The eBay Business Handbook

How anyone can build a business and make big money on eBay.co.uk

Robert Pugh

• Publisher: Harriman House
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780857194565
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Activité entrepreneuriale

Completely revised, updated and expanded new editionAnyone can buy and sell on eBay. But how many people actually make serious money from eBay? How many people make enough give up the day job and run an eBay business full time? Robert Pugh has done just that and in this fully updated and revised fourth edition of his bestselling eBay Business Handbook he reveals the secrets of his success.Robert covers everything you need to know, from the basics of setting up your eBay account through to the creation and management of your own business. He gives you the information you need to use eBay to its full potential, to maximise returns and develop a robust online business.This book has been written for anyone who has ever considered the idea of being their own boss. Whether you want to supplement an existing income or a complete change in lifestyle, this book is for you - giving you the confidence and knowledge you need to make that step.Unlike many other eBay guides, this handbook is based on the personal experiences of an established Power Seller. Everything is covered; from the practical concerns of international sales to the purchase of packing materials. With a fresh, common-sense approach to selling, there are many hints, tips and personal recommendations that can be applied to all of your eBay activities.One of the most valuable sections is dedicated to where to find stock to sell. Where traders obtain their stock is a closely guarded secret and often finding a source of stock can be quite daunting. This guide tells you where to look, how to buy from different sources and, perhaps most interesting of all, how to use eBay as a source of goods.New for the fourth edition:- Understand and work with the new seller defect process.- Take best advantage of recent developments and turn them into hard cash.- Maximise your selling potential across all media, including mobile.- How to work with the latest eBay fee structure, so you retain the most of your revenue.- Share in the knowledge gleaned from over 100,000 eBay transactions.Discover how the author went from zero to over 56,000 positive feedbacks (and counting). From the very first LP record to the family car, he has sold items into almost every corner of the globe and taken every form of payment known to man. Anybody can do this, just follow the simple steps in this guide, dedicate the time, and soon you too could be living the eBay dream.

Part One. A Day In The Life Of An eBay Trader

Dear Diary…

It has been quite a while since my last diary entry and an interesting couple of years. I have chosen to describe how I would be occupied on a typical Sunday during August when the weather is set fair.

Alarm clocks are a long distant memory for me during the working week – from Monday to Friday I regard 9am as a civilised time to rise. Sundays during the boot sale season are a more hectic affair, with the alarm set very early.

5am – And so it begins, just another day in the office

Kettle on, iPad on and skates on. It is a mad rush with coffee on the go and, depending upon how many children are present, a queue for the shower. Did I mention that all my offspring are female? The deadline is 6am and today we are on time; it should be a great day.

6am – En route

Time to check the business; not me, I hasten to add, I’m driving. Mrs Mollybol is in charge of all things technical, including the iPad, as I’m still using a Nokia 3310!

Cosmetic sales overnight were par for the course. I no longer ship these lines overseas so overnight sales are no longer the source of excitement they used to be. I’ll explain why I only sell cosmetics in the UK later in this book.

Toys and DIY items are, however, available worldwide and this morning they amount to a Meccano motor, two bags of Lego, 40 plastic ‘Gogos’, a ‘Build A Bear’ rabbit, two 40-amp fuses and a two port zone valve. An eclectic mix. It gives me a good start to the day at £95 and it’s a lot more interesting than mascara and lipstick.

6.30am – Arrive at the first boot sale of the day

If all goes to plan we should hit three boot sales this morning and be in a coffee shop somewhere by 11.30. Boot sales are where it all started for me and they still hold a place in my heart. There’s the promise of something special, or a whole car load of goodies, and this is enough to drive me on.

The shopping list today includes all the usual suspects. For my toy business it’s Lego, Playmobil, Warhammer, Fisher-Price and anything else that catches my eye. For the DIY business I am looking for the electrician who is clearing out his van and the plumber who just wants shot of his stash of spares; all of these items can find a home in my eBay stores.

This week the team also have another shopping list due to an ongoing project: a kitchen sink, bath panel, assorted light fittings, two radiators, paint, laminate flooring and curtain tracks. All these items should be here at a fraction of the retail cost.

So, a little like Fagin, I send off my Elves to forage.

Before too long it’s back to the car with armfuls of junk, I mean valuable merchandise. As they say, one man’s rubbish…

With over 25 years’ worth of combined experience the Molly clan sure can spot a bargain. The kitchen sink (new bowl and a half, stainless steel) can be ticked off the list, a snip at £25. Two unused 900mm-wide radiators at £15 for the pair and a pack and a half of laminate flooring underlay for £4 are also acquired. There is of course the usual mix of toys and other saleable items as well.

Although the total sales value of items from car boot sales is around 25% of cosmetic sales the buzz of the hunt makes it worthwhile and turnover of £60k+ for a morning’s work each week for seven months does have a certain attraction.

8.00am – Off we go again

Our first boot sale was in Colchester and the next stop is just outside Chelmsford. We have a quick loo stop at M&S Simply Food, grab a latte and onwards we go. Replying to customer questions is a chore but it’s best dealt with in dead time, so out comes the iPad once more. Two Elves with us in the car today are both on their own tablets checking their respective eBay businesses. If you can imagine a cottage industry in a Ford Focus then you get the idea.

