/ 2 January 2007

New Year bargains sparked online auction career

Auction sites are increasingly being recognised as a breeding ground for serious business men and women, as the growing band of entrepreneurs making a healthy living out of selling their wares online can testify.

Clare Price is one of them.

The 32-year-old left the security of a high-flying job to set up in business on eBay.

Once operations director of an IT services business — working on the customer service, not technology, side of the business — she started trading online two years ago, after netting a bargain in the January sales.

Price, from Hayling Island, near Portsmouth, snapped up limited edition Italian designer lamps for £5, and made six times that after selling them for £70 per pair.

She then sourced other lamps from a department store supplier and bought a car-full. She sold them within a week. She bought a van-full — and sold them within 10 days. She bought a lorry-full — and started to make some real money.

”It took on a life of its own; I ended up leading a double life,” she says.

As the business took off, her husband Craig (33) left his full-time job in May 2005. And it was not long before Price realised her heart lay with the venture, named Contemporary Home.

The couple secured premises and dedicated their time to sourcing and selling home furnishings — calling manufacturers, attending trade shows, listing and packaging the items.

”I wake up every morning and am excited about going to work, but it’s hard work — setting up was the easy bit,” she says.

Selling goods on eBay, Amazon and via their own website, they turned over £125 000 in their first year of trading — a figure that is set to exceed £200 000 this year.

”In the past, people used to think that eBay was a bit of a joke — people selling broken junk,” she adds.

”When I used to tell people that I’d left a well-paid executive job, they were more than a little surprised.

”But now they take us seriously; they can see that it’s innovative and very viable.

”I think eBay has now got the respect it deserves.” – Reuters