eBay Consignment Selling Can Really Pay Off!

Lydia, one of my former coaching clients, sent in her amazing sale. She sold this item on consignment for one of her clients, who was a DJ and received several music sales awards during previous years. Lydia arranged to do a 50/50 split after expenses for this client. The item sold for $960, and total time invested in listing and shipping the item was 1 hour. So Lydia's commission on this sale was a whopping $480 for 1 hour worth of work!

Selling on consignment has several advantages. You get to learn about items that you never would have found on your own, such as the example above. As long as you choose carefully and focus on high dollar items, your hourly earning rate can be significant. Inventory comes to you, so you save time with your sourcing efforts. Also, selling items for others can help build your eBay feedback and sales numbers to help you reach Top Rated Seller.

There are a few downsides to consignment selling. The most frustrating is that people usually think their items are worth more than the market will bear. It can often be awkward to have to explain to a family member or friend that just because they bought that purple widget in 1970 for $400, it is only worth $25 on eBay today. Also, you can end up doing the work of listing the item and it doesn't sell.

After many years of selling on eBay, I will only sell items on consignment if their value is over $500 and I feel sure they will sell. Otherwise, I try to buy the item outright from the person and take full responsibility for reselling it on my own. This can eliminate a lot of drama and hurt feelings.

Visit eBay here for more information on becoming an eBay Trading Assistant and earn money selling items for other people.

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Setting up an Assistant to Help With Your Amazon Account

Have you found yourself wishing that you had more hours to the day to work on your inventory? Do you wish you could use an assistant with your Amazon account? Well, you can!

While it may be against the rules to login to your Amazon Seller Central dashboard from more than one location, you can give others the permission to log into your account. If you’re working with an assistant, this would be a good setup for you.

What could this person do for you and your business? The new user could be a new business partner you have added to your business. The person you set up an account for could help manage inventory or enter shipping confirmations on merchant filled items. The choice is yours. You can control what the person can do and what they can see by changing the permissions for their user account.

In order to add users to your Amazon Seller Central, there are a couple of requirements that are needed:

1. You must have a pro merchant account

2. In the beginning, only the original account user can setup new user accounts (After you have added others, you can give another user on your account the ability to add users if needed.)

In order to set up new users on your account you will need to visit the “User Permissions” page on Amazon Seller Central. You may find that page by clicking the”Settings” tab and choosing “User Permissions”. Once you are on the “User Permissions” page, you can enter the email address of the person who will be assisting you. This will send an invitation the invited person will have to accept before they can access your account. You can easily add or remove users as needed.

To find out more about adding users and how to do it, please visit Seller Central.


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How Local Attorneys Can Help You Make Money on eBay

Sounds weird, right? How can an attorney help you with your eBay business? This isn't about paying them to set up an S Corp for you. This is about tapping into THEIR customers and making money from THEIR clients.

Attorneys who specialize in bankruptcy or estate settlement will have clients who either need money or have items to sell. By partnering with attorneys in your area, these attorneys can refer business to you. If you sell on consignment, you can make a nice commission selling items for people who are in the process of filing for bankrupcty, or who have estates (used and vintage items, possibly antiques) to sell.

The only way to have a successful eBay consignment business is to treat it as a business - to have a steady stream of repeat customers who depend on you for helping them turn their items into cash. Selling on consignment for your family and friends doesn't really work. There are too many emotions involved and usually not enough merchandise to make it worth your time. eBay selling may seem easy to you, but most people won't take the time and effort to learn how to do it.

There are other types of businesses you can partner with such as charity thrift shops and small mom and pop type operations just to name a few. It costs these businesses nothing for you to try to sell their items online. The key is that you (the consignment seller) will only spend your time trying to sell items that you KNOW will sell. Sometimes, you will have to say "no" because the item is not profitable and you are not going to spend your time trying to sell it.

