Letting Someone Else Sell It for You

In: Information|Selling Tips

17 Apr 2009

Maybe you find the whole eBay process a little intimidating. You have some things you’d like to sell, but don’t want to bother with the online auction process. What do you do?

If you don’t want to sell your own stuff on eBay, you can let someone else sell it for you. In essence, you let another seller sell your goods on consignment. If the items sell, you pay the consignment seller a percentage of the final price. The consignment seller handles all the eBay stuff for youtaking photographs, creating item listings, managing the auctions, collecting payments, and packing and shipping the items. All you have to do is deliver the merchandise to the seller, and let him do all the work for you.

eBay calls this type of consignment seller an eBay Trading Assistant, and there are lots of them. Many individual sellers operate as Trading Assistants; there are also numerous local and national businesses that operate eBay consignment stores.

If you’d like to become a Trading Assistant yourself, go to the Trading Assistants Directory page and click the Create/Edit Your Profile link. To become a Trading Assistant, you must have sold at least four items in the past 30 days, have a feedback rating of at least 50, and have a positive feedback percentage of at least 97%.

To search for a Trading Assistant near you, go to eBay’s Trading Assistant Directory (pages.ebay.com/tradingassistants.html). Enter your ZIP code and select a category (for what you want to sell) from the pull-down list, and then click the Search button. This returns a list of Trading Assistants in your area; click the link to view the Trading Assistant’s profile. If you like what you see, click the Contact Assistant button to send a message and get the process going.

Not all Trading Assistants are individual sellers. eBay consignment selling has become a big business, with lots of stores opening their doors in communities all across America. Locally-owned consignment stores can be found in your local Yellow Pages. The two largest national chains are iSold It (www.i-soldit.com) and QuikDrop (www.quikdropfranchise.com); visit their websites to find a location near you.

2 Responses to Letting Someone Else Sell It for You

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Gene Bowen

April 17th, 2009 at 7:43 pm

Drop-off stores are not the wonderful places most writers present them to be. Many users are unhappy with the results they offer. The owners are not making money and many are closing.
Go to http://www.amitheonlyone.org for a look at the sleazy way they are run.

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rich

July 5th, 2011 at 12:21 pm

i have early 1940’s 50’s photos of country musicians i have had some authenticated and have got some prices for some but haven’t finished and am having truble finding buyers email me if interested and to find out the artist (there are over 100 photos)

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