eBay

The online auction website was founded as AuctionWeb in San Jose, CA, on September 3, 1995, by Pierre Omidyar as part of his own personal site. In 1997, the company received approximately $5 million in funding from the venture capital firm Benchmark Capital and quickly became an industry giant with headquarters in San Diego.

eBay is a one-stop solution for people who want to make money on the Internet. Whether you just want to sell a few items that you don't use any more or your want to develop a  home based business, eBay it easy for you. eBay can help you drive targeted traffic towards your sales, process the order on your behalf and accept payment though PayPal. All you have to do is to ship the item to the winning bidder.

The biggest advantage of selling on eBay is that the majority of visitors are there to buy. They are just waiting for the right item.

So why do they flock to eBay? Almost anything that they may want to buy, whether it’s large or small, cheap or expensive, a neccesity or luxury, commonly used or plain weird stuff, chances are it can be found on eBay. It’s by far the largest auction site in the world and there's a lot of unusual items worth searching for. It is an online marketplace where you can buy things from all over the world, without leaving your home. You can find things that younever expected and you can buy them cheaply. eBay's powerful search engine makes it possible find things you’ll like without even knowing exactly what you may be looking for.

eBay Stores

Maximize your success the easy way with the selling power of an eBay Store:

• Get everything you need to succeed: Powerful marketing features
  

• Design and customization tools
  

• Easy listing management
  

• Advanced reporting
  

• Exclusive access to Store Inventory listing Format
  

• Dedicated toll-free customer support
  

75% of eBay Stores sellers surveyed said that opening an eBay Store increased their sales. How does opening an eBay Store increase your sales? eBay Stores provides powerful tools to build, manage, promote, and track your business.

Take your sales to the next level with these built-in benefits of an eBay Store. You can create your own web presence in minutes, geting instant credibility with customizable display settings, templates and other advantages. You can customize up to 300 categories so shoppers can browse your virtual shelves. This is a great way to boost your brand. Include your brand in listings with merchandising features just for Stores sellers.

Prohibited or Restricted Items

In the beginning eBay was pretty much unregulated. However, as the site grew, it became necessary to restrict or forbid auctions for various items. Regional laws and regulations may apply to the seller or the buyer. Some of the banned or restricted categories:

• Tobacco (tobacco-related items and collectibles are accepted.)
  

• Alcohol (alcohol-related collectibles, including sealed containers, as well as some wine sales by licensed sellers are allowed)
  

• Drugs and drug paraphernalia
  

• Nazi paraphernalia
  

• Bootleg recordings
  

• Firearms and ammunition, including any parts that could be used to assemble a firearm as well as any firearm part that is required for the firing of a gun, including bullet tips, brass casings and shells, barrels, slides, cylinders, magazines, firing pins, trigger assemblies, etc. Crossbows and various types of knives are also forbidden.
  

• Used underwear and dirty used clothing
  

• Teachers' editions of textbooks including home school teacher's editions
  

• Human parts and remains (with an exception for skeletons and skulls for scientific study, provided they are not Native American in origin)
  

• Live animals (with certain exceptions)
  

• Certain copyrighted works or trademarked items.
  

• Lock-picking tools, accessories, and practice locks fall into the category of burglar tools.
  

• Lottery tickets, sweepstakes tickets, or any other gambling items.
  

• Military hardware such as working weapons or explosives.
  

• Virtual items from massively multiplayer online games, restrictions which vary by country
  

• Many other items are either wholly prohibited or restricted in some manner.
  

• Non-physical items no longer can be sold through eBay. They can only be advertised through classified ads on eBay and do not get feedback.
  

• Ivory products
  

Lead Generator

You may use eBay strictly as a lead generator. If you browse the closed auctions, you’ll see some sellers who consistently seem to be making very little on the products they sell. They may even be taking a loss.

Why would someone lose money on eBay on purpose?

The answer is that they are using eBay as their lead generator. They are selling some low-cost products in order to pull people into their sales funnel. Then the seller tries to convince them to buy some more products, including some more expensive products via email or even postal mail by using postcards, letters or catalogues.