EBay Made Easier

Some shops, such as ezAuctioning and eSpot, are independently owned. Others, such as iSold It in Gaithersburg and Snappy Auctions in Alexandria, are franchises.

Mike Hadad left a lucrative career as a software marketing executive to open an iSold It in Gaithersburg 17 months ago ( http://www.i-soldit.com/) and is planning two more in Montgomery County.

"We are really in a disposable society. We kind of intersect a lot of life situations -- moving or downsizing," said Hadad, whose clients have jettisoned everything from "furniture, pool tables, a sofa" to stuffed wild boar heads, cemetery plots and football tickets.

To do well, "furniture has to be a brand," said Ellen Radigan, a former antiques dealer who owns Snappy Auctions in Alexandria ( http://www.snappyauctions.com/). "I can sell a Pottery Barn rug, a Heywood-Wakefield art deco bedroom set. If someone brings me a beautiful antique chest, unless they have very specific details, it won't bring much."

Some consignment shops decline to list sofas and other large pieces because buyers have to pay what can be considerable shipping costs; that added premium can mean no sale at all. Even when bulky items do sell, the shops aren't eager to grapple with packing them up. Other stores will take a chance on furniture (it usually stays in the seller's home), hoping it will be snapped up by a local buyer or someone willing to pay $100 or more for shipping.

Washingtonian Victor Kamber, president of the public relations and lobbying firm Carmen Group Communications, thought he'd never get rid of the upright piano that cost him $7,000 a decade ago. A classified ad brought no takers, and the music store he bought it from declined his consignment request.

"I had looked on eBay, but I am such a dinosaur," said Kamber, 62. "The process of listing something, if you're not really fluent, could be difficult."

One night while walking to dinner, Kamber noticed a sign for Capital Auction Experts ( http://www.capitalauctionexperts.com/), which is tucked in the rear of a MotoPhoto in Bethesda.

Shop co-owner Davis Kiyonaga made a house call, photographed the piano and posted a 10-day auction.

"The opening bid was $260, and my heart dropped," said Kamber, who had put a $3,000 reserve, or minimum price, on it. Happily for him, the final price was $4,700; his share was $3,900. The buyers sent a moving van to haul the piano to a Pennsylvania nursing home "so 80-year-old ladies could hear Christmas carols. That made me feel good."

Although shop owners tout their pricing expertise, they rely almost solely on eBay sales of similar items. Most pay no mind to retail stores, high-end live auctions, antiques shops or boutiques, telling sellers such prices are irrelevant to eBay bargain hunters.

Ken Lopez, who owns an Alexandria litigation consulting firm, was philosophical about the $400 Nikon camera he'd bought in 1986 and recently handed over to ezAuctioning.

"The last one to sell went for $91," shop co-owner Geremy Gersh told him, to which Lopez replied, "That will about cover a meal in a nice restaurant."

Timing can be crucial, store owners say.

Two days after former president Gerald R. Ford's service in the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 30, a couple brought Hadad 20 programs from the event. He posted them for 24 hours, five per day over four days. All sold, going for $30 to $130 each.

Alexandria commercial real estate agent Larry Grossman assumed Gersh would sell his mother's Wedgwood "Columbia Sage" china as one large lot.

But seeking to start a bidding war among collectors eager to snag the hard-to-find green pattern, Gersh posted just one place setting a week for 12 weeks. The first one brought $114; the last one, $272.

"I went to antique dealers, and they didn't want it. It costs money to store," Grossman said. "This is the greatest way just to get rid of things, exposing it to the largest market.

"Geremy takes his share, but that's all right. He lists it, and it's gone, it's gone, it's gone."