This week a friend asked me if I had any insights into how one might go about setting up a games console and peripheral sales business. I thought for a while, as this is pretty far outside my usual realm, and realised (with a little research as backup) that I do, in fact, know a little about this subject.

Here is my reply:

Oh so only a small question then. Lol. You have multiple potential routes:

1) eBay in eBay out. Buy and sell on eBay, there’s a lot of price variance out there, buy low sell high. (Last night I sold a Mac keyboard for £60).

2) eBay in retail outlet (e.g. pop-up shop/market stall) out.

3) Wholesale in, retail out. E.g. buy from distributors and setup a pop-up or semi perm shop presence.

There are lots of variants to these ideas and lots of add-on options like ebusiness website etc. But essentially it depends where in the market you want to try your hand.

1 is low expense, limited setup costs, you can pretty much buy to order (just in-time inventory)

2 involves more expense and risk as you’ll have to carry considerable stock levels, much of which may not sell in a timely fashion.

3 is high expense, initially high risk and requires a proper business level of commitment but with volume could turn a healthy profit.

These are true of any product line, and in fact most retailers will tell you the product is irrelevant it’s just a box that you sell for more than it cost. The important points are security of sourcing, selling what people will buy, getting your brand under the noses of customers with the right level of disposable income and presenting your wares in a way that is most likely to part them from their money.

The last two I’m not good at…

As for books about it, there are probably 1000’s if not 10,000’s of them and perhaps 90% have some useful tips, but I don’t have a clue which.