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Question for the BIG BOYS of eBay ... How did you ....
 

How did you build your capital when first starting? Or were the funds always there? What was your strategy to building/increasing your net worth on eBay???

I have plenty of inventory (sorta) , about 10 active selling accounts but when REAL LIFE (bills, more bills, some more minor bills) its a vicious circle of trying to get ahead ... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

:help:

Use whatever savings you can spare, ask your relatives for a loan, get a business partner, get a loan from the bank etc

Started with probably 1k-2k$, bought 2-3 items, then put all the money back and slowly increased inventory. Now I have a minimum of 50k$ inventory at all times.

Early on, it was a bit painful at times not to be able to buy 20-30k worth of good inventory.

Also to mention, I wasn't stealth back then, so both Ebay and Amazon were fresh. Meaning going through the two Amazon Reviews, waiting for Ebay limits to be slowly increased. I was alternating inventory between the two.

Gosh @ Mercurial GOOD JOB! ... I can't wait till I build my worth up to that much.

How long did it take you to get to 50k??

Do you still believe it can be done the same way with today's limits??

Lots of hard work, careful preparation of accounts & careful operating can see most sellers do well.

It's the wishy-washy dreamers who rarely make the grade.

Effort is the best means & a little luck.

Issues need to be resolved rather than ignored.

Yep, it is possible.
:thumb:

Your bank can be your ally on this for loans and management - form good relationships with it (them)

NICE INFORMATION EVERYBODY! This will surely help me reach the top!!

Now my question for all of you is .... How many accounts does it take to pull off those types of numbers???

I know I see some people say they have 2 eb accoutns/ 10/20/ .... 100+

BUT ... to achieve BIG NUMBERS ... like most of you. How many accounts does it REALLY TAKE???

I've gotten kinda comfortable @ 10 but now I feel the need to PUSH FORWARD and create MANY MANY more accounts so I can start spreading my sales better.

Then it becomes a question of ... how do you move all that money around LOL

Maybe that explains the KRAZY price tags for phone's that sell for like $15,000 or whatever non sense I see. Maybe a stealth user buying from himself to move money around???

:ranger:

This sounds like a $25,000 tip! :dance:

...especially if you have ALOT on the line

Basic and quickest reply is

How long is a piece of string.

:spy:

About 1.5 years.

Sure, my main Ebay account has a bit under 500$k limits right now, created in Fall 2011. This one had two big limit increases in Fall 2012, from 50k all the way to where it is now.

Did you say ... "500k" limits?!? :faint:

... now all I can do is chuckle at my main account with 5k limits

I seem so far away ... yet so close to victory.

I don't know where all this money is going to come from ... but I imagine if I keep on selling and keep on turning a profit. Things fall in place ....

Dont make the mistake i used to do and take to much from the business.
You have to be strict with yourself .
Only take the bare minimum for yourself for the first year at least.
Every other penny should be put back into the business for stock , websites and the usual stuff.
You have to seperate your household bills completely if you are to win .
A business is a business and i now put that before anything .
Paying my electric bill will not bring me in any revenue but more stock will so if it ever got to that point they would have to wait to be paid.
Eventually it will balance itself out as it grows then you can reap the rewards.
Length of time to get to this point varies on you and products .
Some make it overnight , it took me 5 years before i could pay myself a good salary .

And there you have it.

Things do fall into place with a few glitches here & there.

Visualize what you want.
Law of attraction applies in this game

:pop2:

Sure, just gotta keep on pushing the accounts to the limits, and put the profits back into inventory.

on 500k limit, how many items can you list?

1000, but I never have more than 100 listings.

First thing that comes to mind is the bills you mentioned.

You have to learn and manage your money correctly or you will be doing all this work for nothing.

I know a small business owner, brick and mortar who started with 580.00. Wife and 2 kids. Bought the business, lived in the apartment upstairs and only had some left over household items, furniture and other tools etc to start selling in their shop.

Even used spray painted signs to get customers to stop.

Owed 700.00 in total bills per month, house payment etc. and 2 kids and wife to feed.

Every day he took 25% of profits and bought more stock. Gave rest to wife to manage household.

After year one, bought a van to buy more goods

Year two, bought wife a better car.

Year three, expanded to add more store space.

Year 30-----

Retired with a nestegg of money, bought properties all around the shop just in case he need to expand more.

At 70 something still opens on weekends for the fun of it. Owns a home in Florida as well.

He told me the first few months they were lucky to even eat.

It is all about managing your money, knowing where to put what etc.

You need sales and profits and go from there to manage the money.

Started with drop shipping (not recommended) until enough capital to make a small order. You need at least $1000 on first order to make any kind of money. Later on 10k orders gives you much more profit wiggle room and at 25K ad up they are great.

To me Stealth has always been like playing boardgame Monopoly. Start with houses and try to build up to Hotels. Now im trying to get Boardwalk.... :p

$500K? That is majorly impressive. Is that a stealth account?
I just have such a hard time with keeping accounts and building it higher...not even close to your $500k when it is stealth information. They always want something I cant give them or dont know to build it more. So I keep low accounts and it gets to be a huge hassle when you have to check and do 20 accounts a day lol

There are some dedicated threads for limit increases.

It's possible in the end, some big boosts were in Fall 2012. You would need to push the accounts monthly and be active on them from my experience.

Depending what you sell and how you sell, they do not necessary want something from you ( except their monthly fees :) of course )