Zero Commute

"Looking to work at home? Don't know where to start? Sell your stuff on eBay!" Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the last ten or eleven years, you've probably heard this more times than you can count (even if you use both hands, and your toes!). With $32 billion worth of goods having been sold on eBay in 2004 according to USA Today, this sounds like it's worth taking a closer look.

Last week I touched on becoming a virtual assistant, which is a service industry. This week, I'm digging deep into what's really involved in becoming a powerseller. This is a different animal, most often involving selling goods rather than services, although servces can also be offered. I'd also like to share some success stories from work at home eBay powersellers this week, so if you are a powerseller who wants to share your journey (and plug your auctions), shoot me an email so we can talk.

What is a powerseller? eBay is a huge venue, and there's a lot to learn. Taking it one step at a time, let's first look at the big picture. The principal powerseller requirement is sales. eBay bases powerseller status on average monthly sales. At the time of this writing, the bare minimum is $1000/month average gross sales for a three month period. That will get your foot in the door as a bronze powerseller.

That's just the ground floor. The powerseller program has five tiers, so there's plenty of room to climb the powerseller ladder. The quick rundown:

• $1,000 = Bronze Powerseller


• $3,000 = Silver Powerseller


• $10,000 = Gold Powerseller


• $25,000 = Platinum Powerseller


• $150,000 = Titanium Powerseller

That's not a typo, one hundred fifty thousand in sales is what it takes to join the elite few in the highest tier. I hate to say it, but I have so far been unable to learn how many have reached this level of income on eBay, as eBay doesn't seem to make this kind of information public. Rest assured that I am making every possible effort to find out.

While sales are the driving factor behind achieving and maintaining powerseller status, there are a few more requirements that must be met. I am presenting them here as secondary, since they're only relevant if you're making the sales. Here are the other criteria:

• Achieve a feedback rating of 100


• Have 98% positive feedback


• Have been an active eBay member for at least 90 days


• Remain "in good financial standing"


• Comply with all eBay policies


• Average 4 listings per month over last 3 months

Some of these are time sensitive, so if you're considering making money from home the eBay way, it's a good idea to set up an account sooner rather than later. The hardest thing is deciding your user name, if you don't count deciding what you want to sell.

More about eBay powerselling coming soon. It's just too huge to do in one post, so I'm making this week eBay week!