How do you sell unwanted things online?

How often do individuals sell things online?

• I mean folks selling things like furniture, tickets, electronics, etc. through craigslist or ebay or StubHub, etc. - not professional sellers.  And added bonus - how much do they usually make?

• Answer:

  The eBay eco-system has a large number of "individual sellers" who are making their income from selling on-line. These sellers source products, take pictures, post listings, test content/prices/strategy, pack and ship the product, answer questions, handle refunds, file tax reports, handle the frequent eBay changes, etc.  They keep extremely low overheads (working out of their homes/garages). The average seller has an ASP (average sales price) of about $30.  The ship/sell about 20 per day (so $600 per day).  Their schedules are flexible, but they definitely work at least 5 days a week.  That nets them about $3,000 in sales per week x 50 weeks = $150,000 in total annual sales.  That's for a dedicated single seller -- you can cut that in half for a half-timer. From that, they pay eBay/paypal 15% fees, and probably have gross margins of about 40% (prices are brutal and shipping is usually free with generous return policies).  Doing the math $150k in sales less $90k in product costs, less $22.5k in ebay's take, less shipping supplies, returns etc... They make maybe $30-40k per year.  On an hourly basis they make about $17/hour.  By the way, most will tell you their "profit margin" is is north of 20%.  But in reality, their profit margin -- after accounting for their time -- is near 0%. But they are flexible with their time ;)