Selling things on Ebay--how to work hard and get virtually no money.

I know you have undoubtedly seen advertisements on how you can make millions of dollars selling things on eBay. While this is fundamentally true, I found out that there are limits to how many auctions I could put up on eBay at one time. I could only write so many advertisements, and take so many pictures in the day.

I chose to sell books. I figured since I bought them over at the Salvation Army or other second hand stores for about a dime to a quarter apiece, I could make just tons of money on eBay. Well, I did sell over 100 items, and I did make a little over $200. Not exactly tons of money. If I had worked at a regular job at say McDonalds all the hours I spent writing up book reviews and scanning pictures of the books, I would have made far more.

So what is the secret to selling on eBay? You got to sell a whole bunch of little inexpensive things to make a whole bunch of money. Or, preferably, you can find things that sell for much more money, and then sell a whole lot fewer items.

My biggest problem was trying to figure out something to sell. Oh, the books sold... but for such a pittance that eventually I stopped fooling myself and went on to other things.

My good friend whom I will call Chris works for a guy that is actually a major power seller. He sells coins, stamps, and very valuable documents on eBay. He won't even touch something unless it is worth at least $10. And he has hired a cadre of people who are all coin experts to help him post auctions on eBay. This guy who I will call Troy is selling over $10,000 in coins, stamps, and precious documents every month.

But I don't know anything about coins. Well, okay, they are round disks. I do know that. But my friend Chris can look at the BACK of any penny and tell you within 2 years when it was minted. I did not believe him, but he proved it to me one day. After he had correctly guessed the dates on hundreds of pennys within 2 years, I had to believe him. Chris says that the back is called the "obverse" of the coin. Hmmmmm.

I know all about "drop shipping." That is where you actually sell things that you don't even own, and after they sell, send money and have some company that does own them ship them directly to the purchaser. In theory, this is wonderful. You never see the product.

But, and this is super important, what if the company shipping out the products is a little slow. Guess who is going to take a hit when reviewed by the buyer on eBay--you. I happen to have a perfect rating.

Once when I bought something on eBay, it did not arrive. After about a month, I finally wrote a negative report about the company selling the product, warning people that they would just take your money and then never ship the product. Suddenly they woke up, and immediately retaliated by saying nasty things about me. Finally they shipped the product, and we mutually withdrew our negative comments. They no longer are selling on Ebay. But I do have a perfect rating.

If you are going to try to earn money on eBay, find the big ticket items. It is a whole lot easier to put up three things in auctions than to put up 100 seperate auctions.

Good luck on eBay,
David A. Youngs