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It’s the dream of so many — working in the comfort of your own home, setting your own hours. And approximately 750,000 Americans are doing just that for all or a part of their income with the online auction site eBay.

It sounds pretty cushy until you talk to the people actually doing it. Loretta Nead from East Naples makes no bones about it. “People get the wrong idea about eBay . . . it takes an awful lot of work and investment. You don’t just go on eBay and instantly make money.”

Six months into her eBay business, Nicole Esposito from Fort Myers lamented, “I didn’t know how time-consuming eBay would be.”

“ I feel like that is all I do now, and [have] no time for anything between listings, shipment and e-mail answering.” That’s exactly why Mike Koval, an active trader in rare coins, prefers his day job. When asked whether he could expand his hobby into a business, this Neapolitan immediately answers yes, but just as quickly adds that something as time-consuming as a full-time eBay business “is not the way I would choose to make my living.”

Marketing your passion

So why do they do it? Marco Island camera store owner Richard Heavner says he saw the handwriting on the wall about seven years ago, when he realized he could buy merchandise from Walmart cheaper than from his wholesaler. Instead of quietly going out of business, he became an enthusiastic and successful eBay vendor.

Although the majority of his business is within the U.S., he has had accounts as far away as Russia, Australia, Africa and South America.

A diving lens that had sat on the shelf of Heavner’s store for three years at a desperation markdown to $500 went for $2,300 on an eBay auction, he recalled. Heavner’s biggest gamble and biggest profit came when he purchased the entire inventory of a bankrupt camera store in the Keys, sight unseen. He paid for storage, and sold the items box by box.

The beauty of eBay is twofold for Heavner — the precise matching of seller and buyer, and the ease, rapidity and safety of payment with eBay subsidiary PayPal, which handles payments from credit card to check.

Self-described wheeler-dealer, Mike Koval says he just enjoys the thrill of the hunt. He’s been collecting rare coins since he was a kid, but the auction format on eBay gives his collecting an entirely new dimension. Once, as a joke, he put up a pair of well-worn garden overalls for auction, and sold them, holes and all, for enough to buy a new pair (also over eBay) with some change left over.

Esposito’s daughters wear school uniforms, but Esposito was born to shop. She turned a hobby into a business by selling her finds in girls and adult clothing on eBay, which allows her to be a stay-at-home mom and earn extra cash for her daughters’ dancing and ice skating lessons.

She also sells both good-quality used clothing and new merchandise. She is able to earn more money at home than she would with a part-time job, she says, and she is able to set her hours to shuttle her children between school and dance lessons. After her husband was in a motorcycle accident last year and couldn’t work for five months, Esposito ramped up her selling enough to keep the family afloat.

Nead started selling on eBay five to seven years ago. Doting on her little dog, she was unhappy over cheap bows and barrettes that fell apart after a few wearings. Some barrettes fell out, while those on rubber bands tangled and pulled her dog’s hair. She started making her own, and discovered that she had a knack for it.

She found a supplier of good-quality barrettes, and uses the best ribbons and supplies available, including jeweler-quality Swarovski crystals. After all, dog lovers want the best for their furry friends.

Nead started selling first as a hobby, just to see whether she could pay for her supplies. After 1½ to two years, she had developed a loyal following. Now she sees her craft as source of income and activity when she retires.

Devil in the details

One thing is clear. These virtual businesspeople do sweat the small stuff. Ask Esposito, who spends hours photographing her merchandise.

“It’s like these buyers think the listing magically appears. Shipping is crazy....You have to pack the items, weigh them, print the labels, keep the records....[not reporting income for tax] isn’t worth getting in trouble over, so I have to keep very good records of everything.”

Heavner also emphasizes the importance of record keeping and tax accounting.

EBay ads are another example of how it pays to pay attention. While Nead commends eBay for making it easy for novices to create their own ads, she cautions: “ They nickel and dime you to death. That’s fine for the casual user, but at anywhere from $1.75 to $4 per ad, costs mount up in a hurry.”

She taught herself HTML, the computer language for the ads. She also has earned money by constructing ad templates for others, and advises would-be volume sellers who don’t know HTML to pay for such a service: “That way you pay eBay only the insertion fee for each item listed.”

Esposito subscribes to a template service at $8 per month. She ascribes part of her success to the numerous photos she makes of her merchandise, so that people really see what they are buying. That would be cost-prohibitive were she building individual ads with eBay’s tools.

Esposito has sold so much that she has an intuitive idea of what shipping costs will be, but uses a shipping calculator if there is any doubt. She also takes advantage of the flat-rate priority mail option, partly because it includes the price of the boxes. Still, every time eBay raises its fees, Esposito says she can tell the difference in her bottom line.

Nead competes on quality, not price. People who love pets buy a lot of bows, and eventually they find her and stay with her, she says.

“You have to have a product people can’t buy at Walmart. Offer an item not readily available in most stores and you can build a tremendous business, but it takes hours,” she advises. She needs to list a minimum of 200 to 300 items on a daily basis to stay profitable, and spends 3 to 4 days a week just making her bows.

Honesty and customer service are critical, all of the local eBay entrepreneurs interviewed say. Esposito describes worn clothing down to the last small stain or tear, and states on her site that she does not sell anything she wouldn’t want for her own daughters.

An online community

Around 75 percent of her buyers are regulars, Esposito says. She stays in scrupulous contact with them throughout the process, e-mailing them when she receives payment, and when the item is shipped.

In turn, she gets lots of email from buyers that are “just so nice.” Last year, after she discovered that one of her customers was buying for Katrina victims, she added a lot of clothes to his order. Somehow he learned of her husband’s accident, and sent her - one compassionate stranger to another — an extra $200.

Koval is justifiably proud of his 100 percent approval feedback rating, and Heavner at 99.2 percent has little to worry about. His biggest problems are supply and storage.

“To make money you have to have plenty on sale, and be the firstest with the mostest,” he says. He laments that his bedroom is full of boxes.

Auctions and novelties

All four prefer the auction over the fixed-price format. Each bow costs Nead a minimum of $3 in supplies alone — forget about time — yet she lists them below cost. She may lose money on individual items, but when a bow catches on, buyers will bid the price up to as much as $20. She more than makes up for her losses when these bidding wars break out, and she confesses that it is a thrill to watch them on her computer.

Esposito also finds the auction format more profitable than eBay’s fixed price option for the same reason. Lately, however, she says she feels buyers are not bidding as highly as they once did.

Hobbies turned into jobs frequently become drudgery, but Nead says she still enjoys her craft and the computer work. She stays fresh by constantly trying new designs, varying her ads and retailing novelty wholesale items.

The very technological revolution that led Dick Heavner to eBay has all but dried up his business in traditional cameras, so he has switched to the antique and collectors market. His background in camera repair enables him to buy used and/or broken cameras to refurbish and resell.

He occasionally sells items for others on eBay, an income option that Nead also has considered. Recently Heavner became a full-time caregiver for his elderly father, and appreciates the flexibility that has allowed him to cut back his hours.

Nead also has taken a temporary leave for family reasons. Esposito sees herself returning to her background in arts and fine crafts. Recently she and her mother purchased an industrial-quality sewing machine, and are doing well making and selling ice-skating costumes.

These local eBay entrepreneurs have found their respective niches, yet they are not afraid to adapt to a changing market or explore new possibilities. They also emphasize working hard and paying attention to detail and customer satisfaction.

The rules for success on eBay look an awful lot like the ones that have been important all along.