The eBay way turns a profit for millions as trash turns to treasure

By Brent Killackey

Sunday, October 10, 2004 12:02 AM CDT

Back in 1998, when the auction Web site eBay was just three years old, Mardi Timm and her husband logged on.

The Racine couple collects novelty items - such as classics like joy buzzers and the Midget Bible - and discovered eBay was a good place to look.

"We got involved with eBay and discovered that things we couldn't find anywhere, we could find on eBay," Timm said. "We managed to grow our collection exponentially because of it."

Shortly thereafter, they moved into selling on eBay - and they've been heading to the auction site ever since.

Hundreds of thousands of people are using eBay as a part-time or full-time business, she said.

"We're not using it as an income," Timm said. "We just supplement our income and have fun doing it."

In one case, they picked up three postcards at an estate sale for 50 cents a piece. On eBay, they sold the cards for $7.50, $15 and $63.

"I was blown away," Timm said.

These days, Timm is training others to "do it eBay," to borrow from the company's recent ad campaign. She's been trained by eBay to teach others the ropes.

Gateway Technical College recently hooked up with Timm to offer eBay workshops this fall.

The first session will be held on Oct. 12 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Gateway's Racine campus. The cost is $69.

The session goes over the basics of opening a seller account, researching and creating listings, enhancing listings with effective descriptions and photos, setting prices, creating and using a PayPal account, monitoring listings and completing transactions. The official eBay manual is included with the workshop.

Other sessions will be offered in Racine on Oct. 30; Kenosha on Oct. 21; Burlington on Nov. 6 and 8; and Elkhorn on Nov. 2 and 13. All sessions are from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Additional hands-on workshops planned include: "Creating Your Listing," "Creating and Editing Pictures," and "Posting Items and Completing the Sale."

EBay was founded in 1995 as an online auction Web site. It has since grown as a meeting place for tens of millions of people who buy and sell through the site.

For information about the local classes, contact Beth Tilley at Gateway's Elkhorn campus at (262) 741-8518. People can also register at any Gateway campus or access Gateway's Web site at

www.gtc.edu

and click on BISD for more detailed information.

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