With the disclaimer that ebay is an advertiser, take a look at this story in Oct. CE Pro. There's a lot of opportunity online; you just have to work at using it to your advantage.
-jj

Client Upgrades? Make Money from Used Gear
eBay touts online auction as effective tool for offloading trade-ins and outdated merchandise

by Julie Jacobson

eBay wants to be your friend. So much so, that the online auction behemoth is hanging out a giant shingle at the forthcoming Electronic House Expo, Nov. 15-18 in Long Beach, Calif.

As a gold sponsor of the event, eBay will be everywhere, especially in the huge lounge they’ve reserved simply to introduce themselves to skeptical attendees. “Our message is going to be: ‘Come on in and learn how we can be one of your best business partners.’” says Karl Wiley, director of consumer electronics for eBay.

Wiley has seen many A/V retailers thrive on eBay, and he believes the online vehicle can work for specialty retailers and integrators as well.

“Technology changes so rapidly that products can become obsolete while they’re still in the dealers’ inventory. Similarly, consumers are always wanting to swap yesterday’s surround sound receiver with the latest and greatest. Where does all that perfectly usable product go?” Wiley asks.

Often it goes to friends and family of the integrator. “Sometimes we offer it at extreme discounts to our clients or give it to employees,” says Tom Callahan of Sawyers Control Systems, Frenchtown, N.J. “Some of our vendors are very much against putting their products on eBay. We wouldn’t want to jeopardize our relationships to make a few bucks.”

Then there’s Engineered Environments (EE), an integration company in Oakland, Calif. They might sell 100 products on eBay this year. “Usually it’s equipment we take out of homes because we’re upgrading their system,” says EE’s Greg Jensen. “Seventy percent of the time the client just gives it to us so they can get rid of it.”
And naturally, when a client’s home is sold, there’s another opportunity to rip out (rather, delicately extricate) old products and replace them with newer goods for the proud homeowners.

He admits, though, “the warehouse guys absolutely hate it when we come back with stuff.”

EE has the most success selling integration products such as those from Crestron and AMX. “There are a lot of integrators or do-it-yourselfers that won’t spend $5,000 for a new touchscreen, but they may pay $500 for a four-year-old touchscreen.”
EE also uses eBay to offload discontinued items that can’t be sold to clients.
Don’t their vendors care? Most of them don’t, says Jensen, but naturally EE refrains from auctioning products from manufacturers who object.

Some manufacturers with great reputations among custom integrators have set up eBay stores themselves. Harman International, an eBay success story, is happy to promote its online presence. Herman Sperling, group vice president of marketing for Harman Consumer Group, says, "Since we have this [online] vehicle, we can release new product as planned to meet market requirements. We have found that selling the older products ourselves frees our dealers to promote the newer lines."

In addition, says Sperling, “We find this approach is preferable to traditional practices that might include offloading to liquidators that generally sell to unauthorized dealers, who may try to sell distressed product as new or in other ways confuse the market and demean the value of the brand . … Our approach, on the other hand, allows us to protect our distribution, represent products honestly, and ultimately bring more value to our authorized dealers.”

Furthermore, Sperling explains, because of the direct customer contact that Harman enjoys through eBay, "We have a great market research opportunity. We know exactly what the marketplace is saying about our products. This is valuable information we offer to our retailers."

It’s simple enough for anyone to hop on eBay and sell (or buy) products. There are, however, many tricks of the trade, like how to price products, what to charge for shipping, and whether or not to set up an eBay store.

For this reason, eBay has set up Seller OnRamp, a new program to help potentially active sellers make the best use of their online efforts. “If you’ve either struggled with eBay or if you’ve never tried and don’t know how to get started, OnRamp is a great way to go, says Wiley”

Through the OnRamp program, participants speak to specially trained eBay representatives via a toll-free phone number, receiving one-on-one guidance for up to eight hours. eBay will promote this service during EHX (www.ehx2004.com). In addition the company will sponsor a keynote panel discussion featuring integrators and manufacturers who have used online auctions to buy and sell CE Pro-related gear. The panel discussion, free of charge for EHX registrants, is Wed., Nov. 17, 9 a.m.-10 a.m.