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Pair hops into online auction consignment business
By Rachel Pleasant
Staff Writer
In a modest, nothing special sort of strip center in North Charleston, Wally Czarnik and his daughter, Christine, are surrounded by things their customers don’t want anymore.
There is a stack of plastic-covered comic books, a table covered with Disney music boxes and various odds and ends dotting other surfaces, including the floor. While anyone else might scan these items and write them off as mere junk, clutter to be done away with, the Czarniks see cash.
Judging by the success of their latest business venture, The Auction Rabbit, so do their customers.
The Auction Rabbit, like similar eBay-based businesses popping up across the country, promises to photograph, market and sell items—be it dusty music boxes or out-of-tune guitars—relieving their customers, who might not have the time, equipment or knowledge to do it themselves.
The Auction Rabbit, an operation solely dedicated to selling on eBay.com, opened its doors just over a year ago at 2625-D Ashley Phosphate Road and has since serviced approximately 400 customers.
“That’s about what we expected,” says Wally Czarnik. “What we didn’t expect was the volume of stuff people would bring in. People bring in enormous collections or they inherit stuff or they’re downsizing.”
Online consignment shop
The Auction Rabbit began when Wally Czarnik read an article about online consignment shops being established in California. He immediately thought of Christine, an avid antiques collector who spends a lot of time buying and selling on eBay.
“I loved the idea, and the timing was right. We were coming up on the end of tax season,” says Christine Czarnik, who also runs Atlantic Tax Service right next door to The Auction Rabbit.
The pair started researching, reading eBay discussion boards and newsletters for ideas, and soon opened up shop in a vacated nail salon. Start-up costs totaled about $10,000.
“We had extra equipment from our other businesses,” says Wally Czarnik, who owns six Check Masters locations in the Charleston area. “I built the front counter, and we salvaged a table from the nail place that was here before.”
How it works
The process at The Auction Rabbit begins when a customer brings in an item to sell. The Czarniks assess the item and discuss with the customer whether it will sell and for how much.
“We look at eBay’s completed listing to give you an idea of how something is going to do,” says Christine Czarnik, who studied business administration at the College of Charleston.
From there, the Czarniks take pictures of the item, post photos and a detailed description online, field questions from potential buyers and handle packaging and shipping.
The Czarniks run a seven-day auction for all items.
“We want to make sure it’s on for a weekend because that’s when most people are shopping,” says Christine Czarnik.
If an item doesn’t sell in seven days, the customer can change the asking price or pull it off eBay, either at no cost.
For their services, the Czarniks charge a 25% commission on the first $500 of an item’s sale price, an additional 20% on the next $4,500 and 5% on anything more than $4,500.
Since setting up shop, the Czarniks have put together an impressive list of successful auctions.
A wooden turkey call sold for $1,700. A metal tool chest went for $2,000, and an amplifier garnered $800.
“There are people out there collecting everything,” says Wally Czarnik.
A ticket stub from the 1969 Super Bowl between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Jets merited nearly $600, much to the surprise of Gary Recker, the Mount Pleasant resident who owned the ticket stub before it was sold on eBay by the Czarniks.
“I’m an eBay neophyte. I needed help,” Recker says, adding he has a second stub from the same game he plans to auction once football season starts. “I had no idea how much it was worth. I was surprised and elated.”
Like all businesses, The Auction
Rabbit is closely tied to the economy. For now, there are people with $600 to spend on ticket stubs, but the Czarniks understand that may not always be the case. When things get tight, it will be the non-necessity spending that is cut first.
Additionally, the online consignment store concept is still a new one, and the Czarniks are guaranteed more competition in the future, which will be déjà vu for Wally Czarnik, who opened his check cashing service when there were “only two others” in the area.
The competition
The Auction Rabbit is one of a handful of trading assistants in the Charleston area, according to eBay, with most being individuals who may or may not keep regular hours or who specialize in a certain type of merchandise.
Large operations, however, are gaining a hold in the South Carolina market.
Auction Drop, a Fremont, Calif.-based company with 3,700 drop-off locations, offers its services through UPS stores in the Charleston area. ISold It of Pasadena, Calif., has 500 locations in the United States, with locations in Beaufort and Myrtle Beach coming soon.
One of The Auction Rabbit’s few existing competitors is The Treasure Hut, a jewelry, coin and collectibles store at 3620 Ashley Phosphate Road.
Treasure Hut owner Medford Chason says eBay transactions currently account for between 10% to 15% of his business. He finds that eBay only appeals to a fraction of his customers.
“Most people like to sell it outright. They don’t want to wait for the pictures to be taken and for an auction. But eBay is certainly an option, if someone isn’t in a hurry.”
The tradeoff for those who take their chances on eBay, Chason says, is often lower returns than they might have received elsewhere.
“Certain categories on eBay are overwhelmed,” he says.
Still, Chason predicts the future will be good for eBay businesses, and he expects he will expand his operations.
“It’s definitely growing. We’re looking at putting on another full-time person,” he says.
Rachel Pleasant covers retail issues for the Business Journal. E-mail her at rpleasant@crbj.com.
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