Why is eBay sticking with the name “Trading Assistant” when it’s meaningless to most eBay buyers and sellers, let alone the general public? Does anybody like the name?Check out arnoldtrading’s post on the eBay Trading Assistant Discussion Board titled: “Trading Assistant name… time for a change??? ” See http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?messageID=1012304087

What would you call an eBay consignment seller?

“eBay Trading Assistant” (TA) is the name given to eBay’s consignment sellers who officially join eBay’s consignment program. TA sellers can sell your items on eBay. TAs receive a listing in the eBay Trading Assistant Directory, use of logos and marketing materials, and referrals.

Many eBay sellers listed in the upcoming redesigned Consignment Pal Business Directory will be attending the eBay Live! Conference in Chicago in June.  Yesterday, I started discussing airline and hotel options with my husband. For eBay Live! Conferences, he knows that a second suitcase usually houses my freebies from the Expo and autographed books.

Well guess what? He just emailed me Scott McCartney’s Wall Street Journal excess baggage article. Starting May 5, a second checked bag on United Airlines will cost $50 each way! With United’s hub in Chicago, thousands of eBay buyers and eBay sellers flying in for the eBay Live! Conference may be affected. US Airways and Virgin Atlantic will also only allow one free checked bag while most airlines will allow two free checked bags.

After recovering from my initial shock at the airline industry’s aggressive “pay-per-use” baggage charges, I died laughing at Scott’s concluding sentence: “United, however, says it won’t refund baggage fees even if it loses your bag.”

I wonder if your credit card company would allow a chargeback for service not received in a timely manner?

To find out how many bags your airline will allow, read “Baggage Becomes A Big-Ticket Item” in The Wall Street Journal at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120519352406325701.html?mod=yahoo_buzz.

Please note: This post has not been written by or approved by the owner of ConsignmentPal.  It is only the independent view of a guest Blogger.  I am Scott Pooler – Owner of Allbusinessauctions.com and the Trading Assistant Journal.  Please do not think ConsignmentPal has directed this post, I have not been paid for my opinion or influenced in any way.

A great deal of turmoil has been raised recently in the eBay Trading Assistant community. eBay has decided to change the existing system in regards to Trading Assistants and Trading Posts and in doing so completely revised the way they qualify participants for the program(s). This change has been presented as a way to clean up the “old” directory and provide more relevant results for people looking for help in selling merchandise on eBay. Some think the real reason for the change is to allow eBay to extend the legal distance between itself and anyone listed as a eBay Trading Assistant because of certain active cases against Trading Assistants and Drop off Store owners in States like Pennsylvania.

The terms and conditions eBay requires to be placed in the eBay “official” Trading Assistant directory are extensive. To be included in the directory as what is now termed REDOL (Registered eBay Drop Off Location) or Drop Store, the extensive and onerous terms of the TA agreement become even more so.

There were many promises made to the existing members of eBay’s TA & Drop Store or Trading Post (Now REDOL) community when this massive change was announced. Essentially eBay promised a massive advertising campaign to 50,000 businesses in the USA promoting TA’s and REDOLS, they also promised a new, easy to find, and less spam filled directory. eBay said that with the “reduction in competition” after the directory was switched over to the new version and every TA & Drop store re-registered, each registered member would receive more business from the directory.

The results so far have been less than promised.

Consider the first promise: “Massive” direct mail advertising campaign to 50,000 businesses. This boils down to a single letter sent to 1000 businesses in each State. My County in Florida has more than 50,000 registered businesses alone and for my company to send out a direct mailing piece to just 1000 businesses in my State would be considered as a joke by any reputable direct mail advertising agency. Not surprisingly, the direct mail piece eBay did send out has not returned much business for TA’s or REDOLS if the responses in the Trading Assistant Discussion board on eBay is any measure.

