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Moving on from selling collectable... How?!
 

Greetings folks!

I've been trading on ebay for over a decade now in buying and selling collectables, mostly stuff from the 1950s onwards. Anyway after many years of doing this I'm starting to think that I'm missing the boat as bit, when I see people with tens of thousands of positive feedback who put on a dutch auction that sells hundreds of one particular item its making me rather jealous!

Currently I spend the weekends scouring antiques fairs / car boot sales for goods to sell and if I have a good week I might clear 2-300 pounds worth of sales on ebay. While this is ok, its hardly going to make me rich, and I'm considering going into selling new items on ebay, as I think I could generate more income doing this.

I really dont know where to start though, I'd quite like to get into selling bicycles and all the accessories that go with cycling, or maybe even reproduction vintage-style collectables, I really dont know. But my main stumbling block is I dont know where I would go about sourcing stuff to sell. I've heard of and checked out websites like DHgate / Alibaba etc but I dont know the first thing about buying from them or if the suppliers are reputable.

Do I even need to be buying from China to begin with? Are there wholesalers in the UK who I can buy these things from? Then there are other things I know nothing about like customs and whatever payments I need to pay. Sorry to sound so naive, and I'm not expecting anyone to tell me their trade secrets, I just want to know how I go about starting buying and selling new items on ebay.

Kind regards

Johnny

I think you first need to decide what you would like to sell. Bare in mind higher profits would no doubt equal higher start up capital. Unless you can find a drop shipper, but finding a genuine one amongst the scams will be the hard part.

Terapeak - ebay for whats selling good. Search alibaba for said item and buy. The more you buy to better discount you should get.

Starting out I suggest you ONLY pay via ESCROW. Paypal does NOT protect you in such transactions.

These guys you're talking about sell tons yes but they only make cents off of each item. ppl like us cant compete with them because they have partnership with the shipping carriers.

If we tried to do that we would be selling at a lost most of the time as shipping is at minimum $1.64 for 4 ounce item via USPS with tracking.

There's a lot of items that you can sell off and on ebay. I myself sell more offline than ebay. Do a lot of research the items your interested in. The more you know about your interested items the better choice you can make it Supplier(s) and Price. The best piece of advice I can give you is, when you do find a supplier(s) be sure to ask if they are willing to sell you sample(s). Their gonna be at a higher price but it's a piece of mind in case they are not legit.

I am in the same boat as you. Growing up in an antique and collectible family and selling in tons of antique malls etc I made my money with knowledge of items that others dont have.

Not many antique malls, flea markets, thrift stores I walk into that does not have something I can flip and make good money doing it.

American Pickers said the other night not to go into an antique mall because it has been picked over 3 times. How wrong they are.

I found 2 extremely rare pieces of glassware in an antique mall for 8 bucks each and sold them within hours for 250.00 each.

So I know what you are going through as I am right now trying to learn about new products, the competition, pricing, finding the products etc. and it is not easy.

What I am doing is my old thing and learning the new products as I go so I can have both worlds doing well.

I also know what you are saying about missing out. I started selling some new items in November and did very well with them.

I have an importer close to me who sells all kinds of items and sells in both DHgate and Alibaba so I have access to tons of items but some are risky ( Jordon shoes, all the handbags, watches, perfume, cell phone accessories etc ). So I am taking a few items here and there and testing them out. Some have done well for me and others have not.

Learning the new stuff is not easy.

/quote

I found 2 extremely rare pieces of glassware in an antique mall for 8 bucks each and sold them within hours for 250.00 each.

Nice find.

Lucky!

Does not happen very often. I got so excited to see them sitting on a bottom shelf that I about dropped them before I got them to the counter.

Sandy_D you seem to be r*ping your antique community nicely ha - or so it would seem =)

You could call it that I am just cleaning up the place.

Op- how is your progress with this?

I am like you trying to learn the ropes of the new items. I have access to tons of new items but do not have the knowledge (yet) to find a niche product to work with.

I find it best to sell items you are ALREADY very familiar with. Often times sellers bandwagon without proper knowledge of what they are selling, just because its a popular item.

two advise:
1.Come to china to source the products,advantages:you can talk to the supplier face to face,and you can check the samples at the same time,and you can even visit the factory as well. If you attend the canton fair,you can meet tons of suppliers there and you can also compare the price and supplier there.But it cost flight fee and hotel fee.But if you have not been to china,why not take it as your holiday as well?

2. sourcing on line,alibaba and globalsource are two best platform to source the items from china.You can pick a few items and get a few quotations from a few different suppliers,and then order the sample,if it is good,so you can go ahead with you mass order.

Thanks Teedon.

Trying to learn what products to sell that are new. I might just purchase a mix of things to see how I do.

You could make a book on your how to's and do very well with it.

Yes thanks for the advice folks! It sure is a minefield I'd rather not be walking into... but when the alternative is working for minimum wage and ending up with no money and no job satisfaction at the end of each week I know what I'd rather be doing...

Sandy D, I too manage to find items other people wont touch - even stuff that other dealers have thrown away, and I'm somehow able to turn a £50 profit on things I pull out of skips and bins, not just once in a while, but several times a week - its my bread and butter at the moment. A couple of years ago I had a vehicle and I used to tour England visiting all the flea markets / antiques fairs / car boot sales etc and pick up tons of stuff to sell, however I ended up messing up my finances, forgetting to pay my car insurance one month and ended up getting banned from driving by the police / courts....
Now I'm doing everything on a push bike! But I just got my licence back and I'm saving up for a new truck and then everything should be hunky-dory. But I'm just trying to dip my toe into selling new stuff as I dont believe in missing out on an opportunity thats there. Ideally though I'll eventually have my own Antiques and Collectables Barn / Centre where I might even sell some new reproduction retro-look items.

Teedon, thats great advice about visiting some trade shows in China and getting to meet some suppliers. I'd love to visit China, I always wanted to ever since seeing all the old Bruce Lee films in the 1970s! Having a working holiday in China would really be a good move. I'm going to look into what arrangements I can make to come over in the next 18 months. I'm especially interested in making some contacts for Chinese arts and crafts and antiques manufacturers who can make reproduction furniture / objects etc.

Mixing what you know with some new knowledge makes sense.

Since we both have skills with the older stuff and need to learn the new stuff for me I just want to add the new learning to the skills I have with the older stuff.

Hoping to double my sales and profits by doing so.