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Have you ever sold clothes on Ebay?

Formless

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A pretty high-end young men's (18-35 yo) clothes shop is closing down in my town, and they're offering all items for £10 or less.

I've got £200 in my bank account, and in theory I should be able to double it.

Thoughts? Yes? No? Why? How long does it usually take?

Please look at this through the lenses of someone for whom £200 is a considerable amount. I've dived into stuff and lost money a few times now.

And please save fastlane tidbits etc for another time. I am absolutely chasing money and violating CENTS. I just need some cash and think I might have found an opportunity.
 
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tafy

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Ask them how much for the whole lot? Liquidators usually pay like 10-20% of wholesale price not retail.

You should grab the lot for under $5 if they are currently at $10 each
 

Vigilante

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Adding to that, if you want the whole lot... offer them what ever cash you can up front, and the balance in a balloon payment in 120 days.
 

SGBoise

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I've never bought clothes or shoes from ebay or online. Mainly because I don't know if they'll fit.

See what other ebay sellers are doing as far returns and exchanges.
 
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Sean Corroon

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DO IT!! I have made some good profits and made some good savings on ebay! I was also going to produce my own clothes and sell them on there ive gone so far to have prototypes made of exact copies of popular t shirts and they fit amazing. Honestly go for it ! just be careful as ebay and paypal have screwed me over a few times with there annoying terms and conditions costing me a few losses! just know the rules and you should be fine!
 

cautiouscapy

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Check what you might be buying and cross-reference what's selling on eBay. Cherry-pick the best selling stuff,
**and get multiples of the same item to save listing time**.

Can you be *rsed - British term :) to deal with ironing, photographing and describing the clothes - depends on the returns you might achieve I guess? If so, grab a mannequin while you're buying the clothes.

What I notice is that there are "boutiques" on eBay that seem to do very well with the prices they ask (fixed price). These are serious sellers who obviously put a lot of work in to presentation. If I want a bargain clothing item for myself I look for clueless sellers who have photographed wrinkled clothes badly.

I've got a few used higher-end high street garments in my own wardrobe, I'm currently setting myself very small goals for listing them on eBay (like 3 items a week). I HATE doing it, so have given up on trying to get them all listed in a few days.

It's the ironing, presenting, photographing (I don't have a permanent "studio", I have to set it up each time) and describing that takes the time.
 
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Sean Corroon

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Check what you might be buying and cross-reference what's selling on eBay. Cherry-pick the best selling stuff,
**and get multiples of the same item to save listing time**.

Can you be *rsed - British term :) to deal with ironing, photographing and describing the clothes - depends on the returns you might achieve I guess? If so, grab a mannequin while you're buying the clothes.

What I notice is that there are "boutiques" on eBay that seem to do very well with the prices they ask (fixed price). These are serious sellers who obviously put a lot of work in to presentation. If I want a bargain clothing item for myself I look for clueless sellers who have photographed wrinkled clothes badly.

I've got a few used higher-end high street garments in my own wardrobe, I'm currently setting myself very small goals for listing them on eBay (like 3 items a week). I HATE doing it, so have given up on trying to get them all listed in a few days.

It's the ironing, presenting, photographing (I don't have a permanent "studio", I have to set it up each time) and describing that takes the time.

Presentation is everything on ebay. If I were you I wouldn't buy a mannequin but ask one of my friends that are photogenic and tanned and look happy to pose in the clothes. When people see good looking people wearing clothes they are more likely to buy them. I used to sell gym vests and tees on ebay and id get one of my ripped mates to pose in them and theyd sell much better! When I list an item it usualy takes me less them 15 minutes for the whole process from taking the pictures, uploading, describing and posting !
 

cautiouscapy

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Forgive my weary approach - when I talk of selling clothes, I am talking about individual used items that need ironing etc ;-)

Sean - great if you have ripped mates, sound like good models. Again on eBay I see people modelling clothes, even new ones, that put me right off buying...proves your point about good-looking people modelling!

Not sure I'm adding to answering the OP's question, though.

Formless what did you decide?
 

Sean Corroon

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Forgive my weary approach - when I talk of selling clothes, I am talking about individual used items that need ironing etc ;-)

Sean - great if you have ripped mates, sound like good models. Again on eBay I see people modelling clothes, even new ones, that put me right off buying...proves your point about good-looking people modelling!

