Closing Online Business and Want a Local Ebay Seller to Help Me Sell Inventory

[runninglizardo]

With great sadness I am going to close my online care package company at the end of the year. I'm looking for an experienced Ebay seller (or perhaps a quick learner) to help me sell the excess inventory. I have about 1,000 SKUs. Most of the individual product sells between 1.50 to 20.00. Many products are in cases or bagged by the dozen. I have postage scale, boxes, printers, shelving.... Ideally it would be someone in SW CT. I have a lease so this place is good for storage and packing.

Where can I find someone? All suggestions welcome!

[gkyn29]

My suggestion? Sell it yourself on eBay. If you need to, take a class. Outsourcing this, something you can do on your own, is asking for trouble.

[thallidguy]

Help wanted in Craigslist? Facebook Marketplace?

Good luck.

[jason_incognito]

selling something for $1.50 to $20?

donate it and take the write off.

[myboardid]

It is not worth anyone's time for items that sell for under $20.  Sell it in large quantities.

That said, you would be more likely to find someone to take off your hands for, say, 10 cents on the dollar. 

[uncseniorsportsfan]

Use Craigslist to sell either the whole business or break the inventory up into large lots.   Let the buyer decide where and how he wants to sell it. 

[luckythewinner]

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@runninglizardo wrote:

With great sadness I am going to close my online care package company at the end of the year. I'm looking for an experienced Ebay seller (or perhaps a quick learner) to help me sell the excess inventory. I have about 1,000 SKUs. Most of the individual product sells between 1.50 to 20.00. Many products are in cases or bagged by the dozen. I have postage scale, boxes, printers, shelving.... Ideally it would be someone in SW CT. I have a lease so this place is good for storage and packing.

 Where can I find someone? All suggestions welcome!

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If this is an operating business with decent sales and a reasonable profit, I would have to think there would be a friend, relative, or trusted local person who would be happy to take it over and pay off the inventory from the cash flow. 

Are you selling on eBay now, or elsewhere?

[nc-daydreamer]

You have no active listings to give anyone a clue as to what kind of merchandise you have to sell.  Are all items in your hands - or are you under a drop shipper contract to fulfill?  

The way most consignment sellers do this - you supply a complete list of items to them w/some photos. They will look it over and determine probability of selling. If they accept the task, they will present you with a contract for you to have notarized and signed. 

Generally this contract will stipulate that first all fees, including postage incurred will be your responsibility.  You send all items to be sold to the seller so they can inspect it, picture it, write the ad for it and send it off when/if it sells.

All returns - even those made 6 months down the road,  you will be responsible to refund from your pocket.  The seller will ask between 35 & 75% of the amount item sold - non refundable.  If item does not sell within 60 days (or as agreed upon), you will owe the seller a fee for their time and effort; they will give you back the unsold item(s) at that time.  There will be a waiting period - usually 2-3 months after the sale before you get paid whatever may be left. 

This is why you either need to sell items in lots, or donate them and take a tax write off, as already advised by other responders.  However, if you find someone local, you can hire them at a reasonable wage to come to your storage area and do the work for you on an hourly basis. 

Good luck.

[runninglizardo]

I get that. I have 20-30K in inventory. And .10 on the dollar, if it were quick, would be fine.

[runninglizardo]

Might look in to this. It could be very profitable for someone.

[runninglizardo]

Per several of the lines I carry, I am not allowed to sell on Ebay. That's why I need someone else to do it for me. And I'm not looking to make money, just lose less than I already have. The business is not yet running a profit. Still about a year away.

[runninglizardo]

Thanks for the info. I get that it needs to be sold in lots. The inventory is huge. 1000+ SKUs with up to 500 of each SKU. I just need to find someone to do it for me. I can not, per several contracts, sell on Ebay.

[siayan]

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@runninglizardo wrote:
Per several of the lines I carry, I am not allowed to sell on Ebay. That's why I need someone else to do it for me. And I'm not looking to make money, just lose less than I already have. The business is not yet running a profit. Still about a year away.

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This probably wouldn't end well.

[orangehound]

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@runninglizardo wrote:
Per several of the lines I carry, I am not allowed to sell on Ebay. That's why I need someone else to do it for me.

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If you read the fine print in your contract, you are probably also prohibited from selling to a reseller (or operating as a wholesaler).   And, you obviously can't have someone sell the products on your behalf to comply with the terms of your agreement.

[itsjustasprain]

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@runninglizardo wrote:
Per several of the lines I carry, I am not allowed to sell on Ebay. That's why I need someone else to do it for me. And I'm not looking to make money, just lose less than I already have. The business is not yet running a profit. Still about a year away.

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From what little I can glean from your details, your "care packages" are school supplies and treats that you box up and ship to college students whenever their parents click on one of your order forms; is that the general idea? I've seen it done to varying degrees of success, but I'm not sure I would anticipate a whole lot of change in the coming years as far as care packages are concerned, as the idea is not new. (I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just a mature one.)

I don't know if any of your stock has a shelf life that's in danger of expiring soon (e.g. snacks? chips?), but I would suggest that if you're tired of the whole thing, make a clean break with it ASAP and walk away. Is there any cancellation or buy-back plan with whoever sold you the material in the first place? That is, if they're prohibiting you from selling it on eBay, what do they expect you to do with it? Is there anything useful to be found in Sub-Section 13(b), Paragraphs III and IV (or something like that) of your contract regarding business closeout?