Lisa Hoffman and Charles Atkins

Charlie Narrates:

    "When confronted with too much stuff," I say to Lisa, while climbing onto a well-worn soapbox, "We have three choices."

    "Stop it! I don’t have too much stuff!" she retorts, casting a wary glance in my direction. "All I have is very precious to me."

    "As I said, the choices are . . .Throw away."

    "NO!!!!!!" she cries.

    "Give away . . ."

    "I’ve already done that," she complains. "Do you want me to have nothing?"

    "Or sell."

    "Really?" she asks, her interest peaked, as dollar signs light in her eyes. "And how would I do that? What with being homebound and all, and those consignment shops take almost fifty percent by the time they’re done. Even auctions take twenty-five percent, and you have little control over what things go for."

    "Yes," I say, "but there’s eBay. You could sell online"

    "But how would I do that? You took away the computer you gave me. You’re an Indian giver!"

    I say nothing, as I recall how the laptop I’d loaned her had turned into a coaster that had slowly vanished beneath a sea of mail-order catalogues and expired coupons. "If you‘d like, I’ll show you how to sell something online."

    "Could we sell two things?"

    "Sure," and so today, we’d like to take you on Lisa and Charlie’s step by step eBay Odyssey, or Ten Easy Steps to clearing out the tchotchkes.

Step One: Select an item.

    "So what would you like to sell?" I ask.

    "My Jacqueline book by Ron Galella, the photographer," she says holding up a large format book with a black and white cover of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. "He was probably America’s most-famous paparazzo; Jackie was always trying to escape from him. At one point I think she’d even taken out a restraining order against him. He claimed that she dressed in black with big sunglasses, just so he couldn’t get as much money for the photographs because her face wasn’t fully showing."

    "Anything special about the book?"

    "They’re excellent photographs, and he autographed it for me."

    "That’s good. How did you meet him?"

    "I interviewed him, but for the life of me I can’t remember where I sent the article; it was thirty years ago."

    "And for your second item?" I ask.

    I have some earrings by a very famous designer, Kenneth J. Lane. I’d be willing to sell those, since I’m no longer going to big dressy affairs."

    "Okay, two items is a good place to start, more than that can start to feel overwhelming."

Step Two: Photograph the item.

    One key to online selling is remembering that shoppers can’t touch the items they’re looking at. So clear photograph against a plain color background are crucial.

    "I have a black nightgown we could use," Lisa offers.

    I hesitate, but not seeing anything better, we use it. For the earrings—where we want to give a prospective buyer a sense of their size--I include a tape measure in the picture; they’re over four inches long and quite dramatic. I also photograph the back of the earrings and blow up the image to show the maker’s mark. With the book, I make sure to get a clear picture of the hand-written inscription from the author. (A good quality digital camera is essential for online selling)

Step Three: Go online and start the selling process:

    In this case we’re using eBay, which was founded in 1995, and is by far the largest of the online auctions (they report having more than one-hundred million registered members). For those who’ve never shopped online, it’s a relatively easy process to sign up for an eBay membership. But for today’s exercise, Lisa will use my account. We begin by clicking on the "Sell" button and follow the instructions.

Step Four: Listing your item:

    How you categorize the item and list it, will impact on whether or not people can find it. For the earrings we put them under the heading labeled "Jewelry and Watches, vintage, antique, costume, designer signed" and the book goes under "Antiquarian and Collectible" with further prompts that indicate it’s a photography book that is both signed by the author and a first edition. If you’re not sure how to categorize your item, it’s useful to search for something similar and see how others have listed it.

Step Five: The Description:

    Let the shopper know as much about the item as possible: the size, weight, condition, etc.

    "You should also do a bit of research," Lisa adds, "so you can get some idea of what the item should sell for, and anything else that could be of interest."

    Honesty is paramount with online selling. It’s probably better to undersell, and not have the buyer be disappointed, than to exaggerate an item’s condition. As the auction progresses, which we’ll get to next week, people may email for further information. In the case of the book, there’s a small water stain on the jacket, and so this gets mentioned. The earrings, which are quite beautiful, have never been cleaned, and there’s a possibility that some of the hand-set rhinestones could be discolored. It’s best to mention these things.

Step Six: Starting price and Reserve price:

    Just like other auctions, the seller can set a reserve price, or set a starting price, below which their item will not be sold; there is a fee for this.

    "So," I ask Lisa, "How low are you willing to go?"

    "Fifty bucks."

    And so that’s where we put her starting price, by doing this we add $2.40 to the cost of listing each item. The lower the starting price or reserve price, the lower the listing fee.

Step Seven: Deciding on the duration of the auction and when you’d like it to start:

    I prefer having auctions start and end on the weekend, as this is when more people have free time to play around on the Internet. In light of this, we post Lisa’s items for Saturday April 30^th and her auctions will end on May 7th. It’s also a good idea to remember that eBay is a global market, and to give some thought to what time it is in places where you might have buyers, such as the West Coast.

Step Eight: Load the pictures:

This is a relatively quick process, whereby digital photos get incorporated into your listing. eBay provides a free program that helps you crop and blow up pictures to show your item to their best advantage. I prefer pre-formatting with a program like PhotoShop, or Paint Shop Pro as this gives me more options and also allows me to eliminate glare from a flash, or enhance the contrast.

The first picture is free, and each subsequent photo costs fifteen cents. Throughout the eBay selling experience you will be presented with many additional options, such as "super sizing" your photos, adding bold-faced type, and listing your item in multiple categories. It’s important to keep track of these extras, as most of them will increase the cost of the listing. One extra I always purchase—for twenty-five cents—is the gallery listing, which places a small picture of your item next to your title in the search page.

Step Nine: Payment and shipping:

    Here you need to think through what makes the most sense for you. My preference for shipping is United States Postal Service Priority mail, as they provide free boxes, free labels and even free packing tape (all available through www.usps.com); it’s also fast (2-3 days). Others prefer United Parcel Service (UPS), which has the advantage of some free insurance and at-home pickups.

    Now for payment: Will you accept checks? do you have a PayPal account—an eBay owned business that allows sellers to receive credit-card payments, and transfer funds--and so on.

It’s important to spell things out explicitly before the sale starts. This cuts down on misunderstandings after the auction has ended. As I’m already set up with Paypal and maintain a PO Box, Lisa will be able to accept several different forms of payment.

Step Ten: Review your listing and if you’re happy with it, go ahead and submit your listing:

    Before you do this, you’ll be presented a tally of the posting costs. In the case of Lisa’s items, it’s six dollars for both.

    "So what do you think?" I ask, having walked her through her first two postings.

    "I think it’s fascinating. It’s a whole new world, and for me--being a shopaholic--I think it’s almost a blessing that I never learned to use the computer. So now what happens?"

    "At nine o’clock on Saturday your auctions start."

    "How exciting!" she says. "Do you think they’ll sell?"

    "No idea," and so the wait begins . . . .

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