I started selling toys on eBay when I was 12 – now I make £2million a year
AS a 12-year-old selling toys on eBay, Joseph Holman couldn’t imagine that two decades later he would end up running a business turning over £2 million a year.
The 33-year-old, lives in Luton, Bedfordshire, with partner Elena – but he gave up his day job as a plumper 10 years ago to focus full time on his business selling used and mis-measured doors online.
The savvy entrepreneur told The Sun: “I first got into flogging stuff on eBay when I was a child. I’ve always had a bit of an eye for a bargain.”
“In the early days, I used my dad’s eBay account to sell toys such as PlayStation accessories and football coins to make a little bit of cash.
“Most kids would go home after school and play games, watch TV or see friends. I found enjoyment in spotting a bargain and turning it into a profit.”
He is now the founder of upcycling company, Green Doors, while his Elena also left her WHAT? job to join the business.
Joseph did not have the easiest childhood as he was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD aged seven.
“I struggled at school and thought these things would mean I wouldn’t be successful,” he said. “But I’ve proved myself wrong.”
For Joseph, one of the pivotal moments was being in a toy shop with his parents and setting eyes on a game that he really wanted.
“It all started when I was aged 12, and came across a magnetic stick-and-balls game that I wanted to buy, but which seemed very expensive,” said Joseph.
“My dad allowed me to search on his eBay account later that evening, and I discovered a seller who had around 500 boxes of a similar game. He was selling them in bulk for a fraction of the price – in the hope of a quick sale.”
There and then, Joseph knew he wanted to get in on the act.
“At the time, my parents let me buy 200 boxes at a cost of around just £2 per box,” he said.
“I did this using savings that I’d squirrelled away from previous birthdays. I was soon selling each game individually for around £10.”
In no time at all, Joseph had increased the price to £15. He ended up netting a profit of around £2,000 in just six weeks.
“I did this just before the school holidays and quickly sold out of all the games I had,” he said. “I tried to purchase more from the seller, but he had sold out – I’ve still not forgiven my parents for this.”
From small beginnings, things grew and grew for Joseph, and his use of eBay developed from the odd sale into a full-blown hobby.
“I loved interacting with different people and got a thrill out of selling,” he said.
How to start your own business
Dragon's Den star Theo Paphitis revealed his tips for budding entrepreneurs:
- One of the biggest barriers aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners face is a lack of confidence. You must believe in your idea — even more than that, be the one boring your friends to death about it.
- Never be afraid to make decisions. Once you have an idea, it’s the confidence to make decisions that is crucial to starting and maintaining a business.
- If you don’t take calculated risks, you’re standing still. If a decision turns out to be wrong, identify it quickly and deal with it if you can. Failing that, find someone else who can.
- It’s OK not to get it right the first time. My experience of making bad decisions is what helped develop my confidence, making me who I am today.
- Never underestimate the power of social media, and remember the internet has levelled the playing field for small businesses.
- Don’t forget to dream. A machine can’t do that!
“Half the time I didn’t even realise the amount of profit I was making. I was utterly hooked on buying and selling anything I could.”
Joseph has always been disciplined about moving money he earns from eBay into savings.
“When I turned 15, I bought a new moped with the money I had put to one side,” he said.
“After turning 16, I quickly passed my test. This opened up new avenues for me, as I was then able to deliver and collect items myself. This gave me the opportunity to run my business independently.”
By this point, Joseph was selling all manner of stuff online.
“This ranged from festival tickets to car parts,” said the eBay whizz.
“I was even selling toys that I’d had imported from China. At this stage, I was earning around £30,000 a year from my side hustle.”
That said, it was not until quite a few years later when Joseph turned 23 that he realised his real money-maker was going to be selling a very specific second-hand item – used and surplus doors.
This lightbulb moment occurred after Joseph had started training as a plumber.
“I was training on the job with a firm based in Harpenden, Hertfordshire,” he said. “I began to see just how much perfectly reusable waste the company was disposing of on a daily basis.”
Initially, Joseph set about stripping down the waste boilers for parts and selling these on eBay.
“At the time, I was making around £700 a month as an apprentice working from 8.30am-5pm each day,” he said.
“But on top, I was earning between £3,000 and £4,000 selling boiler parts and other bits and pieces.”
Joseph began to get a bit of a reputation for himself as an online selling aficionado.
Top tips for selling on eBay
NEW to eBay? It's head of secondhand, Emma Grant, reveals how to optimise your listings:
- Use key words – eBay automatically filters listing titles for key words, so it’s crucial to use the terminology people search for – especially brand and product names.
- Choose the right category for your product – It might sound obvious but it’s important to always choose the most specific category to sell in.
- Pictures are important – Most users will not bid on items they cannot see. For best results, take photos in natural light against a neutral background and be honest about any scratches or damage to the item.
- Be as detailed as possible – Be honest about the condition of the product and be sure to note any wear and tear.
