Taking the hassle out of eBay

So you've got an item you want to sell on eBay. You could take the time to photograph it, research the going price, set up the auction online and field questions from bidders.

Or you could let Best Bids do all that for you. It's that convenience that people find is well worth the commission the eBay auction handling service charges, the Best Bid owners say.

Jim and Debbie Allen opened the business about 16 months ago and have found a steady stream of customers between the Whitefish and Kalispell offices. They recently sold the Kalispell branch to Shayne Dalzell, but they plan to work together to build the name and reputation of the business. The company handles items to be auctioned online at ebay.com, but Best Bids is not affiliated with the online company.

The Best Bids slogan sums up the company's services: "We do the work, you get the cash." For an up-front fee of $10, customers bring their items into either of the two offices, called drop off centers. Then employees take care of the odds and ends of auctions on eBay, a Web site that allows people to sell and purchase items such as collectibles or vehicles. If a customer's item sells, he or she collects the money from the sale, minus Best Bids' commission. If it doesn't sell, the customer takes back the item and Best Bids keeps the up-front fee.

"It's much easier to buy on eBay than it is to sell," Jim Allen said.

To buy, customers scroll through a list of descriptions and pictures of items they're looking for, make a bid, pay the seller and wait for the item to appear in the mail. Selling, on the other hand, has numerous components that can be hassles for many people, he says. While buyers shop for free, sellers pay to list items on eBay. And sellers must take time to post descriptions and photographs, communicate with potential buyers and deal with mailing the objects.

What appeals to Best Bids customers is that they can drop off their goods and not bother with the details, Allen says. Another advantage is that Best Bids has a good reputation on eBay. Buyers and sellers rank each other on transactions or customer service. Those comments create a score that's displayed by each user name. For instance, if a seller doesn't receive payment, he or she could rate the buyer poorly. When someone has a poor score, he or she often is shunned by buyers and sellers.

Best Bids provides customer service that results in a good rating, making people buy more items from them, Allen says.

The company also determines an asking price for each item by researching it online. Typically the company doesn't take goods that are likely to sell for less than $50. That way Best Bids doesn't spend more on employee time than the company makes on a commission, which usually is 10 percent to 25 percent. Sometimes the research yields interesting results, such as that certain items are collectible at all or are quite valuable.

Ryan Staley, general manager in Whitefish, recalled one customer who brought in a decade's worth of Playboy magazines from the 1960s. To Staley's surprise, not only was there a market for the publications, they sold for about $150. Best Bids employees talk with customers to make sure they have realistic expectations of what their objects will garner.

"That's a very important part of the business," Allen said.

Customers sometimes expect items are worth more than the market value, he says. But people shop online to get bargains, and that means they don't necessarily want to pay what something might have once been worth, Dalzell points out. For example, one woman brought in a collectible figurine that had the original price tag. She wanted that exact amount, but research showed the going price was lower so Best Bids explained the discrepancy.

On the flip side, Best Bids employees and the owners have found some items go for more than they anticipate. Objects can look like nothing special. Once they're spotted by the right buyer, though, the price can shoot up.

"Buyers are funny," Allen said. "When you have the whole world as a market, and the right person, maybe income's not a problem, if they want it, they get it."

One client brought in a large Irish whiskey container with a spout that looked less than valuable to Best Bids. But the company watched as the item went for $700. Another surprise was a doughnut maker that went for $2,800.

"The buyers," Allen said, "they either have a real need for that product or they know something we don't know."

When Allen and his wife started the business, they identified three main markets: the average person selling a few items, businesses getting rid of overstock and nonprofit organizations auctioning items as a fund-raiser. They have a steady number of walk-in customers and some businesses selling overstock. The third market is one they're still hoping to tap. They want to get more nonprofits to use Best Bids as a fund-raising tool.

"I think it's very important that we do that as a way to become part of the community and set that foundation," Dalzell says.

Similar to a garage sale, the company would auction items brought in by the organizations to raise money for the groups and would cut its commission. An online auction idea is a good idea for organizations because it reaches a worldwide market on eBay, Allen says. Also, many people have items to give away but they don't have money they to donate.

Allen decided to open an eBay handling service after reading an article about similar businesses in USA Today. The idea of such a business is appealing because the inventory is provided at no cost to the owner. And since Best Bids returns to customers the goods that don't sell by a certain time, the owners aren't left with overstock.

The Allens sold the Kalispell branch to Dalzell because the offices of their other businesses, National Parks Realty and National Parks Services, are in Whitefish and they wanted someone closer to the Kalispell store to handle that center. The owners would like to expand the business to other locations, including Missoula and elsewhere in Montana.

For more information, contact the centers in the Whitefish Mountain Mall, 862-8457, or at 540 W. Idaho in Kalispell, 752-8485.