Buying at auction (high street surplus stock)

[revs]

Hi,

I'm in the process of testing some money making sidelines. I was wondering if anyone has experience of making money from buying at auction (ex-display, returns, surplus stock etc from dept stores) and flogging on ebay/amazon. I placed a bid on 20 items but only managed to win 1 as my bids were too low. By the time you've added the auction fees and VAT, you're adding 65% to the final bid price. The margins seem tight considering the cost of transport and the ebay & paypal fees on top. From my initial experience it doesn't seem worthwhile. Any thoughts?

Cheers
revs

 

[IanG]

Probably a bit saturated.

I normally come away empty-handed for the same reason. Had a few bargains for myself but I wouldn't want to start trying to retail the stuff. As you say the margins are small and the potential for comeback is quite large.

 

[garyk]

Yep as the saying goes the profit is in the buying. Our local auction house used to be a good source of stuff. The problem now is everyone wants a second income so there are more people bidding pushing up prices. They also do their electrical/gadget sale online simultaneously so reach a bigger audience.

 

[revs]

Looks like I've missed the boat on this one..back to the drawing board! The problem is that there doesn't seem like there's any market left that hasn't been saturated.

 

[Mitch3473]

Dont try and re invent the wheel. Find a market that you can improve upon, either cheaper or better. We set up a part time ironing service nearly 2 years ago, via the spare room and the garage we are now in 2000+square foot unit with commercial equipment preparing laundry for the local hotels, B&Bs, guest houses and some domestic. We aren't cheaper but we give better service. There is a gap in most markets somewhere.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

There are many companies who buy discontinued or bankrupt stock at silly prices and offer them to the trade at little more in Clothing terms a item that retailed at £20 as discontinued stock may be brought from the supplier at £1.50 and sold again by the buyer for £3.00 Plus delivery. They never go via a auction. You just need to search these companies out and buy reasonable quantities. thats how most market traders end up with low priced items but through a third party wholeseller

 

[TMGG]

Looks like I've missed the boat on this one..back to the drawing board!

There was no boat to miss. Auctions have been pretty much the same for years.

Even large companies are recycling their returns now - test, repackage and sell off as graded. Or use 3rd party companies to do it for them.

You might get the odd bargain at an auction but for the most part these auctions just turnover customers who get stung thinking they've got a bargain, because the next mug will be along soon.

 

[create]

I have done a few of these. I used to buy returned nursery items from DiscountHouse. Some of the stuff was Ok, others were damaged - The stock was returns from Argos. I made a little on a pallet but it wasn't really worth it to be honest.
I then used to buy stuff from a couple of auction houses in Manchester. I would end up with a load of stuff I couldn't sell just because I wanted a few items in a lot, most of the stuff ended up going to the tip.
The best items I bought from auction were electrical items. Obviously I researched the retail prices first and only bid to about a 1/3 of that, But digital radios, blueray players etc etc seemed to sell really well.

 

[create]

.
You might get the odd bargain at an auction but for the most part these auctions just turnover customers who get stung thinking they've got a bargain, because the next mug will be along soon.

A proper auction is from a liquidated business that has gone bust and it's assets are bsing sold off to the highest bidders. These types of auctions are the best places to trade.

 

[voyage]

As others have said you easily end up with a lot of returns etc if your not careful. Also have to take into account any auction house fees, VAT and other fees.


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