Selling on eBay ~ Worth the Effort?

I'm sure you've bought something on eBay at one point or another.  I myself have bought everything from hard-to-find movies to gently used designer clothes {like the Lily Pulitzer dress I wore for my friends' Lily-themed bridal shower ~ I got a genuine Lily for a bargain, wore it for the shower, and promptly consigned it and got a bit of cash back...Lily is not something I would wear on any other occasion} to concert tickets ~ lots and lots of concert tickets. 

A customer at one of my jobs told me a while ago that she sells stuff on eBay all the time and makes a pretty decent profit ~ not enough to survive on exclusively, per se, but definitely enough to supplement her income and pay for the kids' "extras".  So I went through my closet and pulled out items I never wear {and some I've actually never worn ~ tags still attached}, and combed my expansive DVD collection for exercise DVDs that never clicked for me.  I figured why not take some pictures, toss the items up on eBay and see what happens?  One girl's {never or barely used} trash can be another girl's treasure, right?  Easy peasy.  So why has that bag of "things to sell" been sitting on my closet floor for the past six months?

I think I'm nervous, although of what exactly, I'm not sure.  I finally started listing items this weekend, and it's a lot of work!  Way more work than I ever would have anticipated.  I took the pictures of my items a while ago, but there's still the issue of uploading them all {and looking at them thinking "maybe I should retake these"}, and then the process of writing up a listing for each individual item.  That process consists of selecting categories and details for each item from eBay's drop-down menus, plus writing up your own item description, deciding on the auction start prices and/or the 'Buy It Now" price, and determining shipping methods and costs.  You need to figure out a price that allows you to at least break even after shipping {if you received the item as a gift to begin with, that makes it easier to list low}, but you also need to stay competitive with other sellers listing the same or similar items.  After all that, of course, you have to wait for people to actually bid or buy it, and field some {sometimes stupid?} questions from potential buyers who probably didn't read the listing information to begin with.  It's like it's own little job.

My thought was that I'd clean out my closet, list items people might want to buy, make a teeny profit, and everybody wins!  But after my experience listing just a couple items, I'm wondering if it's even worth it.  I know some people have a lot of success selling products on eBay and seem to do it with relative ease, and maybe it gets easier as you go along. 

Do any of you sell items on eBay?  If so, what are your tips, tricks and advice? 

xoxo
Bean

{photo credit:  ebay.com}