Always keep an eye

Always keep an eye on how much other items the same as or like yours are selling, and what prices they are being offered at. There is usually little point in starting a fixed price auction for $100 when someone else is selling the item for $90. It is worth taking the time to photograph your items, especially if you have a digital camera.

If you get serious about eBay but do not have a camera, then you will probably want to invest in one at some point. Send a brief email when transactions go through. Something like a simple, "Thank you for buying my item, please let me know when you have sent the payment."

Follow this up with, "Thanks for your payment, I have posted your [item] today." You will be surprised how many problems you will avoid just by communicating this way. Remember that potential buyers can send you email about anything at any time, and not answering these emails will just make them go somewhere else instead of buying from you.

If you are planning to offer international delivery, then it is good to make a list of the charges to different counties and display it on each auction. If you have any special terms and conditions, then you should make sure these are displayed too. Your wrapping should be professional for the best impression.

Use appropriately sized envelopes or parcels, wrap the item in bubble wrap to stop it from getting damaged, and print labels instead of hand-writing addresses. Send out an email a few days after you post an item, saying, "Is everything alright with your purchase? I hope you received it, and it was as you expected." This might sound like giving the customer an opportunity to complain, but you should be trying to help your customers, not take their money and run.

Being a good eBay seller, more than anything else, is about providing genuinely good and honest customer service. That is the only foolproof way to protect your reputation. If you have ever read an article about eBay, you will have seen the kinds of incomes people make.

It is not unusual to hear of people making thousands of dollars per month on eBay. Next time you are on eBay, look at how many PowerSellers there are. Now consider that every single one of one of them must be making at least $1,000 per month, as that is eBay's requirement for becoming a PowerSeller.

Silver PowerSellers make at least $3,000 each month, while Gold PowerSellers make more than $10,000, and the Platinum level is $25,000. The top ranking is the Titanium PowerSeller, and to qualify you must make at least $150,000 in sales every month. The fact that these people exist gives you some idea of the income possibilities.

Most of them never set out to even set up a business on eBay, they simply started selling a few things, and then kept going. There are plenty of people whose full-time job is selling things on eBay, and some of them have been doing it for years now. Once they have bought the stock, everything else is pretty much pure profit for these people.

They do not need to pay for any business premises, staff, or anything else. There are multi-million-dollar businesses making less in actual profit than eBay PowerSellers do. Even if you do not want to quit your job and really go for it, you can still use eBay to make a significant second income.

You can pack up orders during the week and take them down to the post office for delivery each Saturday.