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Dick Weaver’s done so much in his life. Why would he spend his retirement actually in retirement?

 

He started Infinite Electronics Recycling at age 72 after over 30 years in metal recycling and five years in the Air Force. The company grew fast thanks to eBay, but he attributes his own indomitable spirit to his time in the military.

 

Shop from IERUSA on eBay


7 Questions with Dick Weaver of IERUSA

  1. How did you start selling on eBay?

My experience on eBay was selling my late mother-in-law's Hummels! They probably cost her $125 a piece, and I ended up selling them for $15. That was my personal experience on eBay.

But for the business, we’ve used eBay from the very beginning. When we started, we didn't have this big wholesale business like we do now. It was all retail, so eBay was a natural outlet for us. Generally, it wasn't whole computers. It was components like memory, processors, and hard drives—things like that. But those were low-dollar items, so we’d package up 20 or 30 sticks of memory or “X” number of hard drives to make the package worth putting on eBay.

 

  1. How do you stay productive?

You've got to look at business as a multi-step process. You're not going to get to the finish line on day one.

You're going to have periods when you go one or two steps forward, then one step back.

You’ve got to have an understanding of that, and you've got to have an attitude that's indomitable. You’ve got to say, “This isn't going to beat me.” 

 

Dick relies on a staff of tech experts to assess and process IERUSA's electronics.Dick relies on a staff of tech experts to assess and process IERUSA's electronics.

  1. What’s your process for sourcing merchandise?

There's only one way to get contacts in my business, and that's just doing a lot of work, a lot of cold calling.

Like being an insurance agent! He's got to make a lot of cold calls.

You’re gonna face a lot of rejection, because 1 out of every 10 or 15 positive responses to these cold calls is a pretty good number.

That part can be very discouraging, so you have to have the right person doing it or be the right person yourself.

 

  1. What’s one thing you would tell yourself when you first started your business?

Money is not the measure of success.

I accomplished a lot in a lot of little steps—some were big steps during various parts of my career. I feel successful that we started from zero and got to where we are now.

The best thing that could happen down the road is if I were able to build this up to where we could sell it to our employees. We could just get our money out and the employees could have a part of this business.

 

  1. Where do you see your business in 1 year? 5 years? 10 years?

In five years, the business will probably be saleable. We’ll hopefully have enough of a business that somebody might be willing to buy it or we could sell it to our employees.

In 10 years, I hope I'm not involved in this business. I hope that I'm still alive! I'll be 90, so that's probably time to hang up the spurs.

 

IERUSA is quickly outgrowing its newest warehouse space.IERUSA is quickly outgrowing its newest warehouse space.

  1. What’s your favorite quote— motivational or otherwise? Why?

Let me see if I can quote it. “Oh would some power the giftie gie us, to see ourselves as others see us.” It’s from the Scottish poet Robert Burns.

I always try to look at myself through other people's eyes. It's not that I I'm necessarily going to change what I do or say or anything, but at least I have an understanding of how somebody else looks at me.

 

  1. Who inspires you?

This is going to sound corny, but that’s okay. The person I’ve tried to emulate is Abraham Lincoln.

I try to be forthright and reasonable to talk to.

In business, your most valuable commodity is your word. You’ll talk to somebody on the phone and say maybe two sentences, and you'll do a $10 million deal because all the rest was implied. Because in a commodity transaction, you hang up the phone and just trade paperwork. Millions of dollars traded hands like that!

And it’s all just on the trust of your word and the financial strength of the company behind you. And if you aren’t true to your word, you’re done; you might have to go do something else.

One of the values that I hold is: whatever I say, that’s going to happen. That's a characteristic I look for in other people too.


Check back for more seller stories and tips throughout the year on our Announcements board, the eBay for Business Podcast, and our eBay for Business Facebook and YouTube.

 

This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.