How to Become an eBay Trading Assistant

All eBay Trading Assistants are consignment sellers, but not all consignment sellers are Trading Assistants. That is, you don't have to be an official TA to consignment sell on eBay. Nothing in eBay's rules and regulations prohibits a regular member from reselling merchandise for other people. In fact, if you're just testing the waters, there's no real reason to bother with joining the TA program. Test the waters with a few "unofficial" consignment auctions before you decide to launch your own boat.

Once you decide to become a full-blown consignment seller, however, there's no reason not to join the TA program. It doesn't cost you anything, and you get the benefit of being listed in eBay's Trading Assistants Directorywhich is how many users find TAs to sell their items for them.

Joining the TA program doesn't have any really stringent requirements. Here's all that eBay requires:

• You've sold at least ten items in the past 90 days.

• You have a feedback rating of at least 100.

That's it. To join up, just go to the Trading Assistants hub (pages.ebay.com/tahub/) and click the Become a Trading Assistant link. When the Become a Trading Assistant page appears, as shown in Figure 29.1, click the Click Here button below the Sell It For Others! graphic. Follow the onscreen instructions from there and you'll be ready to go.

Figure 29.1. Getting ready to join eBay's Trading Assistant program.