[nabentre] account with inventory

[Michael Baldwin]

Okay, I am not a complete stranger to accounting, although it has been a few
years. I did the books for a trucking company, which had nothing to do with
inventory. Now I need to be concerned with inventory, and I am trying to get
it figured out. this will be for items that I will be selling on eBay or
other online sites. 
For buying inventory, I would debit the inventory expense account, and
credit the checking account. But inventory is also an asset, so I need to
debit the inventory asset account, but I am not sure what account gets
credited to balance it out. Would I credit the same inventory expense
account that I debited in the first journal?
 
Example: If I buy $150 of inventory. which would primarily be children's
clothing, so I might also be getting 100 pieces for that $150.
debit inventory expense
$150.00
credit cash
$150.00
 
debit inventory asset
$150.00
credit inventory expense
$150.00
 
After both journal entries, the inventory expense account would have a
balance of zero.
 
Or is it okay to do this in one entry as
debit inventory asset
$150.00
credit cash
$150.00
 
Then lets say I sell an item for $15 that includes $5.00 to cover shipping.
debit cash
$15.00
credit sales revenue
$10.00
 credit shipping reimbursed expenses
$5.00
 
debit COGS expense (average item cost $1.50).
$1.50
credit inventory asset
$1.50
 
Well, am I close, or is my accounting much rustier than I thought, and I am
way off on accounting for inventory.
 
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.
 
Michael