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

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.

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.