Beat the Credit Crunch this Christmas with Ebay Business
Two years ago I paid for our Christmas by selling Christmas goodies on Ebay. I made a lot of mistakes, but still walked away with enough profit to cover my costs and give my credit card its first Christmas off for twenty years.
I would have made more money only I made some simple mistakes, the first being an assumption that wholesalers would provide me with quality stock at low prices. I didn’t take VAT into account or postal charges. The minimum order with wholesalers caused me a major nightmare. If I offered a variety of goods for sale then I was left counting on enough coming from one supplier to be able to meet the minimum order requirement.
I opened an Ebay store and sat back and waited for the orders and waited and….yes waited. I had researched my product, but not foreseen the fact that sales only take off from the end of November.
I decided to sell Christmas hampers a seasonal product, but not predicted that the season would be so short.
With my dining room stacked high with Christmas goods and depression setting in I was forced to look for other markets. A Christmas fair at my daughters school took care of much of my stock and then my husband suggested printing a small leaflet which we distributed locally again some more sales. The next step was a local covered car boot sale and finally my wholesale stock was a thing of the past.
With only four weeks left to Christmas I concentrated on my Ebay hampers. For this market I found shopping around for sales and bargain in local shops actually made me more cash. I became a sort of personal shopper. I put together a product and then photographed it and wrote an honest description and gave the hamper a catchy name. My big seller was the “Choc-a-Block” hamper, a large wicker hamper with a tartan interior absolutely filled to the top with chocolate. I bought ten hampers wholesale and paid £8.95 each for them I filled them with chocolate bought not from the cash and carry but from local shops. When filled each hamper produced 50% profit which was surprising and less risky as I only filled the hampers after I had orders for them.
I can’t recommend this to everyone, but with the credit crunch threatening many peoples Christmas it may be worth a try. If you would like to email me I can give you a list of value for money wholesaler I found. I think the thing to remember is not to invest more money than you can afford to lose and remember that this probable isn’t going to make you the kind of money you need to pay your mortgage, but if you are looking to pay for Christmas without using your credit card I found it a winner.
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