Sunday, November 28, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Making a clean sweep

Online auction services help consumers sell unwanted items

Porcelain Kewpie figurines were turned into a Henderson PostNet store for e-Bay auction. Jane McSorley's PostNet, for a commission, works with customers who have items they want to sell by online auction. Jane McSorley's PostNet, for a commission, works with customers who have items they want to sell by online auction. Photos by RONDA CHURCHILL/REVIEW-JOURNAL

The three-stringed balalaika had been a conversation piece in the home of Las Vegan Maurice Lewis since he bought the musical instrument in Russia 20 years ago.

The heavy cast-metal coin banks were even older. Lewis had collected them for more than 40 years.

Lewis, 69, says he is at a time in life when he wants to cut back on material possessions.

Yet he didn't want to have a garage sale. Items go for a pittance, and the prospect of manning a table all day left him cold.

He didn't want to put items online for auction, either. That would mean setting up an e-Bay account, answering e-mail questions from buyers, shipping the goods and collecting payment.

So instead, Lewis, 69, gathered up his balalaika and banks, and took them to a UPS Store. He had heard about a UPS service called Auction Drop, which handles all the details of an online auction for the seller, in exchange for a cut of the proceeds.

Today Lewis is dollars richer. "I would say I did OK" on the sales, he says discreetly. His home has less clutter. And Lewis -- a raw-materials agent for clients across the country, who is thinking of leaving Las Vegas in a year or two -- is satisfied enough to admit he has his eye open for more items to sell on eBay, the auction Web site that UPS Stores and other auction services use.

UPS Stores are just one of several choices for Las Vegans who want to make some money unloading unwanted stuff on eBay, but don't care to manage the transaction.

PostNet, another chain of shipping stores, has a program called Trading Post for eBay, which handles auctions for customers. And SuperPawn, a chain of pawnshops, has Ztradingpost, its own system to auction customers' items on eBay.

SuperPawn's Ztradingpost spokesman, Ron Rowan, likens the auction services to a consignment shop, with the shop receiving a percentage if an item sells. The percentage varies by company, and usually by the amount of an item's winning bid, too.

Tom Ott owns the UPS Store at 1930 Village Center Circle that did Lewis' eBay sales. Ott has two stores in other parts of town, as well, which he admits have not done much eBay business yet.

"Golf clubs," Ott answers, when asked the most popular items turned in for auction at the Summerlin location. "The Summerlin store is surrounded by golf courses."

But Auction Drop takes only individual drivers, putters and wedges by specific club manufacturers, including Adams and Titleist. It won't take irons or complete sets.

Cellphones, videocassette recorders and antique model cars are other items Ott's store has handled. Auction Drop prints a list of items that are acceptable, as long as they are in good physical condition and working order. Some categories are antiques, electronics and sports equipment.

Ott describes his typical Auction Drop customer as a person seeking convenience. He or she doesn't mind giving up some of the profit to take the hassle out of the auction process.

Auction Drop ships all auction items to a central, secure warehouse outside Nevada. PostNet and SuperPawn stores, by contrast, store eBay items on their own premises until a sale occurs.

Jane and Neal McSorley own a PostNet shipping store in Henderson that is one of the busiest in that chain for eBay business.

In a little more than two months, the McSorleys' store, 2245 N. Green Valley Parkway, has handled televisions, digital cameras, antique ceramic Kewpie figurines, and designer sunglasses and watches. It recently took in a designer evening gown, too. Trading Post for eBay has a list of acceptable items.

Their average eBay customer is computer savvy, but pressed for time, according to Jane McSorley. Many have bought items on eBay but don't want the responsibility of managing their own auctions. Other sellers value their privacy; they seek a third party to do their auction, so they won't have to give credit card information to eBay or disclose their identity to buyers.

For the latter reason, McSorley says, she wasn't able to induce one of her regular eBay customers to talk to the Review-Journal. "They want to be anonymous." So far, most have been women between 35 and 55 years old who appear to be "well off," she adds.

PostNet store personnel are trained to take digital photos of merchandise when it is turned in, and to prepare a detailed description of each item. But a centralized Trading Post for eBay office handles e-mail queries from potential buyers, not the PostNet store that received the auction item.

PostNet and UPS Stores began brokering auctions in 2004, after running pilot programs. All UPS Stores are participating, theoretically, though not all have done eBay transactions yet. PostNet sites are not required to participate, although many do.

SuperPawn stores have used Ztradingpost internally since November 2002, to sell off items that customers sell to them. "One of the prime things a pawn store has to do is sell its merchandise. Because of that, we became very strong in eBay," Rowan explains.

In the spring, SuperPawn opened its Ztradingpost service to the general public. "All we've done is now allow customers to come in and say, `Sell this for me on eBay,' " Rowan says.

Ztradingpost differs from Auction Drop and Trading Post for eBay in that it accepts "anything" for auction as long as it is worth at least $30, genuine, in good condition and working order, according to Rowan.

SuperPawn's pawn customers are different from its eBay customers, the chain has found.

A pawn customer gets immediate cash, from one of two routes. He either obtains a loan against an item he hopes to get back after paying the loan off, or he sells the item to SuperPawn for good.

Online auction customers, by contrast, know upfront that they won't receive any money from Ztradingpost for 30 days -- if at all, since an item may not sell. That is the customary time frame for competing auction services, too.

In that span, multiple steps unfold: The item is processed for auction. A seven-day auction is conducted. The buyer makes payment. The item is shipped to the buyer. After the buyer's check clears, the auction service cuts a check to the seller and mails it.

Specifics vary, but all the services charge a hefty commission on the final auction price. Commissions start at 38 percent to 40 percent, but decline as the final price rises. Most services also charge miscellaneous other fees. In a hypothetical auction of an item for $75, a seller would net $41.42 from UPS, $42.01 from PostNet and $41.31 from SuperPawn.

If an item does not sell on eBay, all the auction services notify the owner, but follow different protocols after that. At SuperPawn, for example, if an unsold item is not claimed within 15 days, the company will donate it to charity on the seller's behalf. The written estimate of the item's value, given to the customer at dropoff, becomes his record for tax purposes. UPS Auction Drop sends unsold items back to the seller. With PostNet, the seller needs to pick up unsold items.