July 12th, 2009 by Skip McGrath

eBay Trading Assistants Smiling. Consignment selling on eBay is a bright spot in a slow economy

It wasn’t that long ago that the consignment business model was considered pretty much dead.  That was never really the case, but consignment selling did take a big hit when hundreds of eBay drop-off store franchise stores went out of business. It turned out that the franchise model of opening high-overhead retail stores that relied on people walking in with goods was flawed –but other types of consignment selling have been operating profitably under the radar for years –and lately, the slowing economy has spurred consignment sales once again.

The severity ot this recession has caused record unemployment, record home foreclosures and record bankruptcies. This results in people and businesses needing to raise cash or sell off goods and merchandise from bankrupt people and companies.  This is a natural market for consignment sellers.  And its happening not just on eBay. I have been attending an conference of Amazon sellers in Seattle this weekend. Yesterday I spoke with three different sellers who have made money selling goods from companies going out of business. One of them got his start on Amazon liquidating bookstore inventories on a 50/50 commission basis.

About 5 years ago I first wrote, How To Start and Run an eBay Consignment Business published by McGraw-Hill. The book is quite out-of-date, but there are still a few copies available on eBay and Amazon.  However, this week I just released a completely new book, Making Money With an Online Consignment Business. Although it focuses primarily on eBay, I also cover selling on Amazon and other venues such as Craigslist –as many consignment sellers are utilizing these additional platforms to grow their business.

Here is a link where you can read more about Money With an Online Consignment Business.

My next post will talk a little about what I learned when I visit Amazon on Monday, and I will be writing a wrap up of the SCOE Amazon Sellers Conference in Seattle for AuctionBytes.

See Also

• Learn How To Sell on Amazon
  Selling On The River is a complete business manual that shows you how to make money selling on Amazon