Reduction of Competition: Thus far this promise has been met – there are fewer listings in the TA directory, whether the listings in the directory are more relevant is up to debate. From our inspection of the directory it seems more like a great deal of new and inexperienced Trading Assistants joined the program to fill the void. This void may have been created when the veteran TA’s and Drop store owners either chose to not join because of the terms of the extensive new agreement required for listing in the directory, or they just did not get the email notifications from eBay which indicated they would be removed from the old directory and would need to re-apply to be included in the new. To be fair, eBay did make several attempts by email and by phone to notify all previous members. In any case, the directory does not seem to contain nearly as many experienced TA’s or Drop Store Locations. Many Franchises have opted out because they have the word “Auction” in their name which is no longer allowed by eBay if a business wants to be included in the directory. Some businesses find that the requirement to change signage and the business name to be too much of a burden when comparing the costs against the benefits of the “new and unproven directory”.

When one takes a step back and looks at the benefits of using the resource eBay has provided with the TA & REDOL program versus the costs, a conclusion could be drawn. What was your conclusion?

Did you decide to join the new directory?, possibly changing your business name and all advertising materials (removing Auction or eBay from your message). Agreeing to the extensive rules and legal protections the agreement provides eBay and subsequently places all of the burden for any future legal exposure upon yourself? And if you chose to join the new directory have you found the effort worth the costs (if any) of making these changes, i.e. have you received any real business from the eBay Trading Assistant Directory?

Did you Opt Out of the New eBay Trading Assistant or REDOL Program? Choosing instead to continue to advertise locally and possibly start your own (off eBay) Internet website to advertise your business?

Personally I chose the latter. I did this for many reasons all of which I feel are valid.

1. Can’t change my business name: All Business Auctions – Too much invested in my name and I like it, so do my clients.
2. My attorney: Advised against my volunteering to accept all legal burdens in regards to any actions brought against myself or eBay by any party (This includes States Attorney Generals). My attorney felt this was an onerous burden for my company in exchange for a simple directory listing and the right to use a logo.
3. Not enough return: My business has been listed in the old Trading Assistant Directory under several different names since it’s inception with almost zero verifiable results in the form of actual leads to clients.  

In my opinion it is just too difficult for a client to find the TA directory in the first place. When a person wants to find someone to sell something for them, what search words do you suppose they would use? Trading Assistant? No, I don’t think so… People generally think of a Consignment Store or service or they think Auctioneer. See the list below from Google – Trading Assistant is not one of the most common searches and REDOL will not even be considered. Why be listed in a directory no one is searching for?

Searches related to: Sell on eBay

If one chooses they can continue to search for relevant keywords which should lead to the eBay Trading Assistant Directory but they are hard to find. Lets say you use the keyword “Consignment Directory” which I would assume most average customers of a Trading Assistant business would search for in Google. This search would result in not one mention of the eBay Trading Assistant Directory.

Lets check a few more (just follow the links to see results:

• Sell on eBay for me
• eBay Seller
• eBay Sales Help
• eBay Drop Store

I could go on but I think the point is clear. The only way anyone will find the eBay Trading Assistant Directory is by using that exact search term. When eBay has not used common SEO practices to funnel traffic to the directory and they have not educated the public in any other way which would present term “Trading Assistant” as being anything to do with eBay or eBay consignment sales. How does eBay or anyone utilizing the directory expect to derive any benefit from inclusion in same?

Today’s world is driven by relevant keyword search criteria. People do not look in the yellow pages any more. If they need to find a business or service or product the first stop is the Internet and the Google search bar. eBay knows this more than anyone and eBay has been incredibly successful at driving traffic to their site. The eBay name is synonymous with SEO optimization and without knowing how to utilize search effectively eBay would never have grown to be the dominant Internet sales property in the World. So one has to ask, why would they just forget to optimize the Trading Assistant Directory for relevant keyword search?

Could it be because eBay would prefer the general public sit down and learn how to sell for themselves? eBay has made the sell your item form much easier to navigate. Every task involved from uploading photos to writing descriptions have become a simple task for one time sales with the SYI form. eBay is a fee based service, the more people registered to sell, list and re-list on eBay the better for eBay. eBay would rather have 40 sellers a week register to sell one item each than have one registered seller with experience (a TA) sell 40 items for those 40 people. 40 new seller accounts equal 40 new Paypal accounts, one Trading Assistant account is just one PayPal account, think about what benefits eBay the most.

