How to make money: A review of my eBay experiences.

"How to make money." Admit it, you've typed this into Google before when you've had a panic about how you are going to pay next months rent. Whether it's searching for a way to scrape together twenty quid, or whether it's trying to find a miraculous idea to make the big bucks, we've all been there.

As a typical student, I can scrape together enough money to buy food, a few bits and bobs every now again, and obviously, enough money for those all important night outs . Nevertheless every time I  come home from uni I am desperate to make some cash, and I reckon that I've tried most of the best options.

Last year I decided that I would become an 'eBay Millionare' and that it was the perfect way to fill my purse. I did my research, and found the best ways that I could make some cash. So these are my advantages and disadvantages of the mega- market.

Advantages:

• As a marketplace, eBay is extremely easy to use. Anybody can sign up, and it is extremely easy to start selling.
• If you have a lot of things to sell, eBay is a quick option. Companies such as MusicMagpie take ages to verify the things that you've sent to them whereas on eBay you can choose to have a short auction and request immediate payment.
• The beauty of eBay is that you can sell pretty much anything on eBay - jars of air, imaginary friends and Tesco bags. If you are selling something that comes in two parts where one part is broken, someone might buy it because they have the other part that works.
• Finally, eBay is reliable. Feedback helps you find out reliable other sellers are, and if you sign up to PayPal you are eligible for refunds when things go wrong. Having accidentally bought a fake iPod off eBay and receiving a full refund, I know that this is an extremely valuable service.

If you have time to spare there are lots of  ways to make money on eBay. Many people have set up small and large businesses buying wholesale goods and selling products off individually. Many people buy things in bulk at car boots and charity shops and then sell them off for much more. In theory, once you have got the hang of it is an extremely easy way to make some cash. I spent hours, searching the house for items to sell, painstakingly taking pictures and writing descriptions of items, and planning the best times of day to list my items. In total I probably made a couple of hundred pounds on eBay, but once I realized the following pitfalls of eBay the pace slowed down.

Disadvantages:

• Unless you are setting up a business selling wholesale goods on eBay, chances are that you have a very finite amount of things to sell. Looking in charity shops for items to sell on eBay takes up far too much time and is too hit or miss to make it worthwhile
• Most items that you will choose to sell on eBay will be either CD's or clothes. eBay is a marketplace - this means that according to the laws of supply and demand, those items with a large supply will sell for extremely small amounts. I choose to buy off eBay because I know that I can buy some half decent stuff for less than a pound. If you think of it the other way round - do you really want to sell something you bought for £25 for 0.99p?
• Once you've sold your t-shirts for 99p or less, you then have to post off the items. This means that first of all you will have to go out and buy brown paper, parcel tape and jiffy bags. Then you have to drive down to the post office, and pay to post the items. Unless you have been extremely vigilant pricing the postage of your items, you will normally find that the cost of posting is more than you expect.
• Finally, eBay and PayPal take a cut of the money you make, which might leave you with a profit of 60p on on your T-shirt that once cost you £25
• Overall, I found that if I used eBay to make money, I would make far less than a minimum wage job would make me. If I eventually managed to make £100 on eBay, I think that I could have easily made at least £500 in that same amount of time working in a shop.

I wholeheartedly recommend using eBay to sell of those more expensive items that you will never use. I have sold old phones, designed label jumpers and limited edition CD'S. For the smaller things however, I recommend using companies such as MusicMagpie. You only make 30p or so per CD, but I  found it much easier to make £60 sending off a box of CD's than it was to spend hours individually selling them on eBay.  When you make a lot of money on these items it is amazing to feel that you have just pocketed £20 on something that would just be lying around in the house. Nevertheless, I still believe that if you took the time to brush up your CV and got a job in a cafe in your nearest town then you would make more money in your first two shifts than you would after a month of using eBay. 

Good Luck!