By
Toby Walne, Financial Mail On Sunday
22:29 GMT, 12 January 2013
|
22:29 GMT, 12 January 2013
The New Year marks an opportunity for a fresh start. It is time to clean out all the clutter tucked away inside wardrobes, under beds and in the attic and try to sell it for a profit.
As a nation we hoard an estimated £50 billion worth of clothes, books and other items that are no longer used. On top of this there is at least £2 billion worth of unwanted presents from the Christmas just gone.
Toby Walne looks at how easy it is to turn some of this unloved junk into ready cash.
Driving a bargain: Ana Thorsdottir can pocket up to £150 when she clears out her wardrobe and sells unwanted old clothes at local car boot sales
INTERNET SELLING
A cheesy online video – ‘Selling on Amazon’ featuring American presenter Paul Hochman – introduces visitors to second-hand trading on the website.
Despite his oily charm, Hochman provides a clear guide on how to sell your unwanted items through the biggest online retailer in the world.
It is an outlet that is hard to ignore – accounting for 12 per cent of all UK online shopping and attracting 137million customers a week worldwide.
Signing up to sell is easy. You can use an existing account with Amazon that already has your credit card and contact details. But you must then also include your bank account number for payments. Otherwise it is a case of simply signing up as a new customer.
Payments for goods, including the cost of postage charges, are automatically put into your bank account when any sales go through. All you have to do is visit the post office and send off the purchases – and inform the buyer goods are on their way.
My 13-year-old daughter Sophia was keen to clear out a stash of books she has outgrown. Listing them was an easy process as the site already has pictures and descriptions that can be used, as it has for thousands of other popular books being sold.
Second-hand books are listed as ‘used’ options beside new Amazon and third-party sales as part of a ‘marketplace’ facility for sellers. The lowest price from all sellers is listed and when buyers click on the link a full list of the old books for sale is shown.
Volume sale: Sophia Walne put her unwanted books on Amazon
‘What should we charge – maybe half-price?’ she asked. Unfortunately, she was sometimes competing with more than a dozen other second-hand sellers of the same books – and some are charging as little as 1p per novel.
The reason sellers can make money by selling for a 1p minimum is the £2.80 suggested postage charge that Amazon says should be added to buyers’ bills. This is higher than the actual cost of sending a book second-class by Royal Mail, which is just £1.10.
This means a 1p sale of a book can actually end up with a seller pocketing £1.71 – but this is before Amazon’s own potentially confusing charges.
Over a week, two of Sophia’s books sell for 1p each while a set of five books fetches £6.80. A further six books for sale at 99p each did not find any buyers. On top of the money from each of these three sales, a further £8.40 is added for postage, bringing in a grand total income of £15.22.
But Amazon then starts taking its cut. First, it demands an 86p ‘closing fee’ for each sale, as levied for all individual sellers no matter what second-hand goods are sold. There is also a ‘variable fee’ of 49p for each book lot sale. For other items being sold this variable fee is different, starting at 16p for DVDs and rising to £1.32 for videos.
Large heavy appliance ‘variable fees’ are levied at 53p a kilogram.
As if this is not confusing enough, Amazon also takes a 17.5 per cent cut on the final hammer price for the books sold. Because the 1p books were so cheap there was not enough money to take a cut, but for the £6.80 bundle of books it takes a further £1.17. This commission rate varies depending on the item being sold – starting at 11.5 per cent for electronic goods and going up to 17.5 per cent for other items, such as books.
An exception is Kindle accessories for which it charges 40.25 per cent commission. So in total, Amazon took £5.22 from the £15.22 collected, leaving Sophia with just £10 profit.
Unfortunately, although the single books cost only £1.10 each to post, the bundle of five books cost £5.30 to send at a standard parcel rate. So, the final profit after all costs ended up being a paltry £2.50.
Amazon also offers a ‘trade-in’ service where it directly buys books you wish to sell. Although not interested in most of the books being sold, it paid £1.55 for one of Sophia’s rarer novels – and a free label could be printed to cover postage costs.
Of course, higher prices might have boosted Sophia’s profits but the books put up for sale at 99p or more simply did not shift. Had they been rare books for sale, the outcome may have been different.
