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Long Beach a Bustling Bastion of eBay Business
Corey Chambers, achieved the lofty status of PowerSeller" (a title few trading assistants ever achieve) for selling several thousand dollars of items per month of items on eBay.
Long Beach, CA (PRWEB) January 13, 2005 -- The online auction industry now employs a significant number of people who make their living selling new and used items on auction websites. Online auction giant eBay offers a prime example, with more than 300,000 full-timers. This new industry has allowed a new breed of net auctioneer" to make their living selling items for others in their neighborhoods. These eBay Trading Assistants are not employees or agents of eBay -- just enterprising individuals ready to make the most of this new Internet Frontier". There are more than a dozen listed in eBays Trading Assistant directory in the city of Long Beach. One such Trading Assistant, Long Beach resident, Corey Chambers, achieved the lofty status of PowerSeller" (a title few trading assistants ever achieve) for selling several thousand dollars of items per month of items on eBay.
Clients pay nothing to list their items with Chambers, who, after the sale, deducts a flat fee of 33% from the individual items purchase price. The fee reduces for items over $500.00. Unlike so many other on-line brokers, his service does not charge for things like local pickup, eBay fees, payment processing fees, multiple photos, ad copywriting, additional research, basic cleaning, invoicing, and shipping.
While Chambers has sold some very interesting items, he has not sold anything as outrageous as the infamous cheese sandwich with images of the Virgin Mary that recently sold on eBay for $28,000.00. I love the variety of items that customers give me to sell for them," says Chambers. Everything from antique cars to brand new electronics that they realize they dont need after all." Many antique items teach you about the changes in American attitudes. Some notable examples of the thousands of items Chambers has sold include an infamous antique Mother Goose book that contained the rhyme 10 Ten Little Niggers" before it was later updated to the 10 little Indians." Another noteworthy item sold by Chambers was a beat-up old guitar that was auctioned, starting at $1.00, and sold on eBay for over $3,000.00. Many of the items come from estates. Long Beach has a significant senior population. Older people often tend to collect many items over the years. One such customer, Esther, kept her 1947 Chevrolet Fleetmaster, a behemoth of an old car, in her garage (she refused to sell it because it reminded her of her late husband) until she passed away last year. The estate attorney contacted Corey Chambers to sell the interesting big old car, which was not in running condition. The attorney expected the value to be around $2,000.00 and Corey Chambers listed on eBay with the auction starting at just $100.00, and the car fetched more than $5,000.00.
Doing business in Long Beach is nothing new to Chambers who started out at just twelve years old, when he sold greeting cards door-to-door to earn prizes. Soon he was programming mainframe computer systems for fun at California State University, Long Beach. Later, after serving as an Information Systems Specialist in the U.S. Air Force, he earned a Bachelors degree in advertising from California State University, Fullerton, and launched his own marketing company in 1990. In 1998, he began working for his friends Yahoo store BrandsOnSale.com in Cerritos. Chambers helped this small website become one of the largest and most successful online gift stores, and picked up some very important ecommerce tips and tricks to help get more bidders and fetch top dollar selling items on eBay.
Anyone interested in competing in the burgeoning market of on-line auctions must know that EBay is best utilized by taking advantage of the unique and time tested characteristics of the auction method of sales. That means attracting the maximum number of bidders and motivating them to bid the highest amount of money possible on any given item. While anyone can sell on eBay, many are put off by the mind-boggling array of options and upgrades to consider when listing an item. These include auction type, category, title, formatting & design, minimum starting price, duration, reserve, buy-it-now price, start time, Dutch auctions, photo options, shipping options and promotion options. We know exactly which options to choose for each type of item that will maximize the dollar amount and number of bids," Chambers says; On top of which, we handle any bidder questions with the utmost courtesy and persuasiveness during and after the bidding to increase everyones satisfaction."
Having painstakingly developed a process by which he takes it a step further, Chambers manages to create an environment of intense enthusiasm for each item by setting up the auction in such a way as to encourage and motivates bidders, thus maximizing the bid amounts. We start this by taking multiple high-quality photos of each item," he further notes, adding, If need be, we enhance the look of the item before it is photographed, and then we use photo software to increase its visual appeal without actually altering the item image itself." Afterward, he explains that his team of experienced advertising writers researches the item, then writes an emotionally appealing description of it using Chambers specially designed ad writing program, which guarantees each item listed will be given the most detailed information. This ensures that each bidder is able to make a confident and fully informed purchase decision," he states.
Likewise, because EBay members usually find items by typing in words to search, he observes that his company utilizes a special computer program that optimizes the most frequently used relevant key" words or descriptive phrases, which he and his crew then place conspicuously within that items title listing and description. Without the right words, few people would ever find the item or bid on it," he stresses, our expert writers look up the very best key words, which guarantees to dramatically increase the number of bidders."
Offering free local pickup of items, its small wonder then that he gets most of his business simply by passing out business cards directly to his neighbors, as well as advertising in the local newspapers. His roommates grew weary of the growing pile of items for sale, and all of the many visiting customers, so Chambers recently had to cease working from home and move the operation into a large 1,000 square foot office on 4th Street, a couple blocks west of the Colorado Lagoon.
Customers are often surprised by the amount of money they get when their item is professionally listed in eBay: I expected to get about $50.00 for my card collection, and Corey Chambers got me $255.00," says Long Beach resident Tony Kaforski.
I typically get 20% to 40% more per item than the average eBay seller," Chambers states matter-of-factly. So, the higher selling price that I am able to get pays my fees, and I do all of the work for the customer, including shipping." Interested parties are invited to contact Chambers at: coreychambers@yahoo.com or visit the new location at 4240 E. 4th St. Corey Chambers (562) 433-5030.
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