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That’s because eBay is a simple numbers game, where the more items you list, the more you realistically ask for your products, the more research you do, and the harder you work at your eBay business – ultimately the more money you will make!

It sounds simple, and it is simple, yet strangely very few people play the numbers game ….. maybe because they don’t know the rules – yet! 

Thankfully, I do know the rules, I’ve played the numbers game for years, and from today you will be playing it too.

First of all, let me tell you how I personally got hooked on the numbers game, about ten years ago, when a friend told me the story of a group of young men whose boss asked if they preferred a pay rise of one thousand pounds a month (actually it was dollars, but it works the same for ££££s); or would they prefer a one time lump sum, beginning an extra penny on day one, followed by two pennies on day two, four pennies on the third day, and doubling up over 30 days.  All but one employee chose the £1,000 a month instant pay rise!  The young man who chose the ‘penny’ was made branch manager at a much higher salary than his less enlightened colleagues.

That because he realised that one penny, doubling over 30 days, adds up to a staggering TEN MILLION POUNDS plus!

It goes like this: 1p …. 2p   …4p  …8p ….. oh go and work it out for yourself, you won’t be convinced until you do, and you do it by hitting number one on your calculator then multiply it by two, double it again, and again, until you’ve hit the multiplication button followed by the ‘2’ button a total of thirty times!  Yes it really is ten million pounds plus!

Okay, you’re right, you probably won’t make ten millions pounds in a couple of weeks by doubling your number of listings, by working twice as long each day, it just doesn’t happen like that. 

But consider, for example, someone who makes an average five pounds profit per item on eBay, as I usually do with vintage postcards, then consider that person lists twice as many products, and chooses products more likely to make £10 unit profit than a mere fiver. 

Already a person selling 100 items a week at £5 pure profit (£500 total) is set to sell 200 items at £10 apiece, and he’s quadrupled his weekly income in two easy steps.  That’s £2,000 a week simply from working twice as long and choosing slighter more profitable products.  (By the way, I sometimes more than double my money, and you can do the same …. such as a postcard I listed last week that cost 20p at a flea market and fetched £155 on eBay!)

Now imagine our eBayer doubles their efforts by getting other people to help list their products on eBay, assume they double bidding figures on every listing, how much higher might his or her earnings be then? 

Now imagine instead of just a handful of ways to double their income, they find ten, twenty, thirty easy ways …. how much might that add to their weekly takings? 

In my experience the numbers game always works, there are many ways to double your income on eBay, my own favourites being:

*  Double your working hours.  If you normally work one hour a day on eBay, make it two hours from now on.  Find that extra time by watching less television, or by getting out of bed an hour earlier. 

*  Get other family members involved in your eBay business.  Even young children can scan products for you, and it doesn’t take a great brain to pack and take orders to the post office while you double your listings on eBay.

*  Where you normally buy 100 products each week to resell on eBay, buy 200 instead.  Where you normally visit one flea market, or one wholesaler, or one auction each week, make it two.  From personal experience, I visit at least one flea market every week looking for low cost collectibles, such as postcards and small silver items, books and collectable toys.  My challenge is to pick up 100 items at no more than £2 each and I aim to get at least £4 pure profit from each item and usually a great deal more.  So I’d double my earnings by choosing 200 items at £2 each, sometimes by sourcing 100 items that cost more but will almost certainly fetch higher finishing prices than my normal £2 buys.

* Double your normal auction starting price.  So for postcards I might otherwise start at £4.99, I’ll choose £9.99 instead, and from experience I know I’ll sell at least half at £9.99 or more.  Items that go unsold will be marked down the following week.  Yes it takes longer to make the money, and it takes twice the effort!  But it almost always works!

*  Double your takings from every customer by sending regular stock updates, by including new product offers in outgoing packages. 

*  Spend at least one hour every week checking past auctions on eBay, make a list of current high profit products, focus on buying those items during the next few weeks.  But play carefully here, and don’t risk huge sums of money on potentially short term fads.  Additionally, choose products attracting at least three bidders in past auctions, which leaves at least two people likely to bid on similar items in future.  It’s not a good idea to buy products similar to those just two people have bid up to the hilt.  That’s because once the first product sells, just one potential bidder remains for a similar product, which could spell disaster for you.