The Wholesale Forums

[Paul_Farnham_uk]

Hi all

My wife and i have ben trying for some time to come up with a way of her staying at home and operating a business based through ebay and car boots.

We recently bought a pallet of ex cat returns from TIC and i have to say was really dissapointed with the quality, we ended up making a 70 pound loss on said pallet.

So i have come to the stage now where im not quite sure which way to turn, we just want a small business that can grow at a steady rate and make some money to supplement my income, but with a view long term to growing to the point where maybe i could give up my job and join her in it.

Could anyone offer any advice of good suppliers or wholesalers where there is a margin to be made?

I would really appreciate your help

Thanks

Paul

[uhafmail]

Firstly i would do Research. No member is likely to tell you where you can make great profits as then you will be competing with them.

Go to the carboot as a buyer and see whats selling, talk to people and find out how well they are doing. Once you have a product look for suppliers. There are plenty of wholesale directories - many advertised on here, to have a look at but you need to find the product before you look for a supplier.

[NickyDee]

Hi paul, we are in exactly the same position, we've just had a baby and my partner has just been told he's going to be made redundant, probably by the end of the year! He's wanted to make money from selling on ebay for a while now and has dabbled with it before but not been very suceessfull. We bought a pallet of ex cat and returns and we've actually made our money back but only just and still have some things to sell, but some of the stuff was completely faulty or damaged and unsaleable. We're about to try again, after a fair bit of research we think we've found a product that might sell so we're going to give it go. Look at suppliers, ones selling clearance and bankrupt or liquidation stock is probably a good place to start, at least the products shouldn't be faulty. Then look and see how the products they are offering sell on ebay, use the completed listings option ansd be sure to take note of the listings where the product has sold for a good price - what works about the listing, likewise what's wrong with the listings where the same product hasn't sold. Good luck

[Paul_Farnham_uk]

Hi again all,

I was just looking into the liquidation and bankrupt stock and i found selftrading.co.uk

The seem to do pallets of what they describe as brand new stock at hugely discounted rates

Are these guys legit and if so are the products they sell normally resaleable for decent profit?

Thanks

Paul

[Pete]

I can't speak for the company, but I can possibly enlighten you on new liquidation goods.

These are often what are called "shelf pulls". They usually will have price tags, unless from a chain using strictly barcodes (which is good). They are a result of one brand of let's say spray paint (or cosmetics or garden hoses, whatever) convince a store (usually a chain) to change brands. Part of their agreement will be to clear out the old brand and replace it with their new products. So, good, usually current goods, just might have a price tag.

Then there are package updates. A company wants to promote their "NEW" image, look, product, etc. They come in and clear out the old and replace with the new packaging. Sometimes, they will keep and repack the stuff they take back, other times they will liquidate.

Some comes from "guaranteed sales" where the manufacturer tells a customer up front that they will take back any remaining inventory after so many days.

Books, and magazines and some other products are sold with a "return if it doesn't sell" policy. They are called "remainders" in that business.

All of these are new goods, some in outdated packages, some with price tags with a store's name on them. Most have previously been out on a shelf for sale. You may find some unbroken cartons that have never been put out mixed in, but most are like you went through a section of a store any just boxed up everything in that area.
.

[Paul_Farnham_uk]

Hi guys i am looking at a job lot of stuff on this website.

Its going to cost me about 1000 pounds and so want to make sure its no scam, does anyone know anything about this company?

the website is www.wholesaleclearance.co.uk

Thanks

Paul

[ericfarrow12]

Its not a scam i have brought some boots of here before to resell on ebay, great price and fast shipping really helpful to. Their also have a ebay store, you can get some great bragins on their.

Eric

[ash204]

Ask yourselves what you as a family would buy in the current financial situation...and also think about what is always going to be needed...food, clothing, are the obvious, and some car boots seem to allow non-branded food sales; around here (wealthy south-east) there are a number of shops thriving for some time on selling weired but cheap foreign label food, bit like Aldi or Lidl, whatever you look at there will be competetion, however small but smart could still give you a reasonable income.

One area I looked into, but decided against for logistical reasons, is the sanitarywear/nappy market, not glamorous but an essential for at least half the population. Whilst Tesco et al have their cheap ranges, and it is not perhaps the easiest buy in a public market, I think there is a potential at car-boots for packs of nappies if, as always, you can get the right price, or at least offer convenience (sorry) by being there. The old saying 'where there's muck there's brass' still holds true.

There's a bit of a baby boom going on at the moment, also at the other end of the age scale the care of the elderly requires many disposable supplies, so that would be an on-going market to explore..think about home delivery service, hygenic disposal, or supplying care homes, nurseries etc, I'm sure there are niche markets and needs to be met there.
Anyway, just a thought, I used to be a nurse so nappies hold no fear for me! Good luck

[studio1one]

Originally Posted by Paul_Farnham_uk

Hi again all,

I was just looking into the liquidation and bankrupt stock and i found selftrading.co.uk

The seem to do pallets of what they describe as brand new stock at hugely discounted rates

Are these guys legit and if so are the products they sell normally resaleable for decent profit?

Thanks

Paul

they are a legit company, done business with them but never bought a pallet so can't comment on that.

[NickyDee]

Originally Posted by Paul_Farnham_uk

Hi guys i am looking at a job lot of stuff on this website.

Its going to cost me about 1000 pounds and so want to make sure its no scam, does anyone know anything about this company?

the website is www.wholesaleclearance.co.uk

Thanks

Paul

I have a friend who has recommended wholesaleclearance to me, he's bought from them a few times to sell on ebay, mainly clothes and shoes, think he did ok, but wasn't doing the volume to make a huge profit - he has his own cleaning business as well so just wanted a bit of extra money to see him through the 'dry' months. His positivity about wholesaleclearance is what got us started

We've come to the conclusion that people want bargains on ebay and at car boots, they want to pay next to nothing (unless you find a product everybody wants and goes mad for) so to make a decent amount of money you need to look at high volumes. I've just encouraged my partner to sit down and do some goal setting to work out the logistics - it might help you too. Think about how much money you'd ideally like to make in a week and work out realistically how many pallets you would need to sell to achieve that, to do that you need to consider realistic prices, you might buy at 15% retail price and aim to sell at 30% retail price to double your money, but people will only buy things they want and bid upto what they are willing to part with. if you need to be shifting 2 pallets a week to make the money you want, consider whether you can physically achieve this along side any other work or family commitments you have. Oh and for postage, check out parcel2go.com we have used them to deliver heavier stuff like microwaves and they are great and much cheaper than anything else we could find. Hope that helps. Happy to share any tips that we find work for us, but as we're starting out too would gratefully accept some back!