First eBay millionaire: ‘I started in a shed’
But his tiny eBay shop soon became a major success, selling everything from mobile phone accessories to protein supplements.
Now the garage has made way for a massive warehouse and 30-year-old Mr Radcliffe has become the UK’s first eBay millionaire.
He owns a £700,000 home with a £150,000 Ferrari and a £118,000 Aston Martin in the driveway.
His monthly orders of around 36,000 make him the largest eBay trader in Britain, based on sales, and the sixth-largest in the world.
‘I still have to pinch myself - it’s a dream come true,’ said Mr Radcliffe, who is married with a one-year-old daughter and lives in Southport.
‘All my mates had mobile phones and needed accessories so I thought it would be a good way to make money. Then I started selling computer accessories too and it just escalated.’
After reading about online trading, he launched his eBay store in 1999 using £200 he had saved up from his £7-an-hour wages as a trainee manager at Tesco.
In 2003 he moved into a 10,000 sq ft warehouse in Merseyside and set up his brand, First2save, in 2005.
Now he sells a range of more than 3,700 items, employs 19 staff and has an annual turnover of more than £3m. Mr Radcliffe plans to expand again to a 30,000 sq ft site and boost his workforce from 19 to 34.
He says this will enable First2save to overtake the current leading eBay retailer, who clears 50,000 orders every month.
His business offers 6,000 different product lines, from protein supplements to mobile phone chargers, computer cables and the popular Christmas lines of Scalextric racing kits and Hornby train sets.
Mr Radcliffe said: ‘I could have continued working at Tesco and become a manager, which would have been a safe job but it would not have stretched me.’