Ebay as a publisher?
There aren''t any up right now, but if you search for "Catan" on eBay over the next couple of weeks, you''re bound to see them. They''re called "Explorers of Catan" and "Random Events and Treachery of Catan".
(my byline from the Gamedev Collection series, which I co-edited) John Hattan has been working steadily in the casual game-space since the TRS-80 days and professionally since 1990. After seeing his small-format games turned down for what turned out to be Tandy's last PC release, he took them independent, eventually releasing them as several discount game-packs through a couple of publishers. The packs are actually still available on store-shelves, although you'll need a keen eye to find them nowadays. He continues to work in the casual game-space as an independent developer, largely working on games in Flash for his website, The Code Zone (www.thecodezone.com). His current scheme is to distribute his games virally on various web-portals and widget platforms. In addition, John writes weekly product reviews and blogs (over ten years old) for www.gamedev.net from his home office where he lives with his wife and daughter in their home in the woods near Lake Grapevine in Texas.
#1. Charge enough to cover your costs and make some money. This should include reproduction costs, any taxes you might have to pay, eBay fee''s and payment fee''s (e.g. PayPal).
#2. Posting on eBay might not be enough advertising. I would suggest have an alternative to eBay for self publishing. Have a web site with payments through PayPal and adverstise with banners, posts here and other game sites, etc.. If you are willing to take someone else''s banner on your site you can generate plenty of free banner impressions. Use eBay as selling tool, but not as your primary store front.
While I don''t claim to be any type of expert on publishing, I think the points I made about just seem like common sense.
I hope this helps,
borngamer
