sergiojg (850)     

Virginia from Argentina Now Established In Florida
"Virginia is my mother's name," explains Sergio Gonzalez of Virginia Antiques, explaining the apparent contradiction since the company is located in Florida. "My father started this business 45 years ago in Argentina. We started on eBay six years ago, when eBay was small, and we have sold a lot in that time. There are a lot more dealers now."

Sergio actually began selling stamps on eBay. It did so well that he decided to try to the family business on eBay. The antiques, too, sold well. Now there are six people on staff and an average month nets about $50-60K in revenue. "For me, the holiday season is about the same as the rest of the year. People don't buy a lot more antiques for Christmas. But summer was very good this year," notes Sergio," and usually summer is not the best season."

Only on eBay!
"It takes me 45 seconds to list an item," notes Sergio. "I use Featured Plus! on some items. It brings more people: they see the items and they go to my Store. Usually, I have 25-30,000 people visit my eBay Store every month. In my store in Florida, we usually have 15 people visit each month," laughs Sergio. "It's easy on eBay to get a lot of people to see your furniture."

Sergio's store listings are in Buy It Now format, of course, and the rest are in auction format. "People like to play with listings," Sergio feels. "They like to bid and raise. You hook people with your auction-style listings, and then they go to your Store."

Sergio has multiple eBay userIDs. As Virginia-Key he is also a PowerSeller of baby clothes. Keeping separate Stores helps him organize his business and attract more clients. He also takes advantage of the added visibility and tools of a Featured Store as opposed to a basic subscription.

Parting Thoughts
"The only way you can sell a lot is if you list a lot," Sergio states. "We work on eBay 24 hours a day. To sell on eBay you need time. When you are new or have a new account, you need to stick with it until people know you. It's the same with offline businesses: you need two or three years to make loyal customers. Every day, people come back to our listings who bought three or four years ago from us. If people are happy with the item, they call us again. It takes time to build that kind of loyalty."

Share your experiences with other eBay sellers! Submit testimonials and story ideas to inthefield@ebay.com and include "In the Field" in the subject line. (Idea submissions are non-proprietary and non-confidential. eBay assumes no obligation with respect to such submissions.)

Read other tips specific to antiques sellers under Seller's Edge.