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

Even if you already offer pick-ups and/or drop-off hours, you may want to expand the reach of your service even farther. Allowing clients to ship their items to you opens your business up in a big way. Now anyone with access to postal mail can be your client, meaning you could offer your SA services on the national or even global level. Of course, local clients may also take advantage of your shipping service, as it may be easier for them to pop their items in the mail instead of having you come out for a pick-up or them go out for a drop-off.

There are a few things to consider, however. Firstly, who will pay the shipping costs? Your services would be that much more attractive if you let clients bill the shipping costs to your shipper’s account, but do you really want to take on those extra costs? If the items are worth enough and covering shipping seals the deal, it may be well worth it to secure the contract.

Can people just send you items without first contacting you or signing a contract? If no, what if they do anyway? Letting people just send you stuff without first requiring contact or contract can mean more business, but it can also mean just getting a bunch of stuff you can’t sell that now you’re stuck with. But even if you specify not to send anything until they’ve been approved, clients may anyway. Us humans are not always known for paying a ton of attention to directions, and the lure of just putting your stuff in a box and getting money back magically is pretty strong.

And what if things go wrong? What happens if the client’s items arrive broken or get lost in the mail? What if the client sends you items that they misrepresented? Not getting to physically see the items before committing to them can be dangerous, and you’ll want to make sure you’re protected.

That big list of questions isn’t meant to scare you off but rather to get you thinking of how you want to handle this feature if you decide to offer it. I accept clients from around the world, and many ship their items to me, though I do require that we have a contract first so that my business is protected. If you’ve got a specialty that’s a certain niche, you may want to open yourself up to a wider client base who would gladly go through the hassle of packing and shipping if it meant that their items could benefit from your specific expertise. For example, My Little Pony toys are one of our biggest focuses, and it’s not uncommon for us to take clients from far away who ship their My Little Pony items to us because they know we can get a better price for them than a local seller without our product knowledge.

Photo by kevin dooley