posted on February 19, 2004 05:41:36 PM
I'm looking in my local area for one or more eBay Trading Assistants to help increase the exposure of my jewelry and other goods on eBay. (This is not a solicitation, do not apply.)
So I have this list of, what, 25 TAs in the appropriate area code. The biggest sells electronics and audio and obviously couldn't sell jewelry to save their hides. Deux is AuctionDrop. The third is selling on eBay to supplement his daughter's college fund, which is fine, but he throws objects on the floor to photograph them. One picture, wrinkled garment. Number four only does collectibles, at least I think they are, the one-only pics are fuzzy. Five? Seems very proud of being mentioned in some eBay book no one's ever heard of and teaches classes on eBay. (SalGal! Is that YOU?) Six has only 13 auctions up. Seven is another audio dealer. Eight has 2 auctions up and is about as far away from here as you can get and still be in the same area code. Nine only does collectibles and supplies for collectors. The rest have little or no objects for sale.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is that if you want to have an eBay presence as a TA, it would really help to have attractive auctions and lots of them. And if you're hesitating about signing up as a TA because you think the market is flooded, reconsider. There may be some very good opportunities waiting for you. Me? I'm probably going to use AuctionDrop and see what happens. At least they take lots of very nice pictures.
posted on February 19, 2004 06:13:03 PM
why bother to be one?
i cant even sell my own stuff!!
a good TA should be a good photographer with good camera,and often,those who do keep themselves busy/
more than just a good camera,but the right background paper and lighting.
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on February 19, 2004 06:26:00 PM
I have done several auctions as a TA. Not all have been successful, but then you have to look at what I was trying to sell. If you would like to email me, go to my auction site under sanmar. I don't want to put my email address on here.
posted on February 19, 2004 06:34:15 PM
All I can say is that if you're going to be a TA, DON'T sell for family and friends! It turned into such a hassle that I gave up. I still have my TA website up and am thinking about replacing it with a store.
posted on February 20, 2004 01:36:21 AM
It's so darn difficult to sell on ebay these days that I'm surprised there are any TAs listed at all. There are dozens of drop off stores now and those are also competition for TAs.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on February 20, 2004 05:52:08 AM
if you dont sell for friends and relatives,whom do you sell for?
al capone??
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on February 20, 2004 07:31:22 AM
stopwhining
I did have a couple of local shops I sold for. One was a store selling Balinese items. There were also a couple of local small mom and pop antique stores. Alas, they've since gone out of business.
posted on February 20, 2004 08:54:50 AM
I have never been a TA but was thinking about hiring one?? What do they normally charge?
I did do some listing for a friend (not a close friend)for a small fee and really hated it. I sold everything I listed for her but it was still a pain and I would have made more selling my own stuff.
Seems like with jewelry you could just mail it anywhere in the US so cheap that you would not need to stick with just your area?
Thanks
posted on February 20, 2004 09:26:19 AMSeems like with jewelry you could just mail it anywhere in the US so cheap that you would not need to stick with just your area?
I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean by this. Could you amplify?
posted on February 20, 2004 09:57:36 AM
I may not understand how the TA really works but if you have to give them the item anyway why couldn't you just mail it - you could send a whole bunch of jewelry for under 2 lbs? Of course you would only do this with someone you could trust. Maybe start with a few piece or something. Am I making any sense?
posted on February 20, 2004 10:30:34 AM
Okay, I get it now.
Actually, depending on how it was set up, you wouldn't have to give them the merchandise at all.
One scenario I've been thinking of would be to provide a bunch of different pictures of an item, plus the basic information about the item, then have the TA list the auction in their own style, merchandising it so that there would be a half-dozen or so different auctions for the same SKU. Payment would come to one of my PayPal accounts. I would take care of shipping and other post-auction procedures. The seller account would be a new one set up for this purpose. Let's call this the list-only program.
One step above that would be the auction-prep program, where I would hand over one sample of each type of jewelry to be photographed. The TA would have to have some mastery of digital photography (or scanning) of small objects so that photos would be sharp and marks legible. Again, merchandising the item to avoid relisting the same auction over and over. TA remuneration would be higher for this program because more skill and effort is required. I would still handle after-auction procedures such as payment collection and shipping.
One rung higher on the ladder is the complete-auction-service program, which is what AuctionDrop and similar companies provide...for a hefty fee. They do it all.
