EBay Merchants Trust Their Eyes, and the Bubble Wrap
nytimes.com
October 24, 2004
By KATE MURPHY
ONLINE auction Web sites like eBay conjure images of vast electronic tag sales where people can unload unwanted personal items - clothes that don't fit, or that ugly lamp Aunt Alice gave them last Christmas. But while much of what's sold on eBay has indeed been purged from someone's attic or garage, that is only part of the story.
An estimated half-million people make a full- or part-time living by auctioning everything from macramé to Maseratis on the Internet. In the online auction world, they are called power sellers, and they have succeeded by researching consumer trends, finding reliable sources for goods and not sparing the bubble wrap.
EBay, of course, is not the only game in town, though it is clearly the largest and most popular Internet auction site. It has 114 million users, far more than competitors like Ubid.com, Bidville.com and ePier, as well as the auction sections of Amazon.com, Yahoo and Overstock.com.
"They can't compare with eBay," said James Westerman of Conway, Ark., who earns more than $15,000 annually selling sports and advertising memorabilia on the site. He tried selling on other sites but gave up. "It was frustrating because you'd get like four hits for something on Yahoo, when on eBay you'd get more like 600," he said, referring to the number of people who clicked on one of his items to get a closer look.
Mr. Westerman, who works for the Postal Service, said he started auctioning products on the Internet in 1999 to make extra money for vacations on the Gulf Coast with his wife, Terry. He became serious after he bought a log-cabin cookie jar at his local Wal-Mart for $9, then sold it on eBay for $99. "Two people got in a bidding war over it," he said. "I couldn't believe it." Now Mr. Westerman mostly sells sports-team neon clocks and vintage Coca-Cola ice chests under the eBay user name ticktockauctions. (Buyers on auction sites can enter sellers' user names to see all the products they have listed, and can check comments posted by people who have bought from them in the past.)
Like most power sellers, Mr. Westerman says the hardest part of online auctioneering is finding good things to sell. "I have three or four sources right now," he said, "and I'm constantly getting e-mails from people on eBay trying to find out where I get my stuff."
Many sellers go to thrift shops and estate sales. Jennifer Karpin-Hobbs of Grafton, Vt., frequents secondhand stores, country auctions and yard sales for the glass, china, linen and books she lists on eBay under the user name morning-glorious. Though she will not disclose her profits, she is designated by eBay as a power seller, which means she consistently has sales of more than $1,000 a month. Ms. Karpin-Hobbs started auctioning items online four years ago, when she and her husband divorced and they dissolved the music publishing business they had owned jointly. "It's just amazing to me that you can create a whole new business this way," she said. "It's definitely raised my standard of living."
Paula Amato of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., also goes to consignment stores and thrift shops, but she says that more often than not, she finds undervalued items on eBay and flips them for a tidy profit. An example was a collection of Oriental ceramics she bought recently on eBay for $19.95 and resold for $2,500 under the user name eclecticdealer-paula.
"If you'll excuse me for saying it, it's like an orgasm when that happens," said Ms. Amato, also an official power seller. But she says that it is proper etiquette to wait 90 days before reselling something on eBay. That is also the length of time that eBay keeps links to buyers' past purchases, Ms. Amato said, which means that thereafter, "no one can tell what you're doing."
In her four years of supporting herself with online auctions, Ms. Amato has developed such a reputation for spotting value, she said, that she has to enter "snipe," or last-second, bids, so other bidders will not bid up the price after they see that she wants a particular product. This is made easier by software programs like Auction Sentry and BidSniper, which users program to enter last-second bids up to a specified amount, automatically. "You'll have a heart attack if you try to do it yourself," she said, "and the programs also keep you from bidding more than you intended" in the heat of the moment.
Most power sellers say they have a natural eye for determining whether a particular product will attract bidders. But they also acknowledge that they hone their skills by studying home and fashion magazines, as well as product catalogs.
"I look for what's hot, like the color jade or something like that," Ms. Karpin-Hobbs said. Some sellers peruse the monthly Hot Categories report from eBay, which lists items that are attracting the most bids. Popular listings in the September report included antique wooden bowls, night-vision binoculars and vintage men's hats.
Rather than studying trends, Andrew Mowery said that he and his wife, Deborah, of Fort Collins, Colo., prefer to buy bulk quantities from manufacturers of things they want themselves. Then they keep one and sell the rest. One of their most popular products is a pet drinking fountain, which Mrs. Mowery had wanted for their cats. By following this strategy, the couple, who sell mostly kitchen appliances, garden tools and pet supplies under the user name debnroo, sold $518,000 worth of merchandise on eBay last year and expect to exceed $800,000 this year.
"More than anything, we enjoy the lifestyle of working at home and for ourselves," Mr. Mowery said. "I can be negotiating a deal with a manufacturer while picking beans in the garden."
Not that there isn't a lot of hard work involved. Some tasks, like listing items, tracking bids and notifying winners, can be automated because of auction management software like AuctionHelper and AuctionMate. But the heavy lifting comes when it's time to pack and ship products.
"You learn to love bubble wrap," said Connie McKitrick of Steubenville, Ohio, who, with her sister and a friend, sells homemade cookies on eBay under the user name threesisterstreats. Most sellers say careful packaging elicits positive feedback from buyers, which is important in attracting new bidders the next time.
"You want to wrap things with so much bubble wrap that it won't break even if an elephant stomps on it," Ms. Karpin-Hobbs said. She added that extras like thank-you notes and brightly colored tissue also impressed customers.
BECAUSE feedback is also available on buyers, deadbeats are not much of a problem in the online auction world. "For every rotten one, there are a hundred great customers," said Ms. Amato in Fort Lauderdale, who accepts personal checks and money orders as well as payment through PayPal, the online system owned by eBay. "The only difficulty I have is falling in love with things I buy and not wanting to resell them."
But when she thinks of the money she will make, she said, "I get over it." |
