Are you thinking to buying on Alibaba and Selling on eBay ?
Nov 21,2013 / By Prabhat S / No Comment
[slideshare id=28483302&style=border: 1px solid #CCC; border-width: 1px 1px 0; margin-bottom: 5px;&sc=no]
Are you thinking of a sideline business and wondering about importing small quantities of goods from Alibaba to flog on eBay/ a small website? The slide above shows one example of a produce source from Alibaba selling price on eBay. The profit seems very good for a sideline business. However, there are various aspects to look at. I found a forum discussion and listed few important points to research on before you jump into this.
- If the price you charge covers the item cost, its part of the shipping cost, duty, VAT, eBay fees, PayPal fees, postage & package costs……then obviously it does work.
- Even if you buy a 50 quantity from Alibaba/Aliexpress.You are often in a position where the UK eBay price from the direct from China sellers is lower than you can buy/import/tax/eBay fees/papal fees the item for. And unless you are practically the cheapest on eBay you won’t sell much.
- Agree, so many people on eBay are making literally pennies per item – pointless. Although, if you can find a good, niche product that everyone isn’t selling, you can still do ok.
- I do this exact thing, and it does give me decent pocket money. EBay makes just as much profit off me as what I make which is very frustrating; their fees are far far too high.
- The problem is you need a niche product, and once you start selling loads everybody just copies you, which then leads to a price war which eventually results in not being able to turn a profit from it, unless you buy thousands to get cheaper price per unit costs.
- UK-based sellers of these items have another problem looming. A lot of then with n-thousand positive EBay feedback are soon going to get a letter from HMRC. Even if you’re making just a quid per sale, HMRC would like 20p or even 40p of that. EBay’s records make HMRC investigations a breeze.
- You’re quite right, and I should have made one thing much more clearly in that last post. I was right in saying Chinese factories wouldn’t entertain such orders, and I stand by that. The suppliers you’re looking at there are trading companies in China, not factories. You are therefore paying their mark-up too.
