eBay® PowerSeller Business Practices FOR DUMMIES®

Appendix B. Ten Other Places to Move Your Merchandise

In This Appendix

• Giving it away: Charitable donations

• Selling locally at garage sales, swap meets, antique malls, events

• Unloading on other eBay sellers

• Turning over your goods to a live auctioneer or specialized seller

• Placing a classified ad

• Selling it cheap: A lastditch effort

As eBay moves more in the direction of fixed-price sales — even if your main business still thrives on the good old eBay auction — a familiar problem from the traditional retail world rears its head: excess inventory. (Don't feel bad about it; sooner or later, every business has some). Inevitably, some merchandise starts to look like it'll never scrape together a profit. If you're sick of looking at it but still have some cash tied up in it, you have to make storage room for this stuff immediately — or sell it fast. If a corner of your eBay merchandise area has turned into the Graveyard of Unsold Stuff (hey, it happens), you still have options.

You can't expect to bat a thousand every time you select a product to sell. The key is getting rid of the excess with minimum loss on your investment. None of your merchandise is trash (I hope); someone out there will want it and will pay something for it. If not, you can always donate it and take a tax write-off. In this chapter, I highlight the top ten ways to move that superfluous merchandise and still save your investment.

Donate to Charitable Organizations

Charitable donations are my favorite way of unloading unwanted ...