There are sooo many people who make serious money from professionally selling on ebay and I WANT TO BE ONE. Please help me decide exaclty how....

[beesonmummyshead]

Ok, so the title says it all realy

I have moderate savings, i want to start small as it will be a way to (hopefully) boost the income from my part-time job.

I am happy to put in hard work, become VAT registered, buy an accounts programme and learn how to use it, and all the rest that goes with runnin g a business from home.

Basically i want to advertise my product on ebay then sit back and let it sell. This way I can advertise them as and when i want to sell, and not worry if i'm having a holiday (or a lazy week )

I have registered with a few trade sites, and hav found suppliers for toys (including aquadraw etc) and also mobile phones (which potentially sounds great)

But what would you sell? And if you are preapred to shae, which trade suppliers do you recommend?

Many thanks

I looked into ebay for my gifts but decided it wasnt the right place for me to sell but things I did think about (and sorry if you've read up about this.

Things that are easy to wrap and package, smaller for storage for you and cheaper postage for buyer.

I am using excel to keep my very basic accounts on and you wont need to be VAT registered till you near 67K turnover.

Business Link run workshops on ecommerce for free - contact your local number - their website is full of stuff.

If you have and DC's/domestic routine I have just had a ridiculous week and need to review my own! I work part time.

But I am very much enjoying what I am doing though it is great working for yourself I have learnt loads of new stuff and met loads of people.

HTH Good Luck

PS I am setting up an e-shop and it is possible to integrate fully with ebay. It is costing me 2.50/mnth and 5/mnth after 6mths with 18.00 for domain name and set up fee. This is with 1 and 1 web hosting (got it from another MNetter)

BCTBE

Okay this was my secret plan but given am very scared of the daily mail (am a teacher and with the nature of "product".....) I will share it with you for free!

We buy condom demonstrators for school- they are about £7 each. They arrive in a box "for her pleasure" yup they are in fact dildos! Of the high quality type where I have seen them retail for at least £30!

There is some profit margin in that, if you dare..........

Oh and daily mail- when I say "seen them" I erm mean someone told me. Personally I wouldn't know what one was or what to do with it!

Are you able to genuinely source them from educational retailers for non-educational purposes?

Ooo er!

Is not educational retailer is medical retailler. I don't know about buying in bulk but I have brought 12 at a go without any probs (FOR SCHOOL!) and shortly I will be getting 15 for the borough.
In fact best not tell Mnet who the retailer is til I have put my order in- have visions of them suddenly selling out

Hi I started an ebay shop about two years ago I needed an extra bit of income as I lost a lot of contracts but couldnt change carreers, anyway looked at things that are small to store, easy to package, cheapish to post, so started selling jewellery, I didnt realise how time consuming listing things and doing photos would be, really dont have time to maintain it and the fees are horrendous so I'm lucky to cover from sales what my monthly ebay bill would be, they usually take extra from the bank as well I decided that it would be better to have a proper e-commerce store so knowing absolutely nothing signed up for 2yr contract at £190 a month, in the last 1.5 yrs I have sold 4 items off it, I have thousands of pounds worth of stock, paying fees for a site which doesn't sell. For me it was a mistake that will take me a long time to get over (used all my savings) now I have to start over with no money and still paying for it. I know some people do very well on ebay but I really tried everything I could think off I have 100% feedbck and 4.9 / 5 DSR so customers are very happy, I have very few people look at my ebay store, unfortunately this tends to be chance I can't figure out how ebay ranks listings but it looks like it goes on quantity, so I would suggest you find something thats fairly sparce on ebay but which has a demand. Books still seem to be very popular I would keep some of your savings in reserve, and use your income to plough back into stock before you think about taking any money out of it, I speak from bitter experience but if you decide you would like to sell jewellery I could do you a crackin deal on stock - just kiddin - I wish you loads of luck and good for you

Just a thought too a lot of trade sites ask for a fee to register be careful before you know it it can cost you a fortune, most places on these sites can be found in trade directories anyway, check out council and dti directories, or if your feelin really clever go do some window shopping and write down serial numbers reference numbers on the products you've got your eyes on then google it.