should I buy an already established best-sellers business

[sunshine110victoria]

someone with a best-seller business on ebay has offered to sell me their business.  They are moving onto others ventures.

[heidilynn0_3]

Hi .. What exactly would you be buying. Do you mean intangible IE goodwill.

Ebay accounts are not transferable without eBay's permission and difficult if not impossible. Ebay views whatever reputation built up as directly related to the existing account holder and a new owner is an unknown.

[reallynicestamps]

Unless there are a lot of repeat customers, you would be buying the name, the feedback/goodwill, and the unsold stock. Also I would expect introductions to suppliers.

Frankly, I don’t think such a business would be worth much. Certainly the stock would be valued at only 10-20% of retail.

Whatever else, have a lawyer look over the contract. And do have a contract. You would also want to see the audited books for the business. Many mom&pop sellers overlook collecting and remitting taxes on their sales or do not declare their profits as income. I f you bought such a business, what would your liability be.

Would you also be buying the Paypal account? There are occasional glitches that kick new payments to PP to old email or bank accounts. Keep an eye on that too.