EBay was created in September 1995 by Pierre Omidyar. EBay, an online marketplace, was one of the first websites of its kind in the world. The site was originally named AuctionWeb. The name 'eBay' came from the domain Omidyar used for his site. His company's name was Echo Bay. The first thing ever sold on eBay was Omidyar's broken laser pointer for $14.
It didn't take EBay long to became massively popular. Sellers began listing all sorts of odd things and buyers actually bought them. The site could almost be left alone to run itself. EBay had been designed from the start to collect a small fee on each sale. When the fees became more than Omidyar's current salary, he decided to quit his job and work on the site full-time. In 1996, to make buying and selling safer, he added feedback facilities to let buyers and sellers rate each other.
In 1997, Omidyar changed AuctionWeb's name to eBay. He spent a lot of money on advertising and had the eBay logo designed. It was in this year that the one-millionth item was sold.
EBay became a massive site with people selling more than just collectibles. You could sell anything, large or small. In 1998 eBay became big business.
In 1999 eBay went worldwide with sites being launched in Australia, the UK and Germany. EBay bought half.com, an Amazon-like online retailer, in the year 2000. The same year it introduced Buy it Now. In 2002 eBay bought PayPal.
Pierre Omidyar has earned an estimated $3 billion from eBay and still serves as Chairman of the Board. All over the world, millions of items are bought and sold every day on eBay. It is estimated that $14 is spent on eBay for every $100 spent online worldwide.
Now that you know the history of eBay, perhaps you'd like to know how it could work for you? People are making great money from eBay. It isn't unusual to hear of people making thousands of dollars per month. Even if you don't want to quit your job and really go for it, you can still use eBay to make a significant second income.
Remember, there is always someone who wants what you're selling. Since they come to you, you don't even need to do anything to get them to buy it. If you can post things, you can do it. EBay tears down the barriers that the real world constantly puts up. EBay does not care who you are, where you live, or what you look like. You can forget the job interview and forget the commute.
and build a successful online niche business for yourself. For more EBay information, visit the site. You will be glad you did!
Here is my 10 step path to eBay selling success. Follow these 10 steps to be a eBay seller success story.
Step 1: Identify your particular market. Take a while to sit and watch for what sells and what doesn't out of the items you're interested in selling. Any market research data you can collect will be very useful to you later on. You'll probably see those one or two items that always seem to sell for a good price.
Step 2: Watch your competition and see what they do. Before you invest any money, see what the other sellers in your category are up to, and what their eBay marketing strategies are. Pay special attention to any flaws their auctions might have, because this is where you can move in and beat them at their own selling game.
Step 3: Find a product you want to sell: Get hold of a drop shipper supplier for whatever it is you want to sell, and see what the best rates you can get are. Don't be afraid to ring round quite a few to get the best deal. If the eBay prices you've seen are higher than the supplier's, then you're set. Use a good wholesaler to buy products and sell for profit.
Step 4: Start small: Don't spend lots of money on your eBay business right away. Start slowly, see what works and what doesn't, and learn as you go along. Remember that it's very cheap to try out even the wildest ideas on eBay, and who knows, they might just work out after all.
Step 5: Test and keep repeaing. Keep trying different eBay marketing strategies until you find something that works good, and then don't be ashamed to keep doing it, again and again. The chances are that you've just found a good niche product.
Step 6: Draw out a eBay business plan: A eBay business plan doesn't need to be anything elaborate, just a few pages that outline the market opportunity you've spotted, your strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a brief budget.
Step 7: Invest and expand the plan: This is the time to throw money at the problem. Buy product inventory, and start spending more time on your eBay business. Set a goal number of sales each week, increasing it each time.
Step 8: Make it official: Once you've made some sales and are growing, you should register yourself as a business. Don't worry, it's not expensive or hard to do. A lawyer is the best person to help you through this process.
Step 9: Automate the selling process: You'll probably find that you're writing the same things again and again in emails or item descriptions. This is the time to give up on the manual method and turn to automated software that can create listings for you, and respond to completed auctions and payments with whatever message you provide.
Step 10: Don't give up: Even when it looks like it's all going wrong, don't stop trying to sell on ebay until you succeed. If you keep working at it then you'll almost always find that you make a real breakthrough just when things are starting to look desperate.
Once you get into the swing of things, you might start thinking that you should quit your job and take up eBay selling full time. There are all sorts of factors that you need to consider. I recommend selling on eBay part time. It is a great way to make extra money. If your eBay business grows to the level that want to go full time. That would be great. It is possible and many people are living the eBay dream working at home.
Are you at a loss for wholesale products to sell on eBay? Do you want to find reputable wholesale distributors? is the best place to find legitimate, pre-screened wholesalers, dropshippers, liquidators and manufacturers for every type of product imaginable.
