I believe this idea has been done already but you may want to investigate the idea. edit

I would definitely look more into it. The problem with Eboy however is that you would need to get a space ($15). Fortunately there are people looking to hire ebay sellers all the time.
The only drawback to this idea is the pricing on ebay. But being a Luxury item and with Ebays extensive market research ability. It is a definite forward thinking idea. Go for it! If you need help I can help you in some ways, I used to sell on and ebay and still do from time to time. Over 90 products with 100% rating. edit

What do you mean by "I would need a space"? You mean a store? What's your ebay user name? edit

Most definitely. My Ebay is biz_mall

Having a mix of bid and a store to keep products indefinitely will save you both effort in re-listing and time. Right now things are volatile on ebay, not to say this is a bad thing. But to sell, your products need to be left up in some cases. There's just too much competition and too much low-balling going on, even with luxury items. If you can find rare, that would be great.

But if you are going to do it, and I would give it a thumbs up, then make sure to do your research and find clients who can provide a steady stream of valuable products. If you have any questions I'd be more than willing to answer. edit

I dont see any stores under the name biz_mall . edit

I stopped the stores a while back, sorry, I thought you just wanted to see my profile. These days I am focused on Freelance marketing and writing, Business school, and Writing novels. I have moved on. Not enough products and the Drop ship market was too cutthroat. edit

I talked to my friend in marketing and he said your idea has been done before in many different ways. He also suggested that 50% was very high and suggested no higher then 20%. He also advised that you should not expect a lot of profit unless you live in a extremely large area and even then it’s questionable. Sorry to be the baron of bad news. I highly recommend next time researching your idea much closer before investing real money in a business or business idea. Research keeps you from going broke and prevents you from making a bad investment. edit

Can you give me his contact info so I can discuss the idea with him in more detail? I'd like to know who else is doing this, since according to him it's a lot of people. Thanks . edit

? edit

try a retail shop edit

^ elaborate more of what you mean by foreclosure listing service? Are you a real estate agent? If not, then how are you allowed to list someone's property? thanks. edit

I personally like the idea of starting up a business of drop-shipping. There are many advantages of doing that business.

You do not need to do any investment or maintain inventory.you can also order just when you have been paid by your customer, also you do not need to create images and descriptions, you can just copy/ paste material available online.

I will add more thing to your business that you can customize the products for buyer companies.Search companies who can offer Custom logos/ pictures facility.This is an emerging trend in dropshipping business. edit

Now that might have been mentioned already but ebay requires you to actually hold the stock you sell. They do have a "program" for "sales agents" which is similar to the idea you had mentioned here.

Just be aware that the margins are very small when you look at a commission based sales business what this essentially would be. Even 20% would be highly unlikely to be accepted by the "brand owner" (greatly depending on standard retail margins on the specific products).

As said before this idea has been done many times over, which doesnt mean it cant be done. The opposite actually, if you sit down and find out who does work with a similar structure you can figure out nicely which mistakes not to make and get a relative realistic idea of what you can expect in terms of obstacles, challenges and rewards from your chosen business model.

One word of caution in relation to ebay selling. Unless your operation runs as smooth as a clock you will immediately feel the customers "response" in form of ebay's well known feedback system. And out of own experiences in dealing with ebay - the chance of getting an appointment with the pope most often seems more likely then getting a negative feedback removed by ebay.

Just a few pointers for you and I hope it helps.

Here the Link to the Trading Assistant program from ebay: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/know-seller-trading-assistant.html

Enjoy
-Markus edit

Still waiting on my book ( http://www.amazon.com/How-Start-eBay-Consignment-Business/dp/007226277X/ref=sr11?ie=UTF8&qid=1334119119&sr=8-1 ) I need to ask these stores what they think is a fair commission split. I was thinking 50% but Markus is saying 20%.. Hell, ebay takes about 12% right off the top, that leave me with a net margin of 8%.. edit

Got my book in a few days ago and I've got some ideas about where to start. Before I approach any retailers I'm going to get some needed experience and work with some small local churches who need to raise money and sell stuff donated to them by their members.

I already have an LLC so I just need to set up a DBA and get a contract drafted. I also have a Nikon D3000 camera to take high quality pictures.

I'll also need Terapeak software for about 29 a month along with some photo backdrops for product photography. edit

update: I will be doing a small garage renovation by putting a nice coating on my garage floor and adding some lighting. It needs to look good and be liveable sense I'll be spending a lot of time in the garage.

I will be needing shelving which I drastically underestimated the price. Sigh.

Shipping supplies will be bought in bulk to save money from having to go to ups and pay retail (and save gas too).

