The question I am asked most often is "I want to start selling on the internet, but what should I sell?"

Deciding what to sell is often the most difficult obstacle to overcome in starting your e-business. My standard answer is "Sell what you know." That means simply this,,, Sell things you have around the house first. Use this as your learning starting point. Most often people want to start selling high dollar items first, and this in my mind is a mistake. It takes time to develop your niche, or your product line on eBay. There are literally hundreds is not thousands of people selling the same type of items you hope to sell. Many will have had much more experience than the new seller, and these experienced sellers have cultivated their customer base to create return buyers who tend to watch sellers they like.

As a new seller, entering a highly competitive marketplace you must research your intended product line, sales history on the internet and competition. There are several ways to do this, but the easiest and least expensive is using the "Completed Listings" feature on eBay. Simply type in the item you want to know about, such as Roseville Vase, in the search box and it will bring up all listings currently on eBay with Roseville Vase in the title. Once this search result opens, you can see how many items currently are listed on eBay, and review the prices, how the titles and then descriptions where written, view how pictures look etc. Again, this is a view at the currently listed items. To see past auctions (within the past 30 days) look on the left of the screen for Completed Listings. Check the box and click on Show Listings. This will bring up a completed search of the items listed in the past 30 days. This can show you how many were listed, how many sold, what prices were obtained, etc.

Doing research BEFORE you list an item on eBay will often result in more hits or views of your item and this can result in higher bids.