Ok, this started as a much smaller experiment.
The original idea was simple enough ... could I start with £5, buy a few small items, sell them on eBay, reinvest the money, and eventually turn that tiny pot into £1,000?
That was the plan, and it is very doable, I have done it before, but I just wanted to document it this time.
But then I remembered an idea I’d heard years ago from someone talking about online selling. It was one of those ideas that sounds almost too simple to be useful, until you actually write the numbers down.
Start with £1. Double it. Then double it again. Keep doing that, one step at a time, and by the 21st step you have £1,048,576.
The maths is easy. The doing it bit is where it gets interesting.
So I’m changing the experiment. The original £5 to £1,000 challenge is now becoming something slightly bigger, slightly dafter, hopefully much more fun and rewarding, and probably much more interesting to follow.
This is now The 21 Step Challenge.
The challenge is not to pretend that making £1m on eBay is simple. It isn’t. The internet is already full of people making business sound easier than it is, usually just before they try to sell you a course, a spreadsheet, or a motivational hoodie.
This is different. I want to see how far the doubling idea can go in the real world, starting with tiny amounts of money, using eBay, clearance stock, old products I already have, low-cost buys, and whatever lessons appear along the way.
It might work for a while and then slow down badly. It might fall apart when the easy stock runs out. It might get stuck when the pot gets big enough that I need better sourcing, more storage, or more time than I’m willing to give it.
That’s part of the point.
The interesting bit is not just whether the money grows. It is what has to change at each step.
Quick note: before you copy any of this, please check your own tax position. If you are buying things with the intention of selling them for a profit, that can have tax implications. I’m tracking this properly because I don’t want this to become a vague “I think I made a bit of money” sort of experiment.
The 21 Step Ladder
Here is the ladder that makes the whole thing feel slightly ridiculous.
Starting with £1, each step simply doubles the previous amount. By the 11th step, you are past £1,000. By the 21st step, you are past £1m.
Current position: I started with £5, and the current value of the challenge is now £55.28.
How I’ll Measure Progress
The easy mistake with this sort of challenge is to talk about sales as if sales are profit.
If I buy something for £8 and sell it for £13, I haven’t made £5. I still need to account for postage, packaging, promoted listing fees if I use them, and any other costs attached to that sale.
So the number I’ll track is not turnover. It is the current value of the pot.
For now, I’m defining that as:
Current value = profit made so far + stock still held at cost.
That is deliberately cautious. It does not include fantasy future sales. It does not value unsold stock at what I hope it might sell for. If I have stock left, I count it at what it cost me. If it cost me nothing because it was already sitting in the shed, I record it as £0.00.
How I Moved Up The First Steps
I won’t list every tiny sale in this post because that would quickly become dull. The proper detail lives in a spreadsheet. What I’ll show here is the movement between steps: what I bought, what I sold, what worked, and what I learned.
From a tiny starting pot to the 6th step of the ladder.
The next target is to get the pot to £64.
The 7th step feels very reachable. One or two decent sales could get me there, especially if I can shift more of the small stock I already have.
```The bigger question is what happens after that. Getting from £55.28 to £64 is not the hard part. The harder part is working out whether the same approach still works when the pot needs to reach £128, £256, and £512.
Next decision: do I keep looking for one-off bargains and old stock, or do I start looking for repeatable products I can buy again?
```The Bigger Question
The early steps are almost a scavenger hunt. Find something cheap. Find something free. Find something in the garage. Find something in a clearance aisle. List it properly, price it sensibly, post it quickly, and keep the money moving.
That is useful, but it probably only gets you so far.
At some point, if this keeps going, the challenge changes. It stops being about whether I can sell odd bits and starts becoming about whether I can find repeatable stock.
That could mean buying small quantities from UK suppliers. It could mean retail arbitrage from places like B&M, Home Bargains, Tesco clearance aisles, or other retailers. It could mean buying job lots. Much later, it might mean sourcing from overseas, creating an own-brand product, or using a fulfilment house.
But there is a trap there.
A bigger business is not automatically a better life. If the challenge ever reached serious money, I would not want to spend every evening surrounded by boxes, tape, labels, and mild regret. The point of building something is not to lose every spare hour to it.
So this challenge has two questions running side by side.
Can I keep doubling the money?
And just as importantly:
Can I do it without making life worse?
What I’ll Track As The Challenge Grows
As the ladder gets higher, I’ll track more than just the money.
