Here's an article from the NY Times regarding eBay sellers and the Xmas rush:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/25/technology/circuits/25powe.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
By LISA GUERNSEY
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/25/technology/circuits/25powe.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
November 25, 2004
EBay Sellers Do the Holiday Sprint
By LISA GUERNSEY
OU
think the holidays are hectic? Talk to an eBay Power Seller about the next few
weeks, and the realization will dawn: You don't know hectic.
These people are turning their living rooms into inventory centers, diving
into Dumpsters for spare boxes, stuffing cars and closets with packing peanuts,
checking for e-mail every free minute and racing to the post office nearly every
afternoon. That's on top of the shopping, decorating, party planning and holiday
stress that afflicts everyone else.
Asked how she was planning to spend the next few weeks, Sheryl Williams of
Pillager, Minn., who sells porcelain figurines on eBay, replied, "In a panic."
She said that if people were to walk by her house next week they would "see me
with the door hanging open in the dead freezing cold, trying to get the packages
out."
EBay invites its members to become Power Sellers when they have sold at least
$1,000 in goods each month, averaged over three months, while meeting other
criteria, like maintaining a good reputation. Some run bricks-and-mortar stores
and post merchandise at eBay to expand their reach.
But many top sellers - including those without the Power Seller label - exist
only online and do all the work from home, either to supplement a full-time job
or try to make a living. They have turned their households upside down to make
sure they don't miss the profits that eBay has become known for at this time of
year.
Last December more people visited eBay than any other online shopping site,
according to a study by Nielsen/NetRatings. The site drew nearly 50 million
unique visitors in December, beating Amazon's draw of 37 million. In the last
quarter of 2003, $7 billion worth of goods were sold on eBay, 22 percent more
than in the previous quarter, said Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman.
Sacrifices of space and time are essential to reaping that reward, according
to a smattering of Power Sellers who took a break to be interviewed. (One
seller, who specializes in vintage toys, declined in an e-mail message, saying
he was "too busy with the holiday rush.")
Paula Deane Traynham, a collector of plates and figurines in Fort Worth, said
she expects to sell two to three times her normal volume of merchandise this
month and next. She started selling on eBay four years ago, following in the
footsteps of her mother - who, Ms. Traynham said, was able to put her children
through college by collecting, trading and selling plates decades ago.
Ms. Traynham, who sells under the name PaulaDeane, is now continuing that
tradition by using the money from her sales to pay some of her daughter's
college expenses while her husband's salary covers the normal cost of living.
This week, she is selling 62 items from manufacturers like Hummel and Villeroy &
Boch - collectibles from the inventory of her mother's old shop.
"Around Christmastime, someone who has bought two or three in a series,
they'll think, maybe I can pick up two to three to complete the set," she said.
She says she has a local Chinese restaurant on speed-dial because she has no
time to cook in between taking photos, writing descriptions and packing boxes.
Her daughter's bedroom is home to four rolls of bubble packaging, each three
feet high and three feet in diameter. Hundreds of flattened Priority Mail boxes
are stacked against the walls. Products in their original boxes are crammed on
shelves. Her computer is in the dining room, and packaged plates often overtake
the table. "I'm starting to feel like one of those people in New York who fills
up their apartment," she said.
Carol Ellis sells needlepoint and scrapbook supplies under the name
Chunkypunkys while holding down a full-time job as a manager at a commercial
mortgage banking firm in Woodbridge, N.J. She said her ironing board has become
her shipping center, her car is filled with boxes and her sofa is draped with a
blue blanket, serving as a staging area for photographs. Her cats, one of whom
is the store's namesake, bat around foam packing peanuts while she works into
the night.
Her busy season has been in full swing for several weeks, because people
often buy her supplies to make their own gifts. (She paused for an interview
after dropping off 25 packages at the post office.) As a six-year veteran of
eBay, she expects business to zoom again just after Christmas, when scrapbooking
is popular and hobbyists stock up on fabric for the coming year.