Not sure I'm adding to answering the OP's question, though.

Formless what did you decide?

Im only speaking from experience selling on ebay for the last 3 years. My girlfriends mum also owns her own fashion label and she is a complete milf and her stuff looks great on her and it sells! Of course the model may not appeal to everyone but I think subconsciously it has a more positive effect on sales. Especially when selling gym wear as people who buy gym wear want to look like the model does! Thank for your input though, I may list two different ads in the future one using a real model and then one with a mannequin!
 
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cautiouscapy

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Sean

Rep+ to you...you inspired me - since my last post I put the laptop down, went and grabbed some of the clothes I want to put on eBay and just photographed - on my mannequin ;-) and listed!
Just in time for a 10 day auction ending on a Sunday evening.

(This is just a pocket-money stream of income, buys my wine rations and I can't bear to give the clothes away. I think that I have put the effort into learning the photography months ago, and now I CAN do it quickly).
 

Formless

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Thanks for the responses.

Formless what did you decide?

I was busy in town, just got back. Went to the shop, turns out they're not closing, just some big sale. Regardless, will do some research on the BRANDS that the shop sells, ebay competition and decide from there.
 
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Mike Kavanagh

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Be ready to work. I'd say clothes are the hardest thing to sell on e-bay if you've never sold on e-bay before.

You need to
  • Take all the measurements
  • Iron the clothes that need to be ironed
  • Setup a photography area in your house
  • Come up with a packaging system to store the clothes till they sell
  • Write descriptions with all the necessary information, that still follow the tenants of copywriting
And you have to do this with every piece.

Also be prepared to sit on some items for weeks at a time. With the way margins are on the shirts you are selling, fees will eat most of your profit.
There is a calculator for e-Bay fees to show what you need to sell an item for to profit off of it.

Also something I learned from @Vigilante is to incorporate shipping into your starting price. eBay likes when you give "free shipping"
 

cautiouscapy

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Also something I learned from @Vigilante is to incorporate shipping into your starting price. eBay likes when you give "free shipping"

Oh cr*p, that's so obvious when you say it...I hadn't thought of that! (All the items sold from my business eBay account have "free" shipping included in the price).

Happy to realize I can do this for auction - but...doh!
 
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Formless

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Scrapped. Here's why.

First of all, I don't know how the hell that shop got away with selling these things for so long - for those prices. Ebayers are selling them for £3 more of the SALE price, at best. (Plus postage, separately)

Plus these ebay shops are established brand-wise.

After calculating my postage costs, ebay's cut and the price I can get clothes for, I make 20% MAYBE 30% profit on some sales. So about £40-60 after everything is sold (considering my budget, and the volume it can buy). Which could take a month or so. I went to negotiate some alternative payment options with them. Bulk etc. They weren't interested.

I don't like them numbers. Not for a side hustle.

I learned a good lesson though. Through out this process I made a shitload of assumptions, most of which were proven wrong with research & talking to the shop people.

In the meantime trying to sell my midi-keyboard to someone.
 

Sean Corroon

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Sean

Rep+ to you...you inspired me - since my last post I put the laptop down, went and grabbed some of the clothes I want to put on eBay and just photographed - on my mannequin ;-) and listed!
Just in time for a 10 day auction ending on a Sunday evening.

(This is just a pocket-money stream of income, buys my wine rations and I can't bear to give the clothes away. I think that I have put the effort into learning the photography months ago, and now I CAN do it quickly).
Well done mate !! Makes feel good to know that ive inspired someone! thats what this forum is all about and thank you so much for the rep money!
 

yveskleinsky

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I met a guy the other night who had been selling things for a living on ebay for ten years. He supported himself comfortably enough to where he could follow his real passion which was playing drums in a band. Point being is that i is still possible to make good money selling things on ebay--even in this day and age of Amazon Prime! :) He explained that he chose his niche after he placed a bunch of different items on ebay up for sale, and one item proved to be far more popular than the rest, so he decided to sell more of that item. He gave some good pointers that I'm happy to pass along:

- Test your demand first. Place some items up and see which ones get the most interest. Focus on selling those items. Keep adding new items and keep testing. Adjust accordingly.

- Find a reliable distributor/wholesaler. This really beats having to hunt down items each week at garage sales or close out stores.

