After the devastating Asian Tsunami on Decemver 26, 2004, many North Americans contributed to rescue organizations. Among the donors were Rasha, an elephant at the Fort Worth Zoo, and Tracy May's eBay Trading Post. Rasha's painting, created at the zoo and sold through EzBayer Fort Worth for a winning bid of $7,000 that was donated to the American Red Cross International Response Fund. 

"It made CNN Headline News," recalls Tracy. "After that, the Calgary Zoo also sold an elephant painting for disaster relief. Running your own business lets you do things like that. In a corporation, you don't get to make a lot of decisions about what causes you can support. Since we're a small business, we have a lot of leeway to do what we want, and customers appreciate that. We can refund money, work with clients individually, and support the local community."

Indeed, sales through EzBayer Fort Worth have generated revenue for multiple charities, and contributions are in cash or in kind. "We work with Open Arms, a shelter for women and children. We donate many of the things we can't sell on eBay to them. We have also completed successful eBay fundraisers for several other local charities." 

As a Trading Post, EzBayer Fort Worth welcomes items from the community at a physical retail store. Having been in business for a while, the team can usually tell when something will be worth selling on eBay or reselling on site. Some items that they can't resell, EzBayer accepts as donations and passes along to Open Arms. "The donor gets a tax write-off, so it's a win-win situation," Tracy points out. 

Keys to Success
Whether it's good karma, an excellent physical location with ample traffic, or a combination of good business practices, EzBayer Fort Worth is certainly doing well. A team of three people, led by store manager Ryan Bear, manages the physical store and all EzBayer listings on eBay. "We've been working like crazy," Tracy laughs.

"One of the greatest things about the store is the fact that you never know what's going to come in next," Ryan adds. "We've worked with a huge variety of items, from Salvador Dali sculptures to Harley Davidson motorcycle gear, and everything in between."

A lot of the store's success comes from knowing what to look for and where to place it. "Anything with a brand name has a clear value on eBay. Unmarked or unbranded items, even vintage items, usually do better in our store; if things aren't a good fit for eBay, we sell them here. We get about ten calls a day from people asking for information, and we can usually give them a good idea whether what they have is a good fit for us. If not, we refer them to others who might help."

Tracy calls this the "Miracle on 34th Street Principle." In that movie, a big-hearted Macy's Santa refers kids to other stores when Macy's doesn't have what they really want. "If we can't help you," says Tracy, "we'll send you to someone who can, maybe a consignment store or somewhere to donate the item. We keep a close-knit group of contacts. It's about helping people and making sure that we have a network of people we can rely on."

Best Practices
"We are registered Trading Assistants, as well as a Trading Post," says Tracy. "As a drop-off center, we have to maintain PowerSeller  status and a high feedback rating."

"We use third-party software  called Liberty4 Trading Assistants. We think it's the best thing out there. When you're taking consignments, you have to keep everything straight--which item is whose, when you got it, when it sold, what it sold for--and Liberty is the most comprehensive tool we've found."

Tracy also makes strategic use of her eBay Store, putting items in Inventory that haven't sold in auction format. "We use Gallery on everything and Subtitle when we can't fit all the information into the title. We also use Border, Bold, and Highlight  on occasion.

ezBayer Fort Worth accepts  PayPal and uses the eBay Community Boards  to get information at times. "If people have had the same problem that you're having, there is probably a discussion about it. It's a good source for finding solutions," Tracy says.

Other than that, Tracy's selling strategy is just basic good business: "Be honest and specific. Take good photos and be as fair with your buyers as you can be."