If you haven't heard of Ebay then you must have been living in a cave in the mountains with no tv, no internet and no electricity
for the last 10 years.
A massive worldwide success and one of the few .com businesses to not only survive but thrive. Ebay has turned
selling your old tat into a career for some people. You can find just about anything you might want (or not as the case
may be) for sale on Ebay – new, old, abstract, concrete, big or small.
One man's trash is another man's treasure (did we coin that phrase?) so start with things you have at home that you no longer need, stick
it on Ebay with some photos and see if anyone else does want it. Cash Ninja loves Ebay and has bought & sold mobile phones, toys, car
parts, cars etc. Other people sell all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff.
Once you've run out of your own stuff then you could find
other people's stuff and sell it – try going to car boot sales, charity shops, etc. You can even buy stuff on Ebay and sell it
on. Bulk buy from whole sellers and retail the goods on or make things to sell, import stuff
or sell your services (maybe even yourself?) online. In fact, you don't even to need to sell something
real.
If things go well you can set up your own Ebay store to sell your wares.
It's a bit like having a real shop, only in cyberspace.
Ebay provide discussion forums where you can get your questions answered
by other users and get tips on how to sell things. Auctioncut is an independent
discussion forum, also dedicated to Ebay.
Ebay has a number of international sites, here are links to some of them:
UK
US
Ireland
Switzerland
New Zealand
France
Germany
If you're going to sell stuff on Ebay then you should probably get yourself a Paypal account. This will enable you to accept credit cards, not just on Ebay but on your own website as well if you have one, plus using Paypal to pay for stuff you've bought on Ebay and elsewhere. Some people will only pay for stuff using Paypal because it provides purchase protection.
