My mother's next door neighbor does that....makes a living off of ebay selling clothing and midevil collectables......makes enogh to pay for his lot rent (its a mobile home park) and utilities and food. Everything else is paid for as far as I know (car is a junker and the house was an inheritence, this I do know).

So, it can be done, but you have to have the right living situation. I know of another guy who makes a living off of ebay selling model trains and such. HO scale, Lionel, etc. He used to own a hobby shop, but the overhead got to be to much, so now he does ebay exclusively. Of course he is living out of his RV now, but to each is own.....

I don't think I could ever make a living off of selling drums and such on ebay. I've tried in the past, but it's too touch and go for me. I like the "security" of knowing I'm going to have a steady paycheck every week (for now anyway) and don't mind getting some extra spending money playing out on the occasional weekend gig.

As another aside, a couple of good friends of mine makes a living at doing what they love to do....music! A drummer friend of mine gigs constantly, and teaches as well (he's a Berklee grad and a fine drummer to boot!) and a guitar friend of mine does the same....gigs and teaches. They do what they love and can eek out a living at it too....man I wish I'd have done that years ago instead of grabbing the secure day gig.....

There are eBay brick and mortar stores located throughout the USA (and probably the world) who do exactly what you're talking about. Many of them seem to crash and burn but a ton of them make a decent living.

One such franchise is called iSold it. There are others. Some are even licensed to use the eBay logo.

eBay is pretty darn big. 60 BILLION dollars a year in sales. That supports a lot of people and families, I assure you.

Just FYI.. in comparison, WalMart does 260 billion and Sears is about 45 billion.

I wouldn't mind havin' a "ebay store", along with my day job. Would be a nice way of makin' a little cash or extra drum money.

Steve

It's not hard to establish. Start spreading the word to your "non-computer savvy" friends and in a very short time you'll have more stuff than you'll have time to sell.

Charge them about 10% plus any fees (eBay and Paypal) and they'll be thrilled.

Some of them will have a $50 item they think is worth $5000 but other than those people, you'll not have many problems.

It doesn't take long before you're using templates and other shortcuts that will allow you to put auctions on rather quickly.

When eBay first came out, I would have 20 or 30 auctions running at all times. I finally, simply, ran out of crap to sell. LOL I run an occasional auction now but I buy a lot more than I sell. LOL

eBay has been a dream come true for me (as a big buyer of toys).

Buy a toy on eBay using Paypal

Get tired of toy

Sell toy on eBay and money goes into your Paypal account

Buy a toy on eBay using Paypal

Get tired of toy

Sell toy on eBay and money goes into your Paypal account

Buy.... well, you get it. LOL

I call it "trading my crap for your crap". LOL