In the pre-Internet era, selling a no longer used item simply lying in the attic was always a very tedious task. It involved a lot of running from pillar to post to get the item sold off.
Since the advent of the Internet and especially eBay, selling off an antique item has become much easier as it means getting potential buyers from all over the world.
However, it still involves a lot of hassle as the seller needs to properly pack the item and ship it to the nearest eBay collection center and chasing the potential purchase. It also involves the associated costs that go with all these tasks.
Into this business have now jumped in what are called drop-off auction service providers. These are actually the go-betweens Internet Auction Listing Services (IALS) such as eBay and an antique item seller. What they do is to provide local offices in each major city in the US.
All a seller needs to do is to take the item he wants sold to the nearest such office of a drop-off auction service provider. The task of further processing till you get the money in lieu of the sold item or alternatively your item is returned back to you unsold is handled by the service provider. The latter deals with the concerned IALS provider entirely.
A drop-off auction service does all the tedious work on behalf of the seller. That includes packing the item properly and safely and shipping it to the IALS collection center. It also involves writing an auction description for the item in a professional manner that will attract the maximum number of potential buyers. It involves chasing the sale vis-à-vis the IALS till the seller gets the money for the sale.
Naturally, a seller who is otherwise busy in other pursuits welcomes the role of such a drop-off auction service. In lieu of a fee, the seller avoids a lot of hassle. The best thing about such a service is that a seller can then get the highest possible gross sale value for the item which is simply lying useless with him.
The net proceeds that a seller receives through this means are of course reduced by not only the respective IALS and drop-off auction service providers' fees but also their profits. Another thing to remember is that the minimum sale value of the item needs to be approximately $75 to enable a seller to manage something concrete in return. Otherwise, the associated costs of the sale outweigh the market value of the item.
A valid license from the concerned state government authorities is mandatory for a drop-off auction service provider. He also needs to maintain an escrow account for facilitating the movement of money from the IALS to the seller concerned.
The proportion of fees charged by a service provider from an item's sale proceeds go up telescopically with the sale value. A seller who wants to bypass the hefty fees needs to gain experience in selling and writing auction descriptions for an item of sale by doing business directly with an IALS.
|