Instead of exchanging gifts for the holidays this year, Karen Soenen and her husband purchased a new kitchen table.
“Our kitchen really needs a round table, so we ordered it for Christmas,” Soenen said.
Which means that the Burr Ridge resident now has two kitchen tables. What to do with the old pine rectangular one?
Soenen decided to sell it on eBay.
But she didn’t want to do any of the sometimes complicated steps involved with actually placing the listing onto the auction site herself.
She turned to a La Grange-based Web site called Receller Inc. (www.receller.com), which developed the listing based on a digital picture of her old table that Soenen e-mailed from a camera phone.
“Receller is a service that allows people to sell on the eBay marketplace by e-mailing us a picture of their item,” said co-founder John Plummer.
While her kitchen table is active until Sunday night (go to eBay.com and search for auction number 4428203587 if you’re interested or want to see an example of a Receller listing), Soenen has sold several items on eBay by doing little more than snapping a picture with her phone.
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Recently, she sold a Coach purse through Receller.
The process works like this:
“I took the picture, e-mailed it to them, and they called me the same day,” Soenen said.
Receller uses 25 full-time “listing coaches” to research your product and call you to get the item’s details.
“Oh, my gosh,” gushed Soenen. “You would think this person worked for Coach. They knew a lot about the purse when they called. They knew what model it was, and they asked questions about what kind of condition it’s in, how old is it, how much have you used it, and if there are any visible marks or scratches on it.”
The “listing coaches are certified eBay consultants,” said Receller co-founder Bud Bach. “They get specifications, select keywords and categories and assist you in listing your item on eBay.”
Receller uses proprietary data from eBay that helps determine the best time for your auction to end, which category it should be placed in and the appropriate keywords to use.
Then Receller writes the description and posts the auction.
“I didn’t even follow the auction,” Soenen said.
“I just forgot about it, and then I got the e-mail that it was sold.”
How much does it cost to use Receller?
About $10 for your first listing and $7 for your next four.
If you have more than five listings at once, the pricing begins again at $10.
The company has been around since May 2004 but the service launched in November.
“We’ve done close to 2,000 auctions since late November,” said Plummer. “As this catches on, it’s going to be thousands of listings per week, and eventually per day. There are 60 million eBay buyers and 2 million sellers.”
Soenen thinks the service is a great way to “return” unwanted gifts, too.
“Especially if you work a 9-to-5 job,” she said.
“I highly recommend it, because you’re not going to want to get home from work and list your items. [With Receller] you can list them from work over your lunch break.”
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