1. Start reading Sell Their Stuff by Hillary DePiano for free right now
  2. What is a Selling Or Trading Assistant? The Ultimate Overview of Consignment Selling
  3. What does consignment mean? What is consignment selling?
  4. What exactly does a Selling Assistant do? What’s a typical day like?
  5. How does a Selling Assistant make money? Who can become one?
  6. Can eBay Trading Assistants still sell on consignment for others now that the program is gone?
  7. Where can a Selling Assistant sell their client’s consignment items?
  8. What kind of items can a Selling Assistant sell on consignment for their clients?
  9. Sellers, here’s why you should add Selling Assistant services to your existing e-commerce business
  10. From SAHMs to retirees, students to teachers: here’s who should start a Selling Assistance service
  11. Designing your Selling Assistance service from terms and conditions to services and features
  12. Money Matters: How does a Selling Assistant profit from selling items for others?
  13. Resale and the Selling Assistant: Sometimes it’s simpler to just buy the items outright
  14. Selling Assistant fees: What are they and how do they work?
  15. The Pros and Cons of charging a fee for your Selling Assistant services
  16. Does charging a commission on your Selling Assistant services maximize your profits?
  17. Charge a combination of fees and commission to maximize your Selling Assistant profits
  18. Here’s how I profit from my Selling Assistant business
  19. Should a Selling Assistant give their client a deposit or advance on future earnings?
  20. Should the Selling Assistant require a deposit of new clients?
  21. Who pays for what when selling for others on consignment?
  22. Should the consignment seller cover all selling fees or pass them onto the client?
  23. How discounted & free shipping offers affect consignment selling
  24. Shipping costs & selling fees are the least of your worries…
  25. Paying your clients their share of your Selling Assistant sales
  26. Calculating client payments on a Selling Assistant contract
  27. Method of Payment: How should I pay my Selling Assistant client?
  28. Reporting and reconciliation of a Selling Assistant client contract
  29. Build yourself a timeline for paying Selling Assistant clients without getting burned
  30. Money Matters Managed
  31. Your Selling Situation: Where and how should I sell my Selling Assistant items?
  32. Multi-Channel Consignment Selling: List your items on multiple marketplaces for greater exposure
  33. Practice your Selling Assistance service before you start taking on clients
  34. Do you need a storefront or standalone webstore to be a Selling Assistant?
  35. Is eBay still the best place for a Trading Assistant turned consignment seller?
  36. Does the Selling Assistant consignment sell from their own account or the clients?
  37. Should I have a designated selling account for my Selling Assistance consignment service?
  38. The 8 questions you must ask yourself before you start selling on consignment
  39. Good customer service is a selling point that can distinguish your services
  40. The benefits of having a PO Box or other Locked Mailbox for your business
  41. Designate a business phone line for more professional client contact
  42. Consider VOIP & internet-based phones like Google Voice or Skype over traditional options
  43. Offering pick-up services is an easy way to attract local Selling Assistant clients
  44. Should you allow Selling Assistant clients to drop their items off?
  45. Expand the reach of your Selling Assistant service by letting clients ship their items to you

Just like a salesperson in a retail store, the SA that works on commission makes profit on a percentage basis based on how the items sell. For instance, the SA could take a percentage of the final sale price of each item, the sale price of the item less selling fees, or a percentage of the total profit made by the owner of the items.

Clients often prefer commission for reasons that are mostly psychological, but it provides some challenges for the SA.

300px-Money_Cash.jpgAdvantages of working on commission

  • Commission increases the level of trust between the SA and the client. The client knows that the SA will do everything in their power to get the maximum profit on their items because the amount the SA herself makes is dependent on the final value. Commission means the SA’s profit is directly proportionate to the sort of job she or he does (i.e., the more you sell it for, the more you make), and that gives a potential client more confidence in your service. It’s in both parties’ best interests to get the best price possible, and that gives the transaction a collaborative feeling of working together.
  • A commission makes your service seem less expensive, even if it isn’t really. Even though a commission can often mean the client pays more in the end, a flat fee can sound higher because you’re giving them an exact total instead of talking about a percentage of a future number. It’s a mind game, but it works.
  • The SA makes more on high-selling items than with fees. Remember that $4,000 designer luggage? Unless you’re charging a 0.1% commission, you’re guaranteed to be making more than $5 on that item.

Disadvantages of working on commission

  • Profit becomes difficult to predict and can vary widely from item to item. You’ll take a gamble with every new client you take. Will their items sell for enough to be worth the work of listing them?
  • Commission can corner the SA into a poor work-to-financial-return ratio on items that sell for very little. You spent 40 hours listing all those LPs, and they only sold for $10 total? No matter what your commission rate is, you made less than pennies per hour for your work. There are ways to avoid this situation, but you can still find yourself in it no matter how prepared you are.
  • The SA makes no commission on items that do not sell.

Commission is a bit like betting the success of your business entirely on your selling skills and your ability to pick the right items. It can be an unreliable form of profit but, like the stock market, if you play it right, it can mean much greater profits than flat fee. Is a little unpredictability worth the chance of making more money?