I can speak from experience here. I have a consignment contract with a local Humane Society to sell items from their thrift store. I have been educating the staff on the types of items to pull out and set aside for eBay and Amazon sales. I can get 5 - 10 times more for an item than the thrift store can get because if their limited foot traffic. I drop by the store about twice a week, pick up the items, take a look around, and list the items on eBay for them. The staff loves to see me come by because I usually bring them a check! And I love working with them because most of the items I choose will sell for between $50 and $200. So I can make $20-$30 an hour selling items for somebody else who has a plentiful supply - I don't have to go out and cherry pick these items myself from all over town.

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eBay Strategy - Breaking a Sales Plateau

All eBay sellers go through slumps, hit a plateau, or sales just go stale. There are many ways to handle this situation. All of the strategies for business growth involve working outside your comfort zone. You can't keep doing the same things year after year and expect your business to continue to grow. According to Einstein, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." Challenge yourself to work outside your comfort zone. Choose to be uncomfortable! Here are some suggestions.

Sell on a different sites in addition to eBay.
If you sell craft items, craft supplies, or vintage items consider selling on Etsy. If you sell books, media, or mostly anything with a UPC code, try selling on Amazon. Sell large items like furniture or anything too big to ship on Craigslist with local pickup. Check out Bonanzle, too.

Resources:

Selling on Etsy
Selling on Amazon

Add new and different products to your eBay store.
If you sell mostly thrift store or garage sale finds, consider looking at online clearance or Daily Deal sites. Try flipping listings using misspelling tools and experiment with products you have never sold before. Become a Trading Assistant and sell things for other people to get free experience with new products - you might come across something you can sell on a regular basis.

Resources:

Online Clearance
Daily Deals
Trading Assistant Program
eBay Niche Product Finder


Try virtual products.
Try selling products like eBooks (created from public domain materials) or a how-to video or DVD. Information products are one of the best sellers on eBay. Create the product once and sell it over an over again. This is a very effective eBay strategy if you wish to create passive streams of income.

Resources:

Selling Public Domain Items
Create Your Own Information Product

Outsource parts of the business you don't like or aren't good at, or that take too much of your time.
At some point, you will encounter the Law of Diminishing Returns which states, " As more investment in an area is made, overall return on that investment increases at a declining rate, assuming that all variables remain fixed." In other words, you will see a decline in effectiveness after a certain level of result has been achieved. You have to do something different to achieve a higher return on your monetary and time investment to see a higher return.

Pay a college or high school student to iron clothes and / or take photos of your items. Train a stay at home mom in your neighborhood to do your shipping. Find parts of your business to outsource so you can spend your time sourcing and listing products.

Resources:

Outsourcing 101

Don't be afraid to experiment - change your eBay strategy. Step outside your comfort zone. Do something different. Move into unfamiliar territory. Challenge yourself to grow!

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How to Promote Your eBay Trading Assistant Business

The eBay Trading Assistant program provides templates for marketing materials including flyers, business cards, and even scripts for radio commercials. Sign into your TA account and look for the Tool Kit on the left side of the page.

Print off the business cards and keep plenty of them with you at all times. You never know when an opportunity will present itself for you to hand out a business card.

Always enter restaurant giveaways - those bowls they have at the register where you can drop in your business card. Try to get it in there facing out if it is a glass container. Passersby and restaurant employees will see your card.

Post flyers on bulletin boards in high traffic areas. (Always ask before posting a flyer on a bulletin board.) See if you can post them at your gym, church, dry cleaner, Laundromat, library, grocery store, break room at work, or clubhouse. Ask your friends to place them in their break rooms at work and their church.

Promote your business using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Partner with local businesses. Talk to owners of consignment stores, thrift stores, boutiques, or retail stores and ask them if they have someone selling their merchandise on eBay. You may be able to strike up a deal where you sell their merchandise for a commission.

Also check with your dry cleaner to see what they do with unclaimed items. You may be able to work out a deal where you sell the better unclaimed items for a commission.

Give plenty of cards to connectors and explain your TA business. Connectors are people who know lots of other people and are good networkers. Examples include realtors, teachers, public officials, volunteer workers, receptionists, bank tellers, little league coaches, etc. Think of people you know who come in contact with lots of other people every day, and may see an opportunity to connect you with someone who could use your service.

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