Thinking about buying wholesale to sell on ebay as a business seller. Anyone do this? Any tips?

[Tortoise]

I really want to get off of job seekers benefit and as they suggested looking into going self employed I started thinking about starting a business on ebay by buying wholesale to sell on.
I've googled wholesale but with no idea where's good or not I'm a bit stumped.

Do you do this? Any tips or advice gratefully received.
I'm not sure where to start to get off the ground and off benefits.

Tia.

BUMP

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Hi,
Personally I always think you are best to sell items that you know about and are confident about answering questions on.
Small items are easier to package and if you went ahead I would recommend that you research post and packing costs.
There is a lot of competition on Ebay so finding something that is a niche market but also in demand would work best - the difficult part is finding such a line of products.
Have you got any thoughts about what you may sell or were you going to buy a pallet of mixed items and hope for the best ?
You can search Ebay completed listings to see what prices items go for and what is popular.
Selling on Ebay can be rewarding but it can also be infuriating at times. Do you already have an established seller account to start from ?

Thank you for replying.
Yes I have over 1000 feedback from buying and selling.
I was thinking mixed items of childrens clothes as that is what I mainly sell already from my 4 dc!
I've been trying to research tax etc on hrmc website but its all very new to me and difficult to take in info that I need.

What 80s said. The competition on bay is fierce, tbe margins are not great once you take put initial outlay, p&p, ebay and paypal fees...

I think it would be great for low cost items / if you have a skill you can craft from home rather than buying and selling on? I do the latter and it's a struggle! Plus buyers are becoming more difficult and eBay is v pro buyer...

Good luck!

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Thought provoking thought that one was

It's tricky to find the right product isn't it.

Thanks for a bit more detail - that makes it a bit easier to give advice on.
Children's clothing is exempt from VAT (zero rated) but you may incur VAT on delivery charges from receiving stock and it would also be applicable to purchasing packaging and sundries.
Depending upon turnover you may need to be VAT registered and submit returns - off hand I think the current threshold is around £75,000 but I'm not 100% certain on that.
You'd need to be registered as a business account - keep proper records of sales and receipts and declare your income on your tax return.
If you are interested in selling new children's clothing and accessories I can point you in the direction of a couple of really good wholesalers. New items are usually easier and incur fewer buyer "issues" than selling used items.
That isn't my market btw but I am in a vaguely associated business. PM me if you'd like me to pass on details.
Most wholesalers have minimum purchase amounts - and you'd probably need to invest in a variety of stock.

Some of the Catalogue Returns companies sell boxes or pallets of children's clothes. Gemwhole springs to mind - I've used them in the past when I was selling larger items i.e. small furniture, household items etc.

I think it's pretty hard to make money on. I've done it in the past, and made a little income from it, by finding a niche - a product I could buy for £4 and sell for £50, or so. Importing stuff too. Once the niche goes and everyone else piles in, I had to move on to something else, then eventually I found I couldn't find anything else!

I think I make more money comping than I ever did on eBay!

I've made quite a bit from selling used clothes from my dc, Sometimes bits picked up cheap in charity shops but I don't know if I could do that as a business. To claim working tax credit I need be 'working'. I just need to do something to get me off jsa. I've been looking for a job for a year with no luck.
There's a big used bundle ending on ebay in an hour on £25 at the moment but not sure whether to go for it or not.

Did you go for it?

No I didn't. Went for £40 plus postage.

Well, I've just won my first joblot of clothes on ebay.
Registered on hmrc for tax.
Got new email address.
Need to change to business account on ebay.
Do I need business account on paypal too?
Just wondering if I've missed anything important that I need to do!

Congratulations and good luck

Just wanted to add my colleague is doing so well building his ebay business, he is now only working for us 3 days a week and ebaying the rest of the time. He is now is looking to rent an office so his margins must be pretty good.

He does retro mens clothing mainly - new/overstocks/second hand etc