Shooting for the stars: how Capital for eBay Business Sellers helped this meteorite business soar
Supporting our small businesses means everything to us here at eBay, and our Capital for eBay Business Sellers programme, in partnership with YouLend, is an example of the help we’re committed to providing.
Our previous article looks at how this service can help sellers transform their businesses, and here we want to share the story of one small business that has done just that. We spoke to Martin Goff - owner of Msg-Meteorites - about how his passion for meteorites has become his business, and how he’s used funding to make his business really take off.
Meet Martin, owner of Msg-Meteorites
Martin has always been fascinated by all things science and astronomy, and has been collecting fossils since he was a child. One day when buying fossils he came across a meteorite - which is a fragment of material from space - for sale, and a newfound obsession was born. Fast forward to 2015, and Martin launched his small business, Msg-Meteorites.
Msg-Meteorites sells genuine meteorites that Martin slices and prepares himself, and the business has grown from his passion project to a fully functioning online business. Martin sells his products both through eBay’s global platform and directly through his own website.
Martin’s business needs have changed in line with Msg-Meteorites’ growth, and Capital for eBay Business Sellers, delivered by YouLend, has been key in supporting this journey.
Martin’s small business journey so far
When Martin’s fascination with meteorites began, he joined a society and started attending outreach shows and science and astronomy fairs - where the society members put on displays of their meteorite collections to attendees. Audiences would always ask where they could buy meteorites of their own, and it gave Martin the idea to turn his passion into a business.
Martin started his selling journey on eBay, and then developed his own website and shop once business began to ramp up. Today, he sells through both avenues.
Using Capital for eBay Business Sellers to supercharge business
After successfully selling his meteorites for years, and as his customer base continued to expand, Martin decided he wanted to take his business to the next level. So, when eBay got in touch about business finance offered through its partner, YouLend, Martin realised that making the most of this would provide him with the perfect opportunity to grow his business.
Martin uses the funding for a number of reasons including buying stock and purchasing key equipment for his workshop, where he preps the meteorites that he sells.
Due to meteorites being natural products of limited numbers, the supply side of business can be tricky, meaning Martin has to purchase new samples as and when they become available to avoid missing out. The financing provides Martin with the funds to buy meteorites at very short notice, and so is a big help in keeping him well stocked. More stock means a bigger shop, and a bigger shop means more customers - and so the funding has been critical to Msg-Meteorites’ impressive growth.
The financing is paid back in line with sales volumes, allowing Martin to make the most of the opportunities the funding has unlocked without having to worry about repayment when his business experiences natural peaks and troughs in sales.
The future of Msg-Meteorites
Martin runs Msg-Meteorites alongside his full-time career as a crime scene investigator. Although running an independent business while having a demanding full time job is hard work, Martin finds it very rewarding - especially as the business has grown.
Msg-Meteorites provides a great example of a passion project that has evolved into a viable business. Now that the shop is achieving such success, Martin is even planning to make this his full-time work in the future.
When Martin makes the move to running the shop as his full-time job, he plans to take on more financing to take his business to the next level. He’s also planning to invest more into the marketing side of the business for both his eBay shop and independent website, and attend more outreach shows in order to further grow his customer base.
Msg-Meteorites is a story of a small business that has really taken off, and we are delighted that our Capital for eBay Business Sellers programme has helped this to happen.
Are you thinking about taking your small business to the next level? Learn more on our Capital for eBay Business Sellers page.
eddy130_1
·9 months agoIt would be helpful if eBay offered two capital loan providers, not just YouLend. Transparency matters—yet nowhere in the promo does eBay clearly state that YouLend takes repayments directly from your bank account, nor do they disclose the actual fee structure upfront. That’s a serious omission.
Also worth noting: YouLend isn’t regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which means borrowers don’t get the same protections they would from traditional lenders. And what happens if you want to repay early? Can you opt out of future deductions? That’s not made clear either.
YouLend might suit some sellers, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. eBay should consider adding a second option—perhaps something like the old PayPal Working Capital model, which was simple, transparent, and didn’t involve direct bank access.
Choice empowers sellers. One lender with opaque terms doesn’t.