As a business person many choices must be made to improve your business on a daily basis. As a Trading Assistant or Drop Store owner your business only survives if you bring in new customers with the right kind of goods to sell. It seems clear to us that some methods of advertising and promotion are more beneficial than others. And we think every consignment based business should look for more efficient ways to promote their business and not simply rely upon one directory provided by eBay which has no real funnel sending traffic to your business.

11 Alternate Methods to Promote and Advertise your Trading Assistant Business:

1. Set up your own professional website – With SEO in mind.
2. Attach a blog to your website and make regular article entries in that blog.
3. Get listed in other directories outside of eBay and funnel traffic to your blog and/or website.
4. Create online press releases about your business and insert them in your website prior to release.
5. Participate in the conversation – Add comments to other blogs and forums with your industry focus.
6. Create a local Joint Trading Assistant or Consignment community on Yahoo Groups or Meetup.com – Get involved with your local competition, share ideas, and specialties.
7. Exchange ad space on your blog or website with local businesses
8. Create a digital download product which describes your business and gives tips to your clients about eBay. This will build confidence in your as a business and your integrity.
9. Contact the local direct consignment shops and thrift stores in your area – negotiate a deal to handle items which are better sold on eBay than in a B&M store – then offer to advertise the B&M consignment store on your Internet Properties. Some items are better left in a traditional consignment shop and some are better sold on eBay, there is no reason why the two businesses can not work together.
10. Set up an external mailing list with a company like Constant Contact. Make sure you communicate with your clients and your buyers on a regular basis.
11. Open your mind to the possibilities – There is more to the Internet than eBay – Many opportunities and many methods to make your business known. As eBay people we all become a bit myopic when it comes to exploring the rest of the Internet for our own business purposes. Time to look outside the box!

Scott Pooler is the Owner of All Business Auctions and a Web Development Company iBusinessLogic. He writes for the Trading Assistant Journal, All Business Auctions Blog and several other publications such as the Auction Software Review. Scott Pooler will be happy to discuss your business and how you can funnel traffic to it by using proper web development design and web 2.0 techniques at any time.  Simply click the links to find contact information. 

Antiques – Stores, Malls, Shows, and Online Sellers

Most antique dealers prefer to buy items outright. However, some antique dealers and antique malls accept items on consignment on a space available basis while others specifically allocate space for consignment items, especially for high priced items. The antique mall manager can refer you to an antique dealer who specializes in your items. Some dealers offer consignment options for items originally purchased from their store. To sell an item to a dealer during a show, please be discreet and wait patiently if they are busy making a sale.

Art – Galleries, Exhibitions, and Antique Stores 

Some antique stores buy or consign important estate paintings, photographs, and sculptures. Most high-end art galleries exhibit original works from their favorite artists only and do not accept art from other artists or individuals. To sell inexpensive paintings, pictures, or sculptures, try a consignment or resale furniture store.

Auctioneers

Although auctioneers traditionally sell groups of items or an entire estate, if your item is valuable, an auctioneer may be a good choice. For unique collections, consider using an auctioneer who specializes in your items. 

Auto and RV – Dealerships, eBay, and Online Sellers

Local and online selling professionals can handle all aspects of selling your car, including arranging for delivery to the buyer. Car parts and accessories are easy to sell as well. eBay Motors has “over 10 million shoppers per month.” (Source: eBay Motors, July 23, 2007)  Motorcycles, boats, ATVs, and other powersport vehicles also sell well.

Business Liquidation – Auctioneers, eBay, and other Online Sellers

Consignment Pal Business Directory companies can help you liquidate surplus and returned items in a one shot deal or on an ongoing basis to free up valuable warehouse or showroom space.

Consignment Stores

Accepting items on consignment means that payment is only made when items sell.  Consignment stores generally keep items for 60 – 90 days with periodic markdowns. Unsold items are returned, donated, or become the property of the store. Some consignment stores have the word “resale” in their name even though they do not buy items outright. It is best to ask for clarification since many consignment stores also buy items outright and trade. Although most consignment stores accept a wide array of new and preowned items, many specialize in antiques and collectibles, furniture, and/or designer clothing for men, women, and children. Vintage items are especially popular.  

eBay and Other Online Auction Sites

While eBay is the largest and most diversified online selling venue, consignment sellers also use Amazon, uBid, Google, Overstock, and independent websites. Ebay sellers receive items through eBay Drop Off Stores and eBay Pick Up Services. Ebay calls their consignment sellers “eBay Trading Assistants” (TAs). See “Sell on eBay” for details.

