Start?
I have been in the mail order business since 1987.
Yes, I had a business plan, a budget and sufficient funding to establish the business. Online selling only started about eighteen years ago for me.
The first thing I did back in 1987 was to spend slightly more than $1,000 purchasing "stuff" from my competitors. It quickly told me what to do and what not to do. Best $1,000 ever spent.
I am now retired (but still selling excess inventory on eBay).
A plan? After 12 years I gotta have a plan?
Buy high and sell low!
@bargainbookscanada wrote:I got into selling books because my brother owns a bookstore. It used to be one of the largest and most successful bookstores in Canada.
A successful guy with good business sense, he had the foresight to see how the internet was eventually going to kill him. He wanted to see if it was viable to sell books online himself. I told him about Ebay (way back in the late 1990's). He was curious to try it. He wasn't a computer guy so he told me to sell his best selling books online and we could split the profit 50/50. It was a great deal for me as I was fairly fresh out of school and making near minimum wage.
The book sales were mediocre. But a bigger problem was the packaging and shipping of individual books to the USA. No media mail in Canada. So shipping was crazy expensive and you had to eat some shipping costs to stay competitive.. Also, if there is even the tiniest sliver of damage on a book's dust cover, you WILL hear about it. I quickly concluded that it wasn't worth my time.
I did however stumble on to a wider range of media selling. Quite by accident. I was searching for the completed sale price of one of my books and noticed it had been made into a movie. The VHS was selling for 30-50 dollars. I had an inventory of a few dozen tapes. I quickly learned a simple truth. Americans hate to read and they love their movies. VHS tapes, DVD, Video games (late Blu rays). Now these always sold and sold well. Also people didn't care too much about condition as long as the media inside worked fine. The markups were huge and the shipping was much easier.
I now rarely ever sell books despite my Ebay user name.
Pretty much me and: glove box handle, dome lights, and trunk latches. Under a minute to remove, darnnear free, super simple and cheap to package, no damage in transit.
@cumos55 wrote:Where did I start?...
with a garage sale of nothing too valuable... the old nondescript items one accumulates early in life
then local auctions within the city..... beginning with special finds that were to be sold
Then country auctions.... quality antiques.... refinished by me... some collectables...always quality that sold well
and then eBay...
Start simple... very easy .... then advance step by step... and develop a model for selling.
Much of what was sold was dependent on what one found...
And develop a model for buying. The word "no" is you best friend.
@cumos55 wrote:a model for buying
A wee bit confused...
Missed the change from selling to buying.
What I said is not what I meant. Go by what I mean, not by what I say.
I meant, "buying" for the purpose of selling.
There is a lot of "low hanging fruit" just begging to be picked. Doesn't make the fruit any tastier. Much of it languishes and ends up being tossed into the composter.
Knowing the W5 of buying determines the selling.
In other words: "He who buys right... sells right."
Business 101: Since the marketplace generally determines the price of a product or service, profit is made by reducing costs.
Precisely, Pierre.
I have expanded that to supplanting the word "buy" with "acquire". I do not buy a widget to re-sell, I acquire a large quantity, of what is worthless to another, and sell that which has value.
That leads to the 80-20 rule. 20% of the sellers do 80% of the profit. I used to know one seller, feedback of 4500, who lost money on every sale. In 10,000 sales, I have lost money four times.
At yesterday's repair shop auction, I passed on the alternators, distributors, carbs, and engine blocks. Chevy 350 engine blocks, 16 of them, went for $230 total. That hurt. I bought a "lot" of NOS ignition parts for $100. I opened one box and found an ignition switch with keys. 1:160 parts and I make half my money back.
I wouldn't know a first edition Hemingway from an Archie comic. I would say: "I know a guy who might be interested".
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