I believe there are four types of sellers operating on eBay.

The distinction between each of these types is quite marked. And the type of seller you are to a large extent determines how successful you're going to be and therefore has an impact on the amount of money you can potentially earn from eBay.

eBay Seller Type 1

Type one's are basically eBay amateurs, or newbies. They run a few auctions and sell a few items. They may operate in a specialist niche, but they aren't interested in replicating their sales in other niches. They may well be happy at this level of eBay activity as they have no aspirations to develop their eBay involvement into a business, whether part or full-time.

eBay Seller Type 2

These eBayers are apparently successful. Many PowerSellers are Type two's. What they do is buy lots of different physical products to sell on eBay. Their time is taken in purchasing products, receiving and storing goods, managing auctions, packaging items and shipping products.

They may be doing well financially, but they work long hours, are tied to their eBay and find it difficult to take a holiday.

eBay Seller Type 3

These are sellers who have found a way to be highly successful in a single category or niche, and they deal in volume. For example, they might sell DVDs or computer memory. They beat off competition from other sellers who offer similar or identical products, normally by aggressive pricing. Such sellers are often held out as the best examples of people making money out of eBay. They have significant turnover, and thousands or even hundreds of thousands of feedback. They can also have employees on their books.

Although successful financially, the truth is they are totally tied to eBay and, like type two's, find it difficult to fit in a vacation.

eBay Seller Type 4

Type 4 sellers use eBay for what it is - an amazingly powerful marketing tool. For Type fours, eBay is a means to an end, and that end isn't running thousands of auctions concurrently. The end is to create an internet business of which eBay is one element.

Type fours are information sellers. But they are different to most information sellers out there in that what they offer is usually unique and often self-created.

Type fours know that eBay is great place to sell, but realise that it's an even better source of leads for other sales. They treat each visitor to their eBay auctions as prospects. These sellers will try and encourage each prospect to buy from their eBay auction, to visit their website where other items are for sale and to encourage the visitor to leave their email address so that more offers can be made to them in future.

Type four sellers see eBay as a building block, not the end of the line.

Which type of eBay seller are you?