Rocketauctions.com = $500,000 A Year

When Randall Pinson took a full-time job as manager of a cell phone store during college, he expected to earn some extra money for school. He didn’t expect to learn how to start an online retail business that would ultimately support him and his family.

Pinson, 29, had only vaguely heard of eBay in the spring of 2000, when his boss asked him to try to sell some phones on the website. So he followed the step-by-step instructions on eBay.com and listed a shipment of phones for sale. Less than an hour later, a woman in New York offered to buy 15 of the phones for $125 each, making Pinson’s employer $100 in profit on each phone.

The 400 percent markup the store earned got Pinson’s attention. He started selling cell phones and accessories on eBay himself on a part-time basis, and in 2002, he quit his job at the cell phone store and started his own online business using his last paycheck and a $2,000 American Express line of credit. By his college graduation a few months later, he was earning close to $60,000 a year selling on eBay.

Always aiming for a 50 percent markup on his sales, Pinson (eBay User ID: rocket-auctions) occasionally does much better. “My most profitable eBay sale was a piece of telecom equipment I bought for $5 without really knowing what it was. I sold it for $750.”

Five years after starting, Pinson says confidently, “Anyone can make a living on eBay.” His company, Rocket Auctions, based in Farmington, Utah, generated $400,000 in sales in 2005, with 2006 projections of $500,000.

To bring in that kind of money, Pinson has one full-time employee who handles the day-to-day logistics of inventory management and shipping the 400 or so items that are sold in completed auctions from the company’s warehouse each week.

http://www.rocketauctions.com