I have been selling on ebay pretty regularly the last 4 months. So far I am selling off kids old toys/outgrown clothes that are still in great condition so I am not out of pocket buying product. Once a month I let both kids buy a new toy for selling off their old toys my son has been helping and get all excited when auctions end and he helps me package as well!
I have done well so far averaging $400-$500 a month profit (after ebay fees/packaging/shipping) which is great since we have so many medical bills from my daughter and I am stay at home mom and I feel like I am helping get up back on track! I list 3-5 items a day so it's not overwhelming and hit the post office 2-3 times a week so far it's going well and my house is getting decluttered at the same time! it's a win win for me!

I tried eBay for a couple of years, on and off. I really wanted to make it work because it seemed so ideal. But I agree that it takes a lot of time to do it right, and it became harder and harder to make any money. I found myself resenting the pocket change that I made after figuring out the fees and the cost of my time.

A neighbor held a yardsale this summer and invited me to bring my stuff over. I made almost $200 and enjoyed the day. Craigslist has also worked for me, but arranging the actual transaction can sometimes be tricky because of peoples' schedules. Still worth it though.

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Attaining financial freedom is like eating an elephant . . . it takes one bite at a time.

If you are going to give eBay a go as a business, make sure you keep track of all your business expenses, and set up an office to write off as business use of your home on your Schedule C. My tax return numbers look worse than they really were, as I took every allowable deduction, including a large car/gas deduction. If you take that away, my low profit margin wasn't nearly as bad as it seems. I've been able to make much more money teaching, so I just lost interest.

i don't think so... it is horrible now.

I too, sold/selling on ebay. I sold beaded Native American Style beaded earrings, as beading is my hobby, and my earrings took hours to make. Then, some outfit out of the USA, started to sell copies of the earrings being sold on ebay for .99 cents! I can't even buy a tube of beads for that! How can anyone make any money doing this, I don't know, but people were buying them. Needless to say, they are not as neat and as good as mine, as I use high quailty delica beads, while they used seed beads that were not even all the same size! But they are cheap, and a lot of people were buying them.
So, I quite and put my earrings in a store/ coffee shop. Then, they got taken, lost, and so I took them back home to give Ebay another try as I see people are starting to buy the nice work again. If you look at my work compaired to the .99 earrings, you will see a big difference. Still, I can not understand how anyone can hand make an earring and sell them this cheap. However, I refuse to sell my work for nothing, and I put hours into an earring. If they don't sell, well, I will wait until our town has a craft booth to put them on. Yes, the fees went up, but if I don't sell them, I don't pay the fee's and that helps, plus no more fee for a picture.
On the other hand, too. I have heard of people finding items, books, and ect. at yard sales and making big bucks on ebay. Believe me, it takes a lot of time and effort to sell on ebay, though. I think you need to have a special thing that is in big demad in order to really make something. Another thing is cleaning out clutter and selling it. I have done that, and it works pretty good. Text books laying around sell great! Well, good luck everyone.