The following article is a good, basic article and worth reading mainly because many of the keys to success mentioned by this UK author ARE universal and worldwide.
http://www.auctiva.com/edu/entry.aspx?id=How-to-Grow-an-eBay-Business-Part-1

Personally, I have sold on Ebay for years. Not my originals. In portraits I cannot compete with Chinese  labor . I could give them away for free and it would not matter…. But I do sell prints. And honestly I have too many positive feedbacks to trash the site yet the store works well for me.
I have a few of Steve’ s prints on my site.  But he is an example of started out  selling his small oil paintings on Ebay which then became the catalyst for not only painting a lot of them BUT in heading in another direction into an area that has proved lucrative both financially and artistically http://www.1hundredpaintings.blogspot.com/

My most successful run on Ebay I confess, was when I decided to clean out my studio a few years back and sold $3,000 worth of “unused art stuff” in 2 months. It was a lot of work but hey, so is anything you list in auctions!

So, you ask, are there artists on Ebay making any money? What artists ARE selling successfully on Ebay?   I have posted this before but over the years I have discovered that the serious artists WILL do their research and seriously see who is selling and analyze WHY they are selling so well .   I can give you a list of names but th at defeats the research purpose. We all  know that browsing for one thing can lead to another and another and that lightbulb will go on in your brain…but it has to be YOUR lightbulb!  So how do you research this?

Go to Ebay.com and under categories click on  Art. Go to  “Direct from the Artist. Find the category that best suits what you create.
Once there, go to “Auctions ending soonest”.  Scan the many listings you will find. Anything in green has a bid. Which means it will sell. Any place other than “ending soonest” is a waste of time as there will be many thousands of pieces of art listed-we are only interested in what is selling.
Bookmark them and study everything about them. Eventually you will begin to recognize a pattern.   What you WILL discover is that the successful artists have stuck with it through hell and high water. They did not give up after a bad week or one bad run… .or several or many…..:-)

My soapbox on perseverance:
I have noticed a particular behavior among people in general (not just artists) when it comes to selling or trying to sell.  There is a temperament (behavior, attitude…)  that will try a direction(/idea/technique), once or maybe twice, briefly, and if it does not garner immediate results, quits or gives up. The odd thing about this behavior is that the giving up is done with a certain amount of relish….it’s almost as if they expected to fail or wanted to fail simply to have a reason not to be able to pursue that avenue. And are happy with it.   I am not sure if I am explaining this right but the unfortunate results of this behavior is  the negativity it promotes when those  artists/people tell everyone that “they tried” and “it” doesn’t work. So sure, they tried once, no results, and gave up….I have lost track of the number of artists who have shared such a story with me and am always puzzled by this “almost relieved” attitude or outlook on something that did not work.  In other words, there is a double message here!

One artist (whose husband, she says,  has given her a hard time about all the time/money she devotes to her art and not starting) said to me very recently,  “I have spent almost 10 years studying under the top portrait artists around the US, and then, just as I am about to launch my career, the economy tanks!“    In reality, she did not sound  sorry or regretfuly btw It was more of:
“so there you go, I can’t help what life has done to disrupt my art career plans, but oh well” . But it is still an excuse
I have seen it over and over……By blaming causes beyond one’s control, as it were,  then “failure”  or even lack of action can be blamed on  extenuating circumstance.  There is no testing of one’s resolve or  dedication……in other words, nothing will work if you don’t try it….AND actions speak louder than words.

The reason for this long discord on human psychology is that NO avenue of sales will work if you secretly do not want it to!
Now think long and hard about this before you jump to conclusions in a reply   Success comes with perseverance, not just talent!  So if you REALLY want to be successful on Ebay or anywhere else, roll up those shirtsleeves, stop whining about the economy, your spouse, your kids, your job, your lack of space, etc…….and decide if you really have the right stuff!

Theresa

Starting on August 31st, eBay is going to institute a new policy where
photos you upload to any listing are put into a “catalog” of online images
that any eBay user can then use for their own listings. The default setting
for this is opt-in, which is a problem if you, like me, consider your
photographs your property and want to control how they are used and by whom.
A copyright notice is posted with a link to your user profile, but no
additional information is given, and the link is quite
small.

Since the default setting is opt-in, and eBay has not sent messages out
about this, a lot of people are going to be caught flat-footed by this new
policy.

Again, the default for this setting is YES, you have opted in. Meaning “Yes,
I will allow eBay to make my photos available for anyone to use.”

If you do not want eBay to make the photos you upload to all of your future
auctions available to other users in a sort of catalog process, you need to
go change your settings now, before August 31st. If you opt out after then,
any photos you upload between the 31st and when you opt out will still be
eligible for inclusion in their “catalog.”

In order to opt out of this so-not-okay process, do the following. I’ve
broken it down exhaustively. Hopefully your eBay pages look like mine. (I followed this easily)

1) Go to your eBay summary page (“My eBay”).

2) On the left-hand side, there are three tabs that say “Activity,”
“Messages,” and “Account.” Hover over the “Account” tab.

3) A drop-down list will appear. Move your mouse down to “Site Preferences”
and click.

4) You will be taken to a page with a list of site options for selling,
shipping, and listing. About the sixth from the top is “Share your Photos.”
Click on the word “show” on the right hand side next to this option.

5) The box will expand, and if you are opted in, “yes” will appear. If you
are opted out, “no” will appear. A small “edit” link will appear below the
“show” link. If you want to change the settings, click “edit.”

6) You will be taken to a new page with the following text: If you’d like to
opt-out of this program, please do so by checking this box and clicking the
“submit” button below.(If you opt-out before August 31, 2009, none of your
photos will be considered for inclusion in this program unless you opt back
in at a later time. If you opt-out after August 31, 2009, any photos we
select for inclusion in this program prior to your opt-out may continue to
be used in the catalog)

7) If you want to opt out of the program, check the ticky box on the
left-hand side next to the text, then go down and click the “submit” button.
You will go back to the settings screen you were just on, and there will
be a green checkmark and a confirmation message. Go down to the “Share your
Photos” option again and click “show.” Your setting should now appear as
“no.”

I am sure that this will be a useful feature for some people, for some
items, but the automatic opt-in is not okay with me at all, as I don’t want
my photographs used to illustrate someone else’s auction for a different
item, not for any reason whatsoever.

I thought you should all be warned. Please spread the word. This is a slimy,
underhanded thing to do, and I hope it bites them in the butt!