Question
We have been approached about selling for people for years and have never done it. We are think about starting by focusing on marketing a service to local businesses.
I know the potential pitfalls (I think) but anyone here have experience with doing consignments sales on Ebay?
Tod
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I have.
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70% of what I sell now is on consignment. I love it.
The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention.
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If you don't mind me asking have you consigned for businesses, individuals or both?
We are thinking of charging a flat 30% and .99 cents per listing unless they want to use reserves or other high priced sales options in which case they would have to pay the extra fees.
Tod
Answer
I used to sell for one person. He had good stuff and reasonable expectations as to what it might bring.
He set a minimum price that he would be happy with, which was usually a low-end-of-the-scale figure. We would split everything over his minimum price. When things went high, I made out like a bandit, and some went very high.
This system might not work for everyone, but it worked quite well between him and I.
What % would be agreeable to you and the consignee?
I'll tell you though, they think they are being generous if they offer you 10% of the sale. Most people do not realize the amount of work involved.
If high dollar, I might do it for 15 or 20%. If low dollar, more like 40%. Trouble is, most people won't go for that.
Let them do the work then, that's what I think.
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by busker:
I used to sell for one person. He had good stuff and reasonable expectations as to what it might bring.
He set a minimum price that he would be happy with, which was usually a low-end-of-the-scale figure. We would split everything over his minimum price. When things went high, I made out like a bandit, and some went very high.
This system might not work for everyone, but it worked quite well between him and I.
What % would be agreeable to you and the consignee?
I'll tell you though, they think they are being generous if they offer you 10% of the sale. Most people do not realize the amount of work involved.
If high dollar, I might do it for 15 or 20%. If low dollar, more like 40%. Trouble is, most people won't go for that.
Let them do the work then, that's what I think.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
We have ran into both kinds of people, those that would be happy to go 50/50 and those who think 10% is too much. The 10 percenters seem to tend to also be the ones who would not be happy with Ebay prices either unless they would exceed some out of date, pre-Ebay price guide. http://community.here.com/infopop/em...icon_smile.gif
Depending on the merchandise we are looking at a 30% ceiling and slighly less on quality, higher ticket items.
Tod
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Issues you need clear understanding:
The split of the proceeds and how to calculate it
Who pays the fees
How to handle deadbeats, returns, bad checks, chargebacks, etc...
Inventory control - this sounds easy until you have to deal with a consignor with several thousand items.
Trust - how do consignors know you are accounting for everything. This is a difficult topic unless consignor are also online and tracking your sales.
What to do with the unsolds.
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I've done it on several occasions, and am thinking about doing a little advertising so I can do it some more. If I get laid off from my RL job, I probably will.
I normally charge 50% on lower end stuff, which is mostly all I get from people anyway.
http://members.aol.com/melbayone/thread.gif
Melinda
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I don't want anything to do with it.
It's like this, I look at an item, and think "if I sell this on eBay, I want to make $xx.xx". If someone wants to sell it to me at a price I think I can live with, I'll buy it, and we will both be happy. If they don't want to sell it to me at that price, I figure that if I took it in on consignment and sold it on eBay, one or the other of of us would wind up unhappy.
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
-- Decca Recording Co. (Rejecting the Beatles - 1962)
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That's a good philosophy, microbes.
I used to do a little bit of consigning as favors but it was always more of a hassle than a profit maker for me. Most people have no idea of the work involved with Ebay--they think you just "throw it up on the computer" and everything happens by magic. Plus with all the Antiques Roadshows and decorating shows out there, everyone's convinced they have high-dollar treasures.
A few weeks ago a gal acted like she intended to do me a favor by "letting" me sell some tee shirts for her. She was shocked when I told her I didn't want to do it. (Heck I don't have enough time to list my own good stuff let alone spend time to on someone else's low-dollar items!) She said there was another woman who did ebay in the area and she had mentioned the tee shirts to her, but that the woman was "ridiculous" and wanted 50% of what the shirts would bring. I told her I thought 50% was very fair, and if she didn't want to pay that much she should just throw them on the computer herself http://community.here.com/infopop/em...on_biggrin.gif
I imagine consigning from a supplier of a large volume of quality goods would be an entirely different matter, but I have never searched out such opportunities, and they have never presented themselves to me. Just junk lol.