stuff on ebay, I doubt he would consider himself a pro, unlike the guy on the other thread. Guess he has got some reading to do. Also how do you fill your space when simply offering a service? we don't want it to look like a car boot sale either!

Many thanks for everyones input!

 

[silvermusic]

It's been tried on various scales before and very few can do it profitably.

First off the idea is old and outdated, had you asked the same question ten years ago I'd have said go for it. Almost every household has a PC and internet connection, selling on eBay really isn't difficult even for Mr and Mrs average. What can you offer that thay can't do for themselves in return for a cut of the price? Secondly, eBay isn't the miracle selling place it was a decade ago when you could chuck up any old junk and the prices went through the roof, as a place to get decent money for most second hand goods it's poor, and with your cut as well you'll have a lot of disapointed people. Even according to eBay auctions are a dying breed in most sectors apart from collectable and antiques.

There are a few companies that do this on a large scale and are very selective about the products they will sell, antiques, high value items, cars, etc. Certainly not the sort of junk the average person walking in off the street would bring in. On top of this the overheads on a High street location make it unworkable, many have tried and failed.

 

[MH1]

/\ /\ As above /\ /\

 

[Philip Hoyle]

Trouble is that potential customers who aren't buying/selling on ebay themselves will almost certainly have an unrealistic expectation of how much their items are worth and risk being very disappointed if something sells for a tenner when they'd thought it was worth hundreds, hence the risk of arguments/disputes etc or at least a lost customer for the future and poor reputation once they've told their friends and family.

Exactly the same scenario occurs with house clearances. People think that their grandmas old china tea set must be worth thousands because grandma kept it wrapped up and locked in a cupboard, but the reality is that the particular tea set was mass produced and virtually every granny has one in their cupboard! That's why there are so many "antiques" at car boot sales - simply because the auction houses won't waste their time on it.

At the very least, you'd need to have some strict rules about what you'd accept for selling. I.e. no bric-a-brac or other junk - you'd need to quickly develop an eye for things likely to sell for a decent amount - say at least £50 per item selling price to give you maybe £20 after ebay/paypal fees, postage and packing, and splitting the difference. If you can't come out with £20 per item profit, it's simply not worth your time in the photographing, listing it, posting it and general admin.

As for chargebacks for faulty goods, stolen goods, undelivered items, etc., a week is far too short. I'd suggest more like a month as reports of items lost in transit aren't usually accepted for 2 weeks. After only a week, there's no guarantee the buyer has even received it, let alone checked it!

 

[M.R.]

it works.
in germany we got lots of them.
I know somebody who owns one, and he growed up very very fast.
He got a new big stock with thousands of items.
customer pays ebay costs and the ebay agent get s about 20% from the selling price.

 

[KateCB]

You would have to have some sort of legal disclaimer tha people signed to say that the goods were theirs to sell, and that no liability would fall on you if proved otherwise,; returns - post office don't count anything as 'lost' until 17 WORKING days after date of psotage - thats 3 weeks.....!