eBay reselling - Is anyone into this?

[Jon]

I used to sell things on eBay pretty regularly.

At one point I was even buying stuff from poundland and then selling it for a couple of quid profit each time and sometimes hitting up car boots to see what I could get.

Soon enough though the eBay fees went north and combining that with having to deal with feedback from customers where things went missing or they weren't happy I just found the whole thing quite stressful.

Now it seems though eBay reselling (buying stuff on the cheap and selling it for a profit!) has made a bit of a comeback and quite a lot of people seem to be doing it again.

I just found the whole manual task of get item > list it > Package > send on > deal with money etc. to be quite tiring at times. Especially when you have so much to sell each week. I really struggled at times fitting it around work and many a lunchtime did I have to trawl to the ONLY post office in Norwich city centre to send my items off.

Has anyone thought about giving it a go or do they already make a good amount from it?

What about other sites like Etsy or those smartphone apps you can use now to sell things to your local community?

 

[Leeceford]

ME! I've been doing it the last few months and I am slowly building it up. I currently have around 120 items listed and my aim is to get around 400-500 at least. I guess it is different for me as I don't have a normal job anymore so can dedicate more time to it. I also have a post office in the newsagents round the corner as well as one near where I drop the kids to school so it is quite convenient for me.
My profit is only around 300 ish a month at the mo but I really hope to increase this as time goes on.
I always thought Etsy was for stuff you make yourself...I have a few friends that have a good income from making planner stickers and sell them globally.

 

[MrsWebster147]

Funnily enough I was thinking of starting a similar thread to this one. People seem to be making a mint from re-selling on ebay lately. I've just about to dip my toe back in to ebay as I have a huge Kitchenaid processor to shift. I've had no joy on Gumtree with it and ebay seems to be the way to go for larger items.

I listed some things on Shpock yesterday and had my first sale today from something I was going to send to the charity shop. The app seems really easy to use and you can rate both buyers and sellers which is great if someone doesn't turn up.

My best sale this week though has to be the free box of books I was given which I then scanned in to zifit, pure profit.

I'm not sure I would want to re-sell full time but I'm definitely going to make more of an effort to look for opportunity's.

 

[Jon]

ME! I've been doing it the last few months and I am slowly building it up. I currently have around 120 items listed and my aim is to get around 400-500 at least. I guess it is different for me as I don't have a normal job anymore so can dedicate more time to it. I also have a post office in the newsagents round the corner as well as one near where I drop the kids to school so it is quite convenient for me.
My profit is only around 300 ish a month at the mo but I really hope to increase this as time goes on.
I always thought Etsy was for stuff you make yourself...I have a few friends that have a good income from making planner stickers and sell them globally.

Wow that's really good @Leeceford

Do you automate any part of it? Listing 400-500 items a month individually must be a bit of a chore

I'm assuming you need a business ebay account since you are reselling and not flogging stuff you already own

 

[Jon]

Funnily enough I was thinking of starting a similar thread to this one. People seem to be making a mint from re-selling on ebay lately. I've just about to dip my toe back in to ebay as I have a huge Kitchenaid processor to shift. I've had no joy on Gumtree with it and ebay seems to be the way to go for larger items.

I listed some things on Shpock yesterday and had my first sale today from something I was going to send to the charity shop. The app seems really easy to use and you can rate both buyers and sellers which is great if someone doesn't turn up.

My best sale this week though has to be the free box of books I was given which I then scanned in to zifit, pure profit.

I'm not sure I would want to re-sell full time but I'm definitely going to make more of an effort to look for opportunity's.

Hey @MrsWebster147

Good to see you were thinking of giving it a go. Have you thought about using local Facebook groups at all as a way to sell without having to pay ebay fees. I imagine you get rid of the item a LOT quicker as well than eBay.

With Shpock it's local sellers only yeah? So it probably works best if you live in a big city I imagine.

 

[MrsWebster147]

@Jon I used to sell quite a lot through the local Facebook sites but they move that fast that your post often gets lost among the endless listings of baby clothes and Juiceplus sellers. Shpock seems quite busy where I live so I'm hoping to shift a few of the smaller items that I did have in the charity shop pile.

Looking forward to reading what success others have and hopefully get some new ideas.

 

[Jon]

@Leeceford - Where are your sourcing these items from that you are listing?

Is it a chore having to source them or have you fitted it into your daily life?

 

[katykicker]

I've done a little bit of this, not much. I'd like to explore it more but I think that the thought of doing all those listings is just so dull! I see some great successes on YouTube etc though!

 

[Leeceford]

My main place for sourcing is from charity shops, though now the car boot season is up and running I will be looking to start getting more stock from there.
The sourcing, for me as a shopaholic lol is the part that makes doing this enjoyable.
My main knowledge is in clothes, so that is mainly what I buy. I do dabble in other things if I see stuff that I know will sell - good condition vintage board games for instance.
Using my mobile means that I do not find listing too much of a chore as generally I just take 5 or 6 pics, a quick description and then I am done.
The thing that annoys me is getting home and finding a mark I didn't notice and therefore having to wash and iron it before I can list it. My box of stuff to wash is massive as I cant be bothered lol.

