. Go through your house and gather things that you either don't use, or
you just don't "love." If you need any help in this area, go to
www.flylady.net and she can help you. Flylady offers a great system for
helping you de-clutter your homes and simplify your life.

2. If you don't already have one, go to www.ebay.com and set up
an account. It won't cost you anything to get started and if you just get to
the home page you'll find a link that will lead you through the steps to
get set up.

3. Go to www.paypal.com and set up an account so you can start receiving
money from those who buy your items through eBay. It will take you a
few days for PayPal to confirm your account, so this is one of the first
things you need to do. By the time you get your items listed on eBay,
it will be available for you to use.

4. Go to eBay and look up the item you want to sell. Let's say you have
an Olympus camera you want to sell. Go to the "sell" link in eBay and
do a search for your camera. Include the camera name and model number.
You will see a display of all of the cameras, like yours, that are already
on eBay. Don't be discouraged if there are already several others
listed. No two items are exactly alike - you might have the manual
where another one won't; yours might be used where another one might be
brand new. Look at all of them, look at the description, and get an
idea of what your particular item might bring on eBay.

5. For starters, you may want to just go to the "sellers" link and
list your first item, but if you make a practice of listing items,
you will eventually want to download their Turbo Lister software.
It greatly reduces the time you spend listing your items. Once
it's on your computer, you can enter the information whenever you
want and then upload it to eBay when you're ready. This is
especially nice when you want your auction to start or end at a
certain time but know you won't have the time to enter the information
to make that happen. With Turbo Lister, you can upload everything
in one swoop.

6. Decide the lowest price you can or will accept for this item.
Remember that this is an auction and you may not sell it at all,
or you may only get one bid. If you're not willing to sell
Grandma's china for $1.99 then there are a couple of things you
can do. You can either list it at the lowest price you'll take,
or you can start the auction at $.98 and then put a reserve on
it. By including a "reserve" even if people bid on your item,
you don't have to sell it unless they pass your reserve price.
It's good to start with a low price because people feel like
they're getting a bargain and you are more apt to have people
join in a bidding war. If you start a bid too high, you run the risk of
scaring people off. Some people don't like items with a reserve, but
at least you won't have to lose something valuable for $.99.
Start out with things you just want to get rid of until you get a feel
for how the system works.

7. When setting up your account with eBay, be sure to read the
rules and restrictions. The sale of some items is not allowed and
can cause your your eBay account to be suspended. Be sure you know
what you can and cannot sell before you get started. For instance,
you cannot sell fake copies of name brand items, alcohol or
firearms.

8. When establishing your price, realize that you will pay a
listing fee for every item you list. If it sells, you will
also pay a "final value fee." In addition, PayPal will collect
their own fee for handling the transfer of money. Some people
add a $2.00 shipping and handling fee on low priced items just so
they will recoup some of the fees involved.

9. Another thing to think about when listing your item is the
cost involved to ship it. Recently I stated that a glass bowl weighed
1 lb, but that same bowl, wrapped properly to avoid breakage, weighed
5 lbs. Some people pay as soon as they win the auction, so it's good
if you have the weight on your listing so they will pay you the
right amount. After all, you are the one who has listed the amount
and they are paying based on your information. Don't lose money by
having to use part of your profits to pay the shipping.

10. List your auction for 1, 3, 5 or 7 days. If you're selling tickets
to an event, a 1 day listing might be appropriate. Some feel that it's
better to list an item so it ends on a week night and not a weekend,
but others think a weekend is good. It's probably not a good idea to
have your auction end at 6 am EST because that is 3 am PST and you may
miss out on bids from people in that time zone. It's better to have
bids end in the evening at a reasonable time for the general population.
Maybe 10 am PST, 8 CST and 7 EST. Remember that the auction will end
the same time of day that you list it unless you use Turbo Lister, and
then you can set the time you want your listing to start. of course there
is an additional charge for that service.

eBay is a great way to make money at home. In fact, it is rapidly growing
as one of the biggest home-based businesses in the world. With a
bit of preparation and reviewing the eBay website so you'll know what
you're doing, you'll become an expert on it in no time.

Copyright 2005 Joyce Moseley Pierce Joyce is a freelance writer and owner of
Emerson Publications. Her website is designed to help and unite families at
all stages of life. Please visit www.emersonpublications.com to learn
more about working from home, to subscribe to the Family First ezine,
or to read other family-friendly articles.


Joyce is a freelance writer and owner of Emerson Publications. She is also the creator of
“All They’ll Need to Know,” a book that will be invaluable to your loved ones when you can’t
be there to guide them. Visit www.emersonpublications.com for lots of good family-friendly informati