I still have yet to set up my Ebay account. I know you partake in the E so is it worth it. Most of the stuff I have is antiques or tools I get and fix and sell at the flea market which is now over till April. My brother has done a lot and is encouraging me but I am very cautious when it comes to new things. Here is what he told me open a paypal account and only accept that, do it on a checking account only used for this purpose and only ship in the US. Does this sound reasonable? Any other tips ect.
How much time must be put into this? Right now my regular job is booming but I see a lot of down time when it gets a bit colder. Any advise would be helpful 
It depends on the items, like Pyraxis said, starting out expect to take a bit of a beating, buyers are wary. But if you ship right away & start getting good feedback established you'll see an improvement fairly quickly.
I search completed auctions to see what I can expect to make on an item if it's something I'm not already familiar with. You have to mentally figure what you have invested in it, how much fees you can expect to pay, and how much shipping is going to run. Most of the items I pick up I normally have a very low investment in, and even with the fees I'm making well above what I could get for it at the flea market or elsewhere locally. Antiques & collectables are normally worth it, because you just can't beat the shear number of people who are viewing your item, normally ones who get it in there head they want something just like what they had as a kid or something they remember mom or dad having and they really can't be bothered hunting the markets or shops for it.
Ebay switched to Paypal only as of Nov 1st, so you don't have to worry about other payment methods anymore. I have a bank account confirmed with Paypal and just deposit funds as needed from Paypal into it, Ebay fees I let come out of Paypal.
Priority mail supples you can either order free from the USPS site or you can get the co-branded boxes free here:
http://ebaysupplies.usps.com/Postage & shipping labels you can print out from your paypal account once they pay you, I put up one of those big rural mailboxes and just slip the small stuff in the box in the morning, don't even have to go to the PO much anymore.
Half.com is still better for alot of books, ecrater.com is another option, doesn't get the traffic and set-up is harder, but you can park things and there are no listing fees.
I use Auctiva.com (free) so that I can write stuff up in advance, schedule them to list at a certain time, and upload more photos to my listings without paying extra (Ebay lets you upload one photo, then charges you .10 for each additional photo), you can use Photobucket also to avoid this. More photos the better usually.
I only ship to the US normally, international shipping costs for small time sellers just suck period, unless I am listing for a friend who collects hockey cards or I run into some VW items. Then it can really pay to consider shipping elsewhere.
It can be time-consuming no lie there, but fun as hell watching about 20 bidders fight over something really good you just stuck on there a couple of days ago.