I’ll keep notes on what I bought, what sold, how quickly it sold, how much postage cost, how much time it took, and whether I would buy the same product again.
I’ll also track the bigger turning points. Things like when it makes sense to print labels at home, when it makes sense to move from single items to small batches, when postage collection becomes worth it, and when storage starts becoming a real issue.
Those are the bits I think will be most useful. Anyone can say “buy low, sell high”. The real learning is in the messy details.
Early Lessons
Small, light, useful, non-breakable, easy-to-post items still feel like the best place to start.
Postage matters more than almost anything else. A product can look profitable until you realise it is awkward to pack, too thick for the cheapest service, or likely to cause delivery headaches.
Titles matter too. eBay search is not the same as website SEO, but keywords still matter. A title like “Universal Adjustable Garden Hose Tap Connector Mixer Adaptor 15-19mm No Thread” is not pretty writing, but it is probably much better than something vague and tidy.
Descriptions do not need to be essays, but they do need to remove doubt. If something only fits taps from 15mm to 19mm, say that clearly. If a product is not suitable for lifting, say that clearly. If something is out of its original packaging, say that clearly too.
I also need to avoid panicking if something does not sell in the first day or two. If the price is fair, the listing is clear, and the product has demand, sometimes the best thing to do is leave it alone.
21 Step Challenge FAQ
General challenge questions
What is the 21 Step Challenge?
The 21 Step Challenge is based on a simple doubling idea. Start with £1, double it to £2, then double it again to £4, and keep going until the 21st step, which is £1,048,576.
I’m using it as a live eBay selling experiment to see how far a tiny starting pot can grow by buying carefully, selling clearly, and reinvesting the money.
Why start with £1 if I actually started with £5?
The ladder starts at £1 because that is the cleanest way to show the doubling idea.
My own experiment started with £5, so technically I began part way up the ladder. That is fine. The point is not to be mathematically pure. The point is to use the ladder as a simple way to track progress.
Is this really about making £1m?
Not really. Or at least, not in the shiny internet sense.
The £1m number is what makes the maths interesting, but the real challenge is seeing how far the idea works in practice. The early steps are about eBay, small products, postage, and reinvesting. The later steps would involve much bigger decisions about stock, storage, sourcing, fulfilment, tax, and time.
What counts as completing a step?
A step is completed when the current value of the challenge reaches or passes that step’s target.
For example, the 6th step is £32. Once the pot passed £32, that step was completed. The next target is the 7th step at £64.
Tracking the money
What does current value mean?
For this challenge, current value means net profit made so far plus stock still held at cost.
That keeps the number grounded. I am not counting hoped-for sales or imaginary future profit. If stock is still unsold, I count it at what it cost me.
Do free products count?
Yes, but I record the cost as £0.00.
If I already own a product and sell it, the cash generated still helps the challenge. But I do not want to pretend I paid for stock that was already sitting in the shed.
Do I include stock that has not sold yet?
Yes, but only at cost.
If I bought something for £10 and it has not sold yet, I count it as £10 of stock held. I do not count it as £18 just because I hope to sell it for £18 later.
Do I include postage and packaging costs?
Yes. Postage and packaging can make or break small eBay products, so they need to be included.
If I sell something for £10 but it costs £3 to post and 30p to pack, that has to come off the profit. Free postage is not really free. It is just hidden inside the selling price.
How am I tracking profit?
I’m using a spreadsheet with an inventory tab, a sales log, an expenses tab, and a monthly summary.
The inventory tab helps me track stock. The sales log keeps the actual sales record. The monthly summary tells me whether the pot is genuinely growing or whether postage, packaging, fees, and slow-moving stock are eating away at it.
Buying and selling
What sort of products am I starting with?
I’m starting with small, useful, easy-to-post products.
So far, that has included hosepipe connectors, clearance aisle buys, Oral B brush heads, drill bits, cam buckle straps, and other small trade or household products.
Am I only selling on eBay?
For now, yes.
eBay is the easiest place to restart because I already have an account, even though it had been dormant for years. Later, if the challenge grows, other channels might make sense, but I do not want to overcomplicate it too early.
Will I list every product I buy and sell?
Not in the main post.
I’ll keep the proper records behind the scenes, but on this page I’ll summarise the products and lessons that moved the challenge forward. Otherwise the page would quickly turn into a receipt drawer.
What makes a good early product?
