What about eBay?

While the SA will get a wide variety of items, a majority will usually be antiques, collectibles and home goods, all of which do particularly well on eBay. While I’m a firm believer in never shackling yourself to a single marketplace, I also don’t believe in discounting a platform entirely for any reason, especially if it could be a good fit for your items despite other annoyances. While there’s a lot I don’t like about the eBay platform, there are several good reasons to consider it for selling your clients’ items.

ebay photo

Photo by fsse8info

Despite the fact that I’m a multi-channel seller, I list the majority of my Selling Assistant items on eBay. While I take all kinds of items, my specialty is collectibles, especially vintage toys, and I like eBay best for them for several reasons. Firstly, it’s still the best place to sell collectibles and vintage items, and it’s where you’ll get the best prices for what you have to sell as long as you know what you’re doing with keywords. Secondly, while I use a mix of Auctions and Fixed Price (I am a great lover of Best Offer), it’s hard to beat the auction format for speed.

Items sold via auction are usually gone about a week from when I listed them, so I can pay my client and get on to the next commission. Auctions are also an excellent way to sell a rare or unusual item you aren’t sure of the value of since you can just list it and let the market determine its final value through bidding. Of course, on the reverse, auctions can also burn a seller if an item sells for less than expected.

With Fixed Price, be it on eBay or another marketplace, it can take weeks to months for someone to purchase the items, and that’s time I can’t always afford to waste. As a rule, Fixed Price usually means higher prices but at the expense of speed. It’s fine if your client isn’t in a rush, and if you’ve got values already in mind for the items. But clients are rarely patient, and when they’ve got items where there’s no value precedent, auctions are often the best choice.

eBay isn’t a perfect selling solution but, to me, the positives outweigh the negatives when it comes to the kind of items I usually sell. That said, I also sell select consignment items via Half.com, Amazon, Craigslist, Etsy and even my own website depending on what they are and what I determine is best for that specific commission. Whether eBay will be a good fit for your service remains to be seen, but I do think it would be a mistake to not give it a try, at least for some items.