This article will help you understand what eBay is and how much opportunity there is for you. EBay is not simply a place where the world goes to make a few bucks; it is actually an international company.

There are many crazy eBay auctions which show up in the news like the grilled cheese sandwich that looked like the Virgin Mary, the Illinois shaped cornflake, advertising space on a guys forehead, and the 44 year old man who auctioned off all his belongings and a two week trial of his job to the highest bidder. These are the kinds of auctions that make the news. In reality, it is the news and the popularity that gives these auctions the attention they need to make crazy amounts of money.

What you do not hear about are tons of copycat auctions that go up right after those publicized auctions that do not make a penny. Despite those examples, auctioning off your forehead or your lunch is not a good business plan to build a long-lasting, profitable business on eBay.

To make a killing on eBay, realize that eBay is a massive online destination for millions upon millions of shoppers to buy every-day things; sometimes used and sometimes brand new. Major established companies and businesses, large and small, are selling goods on eBay and making a lot of money doing so.
EBay is an international company with a presence in 39 markets around the world including separate eBay sites for several countries including, but not limited to, Germany, Korea, Spain, Poland and Sweden. EBay owns PayPal.com, skype.com, rent.com, shopping.com, stubhub.com, and stumbleupon.com.

EBay is not a flea market or a garage sale. It is a massive company with a lot of power and exposure on the internet. A small percentage of the site is made up of random things like you would find on the street corner or in someones driveway. The majority of the site is made up of the stuff you buy in a specialty store or a mall.

At any given time there are over 112 million items for sale on eBay. 7 million items are added every day in any of the 50,000 available categories. EBay is not simply for auctions; 43 percent of all items sold last year were Buy it Now items where the product was purchased without any bidding, like any other online retail store.

Who is buying all this stuff?

There are over 84 million users on eBay worldwide. EBay is regularly ranked in the top ten most popular sites on the internet. Over $1,900 worth of goods are bought and sold every second. Last year alone, over $60 billion worth of items were sold.