Last year, in anticipation of that post-Christmas rush, she said she had
"sunk her bonus" into buying items like felt stockings and needlepoint kits at
clearance prices at local craft stores. When she listed the items on eBay, "I
had bidding wars," she said. "It was the most exciting time I've ever had on
eBay." With the extra income, she said, she has refreshed her inventory to
attract repeat customers and treated herself to a diamond ring that she found
(where else?) on eBay.
That excitement, however, can come at the cost of holiday travel, because
eBay sellers depend on their reputation (denoted in feedback points) to attract
customers. People expect quick responses to e-mail and timely arrivals of
packages, Ms. Traynham said, adding, "You don't dare leave your computer for
more than eight or 10 hours."
Cathy Hughes, a mother of four children in Fort Worth who sells an assortment
of items as Kitty32, said she wouldn't think of going anywhere for the next few
weeks. She said a road trip over the summer became "a real nightmare" when she
found herself sitting in front of her mother-in-law's computer for six hours,
slogging through 300 pieces of e-mail on a dial-up connection.
Ms. Hughes said she sold $4,000 worth of items during last year's holiday
season, working as a trading assistant by selling other people's goods and
earning commissions. She said she has to turn down used clothes because they
rarely sell, but items she has brokered include a 1959 Chevrolet Apache truck,
Disney items and designer clothing, tags intact. (In the other months she uses
eBay to sell products for Tatouage Designs, a company that specializes in wall
"tattoos" and murals.)
The profit from Christmas eBay sales - which she says usually shoot "through
the roof" - supplements that of her husband, enabling the family to afford those
summer roadtrips. She expects to be checking her computer on Thanksgiving Day.
But many sellers say that this holiday season will be easier than last
because PayPal, a popular payment program run by eBay, now offers online postage
that can be printed at home so senders can drop packages at the post office
without waiting in line.
EBay is also trying to help, Mr. Durzy said, by increasing to $1,000 the
insurance coverage under the Buyer Protection program (which is automatically
applied to items listed by qualifying sellers) and offering free lists of hot
items and keywords.
Sellers also applaud software programs that help them with listings and
analysis. Ms. Williams, who specializes in items from the porcelain collection
called Precious Moments, said she is a fan of Sellathon, a piece of software
that, among other things, highlights which search terms bring traffic.
Now when she writes descriptions for the figurines of shepherds, she knows to
include misspellings like "shepard" and "sheperd" in her descriptions. She can't
afford to miss a potential buyer becaues her entire income is made on eBay; her
elderly mother lives with her and they both rely on it.
Still, last-minute shipping is what many sellers dread most. Ms. Hughes said
she sold a $75 mixer two years ago to a woman who said she would pay $150 if the
item was express shipped that night. So Ms. Hughes strapped her year-old baby
and 6-year-old son into her car, picked up the mixer (she had been selling it on
behalf of someone else), wrapped it, enclosed a bow and rushed it to the post
office. It arrived on Christmas morning.
But better to sell the items in a rush than not sell them at all. Nick Walker
and his wife, Robyn, in Anderson, S.C., decided to become eBay sellers this
summer to earn some extra income (using the ID Nicholasofaiken). Rearing two
young boys, they became familiar with wooden toy train sets and found a
distributor selling sets compatible with the popular Thomas the Tank Engine
series. They are now auctioning off the 70-piece sets with a $19.99 opening bid.
Mr. Walker says they are selling well, but he admits to having a nagging
worry about supply outrunning demand. He said last week that five or six other
members have started selling the same item. If the market becomes flooded, he
said, "I might not get the price I want."
So far, however, he and his wife are sticking to the plan, busily preparing
packages for people they have never met. Their sons, ages 2 and 4, were a bit
confused at first, Mr. Walker said. "It took me a while to explain why we kept
putting trains in boxes and shipping them out."
The other hazard, Ms. Traynham said, is that gifts for loved ones can become
an afterthought.
"It's like, O.K., here's a gift card," she said. After all, she joked, "Your
family does not leave you feedback."
