I have been working on the catalog for VintageCamerasWorld.com. I hope to go live with that site in a few weeks.

Many of you may be interested in starting your own online business. There are many products and services that you could offer online. I chose vintage cameras because I have collected several items over the last few years. I will also be tying the site with offerings in e-bay. E-bay is a good way to start your online store. I have sold several items in e-bay and I think it is a good tool to have even if you already have an established mortar and brick store.

This is the services and tools I will be using for VintageCamerasWorld.com. Check them out if you are interested in staring your own online shop.

osCommerce – “osCommerce Online Merchant” is an Open Source online shop e-commerce solution (basically is a product that allows your to set-up your online shop) that is available for free. It features a rich set of out-of-the-box online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain online stores with minimum effort and with no costs, fees, or limitations involved. There are other solutions and services but I think osCommerce pretty easy to use for a novice. There is a moderate amount of reading that you will have to do, but nothing that will scare you off.

This is the the link where you can download and find more information about it:

http://www.oscommerce.com/

E-bay – eBay is the world’s online marketplace; a place for buyers and sellers to come together and trade almost anything!

Here’s how eBay works:

* A seller lists an item on eBay, most anything from antiques to cars, books to sporting goods. The seller chooses to accept only bids for the item (an auction-type listing) or to offer the Buy It Now option, which allows buyers to purchase the item right away at a fixed price.

* In an online auction, the bidding opens at a price the seller specifies and remains on eBay for a certain number of days. Buyers then place bids on the item. When the listing ends, the buyer with the highest bid wins.

* In a Buy It Now listing, the first buyer willing to pay the seller’s price gets the item.

Trading on eBay is easy and it’s fun! Best of all, you’ll never know what you can find!

The following Learning Center tours will show you the basics of trading on eBay and help you get started.

How to Buy on eBay : http://pages.ebay.com/education/buying.html
How to Sell on eBay : http://pages.ebay.com/education/selling.html

On a future post I will be detailing the process, step by step on how to set up your online store.