eBay has been “berry, berry” good to me. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it has changed my life in many ways—all for the better. I started out on the site back in 1997. At the time, I was obsessed with collecting fountain pens. I bought a Mont Blanc Meisterstuck from a fellow in Germany for less than $70, and I was hooked.

 

My first book to touch on eBay was called Internet Auctions for Dummies. It was published around the same time another author published a book called eBay for Dummies. Guess which book has gone into several editions and been a big success? Not mine. However, it’s quite possible that I have written more books about eBay than anyone else. Since that first auction related book, I’ve done How to Do Everything with your eBay Business, How to Do Everything with eBay, Collector’s Guide to eBay, Fundraising with eBay, Secrets of the eBay Millionaires, Selling Beyond eBay…you get the idea.

 

The thing I really like about writing these books is meeting the people who buy and sell on eBay. The vast majority are friendly, regular folks who have been generous and helpful with their information. Even the millionaires I’ve profiled are down-to-earth types who work really hard.

 

I met a lot of the most successful eBay sellers at a conference in Atlanta in 2005. When I talked to them and listened to their stories, I realized two things:

 

• These people are no smarter than I am
• They simply have more “gumption” and business sense than I do
• I can do what they’re doing if I work hard enough

 

I guess that’s three things. I’m not sure how to define “gumption.” It has to do with “guts” or “chutzpah.”

 

I was inspired, in the course of writing up the book Secrets of the eBay Millionaires, to start selling on eBay myself. (Yes, I confess, I had already written several books about eBay without ever having sold a thing on the site.) This turned out to be a revelation to me. I liked scrounging for things to sell; I liked putting the sales online; my addictive impulses were satisfied by being able to watch bids come in and add up sales figures every week. Within three months, I had reached PowerSeller status. I was able to hang on to this for a year or more; I got too busy with book writing and had to cut back, and since that time, I’m a plain old eBay seller. My user ID is byte-writer. My eBay Store: http://stores.ebay.com/Greg-Holdens-Great Buys.

 

I learned so much about selling that it was like discovering eBay all over again. I made probably every mistake a seller can fall into: mixing up photos; getting sizes and details wrong; even mixing up shipments, so two individuals in two different parts of the country got the wrong pairs of shoes. In every case, buyers have been patient and tolerant with me. In the case of the mixed up shipment, I sent the buyers money and they were OK with shipping the shoes to each other. It was a humbling and heartening experience. I was able to work all that I have learned about selling into several books:

 

• How to Do Everything with Your eBay Business, Second Edition
• 1000 eBay Sales Secrets
• eBay PowerUsers Bible, Second Edition

 

I’m really pleased with the amount of real-world experience I was able to add to those books. I am convinced that eBay works because it appeals to people’s good nature, not their bad nature. The bad side comes out, to be sure. But to buy and sell successfully and maintain good feedback, you have to behave well.