2/14/2005 - Business Monday in the Burlington Free Press

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With $500 in start-up cash, Becker, 40, and partner Erik Holcomb, 27 – a former snowboard instructor – launched Global Garage Sale in December 2003, jumping into eBay’s $34 billion marketplace.

So far, their consignment shop to the world has exceeded their expectations. In one year, Global Garage Sale has sold items ranging from a 5,000-pound antique safe to whale oil lamps, shipping them all over the United States and to 40 countries.

“November was our best month yet,” Becker said. “Then December was our best month yet, and January is blowing away both of those.”

January sales broke $18,000, and February is on track to eclipse the previous month with a single sale in early February – a ’68 Camaro convertible sold for $18,000. Although monthly sales are only half of what Becker considers necessary to make a living, he’s pleased to have gotten so far in a little over a year.

There’s no limit to what the pair will sell, as long as it’s deemed worth more than $75.

John Rock, a regular customer from Montpelier, sold a wire sculpture of a harness racing horse that was destined for the trash heap.

“He got over $100 for it and we just about flipped out,” Rock said.

Power sellers

Helping people sell their stuff on eBay isn’t a new idea. More than 30,000 “trading assistants” are registered on the site, said Hani Durzy, spokesman at eBay headquarters in San Jose, Calif.

“It’s actually quite common. It’s been happening pretty much as long as eBay has been around,” Durzy said.

EBay provides a directory of trading assistants, but imposes no rules on how they should operate, he said.

Trading assistants help bring more goods to the Web site, which recorded $34 billion worth of goods sold in 2004. That works out to $1,100 a second, Durzy said.

Today, 15 eBay drop off sites in Vermont are listed on eBay’s trading assistant directory, six of them AuctionDrop sites, an eBay selling service that works through 3,700 UPS Stores across the country. But when Global Garage Sale started, only a few trading assistants were listed in Vermont, Becker said, and none of them were stores, like Global Garage Sale, with a physical presence in the state and run as a full-time business.

It’s not really the same, he said of the other trading assistants. They are not people who do it full time. These are people who eBay in their spare time and are willing to help you out.

One man’s trash

Global Garage Sale is set up in a drafty mill building with exposed bricks and high ceilings. A washer and dryer alongside a utility sink are the only signs of Becker’s former use for the space as a tie-dye operation that counted Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. and Vermont Teddy Bear among its clients.

The new operation has spilled throughout the warehouse space like a garage sale on steroids.

Becker and Holcomb’s office is a laptop computer on a desk planted in the midst of shelves and shelves of everything imaginable: a wedding dress, a pair of antique Dutch dolls with hand-carved clogs, guitars, china and all manner of figurines.

Behind the desk is a fabric-draped box where items are photographed.

Becker and Holcomb’s job is part sleuth, part salesmanship. Selling involves first determining a selling price. Most of their research is done by comparing sales of similar items on the online auction site.

The pair photograph items, often from several angles, write descriptions, and handle e-mail inquiries from prospective bidders. When an item sells, it’s packaged and shipped off in a recycled cardboard box.

“We take the hassle out of selling on eBay,” Becker said. “They just drop it off and wait for a check.”

For their services, Becker and Holcomb charge a commission on each sale, ranging from 25 to 35 percent based on the sale price, with a minimum commission of $20. As the sale price goes up, the commission rate goes down.

Rock, who has sold about 50 items through Global Garage Sale, is one of Becker and Holcomb’s frequent customers. Rock said he is happy to let Becker and Holcomb do the legwork and handle the hassles of answering e-mail inquiries and packaging items for shipping.

Even paying the commission, many of Rock’s sales have exceeded his expectations. He never expected to get over $700 for a Currier and Ives print, for example.

“We’ve gotten checks – one month was for $1,200 – and it’s stuff we’ll never miss,” Rock said.


By Leslie Wright - Free Press Staff Writer

Global Garage Sale
94 West Canl St. #4
Winooski, VT 05404
802-655-4443