Starting up on Ebay as a business

[ForumReader]

Hi,
Being in the position i find myself unemployed and not able to find suitable employment i am considering some sort of self employment as a alternative to fill in the gap.
I noticed on Ebay there are many shops that sell items such as dvd's and games and seem to sell them in vast quantities, sometimes they state that their stock is sent from offshore warehouses. Would i assume they mean dropship stock?
I have looked at the price differential between wholesale and retail in the past with items such as games and dvds and only noticed a small difference and come to the assumption that i would have to own a proper retail outlet to shift stock in suitable quantities to make a profit.
However on Ebay there seems to be many sellers with items sold between 30-40 thousand units on their profiles.
I was just wondering where they get their stock cheap enough to sell on Ebay to make a decent profit and to able to compete with ordinary street retail outfits?
Obviously sometimes you do get people that shift counterfeit items such as dvds, clothes and perfumes which we know can be bought for very small outlay and sold to unsuspecting consumers however that is a illegitimate method of trading that i would not want to pursue.
Some of them have their online Ebay shop as well as their own websites and some just seem to run a Ebay shop.
Items on Ebay have to be sold at competitive prices in order to attract the bids so i am wondering how to go about it myself with a small setup?

 

[petez]

hi, i have been where your thinking, ebay is expensive read up on costs before you register like how much to pay per month for your shop the listing fees the selling fees the relsting fees. i found out through error but may be worth you looking into it first i decided to go with setting up a website then maybe using ebay as a side shop to the website shop.

others on here will be able to give you more indepth answers but just wait a little while as i expect this question has been asked so many times they get fed up saying the same things over but someone will answer you i am sure.

what do you intend to sell or you just thinking about the idea

 

[ForumReader]

Yes i only found the site today i don't wish to write repetitive questions so i will spend a bit of time going over old posts relating to this if i can find many. It is not the cost of starting on Ebay so much as getting the stock at a price i can sell it to make some sort of a living. I would look at the items i mentioned already and probably any kind of merchandise item that comes my way. I already have sold things online with ebay, small items nothing much to talk about.

 

[caley]

we r wholesaler of many items ,low price ,but high quality.maybe we could work tegether.

 

[kontracta_com]

I'm with PeteZ on this. You can end up paying a small fortune with eBay in fees without realising it so please be aware of all costs before you start and factor them in. At the very start you may want to dispense with the idea of an eBay store front and add one later when your rankings are up. Also as PeteZ mentioned it may be best to have eBay as only one of your sales outlets long term - having your own site will bypass a lot of costs ... but of course if will mean additional time in setting up and promoting your own site plus new costs with merchant fees etc. That said you will then be less at the beck and call of eBay.

eBay is going to be no different to your average market place. Some will win, some won't and others will cheat (read counterfeit goods). Therefore you'd have to choose what you sold carefully and also think about what your competition does. To be frank I don't think DVDs and CDs will work due to downloading, low margins, existing competition and dodgy fakes. Also there are wholesalers who won't touch eBayers whilst others will insist on cash upfront.

That said I do know where people have succeeded. One friend started selling a couple of items and he now has employees and is about to grow out of a second unit as his feedback rankings rocket. He has made his cash from selling second hand sports clothing where he still visits many a car boot sale and charity shop. It's really just a question of thinking of something where there are gaps for another seller, liking the range of products you sell or, like my friend, stumbling on an idea. Good luck anyway; hope you succeed.

 

[ForumReader]

Yes i met someone who does the rounds of places buying up cheap clothes and sports items and selling them on Ebay that is good if you know what to buy and what is a potential profit maker. It puts money in his pocket each week nothing fantastic though.
I will have to spend a lot more time doing my homework. In fact i have noticed a couple of Ebay traders today who have 200-300 thousand items sold on their accounts. The items are not particularly cheap and they seem to be able to operate like a major setup without the high street store so i assume they have the capital to buy and sell large amounts of stock and accumulate their return that way. Or the items are drop shipped.
I prefer Ebay because it makes selling easier than having your own website and trying to create traffic to it. I have created sites and forums already without success due to this very issue.

 

[Beachcomber]

The trick is to trade in something you know or have an interest in.
Entering a market 'blind' could see you buying stock that those in the know could tell you won't shift.

If you are totally new to eBay you will need to build up a good feedback reputation before many buyers will trust you, this is easilly done by buying all your packaging on there as well as many little 99p items - once you are up to 150+ or so buyers will be more confident in buying from you.

As has been mentioned above, do not rely 100% on eBay for sales - use other auction sites and your own site (even a local market stall?) as eBay are notoriously run by idiots and it only takes a small error by them to disrupt your trading for several days - which if it is your sole outlet can have severe consequences.

 

[QuickHomeBuyers]

I am not sure how will you make money on DVDs?

Lets say you sold it for a fiver? Avg price is less.

Now approx 10% (£.50p) goes to eBay. 3.5% ish goes to Paypal.(£.18p+.20p)

You will need around 90p for Post Office. So far in your total sale of £5 you have already spent around £1.60

If your item costs £3.00 you are left with 20p - packaging costs. nealy in loss.

Offshore (chanel islands) suits companies with high volume to justify the VAT savings.

My advise would be to start with a niche market. Dont bother with iphone/dvd/blue rays beacuse the like of Zavvi are already on eBay.

 

[oberta]

i did e-bay as i side line about 6 months ago to bolster my earnings and to be honest i did make money on it, but it was more hassle than it's worth.

we bought a pallet of returned Argos household goods for £125 plus £50 delivery that should have contained 36 items, it didnt it only had 33 items, complained, got ignored.

of the 33 items we were able to market 22.

We sold the 22 items eventually for a total of £375.00 so in theory made about £150.00 after ebay fees.

But to make that £150 we spent about 10 hours managing all the listings, enquiries, moans, groans, nutters, scammers and everything else.

We made money but felt that it was simply not worth the time and effort.

 

[amazestore]

find a product rarely sold on ebay

 

[amazestore]

dhgate is a good place to find items to sell

 

[CraigieDD]

I'd say you should get a website first, sort out some product feeds to other marketplaces, like Google Base, Pricerunner etc. and then have a look at E-bay.

Give us a shout if you want a website developed. And good luck!

 

[Against_All_Odds]

Hi there
I am also looking at venturing on an ebay-based business... when you say product feeds - do you mean affiliates etc?

Sorry to be green!

AAO

 

[CraigieDD]

Not really.

I'm talking about providing XML feeds that allow these marketplaces to grab products that you sell and present them on their sites for sale. You can decide what products your prepared to allow and include stock levels, bulk purchases, special offers etc..

I guess for point of arguments sake it very, very loosely falls into the affiliate marketing side, but not in the traditional sense of the phrase.

 

[Against_All_Odds]

What a lot I have to learn!

Oh well, from small acorns.........!

Thanks for the info - appreciate it!

AAO

 

[CraigieDD]

Let me know if you want a hand setting these up. And Good luck!

 

[ADS-MARKETING]

It's like any business, do a business plan and a cash flow forecast. How long can you live without a good income until you build the business up?

You need to find the right supplier at the right prices.

eBay is a good place to start as well as Amazon, but having a website is also key, but this all costs money to setup and run monthly. These are all costs that need to go into a cash flow forecast.

If you need help with product sourcing, accounts or websites just let me know - [email protected]