Legalities of selling other company’s products in hampers etc...

[ProfessorBranestawm]

So not exactly a hamper like in the ever popular Christmas Eve box sense :o

But basically I have an idea for putting together packages for a very specific gap in the (local, but potentially national in the future) market, it’s the kind of thing where buying in a ready made kit would make life easier for the recipient (sorry that’s vague) as all the thinking/finding stuff and knowing what to choose is done for you.

I know lots of people put together boxes to sell at Christmas, baby showers etc, but it is ever an issue legally? Obviously anyone can buy and sell stuff on ebay etc but does it become a different thing if you are sort of creating/presenting it as a different “product” yourself ie the box of stuff?

Also is it a separate issue if you buy a bulk of things and split them? Closest example would be buying a big box of Lego and then dividing them up, but obviously still making it clear that they are Lego (and not pretending I’d made them myself or something :o)

Do you need permission from companies to do this? Or is it basically fair game as you’ve paid whatever price they set when you bought it? Am I overthinking? Underthinking?

Hopeful bump for evening crowd!

Depends on the company. Most companies have terms on their websites that you cannot buy their products specifically to resell. Some companies will defend their trademark until they are blue in the face and will come down on you like a tonne of bricks if you use it. It's always best to ask companies if you want to take a business seriously. And don't add things like alcohol without obtaining a licence first.

I think you'd have to research each company individually, but most products you can resell.

Look out for buying multipacks as most are marked as not for individual resale, therefore can't be split to sell as smaller packs than the original multipack size e.g. 6 pack of cans of fanta has to be sold on as a 6 pack rather than in ones or twos.

Careful with tobacco products, alcohol and lottery/gambling related products if you are looking into selling those on, you might need various licenses for them. At Christmas I saw various hampers being sold on Facebook tat pages with scratch cards in, I'm not sure if that's legal so would be worth researching if you're interested in those.

Many shopkeepers buy in bulk from Cash and Carry warehouses to sell on in their shops, that is what they tend to be for. You might be able to get more info from places like them.

Thank you both so much, that is all really helpful :)

It’s not food, alcohol or gambling related so no worries there thankfully. I guess the nearest description would be toys/games type things, and books. So if say I was putting in a card game, I would buy those in bulk like a shop would.

But the things that would be split up like in the Lego example, it’s smaller company but still national and part of a huge thing. TBH, part of the reason I would be splitting the product up is to introduce it in a cheaper way, because even the “intro” kit is way too pricey for many, but I think people would happily buy more once they saw how good it is. I know that sounds like I’m a total suck up :o but I just mean I’m not trying to take business away from the company itself. Ideally in the future it would be brilliant to actually get the company on board if it was good marketing for them. But I am scared if I approach them as a total nobody I’ll get laughed at :o

(Sometimes I think I’m far too risk averse to ever make any money :o)