If you combine all the recent changes eBay has made and the direction it now seems to be steering along with the negativity proliferating so many discussion boards, forums, and blogs, it’s easy to get frustrated or discouraged.

However, while most people aren’t talking about it, one fact remains. eBay is still the best place on the net to sell antiques and collectibles - bar none.

For the average seller of antiques and collectibles, all the talk about other venues is just that - talk. For anyone disagreeing, consider this.

On October 4th I had the opportunity to look at the estate of a former college professor who recently passed away. As a result, I purchased forty-one quality books. Thirty-seven of them were published by the Folio Society, three were from Easton Press, and one was a popular guide to birds. I paid a total of $183.00 for them all.
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Yesterday eBay announced their earnings for the third quarter of 2008. Since that time, the eBay section of my RSS reader has been flooded with blog posts about the announcement with a predominately negative slant. It seems as though everyone was just waiting, hoping they would have the opportunity to take shots at eBay.

My question is - What’s all the fuss?

Should it really matter to the average seller whether eBay’s stock is going up or down? Should he or she care if they miss their earnings projections by two or three cents a share?

I don’t believe it should and, personally, I could care less.

Much more important to me is how my business is doing financially on a quarterly or annual basis, not how eBay is doing financially during the same time frame.
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The 2008 Garage Sale Challenge came to an end with the auctions that ended the evening of Sunday, October 5th.

With a net profit of $10,847.95 for the five months, I obviously fell well short of my goal of $15,000 net profit. Readers who wish to see the details for the last two weeks of The Challenge can do so by clicking here.

Even though my final figure is well short of my $15,000 goal, I hope that the last five months have demonstrated garage sales, thrift shops, and book sales can be a profitable source of inventory for someone wanting to sell on eBay.

I’d like to thank those readers who took part this year. I hope in one fashion or another, you were able to learn something that will make your endeavors on eBay more profitable in the future.

Photograph by photographia.

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