Making an ebay business full time.

And you've somehow conflated that with whether it's necessary to pay tax on that income?

Why?

1) Find a popular item on ebay.
2) Look at the "Completed Listings" to determine the average selling price. Subtract ebay and paypal fees. Determine what price you need to buy the item to make the amount of profit you want.
3) Get a business license.
4) Get a resaler certificate so that you do not need to pay sales tax on the items you are purchasing for resale. If you do not have this, manufacturers/distributors will not deal with you.
5) Contact the manufacturer. If the manufacturer will not supply you with the product because the quanitity you are purchasing to too small, then ask the manufacturer for the contact information of one of their distributors.
6) Ask the manufacturer/distributor what quantity you will need to buy to get the price per unit that you want. The more you buy, the lower the price per unit. $20 per unit for an order of 100 units. $13 per unit for an order of 1,000 units. Use your profits to buy more items/larger quantities so that you can make more money. The larger quantity you buy, the greater profit you can make, but you are taking on more risk. If customer demand drops or a competitor sells below your cost, you will start losing money.
7) Get a sales tax permit if you sell your items to people located in the state you live in.
8) Setup an ecommerce website and list your products. On your ebay product listing put a link to your website and include a coupon for a discount. The coupon will lure buyers away from ebay to your ecommerce website since they can buy the item cheaper. No ebay fee and paypal fee = more profit.
9) Estimate your state/federal taxes and make state/federal estimated tax payments if you are making a profit.
10) You might need to pay property tax on inventory if you hold the inventory for a certain period of time.

Has anyone sold something on ebay and had it shipped directly to the buyer from a regular retailler (ex. target, wlamart, etc).

sometimes things are selling higher on ebay than they are priced on sale at big retailers. it cuts one of the shipping costs out...

Anyone that has the answer to a question like that wouldn't give it to you. That's the basics... why would I share my business's secrets with you so you can compete against me?

This is what I've learned about buying and selling stuff.
1) Find products. Figure out what's popular. Figure out what's hard to get. The items that are more popular and are harder to obtain will yield the best margin for you.
2) Find sources. Google, phone book, look online, alibaba, etc.
3) Go up the chain. Find the biggest distributor or get in touch with the manufacturer.
4) Have cash to buy inventory. Nobody turns down a cash deal. The more you can buy, the better the deal.
5) Selling is the easy part.

Fwiw I run a fairly successful eBay operation. $1M+ annual sales @ 15-20% margins.

I was just thinking today of all the taxes an ebayer pays.....

lets say you make $500/week on your job. The government will probably take $100 leaving you with $400.

Now lets say you get a great deal on a clearance laptop at Staples for $300. You pay $21 in tax to the government.

Now you list the laptop on Ebay and it sells for $550. Great!

Ebay and Paypal will "tax" you about $50 on $550.

The government will also want a cut of your profit. I believe it is 30%. So $279 x .30 = 68.70

Now you need to ship the item which is about $35 via USPS.

You started with $500. The government gets $224.70. Paypal gets $50.

You are left with $475.30.

You made $75.30. Congrats. Now hopefully the buyer doesn't try to rip you off or change their mind and want to send the item back.

Ebay now takes 11% and 1-2% on shipping. PP is another 2% so it is more than $50.

The problem is Ebay is pro buyer. It is to the point where buyers do not have to return items. So, buyer purchases computer, files complaint, keeps computer and receives money back.

even if ebay was great about returns for sellers, it is hard to make much money after ebay dips in twice and the government takes their share.

1) Find a popular item on ebay.
2) Look at the "Completed Listings" to determine the average selling price. Subtract ebay and paypal fees. Determine what price you need to buy the item to make the amount of profit you want.
3) Get a business license.
4) Get a resaler certificate so that you do not need to pay sales tax on the items you are purchasing for resale. If you do not have this, manufacturers/distributors will not deal with you.
5) Contact the manufacturer. If the manufacturer will not supply you with the product because the quanitity you are purchasing to too small, then ask the manufacturer for the contact information of one of their distributors.
6) Ask the manufacturer/distributor what quantity you will need to buy to get the price per unit that you want. The more you buy, the lower the price per unit. $20 per unit for an order of 100 units. $13 per unit for an order of 1,000 units. Use your profits to buy more items/larger quantities so that you can make more money. The larger quantity you buy, the greater profit you can make, but you are taking on more risk. If customer demand drops or a competitor sells below your cost, you will start losing money.
7) Get a sales tax permit if you sell your items to people located in the state you live in.
8) Setup an ecommerce website and list your products. On your ebay product listing put a link to your website and include a coupon for a discount. The coupon will lure buyers away from ebay to your ecommerce website since they can buy the item cheaper. No ebay fee and paypal fee = more profit.
9) Estimate your state/federal taxes and make state/federal estimated tax payments if you are making a profit.
10) You might need to pay property tax on inventory if you hold the inventory for a certain period of time.

Anyone that has the answer to a question like that wouldn't give it to you. That's the basics... why would I share my business's secrets with you so you can compete against me?

How do ebay commissions compare with using Amazon's fulfillment services? You can ship items in bulk to Amazon and they deal with the headache of picking items and mailing them out. Your items are available via Super Saver shipping and Prime shipping.

I am really looking to get into this a bit more as I always did it as a weekend hobby. It's just I don't really know where to start to make a decent amount of money to live off of. I live pretty cheap and my goal for the first few months would only be 300.00 dollars as that would cover my rent. My biggest problem is constant stock of items to sell. I have been told by other ebay powersellers what they do is get a ton of stuff and sell it for only a few dollars of profit on each item.

Any ebay powersellers on here that can give me tips on how you work?

What were you selling for $10 that could even be considered as being hazmat?!

You couldn't call a human there to discuss with them? Seems unreasonable.

FHA loans are not for investment property.
and you can get conventional loans for 95% LTV, you just may not like the PMI if your credit sucks.

Random Question.

I buy item for $10 but it only sells for $7.

I buy for $7 and sell for $10

I do this 1000 times for each and make nothing, Do i still get hit by paypal for said "profit" because they don't see expense.

1) Find a popular item on ebay.
2) Look at the "Completed Listings" to determine the average selling price. Subtract ebay and paypal fees. Determine what price you need to buy the item to make the amount of profit you want.
3) Get a business license.
4) Get a resaler certificate so that you do not need to pay sales tax on the items you are purchasing for resale. If you do not have this, manufacturers/distributors will not deal with you.
5) Contact the manufacturer. If the manufacturer will not supply you with the product because the quanitity you are purchasing to too small, then ask the manufacturer for the contact information of one of their distributors.
6) Ask the manufacturer/distributor what quantity you will need to buy to get the price per unit that you want. The more you buy, the lower the price per unit. $20 per unit for an order of 100 units. $13 per unit for an order of 1,000 units. Use your profits to buy more items/larger quantities so that you can make more money. The larger quantity you buy, the greater profit you can make, but you are taking on more risk. If customer demand drops or a competitor sells below your cost, you will start losing money.
7) Get a sales tax permit if you sell your items to people located in the state you live in.
8) Setup an ecommerce website and list your products. On your ebay product listing put a link to your website and include a coupon for a discount. The coupon will lure buyers away from ebay to your ecommerce website since they can buy the item cheaper. No ebay fee and paypal fee = more profit.
9) Estimate your state/federal taxes and make state/federal estimated tax payments if you are making a profit.
10) You might need to pay property tax on inventory if you hold the inventory for a certain period of time.

do you manage your own books or have someone else do that? If you do it, what do you use to manage the bookkeeping?