Start Small If You Are New to Ebay

By Lisa Page

I recently had someone tell me they were brand new to ebay. They wanted to know if they could make three thousand dollars a month right away. Three thousand dollars a month is a lot of money to start making right away. I told them maybe in 3 to 6 months time when they get the hang of things. I gave them the tip of starting slow and making three thousand dollars a month will just happen as you stick with it.

The more you do something the easier it becomes. You can't expect yourself to list one hundred auctions a week right off the bat, if you don't understand ebay yet. You could lose hundreds or thousands of dollars in auction fees. You have to do extensive research to know what sells. Then you have to find some good products to market. You're better off learning the ropes slowly on ebay these days.

I always say; start off by selling an item each night. Something around your house that you don't need anymore. Believe it or not; ebay is a great place to sell used items. Especially if you can't acquire that item in a store anymore. Instead of throwing away something you thought was junk, ebay would be a great place to get rid of it. You will learn a lot as you make each transaction on ebay. As easy as ebay sounds to use, there is a lot to learn.

Take a look in your attic, basement, or garage. I am sure you have something to sell on ebay. At the same time, you will be learning at your own pace. That's what it is all about when you first start on ebay. Don't worry about what other people are doing on ebay. Do things at your own rhythm until you get the hang of it. And most importantly; stick with it or you will forget what you learned.

Buy a few things on ebay. Get to know the other side and how things work in opposite shoes. Then you can see how other sellers do things and pick up some pointers from them. I know sellers on ebay that have never bought an item there yet. All they do is sell. You guessed it, those are the ones that still don't have a clue. Ebay is a great place to buy something and catch a great bargain. Just check out the sellers feedback and make sure they have a good reputation.

If you're new to ebay, don't worry about buying anything wholesale right now. Don't worry about having items drop shipped yet either. As I said, just make some transactions on ebay with items around the house you don't want anymore. Buy some items. Make at least 10-20 transactions on ebay before you try going all out. You need to learn by hands on experience, before you jump in with both feet. Ebay isn't the same place it used to be. You have to know all kinds of tips and tricks to avoid high auction fees now.

What if you spend four weeks on ebay and you end up owing over five hundred dollars in action fees with no profit? It happens to new ebayers that take things too fast all the time. If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone tell me they owe more than they made on ebay this month. It's sad that people think they can jump right in and start making money.

Ebay used to be that easy. Back when I started selling on ebay in 1998, it was very easy to make a living there. There wasn't much competition as a seller. You could list a bunch of items and they would all sell with little, to no competition. It was you and maybe another seller or two that were selling the same item in that category. Three other sellers was a lot of competition back then, lol. Now there are millions of ebay users that sell the same item. So ebay is not all it's cracked up to be anymore.

Ebay has television commercials and the reputation to back it up. But with higher ebay fees and lower prices by scammers, ebay could be going downhill. Ebay has been an auction marketplace monopoly for about ten years now. Users have always looked for other auction marketplaces to move to- Amazon- Yahoo Auctions(doesn't exist anymore). But there is no other place like ebay that will bring you traffic and sales without marketing something.

You can make a lot of money on ebay. And ebay is very easy to use. But it takes years to master and make a living on ebay. Ebay has changed a number of rules, countless times as the years have gone by. I remember when you could list any item for under a dollar. I don't think you could even spend two dollars to list an auction in 1998. Ebay has become too commercial to make a living on, unless you know the ropes.

There are other places on the internet that are trying to become auction marketplaces like ebay. We, the users have to make that change if we want ebay to change their ways. Ebay knows they can raise fees and get away with it. They know they can get away with things some place like Amazon couldn't get away with. Is traffic and instant marketing that important to us? And let this auction marketplace giant called ebay walk all over us.

I love ebay, don't get me wrong. But in the past two years I have seen ebay make some really bad decisions. Usually the type of decisions being made like this lead to the company not being around very long. Someday, as silly as it sounds; ebay won't be the same auction marketplace giant it has become. Someone bigger and better always comes along. You'll see, history always repeats itself

Learn how to start your own home business by following this amazing step-by-step guide. Want to be an Ebay Powerseller? This guide will help you. Check out my Daily Blog.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Page