Review of “The eBay Business Handbook” by Robert Pugh

I have just read The eBay Business Handbook by Robert Pugh.  This book is a good introduction to starting a business on eBay and is ideal for someone who knows absolutely nothing about eBay.  The book provides a step by step guide to selling on eBay from setting up an account through to completing the auction and sending off the items.

This book is clearly aimed at sole traders who are looking to start small scale business on eBay.  Robert Pugh himself trades on eBay under the name Mollybol. To the novice, eBay can seem complicated and this book is a clearly written guide to all those thorny issues such as accepting payment and dealing with feedback.  The book also provides a brief guides to the steps required to set up your own business such as registering self employed and sorting out national insurance.  From experience, I know that it is not always obvious what actions are required and so this is valuable information.

Where I think this book is weak is on how to run an eBay business.  The book only very briefly touches on how to acquire stock and how to analyse eBay categories to establish a good market entry point. What would have been useful would be examples of how to calculate your profits given purchase cost, eBay and paypal fees.

For these reasons it would not be much use to a business which is already selling on eBay and wishing to up their game.  For more advanced advice on eBay I would recommend Scott Wingo’s eBay Strategies