Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Work

Chat with other users about all things related to working life on our Work forum.

Can eBay selling make money?

7 replies

banannabreadforme · 28/01/2018 15:55

Just that really. I do occasionally sell things but is it worth doing it more? Does anyone buy things to sell? Any advice? Thank you.

OP posts:
Celestia26 · 14/02/2018 17:31

Yes, I buy clothes from discount retail shops and charity shops. The income is pretty good.

HelpHusband · 15/02/2018 19:21

I keep meaning to list things but then I think they won't sell.

Following to see if others think it's worth it.

user187656748 · 15/02/2018 19:25

remember you will potentially create a tax liability

Celestia26 · 15/02/2018 19:38

I am registered as a business, so I pay tax. Your own items can be sold with no need to pay tax. As soon as you buy items with the intention of reselling you must register with HMRC.

Celestia26 · 15/02/2018 19:40

It's hard work, but the more time and effort you put in the greater the amount you make. Putting in about 20 hours a week I make about £800 a month.

Layla8 · 15/02/2018 19:46

What sort of things sell ? How do you make that much money ?

castasp · 15/02/2018 19:59

A friend of mine has built up a business doing this - he bought some stock with some redundancy money and it took off. He'll sell anything small that can be easily sent in the post- everything from lightbulbs, to bits and bobs for camping. He employs packers now and spends the bulk of his time putting on adverts, sourcing stock etc. The business is fully registered with HMRC and he pays a lot of tax! he's also made a lot of money over the years.

However:

  1. Don't underestimate the work involved - in the first 5 years, he was sleeping less than 4 hours a night. Even now, he can't go on holiday for longer than a few days - it's very, very restrictive. Maybe you could spend less time on it, but you'd obviously earn a lot less money, and it may not take off if you don't put the hard work in initially.
  2. He's found it increasingly difficult to sell stuff as more and more people are selling stuff on eBay. For example, when he first started selling lightbulbs, there were 50 other lightbulb sellers, now there are 50000. In fact, him and his wife are now gradually moving their assets into other business areas.

Personally, I don't envy him. I'm a teacher, a job that also has high workloads, and he definitely works a lot harder than I do. The worst thing for me would be the fact that he can never, ever get away from it or stop thinking about it, not ever.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.