ebay Launches Consignment Offering

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Good news, sellers! Too busy to sell your own stuff? ebay has now launched a consignment service! 

Of course: "For now, the service is reserved for designer handbags by brands including Prada, Chanel, Hermès and Louis Vuitton, but will expand next year to include other categories."

So, admittedly, this might limit the number of sellers taking advantage of this service in Q4....but nice to see ebay realizing the economic struggle is real, and making an effort to help sellers struggling with their closets full of Chanel and LV bags. 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ebay-launches-luxury-consignment-301924083.html

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@joseh1445 wrote:

Will this bags have to be sent to get authenticated?  

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@joseh1445 - theoretically the seller-partner running this program, Linda's Stuff, will be doing their own authentication before listing, based on their industry experience and knowledge.

However, in order for it to have the eBay Authenticity Guarantee (with all of the benefits and protections from eBay), it will have to meet the eBay Authenticity Guarantee criteria, including selling for $500+, to have the AG badge and be sent to eBay's authentication center after being sold.

All of that seems pretty clunky to me honestly. 

If Linda's Stuff is already doing their own authentication and they are trusted enough to be the sole seller partner for handbags in this consignment program, why should buyers then have to wait even longer for their purchase to have it sent through a second authentication process?

And what happens if Linda's Stuff passes the item as authentic but eBay's authenticators don't?

[valueaddedresource]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

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@joseh1445 wrote:

Will this bags have to be sent to get authenticated?  

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@joseh1445 - theoretically the seller-partner running this program, Linda's Stuff, will be doing their own authentication before listing, based on their industry experience and knowledge.

However, in order for it to have the eBay Authenticity Guarantee (with all of the benefits and protections from eBay), it will have to meet the eBay Authenticity Guarantee criteria, including selling for $500+, to have the AG badge and be sent to eBay's authentication center after being sold.

All of that seems pretty clunky to me honestly. 

If Linda's Stuff is already doing their own authentication and they are trusted enough to be the sole seller partner for handbags in this consignment program, why should buyers then have to wait even longer for their purchase to have it sent through a second authentication process?

And what happens if Linda's Stuff passes the item as authentic but eBay's authenticators don't?

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I don't know about anyone else, but I see a lot of room for potential issues here:

https://pages.ebay.com/ebay-consignment/#faq

Will the items I consign go through eBay's Authenticity Guaranteed program?

Items consigned will be shipped to our consignment partner, who will check the items for authenticity. Once the items are sold on the eBay platform, they will go through eBay's Authenticity Guarantee service, provided they meet the eligibility criteria. In the event that any authenticity or listing concerns are flagged while the item is being inspected by our authenticators, our consignment partner will reach out to you directly in order to obtain a resolution.

[dbfolks166mt]

I think this is great for people who want to sell BUT dont want to be a seller. No argument there. 

Dont want to set up managed payments and do the listings. While they may not want to setup managed payments and do the listings there has to be some financial processing involved with this. If it is consigned I would assume the consignee is going to want your personal information along with your SSN and bank account so they can pay you and issue you a 1099 at the end of the year regardless of the amount. 

Dont want to deal with charge backs and returns. This raises another interesting question. While the consignor may not have to deal with the returns and chargebacks directly the consignee will but what happens when the consignee looses a NAD chargeback due to shipping damage, scams the consignee out of an item or the item is lost in shipping? Who eats the cost and how long is the consignee going to hold your funds to cover these risks? 

Dont want to deal with new seller payment holds. See response to previous. 

The commission is fair considering what local consignment shops charge and eBays fees and someone else doing all the work.

     Agree that the commission is  fair and it's actually based, according to mcdougle4248 post, on the items selling price NOT the total cost. I ran a test case for the sale of an item at $900 which has a 60% commission on the sale price, pretty easy math and consignee's commission/payout would be $540. Had the consignee sold the item themselves figuring some approximate amounts their payout would have been around $752. So for that $212 difference the consignee covers the shipping from the consignor and then again to the buyer, covers the eBay fees and may or may not be handling the sales tax collection and remittance. Not all that bad of a deal for the amount of work and risk involved. 

     I will play around with the math on a higher priced item and see what the numbers look like. 

