Ebay Made Easy: The Drop Spot Harnesses the Power of Internet Auctions

Dec. 1, 2004

Do you have a garage or basement full of stuff you’d like to sell, but it’s just too much hassle to list it on ebay and go through the rigamarole of shipping it out?
Relax, now your Internet auction dreams are as easy as hauling that antique lamp, old guitar or unused power tools down to The Drop Spot, a new eBay drop center in Traverse City.
“It’s a hassle-free way to sell your things on eBay with advertising to nine million users all over the world,” says Scott Bowie, 27, who’s partners with Steve Swaney, 26, at the new business located at the corner of Eighth and Franklin streets. The business is funded and co-owned by Scott’s father, Mark Bowie, who is also co-owner of Twin Bay Glass.

NATIONAL TREND
Mark got the idea for the Drop Spot after visiting his aunt in California and learning that his cousin was working in an eBay center in Palm Springs. “He brought the idea here to Traverse City and decided to give it a shot,” Scott says. “It’s a bricks & mortar ebay center and all of the big cities have one now.”
“Traverse City is the perfect place to have a place like this because of all of the antiques and collectibles in the area,” adds Swaney. He adds that women are big shoppers and traders on ebay and are a target market for the new Drop Spot.
Swaney and Scott know each other from playing sports during their elementary school days and graduated from TC Central High in ‘97 and ‘95, respectively. With a background in building and selling custom computers since 1999, Swaney was interested in launching an eBay drop center of his own. He brought his talents to the business after learning that the Bowie’s were opening The Drop Spot.
In case you’ve been living in a hole for the past five years and haven’t heard the news, eBay is the online website where millions of items are offered for auction around the world. You can buy or sell just about anything on the site. Recently, eBay was in the news with someone trying to sell a grilled cheese sandwich that’s said to be embedded with the image of the Virgin Mary -- it’s an almost anything goes auction in cyberspace.

PROBLEM SOLVED
The Drop Spot makes eBay auctioning easy. You drop off your item for sale and Swaney or Scott perform a search to determine how many similar items have been sold on eBay in the last 90 days and at what average price. They’re also aware of what time of day a specific item is likely to sell.
A digital photo is taken of your item, it’s listed on eBay, tracked, sold (hopefully), packaged and sent out. Once the purchase is confirmed via credit card, The Drop Spot sends out your check.
Ideally, the business would like customers to bring their items for sale into town. But for some items (such as a bulky antique stove), they’ll pick up in the five-county area around Traverse City.
Recent sales have included a wakeboard to a customer in Nevada, a rare set of books by Charles Dickens, car parts and custom machine tools. The partners expect to do a brisk trade with local businesses as well, as in the case of Northwestern Michigan College, which is liquidating some used kitchen equipment through The Drop Spot.
“It’s like a pawn shop, consignment store and antique dealer all in one,” Bowie says.
So what’s the cut? The Drop Spot takes a 35% commission on the first $200 of sales on your item; 30% on the next $300; and 20% of anything over $500. It works out to 26% commission on a $1,000 item. That’s less than similar eBay drop centers in other towns which get commissions of more than 35% on big sales.
Ultimately, The Drop Spot sells convenience. The partners expect to have some in-store items such as computers for sale, and also plan to offer a full-service packaging and shipping center. But convenience is at the heart of the business.
“People consider themselves lucky if they can find a friend to do this for them,” Bowie says of navigating eBay. “We make this easy and available. We are your friend in the basement, basically.”