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eBay's Valet app will sell your junk for a 30% cut
That dusty old iPod on your nightstand hasn't been used in ages, but it's still probably worth some cash. But who can take the time to manage an eBay listing? Taking photos, answering any questions that pop up, and then shipping the loot to your buyer can be a stressful experience (not really, but work with me here). eBay wants to help you sell your outdated junk with the help of its new iOS app, eBay Valet. Here's how it works: You get an estimate of your item's value from the app. eBay sends you a box and a prepaid shipping label and you send your stuff out into the wild blue. eBay's "valet" workers take care of prettying up your item, snapping photos, and listing it on the site. When your item sells, you get 70% of the sale price, and eBay keeps its 30% cut. Selling stuff on eBay isn't actually all that complicated, but the service seems like a solid option for anyone who simply can't be bothered to poke around on the site and learn its ins and outs. The 30% cut seems reasonable, especially considering you're not paying to ship the item or do any of the legwork, and any complaints are handled directly by eBay. The app just launched, but eBay has been running its "Sell For Me" service for a while now, so the company definitely has experience getting its clients the most money for whatever junk they have lying around the house. [via TechCrunch]
eBay Valet sells your stuff for you, for a (steep) price
eBay has offered Sell for Me, a service does most of the heavy lifting for you, for sometime. But, it hasn't been widely used. The company seems to think its lack of success might be a combination of poor branding and inconvenience (Sell for Me is only accessible from the desktop site). So today it got a new name and a mobile app, eBay Valet, that lets iPhone users sell their stuff without lifting a finger. (Ok, not literally, since you'll have to lift a finger to operate the app... but you get the idea.) Basically you snap a few photos of whatever it is you want to sell. A representative will give you an estimate of its worth, and if you're still interested, the company will send you a box with a pre-paid shipping label. The eBay will take some pro-quality snaps of your goods, create a listing, send you a notification when it goes live and ship it to the winner when everything is over. Or return the item to you if it fails to sell. For its trouble eBay will take a 30 percent cut of the sale price, however. It's not ideal if you're actually looking to make money, but it sounds like a godsend for the lazy among us just looking to ditch some clutter.
