ebay ebiz help...

[rfresh]

Most hosting providers provide free website building tools - usually more than one tool so you can install each one and try them out since they are free to use. These free tools are available on Linux servers.

Shopping carts are also usually available for free with Linux hosting plans - again, there are usually many to choose from - install each one and try them out to see how you like them.

Shopping carts also mean you will need the following on your website:

1. Merchant account.
2. SSL Certificate
3. Dedicated IP address (to support the SSL Cert).

[opensourceforce]

For carts....you can look at free installs of Virtuemart, osCommerc, CRELoaded, Zen Cart and others....CRE or Zen are good places to start....of course there is also eBay Prostores if you like that platform.

"but if I pay the $299 'lifetime' fee, where do I go from there? "
You would need to contact the suppliers directly to setup accounts so you can order products. Next you would need to manually upload the data or find a source for linking your site directly to the supplier product feeds to upload the data for you.

Also...here are a few supplier sources to help you get started with products if you are looking for some products:
http://moteng.com/
http://2buypcs.com/newpcs/index.aspx
http://www.dbldistributing.com/
http://xsdepot.com/