Most people asking this question are looking for a way to earn extra income or make a transition that will allow them to work from home.  There are plenty of people who make a decent living selling on eBay, but you would be wise to do a bit of research before you quit your day job and buy a truck load of overstocked merchandise from someone.

What Sells?

Of course, I think the easiest place to start is with selling vintage and antique items.  You don't have to be an expert, but you should be willing to do some research.  In fact, checking out this website or looking up older eBay auctions on your own can save you a considerable amount of time, money and wasted storage space.  Back when I first started getting into selling on eBay, I purchased almost anything that I thought looked "vintage" and I ended up with a lot of unsellable junk.  The estate sale people loved it when they saw me coming.

There are not that many categories on eBay where you will hit a home run every time you list.  In fact, I doubt that such a category truly exists unless you have a limitless supply of very high quality items that you can provide for a price which sells but still makes you some money.  There are people who go the route of using dropshippers, but that means that you are pretty much guaranteed a heavy dose of competition which in turn will drive your profits down.  At least by selling vintage and antique items, you know that they are not being churned out by the thousands every day by a company in China.

So where to start?  Well, a very general place to get things started is your own home.  If you have built up collections of anything, old or otherwise, you can often sell them as a lot (together) or split them up individually.  Media collections like CDs and DVDs are an example of this, but so are things like old pins or buttons!  If you have any type of memorabilia, it is usually worth checking out on eBay as well.

One word of warning for you. Don't judge whether or not what you have is worth anything simply by looking up people or companies who act as eBay listing agents.  They act as middle men for people who want to sell their things on eBay but don't want to do the listings themselves.  These companies make their money by listing other people's items for them and then keeping a commission.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but because of the nature of eBay selling, they usually only will accept things that they know will end up making it worth their time invested.  That means if they think they can't get at least a hundred bucks or so out of the auction, they won't even take your item.  I don't know about you, but if I'm selling something on my own, I'm fine with a $75 profit for each item.  Even less than that to be honest.  They often have a long list of things that the won't accept for sale.  These lists often include a lot of items that actually will sell on eBay, but not for hundreds of dollars.

Here is a real life example for you.  I saw on one of these lists that the re-sellers would not accept anything related to NASCAR.  Not sure why, but probably because they assumed the market was flooded with low priced merchandise.  It just so happens that I picked up a 100% leather NASCAR jacket at a yard sale a couple of years ago for five or ten bucks.  I believe it ended up selling for somewhere around ninety dollars.  If they don't want to be bothered with selling something like that, I'll do it all day long!  It took me about fifteen minutes to take a photo and put up a listing.  Seriously!

Take a look around your house and make a list of things you would be willing to part with as you start your eBay adventure.  Next, sign up for eBay (you need an account for the next step).  Finally, type the items on your list into the search box and check out the completed listing.  Those are the auctions that have ended.  If you find that your item sells well, but a check mark next to it.  If everything went unsold, maybe you should use an "X" instead.  This is a good starting place for anyone thinking about earning some extra money and it will give you a little bit of an idea about what sells well on eBay.

I'll keep writing more about this and other eBay related topics as the site grows.  This is just some general information get you started.  Go ahead and get started.  You might be surprised to find that you have some pretty valuable stuff just sitting around!

People have been tweeting about it and talking about it on the discussion boards today.  You may have seen it mentioned.

I haven't been able to find any kind of updates yet about what will happen to the the buyers and sellers who were affected by the site not working correctly.  I would imagine it could be a bit of a mess.  It just so happens that I did NOT have anything ending today, but a LOT of people did.  Weekends are  a very popular time to end auctions since so many people are off from work and able to do some shopping.  This weekend is an especially unfortunate one for this to happen as many people are just starting to get in to the holiday shopping mode.

In all fairness, I've got to say that there have been very few problems with the site in the past when I've used it for listing.  It has been one of the more consistent sites I've dealt with for limiting downtime.  I'd say just stay patient.  It is definitely in eBay's best interest to get things up and running again as quickly as possible.  They no doubt have all available resources working on getting things back to normal.

So, if you are a returning visitor, sorry, but that is about all I was able to find out right now.  I would expect that there will be a message sent to users once things are straightened out.  If I find out anything new I'll post it here.

Vintage Collecting

Personally, I love dealing with collectible merchandise.  I like to go out exploring estate sales and auctions, I enjoy researching the particular vintage and antique items and looking for what sells well, and I like re-selling some of it for a profit when possible on eBay.  There are also a few particular items that I enjoy hanging on to and just can't bring myself to part with regardless of how much I could get for them.

The New York Times ran an article recently that reported that the collectibles market is actually a good place to invest your money.  What I liked about the article was that they basically have the same beliefs as I do about collecting.  If you love the stuff, you are much more likely to take care of it, hold on to it and not panic by watching its value if the market seems to be going up or down.

The market for collectibles is not nearly as volatile as other areas of investment.  Things move much more slowly.  Most people who collect things don't necessarily do it for immediate financial gain.  In fact, if you talk to many collectors, they say that they plan on passing their collections on to loved ones.  What those heirs will do with it is anybody's guess but most likely, they would not be in a hurry to turn a quick profit on it either.

That leads to one of the problems with seeing collectible items as an investment.  They can be so hard for people to part with when the need or desire for money comes along.

If you are a collector of some particular item, but you are still interested in making money from the collection, there may be some options.  You could act as an expert consultant for other collectors if you really know your stuff.  You could also sort of rope off an area of your collection that is untouchable to you.  Keep it as your core collection and use some other items from your collection for trading, selling and generally building up your collection.  You can always add to your "exclusive" collection at any time.  That can be what gets passed down to others when the time comes.