Oliver Goehler first appeared in the public eye in early 2004 when he managed to get his picture on the front cover of the Daily Telegraph along with a caption reading "£1,000 for a five-hour week, anyone?"

The stories printed about this 23 year old Oxford graduate centered on his remarkable achievements from buying and selling on eBay. He was seemingly able to make large amounts of money simply by buying rare advertising books and then auctioning them off for a large profit.

Goehler's story did the rounds in several newspapers including the Daily Telegraph and the Sun as well as Web User and the Manchester Evening News.

In each feature, Goehler said he was embarassed at how easily this money came to him and remarked that he was earning more in 5 hours than his friends made in a week.

Since then he has featured in several other publications and also on a BBC2 programme about eBay.

Like any good information publisher, Oliver took advantage of his new found fame to start promoting his eBay-related business opportunities.

Goehler's main product, offered by both Streetwise Publications and NAP Publishing, is a manual called "The DiVergence Profit System".

The manual promises to show you how to make "profits of up to £1426.51 in 10 days" with online auctions i.e. eBay

It is offered for around £50 usually through his website or by direct mail sales letters.

In his Daily Telegraph feature, Oliver claims that he makes around £1000 per week working only 2 hours a day. His expertise is rare advertising books and other information products which he buys for pennies and then resells for hundreds of pounds.

His claims are fantastic and he boasts that he doesn't really do much to earn a living saying "I think my friends are envious, although I don't really like to boast to them. It would seem a bit rude to suddenly announce: 'I only bothered to work for five hours last week and I raked in a grand'."

According to the Telegraph, Oliver's most successful sale was a book he bought for £21 and then sold for £366. In the Sun he claims that he bought a set of tapes for 56p which went on to sell for £1,130.

The quoted profit margins are immense, but what do you actually get for the £50+?

• "The DiVergence Profit System" manual, a 160+ page manual describing how Oliver makes ridiculous amounts of money from eBay
• Report "The Best Way of Earning £500 on eBay Immediately"
• Report "The Daily Telegraph Transcript Special Report"
• Report "The Absolute Best Way to Make Money on eBay"
• Report "Seven Secrets of an eBay Profiteer"

The main manual is pretty thorough although lacking in any true examples, you never actually see any of his auctions or any proof that he actually made this money. He describes how he sources products before selling them on for much more.

The extra reports are very short but bring up some interesting ideas. They could've been included in the actual manual but, as a good marketing ploy, have been added as "extra bonuses".

Conclusion:

The Divergence Profit System manual is a fairly good introduction to selling on eBay with some useful tips. The bonus reports also give some simple and slightly obvious ways to make extra money when auctioning items on eBay.

What comes across in the manual is that Oliver suggests some slightly underhand methods to get high bids. Some of these methods are actually against eBay rules and are best ignored or you risk being banned.

The product comes with a 90 day risk free guarantee so if you are not happy with your purchase you can request a full refund.

The irony of this particular business opportunity is that there are plenty of eBay listings selling the manual, often for less than half the price.