I’ve got a lot of spare time on my hands at the minute and I’ve been browsing Alibaba for a while. I’ve read a few cautionary tales and watched a few videos. I’d love to spend a bit of money on a pallet full of goods and sell them on eBay, Bigcartel or even Marketplace.

Where do you even start? I’ve looked at skateboards, balance bikes, LED TV’s, sex dolls, sunglasses, tooth brushes, tents. They have everything, but most of it is already available in the UK on eBay so you’d be trying to squeeze into a packed market.

I just want something to do alongside my safe but incredibly boring job. Just for a bit of fun and a learning experience and if I could make a profit that would be nice.

Does anyone use it? Please let rip with your advice/horror stories etc.

Frozen Sausages – I know a great place to sell them too

I almost got in with a fairly big group while at uni buying 250 titanium 760mm handlebars from china who were then planning on anodizing them crazy colours etc and selling for 3x what they’d paid per bar. I ended up making them a website etc but didn’t invest as such.

Would have been a £1200 investment on my side to buy in (about 1/8th of the total cost), but I didn’t in the end as that was money I needed to eat! There were also a few warning bells the that guy leading it was ignoring fairly ignorantly such as the longest sample bar they had was 720mm and a fairly weird sweep, which they claimed would be rectified on the final bars…

This sample length limitation and other payment oddities proved a good warning as the bars that turned up were nothing like described, most being under 600mm and 25.4 clamp, clearly relics of the 90s, I seem to remember about 40 were oversized clamp, with only about 12 bars being over 700mm, and pretty much all of them had major scratches and defects – one even failed when tested to the standard mtb bar testing (not sure how exactly though). To top this off they had completely underestimated the cost of import – each having to stump up an extra £200 to get them into the UK.

I seem to remember they picked out the best bars for themselves and friends and flogged the rest on ebay for a few quid each as “display” or “used” to cut losses but still lost about £1100 each.

Facebook Chinese scam ads ..post too expensive to return

I just want something to do alongside my safe but incredibly boring job. Just for a bit of fun and a learning experience

volunteer for a charity? Help organise cycle events? Make something worthwhile happen in your local community? Pick up litter,  Dress up as a traffic warden and tuck little hand written notes with romantic poems or dirty limericks on them (you decide) under peoples windscreen wipers

i don’t know how boring your day job is if unpacking a large big box of items and then wrapping them up again and occasionally taking them to the post office sounds both educational and fun 🙂

Roof tents….

Weaponised drones

Years ago I got some of those animals shaped blow up bouncy balls. It took lots of emails to get it sorted and shipping wasn’t too bad. We already had a soft play business at the time so it was easy to sell the first few at a decent price. Then a lot of people started selling them and I got rid of them as a job lot.
Certainly enjoyed the learning experience of shipping and buying in China and made money.

Nothing.

Theres more than enough utter shite for sale on these sites as it is.

Around 10yrs or so ago a director at my old work had the idea of ordering heating circulating pumps from China. He had to buy 3 pallets at a time at a cost of around £15k this only worked out at around £11-12 a pump after duty and shipping. Sold them for £35 a pop, others have got the same idea now and they are everywhere.

Even if you do spot a niche someone else will be right behind you with a fatter wallet so they can get a lower price. Then you’ll be sat on a pallet of cheap Chinese widgets that you can’t sell.

I think you would need to find some value added in order to, well, add any value.

I can log into wish and buy bits myself (and probably not pay import duty as they’re inevitably cheap, below the threshold). Just doing that in bulk is only going to make beer money.

Have a look at this, obviously it’s only one tool in a business model but it’s a good one for figuring out whether a particular idea is a go or not.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas

But yes, you need a business idea beyond “buy stuff and sell it on ebay”.

Here’s one for free, those ultralight Lanshan 1 tents that you can get for <<£100. Those, but get a batch made that are at least 10% bigger so they actually fit westerners and package with a carbon pole. They won’t be <1kg anymore but they’ll be a decent product. You can then make a brand, call yourself HillKit, or AlpStuff. Might not make millions but I bet you could sell a pallet load with a reasonable margin.

Na, bet they wouldn’t sell. Lanshans are plenty big these days, and don’t come with a pole, so why would you supply one?.

We use it to source machines – sorting / filling / picking – nothing fancy, no substitute for European kit – but for simple tasks at lower speed you can find reliable suppliers. Do your homework, speak to other customers, put plenty of effort into the specification & only buy things you understand or are prepared to understand in real detail, make use of video throughout the purchasing process to check capability / understanding and product suitability. Ideally get over there yourself but for smaller spend levels no reason this can’t be done remotely – However it’s very effort intensive to get the best results.
My business partner built a factory unit and bought all the steel work made to an exacting standard from Alibaba – I half expected it to turn up scale model size – actually pretty good & in the steel grade specified, cut/drilled/prepped as per drawings. That said the time and effort he invested in getting all that done was extreme.

