In 2003, Troy cut back his work schedule and began to put together a business plan that would allow the two of them to work together.

The previous year, a friend had asked Troy for his help selling an old stack of magazines on eBay. Troy noticed that some of the magazines didn't move, but that one ad from one magazine sold for quite a lot of money.

Vintage advertising. Troy was intrigued. He and Sarah started researching this category on eBay. Troy refined their business plan. But it was when they attended eBay Live! in 2004 that they really saw what they could do with an eBay Store. "We understood the potential to create a unique brand with an eBay Store," says Troy.

In September 2004 they launched Period Paper, specializing in high-quality, hard-to-find vintage advertisements. Troy and Sarah branded every element of their eBay Store and created a very

"eBay is our entire online source of revenue for our business and will be our number-one source for the foreseeable future." Troy Ylitalo

Today, Period Paper lists a minimum of 250 top-quality one-of-a-kind items each week and maintains 15,000 listings every day in their eBay Store. Troy and Sarah used to sell at antique shows every now and again, but found their eBay Store so much more profitable, they gave it up. "eBay has been pivotal in launching our business. When we first started, we thought we would launch our eBay Store and our dot-com site at the same time. Now, in 2007, we have yet to launch our dot-com business because eBay is so successful for us. eBay is our entire online source of revenue for our business and will be our number-one source for the foreseeable future."

Troy and Sarah are indeed spending more time together than ever before. Sarah retired from her 20-year career in publishing in April 2005 to join Troy and several employees at Period Paper full time. More >>