Let’s Start This!

If you're reading this, you're probably interested in learning how to make some money online. I'll tell you right up front that I'm not a "guru" and I'm not going to promise you a million dollars by the end of the month. My name is Mike. My wife and I both work full time and we've got three great kids. I suppose we're your "average" middle class family and I'm thrilled with all we've got.

I'm here writing this blog because I think we are also typical of many American families in that we are feeling the pinch of rising prices everywhere we turn. A trip to the gas station and the grocery store can easily top $200. That stinks. Knowing how to sell things on eBay for a nice profit is a big help.

Perhaps some history would be a good thing to add at this point. Back on February 5, 2006, my wife and I were pretty excited about watching our favorite football team (the Pittsburgh Steelers) play in Super Bowl XL. I personally, had also been thinking about ways to make more money without getting a second job that would keep me away from my family. The Steelers won the big game that night and as I went to bed I was struck with the thought that someone in another part of the country might be interested in having the next day's local newspaper. I had never sold anything on eBay before, but the seed had been planted!

I set my alarm and woke up the next morning around 4:30. I drove to the local mini-mart and bought myself some coffee and 12 issues each of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and the Tribune Review. Both editions had huge headlines and photos celebrating the Steelers win. I hurried home with my papers and turned on the computer. I had no idea how to go about selling on eBay at that point. I had only used eBay to buy some toys for my kids, and half.com (related to eBay) to buy a couple of books. I think my feedback score at the time was four or five.

Looking back, I'm a bit surprised that I figured the whole thing out so quickly while getting ready to leave for work. I took a digital photo of one of the papers and followed the eBay selling instructions. I scheduled a three day auction to start around 8:30 that morning, clicked submit and left for work by 7:00. When I returned home that afternoon I hurried to turn on the computer to see if anything had happened with my auction. I was amazed to see that it had already received bids. I think it was up to about 10 dollars or so. When the auction ended, my 50 cent paper had sold for somewhere around $24. The other papers I listed after I got home from work were also picking up bids. I was hooked.

From that point on I was on a mission to make money using eBay. I made a lot of mistakes and spent a lot of money trying to figure out what to sell and how to sell it. I won't get into that in this post though. As I write this, my feedback is up over 1200 and I'm a Powerseller (although I don't advertise that in my auctions). So many people I've talked to lately have made comments about wanting to learn how to sell on eBay, that I thought this might be a nice way to help them out. If you have helpful comments or experiences to share, that would be great too!

Thanks for reading!