Ari is an entrepreneur, selling on eBay since 2003. What started as a hobby in college, has become a full-time business selling vintage electronics and other discount items. He is a new father and enjoys the flexibility that e-commerce provides. Interesting Notes Ari started to work in their family's brick and mortar store when he was six years old. He grew up in the age of laserdisc, beta, turntables and all that. Now, he sells vintage items that date back to the 70s, 80s and early 90s. Among those items are turntables, turntable needles, cartridges, VHS, Atari games. He started selling on eBay when he was still in college. He would buy and sell sneakers and it grew up. With his college students' discount, he would also buy computer software and sell it on eBay. But Microsoft frowned upon it which ended that kind of niche. He realized when he moved back home from college that eBay is a viable business. Today, he has taken over the management of their brick and mortar store. It is in the part of a town that is pretty dead. He noticed that retail in the brick and mortar store as well as in the shopping malls are hurting over the years. And eBay is another avenue to sell. So, all the items in the store that are not selling, he sells it on eBay. He also has store employees who do not have much work so he formed a team of six people to run his eBay. He delegates eBay tasks to his team. Each has his own accountable tasks. Someone is in-charge for the shipping and another for the listing. He is in-charged for the hunting of new items to list. He hunts items from warehouses in Laredo. Laredo is the border town where the largest inland port in the US is. It is home to a lot of warehouses and distribution facilities. Owners need their warehouses empty so you can find deals in Laredo. He and his team run his eBay store for two years now. Ari handles more the issues with unhappy customers and returns. He also deals with the PayPal chargeback. All his eBay items have a 30-Day Hassle Free Return policy. If it is something that he cannot repair, he just takes the return and refunds the money. To Ari, Return and Refund is the easiest way to end the issue. You will have upset customers the longer you make it to not to give what they want. He does Free Shipping. He thinks that seeing an extra cost for shipping discourages people. eBay also wants everything fast and free. So, he integrates shipping into the price. The majority of his staff ships out under three tiers - First Class Mail, FedEx, and Priority Mail. Depending on the size of the item, he could give or take the shipping. Something small goes with the First Class Mail which has $2 to $4 on shipping added. Big items go with the Priority Mail which is anywhere from $10 to $20 and $40 to $50 for FedEx. Ari came across a rare red laser disc. He has 200 of those discs. He did not list them all at one time. He would test the market and the price first. Then, he would navigate for some years. He works Monday to Saturday. He offers one day or next day shipping. He gets stuff sorted out every Saturday so that everything is ready by Monday. The weirdest thing he ever sold on eBay is a trailer of blow up dogs. He did not think that it was something that he could list. He listed it on eBay and a guy from Africa bought them all. Right now, Ari is working on a book - Pre NAFTA Laredo. It is a study of the before and after of Laredo in relation to the NAFTA. Other than eBay, he is also into Real Estate and is busy with his travel trips. Advice, Tips, and Tricks Give the customers what they want. The longer you make it to not to give what they want, you will have upset customers. He uses variations of listings apps. One is CrazyLister. He also uses some tracking booster. The most important thing is the pictures so take good pictures. Show the condition that the items are in. Be true to what it is - No surprises! Don't give reasons for the buyers to be upset. Add items specifics in the listing details. That is how people search for your items. It is most important that you love what you sell. You have to have a passion for selling. Before he started delegating the tasks, he was doing it all by himself. Breaking yourself on eBay is a tough thing to do. Just be patient. There are scammers, but not everybody is out to scam you. Give out your best and the results will show. Delegate the tasks. Make sure that people are doing their job. Check on them, that is the way to do it! Quotes "eBay is a lot harder than the brick and mortar store." "You have to delegate to have a great success in your eBay business." "If you can buy it for a dollar and sold it for two, there's a profit right there!" "If you list it, it would sell!" "Starting off brand new is the hardest thing when you are on eBay. It is a tough start off." Contact Information eBay Store: wolfsbigbadgarage Facebook: wolfsbigbadgarage Sponsors Solutions4Ecommerce Norila Digital Marketing
Ari is an entrepreneur, selling on eBay since 2003. What started as a hobby in college, has become a full-time business selling vintage electronics and other discount items. He is a new father and enjoys the flexibility that e-commerce provides.
Interesting Notes