I don't know too much about it other than Magento seems to be a pretty popular solution (our parent company Mammoth builds custom e-commerce solutions, but that is probably not what you want) - but I know a few people that sell a lot of stuff online simply by using Ebay as the shopfront side of things. Its not as neat a solution but it basically means you just need a standard website and then they handle all the e-commerce stuff - plus you get all the extra exposure from being on Ebay.

I definately will be incorporating Ebay into the store - however I am also wanted to have a dedicated store front / website. I havent looked too deeply into the ebay solution - so thanks for the comments guys! I'll do some investigation tonight.

Do you have to comply with PCI-DSS if you implement your own stuff? Wouldn't going through a 3rd party kind of allow them to be compliant and therefore save you in the short term until you can afford to comply the rest of your systems yourself?

Drupal + Ubercart with paypal = win!

As a web developer of 7 + years have I used many solutions and intergrated them with our client websites. Ultimately, it depepnds on how technically inclined you are. If you are not technically inclined at all and just want the finished product you might be best contacting one of the many web development firms in your city. They will provide you with a finished product and ongoing support but you will be paying more each month. Another advantage is that the look and feel of your website would be completely customised towards you business but again, you have to pay for that. I you feel comfortable setting up your own hosting and domain registration and building your site then a solution like shopfactory would be okay.

Some other tips for you. I would suggest steering clear of any oscommerce solutions are they are huge pain to set up. Search engine optimisation and internet advertising are also key if you want to start selling stuff online, make sure you have a good Google Adwords account running that lands on your specific products.