Starting a e-business

Starting a e-business

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UK345

Original Poster:

441 posts

157 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
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I am thinking of starting a internet business and wanted to know what your experiences are. My main selling platform would be ebay and some free ad websites I am aware of. I am thinking of specialising in Apple products so things like iPads and iPods. I have not yet found a wholesaler so I need to research that and find out if it's worth my while. As you can tell I've only started to explore this option.

What are your experiences with selling on ebay as a business ?

eltawater

3,107 posts

178 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
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I would say that your margins on Apple products would be wafer thin to non-existent as prices are very tightly controlled.

PurpleTurtle

6,940 posts

143 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
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Don't want to piss on your chips, but I wouldn't consider for a moment buying an Apple product from a non-established brand (Apple themselves, Amazon or John Lewis, for example) for fear of it being fake.

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
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Might be better off fixing old, broken stock and selling it on?

Undirection

467 posts

120 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
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Consider the size and competitiveness of the businesses you will be competing with....

944fan

4,962 posts

184 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
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PurpleTurtle said:
Don't want to piss on your chips, but I wouldn't consider for a moment buying an Apple product from a non-established brand (Apple themselves, Amazon or John Lewis, for example) for fear of it being fake.
This

eltawater said:
I would say that your margins on Apple products would be wafer thin to non-existent as prices are very tightly controlled.
and This

The only way you are going to get ahead of the big names is to cut costs, which are never going to be able to do. Look at the price of stuff on Apple, then compare on Amazon (huge buying power) the difference is very little because Apple wont discount their products. They don't need to, that st sells itself.

hotchy

4,454 posts

125 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
quotequote all
Its the idea you need first.
Think of a product/market, look up the price online, check out how much it is wholesale, notice people must be making 1 pence per item, then try again with another product, realize every product near enough on wholesalers websites is on ebay/amazon at a margin that is non existent (speculate they must be going somewhere else i also dont know about)

Most things that can be bought online, at wholesalers etc has had its margin nearly squeezed to death and is at the point of, no point selling it. You need to think of something new people want.

e.g. a we car place i got my new caliper sliding pins from, real ball ache to find, eurocarparts etc has none but theres a guy on ebay who makes them. No competition, decent margins i assume.

Once you do all this, you will be near my stage. Lost for ideas with money to invest, but nothing to invest in.

jammy_basturd

29,776 posts

211 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
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UK345 said:
What are your experiences with selling on ebay as a business ?
Unless someone replies selling exactly what you're selling, to the same sort of customer, any other experiences will be irrelevant.

I'd suggest you need to do a bit more research, even test various markets with one or two sales of various products. No one is going to give you advice of high margin products that are easy to sell in a non-competitive market. Setting up every kind of business will be a struggle and you won't know how much of a struggle until you start, regardless of anybody else's experiences.

KFC

3,687 posts

129 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
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UK345 said:
I am thinking of starting a internet business and wanted to know what your experiences are. My main selling platform would be ebay and some free ad websites I am aware of. I am thinking of specialising in Apple products so things like iPads and iPods. I have not yet found a wholesaler so I need to research that and find out if it's worth my while. As you can tell I've only started to explore this option.

What are your experiences with selling on ebay as a business ?
Forget it, this idea is going absolutely nowhere. Apple aren't going to sell to you so your business plan is a waste of time.

singlecoil

33,312 posts

245 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
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People see buying and selling as an easy option, and as long as you don't need or want to make any money, it is. The problem with any business where the barriers to entry are so low is that there are already lots of people doing it.

Find something else that isn't so easy to do and so easy to get in to.

What are you good at, what assets do you have that can be utilised to give you a head start?