Estate Sales

Estate Sales are ideal for selling all the items in a house. Basic packages include pricing, display, advertising, hosting the sale, and cleanup. Expect to pay more for a preview party, itemized legal inventory, dumpster rental, and other extras. For specialty items, working directly with art, antique, or fine jewelry dealers may net higher profits.

Non Profit Stores

Charitable nonprofit stores and thrift shops operated by the Junior League, Goodwill, and the Salvation Army offer education, shelter, and other social programs. Depending upon your tax situation, donating may net you about the same or more than consignment or garage sale options.

Resale Stores

Resale stores buy items outright and pay more if you accept store credit rather than cash. This is especially true with clothing for kids and teens. Because resale stores assume the risk of the clothes not selling, they generally pay slightly less money than a consignment store. Expect to receive one bulk quote for all items rather than individual per item offers. Some resale stores will consign if the item is expensive or the manager is nervous about how quickly it will sell. Although most resale stores accept a wide array of new and preowned items, many specialize in antiques and collectibles, furniture, and/or designer clothing for men, women, and children. Vintage items are especially popular.

Tips

Coupons and Promos
Utilize advertising coupons and promotional discounts on your website and in your advertising flyers. Code the coupons so you know which advertising campaign has the best return for your money.

Chat Boards
When you have a consignment question, who do you ask? Many consignment sellers frequent the AuctionBytes Forum or eBay Trading Assistants Discussion Board to learn and to help others. Note: Trading Assistants are the name eBay uses for their eBay consignment sellers.

Fundraising
Help your community while increasing your customer base. Reporters love big charity events. In some states, a fundraising license is required if you receive a fee. For eBay sales, the eBay Safe Trading Manual says: “If you sell items on eBay and a portion of the proceeds goes to charity, but you receive a fee for the sale, you must be a licensed professional fundraiser.”

Good Investments for your business

Print Postage
Endicia Internet Postage lets you print postage and Delivery Confirmation for all your mail. All you need is a PC, an Internet connection, and a laser or inkjet printer. Discounted insurance is also available. Try Endicia free for 30 days and you can start printing postage right away!

Bonding Insurance
Increase your sales and revenue with buySafe for just 1% of the sales price. Bond all items or bond just a few. Sellers decide. The bond ensures that the seller will fulfill the terms of the sale. Bonded merchandise is protected by a surety bond (up to $25,000).

Did you know that using a toll free or 800 number costs just $1.99 per month plus $.03 per minute? No extra equipment is necessary. A toll free number just rings to or forwards to a regular local number. TollFreeNumbers.com offers a free Keyword Lookup to tailor numbers to your business. Call Bill at 1-800-MARKETER.

Insurance for Collectibles
Save money on insurance coverage for your premises, shipping, and travel to shows. Example – The $10,000 policy for $48 for 6 months is ideal for home based businesses.

Company Shirts
Embroidered company golf shirts work well for eBay drop off stores, auctions, and estate sales. For fundraisers like the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, fitted t-shirts offer impact on a budget. Consignment Pals “We sell for you” logo on red tee shirts work well for us.

Consignment Directories
Help people find you. Get listed in the free national Consignment Pal Consignment Directory. Sign up.

Get listed on Google Maps
Your free listing makes it easy for people to find you. Sign up

AuctionBytes offers the latest free online auction news for auction buyers and sellers. The insights, business solutions, and tips have been helping sellers grow their businesses since 1999.

Articles
Knowledge is Power. Skip McGrath’s auction articles are about buying, selling, and eBay.

Discounted Shipping Insurance
Save 60-80% on insurance costs with U-PIC. Ship by your favorite carrier (UPS, U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, etc.) but insure with U-PIC. Save hundreds of dollars each year. No minimum requirements. U-PIC, a CP affiliate, has a program for every size shipper.

Drop Off Store Franchisees
For information for eBay drop off store franchisees see Am I the Only One? – Legal Disclaimer.