Winners of the PowerSeller Challenge

As you can read in Edurne's post on the Announcement Board, we recently unveiled the winners of our PowerSeller Challenge sweepstakes. Ten lucky PowerSellers were selected to receive $5000 in cash, and we've been fortunate enough to have a few of them send us their thoughts on their businesses, and how it felt to win. Read on to meet a few of our winners:

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happyhourcollectables

I was really excited to find out that I was a winner in the PowerSeller Challenges sweepstakes. I  started buying and selling antiques and collectables 15 years ago to help put myself through college. Afer college, I continued to buy and sell as a hobby but relied on a corporate job for a living. Around 6 years ago I started selling on eBay and 3 years ago I quit my day job to sell on eBay full time.  A year ago I decided to sell off my childhood comic book collection, and determined that an ebay Store was the best way to go. It has been so sucessful that I am purchasing more comic books (quite a few on eBay) to add to the store and have added categories for video games, role playing games and movies. My eBay Store has really helped my sales in the winter months when garage sales are scarce.

Some of the highlights of my eBay career were being interviewed on wsRadio for the Entrepreneur Magazine "Making Money on eBay" show (4/13/04) and being interviewed and written about by the Wall Street Journal for an article "The Internet-Age Garage Sale" (4/22/06, page B1). I am currently
working on a book to teach people how to shop at garage sales and maximize their profits using eBay. eBay represents freedom for me to do my own thing and decide my own future. I really enjoy working for myself and spending time in my community while I am out buying at garage sales, rummage sales and thrift stores. By selling these items on eBay, I am able to extend my community world wide while selling the items I find.  I am looking forward to seeing all of you at this years eBay Live! in Boston.

rob4673

I have been running my eBay business since 2004, specializing in MP3 Players, Portable DVD Players  and other Consumer Electronics. I started out just running a few auctions here and there and had so much fun with it and got to build positive relationships with so many people on eBay, I decided to pursue it as a part time career.  My most important attribute as a business is my good customer service and it reflects in our 99.9% positive rating.  Not only has eBay given me a great opportunity to start my own but for the first time I can honestly say "I Love My Job."

When I first got the email saying that I was one of the winners of the PowerSeller Challenge Sweepstakes, I could not believe it.  I did some research and made a couple phone calls and sure enough, I was one of the winners. I was ecstatic.  All I did was sign up and with a lot of luck, I won. 
I will continue to use eBay as my “Store Front” and I look forward to building many more positive relationships with Buyers and Sellers on eBay in the future.

lesliep4819

I started selling knitting yarn on eBay couple of years ago, when I was an attorney and compulsive knitter in Denver, Colorado.  Looking for a diversion from my ‘law-life,’ I began to liquidate overstocks for some friends who were local yarn store owners.  I quickly discovered that eBay was a great opportunity to start a business without a huge investment in a location and a large inventory.  I opened an eBay Store and began to carry my own inventory, which has gradually expanded as I find good products I love and know my customers will like too. I also started to hand-dye my own yarns, EY Handpaints.  Dyeing has been a great creative outlet for me and a source of an excellent product my customers really enjoy.

Almost from the beginning, my eBay business has proved to be both profitable and fun, and in a short time, I saw the chance to make a living without the stress and long hours away from my children that made me discontented with practicing law.

Last summer, my family and I ran across an opportunity to leave our city life and move to Pocahontas, a tiny town in northwest Iowa, where there are some of the nicest people you’ll ever know, one stoplight, and the best pork tenderloin sandwiches in Iowa (I’m not sure where that title came from, but that’s what the sign says, and they are delicious)!  My eBay business was a big factor allowing us to live out our dream of slowing down and simplifying.  It moved right along with us, and has continued to grow and provide an income as we enjoy our new lifestyle.

When I received an invitation to take the eBay PowerSeller Challenge, I thought it was worth a try to increase my auction business and signed up. As someone who hasn’t won anything in a contest since a T-shirt from a radio station when I was sixteen, I was thrilled to win the Sweepstakes.  I will put the money into expanding inventory to keep growing my eBay business!

e-giftsgaloreshop

I'm Amber, and I help run www.e-giftsgalore.com, along with Wes and Patty Klein. We're an eBay store located in a small town in Iowa that sells brand new collectibles. We have many hard-to-find items, and pride ourselves in excellent customer service.

We put a plan to meet the Powerseller Challenge by increasing our inventory and having an on-going sale which started last November. We, of course, are thrilled to have won the sweepstakes. (Although I thought the email from eBay saying we won was spam at first).

eBay has been a wonderful opportunity for us to broaden our customer base outside of Iowa, and we are very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of eBay community.