Be careful not to become a bore. I have discovered the joy of selling on eBay. When I was in the corporate world I used to do a lot of coaching. Mostly it was sales related in order to enhance business performance.

It is very enjoyable when you get the right responses from your colleagues and improvements start to come through. I love negotiating and we all do a lot of negotiating.

Think about that. When a child persuades you to buy an ice cream they have negotiated with you - and won. When you decide to do something with your partner you have been negotiating. We do it all of the time.

So when in a selling situation I loved it when we came to the end of the negotiation and agreed on a sale. When coaching I used to joke with my people that getting the order was better than sex.

That's meant to be a joke but there's no doubt I get a kick from making a sale and now that I have found eBay I'm getting that kick again. I recently wrote about selling a golf related item that was going for recycling.

I mentioned this to my golfing friends and one said that he had a 1949 Ryder Cup Programme, would I like to try to sell it for him? So off I go new to eBay but always willing to try. Are you ahead of me because you know what can be done on eBay. It sold, it sold very well. In excess of $300 for a 1949 black and white sporting programme.

I may be coming an eBay bore but where else can you do business with no cost to yourself and for the business to be self-financing from the start? It was recently estimated that the average household in the UK contains £3,000 of saleable items that would sell on eBay.

My eBay fun started by me selling our un-wanted items. That led onto me selling for a commission. You didn't think that I sold the Ryder Cup Programme with no recompense did you?

You can also do joint ventures with other eBayers as you build your list. Your products to their list. Their products to your list. Introduce them to each other for a commission on their sales.

EBay bore I may be but I have just given you 5 business ideas all stemming from eBay possibilities and I am sure I am about to find more. Have a look at joint venturing on eBay.

The optimist says we live in the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true.

Best wishes,

Michael Harrison.

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