Despite the millions of transactions taking place on eBay, one of the main hurdles in getting involved in online selling has simply been concern about it being too difficult and time-consuming.
Fortunately, that's where companies like AuctionDrop come in -- making it simpler for part-time and professional sellers to move their eBay goods with ease. And with a new partnership with shipping giant UPS in place, even Internet newbies and offline businesses with excess inventory have no excuse not to dip their toes into the online marketplace.
AuctionDrop got its start last year in the San Francisco Bay area, with a single location where consumers could drop off their items for sale on eBay. (AuctionDrop takes a cut of the final sale price.)
Now, through a deal announced during last month's eBay Live user conference, UPS Stores nationwide will enable the same sort of transaction.
"You bring something into your local UPS Store, and you don't pay anything up-front," said AuctionDrop Chief Executive Randy Adams. The Store's personnel "pack it, send it to us, and we sell it on eBay and send you a check."
AuctionDrop pays for the packaging and shipping to its California facility, and takes only a commission out of the final sale price. If the item fails to sell, the company will ship it back to the seller, free of charge.
An additional reason that selling with AuctionDrop could make sense is that it makes a sale more likely. Adams said that an average item put up for auction on eBay has a 43 percent chance of being successfully sold; with his company, that chance of selling increases to a staggering 92 percent.
"You're more than twice as likely to go with us than without us," he said.
One of the reasons that AuctionDrop is proving so successful for eBay sellers is that the company employs a small team of experts who write each listing; a team of professional photographers; and a customer service team. That, Adams said, has translated in to positive Feedback and large amounts of buyer trust.
"If you work with us, you have that experience and buyer trust working for you, which turns into revenue for you," he added. " We have a really good reputation with our customers, and people keep coming back over and over again. I think it's because we've really become experts on selling on eBay."
In fact, Adams knows first-hand about how people much be reluctant to sell online. AuctionDrop itself got its start when he became frustrated trying to move items on eBay.
"I have six children and my wife said it's time to clean out the garage -- time to sell this stuff on eBay. But, I had never used eBay," he said. "When I tried to do it, it was very time-consuming, and I didn't have everything I needed to put together a really good eBay listing. I told my wife that I wish there'd be a service [in which] I'd pay for someone to do this for me."
One of the only downsides is that commissions can be steep, ranging from 20 percent to 38 percent, and that AuctionDrop only takes items that would fetch more than $75 (barring small consumers and businesses from participating.)
Still, by absorbing much of the effort and risk involved with eBay sales, AuctionDrop could be prove a useful way for sellers to experiment with eBay -- and has, to date. In the year since its founding, Adams said that his company has written more than $1.5 million in checks to sellers, and takes in 15 to 30 items daily at its flagship locations.
But now, with its new UPS relationship, the company essentially expands its footprint to hundreds of stores nationwide -- making it easier for first-time sellers to join the eBay craze.
Christopher Saunders is managing editor of eCommerce-Guide.com.
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