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I know your post is a couple weeks old but I'll chime in to try help you and any other UK residents wishing to get started. I'm a UK seller and am getting to grips with all the charges/import duty/taxes.
Firstly, to work out your margins on Ebay product, use this website (so long as you know your selling price):
http://ecal.altervista.org/en/fee_calculator/ebay.co.uk/
This calc is set for UK Ebayers and includes PayPal.
Now regarding import duty. Typically in the UK import duty hovers between 5-9% depending on what item you are importing (although it can range anywhere from 0% to 85%). You'll need to use the Gov's trade tariff ( https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff ) to find out what the duty on your particular item is. There are over 13000 different categories in the tariff AFAIK so it'll take some searching to find the correct category. Dutycalculator.com will make your life easier in regards to searching your category and also calculating duty/VAT costs, but you have to pay for it after a few queries.
Duty is calculated on: value of goods (how much you paid for them) + insurance cost (during freight) + shipping cost.
So lets say I paid my supplier £300 for my goods, £100 shipping and £10 insurance, and my duty on that particular item was 6%. My duty would be:
£410 x 0.06 = £24.6
VAT is the cost of: value of goods + insurance + shipping PLUS duty. So typical VAT (although in very seldom cases it can vary) would be:
£410 + 24.6 = £434.6 * 0.2 (20%) = £86.92
Total VAT + Duty = £~112
You may also be hit with a customs clearance charge if they decide to go through your order at customs. However, with samples you will most likely be using an Air Courier and customs clearance is usually factored into the price.
Now I know that sounds like a lot. But you don't need to worry. Many Chinese suppliers will write a much lower value (especially on smaller/sample) orders on the invoice on the package. Now this is illegal, but a very large amount of people do this, and on smaller orders where these rates kill your margins, it's normal to be honest. I'm not advocating it - but don't be surprised if once you receive your order, your supplier has undervalued your items by a lot. If you find this morally incorrect then simply ask them to value it at their cheapest wholesale price on that item. It's a win - win.
Hopefully this makes it clearer for you and any other UK residents wanting to start out but are a little unclear on all this duty/tax charge stuff. There's still more things to consider so you should do your own reading, this post is only aiming to help you get your head around it and realise it's not too hard after all.
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