Our Stock Tracker is remarkably simple to use. Simply open it and save yourself a copy on your device and then you can fill in the input rows accordingly:

Estimated Resale Value: the gross amount you think you can get on a selling platform such as eBay (great for electronics and general goods) or other more specialised platforms (for example, Vinted for clothing or Autotrader for vehicles). Research is key – compare several items to get a good idea of what you might get.

Desired Profit (£): the fun part which is deciding how much profit you’d like to clear!

Estimated Resale Fees (for example eBay fees): all the fees you’re likely to incur when you sell the item. You might also like to include postage and packaging costs here.

Logistics/Cleaning/Fuel: hidden physical costs. Interestingly a lot of people fail to take these into consideration. For example, if you drive to an auction you’ll have fuel costs plus potentially congestion charges and food/drink whilst you’re out which can soon add up.

Auction Buyer’s Premium %: how much you’ll pay the auction house for winning the item. This is normally quoted as a percentage of the hammer price and can vary across auction houses and also product types (for example, if an auction house is wanting to shift a lot of electronics, they may offer a reduced auction buyer’s premium to buyers purchasing these items).

Is VAT Applicable on the Buyer’s Premium? (1 for Yes, 0 for No): most auction houses will make this information clearly visible on their website.

Is VAT Applicable on the Item? (1 for Yes, 0 for No): this can vary depending on the item being purchased, however as with the buyer’s premium, most auction houses will make this information clearly visible on their website.

MAX HAMMER PRICE (WALK AWAY): this is the magic number and tells you the price at which you should stop bidding. Anything over this and you immediately begin eroding the desired profit you set at the beginning of the exercise!