For me, a good early product is small, light, useful, non-breakable, easy to describe, and easy to post.
It also helps if it is a known brand or a product someone is likely to search for when they need it. Boring products can be very good products.
What has worked so far?
Small clearance items and old stock have worked better than expected.
The hosepipe connectors sold well enough to get things moving. The Oral B brush heads sold quickly. Old shed stock such as drill bits and straps helped because the cost was effectively zero, which makes even small sales useful.
Scaling the challenge
When does retail arbitrage stop being enough?
I suspect it starts getting harder somewhere around the middle of the ladder.
Retail arbitrage can work well when the pot is small, but it is time-heavy and unreliable. You have to keep finding bargains. At some point, the challenge probably needs repeatable products, not just lucky finds.
When would I buy stock in larger quantities?
Only when I have evidence that a product sells, the margin works, and the postage is predictable.
Buying 2 or 3 of something is very different from buying 50. The bigger the buy, the more careful I need to be.
Would I source from UK suppliers?
Possibly. If the challenge reaches the point where I need repeatable stock, UK suppliers would probably be the first place to look.
That would keep things simpler than importing, especially around delivery times, minimum order quantities, compliance, and quality control.
Would I import from China?
Maybe one day, but not early on.
Importing can open up better margins and own-brand possibilities, but it also brings bigger risks: minimum order quantities, product quality, shipping, duty, compliance, cash tied up in stock, and the possibility of buying a lot of something that nobody wants.
When would I consider own-brand products?
Only if I found a product type that clearly worked and could be improved, bundled, branded, or presented better than the existing options.
Own-brand sounds exciting, but it is also a bigger commitment. At that point, the challenge starts looking less like casual eBay selling and more like a proper business.
When does fulfilment become worth it?
Fulfilment becomes worth considering when packing orders starts taking too much time or limiting growth.
But fulfilment also costs money, reduces margin, and adds another layer of complexity. I would only consider it if the product was repeatable, the volume was steady, and the margin could cope with someone else doing the packing.
Real-life stuff
What about tax?
This is one of the reasons I’m tracking everything properly.
Selling personal items you no longer want is one thing. Buying products with the intention of selling them for profit is different. I’m not giving tax advice here, but if you try something similar, check the rules and keep records from the start.
What about storage?
Storage is one of the hidden problems with this kind of challenge.
Small products are fine. A few plastic boxes are fine. But if the challenge grows, stock can quickly take over a room, a garage, or in my case, possibly a corner of the bar and brewing area.
How much time does it take?
At the start, not too much. Listing a few small items, packing orders, and dropping parcels off is manageable.
But as sales grow, time becomes part of the calculation. A product that makes £2 profit but takes ages to pack, label, and post may not be as good as it looks.
When does this stop being fun?
Probably when the admin, packing, storage, and customer service become bigger than the enjoyment of the challenge.
That is something I want to watch carefully. Making money is nice, but building a tiny cardboard prison in the house is not the dream.
What happens if it takes years?
Then it takes years.
I’ll put dates against the steps because that makes the challenge honest. If it takes 2 years to reach a certain point, that is useful information. A slow, real experiment is more interesting than a fast, fake one.
What if I fail?
Then that becomes part of the story.
The challenge might stall. I might buy bad stock. eBay limits might slow things down. Postage costs might kill the margin. The point is not to pretend the whole thing is guaranteed. The point is to see what actually happens.
Final note: I’ll keep updating this post as the challenge moves forward. Each step will show the target, the current value, what moved the pot, and the lesson learned along the way. The maths says 21 steps gets you to £1,048,576. Real life may have other ideas.
Got a thought on this? Share this post or say hello elsewhere online.
What moved the pot: The first bit of movement came from small, useful, easy-to-post products. I started with hosepipe connectors bought from Tesco, then used the money from early sales to buy more small clearance items.
```One of the better early results came from Oral B brush heads bought from the Tesco clearance aisle. They were bought for £8 and sold for £13, and one pack sold the same day. That is the sort of product that makes sense in the early stages: small, known brand, easy to post, and not too hard for a buyer to understand.
I also added a few old bits from the shed, including drill bits and small cam buckle straps. These were effectively free stock because they were already paid for and not being used. That makes the profit calculation slightly strange, but it is still real cash if they sell.
Lesson: at this stage, small and boring can be beautiful. The best early products are light, useful, non-breakable, easy to describe, and cheap enough that the buyer does not need to think too hard.
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