Online Gaming Business - EBay (possibly shopify and amazon later)

[Laurence Grant]

Hi,

I’m currently buying and selling gaming as a bit of a hobby and making around £100 a month. I currently buy from Facebook Marketplace to sell on EBay however want to find ways to get customers to come to me to buy and sell similar to MusicMagpie/CEX/GAME. It takes a lot of time messaging people with offers and them getting back to me.

I’ve heard from a business mentor there is a lot of red tape towards becoming a really big company, but at present am only looking at building it up to around £30k a year. These are the following questions I presently have though regarding what is presently on my mind:

- Can I have a business account on EBay selling gaming without licence issues or do I have to pay to get certain things I’m currently unaware before selling in greater volume?

- Is email marketing a good step to reach out for people so people come to me rather than me going to them saving time? If so where should I look?

- I’m looking at how to make leaflets the same style as restaurants make theirs, for example with gloss paper. I then plan on going into town and offering them out to people plus posting through their letterboxes. Also how do they add the perfect looking images onto the leaflet as I want the same but with a console? I feel this gives me a way of speaking to potential customers directly and explaining my plan for buying/selling from them.

- Can people recommend places to find good business mentors?

Thanks for reading and please give me any tips you can think of or any other information you feel is relevant. I am new to business.

Laurence

 

[japancool]

Physical games are a dying market, you know.

 

[Mr D]

You need to register as a business if you have not already.

No idea about licenses - how are you dealing with the issue now?

Leaflets - get the printing shop you use to do what you need. Perhaps provide them with an example from someone else.
Leafletting by hand and posting through letterboxes - slow method, have you tried the various offline other media?
Been seeing adverts for years for old games. Presumably from your competitors.


Email marketing - how are you planning on getting sufficient addresses?

Not so much red tape for becoming a really big company, merely additional costs and hassles once you get into leasing, employment, credit etc.

You can perhaps hire a business mentor, may be worth checking with local chamber of commerce or federation of small business.

 

[Laurence Grant]

I said gaming, not just physical games, so thanks for the in depth statement. I mean everything so like consoles, equipment and so on. I am aware there are digital editions which don't require discs however the actual consoles are still being sold. Also plenty of people like old things like a Gameboy Advance SP or Gameboy colour from a longer time ago. Gaming can't be that dying as I'm making about 10% profit per month currently. I want help with the questions I've asked but not short statements without elaboration. Thanks

 

[japancool]

You asked for a tip. You got one.

10%? Gosh!

 

[Laurence Grant]

A tip as in something useful or if not then explained propelry. 10%, gosh! just sounds snobby too. I'm looking for actual help to get better not that. Please don't say anymore unless its explained and helpful.

 

[Mr D]

I said gaming, not just physical games, so thanks for the in depth statement. I mean everything so like consoles, equipment and so on. I am aware there are digital editions which don't require discs however the actual consoles are still being sold. Also plenty of people like old things like a Gameboy Advance SP or Gameboy colour from a longer time ago. Gaming can't be that dying as I'm making about 10% profit per month currently. I want help with the questions I've asked but not short statements without elaboration. Thanks

You may want to look at your profit level long term. Short term 10% a month may work, getting bigger it may no longer be near enough to allow the business to grow.
But that's not an immediate problem.

Sadly you will come across competitors who will not care about profit. Even making a loss, possibly because of unaware of making a loss.

 

[Laurence Grant]

Thanks, I'm not sure why 10% isn't that good though. I thought that was alright for somebody just looking to do it on their own. I don't understand why long term it would become harder only being 10%?
As for competitors I have noticed one that is bigger than me buying a couple of items from me on ebay. I don't understand why as I would have thought they would buy them cheaper elsewhere personally. They haven't left negative reviews or something to try and put me down after buying it either.

 

[Laurence Grant]

Hi, my mentor just said keep going as I am. He didn't mention anything about licenses so I've just done nothing in regards to that.

I don't know what you mean by offline other than media I'm afraid? Where have you been seeing adverts exactly?

As for email marketing, I emailed a company which claimed they can email people about my business. They're called: qualityadmarketing.com

Regarding red tape I got told there could be issues to do with things blowing up as an example and something big companies had to watch out for. he didn't really give me all details though.

I'll check the methods to get a business mentor, thanks. I've also tried: UKBusinessmentoring.co.uk

 

[NT8SeaterTaxis]

Do you have a physical premises? I know you sell on Ebay... I only ask as far as trading in like CEX/GAME etc customers go to them and trade/ sell them. Would you need to have them posted etc. Understandable if your buying and selling locally or selling on Ebay but trading in from further afield may be difficult? Alot of games don't have great ability to make profit so adding in postage (customer to you) would essentially take alot of profit.

My first "business" was an indoor market shop selling XBOX 360 and PS2 games. Great business until no one is buying and only want to sell to you. Fun though as it was and still is a hobby of mine. A trick I used was offer a order and pick up service. They come in tell me what exact game they were after (if I didn't have it) I'd go on ebay or Amazon, get a price, add postage costs, a little profit and then give them the price. Take a deposit and let them know when the game arrived in shop.

Other than the trade in part I wish you luck.

 

[Laurence Grant]

Do you have a physical premises? I know you sell on Ebay... I only ask as far as trading in like CEX/GAME etc customers go to them and trade/ sell them. Would you need to have them posted etc. Understandable if your buying and selling locally or selling on Ebay but trading in from further afield may be difficult? Alot of games don't have great ability to make profit so adding in postage (customer to you) would essentially take alot of profit.

My first "business" was an indoor market shop selling XBOX 360 and PS2 games. Great business until no one is buying and only want to sell to you. Fun though as it was and still is a hobby of mine. A trick I used was offer a order and pick up service. They come in tell me what exact game they were after (if I didn't have it) I'd go on ebay or Amazon, get a price, add postage costs, a little profit and then give them the price. Take a deposit and let them know when the game arrived in shop.

