eBay was founded by a man named Pierre Omidyar, who was living in San Jose in September 1995. He wanted his website to be the first auction marketplace on the Internet, so he wrote the auction script for eBay in one weekend. It was one of the first websites in the world that allows people to sell on the Internet.

The name 'eBay' comes from Pierre Omidyar company's name; Echo Bay, and it was formerly just a part of Echo Bay's website at ebay.com. The first thing ever sold on the site was Omidyar's broken laser pointer, which he managed to sell for $14.

The website rapidly became popular, as people from around the world came to the auction to list all sorts of peculiar items and the buyers are actually bought them. Relying completely on trust seemed to work remarkably well at that time, and it can only mean that the website could almost be left alone to run automatically.

If you're wondering whether or not you can make a living on eBay, then you can take a look at how many PowerSellers there are. Each and every single one of these PowerSellers is making at least $1,000 per month, as that's eBay's requirement for becoming a PowerSeller.

For instance; the Silver PowerSellers must make at least $3,000 per month, while the Gold PowerSellers have to make over $10,000 each month, and the Platinum level is $25,000 per month. The top ranking is the Titanium PowerSeller, and to meet the criteria for this Titanium status, you must make at least $150,000 in sales every month!

The fact that these PowerSellers exist gives you the idea of how enormous the profits can be made on this auction website. What's more, most of these people are never even set up a business before! They simply started selling a few things from their attics, and then kept going. There are many people whose full-time job is selling things on eBay, from electronic gadgets to electronic documents. And some of them have been selling for years now.

Can you imagine the opportunity that eBay offers to these amazing sellers? Once the PowerSellers have acquired the stock, everything else is pretty much profit for these people; they don't have to pay for any office spaces, they don't need to hire any staff members, or even spend their good money on marketing their products!

So, is it possible to make a living on eBay?

You bet it's possible! Even if you don't want to quit your regular day job, you can still exploit the dominance of eBay to make a significant second income. For example; you can collect all the orders during the week days and take them down to the post office for delivery each Saturday. There are few other things you could be selling on eBay with your spare time that have anywhere near that kind of earning potential!