It’s World Environment Day! As an original pioneer of recommerce, eBay champions the selling and buying of pre-owned goods. Today’s Seller Spotlight shows how one seller is taking old things and giving them new life.
Jeff Abed has been fascinated with technology since he was a child. The son of an electrical engineer-turned-entrepreneur, Jeff rebuilds computers and servers to “make people happy.” Through his eBay shop MultiverseTechologies, he’s sold refurbished tech to buyers in over 30 countries – powering passions and building connections around the globe. eBay has allowed him the flexible lifestyle he’s always wanted, balancing career and craft.
Get to know Jeff in his own words below (also, visit his eBay shop right here)
An early love for tech and eBay, rooted in San Francisco
Growing up in San Francisco, my dad worked for one of the largest electronic companies. Before he became an entrepreneur he was an accomplished electrical engineer, and he had multiple patents for hard disk drive technologies. My dad kept hard drive projects in the garage, and he used to let me keep the interesting looking boards. So I grew up in an environment that encouraged exploration and experimentation with new technologies. I still live in that environment.
I've been on eBay since as early as I can remember. I remember trying to buy a “Dragon Ball Z” TV show collection for my birthday when I turned 12. I love eBay because they sell all the coolest things that you can't find at the local Target or Best Buy.
Creating his own opportunities
My passion for entrepreneurship stems from a deep-seated desire to build things and turn one plus one into three. When I was in grade school, I would bundle my old comics or action figures at home and sell them out of my backpack. So I definitely had it in me, even in elementary school.
Everything about getting started on eBay was simple. After I had good sales, I was hooked on the positive feedback and I knew I just wanted more happy people buying things that I helped fix, repair and make like new.
Selling tech and powering passions around the globe
It surprises me how many customers you can reach on eBay. I've sold servers, laptops and desktops to people in 30 countries. There's someone in Saskatchewan, Canada using a Dell i5 laptop that I made.
In 2017, there was an art museum in Leaven, France that ordered three Dell PowerEdge R815 servers. And as I understand to this day, they're still running the museum’s IT on those servers. French art museums running on our servers — that's incredible.
A flexible lifestyle
Most days, I start with a nice coffee and let my dog Azmi out. I check for sales, and post my listings – all before noon. In the afternoon, I fill and ship orders. In the evenings, I like to watch TV and have friends over to play video games, particularly flight simulators.
What I love about being an eBay seller is the flexibility I have to list orders in the middle of the night, and to sleep in if I want to. Looking back, I think young Jeff would be excited that he's still able to play with toys, disassembling and re-assembling them in new ways. I often feel like one of Santa’s elves fixing computers and laptops and servers all day long.
His top productivity hacks
My favorite productivity hack is to list as many identical items as possible at once. Say you have 10 laptops – check 'em all, grade ‘em by quality, put 'em in a spreadsheet and list them all at the same time grouping them by common condition.
The eBay seller tool I use the most is the Active Listings page in the eBay Seller Hub. From the page, I can make edits to any amount of listings. I'm able to make adjustments to the quantity, run little short-term sales and edit unique fields such as the duration, shipping or returns.
eBay’s Up & Running Grants gave him a leg up and a community
I was recently selected for an eBay Up & Running Grant. It was a complete surprise for me. I was so excited to win. I've been buying lots of inventory since and I hope to hire someone to work for me soon. It'll be my first full-time employee.
Winning the grant gave me the chance to meet a lot of new people. It felt like a big family. All of these sellers were very much like me. And it made me realize there are a lot of people out there I could be friends with and do business with.
