OP, brilliant advice to anybody. I can't say I've ever been into selling consoles (apart from at Christmas where it's sometimes worth stockpiling them) but it does worry me how many people come on this forum, and many others, wanting suppliers for PS3s or Armani Jeans.
Can't quite agree with 10-15% being a good markup though
I would say that a markup of £25 on an item that takes two minutes to box up is well worthwhile going for. In terms of percentage, 10-15%'s not bad, but I hate the idea of paying out selling something for £100 and only feeling that £15 of it's "mine" (rather than going on costs of stock, shipping, payment fees etc.).
It really is all about thinking outside the box. I have one product that I call my housing plus product. It doesn't have anything to do with housing or addition but it pays my rent and my bills and a little bit more. It's an item that is in reasonably high demand though not *that* high, I buy from one of the manufacturer's agents for £3 delivered (INCLUDING VAT and duty) and sell through a purpose built website, using a little SEO and advertising to drive customers to the site. Selling quite happily at £14.99 after all my costs I turn a £3 initial outlay into £13 (£10 gross profit).
I'm not going to say much more than that, but I will say that as a long term business plan unless you've got massive buying power, massive amounts of storage space, massive finance and a massive web design and advertising budget it's HARD to compete with the likes of Amazon, Play, eBuyer et. al. (note I say hard, not impossible).
Leo