I'd recommend taking the route of dropshipping or doing a BANS to get your feet wet.
http://www.buildanichestore.com/
In essense with bans, you become an ebay affiliate.. So you don't have to worry about warehousing, setting up merchant accounts, processing credit cards, etc. So you have no overhead besides your costs for hosting it (which is pennies), and advertising it (which that cost is up to you :)
With BANS you create a website storefront and design it around a niche, so in your case you could do it around skiing. It automatically updates your page with products being auctioned at ebay right now.
If someone clicks through your link and ends up buying it.. you get a commission. straight across. that simple :)
And it saves you alot of headache. You can establish a STRONG online presense through BANS, and once that happens companies will be coming to you asking you to sell their products... Instead of you having to chase them down. which is definitely a great position to be in.
I know a few guys netting millions with bans, so it's definitely a viable solution I'd recommend checking out!