A huge congratulations to Joe Waggott of Metal Polishing Supplies and Henry Bishop and James Grear of The Coin Supplier who both won a Grand Prize in the eBay for Business Awards 2017.
Both grand prize winners will win £5,000, and a trip including flights and accommodation to USA to meet eBay‘s senior team, a visit to eBay UK HQ to meet the team working for UK sellers, and time with the Vice President of the UK business, a free eBay Anchor Shop for a year, access to eBay Concierge customer service for a year and tailored assistance from Linnworks to help them grow their businesses.
We’re often asked at Tamebay “Where can I get something to sell?” and yet Henry and James have a business built on literally nothing – they spotted an opportunity that didn’t require any outlay in stock or indeed anything other than a few coins they had in their pockets.
I also love Joe’s business because it links what’s essentially an old world engineering supply business into the marketplace world. It’s a bridge from a industry with roots in the last century (maybe even the century before) into the modern day world using eBay as the vehicle.
One thing I would ask is that if you go to look at any of the prize winner’s businesses on eBay be gentle. They weren’t judged on how great their templates are or if they’re following absolutely every eBay policy to the letter. That in part is what the prize packages will do – give them some of the best help in the country both from eBay and Linnworks to help them grow and develop their businesses.
Joe Waggott
Metal Polishing Supplies, a business launched by Joe Waggott in 2008. All the judges were in awe of Joe’s success, having started a business in the UK at the same time as living with Spina Bifida.
Due to his health issues, Joe knew he needed a career that allowed flexibility around his hospital appointments. Metal Polishing Supplies has since grown rapidly, with the company recently moving to 1200 square foot warehouse in Portsmouth, with annual turnover surpassing £300k in 2016.
Joe hopes to use the prizes to develop his business further, and to inspire other entrepreneurs overcoming adversity.
“Being one of the grand prize winners literally means the world to me – it’s been a long, hard road to get Metal Polishing Supplies to where it is today, and I know I was up against some strong competition. I have grand plans for the business, and with the prize money along with the development help from eBay and Linnworks I’m planning to launch a whole new range of products – finer polishing tools for those doing more intricate metal work, such as artists.
“Whilst winning the award is obviously great for me and the business, I’m also hoping that my story will inspire others with physical challenges to enter the world of business.”
– Joe Waggott
Henry Bishop and James Grear
The second grand prize winner is rare coin trading business The Coin Supplier, launched by Bristol entrepreneurs Henry Bishop and James Grear who entered the world of business straight out of school rather than going to university. A chance encounter with a rare coin (which they found was selling on eBay for six times its face value) inspired them to enter the world of coin trading, and they soon found the income from the growing eBay store had surpassed what they were making from their day jobs, so decided it was time to make their new venture full time – still aged just 18 years old. The Coin Supplier is currently driving a profit of £1000 a week, with plans in place to grow further by investing in new machinery.
“We really weren’t expecting to win anything, let alone one of the grand prizes. It’s lovely to get this kind of recognition so soon into our business lives and being able to say we’ve won a national business award already will be really valuable for us.
“The prize money will allow us to scale up our operation far quicker than we ever thought we could, and we’re planning to boost the efficiency of the business by investing in an automatic label printer. This will not only speed up our shipping process, but will also mean that Henry and I have more time to put into marketing and strategy.”
– Co-founder James Grear
12 Responses
Congratulations to both winners.
Metal Polishing Supplies
Seems to be a worthy winner. Well done.
The Coin Supplier
I would love to know what Ebay’s winning criteria was for this competition.
With regards to this winner’s Ebay Shop
* Have only been selling on Ebay for 3.5 years
* Have a tiny shop with only one page of listings. No shop categories etc, etc
* Not a very good feedback score for the minimal amount of sales they have – 8 x Negatives and 6 x Neutrals.
Their fees to Ebay must be around up to a mere £100 each month, but win £5000 plus a free holiday to the USA etc.
We pay Ebay on average £1400 / month in fees from our 16 yr old Ebay shop, and have a 100% positive feedback with Zero Neutrals and Zero Negatives
I thought Ebay was trying to make lots of extra profit for themselves these days, by their recent blitz on penalising sellers / buyers who exchange contact details and deal out of Ebay, but then blow all this money on competitions. Never mind – congrats to all winners.
Similar comments as the previous post. I cannot for the life of me see how The Coin Supplier can be ” driving a profit of £1000 a week” based on their mergre listings. It is not possible, and having been a seller in this catagory in the past for a number of years, no longer by the way, there are only a handfull of sellers, all with hundreds of listings, that can be in that sphere of profit.
The first winner deserves the kudos
The second , no way, there are far more deserving sellers who should have got that.
Dan if you read my post, you will see, no longer a seller! I do not knock these two young men for the enterprise they are showing in their venture, I was merely questioning your comment on ‘ driving £1000 a week profit’. I sold in this category for over 16 years, so I think that I know the profit margins one can make. I have looked at their listings, and what they have been selling, and how many they have sold. Compared to others, they are small fry, and to achive the profit you are trying to say they make, they would have to be turning over gross, somewhere in the region of £9000-£10000 a month minimum. This figure is based on, face value of stock, all ebay and paypal fees, postage and packing costs. The sales figure from the little I can see, in my opinion, does not equate to this grossly inflated profit margin.
hey ebay feks most sellers over, so get over it
i was booted off ebay for selling fake clothes so ebay said all my clothes were 100% genuine with full purchase history from VAT registered companies course ebay do give a damm.
they have made mega millions allowing the sales of fake items ebay are the only pirates on the sea
Makes £1000 profit a week but £5000 will make a big difference? That doesn’t add up… ?
Personally I thought the competition was about giving a boost to or start up to an individual to move forward. If one is paying so much in fees then they didn’t need the cash injection or valuable experience to the head office. And yes I did enter and started with nothing and carried on through my brain tumour surgery,and still trying to make it.
Let’s be honest this is all about promoting eBay
Good luck to these guys
We wonder if the added attention will help or hobble them
Iam going to say it as everyone’s being too nice with the congrats. Bottom line I don’t think any one who entered this competition is happy with the chosen winners. It is what it is and the winners have been chosen. If the mass were happy we wouldn’t be having this conversation around fees, listing, turnover.
As I said in my first post I thought this competition was about giving a boost to or helping a start up. But it turned out to be helping individuals who claim to be making a substantial profit and not really in need of a boost.
A lot of individuals who start ebay a business have health issues, like myself and many more. This would be the only point I would award this individual a lesser prize. Reason being he knew he needed to work and earn and adapted his health situation to work in his favour. He’s managed it and appears to be earning a living, The coin boy well ??? It’s been said.