Everyone's talking about eBay these days. With the frequency of the TV advertising campaigns increasing, and no sign of any sizable competitors the eBay empire is only going to get bigger.

Now personally as friends and family hear about eBay they normally come to me for advice, How do I use this feature?, How do I sell this item?, What am I doing wrong? Where do I start? And I'm not just talking about people unfamiliar with the net or e-commerce.

I have friends who work within the IT industry and they are the ones who call me most often! Computer technicians, Network consultants, even company directors of IT firms. It seems that over the years of selling on eBay surprisingly we've gained quite a rare skill.

People are slowly realizing that they can turn to eBay to make some extra cash and get rid of some unwanted junk at the same time. In the last few months I've helped friends and family sell cars, wedding dresses, suites, televisions, videos... I could go on but I'm guessing you may be familiar with a similar situation already.

In fact look though eBay now and see how long it takes you before you see a listing containing the following text

"This item is being sold on behalf of a friend so please contact her with any questions on:07500xxx000"

It won't be too long before you find a similar statement.

So why not do it for a living or at least to make some extra cash. Officially eBay has a scheme called Trading Assistants and a directory of a Task on the eBay site.

As eBay itself says "Want to sell your stuff on eBay but don't have the time? Let a Trading Assistant do it for you? Trading Assistants are experienced eBay Sellers who will sell your items on eBay for a fee."

eBay has just four requirements in order to register as an official trading assistant. These are:

- You've sold four items within the last 30 days
- Feedback above 50
- 97% of your feedback should be positive
- eBay account in good standing

Looking at the list it's not to hard to register as a trading assistant. As long as eBay have your billing method on file and you pay your fees on time, all the other requirements are easily obtainable.

In the US, there are hundreds of eBay Trading Assistant Drop off stores. These are stores where you drop off your item and they sell them on eBay for you typically charging up to 33% of the item value. Some even charge up to 50% of the value. In the UK there are just two drop off stores that are instantly findable. There may be others available but I couldn't find them doing a quick search. I truly believe that in the UK these stores will start to open up and expand over the next few years. Now's the time to get involved so register as a Trading Assistant today and start using eBay to its maximum potential.