EBay Valet

[mootothemax]

New or like-new designer shoes and handbags: Brands like Hugo Boss, Gucci, Nine West, Ralph Lauren

I wonder if eBay are potentially setting themselves up for a massive headache with this.

There is a quite staggering number of people who falsely believe that their counterfeit designer items are genuine.

[beambot]

FWIW... this is exactly why we launched Lollipuff (YC W13): https://www.lollipuff.com/

eBay is notoriously plagued with fakes. For some designer brands, fakes can account for 75% (or more) of the items sold [1,2].

The key for Lollipuff: We have brand experts authenticate each and every item -- ie. real, human experts augmented with sophisticated software to make things scalable. We like to think of it as "eBay without the fakes", or if you prefer "Palantir for designer goods" (software-augmented humans).

[1] https://www.lollipuff.com/blog/41/ebays-counterfeit-epidemic...

[2] https://www.lollipuff.com/blog/123/ebays-counterfeit-epidemi...

[pling]

Rather more worrying, perhaps that eBay won't be able to tell the difference between a genuine and counterfeit item and end buyers will end up being screwed by the protection policies in place because "they obviously verified the item themselves". If you've ever fought a dispute with eBay, it's a battle that leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.

However, I don't have a problem with eBay as a third party as the benefit of the larger market and capital gain versus the risk pays off[1], but when it comes to being the middleman as well, the buyer and the seller have a lot more to lose.

[1] There are always chancers, fraudsters and complete muppets (idiots).

[anigbrowl]

You get 70% of the sale price if your things sell.

30% commission, and the valet's incentives are for a quick sale rather than the best price, if the behavior of existing bulk listers is anything to go by. These people are usually not especially knowledgeable about the items they sell and so have a poor grasp of pricing - often good for me as informed buyer, but a real pain in the ass for sellers.

[roel_v]

The alternative is 'throw out not completely useless stuff because I can't be arsed to sell it'. It's win win the way I see it, I'd dump half a truck of stuff on their dock if they'd offer this in Europe.

[isomorphic]

You can't set your own price, and you only get a two-week run. On the other hand, you don't have to deal with the cesspool that is being a seller on eBay.

I wonder how eBay will deal with the "yes, please iPad to vacant lot near warehouse Miami" folks, other than immediately transferring buyer's funds without the possibility for reversal. If they did that for ordinary sellers, I'd quite happily ship my iPad to the sketchy address and go on my merry way.

[sjtrny]

40 year old virgin did it first https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEHD6jHXt58

[sinzone]

FOBO (YC2011) has a similar model and it takes only a 15% fee. http://www.fobo.net/

[zengr]

Unfortunately its only in SF and you can just list Electronics.

[jakozaur]

Isn't amazon already doing something similar with "warehouse deals" and "fullified by Amazon?

[awjr]

FBA is seller's stock distributed by Amazon with the same levels of commission. They just charge for storage and handling of the item at warehouse.

[aaronbrethorst]

Warehouse is all Amazon returns, AFAIK. But you can do used sales off of the main purchase page, and mail in your stuff to have it Fulfilled by Amazon. I've been looking into this quite a bit lately since I have about $7,000 of Canon gear to sell off.

I think I'll stick with Amazon. Ebay's 30% seems ridiculously steep.

[rahimnathwani]

Amazon has a trade-in store: http://www.amazon.com/Trade-In/b?node=2242532011

[ghobs91]

30% commission on top of lower than market pricing in order to sell quickly. Sounds like a steep price to pay for some added convenience that should be part of the experience from the start.

On top of that, like others have said, it's not far fetched for eBay to give Valet listings higher priority in search results, due to their higher profit margins. Punishing users for wanting a streamlined experience, not cool.

I've been dealing with these pain points as both a buyer and seller for over 10 years, and I'm willing to bet I'm not alone here. I'm currently building a p2p marketplace app, and plan to enlist the features of startups like Shyp to make it an all around awesome experience. If anyone has input, feature requests, or would even like to join me, let me know, I'm all ears :)

[dendory]

I think the most likely outcome of this is valet items being given preferential treatment on eBay. Just wait until your items are a tiny spot at the bottom while the valet items take the main spots, and that 30% commission will be the least of your issues.

[pling]

You mean like auctions are now? eBay is just a storefront now.

I do pretty well (£600+ a month) out of just buying items in auctions which are rather well hidden then selling them via the storefront/buy it now process.

[ekianjo]

Seems like the Appstore 30% fee model is becoming standard everywhere now. That's not a very positive thing...

[vijayaggarwal]

Will it not create conflict of interests? On one side, eBay should make their listing and selling processes as easy as possible for individuals, and on the other side keeping them somewhat difficult will promote Valet service.

[jychang]

It would not be a conflict of interest if the Valet service does not generate more profit per sale after everything is factored in.

[azernik]

I've seen quite a few local businesses in the LA area that do this already; maybe eBay can do it better, but they won't get to eat the entire market by just showing up.

[dsplatonov]

"If you send in something that valets can't sell, there's a return fee to have it sent back to you." Not very good for me if i send a big amount of items

[DigitalSea]

This is not going to end well for eBay, I can see it now. Some fake items are surprisingly good, you'll be reading stories of people being ripped off because valets were told they were given designer brand items only for them to be discovered as fakes later on. Somewhat cool idea I will admit, but when you're dealing with e-commerce and allowing users to get other people to sell their items, it'll open up a rather complex wound.

[easytiger]

Isn't this just a rebranding of something that already existed? This service has existed for a long time.

[amalag]

Not only that but they are simply doing it with pre-paid shipping boxes. People are just going to send them junk.

[kidlogic]

the Gone! app does this for you, but it's even easier and you don't have to ship anything out (they'll supply and even pick up the boxes for you).

definitely worth a try, but eBay Valet is interesting: http://thegoneapp.com/

[Waevian]

Like some people mentioned already, I mostly worried about the pricing of items. Looks like to me like they will poorly judge value of items.

Overall, this is not the worst idea eBay had so far, I would love to see how this plays out.

[davedx]

Goes to show how seller-hostile EBay is if they need to provide a service like this.

Imagine if you needed to provide a "valet service" for your SaaS. Wouldn't that say something about your UX?

[awendt]

This has nothing to do with UX. Yes, eBay has a terrible UX but some people have stuff to sell and no time on their hands.

Does Instamotor exist because of the terrible UX of car dealerships?

[sirdogealot]

I remember ebay consignment stores that existed locally years ago. They took on the order of 50-60% of the total sale price.

It was a horrible deal, and every single one I knew of is now closed for business.

[alaskamiller]

One of ebay's Cottage industry got absorbed into the mothership. I wonder if they made consideration for consolidating all the various auction listing businesses across the country.

[machbio]

hardly any innovative things come out of ebay, nice to see something new... can other sellers become valet ? or is it the ebay itself serving as valet ?

[zengr]

"How do I become a valet? Valets are carefully screened for inclusion in the program. Requirements include, but are not limited to: (1) ability to list 100,000 listings each month, (2) storage capacity sufficient to hold and manage items received for at least 21 calendar days, (3) ability to list items across all eBay categories, (4) physical presence in all major metropolitan hubs in the U.S. and (5) demonstrated ability to reach Top Rated Seller status on eBay within 90 days of starting valet services. "

http://pages.ebay.com/sellforme/faq.html

[Thirsty]

Some of the valet-service users will become regulars sellers. Some people who would never use ebay might become users because of this.

[uptown]

"Valets accept like-new items worth $40 or more"

So are they committing to getting you at least $40 on what you're selling?

[resurge]

70% of that, no? So $28.

    You get 70% of the sale price if your things sell.