Other than the trade in part I wish you luck.

Thanks for that.

By 10% profit that meant net after all expenses. I have no building costs as store the goods at home. I only have postage costs, PayPal expenses and EBay expenses besides buying the item from customers. Everything is done online. Yes everything is posted.

By gaming I mean everything. Gaming to me means consoles, accessories and games. I would say games are only 10% of what I sell and most is consoles.

What’s your business now may I ask?

 

[Laurence Grant]

Thanks for that.

By 10% profit that meant net after all expenses. I have no building costs as store the goods at home. I only have postage costs, PayPal expenses and EBay expenses besides buying the item from customers. Everything is done online. Yes everything is posted.

By gaming I mean everything. Gaming to me means consoles, accessories and games. I would say games are only 10% of what I sell and most is consoles.

What’s your business now may I ask?

I am also looking at expanding and changing with the times once I familiarise myself with gaming gear enough first, for example smartphones and so on. But one step at a time and consoles first.

 

[NT8SeaterTaxis]

I would say the only difficulty with the trade in side would be having customer post their games/accessories/consoles to you for you to then check they work and pay. Trade in can honestly be a downside, was for me.

I hope you get the whole business to work, your 10% profit is up to you, if your happy with it. I loved it while I was in that business.

As for now, I own a small taxi company in the North East. Plans of expanding etc but taking it slowly and enjoying the ride. Which is what it's all about for me. Doing something you enjoy for a living. If your doing that with this business then congrats mate, keep me posted on how it's going

Chris

 

[Aniela]

Physical games are a dying market, you know.

The high-street is dying too but you're looking to open a shop.

There will always be a market for physical games, just not like there used to be.

 

[Laurence Grant]

If you enjoyed it then why did you move on to a different business? I heard driverless cars are going to take over the jobs at some point in taxi business but then it may not.

If it’s enough to get me £30k a year from 40 hours worked per week then I’m happy with it. If not I would like to know a business that is more profitable to be honest. I don't really know what profits I should be expecting to make as new to business with no family or other people to guide me really.

Thanks for responses

 

[Laurence Grant]

The high-street is dying too but you're looking to open a shop.

There will always be a market for physical games, just not like there used to be.

That's why I'm only looking at doing things online to be honest. However I've heard the government are introducing rates on online businesses soon so that could hit profits, I don't know.

As for physical games which he said, I personally only said gaming. Games are only a small part of what I sell compared to consoles and accessories. The problem I found with physical games is they're scratched and so unlikely to work. Digital I can see being the future as it doesn't involve an easily scratched disk.

 

[MarkOnline]

I assume this is your first business. I dont know if your chosen business is any good or not. I dont think it matters too much though. This is the time where you learn the basic mechanics of running your own thing and trying to earn. If this doesnt turn out to be the right one the next one may be and your main goal is to aquire knowledge and the skills needed to survive (dont lose your shirt).

10% nett is ok for where you are now obviously 20% is better . but remember percentages mean nothing unless attached to a number. As you add more cost trying out different things that 10% will quickly dissapear, especially if that 10% equates to £100 profit a month (£23 a week) Concentrate your efforts on whatever part of your business generates the best return.

I watched a youtube video of a young fella in Canada who was repairing consoles (and moving into other products as oportunity presented itself.) It was a fair set up for a young business 3-4 years old about 6 staff members. All done through the interweb. and I would hazzard a guess he was generating decent numbers (I was researching Kanban not fixing gaming consoles)

Good luck, the smarter you work the more experience you learn from the luckier you will get.

 

[Scottishgifts4u]

You asked for a tip. You got one.

10%? Gosh!

A bit abrupt but I can see his point.

10% is enough to scrape by with if everything goes great but you only need to be scammed out of a couple of consoles (easily done especially if you’re using eBay and PayPal) and that’s a lot of your year’s profit gone out of the window.

If you can’t make more than 10% then you need to reconsider. Someone said that making a profit in business is in the buying and not the selling.

Instead of trawling Facebook Marketplace why not advertise to buy instead. That way you’ll have control on the price you are paying and hopefully be able to buy a bit cheaper.

 

[Mr D]

If you enjoyed it then why did you move on to a different business? I heard driverless cars are going to take over the jobs at some point in taxi business but then it may not.

If it’s enough to get me £30k a year from 40 hours worked per week then I’m happy with it. If not I would like to know a business that is more profitable to be honest. I don't really know what profits I should be expecting to make as new to business with no family or other people to guide me really.

Thanks for responses

£30k turnover for 40 hours a week at 10% profit would give you about £1.50 an hour.
To get £30k income for yourself at that level of profit you'd be doing well over a quarter million in sales.
And 40 hours may not be enough if you are doing all the work yourself. Though with a fulfilment company you could do it - they send out the goods when you get a sale using the stock you store with them.

10% profit level - if that is fine for now then OK. But could be a limit on your business ability to expand over time. Or as @Scottishgifts4u points out if there is a problem you can lose a lot of your profit in a short space of time. As a seller on the internet the buyers have far more protection for their money than you do. Buyer claims item not received and you can't prove differently then you could lose the entire money from that sale. By refund, by ebay funding buyer from your funds, by paypal (if still using them at the time) repaying the buyer from your balance.


Have seen small businesses making a small profit - very hard to expand as cannot afford a loan, cannot afford to spend more on marketing, cannot afford to employ staff, cannot afford to diversify the business, cannot afford opportunities that crop up for a bunch of stock dirt cheap.

Games may be a niche market but still a viable one by what you say. After all, LPs and VHS videos apparently still are.