Get Sold on eBay With hundreds of resources at your fingertips, starting a business on eBay is as easy as point and click.
By Marcia Layton Turner •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Selling products on eBay is one of the few ways almost anyone can become a business owner in minutes, with no upfront investment and the advantage of working from home. eBay businesses can be tailored to fit everyone from stay-at-home moms and retirees to college students, disabled workers and anyone looking to make a little extra cash part time or even build a million-dollar business. Perhaps that's why there are currently more than 247 million registered users buying and selling on eBay, generating nearly $60 billion in sales each year. If you want a piece of that $60 billion pie, there are nine key first steps you'll want to take to be successful.
Start With Used Items
Rather than shelling out hard-earned cash to buy brand new products to resell on eBay, begin your eBay business selling used merchandise. In fact, start with what you already own--what you have in your attic, basement and closets, suggests Steve Weber, owner of Weber Books (eBay User ID: weber-books) in Falls Church, Virginia, and author of eBay 101: Selling on eBay for Part-Time or Full-Time Income. Selling used merchandise has many advantages: It's easy to come by, you don't need to do much research to learn about it and, says Weber, "the profit margin can be fantastic--you can get 10 or 20 times the markup," since you either already own it or were able to purchase it for pennies on the dollar from others cleaning out their closets.