- Look at past sold items– eBay has a function that allows you to search for the item you want to sell and then filter the results by sold items. Here, you can view the price the item has sold for and get insight into how others have listed it.
- Selling Sundays – Get the timing right. The busiest time for buyers is Sunday evenings, so schedule your listings to end around that time. Opt for seven-day auctions to ensure the max number of bids. The longer your item is listed, the more chance of people seeing it, so unless it’s time-sensitive, pick seven days. December is the busiest month on eBay.
- Be realistic with pricing – Try searching for similar items on eBay, to make sure you’re going for the right price and always ask yourself “would I pay this price for this item?”
- Donate to charity – When listing your item, consider donating a percentage of the sale to a cause of your choice – from 10% to 100% – you can donate the funds raised from your item straight from the platform.
“A lot of people in Harpenden knew me as ‘the eBay king,’” said Joseph. “They would get me to sell items for them, and I’d take a percentage cut.”
It was at this stage in his life that Joseph had another pivotal moment.
“One day, while on a job, I rescued a pair of modern white uPVC French doors from a skip,” he said.
“Prior to this, I hadn’t actually sold any doors, so decided to do a bit of research to find out about their value.”
No stranger to hard work, Joseph cleaned them up and advertised them on eBay that same night.
“The next day, I sold them to a customer for £320 – plus he paid an extra £20 for me to deliver them to him,” he said.
For the next few weeks, Joseph would scour the streets while out in the plumbing van, looking for any surplus doors or windows from building sites.
“It’s safe to say I definitely wasn’t short of stock,” he said. “We all walk past skips every day, filled with debris from home renovations, office refurbishments and building sites. Most goes straight to landfill.”
The problem for Joseph was working out where to store the items he was salvaging.
“Convincing my parents that their shed and dining room was the perfect storage for plumbing parts was one thing,” he said. “But getting them to part with their garden as I turned it into a scrapyard was another.”
It wasn’t until a few months later that Joseph had his biggest ‘Eureka moment.’
“This happened when I visited a window and door company one evening and saw a huge pile of pre-loved doors and windows destined for landfill,” he said.
“The owner said I could have them as it would save him money on the cost of skips. He also had an additional two garages full of mis-measured items. I purchased the lot. That was when I realised that doors could be my cash cow.”
While Joseph could see a successful business in all of this, other people took more convincing.
“When I shared my new mission with friends and family, they all thought I was delusional – and that my plans would never work,” he said. “They urged me to stick with the plumbing career, and to carry out the door sales as a side hobby.”
But Joseph refused to listen – and was very glad he stuck with his conviction.
“I packed up my plumbing career in 2014 and took the plunge to focus entirely on my doors business,” he said. “I founded Green Doors in August 2014.”
The second-hand supremo started contacting installers and other companies to ask if he could buy their used and mis-measured doors.
“When my stock over-flowed, I rented a single garage at the bottom of my road,” said Joseph.
“In no time at all, I’d filled this and needed something bigger. At this point I moved to a 3,500 square-foot warehouse on a farmer’s yard. Within two years, my stock had expanded to the unit next door, giving me a total of 7,000 square-foot of space.”
Joseph admits that the first few years of running a door business were tough.
“I was isolated, stressed and worried about my own health,” he said.
“It was harder than expected and I was on the verge of giving up. Even though I was turning a decent profit, no-one else could see my vision.
Several years on from that, and it’s a very different story.
Joseph said: “The company now has more than 30 employees and has saved more than 20,000 items destined for landfill – including 3,000 items in 2023 alone.
These have been spruced up and are now stored in our 50,000 square-foot warehouse.”
Alongside selling refurbished doors, the team also gives items away for free.
“Every single thing we give away or sell means that one less new item is being produced,” said Joseph.
“We are doing our bit for the planet by reducing C02 emissions. I see salvaging doors as a major business opportunity as well as the chance to make a difference. We are on a mission to provide every door with a second life. There is nothing better than reusing.”
Last year, the firm’s turnover was almost £2 million.
“This is an incredible achievement given we’ve never required any external investment,” said the savvy CEO.
“Essentially, Green Doors has grown from nothing – just from salvaging items from skips, and then using the money to buy mis-measured stock from companies who no longer need it.”
Looking forward, Joseph has big plans for 2024.
“We are hoping to expand operations this year,” said the entrepreneur, who still pays himself near minimum wage, reinvesting all profits back into the company to help scale up operations and rescue more stock.
“We have tried to seek investment, but it seems people are more interested in new technology, than tackling waste.”
Joseph acknowledges that it’s not been an easy journey to get to the point he’s at now.
“To say ‘it’s been a rollercoaster,’ is a bit of an understatement,” he said. “It feels as though we’re building the entire theme park.”
Joseph attributes much of his business acumen to his neurodiversity.
“All through my childhood, I thought ‘I won’t be successful due to my dyslexia and ADHD.’
But now I realise those are the things that have got me to where I am today – they help me to think differently, and to have the confidence to take risks.”