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@vjrossi wrote:

I'd like to ask if there's still room for small sellers and how small is too small? How about if I have 10 (yes 10) new items  (say for e.g. tech toys about $100 ea) bought directly from a distributor and want to just test the water. Is there any point, and would I need to open a store at that point?

 

Ultimately I'd like to expand to a supplement full time job more and more over 1-2 years.

 

I'm currently reading lots of similar posts, and will continue to research while awaiting your advice 🙂

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If I read your posts correctly, you mention there are only a couple of Australian sellers and not many OS sellers of your product. it sounds like you have found a nice little market niche. This always works much better than trying to compete with hundreds of other sellers in the bulk products market. Sales are very slow for many ebay sellers at the moment, ( myself included ) but some things are still selling consistently.

The forums are a place where people come to seek answers to problems, so they can tend to offer a bit of a one sided, gloomy picture. It is still possible to sell stuff on ebay, its just not as good as it was two years ago. Our private account which just uses feeebie listings to sell collectables and "old stuff" is still doing a quite a reasonable trade. Unfortunately our stores are fairly flat, but still making consistent sales.

 If you want to try a few products and see if they sell with a view to building a business, go for it. Just be carefull not to invest too much money in stock for a start. Your idea of buying the minimum number from your supplier sounds like a plan. If they cost you more per item than a larger purchase, just cut your profit margin so that the selling price will still be the same as you would offer buyers if you purchased a larger number. At least this way you will get an idea if people will buy them, even if you dont make much profit initially.