Interview with an ebay master, and my notes on his secrets

I chatted tonight with a guy earning an income from ebay and asked his secrets. It is actually very simple.

Here is what I have learnt:

- There are no secrets except that you must learn and grow as you go along.
- Buy things at the last minute, but decide on the price you're willing to pay beforehand.
- Measure reasonable price ranges by watching other items exactly this yours past sale.
- Ripoff merchants are exposed by feedback, positive negative or neutral.
- Go to garage sales and pick up stuff for a dollar and resell and dozens of time the price.
- Long hard experience is the only way to be able to do that reliably.
- Watch emotions and don't become excited or overspend.
- Specialization and experience are key to sales.
- In general antiques sell for roughly a third of the price they do in antique stores.
- Christmas decorations, especially old types, are valuable.
- Paypal is mostly for international payment; the commonest are direct deposits in sellers' accounts.
- Start small and build up.
- You always regret overspending, and you can only seldom cancel a bid, which is a binding contract.

So tonight I signed up on ebay. I'll keep you posted on my progress.