I found myself on C'Link benefits back on 2004. I had a few part time / casual jobs here and there, then I got the job I'm doing now, initially on a casual basis. I never received a full payment as I had to declare to them my husbands part time wage. I had to give them his gross earnings. When I picked up work, I also had to give them my gross earnings, which made it hard working shift work with penalty rates and my work pay fortnight was different to my Centrelink fortnight. I could be wrong, but if you're selling on eBay, you'd probably have to give them your gross earnings and claim fees and whatnot back on your tax.
As for opening a store, I wouldn't be doing that any time soon. There is no point having 200 free buy it now listings every month if you can only list 10 items. You'd be throwing your money away. You can request a selling limit increase. About half way down your selling page where your listing limit is, should be a link to increase your limit. You may at least be able to get it increased to 30 by using that link. You can also call eBay on the phone and request a limit increase, but you can only do it once a month. A newer member on the forums who has only just started selling, has less than 10 feedback and has a selling limit of 100. They got that by calling eBay (I can't remember which new member it is at the moment!).
Re the perfumes, you actually need a dangerous goods licence to sell and post perfume. If you are long term unemployed (more than 12 months), ask Centrelink to put you through the course. That way you can legally sell the perfumes. I was actually on benefits for around 20 months and in the last 8 months, I took every course I could and ended up with all sorts of cards and certificates. I got OHS green card, RSA, RSG, food handling, forklift ticket and several others. I had signed up to get a HC truck licence, a red and blue card and something else, but got full time work before the courses started, so I cancelled. None of those tickets applied to my professional experience, but I was at the stage I was willing to try something new and do anything to get a job.
Before you consider opening a store, ask yourself if you want to still list items as auctions. Unless you sell in the collectable category, you will be charged for auctions if you have a store. I have 2 accounts, am a long term seller with high feedback and have never had a store. My items sell much better at auction. I really depends on what you plan to sell.
As for what to sell, do what you're doing and try a few different things. Find out what sells best and for the highest price. I chopped and changed quite a few times before I found my niche. I can now buy items for less than $1 and sell them for an average of $20. Sometimes they will sell much higher. Recently, a 90c item sold for nearly $90.
Now, forgive me if I'm out of line, but I'm going to pick your listings to bits. You have way, way too much garb at the bottom. Call them conditions. In the postage section you say that you will post to the eBay address. You should ALWAYS post to the PayPal address or you will lose your seller protection. Quite often the eBay address and PayPal address are different. Someone may decide they want the item posted to a different address, e.g their work, so will change it in PayPal before payment to reflect that. You MUST post to that address.
In your return policy, you state that buyers are responsible for return postage. That only applies for change of mind returns. If the item arrives broken or it's not as described, then you are responsible for return shipping if you want the item back.
You emphasise (twice) that you will leave POSITIVE feedback after payment. You can only leave positive feedback for buyers, so mentioning that is a bit pointless, especially mentioning it twice. You really don't need to mention about leaving feedback. Buyers just assume that you'll leave it.
You could condense your "about us" down quite a lot. Most buyers will not read what you have written, there is far too much and most will just hit the back button. All you really need to say is, please contact us before leaving negative feedback as all problems can be fixed. You can also mention that items will be posted in 1-2 business days via Australia post. You could leave the postage section as is.
The return policy can be removed from your listings and added to the return policy section when you create the listing. That will show under the postage tab in the listing, rather than fill up the description area. Most of what is under the "about us" heading towards the bottom could be removed, especially the bit about leaving 5 star positive feedback. Buyers will do what they like and some will see that as an invitation to do the opposite.....because they can. I would leave point 3. in that section and remove the rest.
I'd remove the reinforcement about the negative feedback. You've already mentioned all that up the top. No need to say it twice, it sounds desperate.
Under the "notice" heading, I'd leave the bit about the different monitor settings, as that can cover you when someone says the colour is different. The bit about having problems, I'd change that to something like "if you have an issue with your purchase, please contact us immediately via eBay message. We will endevour to reply to you within 24 hours, except weekends and public holidays" and remove the rest.
In regards to descriptions, be very thorough with them. Always take your own photos so buyers know that you actually have the item and they can see exactly what they are getting. If something has a tiny scratch, mention it. If something has a tiny floor, mention it. Mention absolutely everything and more. Buyers are very quick to demand refunds because they put something under a microscope and see a tiny nick and think it's the end of the world. Take photos from every angle. You don't have to post all the photos, but take as many as you can in case you need to fight a not as described dispute.
In the case of the BAD necklace, you need to write more in the description than just that the package contains 1 bad necklace. Some versions of the app don't show items specifics, so you can put what's in the specifics in the description. An example could be:
Brand new, gold filled/plated BAD necklace. The chain length is 44cm and the word 7cm. The "word" is filled with clear crystals to give it that extra pizzaz and look great when the light is shining on them. The chain is 14K gold plated over an alloy metal. This would look great with a black summer dress.
Then add anything else you think that could make it stand out to the buyer that they can't live without this item. You want to sell the item, not just advertise it. You want to catch the buyers eye.
I'm sorry my post went on for so long! You seem to know what you want, it's just a matter of now achieving it. It's great you want to get out there and have a go. There's a lot of very experienced sellers here who are more than happy to answer questions, as you've already seen. Even if it's just about creating or fixing listings. Take their advice and suggestions, they know what they are talking about. Most of us made lots of mistakes when first starting out and had to learn from those mistakes. You have the opportunity to get it right from the start.
Good luck with it all!
Edited to add: Even though you want to start a business, DO NOT make your eBay account a business account. While getting established and not having much of a selling limit, if you change to a business account, you lose the 3 free relists. I think there are a few other things you lose too. There is no need to ever change it to business, even when you are established.
