ebay shop (bricks and mortar)

[leewoods0]

i want to open a shop in my town centre that sells peoples items for them on ebay and sends the items off for them as well, i think this would be a good idea for people who are computer illetirate and for people who don't have access to the internet, i was wondering what peoples views and opinions are on my idea.

i could divresify by offering internet access (where they can check their emails, and how their items are selling) i could also have a help section where questions about ebay can be answered!

[Adam]

I like the idea.

Like cash converters and the like or a pawn shop. People drop the stuff off and get I guess 50% of whatever you can sell it for?

I say 50% as you have shops costs and staff etc.

Can customers walk in and make a bid in the auction? If they offer more than on eBay can remove the item for sale?

[SaverSoftware]

Hi,

Have you looked at contact ebay.co.uk about this they run a program called trading assitant which could help you test in water before getting into heavy rents on town centre buildings.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/tradingassis...assistant.html

Hope it helps

Regards

Gareth

[kinster]

Hi

It's already been done, it's called an eBay 'drop-in' centre.

Here's one of them

http://cgi3.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....drop-off-shops

There's also quite a famous one. I will post it when I remember their name.

Regards

[leewoods0]

the drop-in that kinster refers to is different to my idea as mine is more of a whole service, where people can bring their items in, we post it off, people can use the free internet service to bid on people's items or check their own and of course its in a actual shop, so the interest will be (hopefully) greater.

Will their be any problems with using the "ebay" name? because of copyright reasons, would i have to ask for permission to use it in my name.

Thanks for your comments!

[leewoods0]

Can customers walk in and make a bid in the auction? If they offer more than on eBay can remove the item for sale? [/b]

Yes that is what im looking at, making "ebay" accessible to all, and because thay can touch the item we have more chance of a sale!

[natasha]

yeah i've seen this on tv before there was a shop cant remember where but they done exactly this, i think its a good idea.

[leewoods0]

does that mean i can't continue with this project? there are no shops of this kind in my area, Yorkshire.

[Phil]

of course it doesn't. I think it'd be a great service/shop if it was situated in a busy urban area. you could also run it as an ebay training centre were you could maybe teach evening classes in how to operate ebay.

I was intending on doing something like this with NetInspired, and am infact registered as a trading assistant on eBay. But I'm carrying out other projects before hand.

[natasha]

Originally posted by leewoods0
does that mean i can't continue with this project? there are no shops of this kind in my area, Yorkshire.

Yeah still go a head with it, just make sure there is a market for this type of service in your area and do some research.
Find out who your potential customers are.

[bedazzle]

There's a shop in Southampton that does this, it's called "Sell things on"

Here's their site www.sellthingson.com

I think it's a cracking idea

[leewoods0]

thanks bedazzle, that will help in the research side of it!

[kinster]

Originally posted by leewoods0
the drop-in that kinster refers to is different to my idea as mine is more of a whole service, where people can bring their items in, we post it off, people can use the free internet service to bid on people's items or check their own and of course its in a actual shop, so the interest will be (hopefully) greater.

Will their be any problems with using the "ebay" name? because of copyright reasons, would i have to ask for permission to use it in my name.

Thanks for your comments!

Hi,

What I mentioned is just one of them. I know that there are a few that have a bricks and mortar store. People bring items in, they value it take pictures, write the description and eBay it for them.

I will post find out more of these stores for you to aid your research. Here's a biggy from the US http://www.auctiondrop.com/index.aspx in conjuction with UPS

Good luck

[jklondon]

its an interesting idea and once I have already seen in operation near west hampstead - however its more suitable as an extension to an exiting business e.g. newsagents..

[Martin]

I have reservations about this working...

The idea works but will your catchment area support your overhead costs of operating from a "Bricks & Mortor" store.

As jklondon already mentioned as an extension to an existing store you already are covering Operating Costs and I can see this being a valued addition.

I'm pretty certain you won't be able to use the eBay name in any way that makes you look offically associated with eBay.

Anyways you'll have to alot of research to make sure your numbers add up...

Martin