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

Well, where are you selling now? Because the marketplaces you’re already the most experienced with are your best bets for selling client items. You don’t want to be learning a whole new selling system while you’re trying to start up a new service.

storefront photo

Photo by Wonderlane

Of course, as you grow into your SA service, you’ll want to experiment with how you sell so you’ll always be able to choose the right platform for the situation. Stay flexible and open to selling on a variety of platforms. If you’re selling for a crafter, you’ll probably want to list on Etsy. For a client with a lot of media, Amazon or Half.com might be the better fit. You may have the most success selling on Craigslist for that client with large or difficult-to-ship items.

Some things to consider when choosing a marketplace are:

  • how well the marketplace fits the items you have to sell, which will determine how well and how fast they sell
  • the cost of selling there, such as fees and other expenses
  • policies and restrictions that could affect your business
  • Tools, features and upgrades that make your job easier
  • speed of the sale

If I’m selling an item for myself, I can afford to be patient; I can let that item linger in my own webstore for weeks until the right buyer comes along with the best price. That’s not always the case with Selling Assistant items. You’ll want a marketplace where you cannot only be sure that the item will sell but also that it will sell quickly, even if that means taking a slightly lower price than your ideal.

If you’re not selling anywhere yet and don’t know where to start, look for the venue that best fits the kind of items you’ll be specializing in. But then, all things being equal, sell where you’re the most comfortable. If your selling skills lie with a particular marketplace, that can make up for all sorts of deficiencies in the platform itself.