Making a living

[sparegy]

Hi, I am not a new user to eBay, but not a long established business seller. 

I have a query! 

As a business I have access to various suppliers (trade only) who I buy from (mostly domestic appliance spares) .  

My suppliers are very competitive on price, and if you look at high street shop prices there is plenty of room for profit. 

I understand eBay is ultra competitive because of its structure, but making even a small profit is incredibly difficult and you are stuffed if you get a lost item! It then takes another 10 sales of one item to recover the loss!

I get the fact that the lines I sell are flooded therefore the prices are so competitive and other items perhaps can leave better profits?? 

I wondered if anyone would have advise on a good strategy to remain competitive and to make some kind of profit? 

I've adjusted some small parcels to be sent via the cheapest route possible to help.. 

Are people getting that big of a discount on bulk postage? 

Just wondered how others view this? 

Thank you for reading. 

Jason 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

To be honest, you have chosen a line that is particularly difficult to sell in.
Some of the larger wholesalers also sell directly on Ebay, which kills the prices.

Tip, Don't look at shop prices, it will only depress you!  😉

Just from a quick look, I'm guessing that the majority of your items are Large letter.
And frankly, you can't really do much better than Royal Mail prices for these.
Unless you have a mega account with them, your not going to get those prices cheaper.

However, for your parcels, you can get reasonable prices and the more you send, the better the prices generally.  I pay less for tracked services than the online prices.  So it's worthwhile having an account with them.  But it is very much worth shopping around for better prices.  Bear in mind that it's not all about price.  For example, the service you get from Evri, is not even close to comparable with DPD.  And their prices show it.

Your best bet though, is to diversify as much as you can and to sell in as many different places as you can.

There are two main ways of making it work on Ebay and they are:

1.  To find items that are unique in some way, so that you can dictate the price. 
2.  Or to sell in large quantities with small margins.

[sparegy]

Yes, I have seen one of my suppliers has actually got 3 stores on eBay under different names! (Cheeky) 

I will get in touch with Royal Mail and see about getting a business account.. I did look into some time ago but perhaps I wasn’t selling enough then to get discounts?! 

And also, perhaps I can research other options for selling. 

thank you for your input, it’s much appreciated. 

jason 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

You need 20 parcels per week for an account.  
That gives you free collections/labels etc.
You will however need a thermal printer if you haven't got one already.
Which RM do/did offer a fairly hefty discount on.

One thing to consider, is it worth sending your LL as tracked.  
They then count towards your expected throughput, which will get better prices.
At the end of the day though, they have certain bands which you will fall into.

One other thing, it makes more sense for the account if you are VAT registered.  As you are then basically paying the price prior to VAT being added, as you will be if purchasing from Ebay etc.

I used to be in a very similar business to yourself, which is why I know about them.  🙂

Nothing I hate more than having to compete with the wholesaler I'm buying from.

[sparegy]

Thank you for the info.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

as you will be if purchasing from Ebay etc.

That should have read:  as you will NOT be if purchasing from Ebay etc.