eBay: The Missing Manual

What Should You Sell?

Start by selling what you already have—stuff you don't have any use for anymore, but that someone else might treasure. That rocking horse your 20-year-old daughter loved when she was a toddler, say, or the 78 RPM records gathering dust in your garage. (Can you say vintage?) Holiday gifts of the I-had-no-idea-they-made-china-this-ugly variety are also a good place to start.

Tip

If you were going to organize a garage sale or list a few things in the classifieds, what would you sell? Use these things to break into selling on eBay.

After you've completed a couple of auctions and know how things work from the seller's side, you can always ramp up your listings. Chapter 7 gives you ideas for where you can find more stuff to sell. But take it slow: if you try to sell more than you can handle when you're still learning, you'll end up with unhappy buyers—and the negative feedback that goes with them.

Also, be aware that there are some things you can't sell on eBay. Some of these aren't surprising, such as guns, human body parts (yuck), drug paraphernalia, pirated CDs or DVDs, and lock-picking devices. Others, however, might surprise you. For example, you can't sell a nonworking antique musket; eBay prohibits the sale of any kind of firearm, although you could sell the individual parts. You also can't sell anything that bears the insignia of the KKK, the SS, or the Nazis, including some authentic World War II memorabilia. Pets, gift cards worth more than $500, television ...