Just switched to Business Seller and it seems monthly insertion fees will ruin me.....HELP

[eppingauctionscom]

As a private seller I had about 8,000 seperate items listed, i only sell a small % of my stock so every month when my lots expire they are relisted.  As a private seller I was not charged for my lots continuing every month.  However now i am paying a 36p fee for each item when the month ends.  As I sell low value items this is completely unsustainble for me.  Not sure what to do, should i go back to being a private seller. Any advice much appreciated.

[*vyolla*]

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@eppingauctionscom wrote:

Well i was making £250 a week as a private seller and if i want to i will just open anoither private account, i am  not selling car parts.

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Whilst you weren't trading correctly, I do hope that you were at least keeping accounts and submitting a self assessment. Now that eBay are sending details of sales to HMRC, they are now sending out the dreaded letters to those who haven't. 

[eppingauctionscom]

i was not forced to upgrade it was my choice

[eppingauctionscom]

thank you, yes that is some really positive advice.  I retire in a year or two and i have much more stuff i could list, when i retire i will throw myself into it and the anchor shop fee will not seem too mad.  In the meantime i'll focus on some of the tips people have been posting. thanks again

[eppingauctionscom]

all the money i have made has been re-invested into stock.

[papso22]

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@eppingauctionscom wrote:

i was not forced to upgrade it was my choice

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I meant the new private account you were thinking about trading on.

[dch2112011]

Just a couple of observations - your pictures are great - maybe pics of the back of the cards, close ups of parts of the cards - use as many picture slots as you can - it helps with search visability and ranking

You have so many categories you can  use, when multi listing look at the main two - I haven't checked but tarot cards with popular pop artists could be split into categories and sub categories ie music and whatever tarot comes under. - Don't take my word for it - you know your product better than me !

I am sure the other experianced members and mentors will offer some suggestions - there are some great members with experiance of auctions, multi listings, categories on here 

Expect advice on HMRC, listing rules etc - it is part of selling on ebay and some of it is particularly hot and sore in topic at the moment - most of these members are well intentioned even if it comes across a bit abruptly occasionally

[*vyolla*]

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@eppingauctionscom wrote:

all the money i have made has been re-invested into stock.

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If you've really been earning £250 a week and not completing a self assessment, then telling HMRC that you've been investing in stock at this stage will not void any tax bill. You can only offset expenses if you complete the tax return. You're leaving yourself open to a backdated bill and penalty fines. I'd take some professional advice from an accountant if HMRC contact you. 

Confirmation that HMRC are now starting to contact eBay sellers:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/Got-the-dreaded-letter-from-HMRC/m-p/7801983#M713371

[magpiecorner1]

Re reinvesting in stock, may suggest  two things, that you have a good read about simple accounting and that you invest the time and money into a long chat with an accountant.   

Simple accounting is geared up for small businesses and closing stock is treated very differently to traditional accounting.  You will find it really helpful, particularly if you are earning elsewhere, or if you have a pension.  

Best of luck.  There is some good advice in these comments, just ignore the naysayers.

[suelel1968]

Hi, just to add regarding photos, i cannot keep all mine and I expect with the amount you have, nor can you. I recently searched google for a way of getting your photos back from eBay. There is great free software available to download your photos  so that you can use them again in a multi listing or variation listing which saved me alot of time. 

Relisting fees are a killer to small businesses and hopefully something they will address at some point. As someone said there is alot of help on the forum, you just have to ignor the people who just want to shoot you down for no good reason. 

[gccomics22]

Every single time you are there !

[papso22]

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@gccomics22 wrote:

Every single time you are there !

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Absolutely,  and I will continue to point out a member's legal responsibilities when necessary. 

[dch2112011]

See now gccomics wants to send you a prized childhood posession - isn't that sweet 

[gccomics22]

Bet your fun at parties ,if you ever got an invite that is .

[reasonable.robert]

close your b/s account and run for the hills there are better alternertives out there

[crg_music]

You need to change how you do things or as you know you will spend all your profits on listing fees, I would be looking at bringing things under 1500 listings somehow as a matter of urgency so you wont be billed for those relists over the package and then increasing your sell through rate.

Personally I dont list loads on here as its just not where the items sell best but researching and only listing items that will 100% sell in a couple of months really does help. 

For now just keep an eye of how long until items re list as you dont wanna be wasting those free listings.

This could help you also especially where you have numerous items from the same sets etc as you can put them all in 1 listing. Particularly good for the low value items.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/creating-listings-variations...

[mr_lincoln]

I started selling to help liquidate a family estate back in 2015.   Things went well enough that I started to dabble in buying at local auctions and reselling on eBay.  That also did well.  I waited until my "average" sale was over the monthly store fee and then opened an eBay store (I'm a US Seller).  That approach meant I only needed one average sale to pay for the store each month.

This was accomplished with less than 500 listings each month.  While some rules vary between the UK and US the math doesn't. You may want to consider liquidating your lower priced items and add in some higher value things.  In basic terms I will spend just as much time creating a listing, selling an item, packing and shipping it whether it is $ 10 or $ 100.   

[hugothecockapoo]

Hello OP...please remember eBay by law have to inform HMRC of Accounts selling over a certain amount for private and business sellers..Make sure you have a full and up to date set of accounts....

[hugothecockapoo]

I can confirm these HMRC letters...my friend just received one and he only sells on Vinted !  not a happy bunny..

[banditfrenzy]

@*vyolla* wrote:
@eppingauctionscom wrote:
all the money i have made has been re-invested into stock.

If you've really been earning £250 a week and not completing a self assessment, then telling HMRC that you've been investing in stock at this stage will not void any tax bill. You can only offset expenses if you complete the tax return. You're leaving yourself open to a backdated bill and penalty fines. I'd take some professional advice from an accountant if HMRC contact you. 

They've been a member here for 25yrs, sadly HMRC will only go back 20yrs for tax evasion. Not sure if they'll allow the cost of stock to be knocked off their calculations but they will look closely at every £££'s payment into every bank account over those 20yrs, well, I don't know about you but I can't remember where that £500 paid into my account in 2014 originated . . . So, you'd be looking at a lot of back tax, & then there's the fine. I'd imagine there are guidelines regarding the £££'s amounts involved, but I'd imagine that a prison sentence may be a possibility, hopefully suspended of course . . . . Oh the gossip, what will they say down at the bridge club?

You can get a lot of advice & encouragement on these boards, mostly from those in the same boat, about how best to be a trader on ebay with a private account, but I bet their silence is deafening when that knock comes.

[cassidy_r_private]

Oh dear.

Converting taxable profit into stock does not make the tax liability go away, it just converts a current asset into a different form of current asset.

There's a consistent theme to your posts, ie, "the rules that apply to everyone else don't apply to me".