Let me be straight to the point here. This is not about selling stolen goods on eBay which is illegal. This article is about how you can make money helping other people sell their stuff on eBay and earn a fee from that service.
eBay has a program called Trading Assistant (TA) whereby an experienced seller can sell other peoples’ stuff and earn money as agreed between her and the customer. A member should first apply on eBay to become a TA before she can start selling other peoples’ goods. Once you are approved by eBay as a TA, you can place your ad in the TA Directory. This is another way of advertising your service free of charge!
Your target area for your venture is your own local community — families with school age children, empty nesters, retirees, senior citizens. Make a list of households who maybe interested in decluttering their homes and do not know how to sell on eBay. Let your prospects know you are available to do this service for them by handing your business card specifying you are a registered eBay TA. Drop your business leaflet in the mail box of your friends, neighbors, local groups, church groups, local library and place ad on the local community boards. These are all ways of free advertising costing you nothing. Do not forget to tell your family and relatives about your new service who will in turn tell their friends, acquaintances, work colleagues, or moms of their classmates.
Inform your customers you will only sell those items which you think will sell for $50 and up, so as not to waste your time and efforts and theirs. Except for those items prohibited by eBay, you can practically sell any item on behalf of your customers — clothes, shoes, jewelries, antiques and collectibles, electronics, home wares, sporting goods, furniture, vehicles etc. Imagine how many households are there in your community who may like the service you are offering and are just waiting for the right person to do the selling for them. If there is no one doing this type of service in your area then you can dominate this untapped niche.
Search for Trading Assistants on eBay and find out how much they charge for the service you are offering to get an idea how much to charge for your service. A 60-40 sharing (60% customer, 40% TA) after selling expenses paid for by the customer is excellent. This is just an example of how the sales proceeds can be shared between you and the customer.
In addition to your agreed sharing of proceeds of sale, you as eBay TA and your customer should agree on the logistics how to carry out the transaction.
o Will you pick up the stuff from their homes, or will they deliver to your house — date, time etc.
o Will you pack and ship the items to the buyer? For larger items, will buyer collect from your home?
o Will your customer pay for all the fees (listing, Paypal, final value fee) related to this transaction?
o If item is not sold for the first time, will you resell it again on eBay, return to customer, or donate it to charity?
o Within how many days can the stuff be sold?
o When are you going to remit to the customer her share from the proceeds of the sale?
Your terms and conditions are spelled out in the paper in order to avoid misunderstanding. This will also serve as a contract between you and your customer so make sure this is signed and dated by the two of you before you sell the item.
Be friendly and professional in dealing with your customer in all aspects of the transaction. A satisfied customer will be more likely to talk about her positive experience with you to her friends and help you find your next customer, than a dissatisfied one.
Once you have done some selling as TA, do an analysis of all your completed transactions to determine whether you are making some decent income. From your analysis you can decide whether to continue selling as trading assistant on eBay on a small scale or build your business up.
