I recently checked on amazon.com and found over 400 book titles devoted to buying and selling on eBay. These titles range from basic introductions (for "Dummies" or "Complete Idiots") to specialized books on selling antiques or collectibles. And of course there are numerous books promising huge profits without much effort.

Greg Holden's How to Do Everything with your E-bay Business (New York: McGrawHill/Osborne: 2003) occupies a special niche, as it is aimed at people who don't just occasionally sell a few things on eBay, but want to turn their eBay business into a steady, long-term venture.

Holden offers a basic introduction into signing up for eBay and creating listings, but goes beyond that. Chapters are interspersed with little stories of individuals who have been selling on eBay for years, which adds a nice personal touch.

The author also emphasizes that sellers should become extremely knowledgeable in their field (whatever it is) and do extensive research onthe items they usually sell. This is a healthy antidote to the frequent get-rich-quick schemes peddled by quite a few books on eBay.

Besides advice on opening an eBay store, Holden also provides information on how to use your own website for selling and/or promoting. All this is very useful, though the chapter on selling on sothebys.com is rather specialized and will not apply to many readers.

The layout of the book is clear and legible, with many relevant screenshots and photos, and the detailed index makes finding information easy.

Overall, How to Do Everything with your E-bay Business is a very useful introductory book for people who have more serious selling plans than just disposing of a few things lying around the house. I would recommend it it to prospective eBay store owners. While much of the same information can be found in eBay tutorials and particularly on the eBay discussion boards, reading this book will save you time and equip you with the basic knowledge you need to get started.