[krazyace5]

I used to go to garage sales and estate sales and made a decent profit, also super clearance items at department stores.

Never accept checks, always start you bids low(if you are comfortable with that), the lower the better because you will get more people bidding on the item and that is when you make the money, ebay sends all the bidders reminders and notices when they get outbid and the bidders get in a bidding war.

I put a tent on there once that i bought on clearance. Another seller had the same tent on there. He started his bidding at $70, I started mine at $9.99. His sold for $70 and mine sold for over $100. It actually sold for more than retail. Also shipping isn't a problem, just make the buyer pay for it.

The problem is keeping up with enough stuff to sell. Most of the stuff you can easily get in bulk is on there already so you can't make much of a profit if any.

I tried that SMC program once. The Specialty Merchandise Corp or something like that. They let you buy products at a discount that you can sell for their suggested retail.
All of the products were all over ebay and not moving. They sell way to many memberships so it is almost worthless except for a local flea market or something.

Boxing stuff up and shipping can get tedious, alot easier if you have a wife/girlfriend to help you. On alot of more expensive things spring the extra for delivery confirmation, sometimes you could get a shitty buyer that trys to say they didn't get the item even if they did. Also you can make the buyers pay for insurance for higher value items.