KFC

3,687 posts

129 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
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Its extremely naive to think you could just pick up a load of stock of iPads and then make money selling them on eBay

Its completely ignoring the fact Apple won't want to sell you them. Its also completely ignoring the fact that eBay and Paypal fees are going to wipe out the profit margin. Each of those points would be fatal to your business plan... both of them together are making me question the sanity of the person coming up with the plan laugh

You really need to go back to the drawing board here.

daemon

35,724 posts

196 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
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UK345 said:
I am thinking of starting a internet business and wanted to know what your experiences are. My main selling platform would be ebay and some free ad websites I am aware of. I am thinking of specialising in Apple products so things like iPads and iPods. I have not yet found a wholesaler so I need to research that and find out if it's worth my while. As you can tell I've only started to explore this option.

What are your experiences with selling on ebay as a business ?
As everyone else has said - you're wasting your time trying to resell apple products.

My advice - avoid consumer electronics altogether. Far too crowded, waifer thin margins, and you're up against a lot of heavy duty players.

Try to think of something you can source locally, or something you can buy and value add to.

If you can find it on the internet to resell, rest assured, every else will too.

andyb28

761 posts

117 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
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As others have said, the margins aren't worth it.

We are an Apple reseller because our business clients require Apple products. For the products you mention, the margins are tiny. They get bigger on the bigger products, like Macs, etc. We also supply a number of schools and can get the school a better price than we can get it for trade, because its for education purposes. They make sure its delivered to a school to make sure we aren't cheating.

The only reason we offer these products is we make money from other services we offer clients and its convenient for the client for us to supply their hardware.

If you want to sell something on ebay to try and make a quick quid, order something from China via Alibaba

technodup

7,576 posts

129 months

Wednesday 29th July 2015
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I'd start by buying job lots from Ebay or one of the many actual auction houses. You can buy mixed pallets of pretty much everything so it gives you an idea of what sells and what doesn't.

Years ago I bought an artic full of furniture, sanitaryware and other assorted stuff and made a few quid. Flat pack goes well if you can find something that isn't already rinsed to death. It's pretty much how OakFurnitureLand started and look at it now... but don't get big ideas too soon.

Or get down your local market or Ikea and find stuff you can punt on. Amazingly there are people too far from an Ikea who will pay a premium to have stuff delivered. There's profit there, but I'd guess loads are at it.

There's a thread somewhere on here about Babz- find it, read it and think again about selling low margin items.

The Ebay boat has sailed for most, 10 years ago was the time to get in- now everything popular has guys with hundreds of thousands of feedback and 10yrs know-how doing it, you can't compete.

And forget Apple for the reasons above.

DSLiverpool

14,671 posts

201 months

Wednesday 29th July 2015
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The fact you posted this idea should tell you your not ready for ecomm, it's so naive you will lose all of any investment.
Want to sell on eBay ? Buy a parcel of ex cat crap and work hard sorting it.

supertouring

2,228 posts

232 months

Wednesday 29th July 2015
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I would not sell electronics on ebay, it is scam city.

Better off with something more mundain.


DSLiverpool

14,671 posts

201 months

Wednesday 29th July 2015
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In fact I have just given myself an idea - thanks OP

technodup

7,576 posts

129 months

Wednesday 29th July 2015
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I've often wondered about selling services on Ebay but I gather it's not allowed as a service couldn't be classed as an item. Could a voucher get through that rule?

e.g. voucher entitles you to X service at Y place

If there's a way around that rule there's a big opportunity but I guess it would have been done...?

Frimley111R

15,537 posts

233 months

technodup

7,576 posts

129 months

Wednesday 29th July 2015
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Frimley111R said:
Is it still the case that listings like that are 30 days, so he has sold 509 in a maximum of 30 days? Or are they essentially open-ended so we can't tell the sales volume in a particular period of time?

I've used a couple of printers on Ebay and they're selling thousands, low margin obviously but it must be worthwhile.

It's a difficult one for me, I like the idea of the platform doing a lot of the heavy lifting but at the same time I wouldn't want to rely on a 3rd party site for income- bigger businesses than Ebay have gone tits up. Plus you're at the mercy of their various changes of terms as and when they feel like it.