About the Author:
Learn more about . Stop by Todd Schuyler's site where you can find out all about and what it can do for you.
Here is my 10 step path to eBay selling success. Follow these 10 steps to be a eBay seller success story.
Step 1: Identify your particular product market. Take a while to sit and watch for what sells and what doesn't out of the items you're interested in selling. Any market research data you can collect will be very useful to you later on. You'll probably see those one or two items that always seem to sell for a good price.
Step 2: Watch your competition. Before you invest any money, see what the other sellers in your category are up to, and what their eBay marketing strategies are. Pay special attention to any flaws their auctions might have, because this is where you can move in and beat them at their own selling game.
Step 3: Find a product to sell: Get hold of a supplier for whatever it is you want to sell, and see what the best rates you can get are. Don't be afraid to ring round quite a few to get the best deal. If the eBay prices you've seen are higher than the supplier's, then you're set.
Step 4: Start out small: Don't throw lots of money at your idea right away. Start out slowly, see what works and what doesn't work, and learn as you go along. Remember that it's very cheap to try out different eBay selling strategies.
Step 5: Test and repeat. Keep trying different eBay marketing strategies until you find something that works well, and then don't be ashamed to keep doing it, again and again. The chances are that you've just found a good niche product.
Step 6: Work out a eBay business plan: A eBay business plan doesn't need to be anything formal, just a few pages that outline the market opportunity you've spotted, your strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a brief budget. This is more for you than it is for anyone else.
Step 7: Invest and expand the plan: This is the time to start spending more money. Buy product inventory, and start spending more time on your eBay business. Set a goal number of sales each week, increasing it each time.
Step 8: Make it official: Once you've made a few thousand dollars worth of sales, you should register yourself as a business. Don't worry, it's not expensive or hard to do. A lawyer is the best person to help you through this process.
Step 9: Automate the selling process: You'll probably find that you're writing the same things again and again in emails or item descriptions. This is the time to give up on the manual method and turn to automated software that can create listings for you, and respond to completed auctions and payments with whatever message you provide.
Step 10: Never give up: Even when it looks like it's all going wrong, don't stop trying to sell on ebay until you succeed. If you keep working at it then you'll almost always find that you make a real breakthrough just when things are starting to look desperate.
Once you get into the swing of things, you might start thinking that you should quit your job and take up eBay selling full time. But it's not always as easy as that. There are all sorts of factors that you need to consider. I recommend selling on eBay part time. It is a great way to make extra money.
Want to find products to sell on eBay? is the best place to find legitimate, pre-screened wholesalers, dropshippers, liquidators and manufacturers for every type of product imaginable.
About the Author:
Want to find out more about , then visit Todd Schuyler's site on how to choose the best for your needs.
If you hope to own an eBay business, and make a
full time living at it, you can easily make that dream
come true - even if you don't have a product of your
own to sell. eBay provides many people who want to
quit their corporate nine-to-five jobs with a way to
make a good living, without having to put up a lot of
start up capital. This is made possible with the help
of drop shippers. Drop shippers send merchandise to
the customers of business owners. If you have an
eBay business, you are a business owner. This will
allow you to offer a wide variety of stock in your
eBay store, without having the need to warehouse
all of those products!
Just set up your auction, and sell
the product. You then pass the customer's
information on to the drop shipping company. The
drop shipper does the rest, and they will even use
your company information, as well as your company
logo if you have provided it to them. When the product
arrives at your customer's home, they will have no idea
that your company didn't send it. The drop shipper
will package, label, and ship the products that you
sell, allowing you more time to set up even more
auctions, for greater profits.
You must establish a relationship with several drop
shipping companies in order to become successful.
In the beginning, some companies will require you to
pay for the items that your customers order before
they are shipped. You need to fill orders in a
timely manner, so you should pay for the items with
a credit card for speedy service. Eventually, you will
be able to have the drop shipper fill your orders, and
then bill you for them later.
When you set up your eBay auctions, make sure
that your reserve price is set higher than the price
that the drop shipper will be charging you for the
item. The idea, of course, is to earn a profit!
Depending on the item you are selling, a markup
of about 10% should be about right, but you should
do some research to see if the item is selling for a
lower price in another eBay auction, or through
other online sources.
By starting an eBay business using the drop
shipping method, there is essentially no financial risk
involved. The product will be sold before you pay the
drop shipper for the item. This is one of the few
businesses where you can actually make a profit
before you have spent any money!
The key to successful drop shipping on eBay is to sell lots of items and make a small profit off each one of them. Say you sell 1000 items but you make 3 dollars off each one for a total of $3000.00 in profits minus the auction fees. If you want some good drop shipping resources I recommend the .
About the Author:
Learn more about . Stop by Todd Schuyler's site where you can find out all about and what it can do for you.