I was thinking this thread was about Alex Salmond party selling stuff to finance for any court appearance in the future he may have

and don’t come with a pole, so why would you supply one?.

Question answered.

An industrial / commercial consumable or regular failed / replaced part. E.g like the heating pumps listed above or a knock off expensive tool that you can sell cheap enough to make people think its worth a punt.

How about invest in learning something new, then maybe sell what you have learned to do?

Would you not worry about the stuff you have brought not being ethically produced, being unfit for purpose, or actually being dangerous?

Here’s one for free, those ultralight Lanshan 1 tents that you can get for <<£100. Those, but get a batch made that are at least 10% bigger so they actually fit westerners and package with a carbon pole. They won’t be <1kg anymore but they’ll be a decent product. You can then make a brand, call yourself HillKit, or AlpStuff. Might not make millions but I bet you could sell a pallet load with a reasonable margin.

There is a chap on UK Outdoor Kit Exchange selling a pile of tents for £30+£8 postage at the moment. The factory stuffed him on quality, weight and colour (mmm, brown). He had the same idea as this, its not easy to make money this way.

I know as one of the tents is landing with me today…a test sample for our DofE group.

I think you have a (risky) solution looking for a problem. Find the gap in market first, then think what the best way to fill it would be.

Nothing. Stop supporting China.

You might be better thinking of something you need and getting it made locally then flogging that. My dad got 10 inch long T shaped tent pegs made up from 6 mm bar for holding down weed control membrane after bending too many tent pegs in their rocky soil. Worked brilliantly and cheaper than buying fancy anchors from a shop that were less good.
Kayla1 makes cogs and soap and I can’t remember what else (sorry Kayla) locally and sells it. I hope makes her some money and isn’t just done for love as it looks like a lot of work.
You can try getting a couple of bits made and if you break even on eBay or Etsy get a dozen.ight not be worth the both but you could end up huge like Hope Technology.
Good luck and if you come up with something we all need we’ll buy it. Be better than most of the EBay tat.

Question answered.

Not really, they’re designed to be used with a walking pole, which means they can be packed down tiny, that’s the real USP for me, lack of bulk. Add a pole in, and you take that away.

Where I could see value added to them is by adding more tie out points for added stability, as the shape sheds wind really well, but can get buffeted a wee bit. Also a 2 way zip would be advantageous, and a T zip instead of a J. Magnetic clips to tie doors back are great too, though these may be patented already. Or really strike out and make them from Dyneema Carbon Fibre, then you can make a bob or 2.

There’s already folks shipping in bulk and renaming them, but I don’t think they’re modifying at all, just cashing in. Phenominally good tents for the money.

Ask yourself “can this be repaired, reused or recycled?” if/when it breaks or wears out.

edit- also bear in mind that it can be pretty soul-destroying to be sat on (bought-in) stock that isn’t selling as well as you thought it might.

Thanks for the replies. I knew there would be some interesting true stories if nothing else.

I might not buy anything on Alibaba but I’m going to keep reading about it and do some proper research.

I’ve got my eyes and ears open to everything really. I want something that I can learn to do alongside my job and hopefully earn some money from. Long term I’d love to ditch the office and work for myself. My job is easy but the money is nothing to shout about and I’m looking at at least another 35 years of just showing up and looking busy. It’s a terrifying thought.

The thing is, right, is that if you can get your outgoings right down you don’t need to earn loads (we certainly don’t!) to cover the bills and stuff. To be honest this could be a whole other thread on its own 🤣

The thing is, right, is that if you can get your outgoings right down you don’t need to earn loads

I already fully understand this and my outgoings are not a problem. It’s just that my incomings, while allowing me to survive from month to month (in a level of comfort that I’ve never known before), don’t allow much else. A bit of pocket money would be great.

Oh, and the knowledge that I have to do this for at least another 3 decades.

But you’re right, that’s a whole different thread and I probably don’t want to expose that much on here. Let’s keep it light people!

Here’s another example of getting and idea and going for it.
Swim Feral has an idea for a bag, designed it and get it made by Caradice (no point in reinventing sewing or the skilled people who are). Good idea made in Lancashire and an business someone is interested in makes a product people like.
https://swimferal.co.uk/pages/the-story-of-our-turtleback-bag
Have some ideas. Try a few out and go for it. The umpteen of more years of gravy train is as above a whole other thread. Ideas for stuff to go for probably more positive (although the likelihood of getting rich from cogs / soap / bags is unlikely it might make a living that you feel better about. If not the day job is unlikely to totally vanish).