Their procedures are comprehensive. They barcode everything that is consigned and scan the code every step of the way so you can always get a status. The service is probably worth the fee...but do I need that much service? Probably not.
posted on February 20, 2004 11:20:02 AM
Hi fluffy, sometime last summer Tom & Ralphie replied to a thread on trading assistants, from what Tom mentioned about it I thought I too will give it a try. I do not think more than 10 days passed when I received an email from a company that was moving to the south Florida area they are a beauty supply warehouse. We met we both liked one another, and our business practices and we entered into an agreemant that I would list for them until they were ready to do it on their own. first of all it was fun, I liked the deviation from what I was selling. Second, they were very well stocked, third from day one items were selling, if I received a question I would either call or email them and they responded quickly. I was very lucky it worked well and we both lived up to each others expectations.It took about 3 months for them to be completely set up and they paid me to come in and show them how to take it over on their own. This is a 45 year old family business and they supply to outlets,stores beauty shops etc. When they took it on their own they found that they were forgetting to allocate what was listed on ebay and many times when auctions were over the item was not on hand, they would write the customer and tell them they are waiting for a re-order, back order yada, yada,. They called me up and said would you go back to handling this, we will give you the mdse before hand and would you take over the shipping. We worked out another arrangement that was agreeable to us both. Right around the Christmas Holiday we were all together and we were discussing opening up an ebay store they were not familiar with this process, I was not either which I told them and we said we will learn together through trial and error. What I knew about the stores I learned from here, and believe me when the time came every bit of info I receives was invaluable. the Stores had a super Christmas and we were all pleased. This Jan. they asked If I would like to be a full time employee, but they wanted me to work at their facility, I thanked them and said no I would like to be a customer. I now use them as a supplier this is mostly what I sell now, all new mdse, I can go get mdse whenever I need it, no shipping charges,I take their suggestions on trying new stuff, if it does not work out for me I bring it back they credit me. This has worked out well for both of us, we both are happy with the end result. We are both making money!
I don't get even....I get even better Jimmy Hoffa
posted on February 20, 2004 11:24:03 AM
if this company is a wholesaler,why do they want to sell retail on ebay??
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
Thanks for your story. I think beauty supply is an interesting business. There are several stores here that do very well. It might help that they sell to retail customers *and* to professional stylists (who with their license can buy products ordinary people cannot).
posted on February 20, 2004 12:15:31 PM
Hi Stop,they came to Florida in a semi retirement status, their main business is in PA. they have this smaller warehouse for the east coast, little by litle family members are moving down here, + some items they sell can only e purchased by people in the trade, they offering excellent prices for people that do not use some of these products in quantity.
Reenie
I don't get even....I get even better Jimmy Hoffa
posted on February 20, 2004 12:19:40 PM
Yes, fluffy you are right on the money, one of the reasons they are doing so well is the majority of their trade requires one to have either a beautician, barber, clinician, nail tek license, to purchase, other than the salons that sell items to the customers at a very high price. I listed through the ebay trader assistant program.
reenie
I don't get even....I get even better Jimmy Hoffa
posted on February 20, 2004 12:56:19 PM
Fluffy - I am assuming that you are loooking to reduce your personal presence on ebay in order to focus on your website (and avoid the average ebay bidder email ). Considering that you are still interested in getting the best price possible on your merchandise and one of the most important aspects of jewelry sales is presentation, I think option 1 would be your best bet. Provide the images and rely upon the imagination of your TA to write a variety of descriptions. Give them the inventory numbers of each item and every week give them a list of item numbers and quantity available to list that week. At the end of each week seller can provide you with a sles report listing quantities sold so that unsold pieces can be recycled into the next rotation or held for a future one.
BTW - Rather having the TA start their own new account, I would provide them with one so that you can deal with all billing etc directly and have access to it for your records.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
[ edited by Fenix03 on Feb 20, 2004 12:59 PM ]
posted on February 20, 2004 01:21:57 PM
Fluffy...I'm not a TA but most of what I sell are consignment items from friends/family. I NEVER sell anything unless I have physical possession of it. I simply would not consider selling anything I can't see and examine for myself. Since, as the eBay seller, I'm responsible for the item, it's important to me to be able to be 100% accurate with the listing and possible questions.
posted on February 20, 2004 01:47:25 PM
blueyes29: I would be providing the TA with a seller's account that has my name on it, not hers. We'd both have the password. There would have to be some trust but that's true of any business relationship.
Fenix: And now for the zillion-dollar question: What are list-only services worth? I'm thinking a percentage of the final sale price with a minimum fee. No maximum.
blueyes29 again: I'm willing to provide samples of jewelry for first-hand evaluation; however, I absolutely would require a deposit on each. I have had too many bad experiences with home workers who kept what they so-earnestly promised me they would return.
posted on February 20, 2004 03:03:05 PM
::Fenix: And now for the zillion-dollar question: What are list-only services worth? I'm thinking a percentage of the final sale price with a minimum fee. No maximum. ::
That's what I would do. Percentages are always a good idea since they push people to work harder to bring in max bids.
BTW - if you decide to look beyond your general area - give me a yell. [email protected]
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on February 20, 2004 04:06:20 PM
I think any seller that lists items that only average $5 is going to find it an impossible task to find a TA to do a lot of work for a small percentage. For instance, what's 20% of $5 ... a mere buck. The TA programs are more geared up for higher valued items in my opinion.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
). Considering that you are still interested in getting the best price possible on your merchandise and one of the most important aspects of jewelry sales is presentation, I think option 1 would be your best bet. Provide the images and rely upon the imagination of your TA to write a variety of descriptions. Give them the inventory numbers of each item and every week give them a list of item numbers and quantity available to list that week. At the end of each week seller can provide you with a sles report listing quantities sold so that unsold pieces can be recycled into the next rotation or held for a future one.