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| avforsale (4088) Inventory Solutions, Inc. |
September 2003 |
Three years ago, Bob Buchanan had a dilemma. The audiovisual (AV) rental company he worked for had decided to move its central operations to the West Coast, and Buchanan, along with future partner Greg Scheuer, was tasked with shutting down a local warehouse.
"We were left with a 30,000-square-foot warehouse of used AV equipment that no one wanted," Buchanan recalls.
Enter eBay. It's safe to say that without eBay, Atlanta-based Inventory Solutions Inc. would not exist.
"We're one of the few companies where eBay was the genesis," says Buchanan. "If it wasn't for eBay we wouldn't be in business. We grew from the opportunity that eBay gave us."
With this influx of inventory, Buchanan and Scheuer began listing items on eBay. The response was staggering, says Buchanan-overwhelming enough, in fact, that the two launched their own business.
Today, Inventory Solutions, Inc. has seven full-time employees, maintains an inventory of 8,000 pieces, and generates gross sales of over $1 million annually. They maintain an inventory of over 8,000 pieces of AV equipment, including mixers, amplifiers, digital cassette recorders, microphones, road cases, lighting systems, effects processors, and more. Currently about 80 percent of the company's sales are due to eBay, while the remaining 20 percent comes directly from its own Web site.
Thanks to almost 20 years of experience in the AV field, Buchanan has developed a vast network of inventory sources, including rental companies, corporations, and private individuals. His customers are likewise diverse: churches, schools, clubs, bars, large corporations, and private individuals.
According to Buchanan, one of the myriad benefits of eBay is how the site allows him to determine and set market prices. He likes to tell the story of how he listed an "obscure piece of camera equipment" at $15. The bidding closed at $1,500.
"Without eBay that wouldn't have happened," says Buchanan. "The customer wouldn't have found that item, and we would have missed out on a great sale. eBay really is the enabler for a business like ours."
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Must use Buy It Now and PayPal.