- Focus on selling items that are consistent in appearance. A "For Sale" sign or an iphone5 would be an example of this. This way you are only having to take pictures once, write one description, etc. Seems that the biggest time suck for most sellers is hunting down items and then photographing them as well as writing the descriptions. With his way, you only do that once, and then you can keep reposting the same pics and description.

- Beef up your feedback score. He recommended that new sellers really focus on getting as much good feedback as possible. He said that a good way to do this is to start buying everything you need on ebay in order to get the feedback.

- Packaging. The other benefit to selling the same item over and over is that you know exactly what materials you'll need for shipping. I can imagine that would be super handy!

- Shipping. He said that ebay is putting a lot of pressure on sellers to offer free shipping in order to compete with Amazon prime. So factor this in to your total sales price.

- If ebay starts recommending you make changes, make them. Don't want for them to make them "law" or you will be scrambling to make all necessary changes.

- Change your ebay name to reflect what you are selling. So instead of Simon1234 make it DiscountSignsInc.

Hope that helps. Keep in mind that just because this store didn't work out, doesn't mean that the ebay idea won't work out. Keep us posted. :)
 
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cautiouscapy

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Formless - I'm really glad you posted the initial query.

I got to share my tiny bit of wisdom about it and got to learn a bit from everyone else's replies.
Progress for me as well as you.

And this, I alluded to it myself, this is why selling your own oddments is a PITA unless you're likely to get more than a few £/$/€ for the item;
- Focus on selling items that are consistent in appearance. A "For Sale" sign or an iphone5 would be an example of this. This way you are only having to take pictures once, write one description, etc. Seems that the biggest time suck for most sellers is hunting down items and then photographing them as well as writing the descriptions. With his way, you only do that once, and then you can keep reposting the same pics and description.
 
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Nadia

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A pretty high-end young men's (18-35 yo) clothes shop is closing down in my town, and they're offering all items for £10 or less.

I've got £200 in my bank account, and in theory I should be able to double it.

Thoughts? Yes? No? Why? How long does it usually take?

Please look at this through the lenses of someone for whom £200 is a considerable amount. I've dived into stuff and lost money a few times now.

And please save fastlane tidbits etc for another time. I am absolutely chasing money and violating CENTS. I just need some cash and think I might have found an opportunity.

Yes, yes and YES. I can show you a VERY fast way to make instant cash within 14-30 days from eBay. There is a science most people don't know of, that I stumbled across and it WORKS.

It is AMAZING. It's basically FREE money. (No lie. FREE).
 
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Formless

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Are you pulling my leg Nadia?

Forgive my social ineptitude but it sounds like you're trying to make a point...
 
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smartman

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definitely interested to hear what you have to say Nadia
 

Nadia

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Are you pulling my leg Nadia?

Forgive my social ineptitude but it sounds like you're trying to make a point...


I am not pulling your leg, neither am I trying to sell you anything, if that's what you were hinting. I simply stated a way I was able to help.

Forgive me, for offering help.
 

Nadia

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definitely interested to hear what you have to say Nadia

My comment is as above. It worked for me at a time that I needed cash. It's a shame when you offer help to someone these days, because of the culture we live in--people think you're selling them something.

If I was finding a legit way to make money and a person took their time out, to genuinely on a humane basis, help me--I would take it.

That's just me.
 
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Formless

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Heh. I have a talent for this shit. I thought that you were trying to say 'you're looking for a get rich quick scheme - wake up' I didn't want to deal with that.

My assumption was wrong.

I'm sorry for instantly assuming a negative thing, instead of a positive one.

I feel stupid asking now, but does the offer still stand?
 

Nadia

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Heh. I have a talent for this shit. I thought that you were trying to say 'you're looking for a get rich quick scheme - wake up' I didn't want to deal with that.

My assumption was wrong.

I'm sorry for instantly assuming a negative thing, instead of a positive one.

I feel stupid asking now, but does the offer still stand?


Oh God no. I don't judge people. :) I let them make their own mistakes as I have made mine and learned!

It is alright. Our society makes us feel that we are instantly being ripped off instead of a NORMAL, GENUINE human being helping us. I find it hard too, don't worry.

Of course it stands. Inbox me and let me share it with you!

(Don't feel stupid) -- anyone would have reacted the way you did!
 

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