eBay business introduces seniors to online auction, new revenue source
11:22 a.m. Monday, August 11, 2008
Lawrence — Sean Passmore was hooked on eBay after his first profit-making exploit.
"I was walking around my neighborhood and someone had set out, on top of the trash can with a note that said "take it if you want it." It was a broken laptop computer," Passmore said. "Looked like they had busted it up pretty bad, and I took it, thinking I'd just have some fun with it -- maybe shoot a video smashing it or something. But, I ended up putting it up on eBay and I said it's broken, I don't have cords for it, this is what it looks like, and thought that I'd get $20 for it and ended up selling for $320."
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Now, as owner of Bling eBay Drop-Off store in Downtown Lawrence, Sean helps people who don't have the time, ability or experience to market their cast-offs online.
"Some people don't have a computer," he said. "Some people have a computer, but about as much as they can do is check their e-mail and read news."
Frequently, those same people -- Baby Boomers and older folks -- will have attics full of hot collectibles that bring the big bucks in online auctions.
"A girl brought me this TV lamp that looked like a black panther, that you would sit on top of your TV back in the '50s, and it had a light bulb on the back of it," Passmore said. "Listed it up on eBay, and there's actually a group of collectors that crazy about TV lamps, and this particular one was a very rare model of that type of TV lamp and it ended up selling for like $240."
But before you get too excited, remember there are some collectibles that, well, just aren't.
"Like those Franklin Mint collectible plates. You know, they used to have the commercial saying they're guaranteed to go up in value," he said. "They've -- not so much. They go for about $2 to $3 each now."
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