Starting my own e-bay business?...

[ErinH]

This has crossed my mind a few times the past couple years and I've been really wondering about it lately.

I recently was going to purchase something from an e-bay in my city. I messaged them and asked if he had a storefront and he said he only does business via e-bay; no B&M store.

This got me thinking even more. What's stopping me from doing something like this for car audio just as an aside thing? How do I go about getting product? Do I have to "know" somebody or a dealer to start getting things? Do I do this and have it shipped to my house, then ship it out from home when I sell it?

Basically, how does this work, and what do you think about giving it a go?

Seems easy enough to pull up roots if things don't go like I expect; just quit selling. But, I dunno.

 

[EJ1]

I'm curious to know as well.

 

[10010011]

I would think once you had a tax ID# you could get products from wholesalers and distributors just like any other store.

You could possibly even have stuff drop shipped right from a distributer to a customer and not have to stock any inventory.

 

[holden_stroker]

i have thought about this sort of thing as well. i reckon audio and electronics is hard to get into though as there are so many bargains out there, and heaps of competition. the problem is, if you buy a heap of stuff cheap, try and sell it, and fail then you are left with all this stock. again, the more stock you buy initially wil normally result in a lower cost price for you,giving more mark and room to move on items...

test the market first somehow weather you buy one item, and sell it, see what you make, then you have a rough idea of your market.

what you need is start selling stuff that isnt on there, i started selling junk around the house and made a killing off all the old bottles and things.

hope this helps some of you guys

 

[aberkowitz]

Holden hit the nail on the head- the biggest headache for any retail business is managing inventory. You need to consider issues such as: 1) Where will you keep the products, 2) Taking out insurance in case the inventory gets damaged or stolen, 3) Having some sort of return/recourse plan in case your supplier sells you a lemon, 4) Inbound & outbound shipping costs, etc.

Also, I would sit down and really think about exactly how much money you're actually going to make when selling items. As Holden said, and as I've seen when buying CE items on eBay, there's a ton of similar stuff being sold out there. In fact, for most items you can detect that a market clearing price has been established that really doesn't provide much profit to the seller. When you take into account things like sellers fees, shipping, storage costs (if any), insurance costs (both storage and shipping related), and potential losses (from non-paying buyers, defective items, etc)... how much are you really going to be making? How much volume do you need to move to make a "substantial" amount of money that justifies being in business?

Most of the best eBay businesses that I've dealt with, at least for CE, have had some form of B&M store sitting behind it (e.g. Local CE shop in California) to help manage some of these issues.

Not saying it isn't possible to do, just make sure you consider ALL of the costs.

 

[fitness1]

the amount of fraud on Ebay in regards to electronics is enough to get me to have second thoughts......your business would come with many headaches.
I buy and sell high end acoustic guitars and use Ebay once in a while.....a lot less than I once did because of the "funny business" that goes on.
Sounds good on the surface, but it can turn your hair grey too....

 

[aberkowitz]

Speaking of fraud.... Erin- weren't you the person that started that Paypal thread about getting ripped off on eBay????

 

[ErinH]

i have thought about this sort of thing as well. i reckon audio and electronics is hard to get into though as there are so many bargains out there, and heaps of competition. the problem is, if you buy a heap of stuff cheap, try and sell it, and fail then you are left with all this stock. again, the more stock you buy initially wil normally result in a lower cost price for you,giving more mark and room to move on items...

Everything here is what I came away with after an hour of google research. You are exactly right, and this may be enough to keep me from bothering. I only planned to do it as a small thing on the side, but apparently buy ins are so much that the risk may be too high for me; especially at the time in my life where I'm wanting to build a house in this year.

Speaking of fraud.... Erin- weren't you the person that started that Paypal thread about getting ripped off on eBay????

Yes I am. I am still trying to fix that CD player myself. I think I can do it.

 

[holden_stroker]

i read what i wrote up there again.. ewww... there was some pretty bad english used haha.. maybe i should proof read for in future

i bought a bit of stuff cheap at work and sold it on ebay but was making hardly anything for the effort i went through.

if one item doesnt sell the first time, you have fees that have to be covered by other items you sell..