Making money from home on Ebay.

On the face of it, it seems like there is one straightforward way to make money on Ebay - you sell things you own and pocket the cash. Well yes, there is that, but eventually you are going to run out of stuff and you'll be out of business.

In fact, there's a better way to make money on Ebay and few people know about it. If you are a struggling mom or student or just a girl who would rather work from home without getting naked then this is for you. Any market with a small amount of competition and little upfront investment is a real opportunity.

It's called arbitrage.

Arbitrage is basically a fancy word for 'buy low, sell high'. But there is more to it than that. The key to successful arbitrage is to not buy something until you've already sold it at a profit.

Seem complicated? Well it is, sort of. But once you figure it out you're on the road to profit.

Here's one simple example:

Find a decently hot selling item, say an iPod accessory like a unique dock. Find the lowest possible price, including shipping and fees. Perhaps this could be through Amazon Prime, with free shipping. So say your item retails for $100. But is available on Amazon for $70 with free shipping.

You go to Ebay and list the item using the cheapest possible auction - perhaps during a zero listing fee promotion or something. You list your $70 item for say $69. BUT be sure to tack on $12 in shipping. Most Ebayers don't think about shipping charges as part of the price.

So when your item sells, you collect the money, order the item shipped as a gift from Amazon and pocket the difference. $81  minus PayPal and listing fees minus $70 equals your profit.

No, this isn't a huge sum of money, but keep in mind you've done nothing but make a profit. You didn't risk anything and there is no way to LOSE money. Anyway, don't worry too much if you aren't making a HUGE profit on each item. The key to successful arbitrage is to make sure that your costs are as low as possible so you can build your profit with volume.

In the above example perhaps we made $9 on the transaction. Imagine if you did this 1-2-300 times a month.

Stay tuned for more work at home strategies for the average gal.