 

[Leeceford]

Watching You tube vids from people such as Nic Hills, Caroline (Mrs M), Fake Rachel, and Zaheer is really worthwhile if you are looking into doing this.

 

[homie]

I think the trick to ebay is to find a niche that few other people are exploiting yet. Otherwise it can become a fight to the bottom as you compete with sellers from china listing things for £0.01 plus postage.

My strategy was to buy job lots from auctions and split them and resell individually on ebay. Then every three months I'd do a boot sell to clear the tat that wasn't worth listing or hadn't sold. I certainly didn't get rich from it. Probably averaged out around £4 an hour earnings if you took everything into consideration. Whether thats a valuable use of a couple of hours a day is debateable. After a while I removed ebay from the equation and just took the stuff from auction straight to the bootsales. Made a lot more that way but then of course you have to be physically standing there for 5 hours every sunday morning to sell it.

 

[asajj]

At some point, Ebay had a limit on the number of items you could list before you needed to have a business account. Not sure if this restriction is still there.
I know people who bulk buy IT related stuff (cables, PS parts etc) then sell them separately on Ebay. It takes time surely.
For instance, my main problem with Ebay at the moment is postage. In the past , I worked in Manchester city center so I could post parcels every day.
Where I work now, there is no post office and the one in the center closes before I can get to it.

Etsy is usually for crafts but this doesn't mean you have to make them. People also bulk buy and sell on Etsy.

 

[Jon]

I think the trick to ebay is to find a niche that few other people are exploiting yet. Otherwise it can become a fight to the bottom as you compete with sellers from china listing things for £0.01 plus postage.

My strategy was to buy job lots from auctions and split them and resell individually on ebay. Then every three months I'd do a boot sell to clear the tat that wasn't worth listing or hadn't sold. I certainly didn't get rich from it. Probably averaged out around £4 an hour earnings if you took everything into consideration. Whether thats a valuable use of a couple of hours a day is debateable. After a while I removed ebay from the equation and just took the stuff from auction straight to the bootsales. Made a lot more that way but then of course you have to be physically standing there for 5 hours every sunday morning to sell it.

That race to the bottom thing is SO true. As soon as Chinese sellers started appearing in regular UK listing that was it for bottom feeder items like I was selling from poundland etc.

£4 an hour is depressing.....

 

[Jon]

At some point, Ebay had a limit on the number of items you could list before you needed to have a business account. Not sure if this restriction is still there.
I know people who bulk buy IT related stuff (cables, PS parts etc) then sell them separately on Ebay. It takes time surely.
For instance, my main problem with Ebay at the moment is postage. In the past , I worked in Manchester city center so I could post parcels every day.
Where I work now, there is no post office and the one in the center closes before I can get to it.

Etsy is usually for crafts but this doesn't mean you have to make them. People also bulk buy and sell on Etsy.

I think that limit is still there but I wonder how many people operate under the radar..

Probably the same number of people who work from home online and don't declare their income to HMRC I imagine.

 

[Leeceford]

I don't really think about what I am earning per hour - I guess if I had a whole host of other ways to bring in money and I was pushing them aside to eBay stuff then maybe I would, but I just look at what I am earning per month. There isn't a typical job out there for me that I can see that fits in with family life and also would not make me go back to hating and dreading my existence - sounds dramatic but investment banking really can be horrendous.
Some of the resellers I follow really do bring in very good money doing this so I plod on hoping that one day I will find my groove.

 

[Hollpoll]

I did it for years but fees are so expensive on eBay nowadays! I wondered if Facebook is a better option for selling now, it seems to be getting more popular.

 

[Jon]

I did it for years but fees are so expensive on eBay nowadays! I wondered if Facebook is a better option for selling now, it seems to be getting more popular.

I certainly find it easier to just deal with local 'pickup' people on Facebook than going through the ebay processes

 

[Dick Barton]

Don't know why people make a fuss about selling on ebay. List item (say 5 minutes) item seen all over the world. Pack (say) 10 minutes. Profit (say) £10 + Easy.

 

[homie]

Tend to agree with DB. Try finding a normal auction house with only 10% seller commision. Most want at least 15% and you don't get the same level of exposure or searchability as ebay.

The only thing I resent about ebay is they force you to offer paypal which then incurs extra fees on top. Other counties are allowed to accept payment by cheque (remember those) or bank transfer only if they wish. Some sellers in Germany don't even have paypal, so I don't see why we are forced to use it.

 

[Andrew]

eBay is great - you just have to find products with a decent margin on (which is easier than it sounds). You then have access to a global marketplace that does all the marketing for you