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His eBay Business is Blowing Up

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Episode from StartupNation Radio Channel: Business Models

Episode Spotlight

Inflatable Madness, the online company that sells DVDs, CDs, video games and books, is on eBay’s list of top 50 sellers and is rising every day.  Kevin Harmon , the founder, shares his tips and triumphs with Jeff and Rich on StartupNation Radio. 

In 2002, Kevin Harmon started Inflatable Madness, selling media products online.  He has been blogging on the StartupNation website for a while now and has drawn quite a following.  “Jeff and Rich Sloan have asked me to contribute my eBay knowledge to StartupNation.com and its wonderful community – you, my entrepreneur brethren,” states Harmon. “I will do my best to tackle eBay issues that affect the community, share my experiences with selling on eBay and help you to start, grow and succeed there.”

Q&A - Adapting an eBay business

Q&A - The right products for eBay

Q&A - Creating a viable product

Q&A - eBay payment methods

Q&A - Sourcing product for eBay

About Kevin Harmon

Kevin started out in technology but since he's a certified movie freak, he decided he wanted to start a media business after being encouraged by his wife.  Kevin translated his passion for film into a money-making venture.  When asked by the Sloan brothers: “How does passion manifest itself practically every day in your business?”  Kevin didn’t miss a beat:  “Sleep is for the uninspired.  What keeps me up at night is potential.”  It turns out that Kevin’s philosophy is much like what we advocate here at StartupNation: start with what you know, create a life plan and then create a business plan.

Kevin lists over 400,000 items on his eBay store every month and has the third largest store on the largest e-commerce site in the world. With first-year revenues at $300,000 and 2005 revenues at around $3.5 million, Kevin occasionally appears as an advice giver in the StartupNation forums.


Comments

InflatableMadness InflatableMadness Posted: 9/26/2006 9:01:32 PM

Hey Steve,  you know what?  I don't know!  What most sellers do is fix the shipping rate based on the furthest destination from their location - so if you're in Florida, set your...

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Ling Ling Posted: 9/26/2006 3:46:37 PM

Hi Kevin,Nice show.  A lot of discussion around the your ~$4M revenue metric.  Could you can share which key internal business metrics you focus on?  How does the uncertainty of the...

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Steve Steve Posted: 9/26/2006 10:55:41 AM

I just listened to the show on podcast and was wishing it would go on for another hour or so. I've bought a lot of stuff on eBay but haven't sold anything yet. Are there tutorials about how to...

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InflatableMadness InflatableMadness Posted: 9/22/2006 12:30:03 AM

Hey, this Harmon guy really knows what's going on on Ebay - I'd listen to him! - This Harmon...

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