I'm trying to think of an items/class of items I'd

The moderately-high margin (20%) consumer electronics market is a good bet.

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On a serious note, you have to find items and work the numbers.

Find items on eBay that are hot sellers by clicking the "xxx sold" link on Buy It Now auctions. Example: http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBidsLogin&item=262148853102&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2564

In March, 26 shirts were sold at $10.89 + $2.60 shipping, for a monthly revenue of $350.74 for that item.

What price would you need to purchase a comparable item for for it to be worth your time, assuming the same sales volume (a shaky assumption; this requires good judgement)?

Calculate all your costs except the purchase price, then subtract them from the sale price to get your profit + purchase price amount. It's $9.14 in pic related. So if you spent $9.14 per unit purchasing the product, you'd break even.

Now look for comparables on Alibaba and ask for price quotes. Say you find a comp for $5 per unit, minimum order quantity of 100, and inbound shipping charge of $60. Thats $5.60 per unit purchase price.

$9.14 - $5.60 = $3.54 net profit before income taxes.

$3.54 * 26 shirts per month = $92/month net profit

Now, how much money would you have to have tied up in inventory of items with similar numbers to this to generate, say, $10,000 per year?

Your purchase of 100 of these shirts is about a 4-month supply of shirts. Say you re-order at the end of month 3. You laid out $560 for the first order and $560 and the end of month three, and $560 every four months thereafter. Whether or not you actually reorder this specific shirt is irrelevant because we're talking about a class of items with similar numbers as I laid out.

At the end of month 3 you have 1/4 of your original inventory on hand, or $140. And, you wire $560 to your chinese supplier on the same day, for a total of $700 tied up in inventory. Your inventory goes from $700 back down to $140 in four months from today, for an average inventory level of ($700+140)/2=$420.

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>>1171555

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You you need an average of $420 and a maximum of $700 tied up in inventory to generate $92/month=$1104/year net profit. You want $10,000 per year, so $10,000/$1104=9.

9*$700 = $6300 max tied up in inventory for $10k/year profit (This is not realistic if you have multiple items you're restocking; it will be somewhat higher in reality.)

9*$420 = $3780 average tied up in inventory for $10k/year profit

That is for items with 71% net-profit-to-purchase-cost ratio (pretty high) and a similar turnover (or higher per-item net profit and proportionally lower turnover).

Realistically, that is a low purchase price for that particular item, so these numbers are distorted. I'm not familiar with the clothing industry, but I imagine the margins are thinner than that.

>>1171462
My mates dad makes his living selling stuff on ebay. He used to sell Mac computers but over the last few years has moved into selling bike's and bike parts. So colloquial as it is, there is profit to be made in bikes.

>>1171462
bro your better off buying cryptos like trump and letting that forex dude from alaska trade for you

I'm looking at how much it costs to send packages and...how in the fuck do you guys sell stuff for so cheap?

An 8 pound package 12x12 is going to cost me like 40 dollars to send.

>>1173547
Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Box is 12x12x5.5 and costs $15.85 on Commercial Plus rates. You get Commercial Plus rates if you're a Top Rated Seller on eBay.

Priority Mail (1-3 days transit time) gets you eBays Fast n Free shipping categorization, which improves your standing in the search results.

USPS Prices:
http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/notice123.htm#1083767

>>1173911
Why do I always see like 6.99 shipping fees and stuff like that?

Can you physically take things to an Amazon fulfillment center to bypass shipping fees?

>>1173547

$40 US? no way... I was sending 24x24x24 boxes UPS ground for around 25$ from NC to Cali.

>>1174366
Companies like Amazon fill entire UPS semi trailers with packages all headed to one destination-side UPS distribution center, reducing UPS's cost.

I don't sell on Amazon, but I believe you have no choice what fulfillment center they want your items sent to. And usually they want your items sent to multiple fulfillment centers (at your cost). But, I remember there is a hackish way of entering your inventory into their system that lets you send all your inventory to just one of their fulfillment centers. Sorry I can't give you more specifics on that.