Successful eBay sellers don’t sustain long term success by accident. They have a goal and a well thought out plan of how they intend to go about reaching that goal.

Granted, on occasion someone may be left their great aunt’s collection of dolls or Teco pottery and suddenly their eBay fortunes soar. But once the dolls or Teco have all been sold, without a goal and a plan, they are right back where they were - trying to figure out how come eBay isn’t working for them.

Look at anyone who has found long-term success on eBay and you will see someone who knows exactly where they are going and how they plan to go about getting there.

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Microsoft to buy eBay?

Here’s an interesting link I discovered on eBay’s Book Seller’s Forum earlier today - Microsoft to buy eBay? along with several bloggers’ reactions to the story.

The New York Post story says that according to multiple sources “Microsoft has considered buying eBay and merging it with its MSN portal - a deal that would give MSN and eBay considerable clout to take on Google.”

Certainly food for thought. Personally, I’d hate to see it happen but I also think that eBay may be really struggling right now to keep it’s numbers up and sustain growth in the auction sector.

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Have you ever thought what it would like to be able to turn into your favorite animal? You probably haven’t, but the chances are good that your children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews have, and that leads to a garage sale tip - Animorphs books.

If you don’t already know, Animorphs is a series of science fiction books for children written by K.A. Applegate and published by Scholastic. The ongoing series, which now includes more than 50 books, has attracted a huge number of young readers along with a fair number of older collectors.

Because many of the children who read them become avid fans, you can often find complete, or near complete, series at garage sales for anywhere from $5 to $20.

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A second characteristic of successful eBay sellers is that they are nearly all self-starters.

The world is full of people who will never succeed at anything for the simple reason that they never get started. They spend all their time dreaming, researching, and talking about what they are sure will bring them success and riches. It never will though, because they never get past the dreaming and talking stage.

You see eBay dreamers everywhere. They show up on an eBay discussion forum asking what to sell and how to get started, and they are still there asking the same questions two years later.

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A deep seated burning desire to succeed is an essential characteristic of successful eBay sellers and is a characteristic found in every successful eBay seller I know.

When I first started selling on eBay I’d just quit my job. I’d spent nearly 30 years working for other people and there was no way I wanted to go back to doing that again.

At the same time, I had various financial obligations that needed to be met every month and knew that I couldn’t meet those obligations out of savings forever. If I was going to start, and build, my own business it had be one that would start providing enough profit to meet my financial obligations within a few months or I would have to go back to working for someone else.

That was my burning desire - to never have to work for someone else again.

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Darren Rowse of ProBlogger has a blog post today called 10 Habits Of Highly Effective ProBloggers . Many of the basic habits Darren talks about are just as applicable to successful eBay sellers as they are to effective bloggers, however I prefer to think of them as characteristics rather than habits.

Starting tomorrow, and continuing over the next few days, I’m going to look at how some of the characteristics Darren talks about apply to successful eBay sellers and then look at some additional characteristics that most successful eBay sellers have.

Becoming a successful eBay seller doesn’t just happen overnight. It’s a process that evolves over time as you develop a work ethic, skills, and attitudes that eventually make you more successful.

As Darren states:

“Some of these habits seem to come pretty naturally but many need to be practiced and intentionally worked upon. “

That’s important. While most potential successful eBay sellers may already display some of these characteristics, other’s will need to be intentionally put into practice until they become something you do without even thinking about it.

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This week has been the unofficial opening of the garage sale season in Grand Forks with nearly 150 sales spread over the last three days - Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

I was at each of those sales on the day they opened and, while I did buy a few things, when I got home after today’s sales I had a lot more cash in my pocket than I would have liked to. I talked to about a dozen other serious buyers today and all except one was complaining about the lack of quality items to be found for resale.

The one person who was happy with the weekend is a young lady who buys baby and young children’s cloths to sell on eBay. There were plenty of those and the back of her van was filled with boxes and bags so she was smiling.

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The majority of what I sell on eBay I buy from antique shops, antique malls, and larger flea markets. To do that, I spend a considerable amount of time each month on buying trips throughout North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Most of the trips last for five to seven days with the first and last day mostly spent driving if the area I’m going to is several hundred miles from Grand Forks. Once I’m in the area I intend to shop in though, each day is pretty much the same.

5:57 AM - My inner alarm still goes off no matter where I am.

6:00 AM - If there’s a coffee maker in the motel room it gets turned on and I head for the shower.

6:20 AM - Having showered, shaved, and dressed I need coffee. If need be I make a trip to the motel lobby and bring two to three cups back to the room.

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Within the last couple of days several people have written and asked about how much time I spend looking for inventory, doing research, writing auction descriptions, and other time consuming eBay related activities. Rather than answer each one individually, I thought I’d share with you what a typical day Auction Rebel day was like.

Naturally, no two days are exactly alike. Each day differs somewhat because of non-eBay commitments, what day of the week it is, whether I’m at home or on a buying trip, and what kind of mood I’m in.

However, this should give you a general idea of what my days include when I’m at home during the garage sale season. Tomorrow I’ll talk about how they differ when I’m on a buying trip.

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If you sell on eBay there are three things you can be certain of - death, taxes, and the dreaded eBay summer slow-down.

Within the last week there have been several posts on eBay related forums and news groups complaining about falling sales. Whenever this happens there are always plenty of other sellers who eagerly jump on the bandwagon by adding their sales woes to the conversation and then offering reasons why it’s to be expected.

High of the list of reasons for slow sales this time of year is the annual eBay summer slow-down.

Other reasons why buyers don’t buy I’ve seen put forth include:

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