Your Opinion Please

[HeelsForMen]

I have been out of work some considerable time now and slowly giving up when i bumped into friends doing well for themselves just doing boot sales and the odd market selling what i consider c**p, there advice was stick to what you know. Well apart from my job where the industries all but finished the thing i know about is shoes and was thinking after reading a few posts here about shy men not being able to buy shoes is starting my own ebay site and selling heels or other items that are requested from shops and buying up all the sale items across the new looks and river islands and selling online, what are your thoughts could i make a living or just hobby money.

[benno]

It's entirely possible to make money from ebay. Just like any other career it's about the time, effort and research you put into it. Give it a go and see how you get on. Good luck, Ben

[sept181]

There is a lot of competition out there in this field , but if you have the drive and the stamina, Go for it!

[gwl1]

I agree. You can succeed. But the first step is VERY important, and that is to get a business plan formalized. Put it all down on paper, and work through the financial model to see what you need to do to make it successful. You can play what-if games on a spreadsheet that will tell you how much gross profit you need to cover all the fixed and variable costs, and come up with scenarios that give you a good idea what to expect. If you don't know anything about creating a business plan, consult your local library. Do your homework first and you will be rewarded later. If you skip this important step, you're asking for trouble. Good luck! GWL

[thighboots]

Your niche might be buy to order for those who can't get to stores etc?

[Tallinheels]

Sounds like a good idea Go for it

[Dawn HH]

You won't know if you don't plan carefully and then give it a try. Go for it. Cheers--- Dawn HH

[boots_1000]

Ok here's a few things you should know before you get into the hobby retail business. I am telling you this from my own experience. Besides from boots, I also have some other interests in which I sell things on Ebay to generate some spare $$ to fuel my hobbies. 1) First off, you will need to do research on the current market you want to get into. You will need to know who you will be competing against namely the huge power sellers. Since you are just starting off, you definitely will not have the benefit of discounting your wares to compete with them. They get a discount on Ebay fees due to their status. Not only that, these power sellers tend to already have a customer following. So starting off the bat, you are already at a disadvantage. 2) People call it Feebay for a reason. Ebay fees have gone through the roof and adding the mandatory PayPal fees makes it worse. Even with my current profit margin, I am already thinking of bailing out early. Also since the US Postal Service is in trouble, shipping rates might go up a notch soon. You will need to factor all of these things when you sit down to calculate your net profits each month. Currently I would have to say that my net profit is not worth the effort I am putting in after Ebay and PayPal take their cuts. I'm not trying to discourage you with this information, but you will seriously need to do quite a bit of research to see whether your end net profit is worth the efforts. Ebay was a great place to sell when they first started out, but nowadays it seems they really want to kick us small time sellers out by making everything harder on us. So unless you are totally convinced you will make a large sum of profit, I would think about something else to invest into.

[Tech]

2) People call it Feebay for a reason. Ebay fees have gone through the roof and adding the mandatory PayPal fees makes it worse. Even with my current profit margin, I am already thinking of bailing out early. Also since the US Postal Service is in trouble, shipping rates might go up a notch soon. You will need to factor all of these things when you sit down to calculate your net profits each month. Currently I would have to say that my net profit is not worth the effort I am putting in after Ebay and PayPal take their cuts.

lol, FeeBay is an understatement, I forced my wife to close her ebay store several months ago after I was making 2 trips to the post office, every day, posting her goods, for what turned out to be £0.30p profit on each sale....

The ebay store fees, plus the per-item auction fees, final valuation fees plus paypal charges were literally leaving her with almost nothing, thus I put a stop to it wasting my time with trips to the post office for 30p a time...

Since closing her feebay shop and spending her time doing far wiser internet marketing, led and taught by myself, she has saved a bundle of what would otherwise be wasted cash, and in the last few months has doubled her turnover, while spending almost zero on advertising, and her business has not yet been going 12 months, and thats all part time work she is putting in, just an hour or two when she gets home from work and her spare time at weekends...

So, you can do it, but just like anything else, you need to research your market, work out how to get your products/services in front of enough people, then deliver exactly or more than they expect. Anything is possible if done correctly

[Dr. Shoe]

The only way to do Ebay is with unique products. Made to order shoe sales would do well if you have the skills and the resources.

[HeelsForMen]

Good advice and i thank you all, i have read all of it and maybe the fees would kill the chance to make this a job and prob will be just extra cash on top so may try it, most of you have access to the matalans and new looks out there selling shoes between £5 or £10 and are pretty good looking shoes (see my gallery most of my pics are high street shoes) anyway the point is a lot of people are to shy to buy ( wow great ebay name 2shy2buy hmmm ill use that) and alot of peeps have no matalan or new look near them well thats the market i am looking at.

[Thighboots2]

Looking at the stuff on feebay, it sems a lot of people goto the outlet stores, such as freeport in Braintree, where they pick up the previous season stock and then flog it on. You might have a chance as the stock is usually very cheap as the likes of M&S & NEXT just want shot of it. Research essential of course, but maybe a better avenue to explore. There is really too many others doing what you envisage. Too much required to invest IMHO. The retail outlet thing has a better chance of working for you if you want to use feebay, but do check the fees. Not to say there isn't money to be made as plenty do. Simon.

[Puffer]

One piece of advice, HFM, with no offence intended. Whatever business you decide to get into, you will need to communicate effectively with your customers and others. That will be particularly important if and when you need to advertise your business or specific products.

Your postings on this board are not written in conventional English. In particular, you ignore capitalisation and punctuation and what you say is often in one breathess sentence. That may be your preferred style but it is not effective communication and, frankly, sends out a negative message - I for one find your postings hard work to read and understand fully. I'm sure that you are capable of good writing and I do sincerely suggest that you adopt a more conventional style. Just remember that, if you are in competition with others (as you surely will be), you do not want to give yourself an avoidable handicap.

Good luck with whatever you do - and don't forget to notify HMRC when you start your business as the taxman is increasingly hard on those who don't, regardless of any profit made.

[johnieheel]

My 2cents, if you will. With the postage, fees, time involved, in my opinion you will be loosing money on feebay. I personally know a couple power sellers who pulled out over a year ago and now go to flee markets, and have there own little local merchant shops and make a killing without all the overhead and time sitting at a computer 24-7, not to mention numerous trips to the post office, packaging etc. Just something to think about.