8.30ish – Arrive at Boreham, a huge car boot sale beside the A12

This second boot sale is much the same as the last one but this time we are later and the whole mood changes. No longer are we competing with other dealers for the best-selling items – now it is more of a leisurely stroll in the park. (Leisurely that is within the time constraints of the next boot sale entry, which as a ‘late riser’ is 10am. It’s a 20-minute drive to get there, via McDonald’s for a coffee top up.)

The haul here is ok. The chances of finding that lost master are long gone as certain telly programmes and the instant market valuation provided by eBay mean that almost everybody knows the value of their items.

The trick is to identify those people that either don’t know or can’t be bothered to sell online. Items of note include a crate of old electrical fuses for £35, which on the face of it is not that exciting, but if you needed a new fuse for your shower or solar panels then a £10 fuse from yours truly could save you £500 for a new fuse board. I sell around a dozen fuses every day and they are posted as large letters, which is even better (you’ll find out why later in the book).

The bath panel also turns up at the car, new in box from the Bathstore for £10. Another one ticked off the shopping list!

9.30am – Towards Southend for a 10am kick off

10am – Arrive at the last of the day’s car boots

As the buyers are held in check until 10am it does resemble the start of the Grand National when the tape goes up. People actually run, such are the huge rewards that can be obtained. I am not into running and I must stress that I don’t lean into car windows asking for jewellery or mobile phones. I am a gentleman trader, it is just the way I was brought up.

11.30ish – It’s all over, off to Costa

It has now become a tradition to roughly value the day’s purchases over a large Mocha and a Rocky Road snack bar. Of course there are fees involved and a lot of time sorting, listing and packing, but the headline retail value for the contents of the car is around the £1,200 mark.

1.30pm – Home again, home again

The fun part is sorting out the wheat from the chaff and when we get home and unload the loot the front room takes on a look akin to Del Boy’s lock up. Although there are currently 75 cosmetic items and a host of toys awaiting postage these are ignored; let’s face it, playing with a whole load of new toys is much more fun.

As usual there is an abundance of Thomas the Tank Engine trains and track, most of which is sold from a multi-variation listing (more about this later) so the online inventory can be quickly updated with today’s purchases. For any items sold within the last 90 days the old listing record can be retrieved and added back on to eBay as a new item, so we spend time doing this, too. Also at this juncture I scribble down a list of what was bought for resale and how much it cost. This is a chore but it pays dividends at the end of the fiscal year – I’ll explain why later.

4pm – Tea time

All good things have to come to an end and tea time is as good a time as any to take a short break. Mollybol HQ runs along traditional lines with pit stops at 11am for coffee and 4pm for afternoon tea. At these times any kids present are forced to speak to their parents, which can be a rarity these days.

4.30pm – Time to knuckle down

It is now time to get on with the packing of items sold in the last few hours. The more envelopes written today the easier will be the Monday rush.

I have been raising funds for another project and running a four-day sale on toys and DIY – this is dead easy to do with an eBay shop, I’ll expand on it later. Suffice to say that there are a lot of items that need packing and this is by far the worst part of an eBay business.

Across all the shops and product ranges I shift around 18,000 items per year. All this processing is still achieved in-house with help from the Elves and any of their boyfriends who come calling; here’s a cup of tea, a biscuit, a roll of sticky tape, brown paper and a kilo of Lego – enjoy.

Lipsticks and mascaras are easy, most lines fit inside a bubble bag so although tedious the throughput is very high. Toys are altogether different and take a lot longer to process. The only problem I have with lipsticks is that they are often similar colours (what exactly is the difference between ‘sunbronze’ and ‘mulberry’?) and the writing is very small so mistakes do happen!

No relaxing Sunday afternoon for the Molly household; this is the working week condensed into one day. Apart from two hours or so each day to keep on top of postage and listing items as and when the mood takes me I can take the rest of the time off – you know it makes sense.

Part Two. Starting Out

Overview

They do say that even the longest journey must begin with an initial step, which in the case of an eBay business is certainly true. The great thing about starting an online business and selling on eBay is that you control how long the journey will be and how fast you want to travel.

Private sellers on eBay no longer need any money to get started, as auction listings starting at 99p are free to add to the site. All you need is an unwanted gift or two and you are in business.

What is a listing?

A listing is how we describe an item for sale on eBay. Listings come in two main varieties:

1. Auction: Items are open for bids from eBay users. The highest bidder at the end of the auction wins the item, just as in a traditional auction.

2. Buy It Now (BIN): These listings have a fixed price. Users have the option to purchase them immediately, just as you would in a normal shop.

Some eBay options relate only to the auction format and some are specific to BIN. However, most of the advice in this book will apply to both unless stated otherwise.

How big your business grows will depend on many things. The beginning, however, will be a similar experience for the largest corporate undertaking or the smallest sole trader with only the germ of an idea of what they want to do.

When I started out on eBay, I charged straight into selling. I had not bought anything on eBay before and did not understand anything about the site. I have learned and adapted over time, but I can’t help thinking how many mistakes I could have avoided with a little mo...