Buying and Selling Pushchairs - what do you think??

[1legmummy]

Hi looks as if I am going to have to return to work early. I had a 5 year career break booked, but our builder ran off with £60,000.00 in January so we had to get a mortgage.

Because I have various disabilities I have owned approximately 15 pushchairs!! and also I am self obsessed pramaholic!

I was thinking of buying and selling pushchairs, buying them, cleaning them up and then selling them on.

I have not lost money yet on any that I have bought and on a couple I have made a little profit.

I know I will have to register with tax and stuff, but it might be a way for me to stay at home.

As long as I let people know when I buy do you think this is ok?

Thanks

Emma X

nothing to stop you trying there are many pramaholics out there just bear in mind p&p will incur more costs for you

I don't think you'd earn a great deal but it would be additional pocket money. How much do you need to earn per year to not have to go back to work? Have you pursued the builder through claims court, if he banked the money into his personnal account and he owns a property it is possible to try and get the money back from him (have friends in the same situation)

I suspect you'll struggle to make much from it tbh, bearing in mind your costs(time and materials), p and p and fees to advertise.

I need to earn £300.00 a month to pay our mortgage.

So about £80.00 a week.

Cargirl, I cannot go through claims court as he owes so much (apparently) He does own a property as far as we know and he has used several addresses, several names, and has several Company names.

I have filled out a claim with our house insurance for a Solicitors help and if that does not come through I will hire a debt collector.

For anyone interested google Sean Bundock and it brings up incredibly bad builders - that is the website my Dad set up to try to warn others

x

I don't think you could raise £300 per month buying and selling pushchairs.

Not sure how easy it would be to make that much, but I went to a car boot today and there were loads of cheap pushchairs that could probably be cleaned up a bit and sold for more.

Me neither , you'd have to put a lot of effort into expensive models bought cheaply to make anywhere near that and probably only do one a week. misdee is the expert but I think it is pretty time consuming.

I have thought about this before too as I love prams so much!

I don't think it's completely unfeasible if you can put a LOT of time into it, have good product knowledge, buy cleverly, learn to do them up and present them well, and are good at describing and selling on ebay. Oh and have a lot of storage space!

However it seems to be only the premium brands that really hold their value and you'd make a reasonable return on (you know the ones, Bugaboo, Quinny, Mountain Buggy for example). You'd have to sell a lot more of the cheaper / less desirable ones to make much return I think.

It might make sense to specialise in one or two premium brands, then you'd get to know more about doing them up, where to get spare parts etc, and would probably end up with a stock of spares that could easily be added to new ones that you buy to add value (eg new set of seat covers on Bugaboos, or sun covers for MB's). You would also get a very good idea of what's a bargain and what's not, and be able to scour local papers and ebay to snap them up. Good luck if you do decide to go for it!

I think it will be a lot of hard work for very little money plus you might get quite a few customers not being happy with what they have bought and dealing with complaints is very time consuming.

Thanks guys - will see what happens, might have to think of something else. Would love a shop selling second hand pushchairs!!

you will really have to hunt out some gems amongst the tat tbh.

i bought a silver cross pram for £13, spent weeks cleaning it, oiling it, restoring etc etc, and sold it for £125, which wasnt bad.

last summer i bought two more at £50 each down at the essex coast. i spent around £50 on each one cleaning up, replacing parts etc, and one sold for £265, one for £150. my mum is back down that way atm, and have told her to keep an eye out for me for any more.

it can be good fun, but is hard work, and my god there is some shite prams around. Some of them are sold as good condition, and you get them and the wheels are hanging off, or the fabric is torn and mouldy.

Saying that, i have only had to take a couple to the tip in my time as they are beyond help.

I dont do it make money, more to tinker about with them, fix if needed, and pass on. often dont make any profit at all. but when you do its a bonus.

If i had a garage or out buildings, then i would set up a proper business restoring coach prams. there is a lady on ebay who restores them and also does bespoke models.

Just to add a different idea, I have no idea if it would be financially feasible but would you consider hiring out prams for say a week?

I have brought tons most of which have not suited me, my car, my needs etc.

Had their been a company offering a variety of prams for a short hire period I could have saved myself a lot of money.