December, 2009 – Tech Talk

Tech Talk

By Jamie Allison

It’s amazing what you can buy and sell online these days. Some people I know make a living sitting at home running their own little online store selling anything from collectibles to cars.

I was a big comic book collector back in the mid 80’s and still have my collection. What better way to sell them then eBay. Over the years I have sold off most of the collection and I have made really good extra money doing so. These days I usually sell kids toys, clothes and accessories that my son no longer can fit into or is too old to play with anymore; and these items seem to be very popular.

Anybody can set up an eBay account in a few minutes and start selling items and create an online store. Like I mentioned, I know a few people who do this for a living and make very good money doing it; you just have to know what to sell and how to sell it. When the online auction craze was new, you could look in your local newspaper and find garage sales and pick up some really nice things very cheap and turn around and sell them on eBay and make a fortune but I think it’s much harder to do so since most people know what their stuff is worth and will not just give it away at a garage sale for $1.00 when they can look it up online and find out what it’s really worth.

With more than 88 million active users globally, eBay is the world’s largest online marketplace, where practically anyone can buy and sell practically anything. Founded in 1995, eBay connects a diverse and passionate community of individual buyers and sellers, as well as small businesses. Their collective impact on e-commerce is staggering: In 2008, the total worth of goods sold on eBay was $60 billion — $2,000 every second.

A funny piece of trivia…The very first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83.

By the way, eBay is not the only online site you can buy and sell things. There are many other smaller sites that you can use such as Craigslist. Craigslist is a centralized network of online communities, featuring free online classified advertisements with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, services, community, gigs, resumes, and discussion forums. I have been using Craigslist for a few years now and it’s a great way to buy and sell stuff very quick and easy and posting ads are free except in a few areas. The fees listed below are directly from www.craigslist.org

All Craigslist postings are free, except for:

Job posts in the San Francisco Bay Area. The fee for posting a job in the SF Bay Area is $75. This fee pays for one job in one category. (One job posted in two different categories would cost $150.)

Job posts in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Orange County, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, Seattle, South Florida, and Washington DC.

Brokered apartment rental listings in New York. The fee for posting a brokered apartment rental in New York City is $10.

Posts in adult services and therapeutic services on Craigslist sites in the United States. The fee for posting ads in these categories is $10. Live approved ads can be re-posted for $5.