The joys of Ebay
I made my first eBay sale last week. It was very exciting. I sold a fountain pen set I bought a year ago and used only once.
I’ve been wanting to get on the eBay gravy train, and the fountain pen set was my intro into the seller’s side of things. In many ways it was the perfect first sale: I had no emotional attachment to it, it was in very good condition, and had high gift potential. I started the bidding at .99 and sold it 7 days later for 15.50 plus shipping.
This doesn’t impress you? Fine. No one else was very impressed either. But consider this: that set wasn’t intended to make me a lot of money. Its purpose was to establish my credibility as a seller. I intentionally listed one product and one product only. I wanted to make this sale go off perfectly. It did.
Sometimes, as a freelancer, you have to look at something other than the current bottom line. I intend to run an eBay store just as soon as I finish testing various products to sell. In the meantime, I’m going to develop a very good reputation on eBay so that, when I am there primarily to make money, I’ll start making it.
If you’re new to freelancing, remember that you have to do two things. You have to build your expertise and you have to build your reputation. Sometimes that means working for free, or for a reduced profit. I’m not saying you should run a charity. Just don’t automatically turn away from work because it isn’t highly profitable. If it can lead directly to a high paying gig, then the current pay-cut is worth it.