I've been buying and selling on eBay for over 9 years. Before selling there is much to consider as the last thing you want is to have incurred charges for items that haven't sold or worse, to go to the effort of selling an item and it costing YOU or you friend money.

Firstly, you're going to want to generate a good reputation as this I everything on eBay. Buyers won't buy from you if you get too much negative feedback. So what do you have that others will want to buy? Would you be pleased to receive the item if you won it on an auction? If you're getting rid of rubbish for the sake of it the chances are that you'll end up with unsold items or negative feedback from disgruntled purchasers. People soon stop buying from sellers with negative feedback and the better your rating the more buyers will be confident bidding on your listings and therefore the more money you will make.

So you've decided to be an ethical seller, developing a good reputation with many happy customers, what do you do need to consider next?

You've got your friend's widget but what would be the lowest price you'd be prepared to receive? How much is postage going to be? What will the eBay listing and selling fees be? What should you starting price be? Should you have a buy-it-now price? Reserve price?

Each item will be different. Other auction sites I use have free listings so that when selling small items you can list each individual item economically, however they have many less buyers so it's not as profitable for sellers. eBay charges per listing whether your item sells or not. This does mean that it's better to sell lower valued items in combined lots to avoid excessive fees. If you decide that your widget is worth $100 would you be prepared to sell it for $20? If the answer is NO then you'll want to have a higher starting bid, which costs you more, or pay to add a reserve price. The cheapest listings start at just a few cents but this rises to several dollars for higher priced listings. Work out which is cheapest so you make the most profit and also remember that the lower the listing price the more buyers will view your item and therefore the more potential bidders you'll have. Which would you bid on a widget that the starting price is 99cents or one for $20?

Postage is an important subject and causes much debate. Should you just charge what the postage will cost you or should you add a small amount to cover your eBay costs? Some sellers use

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