Kailua resident Mark Macowitz credits eBay for launching his Internet business after he turned the $3 purchase of a 1940s Duke Kahanamoku aloha shirt into $1,800 when he offered it for sale on the world's largest auction site.

But now, after four years of selling on eBay, Macowitz, 41, has moved on. He sells his vintage Hawaiian shirts through his own Web store and only uses eBay to attract people to his site.

"It's just a lot cheaper to do a Web site," said Macowitz, who sells shirts to buyers worldwide, including those in Europe and Japan. "Saudi Arabia is a big one right now."

Macowitz is one of a growing number of online merchants who got into online sales through eBay and now are moving beyond auctions. The Web entrepreneurs are opening their own Internet stores or are offering consignment items for sale on eBay. Others see a lucrative future in teaching potential eBay merchants how to sell.

"Definitely, the secondary market seems to be growing on eBay," said David Steiner, who, along with his wife, Ina, runs the Natick, Mass.-based Auctionbytes.com, an online newsletter that closely tracks eBay news and trends.

"The drop-off stores, consignment sales, teachers seem to be a very healthy market right now."

An ACNeilsen International survey earlier this year found 724,000 U.S. residents use eBay for their primary or secondary source of income. Another 1.5 million people supplemented their pay by casually selling on eBay.

In Hawai'i, eBay has 300,000 registered users. About 600 local users sell more than $1,000 a month in merchandise, according to eBay.

Local sellers offer a wide array of goods, from Hawaiiana to Ghzel porcelain figurines from Russia to Pauahi Ali'i plumeria cuttings. Eric Quakenbush, a visual designer for software, has sold more than $4,000 worth of collectible toys on eBay in three years and is now branching into giving eBay seminars.

"The teaching could turn into pretty good part-time money," said Quakenbush, who goes by the screen name "robotoy" on eBay and is one of three Hawai'i residents the online auction house has certified to give its classes.

While Quakenbush, 41, plans to keep selling off Battlestar Galactica models, robots and other collectibles he's gathered over the years, he acknowledges running auctions can be time-consuming. Photographing, researching sales prices, listing, answering questions and shipping items to buyers can gobble up hours of time, he said.

That compares to the up to $50 a person he charges for a three-hour seminar on getting beyond eBay basics. "I share all my experiences, but all the teaching materials are from eBay," said Quakenbush, who's previously worked as a visual designer for Apple Computer and video-game designer for Sega of America. "It's the kind of thing I could do anywhere."

Learning best practices in a course sanctioned by eBay may save people from making costly mistakes. Macowitz said he lost money on some of his first sales. "There was a learning curve," he said.

Macowitz said he spends almost as much time on his Web sales as he does at his Postal Service job. He's cut back on eBay auctions in the past three years to concentrate on a Web store he created with off-the-shelf software.

"Many of the top sellers now have their own e-commerce site or are part of a mall with other sellers," said AuctionBytes' Steiner. "Sellers are becoming more savvy."

Macovitz said eBay costs can run up to 30 percent of sales figuring in listing fees, commissions paid to eBay, other expenses and fees to PayPal, eBay's e-mail payment system. He now lists only a few of his 1,000 aloha shirts on eBay and directs people with questions to his Web site, www.vintage-aloha-shirt.com.

At Macowitz' site, visitors discover 28 pages of goods, with items ranging from a new Lehua-brand shirt for $15 to a Musashiya silk shirt in mint condition for $1,500.

"I've made a ton of sales driving traffic to my Web site through eBay," Macowitz said. Yet, "EBay buyers are cheap. They want to drive prices down, and they'll negotiate with you really hard."

For that and other reasons, Macowitz started buying Internet ads that appear when Web surfers seek links for antique or vintage Hawaiian shirts through Google's search engine. People clicking on the ads are taken to Macowitz' site.

Purchasing Google's Adwords costs him about $100 a month, yet generally yields higher-spending shoppers, he said. Macowitz balances that by accepting banner ads that Google places on his site. That pays $1 or $2 a day, he said.

Tiffany Tanaka, 25, has gone from buying clothes on eBay to operating Hawai'i's largest eBay drop-off store in the space of eight years. The business, Wesellthings4u.com, started radio advertising in early November and expands with a California store next month.

Tanaka began as a buyer, bidding on fashions that she couldn't find locally. She started selling on eBay while attending an art school in San Francisco and hasn't looked back. She recalls finding a gas mask at a thrift store that the owner just gave to her when she expressed an interest. She later sold it on eBay for $500.

When jobs weren't available in Hawai'i, she began selling items for friends and family from a house in Manoa. Three-and-a-half years ago, things began clicking, and soon her house was overflowing with items.

"That's when I knew there was a demand," Tanaka said. "I just completely stopped looking for a job."

She moved the operation to a small office in Kaka'ako and two years ago, when the Starbucks bakery downstairs moved out, she opened up a storefront business.

That was in keeping with a boom in such businesses nationwide that cater to people who don't want to take time to learn how to sell on eBay.

"At first I thought it was only going to be older people coming to me," Tanaka said. "But basically it's a matter of time. We're saving people time."

For now Wesellthings4u's consignment model is working. Tanaka employs seven people to meet with customers, log in merchandise, research and process it for sale and shipment.

Wesellthings4u has sold one of Andrew Leeteg's black velvet paintings for $7,000 and a book on stained glass for about $10,000. Currently it's got about 250 listings up for bidding on eBay, the most expensive of which is an Ebel watch with 18-carat gold highlights with a starting-bid price of about $1,400. Tanaka charges a $5 initial fee and charges a commission that ranges between 20 percent and 30 percent of selling price.

Tanaka said she continues to buy things on eBay. She's too busy to sell things on eBay herself, however.

"I just give it to the company and have them list it."

FORMER ENGINEER ENJOYS BOOMING ONLINE STAMP BIZ

Hilo resident Tony Kassel sells collectible postage stamps on eBay. Kassel, a former electrical engineer who quit a teaching post at the University of Arkansas to sell full time on eBay, said his sales revenue has doubled every two months for the past six months.

“I’m not making the kind of money I made as an engineer, but I’m pretty happy with it,” said Kassel, 50, who works as much as 12 hours a day and enjoys it because stamps are his hobby. He expects sales to top more than $100,000 next year.

Kassel (eBay screen name “tonykassel”) sells through eBay auctions, maintains a Web store on the site and recently subscribed to eBay’s service that gives merchants all the tools they need to set up their own store that’s not linked to eBay.

— Greg Wiles

KALIHI WOMAN FINDS WORLD MARKET HUNGRY FOR ISLE CRAFTS

Marilyn Paguirigan, a Kalihi resident, sells as much as $25,000 worth of items on eBay each month.

“I really do think this is a wonderful opportunity for people,” said Paguirigan. “There’s a lot of market to capture out there.”

Paguirigan (eBay screen name “islandmele”) also teaches people how to use and sell on eBay during full-day seminars. Paguirigan is one of 47 people designated by eBay as “trading assistants” in the Islands. As such, she meets program requirements and is listed on eBay as a person who can sell items for others for a fee.

She said selling on eBay, while more competitive than it was three years ago when she started, is better than what she was doing previously — selling items at crafts fairs.

She recently sold kukui-nut lei for as much as $30 each after singer Jessica Simpson and celebrity Nicole Richie were photographed wearing them.

“I couldn’t believe there was such a market for it (local crafts) outside of Hawaiçi,” said Paguirigan, who has traveled to get ideas from others at eBay’s annual convention. “I’m no longer just waiting for someone to come to my craft fairs.”

— Greg Wiles

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.