Stop Drop Auction sells it for you on eBay

Got a few odds and ends you'd like to sell on eBay, but don't have a clue where to start? Talk to Joe Horn.

Horn is the founder and president of Stop Drop Auction, a Reno-based start up that provides a soup-to-nuts service for selling items on the $24 billion online marketplace.

Horn works with people who want to sell everything from stereo equipment to railroad pocket watches on eBay.

He works with both individuals and businesses, from antique shops that use eBay for their core business to companies that want to get rid of used equipment or furniture or overstock.

In fact, Horn sees a huge opportunity in selling overstock items for businesses that usually go through a chain of middlemen that each take a hefty cut of the profits.

Here's how Stop Drop Auction works: Say a small business has some flat screen monitors that it no longer needs.

Horn researches similar items on eBay, determines pricing and does all the work to sell the computer monitors on eBay, including writing promotional material and taking digital photos, placing the auction and acting as the online agent, working with eBay and, finally, packaging and shipping the items to the auction's winner.

Horn only works with items priced $35 or more, or a volume of lower priced products.

His cut starts at $14.99 for simple transactions, but generally ranges from 20 percent to 35 percent of the sold items.

He says it's worth it.

"In the beginning, there wasn't as much competition on eBay.

Now, it's hitting the mainstream.

You have to get above the radar on it."

To do that, says Horn, sellers have to understand what they have to sell, know how to sell it through the online description and present it effectively through digital photos - all part of Horn's service.

"If you don't describe it correctly no one will find it.

And if [buyers] feel they have to take chance, they're not going to bid as high." And Stop Drop Auction is a power seller, eBay parlance for a high-volume seller.

In March, the company sold 125 items for a total of $22,000.

That gets him attention from both eBay and buyers.

"I got a call from eBay the other day and they said they wanted to work with me to build the business," he said.

And Horn's meticulous about working with buyers, delivering on all his promises, so that he has plenty of good feedback on eBay, which is what buyers use to judge whether to do business with a seller.

Horn works out of his home now, but he plans to soon open what he hopes will be the first of a chain of Stop Drop Auction stores.

"I believe in five years there will be this type of store in every city," said Horn.

"It will be like mailer stores.

One day there were none, then 15 and then just four."

Horn already has competition.

AuctionDrop Inc., a franchise business launched in March 2003, has five stores in northern California and, according to Horn, plans to open a slew more in Los Angeles.

And there is QuikDrop International, another franchise business based in Carson City that has opened stores in southern California,Texas, South Carolina, Alabama and Virginia.

To get a toehold in the market, Horn decided to move to Reno to start his business.

(He also wanted to court a woman - now his girlfriend - that he'd met here.) He moved from the Bay Area, where he'd been part of a highly successful dotcom called rent.com.

He was the startup's seventh employee in 1996, and seven years later the company was sold to Cedant Corp., a real estate giant, for $200 million.

Now, he's hoping to do the same for Stop Drop Auction.

He and a silent partner have funded the business so far, but Horn hopes to attract some venture capital once he starts opening stores.

"The long term goal," says Horn, "is to open a chain of West Coast stores."