Opinion on some business development ideas

First I do a little with business ideas for some outfits. This came up: A person was looking at doing one of those EBAY it store things. I don't know much about it other than it sells stuff on ebay for people and gets some fee for doing so. My questions are do any of you have any thoughts (or first hand) on this and how does it work? I was a little negative in that today anyone can sell on there. The person doing it might need a licence/tax/insurance set up. and would be stuck with shipping hassles. There seems to be a few around and also would you not have to be registered as an agent with ebay?? Thanks for your opinions yes I need to look into it more just to educate myself.

Unless they have something to sell a steady, continuous quantity of, the maintenance fees for keeping stuff listed until it sells will eat any and all profits.

BT,DT.

there used to be a couple store fronts in my area that did the drop off and sell on ebay for you, but they have been gone for a few years.

there was a guy who went around to every garage sale and consignment auction, bought everything left over cheep. He kept it listed on there, it did not work out for him. A lot of the stuff ended up at the dump. I did order a operators book for a JD endgate seeder from there. The person I spoke to said they had over 7000 + implement manuals on there and did well selling them. Guess if you have a product someone needs it might work out.

No offense, but people come to you and ask you questions about things you know nothing about and you advise them? What's that about?

Dave glad you are back and ok. No I don't advise on things I know nothing about and believe me you get hit with everything. We do some pro active stuff to help people. example 1. people start a business and do not know they need to collect sales tax. Refer them to the proper state division so they can register= no fines etc. example 2. help them research what is needed to avoid scams and pitfalls like using a credit card program at 18% interest to fund things. As I said you see and get some off the wall stuff. I see a lot of stuff (like this) that to me is a part time set up and much like a pawn shop you need to be an expert on everything and they do not always see all the details. Many times I learn a lot too!!!

It depends what they are selling . If they print T-shirts or something then a store will save listing costs. If they are like me going to sales and buying tools --not so much.EBay will give me free listing or I don't list . Usps flat rate boxes is what you ship with. If they know the size of the product and the box it works okay. If it is not some product ,then no store.No business license but all income is taxable. Bob kind of summed it up in the first answer.Ebay will explain everything to them.

A guy started a business like that here, selling your stuff on ebay. Lasted a few months. "Nuff said

There were several around 5 years ago, but ebay raised there rates, started setting shipping cost and forced you to use paypal. There sales have dropped a lot since then. You can list stuff for free on craigslist and pay no commission.

Yup...back, OK, meaner than spit!

On a soft diet, though. ANYTHING not to have to repeat the last three days.

I do a lot of what you do. I cannot imagine what sort of question could come over this desk that might surprise me. I have really had a wide range of clients over the years.

Most people want top dollar for their stuff which makes selling it hard. Most people don't want to pay you very much to sell their stuff, after all you are only pushing a few buttons. So lets say you need $100,000 per year to pay yourself and pay business expenses like rent on the store. Don't forget health care has to come out of the $100,000 also. Lets say you get 10% on sales which most people would think is reasonable. This means you need to be selling a million dollars of stuff per year. That's around $20,000 each week. You need to be really working your butt off to move that much stuff. You also need access to a lot of stuff to sell. In a small community of say 5000 or 10,000 people there is just not enough stuff to sell. So you really need to be making 30% commission or more which most people think is too much.

Someone comes in with a antique lamp. They saw one just like it listed on ebay for $100. You know that to move it reasonably quick you need to sell it for more like $70. You take $20 for commission. That leaves them with half of what they think it is worth. They say no and leave your store with the lamp thinking you are trying to rip them off and then tell everyone they know how bad your business treated them.

I have zero experience doing this but I can't see how to make it work. Doing it as a retirement hobby business from your basement could be okay for some pocket money.

Hard to tell some one that it ain't Goin to work. I tend to see the negative and as some on here said (and myself) see it as a big difference in a basement part time gig than a store with rent etc. I cannot get around how to list and ship thousands of items on ebay in say a week? I see lots of shops in two neighboring communities come and go last up to a year. They could do ok part time at home. Pool hall,party store,movie rental,and even a gun shop.,,

You might look into being a commodities broker, a securities broker or an auctioneer instead. The volumes are higher, the margins are higher and there is less work involved. The barriers to entry are much higher though.

(quoted from post at 19:28:03 02/10/16) Hard to tell some one that it ain't Goin to work. I tend to see the negative and as some on here said (and myself) see it as a big difference in a basement part time gig than a store with rent etc. I cannot get around how to list and ship thousands of items on ebay in say a week? I see lots of shops in two neighboring communities come and go last up to a year. They could do ok part time at home. Pool hall,party store,movie rental,and even a gun shop.,,

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I was going down Grand River Avenue in Howell, and I was surprised at how many vacant units were in the local strip malls. Even on M59, there are places that have never been completely full, and they have been there over 10 years. Small retail stores are basically dead, not dying. What amazes me is that I hear of plans to build more commercial space? Is this a case of build it, and they will come?

It's probably a matter of location. The dying strip malls are dying because they're in just exactly the wrong place. The right place might be just a mile down the same road. I've seen it happen here. Also seen how architecture affects strip malls. For a while they did matching fronts, now the big thing is to put different looking fronts on every store. The old style sits empty, while the new style brings in business.

My wife and I loved [past tense] a local mall, had lots of trees in the parking lot, flowering bushes, excelllent stores. Very pricey, but excellent. Excellent location, right near pricey subdivision. It just simply changed hands. New owners saw a gold mine. They levelled the parking lot, cut all the trees, removed every plant, jacked up the rent. Now 1/4 of the store fronts are empty. People aren't gonna put up with stupid, neither tenants nor customers.

I know a young man that did that for awhile. He now works at an Auto parts store.
SDE

(quoted from post at 00:57:23 02/11/16) It's probably a matter of location. The dying strip malls are dying because they're in just exactly the wrong place. The right place might be just a mile down the same road. I've seen it happen here. Also seen how architecture affects strip malls. For a while they did matching fronts, now the big thing is to put different looking fronts on every store. The old style sits empty, while the new style brings in business.

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Most of these places are only about 10 years old. I think it is the result of a couple of factors, overbuilding for the market is one. And the retail brick and mortar stores are slowly losing business.