Secrets of the eBay

CHAPTER 1: From Penniless to PowerSeller: Carving Out a Niche 13
Sell Something You Know
You can sell anything you want on eBay. In fact, sellers put up for
auction everything from grilled cheese sandwiches that allegedly bear
the image of the Virgin Mary to homes created from nuclear fallout
shelters or commercial airliners. You don’t have to love what you sell or
be attached to it in any way. You don’t have to be a devoted collector of
the type of merchandise you sell, either. But at the very least, you should
be knowledgeable about what you decide to sell in your niche category.
If you like what you sell, so much the better. But try to be an authority
about what you sell—or at the very least, be enthusiastic about the act of
selling it.
For many PowerSellers, the act of selling itself is the attraction;
the thrill of running one’s own business and making a success is the
attraction, not the books, works of art, shoes, or watches they happen to
sell online. That’s a good thing, since they’re likely to spend far more
than 35 or 40 hours a week selling them online.
Finding a Competitive Edge: NYC Designs For Less
It took Lori Baboulis a while to find products that she could sell on eBay
and that would allow her to beat the competition. She started out the way
many sellers do: she wanted to quit her day job in order to stay at home.
“I started selling in March of 2003 because I was desperate to find
a way to stay home with my newborn daughter, who was born the previous
December,” she explains. “After some time off for maternity leave, I had
to go back to work from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and have
my mom watch Gracie. Not only did I want to stay home with my daughter
Gracie myself, but also my mom suffers from multiple sclerosis and I felt
terrible about asking her to work every day and babysit. It actually worked
out fine and the hours still allowed me the time to start to build my eBay
business. I was able to start seriously selling in May of 2003. I made Bronze
PowerSeller in August. I reached the Silver PowerSeller level the following
and was finally able to quit my ‘real’ job just in time, since Gracie was now
far too active for my Mom to handle.”