Posted on: Wednesday, July 28, 2004
EBay trading assistants sell auction expertise
By Bobby White
Knight Ridder Newspapers
FORT WORTH, Texas — Dave Davidson knew nothing about dolls. He couldn't discern the difference between Barbie and the products of antique German doll makers Simon and Halbig. So when his mother, an avid doll collector, died, he was dumfounded over what to do with the hundreds of dolls crowded into her home.
Overwhelmed, Davidson and the rest of the family rented a storefront and held an estate sale. There they ran into Brenda Lane. A woman with a quick smile and wispy voice, Lane scours the Dallas-Fort Worth area looking for sales like the Davidsons' and is a trading assistant for eBay, the mega auction Web site.
Lane, a Fort Worth resident, is part of the ever-expanding eBay aide industry.
Rummaging through garages is difficult by itself. Posting findings for sale on eBay is even more cumbersome for many people. Novices lack the technical know-how and marketing skills. So consumers are turning to entrepreneurs like Lane to handle the auctioning for them.
When Lane approached Davidson in the storefront, he knew very little about the auction site, and it hadn't occurred to him to turn to someone else to auction the items for him.
"When she approached us, she said, 'I know dolls and I think I can do a good job of selling them on eBay,' " Davidson said. "This woman knew what she was doing. She definitely helped us out."
More than 105 million people have eBay accounts, and at any given time, 25 million items are for sale on eBay.
EBay started the trading-assistant program in February 2002, intending to create structure in the eBay arena. The result: people like Lane who have turned their hobbies into businesses.
Lane, a collector and SBC Communications retiree, has conducted many sales on behalf of others. She sold an antique silver pitcher for $4,151.08. A cobalt blue kerosene lamp ignited a bidding war and fetched $3,000.
The dolls Lane sold for the Davidsons brought in $3,420 before her commission of $855.
Lane says she has done a lot of "screaming" as she has watched the price go up during auctions. "No one could hear me."
Her routine is like that of many other trading assistants. She does extensive research on whatever she is selling. She will snap digital photos of the item, craft a description for the Web site, monitor the auction, and package and ship the merchandise.
Her percentage of the sale is on a scale, depending on the amount. But because she deals primarily with antiques with a high price potential, her commission is usually 25 percent. She is listed with other area trading assistants on the Web site.
Because Lane has a high approval rating on eBay, a rating based on consumer satisfaction, clients seek her out. The approval rating and accompanying customer comments are crucial to a trading assistant, Lane said, because potential clients are reluctant to seek help from people who don't have a high score.
There are more than 100 trading assistants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and more than 40,000 worldwide.
Lane is one of the skilled few in Dallas-Fort Worth who can make a living from it. EBay has no official training program. The company created the eBay aide program, which has a loose affiliation with the auction site, to satisfy a burgeoning community.
Within the trading assistant guidelines, the company says, "Each trading assistant runs his or her own independent business free from any involvement by eBay."
Glen Hill, a Grapevine, Texas-based assistant, said the program is a way of leveraging the expertise acquired over years of using the Web site.
Hill, a mechanical engineer, is employed with Grapevine-based InterTech Fluid Power, but before that, he bought and sold comic books on eBay. He moved back into the working world, reducing eBay to a part-time job, for health reasons.
He was laid off from a job in March 1999, soon after he started selling full time on eBay. His trading-assistant status is not just for comic books; he'll help anybody sell anything. He said he has served some 3,500 customers.
"Probably the most important thing is you've got to know what you are getting into," Hill said. "Be cautious of what you are selling and who you are selling to. Know the fees you have to pay and learn the do's and don'ts of shipping."
Hill's and Lane's success is embedded in the eBay ethos, said Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman.
When the auction site was created in 1995, the idea was to empower the everyday person. It's this empowering-the-community spirit that has contributed to eBay's success, Durzy said.
