How to Get Stuff* to Sell Online:

A step-by-step debut guide to selling items on eBay.

At the start of his short book, Allen finds inspiration for new consignment-selling strategies from an unlikely source: his church pew. During a service, he looks around at the numerous elderly attendees and considers what they own, balancing that tally against what they need. Allen spent 36 years as a marketing consultant before transitioning to consignment selling, and his new guide distills his experiences for readers who may be interested in trying it themselves. After his church epiphany, Allen began doing presentations for retirement homes and senior centers, bringing in a professional appraiser to help elderly people discover what treasures they may own without knowing it; one person, for example, owned a fine set of World War II–era cameras. He stoutly defends this approach against possible charges of opportunism: “Many seniors are living on fixed incomes….They are highly motivated to turn their stuff into cash,” he says. “You are providing a much-needed service, so be proud of your work.” Allen describes himself as an avid history buff with a passion for discovering the past, and tells how he relished the experience of surprising seniors with unexpectedly high payoffs. He makes those paydays possible, he says, with his own online savvy and his use of professional appraisers, telling his elderly clients that such experts are worth every cent they charge. He includes several useful public-speaking tips when making presentations to potential clients, which deal with stage fright and the like. He also describes his own transition from the senior circuit to “eBay Heaven,” sharing fees with lawyers for consignment sales of warehouses full of items owned by their clients and their families. Many of these sales forgo eBay auctions altogether in favor of dealing directly with collectors, but some of the advice in this section may still be of use to beginners in the practice. Indeed, anyone interested in reselling items online (and fans of Antiques Roadshow) will likely benefit from Allen’s clear prose and infectious salesman’s confidence.

An enthusiastic, authoritative program for turning one person’s trash into another person's treasure—and making a profit along the way.