My business Idea, any legal issues?

Question

I am considering starting my own little business, and the idea is simple, basically I buy electrical products on ebay and set up my own site and advertise it locally and sell them on there for a profit, I will obviously pay my tax at the end of each year.

I would like to know are there any issues that may arrise concerning this in the UK.

Thanks

Answer 1

why wouldnt people buy direct off ebay themselves

Answer 2

I WAS VERY HAPPY TO RECEIVE YOUR QUESTION AND YOU HAVE A GREAT IDEA BUT, LET IT STAY MORE THAN 2 YEARS I WAS DOING SIMILAR TO WHAT YOU DID BUT IT DID NOT LAST LONG BUT NOW I OWN 7 PROPERTIES AND I AM THE BOSS OF VERCETTI CORPORATION. SO DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO IT IS NICE I LIKED IT

Answer 3

Not legally but there is a snag to your idea, i hope you dont mind me pointing this out but why would someone buy an electrical product from you when they can go direct to ebay themselves and buy the same product at the original price you paid for it? I should think every household knows of ebay by now and know that anything sold on the net they can no doubt find cheaper there. Your gonna need some outstanding reason why they should buy from you at a more expensive price then buying straight from ebay itself. I'd look into buying from a wholesaler and then selling at a price lower then that of ebay, or your not going to get any business!

Answer 4

Why electrical goods? You are just buying and selling. Do you have particular knowledge of electrical goods?

Answer 5

I do not know that there are legal issues, but there are practical ones.

You say Electrical Goods - that is a wide field!  If you are thinking of small items like Irons, Hair driers etc the margin is too small to waste time on.

Items like Digi-box's, DVD Recorders etc - not all you buy will be of saleable quality and again the margins will be small if any. Remember, when you buy you have to pay carriage on top of the bid price.  For you to resell at a profit you have to sell at the original bid price to you, plus carriage to you, plus carriage to your customer, plus your profit margin. All of which will make your offerings expensive.

If you are talking about large goods like Washing Machines etc the carriage element is substantial.

You need to remember that ebay is a huge market place with people getting rid of items they do not want. Every buyer is looking for a really good bargain and unless the price they are going to have to  pay for a commonplace article is very substantially below shop price they feel that it is not worth the risk.

There are a lot of people making good money from ebaying (I did quite nicely out of laptops until the £300 quid laptop arrived) but in general it is harder than you might think to consistently make a solid profit. Note the word consistently.