- Biggest 30 independent sellers have average £4m average annual turnover
- Gill and John Hewitt generated £1.9m per year after starting with £2,000
- Top of list is Chinedu Emechebe who started business from two-bed flat
- First Briton to make £1m was Mark Radcliffe, a former Tesco shelf-stacker
The first-ever eBay rich list has revealed that Britain's top online traders are making up to £17million per year selling on the site.
The Power 30 UK Index, which ranks the site's biggest 30 independent sellers, shows that the country's top eBay sellers have an average annual turnover of nearly £4million.
According to the list, the most successful shops are those selling electrical goods and fishing items while motoring-related sellers and fancy dress vendors are also raking in a fortune.
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Les Bailey (pictured) who runs car parts account PF Jones, generates an average of £3.3m in sales per year
The 59-year-old (left and right) started out as an engineer on the shop floor and then saw business boom when he took trade online. For the eBay side of things, he has 12 employees and sells around 300 items a day
The new figures show how eBay has inspired a new generation of entrepreneurs who have built money-spinning businesses out of the online marketplace - usually from the comfort of their own home.
One example is Les Bailey, who runs PF Jones, a car parts account which generates some £3.3m in sales per year.
PF Jones already existed as a motor spares and fuel injection specialist and Mr Bailey worked on the shop floor as an engineer.
But, almost a decade ago, the father-of-four, from Wigan, Greater Mancester, started trading online - and the business exploded online part of the business exploded.
Last year alone, he generated eBay sales of around £3m. Just on the eBay side of the company, he has 12 employees and sells around 300 items a day such as tow bars, luggage racks and child seats.
The 59-year-old said: 'It was slow at first because the automotive industry is pretty antiquated to be honest - some of the small garages haven't even got computers.
John and Gill Hewitt, of Bamford Trading, an electronics and gadget eBay shop, are the 16th highest-trading sellers on the British site and raked in almost £2m this year, despite starting out with £2,000
High earners: This shows what the top 10 independent British retailers generated in sales last month
'People said that's just how the industry is, but I didn't want to be like that. So around four years ago I started looking at eBay, which was like an electronic car boot sale when it first started.
'But it has progressed from that to a massive market and we have progressed with it. We are bigger than other companies because we class ourselves as a supermarket. '
He added: 'I like eBay because it's an open market. It doesn't matter what the product is, if people want to buy something these days they look on eBay first. It's like the old Yellow Pages.
'This year I think we will have had a turn over of £2.5million to £3million just for eBay - and that's grown from nothing four or five years ago.'
Steve Lineton, co-head of e-commerce and business development at Crampton and Moore, which has been based in Yorkshire for 35 years but has thrived through eBay
Another example of eBay success John and Gill Hewitt from hardware company Bamford Trading who turn over nearly £2m per year, despite having just £2,000 in start-up costs when they launched ten years ago.
The pair, who initially planned to sell household appliances after they moved house, planned their career move on a whiteboard in 2005 because they 'needed a change'.
Soon, they were selling more than 800 products a day and began having to trade out of a warehouse near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire. Last month alone, they racked in £164,000.
Mr Hewiit, 59, said: 'I don't think we imagined we would end up among the top sellers. The market is a different place now than it was ten years ago.
'The online market was probably in its infancy when we started, but now it is a very different more mature market.
'There is lots more competition, lots more products, and lots more service and delivery options. It is much more complicated but we are still here and we are still growing. We started such a long time ago that we are always going to be ahead of the curve.'
Before they launched the company, Gill worked at Kraft Foods and John worked in telecommuncations.
Shortly after the launch, the couple moved from household goods to appliances, pet products and baby clothes. But when the recession hit they released that more people would be relying on DIY, so narrowed down to concentrate on tools and hardware.
Now, their most popular items are screwdriver sets and spanners for car maintenance.
Top of the list is Chinedu 'Ken' Emechebe, 37, who started selling mobile phone accessories under the name 'universalgadgets01' from his two-bed London flat in 2008 - and now has monthly sales of nearly £1.5m.
Mark Radcliffe (left), a former Tesco shelf-stacker from Stockport, Manchester, was the first Briton to make £1million from eBay sales while Anthony Ponsford (right) also became a millionaire through the site
The business became so successful that he was forced to relocate three more times and now works out of a 1,200sq ft warehouse where he employs around 45 people.
