Setting up an eBay store front is, as the English say, "a capital idea". You can indeed make a lot of capital with an eBay store front. EBay is the most highly trafficked commercial site on the Internet. You've got super opportunities to win friends and influence people to buy the stuff you're getting rid of or that you stock up on from local auctions and farmers' markets (not food items, of course).

If you're going to have an eBay store front, you just need to be sure that you are going to make a run at a more serious eBay business. If you're just buying and selling Civil War knives as a hobby and don't care about more than just making enough money to allow you to expand your private collection, don't bother setting up a store front. But, if you want to see about a nice supplement to your income, or transforming eBay selling into a full time home-based Internet business, then a store front is definitely for you.

There are merchants making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year with eBay stores. And they don't need to have a warehouse. They don't need to rent and pay utilities for a separate office. They don't need any employees. They don't need to travel except locally to purchase more product to sell and they may not even have to do that. They set all their own hours, they have huge profit margins, they work naked if they want to. They have usually turned a hobby into a business, so they really enjoy their work--if they even call it work.

Is every store front on eBay earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year? No. But it's a real possibility.

So, what have you go to do to get this eBay store front? First, you need to be willing to pay $15.95 per month for a basic store. However, listing fees are just $0.02 each and gallery pictures are a mere $0.01 each. The $0.02 allows one item to be listed in your store for up to 120 days. If you want an item to be listed for longer, you will pay $0.02 for it every 30 days that it's up. This saves tremendous money already compared to traditional auction methods.

Let's assume that you find this perfectly reasonable and you are going to proceed with the store front. At eBay, go to "Sellers" and from there choose "Open a Store". Voila! You are ready.

Now, you: choose a color scheme; choose a store name; write your store's description; throw in a few graphics to make your store attractive; and choose some further store customization via eBay's customization link.

Don't forget to promote your store by visiting the eBay Community (the site's forum). Tell everyone around the world about your eBay store!

These are the simple basics to running an eBay store. Having fun and making buckets of money can go hand in hand.