I’d love to spend a bit of money on a pallet full of goods and sell them on eBay, Bigcartel or even Marketplace

Have you considered applying for a position at Planet X?

Greybeard
Full Member

I think you have a (risky) solution looking for a problem. Find the gap in market first, then think what the best way to fill it would be.

I have a wee ebay shop selling used/collectible toys, I just buy people’s job lots and sift out the good stuff, makes a little pocket money and it’s good fun. But, my best seller is something I wanted in the UK and could only buy for stupidly high prices, then spotted you could get 20 from china for the price of 2 in the UK. So I got the 20, sold the extra 18, for a bit less than the normal UK price, and just kept going after that. Now I just watch out for that scenario- found a few of other cheap products that were worth doing the same for, found a lot more that I could have made a little profit off but it was a bit outside what I wanted to do or had possible extra hassles.

(frinstance- my things are all basically warranty-proof, they are things that work. I don’t need to have replacement stock, or stand by a guarantee that I can’t necessarily trust. There’s also no safety concerns, EU standards, etc- they’re all just very low hassle)

The only worry is that if it’s easy for me to do, then it’s easy for other people to compete- I could improve my margins by buying larger volumes, but I’ve always kept it smaller and safer. I did have one product, a 3d printer spare part, which I was doing great on then suddenly, boom, nobody wanted it or maybe the printers started coming with spares or something and I barely ever sold another. Glad I only had a little bit of stock…

I think finding ‘the thing’ that no one has really thought of, getting a ton in from China & flogging them on ebay is tough going.

I looked into doing it a few years ago & spent loads of time researching products that were easy to get hold of, relatively cheap, small enough to not need a warehouse to store & cheap to post etc.
Everything I thought of, was already being sold by the bucket load on ebay. It seemed like a really big risk, so I didn’t bother.

A mate of mine works in the bike industry. He has lots of contacts over in the Far East & has been selling bits & pieces on ebay for years now. He relies on quantity sold, rather than making a lot of profit on each sale.
But, I think he makes a little bit of pocket money out of it. Nothing life changing, but just a bit extra.

I have been selling some 3-D printed parts on ebay for a while that are my own design. They are the sort of thing that I designed & printed to solve a specific problem I had, that I thought other people might be interested in.
I haven’t made a ton of money out of it, but I only sell on average one or two items a month.
I’ve probably made enough money to pay for the printer (which I bought originally just as a bit of a toy/learning exercise) and a few new rolls of filament.

I think if you want whatever it is you sell to be interesting / rewarding then you really need to be looking at things you can add value to,  a market that you’re interested in, and for that market to benefit more broadly from the value you add.

As an example – I have a CNC machine I use for my work – its one that’s an open source design that you can either buy as self assembly kits or source the bits yourself and work from freely available plans. It means theres a bit of an online community around it as everyone using one is on some sort of learning curve.  At the very least you buy it as the most complicated bit of Ikea furniture you’ve ever assembled or at most you’ve tenaciously hunted down every electrical component and mechanical gizmo and hand built every element of it. Out of that user community a few small enterprises have developed adaptations, improvements and accessories for the machines. Recently I bought a little jog-shuttle like controller for my machine from a guy who’s part of that community of users. He doesn’t ‘make’ them as such but he assembles them form various bought in elements and configures them so that for an idiot like me they are plug and play. They’re a really robust well thought out little item and make setting up jobs on the machine much more streamlined and intuitive.

The important thing though is he doesn’t do it speculatively – he doesn’t buy a quantity of equipment, prep and configure it all and hope to sell them some or all of it eventually. He has a dialogue with a community of users, has identified a useful innovation, sold people on the idea, and works on a pre-order basis. Once there are enough commitments to buy he sources, produces and sells one batch and on the basis of peer review and recommendations is able to get more pre-orders – prep and sell another batch and so on.

So theres no risk of being stuck with stock –  you only buy in material and invest time in it when theres sufficient demand to justify it. Theres enough expertise in the prep and configuration of them, (and he’s presumably buying in the elements in sufficient quantity to get stuff at a good rate) that while anyone probably could buy all the same bits on alibiba or whatever and assemble it themselves and figure out how to get it to talk the the machine – but the faff and fiddle and the wait for all the disparate parts, multiple shipping costs and numerous packages to wait for mean paying him for one is a much more attractive proposition.

So maybe that’s the sort of market to look for – sort of niche serious-hobbiests. Activities that are in their infancy too – a few years ago that would have been something like Bikepacking I guess – at a time when people were trying out and sharing new ideas and equipment was a mix of homemade jury-rigs and products from smaller producers. I think that market is probably well served now though but there would have been a time when you could have announced on here that you were going to offer a particular bag, or strap or bracket or whatever and enough people would have signed up to make it worth your while sourcing / producing it because there wasn’t something quite right on the market yet.