Question
Just recently a store opened up in one of the strip malls up the road called "I SOLD IT ON EBAY". I haven't been in it yet but I am going to just out of curiosity to see what their fees, etc. are. They take items in and list for people for a fee. They also do all the packing/shipping etc. Has anyone else seen similar stores where you live?
Answer
www.snappyauctions.com
Be sure to check out the sites, they are a franchise.
I have bought some very nice items from them for my mall booth. They are a first-class act and extremely accommodating from a buyer's standpoint. I have never used them to sell anything, however.
Answer
Quote from the link provided by Auction Queen:
stuff n.(stuf) - anything that takes up space in your home that has value; things that Grandma gave you that you pleasantly accepted; retired electronics; the exercise machine that holds your wet towels; things you used to collect; things your spouse collects; items with dust; art that you used to like; a wedding dress that you won't wear again; golf clubs that make you play badly; the laptop that used to seem small; the baby stuff that your three year old used; the bridesmaid dress that you intended to wear again; the electric guitar that you swore you would play; (you get the point)
Bolding mine.
Cheers, Kevin
Answer
There was a coupon ad in the ad flyer in the last Sunday paper for I Sold it on eBay. I pulled it out and was meaning to look into it. As soon as I'm able to drive/get around again I'll go check them out.
Answer
Some folks might remember my series of postings here and there about Auction Drop, the Bay Area venture capital-funded startup that was to have had storefronts all across the country by now.
AD got off to a great start, quickly opening six retail locations where folks could drop off their eBay-able merchandise, and doing all-out full page ads as well as transit ads.
But they quickly found some problems:
1) They weren't getting big-ticket items walked in.
2) Much of the stuff people were bringing in was not fetching a good price on eBay, even when their initial "research" indicated the item could sell for more than $50, their threshhold.
3) Their internal item processing system was cumbersome; items could be in
processing for two or more weeks before finally being listed
4) Their elaborate professionally-done photographs did not make up for the sparseness of their descriptions, which tended more towards CYA legalese and often told little about the item.
5) They didn't have enough auctions going to support their payroll of at least 50 people. Peak was 750 auctions a week.
Earlier this year AD quietly closed their storefronts and cut a deal with UPS so that consignors could simply drop their item off at a UPS Store anywhere in the U.S.
Unfortunately, the UPS Store model is not working either. Recently, AD implemented new restrictions on what it will accept on consignment. All jewelry must be signed, for example, by a maker such as Bulgari or Tiffany.
The auction volume these days is 350-400 auctions a week, which is astounding considering they have the entire country as potential customers. Sadly, they have not gotten their marketing message out. I conclude they don't have the cash to do a nationwide ad campaign, like Overstock is doing.
That swishing sound you hear is AD circling the drain.
Who's to blame for the impending demise of a once-promising concept?
eBay has to shoulder a lot of it. Site changes have been so frequent and so confusing that many bidders are finding better things to do with their time. Search is bollixed up, perhaps permanently. I've been on eBay since its inception and I no longer trust Search results.
The depressing effect of eBay on item prices perhaps could have been foreseen by AD management as it has been a long time in the making. I wonder if they actually did any historical studies on certain categories. They would have had to have purchased the data from eBay.
fLufF
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Answer
I recently visited the local UPS Store and picked up a brochure on the auction services. The service is quite expensive (~ 50%).
I haven't got any quotes or examples to share, but I might consider doing the listings myself, where I control the listing content, then take the item down to them and let them do the shipping. Particularly during the upcoming shopping season, wher it would be to my advantage to turn over a higher volume than I'd be able to do by myself. (Making note to self :-)
Shipping is the least desireable portion of selling on eBay, and if the costs are fair, I may give that a shot. I once had a helper doing the shipping for me, but that was back when I was listing things more regularly. I still ended up double checking everything in order to avoid shipping errors... so I decided to heck with that too.
I had another local trading assistant list a couple batches of things for me. The first batch, I had to have them make so many changes to the listings (inaccurate, incomplete info, etc) that I may as well have done them myself, but with the changes, that batch did ok. The second batch they did, they were making the same stupid mistakes so I just said the heck with it, let them run as-is, and I lost my shirt on that batch and told them to return all the stuff remaining.
They'd put the same amount of effort in listing an item that might be worth $10 as an item that was worth $100 plus, and in either case the information in the listings was minimal and in many cases incomplete and/or erroneous.
I could say more about the trading assistant program but I'm not up to writing about it in depth right now.