The father-of-two said: 'I think the great thing about eBay is just from day one the ease of selling on eBay makes it great for small businesses.
'On eBay everything is set up for you. Yes you pay your fees, but you would have to pay for advertising costs if you went on Google.
'eBay sets you up, it has millions of people who come on to the website every day, and all these people who are on there are looking for products and deals.'
Mr Emechebe sells around 2,500 items a day on eBay, with most of the goods coming directly from factories around the world. Among his most popular items are the iPhone 5, ethernet cables and headphones.
He said: 'We outgrew the house and moved into our first warehouse about a year and a half after starting the business and at the moment we are in our fourth warehouse. We have just grown since then.
'[I think we are number one because] we have been doing this for a while and we understand the market. We understand what most people on eBay want. Customer service is number one and we have to keep the customer happy.'
Family owned electronics company Crampton and Moore, owned by founder's son Robert Moore, is the 20th biggest independent seller on eBay.
The Yorkshire-based company only makes ten per cent of their sales on eBay, but thanks to the high value goods they sell, it brings in more than £141,000 a month.
The company started trading on eBay eight years ago, and sells TVs, home cinemas, hi-fis and tablets, processing around 500 transactions a month via eBay.
Steve Lineton, the company's co-head of e-commerce and business development manager, said: 'That will be much less than many of the traders on the list, but most of our sales have a value of £500 or £600, rather than a 99p car charger.
'We are very much still a bricks and mortar retailer, and trade across all platforms and have been based in Yorkshire for 35 years. But I think we are second to Argos for TV sales through eBay.'
There are now more than 200,000 UK business selling on ebay.co.uk, plus millions of private sellers, generating an estimated £6billion of sales in the UK every year.
The first Briton to make £1million from eBay sales was Mark Radcliffe, a former Tesco shelf-stacker from Stockport, Manchester.
The 35-year-old put aside £200 from his wages to launch First2Save - a one stop eBay shop for mobile phones and technological accessories.
Fifteen years after starting the business from his parents' garden shed, the businessman said he owes everything to the website.
'I could have continued working at Tesco and become a manager but it would not have stretched me. I still have to pinch myself - it's a dream come true.' he said.
Anthony Ponsford abandoned his job as a city lawyer to start his wheeler-dealer business, Piranha Trading Limited. Among items on sale are camera memory cards, bric-a-brac desks and pet furniture from China.
Top of the list is Chinedu 'Ken' Emechebe, 37, who started selling mobile phone accessories under the name 'universalgadgets01' from his two-bed London flat - and now has monthly sales of nearly £1.5m
There are now more than 200,000 UK business selling on ebay.co.uk (pictured), plus millions of private sellers, generating an estimated £6billion of sales in the UK every year
Describing himself as the 'Real Life Del Boy', he said: 'I often joke to people that I've basically set up an online version of Trotter's Independent Traders.
'It started out, as many things do, as a very small enterprise turning over a very marginal profit for quite some time.'
Alison Abruneiras, a mother-of-three from Lincoln, started using eBay to distract herself from the fact she had cancer.
After having to stop work as a nail technician when she was diagnosed with the disease, she became addicted to the online retailer and decided to launch her own shop, the Nail and Beauty Emporium. She now trades with buyers all over the world.
I like eBay because it's an open market. It doesn't matter what the product is. It's like the old Yellow Pages
Les Bailey
She said: 'Anyone can earn money. You don't have to have an education, I don't have a GCSE to my name.'
Second in the list is electronics shop Babz - which has monthly sales of £1,427,534.13.
Third is entertainment seller estocks, which sells almost a million pounds worth of gadgets a month.
The figures were compiled from Terapeak data using a one-month snapshop of sales on ebay.co.uk between May 5 and June 5 this year.
Terapeak is eBay's internal market research tool for sellers and provides data on buying habits, listing intelligence and competitor analysis.
John Stirzaker, creative director of money saving site www.NetVoucherCodes.co.uk, which compiled the list, said: 'With more and more people now treating eBay as a commercial search engine, bypassing Google, we thought we would explore how lucrative selling on eBay can be.
'What we found was inspiring. In the face of economic uncertainty it's great to see true entrepreneurialism is alive and well in the UK.
'With the right research and commitment anybody can start small and build up a successful ecommerce business on eBay.'
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