July 2002, 754 transactions and 100% rating.
I have gone through swings of buying and selling. I have more transactions than 754 because many customers simply never bother to leave feedback when they are satisfied. I absolutely loved the opportunity ebay provided allowing me from my basement & garage shop to reach 10's of thousands when I had something to sell or an idea for the market place. I developed a habit of buying golf clubs and putters in the off season and reselling in the spring. Gradually with the OEM companies changing models every 6 months or less the margins began to shrink. I just did not feel it was worth my time unless I could make 50% or more profit. My all time best deal was to buy a hard to find Ping putter for 99 cents and $6.00 shipping. The seller was not a golfer and did not even describe the putter very well. But, the pictures were good and I could see by one of the pics what it was. During another period I did very well buying one of the TM driver models that had too much rebound for USGA approval. Ended up buying more than 20 of them over 4-6 months. Sold them as they were - "too hot to be USGA legal". Always started the bidding at $150 and at times could not believe the final selling price.
Then I had a stretch of selling a putter specifically designed for the strongly right eye dominant golfer. Not only did well with these on ebay, but actually developed a list of golf instructors that would buy them 5 - 10 at a time. But, they worked best with an anchored stroke.
This is just something I enjoy doing as a hobby, but I have been rather dormant the last two years. Got really busy in my work place and nothing seemed like a good opportunity in the golf hobby business. Now I am working on another idea and my initial testing of the "waters" seems very positive.
Have I had a few "bumps" in the road with ebay? Sure, there were some minor frustrations - like an inexperienced buyer clicking three times on a buy it not listing when he only wanted one. Some were interesting adventures. Noticed a TM driver for sale that by the pics was off the tour, but the seller apparently did not know it. I decided to double check with TM. Long story short it was literally stolen from a PGA tour players bag during the practice day of a PGA tournament. TM asked if I would work with them and a law enforcement agency to get it back and nab the guy who took it. End of the day, they got the guy, but it was not the one selling the club. The ebay seller had bought it at a garage sale. TM got the club back and I had a "friend" at TM which later proved to be very helpful on several occasions.
For me ebay has been mostly fun and provided an opportunity which I have thoroughly enjoyed. It allowed me to reach the market place with very little risk with some of my ideas (not all have been in the golf market) and to meet some really great people I would have never met except for the "ebay" door.