Verdict: A smooth and simple service to use but not lucrative.
ONLINE AUCTIONS
The world’s largest marketplace eBay can be used to sell anything – from used chewing gum to £3 million private jets. And with 60 million items listed at any one time on the British eBay site it is a vast market.
Sue Dove, 53, an accountancy clerk from Watford, Hertfordshire, thought she might use the website after New Year to shift an old pinball machine collecting dust in the garage.
The Gottlieb ‘Joker Poker’ was bought from a friend for £250 ten years previously. Although it had initially worked, some small pieces were lost during a garage clearout. Sue put the machine up for sale ‘for parts or not working’ rather than an easier to sell ‘used’ description.
As Sue already had an eBay account used in the past for buying – which required personal contact and bank card details as well as a password and user name – she simply had to register she would like to sell as well as buy.
She also opted to use PayPal. This meant a successful bidder could automatically send money online to her PayPal account before picking up the goods, cutting out any concerns over cash-in-hand haggling when they picked up the machine.
Pictures are important for eBay sales so Sue ensured she included a good quality example. Downloading a photograph on to eBay, she says, proved surprisingly trouble-free.
Sue paid £1.30 upfront for the pinball machine to be listed on the website for a week at the start of this month.
Prices vary depending on what is being sold but are typically no more than £1.40. She also put down a reserve price of £150.
As part of the sales agreement eBay would take ten per cent of whatever the hammer price might reach when the machine was sold.
Sue says: ‘It was a bit nerve-racking as I didn’t know what to expect or how to describe the pinball machine, but once I included the make and model in the description I immediately got interest.’
Within the first day of listing, bidding for the machine had reached £250 and in the last hours of bidding it climbed higher – with a winning bid six seconds before the gavel fell of £361.
Sue pocketed £324.90 after eBay took its £36.10 cut and the buyer agreed to pick up the item. PayPal’s £12.47 handling fee brought her total take to £312.43.
She says: ‘The experience was quite exciting – seeing a games machine that I thought I would never get rid of eventually sell. My description was modest to ensure there was no disappointment when the buyer came to pick it up. They got a good deal and it is great to think they can now do it up and get enjoyment from the game.’
Verdict: Selling items on eBay can be a gamble but it offers exciting potential.
Bumper buy: Sue Dove is selling this old Gottlieb ‘Joker Poker’ pinball machine
CAR BOOT SALES
Despite the huge impact of the internet, the traditional car boot sale is still a firm favourite for those trading in second-hand goods. An estimated £1.5billion a year is spent at car boot sales across Britain with the typical seller taking home £80 for every sale they attend.
The vast majority are held at weekends – usually on a Sunday – between early spring and autumn, but some are held all year round.
Ana Thorsdottir, 23, of Finsbury Park, North London, clears out her wardrobe three times a year and sells unwanted clothes at local car boot sales. ‘A sale offers a fun way to make money out of old clothes you might otherwise throw away,’ she says. ‘If you are enthusiastic and prepared to haggle, it can also be a lucrative day out – I typically take home £80 to £150.’
Ana, who is a public relations account executive, gets up as early as 6 am to drive to a sale starting at 8 am – when most business between traders is done. Car boot pitches typically cost £10 and you must take your own foldaway table and possibly a tablecloth on which to present items.
Ana also takes clothes rails to show off her wares. ‘Go with a friend if possible so they can help out if things get hectic,’ she says. ‘Decide on prices before you go, labelling more expensive pieces. I might label items for £5 but let them go for £1 or less by the end of the day. Almost everything gets sold.’
Ana says it doesn’t matter what you have to sell – you will always find a buyer if you are willing to haggle.
For newcomers, Ana believes it is worth first visiting a sale to get a feel for the market and look at the kind of goods being sold, how they are presented and prices asked.
Ana’s favourite local car boot sale is the Battersea Boot Sale in South-West London because of the atmosphere and crowds. The Car Boot Fairs Calendar offers a full list of what is going on all year round. It costs £3 via carbootcalendar.com.
Verdict: Good old-fashioned trading, but be prepared to haggle – and get ready for an early weekend rise.
