Taking the leap to full-time as an eBay seller is living the dream: earning a real income, working at home, being your own boss etc. Its the promise of a million scams, but its finally come true, at least for some.

What they dont always tell you in the success stories is that becoming a full-time eBay seller is not for everyone. You really should try it part-time before you consider taking it up full-time, and even then, caution is recommended. Before you go and burn your suit, heres a list of questions you should ask yourself.

How Much Am I Earning From eBay Now?

Calculate how many hours a week you spend working on eBay related things (be honest here), then divide this by the average profit you make in a week. If you were doing full-time hours, would you earn as much as you earn now?

Do I Have a Good Job?

Consider what you might lose if you quit your job to focus on eBay. If youre in a well paid job with good promotion prospects then its well worth reconsidering: you might get a few years down the line and wish youd stayed in your traditional job, as youd probably be the CEO by now.

Can I Really Make Much More Money?

Unless youre selling a large quantity of small goods, most of what you do on eBay will be waiting for auctions to end and you can wait at work just as easily as you can at home. Whether you would make more money on eBay really depends on what kinds of items youre selling for low value items, going full-time could be a good move. For high-value ones, the chances are youll hit the limits of how much money you have to invest in inventory long before you hit the limits on your time.

Can I Handle Working At Home?

Apart from anything else, you might find that your dream of working at home is more of a nightmare in reality. Your family can start to depend on you to get things done during the day. If you have a wife and children then they can resent the fact that youre in the house but refuse to have anything to do with them for large parts of the day. Giving in to them and stopping work for a while will cause your profits to slide.

Would I Survive if it All Went Wrong?

Could you get by if you had a month or two where you sold nothing? Or would you be desperately looking around for a job and cursing the day you ever discovered eBay? Thats the real test.

If you are not phased by these questions, then I guess you could be cut out for the eBay lifestyle and even if you were phased, youd be surprised just how far you can get part-time.