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I saw another one on a local TV newscast a few days ago... you know...one of those stories about a stay-at-home mom who had turned eBay into a stay-at-home job.

I like stories like that, and I especially admire people who have found a way to make more money on eBay (without leaving their house) than they could commuting to a "regular" job.

But I also know this: even most people who are doing eBay "full time" haven't figured out yet how to make really big money with it...like Sydney Johnston is doing.

Sydney is known as "The Queen of eBay" or "The Auction Queen." She was one of the original sellers on eBay and has been selling on eBay since the winter of 1996.

She told me during a recent interview on my San Antonio radio talk show that she runs her eBay business very differently from most people.

"You can spend all day Saturday going to garage sales," she said. "And that's fine, there's nothing wrong with it. But if you want to make a real a business of it, you better have a systematic method. The problem with going to garage sales is, you can't rely on your inventory.

Sydney also mentioned the stories we've all heard: how someone found a trinket in their attic, put it up for bid on eBay, and sold it for hundreds of dollars.

"There ARE some incredible stories out there," she said. "But they're flukes. You have to have a steady source of supply and it's got to be something you can rely on. That's step number one"

"Step number two is to take that steady source of supply and sell the same items -- over and over again -- using the same listings."

She says her one of her other big secrets is selling to the same people -- over and over again.

"If you buy a men's shirt from me on eBay," she continued, "I assume that you'll buy more shirts in the future. And if I'm selling men's shirts, you're going to keep hearing from me. I'll email you, for instance, to let you know about my Fourth of July sale on men's shirts. You're going to keep hearing from me until you tell me that you don't want to hear from me anymore."

"Furthermore, when you buy something from me, there will be an invitation to buy something else inside your package when it's delivered."

Sydney shared about a dozen of her "secrets to success" on eBay during our time on the air. To read a transcript of the entire interview, or to listen to an MP3 recording, click on http://www.ebay-auction.ws/sydney.htm

Or of course, you could spend a couple of hours this weekend cruising the garage sales...

There might even be a TV crew hanging around one of them.