The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting an Ebay Business (Complete Idiot's Guides) [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

Barbara Weltman (Author), Malcolm Katt (Author), Rebecca Gallagher (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2008 | Series: Complete Idiot's Guides

You're no idiot of course, You know that many people sell items on eBay to supplement their income - and that many more have constructed their own e-stores as full-time sellers, able to earn a living wage.  But if you think selling things in the virtual world is as simple as posting photos of your wares, you need a reality check. The Complete Idiot’s Guide ® to Starting an eBay® Business will show you exactly how to set up your Internet shop—and how to distinguish yourself from the competition. In this revised and updated Complete Idiot’s Guide®, you get:

 

• Tips on managing multiple sales through the eBay® auction process.
• Advice on collecting payment using PayPal and other methods.
• Expert explanation of legal issues including business licenses, tax IDs, and eBay®
• policies.
• Surefire strategies for becoming a PowerSeller.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Barbara Weltman is a home-based attorney, a nationally-known expert on business and tax planning, a writer for Inc.com, and serves as the small business expert for the online tax center at Staples.com.  Her free newsletter, "Barbara Weltman's Big Ideas for Small Business," procides a wealth of information valued by entrepreneurs.  The author of several books on succeeding in your own business including J.K. Lasser's Small Business Taxes, Sixth Edition, Barbara has appeared in many national media outlets including CNBC, CNN, WNBC-TV, The Wall Street Journal, USA Radio Network and Consumers Digest.

 

Malcolm Katt is an eBay PowerSeller and newsletter writer.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Oasis Audio; Abridged edition (February 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598593315
• ISBN-13: 978-1598593310
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,533,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Covers all the basics of starting an online ebay business, May 10, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting an Ebay Business (Mass Market Paperback)

Covers all the basics of starting an online ebay business, from insurance coverage and handling sales tax quirks between states to advertising, promotion, accepting and pursuing payments and more. Those who recall the old ebay auction-only model will find much changed: you can now set up a shop with fixed prices on ebay and Starting An eBay Business covers both stores and auction formats.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For ultra-beginners, April 16, 2008

By 

H. Grove "Errant Dreams Reviews" (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting an eBay Business, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

This guide assumes nothing about your level of internet experience or how much you already know about the kind of business you want to run, and that's both a positive and a negative. On the one hand, if you're new to the internet and want to make money on eBay (after all, it can be a great boon to disabled and housebound people), you'll probably be grateful for such basic information as how to register for a PayPal account and how to determine what you might want to sell. On the other hand, if you already have some internet experience and a basic idea of what you want to sell, then a good portion of this book will be irrelevant to you.

A pet peeve of mine in such guides is the screen-by-screen walk-through of website registration processes and the like. If you can't figure out how to make it through the well-labeled form of a registration process, you're unlikely to have the brainpower to run your own business. In addition, websites change frequently. If there are folks out there who need to be hand-held through the process of signing up for an eBay account, then those same folks are presumably going to flounder if they get to said process and the form doesn't look like the screenshot in the book. Usually CIG's are good about not including so much of this kind of space-waster.

While it's true that plenty of other information in here will also change (such as monthly fees for various services), such information is at least moderately useful since it'll give the reader a ballpark idea of, say, what they might expect to pay for various types of eBay accounts or storefronts. Do remember to double-check any fees, terms of use, etc. rather than assuming they'll remain unchanged from whatever's in the book.

This is definitely a handy book---don't get me wrong. And if you're starting from zero with no experience in running a business, selling online, using PayPal, etc., then it's probably exactly what you want. It just seems to me that in trying to cover both the totally inexperienced newbie and the more focused or experienced businessperson, they've virtually guaranteed that no matter who you are, a good chunk of this book will be irrelevant to you.

Which might not be as bad if it weren't so darn dry.

2.0 out of 5 stars Ok book, March 9, 2011

By 

Toni R. Wise "toni4567" (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting an Ebay Business (Mass Market Paperback)

This book didn't really provide any information that wasn't easily accessible online. This would be a good book for someone with no ebay knowledge.