TAX AND SELLING UNWANTED ITEMS
If you are occasionally selling unwanted items lying around the house, there is no need to tell the taxman – whether you use the internet or visit a car boot sale. The exception is people who are deemed as ‘trade’ by Revenue Customs – where the exchange is deemed to have been done on a commercial basis.
This includes those selling goods bought for resale, making items to sell for profit or selling for others on a commission basis. Those who are deemed ‘trade’ must pay income tax on their gains. For more details, go to hmrc.gov.uk/guidance/selling/income.htm.
SWISHING, CHARITY AND OTHER ALTERNATIVES
Recycle old clothes in swap shops
By Vicki Owen
There are a number of websites that now promote ‘swishing’ – swapping good quality second-hand clothes and other items.
Although it means you are unable to make money out of unloved clothes, it enables you to swap unwanted items for something you are far more likely to wear.
Sites such as Posh-Swaps, Bigwardrobe and Swishing do not charge any listing or membership fees as they are focused on growing a database. Once signed up, you can list items and include descriptions and photographs and go in search of something that might be worth a swap.
The Swishing website offers details of swapping events.
For those looking to sell specialist items there are other options that may be worth exploring where there is a strong concentration of potential buyers.
Online luxury brand reselling website Vestiaire Collective is one such outfit, focusing on selling upmarket second-hand designer items.
The website charges a £15 listing price, then takes 33 per cent of any sale price up to £80.
The level of commission falls the higher the sales price – to a minimum of 13 per cent for any luxury goods that are sold for more than £2,400. In return, the site promises to list the item with photographs and pays delivery costs, sending a pre-paid postal form.
Kristy Arnold, 40, of Hampstead, North-West London, says: ‘I sold a black Chanel rain hat for £127 on the Vestiaire Collective site because my partner didn’t like it. It was a great sale as I was convinced no one would want it.’ She adds: ‘You take a photo of the item and send it to the website with a guide price. But they can also offer guidance on what might be a suitable price.’
Other websites that enable customers to trade in their old clothing include Clothes Agency, which charges a minimum fee of £1.25 for any listing on its site but does not charge any commission.
Charities such as Oxfam are also happy to take clothes, but for a good cause rather than money. There are clothing donation banks dotted across Britain in car parks as well as 700 Oxfam shops.
Visit Oxfam’s website and enter the postcode in its shop finder for your nearest clothing bank.
Verdict: Swapping is fun and costs nothing while giving to a good cause might feel more rewarding than receiving cash.
Share this article:
The comments below have not been moderated.
-
Newest -
Oldest -
Best rated -
Worst rated
The tax man cometh – beware !
monabri
,
jediland,
13/1/2013 10:16
Report abuse
That would be Amazon Sarl based for the reason of paying little tax in Luxembourg yet charging 20% UK VAT. Not one of Cameron¿s priorities.
I agree with the writer, if you add it all up time, effort etc; unless you do it for a living forget about boot sales and selling on line.
Ron
,
Leeds,
13/1/2013 10:13
Report abuse
Hope all these people making a fortune on ‘eBay’ are letting the tax man know about their ill gotten gains. Expect not.
Disgusted
,
Royal Tunbridge Wells,
13/1/2013 08:22
Report abuse
Lots of people doing these on a weekly basis who are on Benefits or low wages. Traders get away with not paying Taxes and it’s an outlet for stolen or faulty goods.
Telly
,
Suffolk, United Kingdom,
13/1/2013 06:20
Report abuse
I have bought stuff from car boots and they have turned out to be defective in some way…i throw it on the tip only to find its back on the car boot sale again!!
real news
,
uk, United Kingdom,
13/1/2013 05:59
Report abuse
never cared much for boot sales personally, up at some silly hour, sitting in a cold field for hours for a few quid then bringing a lot of the stuff back (even though would have gladly sold for next to nothing) – not my idea of a good weekend. The pitch fee can be quite high then you have to beware of your other half going off and buying even more junk from some other stall, spending any takings….But good luck to those for whom it works – it is recycling anyway. Our unwanted things go to the charity shop, if still good, but these days we are buying less and using things till they are worn out, or upcycling them much more so we are still saving money.
rose
,
wmids,
12/1/2013 23:43
Report abuse
The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.