[valueaddedresource]

@dbfolks166mt Dont want to deal with charge backs and returns. This raises another interesting question. While the consignor may not have to deal with the returns and chargebacks directly the consignee will but what happens when the consignee looses a NAD chargeback due to shipping damage, scams the consignee out of an item or the item is lost in shipping? Who eats the cost and how long is the consignee going to hold your funds to cover these risks? 

I'll put a giant speculation warning on this so everyone knows it's an absolutely wild (even if somewhat educated lol) guess: as someone who has been invited to participate in eBay's Daily Deals and other exclusive promotions in the past and from talking to more than a few sneaker sellers who supply inventory for the Top Star program....it would not surprise me at all if eBay may be offering some "assistance" to selected seller consignment partners to help mitigate some of these risks. 😉

[dbfolks166mt]

I'll put a giant speculation warning on this so everyone knows it's an absolutely wild (even if somewhat educated lol) guess: as someone who has been invited to participate in eBay's Daily Deals and other exclusive promotions in the past and from talking to more than a few sneaker sellers who supply inventory for the Top Star program....it would not surprise me at all if eBay may be offering some "assistance" to selected seller consignment partners to help mitigate some of these risks.

     That would not surprise me in the least. I believe they sank around $250 million into getting the EIS program up and running. It will be interesting to see how this program shakes out and how far it expands into other categories. It will no doubt go through some growing pains but given all the postings from people looking for someone to provide this service it has potential. Amazon has a similar program that seems to be working well. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@valueaddedresource 

Probably true. I think ebay views the Daily Deals, the sneaker sellers you mentioned, and an "authorized" consignment seller like Linda as marketing expenses, because all this sort of thing is designed to bring more traffic to the site in ways that go beyond---at least somewhat---the regular selling on the site. Arguably, the same thing could be said if ebay finally provides sellers with a social media referral FVF discount.

I'd guess ebay has made some projections about the ROI from a project like this, and have concluded that they can budget "x" to help the consignment seller handle return issues, etc, and still ebay will come out ahead based on the additional sales brought to the site. 

If those projections turn out to be wrong, they'll rethink this.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

I almost spit my OJ when I read that.

Can't say Linda's is one of my fave sellers over the years, even if she is one of ebay's pets.

I can see the same types of issues here.

[pjcdn2005]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

Didn't they already try this?

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i seem to remember that they did do the same or similar thing with bags years ago.. And I thought that they were using the same consignor as they are using now. I'm not certain of that though.

[pjcdn2005]

I could be wrong but I think that the 'good news' comment was sarcastic.

[coolections]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

I could be wrong but I think that the 'good news' comment was sarcastic.

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I hope so because this sounds like the worse idea I have ever seen. A train wreck in the making. Cannot imagine anyone handing their bag over to a 3rd party which in turns goes to an authenticator which in turn goes to a buyer. Someone said a 60% fee sounds about right. LOL

[the-hook-and-the-loop]

How's eBay's Vault working out? Authenticity Guarantee is a trainwreck. PL's is another disaster. Car part fitment=fail.

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@the-hook-and-the-loop wrote:

How's eBay's Vault working out? Authenticity Guarantee is a trainwreck. PL's is another disaster. Car part fitment=fail.

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@the-hook-and-the-loop but Jamie says their strategy is working! 

At the risk of revealing too much about my age.....😂

[the-hook-and-the-loop]

Maybe if the 2024 election doesn't go Trump's way, he could become eBay's new CEO.....from his cell.

This Jamie guy has got to go. This platform has been horrible for years now.

[debussy2]

"eBay has partnered with long-time eBay seller, Linda's Stuff, to ensure a trusted and seamless process for customers throughout the consignment journey. Linda's Stuff has nearly two decades of experience in the consignment industry, and has a state-of-the-art warehouse and facility equipped to handle your consigned items from start to finish. " 

    I wouldn't trust this seller if my life depended on it. I've bought from her items that were dirty, torn and not the quality they describe. One supposedly 14K gold bracelet wasn't even authentic gold -- I suspected it wasn't and took it to my long-time jeweler. He acid-tested it in front of me, and it wasn't gold. Maybe gold PLATED, but definiitely NOT solid gold. I returned. They relisted as real gold. Not a fan of this seller.