May also need a phone line and fax machine but I'll try to to add these expenses if I can avoid it.

Also need a printer to print shipping labels.



edit

Update: Got an insurance quote from state farm for 250 a year for 300k in liability coverage and 10,000 in product coverage. Also for 100.00 a year I can be bonded up to 100,000.

nice. edit

update: Found some great domain names yesterday. A bit pricey but what can you do?. Anyway, my attorney hasn't emailed me back so no word on that yet.

I'm trying to be productive so I've been doing a lot of brain storming about how I'm going to scale this business. I've decided to license out my brand to other power-sellers for a 50% commission (in the future..probably a year from now). It's vague I know, but I don't want to go into a bunch of detail right now.

edit

update: I found a domain I like at a reasonable price. I contacted the owner and hope to have it rather soon once price is negotiated . edit

to add to the above, I have gone through 100's of domain names. Having the right name can make or break a business and there were many criteria I was looking for. I hope things work out for me. edit

Found the domain I want, and I got 15% off. Now I need to get legalzoom to do a comprehensive trademark search. If all comes back clean then I'm good to go. edit

Great work done by you.Keep it up.


[url=http://www.demandprints.com/]Direct Mail Advertising[/url] edit

Thanks. Today I selected the logo I want from 38 submissions. In two weeks or less I'll share it on here. edit

Hey Nathan,

thanks for all the updates - nice to see somebody not only sticking with an idea but also sharing here the progress.

All the best for your new venture.

-Markus edit

Thanks Markus. It's going to start getting interesting because now I'm going to have to figure out how to fund all this. I have the money to do it but I'd rather use other peoples money, at least 25%.

Bank funding is out of the question. Either it will come from family, or crowd funding sites like lendingclub or prosper on a 5yr note.

Today I also learned that the trademark search and filing fee is going to be around 750.00 . I didn't notice that the government charges a 325.00 fee. This is on top of legalzoom's fees.

It's risky but I'm thinking about skipping this process until I start making some sales, but then again, if I can raise the money I'll go ahead and just do it.

edit

Thought I'd throw a bone to anyone following this thread. here is the logo, and business cards have been ordered and will get here in 2 weeks. By then the consignment contract with the attorney should be near completed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78211196@N05/7168842258/ edit

Pic of business cards. They should arrive monday. http://www.flickr.com/photos/78211196@N05/7217701838/ edit

They came in today

http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n604/nwinslow25/IMAG1077.jpg

http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n604/nwinslow25/IMAG1081.jpg edit

Update:

The idea to sell on Ebay has been put on hold. I've been reading a lot of negative things from ebay members and other website news articles about how ebay looks down on small sellers. Not just ebay, but buyers take advantage of sellers because they know ebay and paypal has their back and will likely win in the event of a dispute.

Sellers that have been selling for years with high feedback can get their accounts suspended just from a single mishap with little assistance or knowledge as to why the account was suspended.

Because of ebay/papypal's strick policies and con artist buyers, I think it would be better for me to look else where to open my store.

I found a place called shopify.com that I really like. I'LL BE IN CONTROL and wont have to submit to crazy fees, and all the other BS.

Now because of this, I'll have to change some things in terms of what I sell. I have limited space at home but if you look at other successful sites like amazon, and zappos, they all are known for one particular type of product. Amazon is known for books and zappos is know for shoes.

What will I be known for in selling? I cant sell a million different products, I need to have a niche and work out from there.

That being said, I think makeup & skincare products will be a good start, considering almost all women use makeup and unlike books and shoes, makeup needs to be replaced every so few months as it runs out.

In other words, it's in demand and customers will continue to come back for more.

anyway, that's where I'm at right now. Back to step 1. Working on the business plan again and brain storming. edit

To add to the above post

"That being said, I think makeup & skincare products will be a good start, considering almost all women use makeup and unlike books and shoes, makeup needs to be replaced every so few months as it runs out."

College textbooks is an option as well. Because I'm in college, it makes since to go in that direction, however makeup and skincare is a much broader market. edit

I personally think your pricing is high. There are online stores priced the same watch at $3300. Keeping 50% of the sales price seems to be too good. Good Luck! edit

Selda, people for sell on consignment on ebay (trading assistants) charge between 40 and 50% for their services.

50% of something is better than 50% of nothing. If your the manager of a store and your sales low, or you have inventory that you need to get rid of, I could provide a meaningful service.

Keep in mind that when a retailer calls a close-out dealer or a liquidation company, they might get 10 to 20% of the value of their merchandise. With me, they'll get 50% or maybe even more.

I'll probably be starting a new thread soon. This one is far outdated from the original post. edit