Online Auction Selling - Hobby or Home Business Opportunity?
A Home Business Article Contributed by Elizabeth Fox-Wise
Is Online Auction Selling the Latest Home Business Opportunity or Merely a Hobby?
Millions of people throughout the world are selling on Ebay and other online auction sites - hobby or home business opportunity? The verdict is still out!
The answer to this question apparently depends on who you ask.
Some Online Auction Sellers will tell you that the high cost of listing fees and commissions, along with the costs for automatic payments, electronic banking and credit card acceptance is eating into their meager profits and turning their home business opportunity into more or a hobby.
They will site the ever increasing shipping rates through US Postal and other carriers such as UPS, as being another thing that has eaten into their profit. While it is typical for the customer to pay the cost of shipping, the seller realizes that the market will only bear a certain price for an item and he has to meet or beat that price even AFTER the cost of shipping is added to the total.
These people say that the profit left after everything is accounted for is really not worth the time spent to generate the money. But many of them still continue to put items out to auction each week. Why? Because they enjoy it. Because it is an online hobby that they can do which pays for itself and makes a few extra dollars to help out with the extras.
But for Others, Online Auctions are Indeed a Fantastic Home Business Opportunity!
Other Online Auction Sellers will tell a different story. For them, Online Auction Sites have provided them with a wonderful home business opportunity in the ecommerce world that they feel they would not have had without these auction sites. These sellers realize that building a home business opportunity off a successful business is often much easier than building a home business from scratch. They site the following:
Ebay is the number one online auction site, with over 1.5 billion page views per month and more than 1000 categories, they do the advertising and have the reputation to bring customers TO YOU saving you advertising costs. They get them in the door it is up to you to make the sale.
The Auction Site does much of the work for you. Providing standard formats for the Sellers to insert information and set up automatic auctions. The Auction site will also typically assist in communications between buyer and seller. As well other support that they offer.
So What is the Key to Success with Auctions As a Home Business Opportunity?
As with most home business opportunities, to be successful at online auction sales also takes time to learn the business and fine tune your auction and customer skills.
But perhaps the biggest key to success with online auctions is finding the right product(s) to sell and finding the products inexpensively enough to allow for a profit when they sell. With over 1000 categories on Ebay alone, you can sell virtually anything on online auction sites. But choosing what to sell can often be overwhelming.
