eBay

When I worked at Nordstrom, there was an eager and bright professional who worked for one of the catalog co-ops. In modern terms, she'd be called a "Thought Leader". She always had ideas, and she always insinuated that my team and I were ... not smart ... let's leave it at that.

After an hour where she continued to suggest that she was smart and we were just dumb retail employees, I asked her a question.

Kevin:  "Have you ever worked in retail? Brick 'n Mortar?"

Co-Op Professional:  "No"

Kevin:  "Then how could you possibly know how to navigate more than ten thousand employees to get your ideas implemented, and how could you possibly know the intricacies of retail to know if your ideas will actually work or not?"

Yes, there was silence.

From there, I'd use the query often with angry thought leaders who had all the ideas but none of the experience to know if their ideas mattered.

This brings me to eBay.

You already know I enjoy headphones, both open-backed headphones and iems. I've maintained a limit ... six in my collection. When I get to seven, one has to go. I sell the seventh pair on eBay.

eBay is a fabulous place to learn about copywriting, imagery, pricing, and customer service. On eBay, I have a competitor ... as best I can tell when somebody returns a Truthear Nova to Amazon or another brand, that brand sends the returned unit to this guy, who then sells it as an "open box" item on eBay. I've bought a couple of headphones from this guy.

So this guy "sets the market". Maybe the Truthear Nova sells new for $159. If he's selling an open-box version for $95, that's it, that's the ceiling of the market. I've tested selling above his price ... crickets. I've tested selling below his price, and it has to be 20% below ... you list 10% below to 20% below. If you price 20% below you charge shipping. If you price 10% below you absolutely need to offer free shipping.

I take pictures of the headphone or iem, of all of the tips, the box it came in, possibly the new headphone cable that I put on the iem that the buyer will get for free (to set the item apart from other units with stock cables). Pictures matter. They matter more than keywords matter, that's what I've learned.

Good reviews matter. How do I get a good review?

• I put a handwritten note in most outgoing packages.
• I sometimes offer headphone amp recommendations so the user knows what to buy next.
• In the case of the iPad I recently sold, I put a series of connectors (and an Apple Pen) in the box that didn't need to be sent to the buyer. I later learned that a woman bought the iPad for her Dad, and he liked having the bonus items to get started.

The handwritten notes ... that little touch, that matters. I'll tell a story of how I used the item and what I liked about it.

My stuff sells, quickly, usually within a day, normally in 3-5 days. I don't have to pay to have my items promoted.

If you are a service provider (and up to a third of you reading this are) and you want a taste of what your clients go through, and you don't have any direct e-commerce and/or retail experience, sell things on eBay (or Facebook Marketplace). You've got things lying around the house, unloved things ... sell them and test your ideas about pricing, creative, copy, and customer service. You are guaranteed to learn something new and interesting!