Would you recommend to a beginner to sell individually on ebay/amazon/etsy? or build a brand and develop a website etc?

I've been asked this question a lot. I say sell to anyone you can.... your friends, local stores, people on websites. Even contacting sellers on ebay/etsy/amazon and other sites like that is a good idea to see if they are interested in your product/price.

I don't suggest trying to build a brand unless you have some unique product. Maybe something you are having custom manufactured or something. If you wanted to you could very easily draw up t-shirt designs and have them made in bulk by some factory for you for a cheap price.

That's what many of these t-shirt companies do... they'll have the shirts bulk manufactured overseas, import them, and then sell them to stores at the mall, or online, or whatever. Basically, don't brand unless you have a unique product. Many factories can and will do custom orders for you if you inquire.

How easy is it to automate this and what kind of profits can a beginner expect?

It can be very easy if you come across a good idea. Unfortunately there are literally millions of ways to do this and you just have to be creative. As far as profits.... that too is really only limited by your imagination and the usefulness of the ideas you come up with. This is basically capitalism. You can grow to nearly no limit.

How can one tell which items/products are trademarked/patented to avoid getting sued? lol

Careful research/common sense.

Is saturation an issue? I can imagine tons of people are importing from chuna and reselling on ebay etc. to get a quick buck.

For many products such as USB's, yes, but it's not that big of an issue. Importing is nothing new. People have been doing it for decades now. Just do your research, and don't give away your ideas. I probably shouldn't have told you the T-Shirt one, but its a pretty common thing you could have figured out on your own.

I am really skeptical of articles/sites that talk about getting 'easy money' 'quick'. Not sure if you've heard about it but last year i almost got sucked into that whole Vemma-pyramid- scheme and felt like such a retard once i learned what it was.

I know what pyramid schemes are. The fact is many business structures operate on a pyramid mentality, but true pyramid schemes aren't as common as you think. The reality is, if you are making legitimate money, then it is not a pyramid scheme. If they're asking you to invest saying they will double your money with you doing nothing, then it probably is a pyramid scheme.