Can you make a profit on Ebay?

sure no problem making a profit on Ebay, IF you know your market (ie what to buy) and consistently list and sell those items. As long as you have a place to hold the items and the margins are good enough, then you are good....ie your $2 item example...ummm, NO. You can't even pay the time it took to list it. My cost per hour and profits per hour needed FAR exceed that. You just need to stop trying to sell like the dollar store (that only works because you have 100K items in one place and they come to you)....sell higher end stuff that is still in demand and ride it until the wheels fall off...then sell the next thing.