I know plenty of people who have gotten into ecommerce, and they still use eBay for the exact same reasons.
They list around 10 items out of 50 on eBay, and have links to their site.

Personally, I am going to use my interest in web design and coding to do a custom design business hooked up to my portfolio.
I'm undecided on a forum system, though... I'm thinking vB + CMPS + integrated blog... dont know though.