Friend has decided to start ebay too....

[chloemack]

My husband and I don't have an awful lot of money, he works full time and I stay at home with our two children so we live on his wage which I supplement by selling clothes on ebay. I buy them from local thrift shops, jumble sales & car boots. My friend (who has more money than us) started taking an interest in what I do, when she was at my house she started examining the things I was selling & asking how much I bought/sold each item for, what mail bags I used etc... I didn't mind, then the following week she told me she's sold a few things & now wants to go part time at work so she can start selling more regularly, yep you guessed it, things she picks up at our local car boots, thrift shops etc... I feel pretty uncomfortable about this, am I being unreasonable?

Skippy is that a response to my post? If so, it was just one example, hence the etc.

My point was someone taking a polite interest might ask a few questions. Someone wanting to know which mail bags to use and other business-y things is doing more than that.

Ignore me. I've x-posted

Arf at you being upset that she is ripping off car booters and charity shops too

I'm not sure you should be upset at the ethics of this one...

"If you're both registered with hmrc as businesses then I don't think there's a problem"
you don't need to register with HMRC as a business, just self-employed. At

You didn't have to tell her, as someone else has said. Mail bags are easy to find on ebay they are practically pushed at you. Watching for 24 hours tells you what sells. You did not invent this type of buisiness it is very very common.

If you don't want anybody else to know these things from you don't tell them in the future. Nevertheless, it would not take them long to work it out for themselves.

How is it ripping anyone off? They have an asking price, which I pay, we are both happy. I don't try and haggle, sorry I don't see how this is ripping anyone off.

See it as a challenge. This should spur you on to be the best, competition is good.

You are not ripping people off at all that is just business. They could sell their stuff on ebay if they wanted to. Many people do.

Shes not stolen your idea when you were on your way into dragons den for god sake, as someone else said, most people sell things on ebay now and again, she obviously does need the money - why else would she bother?? You are buying from tat shops so anything you buy will not be there once you've bought it, as in she cannot buy and try to sell the same item, simelar maybe but not the same. I really dont see the problem.

Why are you not willing to help your friend out anyway? She is your FRIEND!

This is bizar!

"You are not ripping people off at all that is just business."

So... it's business when one person buys cheaply from another, inflates the price and sells it on- but it's not business when someone else does it?

Free market economy, anyone?

No its business when people buy cheap and sell for more, surely. If the original seller wanted to sell it on ebay for open bids they could have got more.

I'm not sure I understand your point.

Clearly if you went into an old ladies home and bought an antique (knowing its true value) for next to nothing and sold it for a lot - that would be wrong. Here we are talking about second hand clothing.

welcome to the concept of capitalism

Yes, exactly. I think i am confused about what tether is saying.

Well you should have been a bit more shtum....lesson learned. I do a similar thing...I tell nobody. I also have made friends with many of the ladies in the shops...and I donate regularly to them as its only fair...I do aftr all make some profit from goods they could make profit from were they Ebay savvy.

Ask the helpers in the shops when their deliveries arrive...and go farther afield too.

For the love of God- you can't have capitalism lite.

If you want to be part of the cut throat world of business, you can't start bleating about competition because 'it's not fair'. Competition is an inherent feature of capitalism.

Can nobody else see the irony?

I can hardly believe the OP is serious.

YABU and it would be a shame to let this get in the way of your friendship. Tens of thousands of people buy things at charity shops etc and resell them on ebay, even my uncle in his eighties has talked about doing it! Why shouldn't she. You'd probably be surprised how many of your other frieds are already doing this.

If you'd come up with some unbelievably unique idea that only you alone had thought of, and she had slavishly copied it, then you would have a point.

Besides, many charity shops are now starting to ebay things themselves anyway.

The OP has had a bit of a flaming I do not think she is BU.
Basically she is upset that she has spent time building up her knowledge and experience and someone has come a taken a short-cut and not tried to learn the hard way.

I would not know where to begin with an ebay business, although i have been self employed in other areas. I think it is a bit cheeky of the OP's friend to pick her brains and then start an identical business.

As others have said, however, the OP will keep a bit more shtum in future....