eBay biz millionaires proliferate as high street suffers

The number of eBay UK millionaires could rise to over 150 this year, while high street shops battle increasing retail gloom. The online tat bazaar said million-pound businesses were set to rise by 25 per cent in 2011, with most of them (98 per cent) boosting their sales through exports. "New figures project that 11 of this …

[bitmap animal]

What is a millionaire?

I thought it was only the red tops that didn't know that 1 million of business turnover does not make you a millionaire. Clearly misleading title and first couple of lines.

[JB]

Not a journalist, then

If you were, you'd know that you need to a) get the punter to click the link in the first place, and b) make sure they read past the first paragraph or two. This is a textbook example.

[chr0m4t1c]

Ahem

<Looks at top of page, notes colour of Register logo>

I know El Reg is short on boobies & sport, but it makes up for that in many other areas - particularly opinion columns masquerading as factual pieces.

What gave you the idea they weren't a red-top?

Oh, BTW, your mother is expecting you at around 6.30pm on Friday - they say they're sorry & they deleted that message by mistake.

[Just Thinking]

Millionaires?

These are businesses which over a million turnover. Possibly they got to that stage in part by taking lower margins than the competition, in which case they might be very far from being millionaires.

[Marky W]

Since when does revenue = profit

So I buy tat for £990,000 and sell it for £1,000,000 then I'm a millionaire, am I?

If only it was so easy...

[Gleb]

Letters and or digits

Well, technically yes. See, you bought the "tat" for almost a million pounds, which kinda implies you already have it.

I do get your point though, but as someone already put it - hey, if it's not about millions then why are we even reading this?

[Anonymous Coward]

time to....

make a million on fleabay selling a book that tells you how to make a million on feepay....

[frank ly]

Carry On Please

I've patented that particular business process and method. Sue you later.

[Graham Marsden]

@Carry On Please

But remember to wait until *after* he's made the money to sue him like all good Patent Trolls! ;-)

[EddieD]

I refer the honourable gentleman to the reply I gave earlier...

...in the comments about Steam and Game and other retail entertainment emporiums.

Shopping on-line is, if you know what you are looking for, and are willing to buy sight unseen, a lot, lot easier than going to the high street.

If I want clothes or food, I want to check what I'm getting, for everything else, there's a price comparison site....

Okay, I'm being a little severe here - sometimes I will trog round the shops looking for inspiration, but when I see it, I go home, and look for it 10-50% cheaper

[Tim #3]

Hmmm

It is very odd that ebay should be touting how successful these sellers have been at at exporting stuff, when they do not make the "International Seller Visibility" option available to most people so thereby preventing us from making international sales.

[Anonymous Coward]

margins

at a 5% margin = 50000, less costs of running the business, then tax ,then what you have left over is far less than your average council worker....

[Rob_B]

If they have £1m turnover...

I dread to think how much eBay are creaming off the top of that, bunch of twunts.

[Graham Marsden]

@If they have £1m turnover...

And, of course, they're "double dipping" by taking a chunk of the profits every time someone uses PayPal as well...

[Mr Young]

Indeed!

The Ebay and Paypal fees could actually be a healthy margin for the sellers. Seems too expensive to me but a guess 'might is right' in this case?

[Greg 16]

Damn titles

I'm no fan of ebay and paypal fees, but business sellers get much better paypal rates than average punters. Also, you do realise that the banks charge a similar percentage on all card payments you make on the high street?

[Graham Marsden]

@Greg 16

I am well aware of the rates that businesses are charged by eBay and PayPal, as well as the percentages charged by card-handling services because I run my own business and have looked into (or pay) such things.

The fact still remains that, in some cases, a business on eBay can lose almost *ten percent* of the sale value of an item by the time you've taken into account listing fees, final value fees and PayPal fees, compared to the 28p for a Debit Card or 2.85% for a Credit Card that I pay my card handling service.

[Flakey]

Giz a job

"Yesterday, the Confederation for Business Industry (CBI)"

CBI stands for Confederation of BRITISH Industry not Business industry (check their website or google,its all there in black and white) I take it research isnt compulsory when compiling a story?