Since I can remember, I’ve always been interested in making money in new and different ways.
When I was in college, fast broadband had just become available to the public at a reasonable price. In my computing class, which was my favourite class, there were a group of guys who went on about purchasing products online. They were so excited about it. They had just discovered eBay, and one of them was selling his father’s garage junk on eBay, making some extra pocket money.
I and my father used to go to the car boot sale on Sundays and this got me thinking, would it be possible to purchase some products from car boot sale for the sole purpose of selling on eBay?
My first purchase was an old golf club set. For £10. For some reason, I thought golf clubs must surely be worth at least 100s. So I put it on eBay, however, no one was interested and I ended up selling it for £5 to a mate.
A voice inside me kept telling me, eBay can bring you money! So I kept trying. Eventually, I started selling.
But as a novice, I made a loss on my other items too, due to underestimating postage fees. Eventually, I got that right too. And made a few pounds here and there.
One day I was in Aldi supermarket, and in their weekly special products section, they had a bicycle computer, the digital device that calculates your speed etc. This was before the Strava and Garmin days. It was retailed at £3.99. So I bought one for trying it on eBay, and since I had a bike, I wouldn’t have minded keeping it if it didn’t sell.
As soon as I got home, I listed it, buy it now, for £6. After an hour or so, it was gone! So I went back to the store and purchased another 2, and the more expensive wireless version, which was around £14.99.
I listed the cheap model for £12.99 + 3.99 postage and the wireless one for £25.00 +3.99 postage.
When I woke up the next day, they were all sold! I was over the moon! I borrowed as much money as I could from everyone I knew, and I drove to EVERY SINGLE Aldi within 20mile and purchase ALL bicycle computers they had!
It was such a funny sight at the supermarket, I remember none of the customers was paying attention to the bike computers, but as soon as they saw mee emptying the shelf, couple of the customers just panicked and grabbed one and put it in their basket, then they start checking out what the product actually is after they placed it in the basket haha! I found that hilarious back then! The human nature!
I was so excited that I didn’t even think what to respond if anyone asked me why I am purchasing these many bike computers. So when I got to the checkout then the inevitable happened. The cashier asked me “So why are you buying all the bike computers? I didn’t want anyone to know I am selling them on eBay, because then the news will spread and everyone across the country will start selling bike computers within a few days, meaning no one will actually make a decent profit anymore.
So without hesitation, I responded: I am organising Tour de France. That was the best response ever!
I listed all bike computers, on multiple accounts, with different prices, different photos, different descriptions etc, auction format, starting from anything from 0.99p to 12.99 and buy it now format.
I had to be fast because I knew people will find out I am selling Aldi branded bike computers and making a profit.
So eventually as I was about to finish my stock, lot’s of other bike computers started showing up on eBay. My last 5 bike computers were the hardest to sell! I had to eventually lower the price down to £5.99 as the market was saturated with lot’s of Aldi and non-Aldi bike computers by now.
This is why I still do my best to keep my Amazon and eBay best seller products a secret 🙂
Once other sellers identify a highly profitable product, that is bringing in more than 100% profit, they will all try to source the product from China etc.
Anyway, that’s a totally different topic which I will cover.
I made a good few thousands of profit within on a few weeks. And I didn’t care much not selling the last few bike computers!
Now I wanted bigger things!
Stay tuned for my next eBay story!