By: Brian Garvin
Submitted: 2008-06-30 21:15:37 | Word Count: 540
Everyone s heard of eBay. What started out as a tiny little online auction site has mushroomed into one of the biggest presences on the web. With hubs all over the world and partnerships with PayPal and Half, eBay can surely say that they are well on their way to taking over the world.
On eBay, they have all the auctions separated by category. Books, Antiques, Real Estate, Art and more are there to choose from, and you really could say that you can find nearly anything on eBay. Some items are not allowed, like firearms.
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While there are stories of people getting rich overnight off of eBay, like any method of making money, success relies on doing your research, really working hard, and finding the right merchandise to sell. Most of the sellers there make a modest amount of money, anywhere from a few dollars here and there to a decent supplement to their day job.
Then there are the Power sellers. These are sellers who sell over $1000 per month on eBay for at least three months in a row. These people are working very hard to be successful. They make sure and monitor their numerous auctions, communicate well with buyers, ship quickly, and make sure they maintain quality.
Why? Because if buyers have a bad experience, they can leave feedback reflecting that. Once a seller has gotten their first negative comment, they can never get back to that golden 100 positive standing, no matter how many sales they get.
The feedback forum acts as a rating system for both buyers and sellers. Buyers rate sellers, and sellers rate buyers. Things taken into account are the condition of the item compared to the auction description, shipping time and cost, how long did it take to pay for the item, etc.
A new feature eBay has added is a toolbar that will load into your browser. From this toolbar, you get immediate access into your My eBay area to monitor auctions you’re running or watching. They also have several other downloads to help you manage auctions, like Accounting Assistant and Turbo Lister.
You may have heard people refer to this site as GreedBay or FeeBay, in reference to the fees that sellers pay upon listing and selling items. These fees have been increased, decreased, and everything in between over the years.
In the past few years, it seems the fees have hurt the eBay Stores and the small time listers most. Indeed, there was even a television special about eBay that dealt with all the good and bad aspects of eBay.
The fact remains that people do make money on eBay, and some have quit their day jobs and are making a better living than they did before. The trick is to find the right product, learn everything about it, and run a lot of auctions. eBay is a full time job for the most successful people.
The good side is that it doesn’t cost much to try out eBay. Other costs may come into play as you get more experienced, like a good camera or scanner. But at least you can dip your toes in before you invest a lot of money into trying to succeed on eBay.
