Want to be an eBay entrepreneur without expanding your current
inventory-or, for that matter, even investing in inventory of your
own? Then consider becoming an eBay Trading Assistant.
Trading Assistants do all the work for people who don't have
the time or interest to handle all the details that go along with
trading on eBay. There are plenty of prospective clients, including
those who are Internet-challenged and people who are intimidated by
computers. Other likely clients include people who are liquidating
estates, those who don't have the time (or the patience) to
hold a garage sale, and those who want to make a quick buck off the
dusty collectibles in Grandma's attic with minimal effort.
All this creates a win-win situation for a prospective Trading
Assistant. In addition to creating new moneymaking opportunities
that can lead to excellent profits, you can specify exactly which
merchandise categories you wish to trade in. You also establish
your own rules and terms, which, of course, should be made crystal
clear to your clients upfront-preferably in writing-so there are no
misunderstandings later.
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As a Trading Assistant, you'll write item descriptions for
your clients' merchandise. You'll take photos and post
everything to eBay under your own User ID. You'll also pay the
eBay fees out of your own account. Then, once you've
successfully made a sale, you'll handle the process of sending
out the sold item(s) to the buyer. Finally, you'll leave
feedback for the buyer, and you'll be on the receiving end of
any feedback left by satisfied customers.
Naturally, all this expertise comes at a cost to the client.
Typically, Trading Assistants charge a percentage of the sale
(often 10 to 30 percent) once the sale has been made. Others charge
a fixed fee just to take on a job, then charge an additional
commission (say, 3 to 5 percent) once the item has sold. The
various selling fees-including the Insertion, Final Value and
PayPal Fees, as well as postage costs&3151;are all charged to
the client and are often collected upfront.
There are only four requirements for becoming a Trading
Assistant. First, you personally must have an eBay feedback score
greater than or equal to 50 with a positive feedback rating of
greater than 97 percent. You must have sold at least four items in
the past 30 days. And, of course, you must be an upstanding member
of the eBay community who will uphold the company's sterling
image and values.
Signing up to be a Trading Assistant is simple. Just go to the
eBay home page, and click on "Services." Then under
"Advanced Seller Services," select "Trading
Assistants." If you've met the criteria listed above, you
simply follow the prompts to create your listing in the Trading
Assistants Directory. (Be sure to include details like the
categories you'll handle, the geographical area you'll
cover, your rates and terms, and how you'll dispose of unsold
merchandise.) Because there is no charge to be listed in the
directory at this time, you're essentially getting a free
classified ad from eBay. Make it count by including as much
specific information as possible, both to entice prospective
clients and to protect yourself from misrepresentation claims.
The Trading Assistant Program has been around since 2002, and
there are about 50,000 Trading Assistants worldwide. That's
good news for you because it increases the odds that you'll be
chosen when a person accesses the listing for your ZIP code. To
find out who's currently operating as a Trading Assistant in
your area, click on "Services" on the Trading Assistants
home page, then "Trading Assistants," then type your ZIP
code (or area code) into the "Find a Trading Assistant in Your
Area" box. You can also search by the type of merchandise they
handle (or all categories if you prefer). You'll immediately
get a list of sellers in that ZIP code, along with pertinent
information about their operations.
One type of Trading Assistant is the Trading Post location,
which is a brick-and-mortar retail location where customers can
drop off items that can be sold for them on eBay. Businesses that
already have a storefront or create a storefront to sell for others
on eBay can meet the Trading Post requirements, join the program,
and begin using the Trading Post logo on storefronts and in
marketing materials.
Staying Ahead of the Competition
In addition to using all the eBay tools discussed here, there
are a few more things you can do to keep your business viable and
your sales strong. First, be sure to research your market
continually so you can find new and exciting products to offer your
customers. Otherwise, you could end up desperately trying to sell
those Tickle Me Elmo dolls you bought at closeout prices way after
their popularity has waned.
Second, keep an eye on what your competition is up to. Is a
rival eBay user starting his or her listings at a lower price in an
effort to undercut the number of bidders you get? Or is he or she
offering new variations (sizes, colors, quantities and so on) on
your tried-and-true product line to lure your customers away? If
so, you'll have to make some bold moves, too, to compete. Be
sure to monitor your competition regularly by reviewing other
sellers' competing listings to find out how much their products
are selling for.
Finally, pay attention to what's going on in the
entertainment world, which tends to be the barometer for what's
in demand. "The media [drives] what's hot on eBay, because
pop culture items are such a huge market," says Collier.
"Anytime a celebrity makes big news, you'll want to drag
out the celebrity merchandise and sell it on eBay. The Today show
is also a huge resource. If a celebrity gives an interview or plugs
a book, you can be sure there will be a demand for merchandise
related to that visit."
Collier knows exactly what she's talking about when it comes
to pop culture. Her daughter, Susan Dickman, sold quite a few movie
posters from the film Pirates of the Caribbean at a tidy profit at
the height of the movie's success. Interestingly, however, the
money started rolling in only after Dickman made a minor yet
important adjustment in her original eBay listing.
"We discovered when we searched for 'pirates
poster' that some were selling for up to $30 when ours were
selling for around $10," Collier explains. "Once we
sorted by highest prices first, we noticed that 'Caribbean'
was misspelled in the titles. So we changed our eBay listing to the
wrong spelling, and the posters flew out the door. Then we bought
more posters from someone who was still using the correct spelling,
and we sold those successfully, too."
This kind of "outside the box" thinking can make you a
big success on eBay, too. Good luck, and happy selling!
If the Shoe Fits
When David Hardin, a shoe wholesaler in Mayfield, Kentucky,
discovered in 2000 that he needed a way to compensate for a
noticeable loss of business from the independent stores that had
been slowly disappearing from his client list, he took a bold step:
He went retail and started listing shoes on eBay (eBay User ID:
shoetime).
Now, four years later, Hardin, 56, not only has a thriving
wholesale business and a 200,000-square-foot warehouse, but he also
has five eBay apparel businesses and, at press time, was pitching
his company's services as an eBay Trading Assistant to a large
company in China. Last year, the gross sales for all his businesses
combined were about $750,000-and they're still growing.
"Four years ago, none of us knew how to turn on a
computer," says Hardin's daughter, Shelly Hudson, 33, who
is the company's sales and marketing director. "Now
we're a top eBay seller, and we're always looking to bring
new sites to the market."
To the Rescue
Selling on eBay isn't just a great way to build new
business-it can save a failing business, as Lisa Vanasco, 41,
discovered when she stepped in to help Ready Medical in Paramount,
California, make a last-ditch survival effort.
The 23-year-old medical equipment sales company was close to
shutting its doors because it was so out of step with the times.
The owner didn't advertise and wasn't online, so his
company was being seriously undercut by the competition.
Enter Vanasco, a temp at Ready Medical at the time, who offered
to list some items on eBay. "Everyone laughed, but they let me
do it," she says. "The first week I sold more than $5,000
of equipment, and we became a Gold PowerSeller soon
after."
The physical location survived, and the company is healthy
again, with 2003 eBay sales of $200,000. "We have a basic Web
site with a link to our eBay listings," says Vanasco, who has
since become director of eBay Sales at Ready Medical (eBay User ID:
mentalgoddess). "There's no point having anything more
[sophisticated] than that now." In fact, the eBay experience
has been so positive that Ready Medical has scrapped plans to build
its own Web site and doesn't advertise anywhere but on
eBay.
Eileen Figure Sandlin is an award-winning freelance writer
who writes on a wide range of business topics.
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