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

There are a wide variety of ways to send payments these days, but it’s hard to find a simpler option than a good old bank check. If you do decide to issue client payment via check, however, you should really consider opening a checking account specifically for your business. Many banks have a free business checking option, so this shouldn’t be an extra expense, and it will make your business look that much more professional than if you’re using your personal checks.

In most cases, there are no charges or transaction fees on a check. There are some expenses involved with this method of payment, however, namely the cost of the printed check itself and the postage it takes to mail it to the client. If your bank offers free bill pay with your checking account, that’s a simple way to avoid both of these costs. With bill pay, your bank will issue, print and mail the check for you for no additional charge, so there’s no need to purchase paper checks or stamps to mail them.

If checks aren’t an option, you may want to consider PayPal. PayPal is fast, and the money from the sale of the client’s items may already be in your account. PayPal does charge a transaction fee on every payment transfer that you can either pay yourself or pass on for the client to pay. If you don’t keep a balance in your PayPal account, you can also use them to process eChecks.

That said, not everyone has a PayPal account, and you can’t exactly force your client to open one to claim their payment. This is an issue with most electronic forms of payment; while it’s common for sellers like us to have accounts at these services, regular people seldom do. While it can seem like the obvious solution to you, it may not be a practical solution for your client.

Another option is to pay via money order. Money orders are easy to get and are sold everywhere from your local post office to Walmart. That said, most money orders have a maximum value they can be issued for, must be purchased in cash, and can cost anywhere from one to several dollars to purchase. You’ll also still have to delivery or ship them to your buyer, which would require the cost of a stamp. Wire transfers, bank drafts, MoneyGrams etc. are also all fast, but the costs can eat into your profits.

No matter what method of payment you choose, make sure there is a paper trail so you can prove that you paid your client as promised. There’s no way to prove that your client received your payment if you paid them via money order or cash. A canceled check or transaction record from a site like PayPal, Western Union, or MoneyGram all show that your buyer received their payment, and that’s much better than just having your word against theirs.

Photo by Tony Webster