eBay Making It Easier To Monetize Bad Christmas Gifts

Ever gotten a Christmas gift that was well-intentioned but you just really wish someone gave you the cash?

Well, apparently, it’s happened to the folks at eBay a few times, as they have decided to embrace the spirit of the day after Christmas and make it easy for users to monetize their unwanted presents. On Dec. 26 and 27, anyone will be able to sell through eBay Valet without a commission fee. The service, since its 2015 summer launch, takes goods from consumers and handles the listing, pricing and selling on eBay.

The service normally has a 20–40 percent commission on sales, but for this Boxing weekend promotion, eBay is taking a pass in favor of getting the word out there. As always, if the product is a no-go, eBay will return it to the customer free of charge.

“For the past 20 years, our job has been to make selling online available to anyone,” said Vincent Payen, head of consumer selling at eBay. “It’s come a long way, but it’s still pretty intimidating. In our quest to make consumer selling easier, the valet program was the next logical step.”

“Having the mix of consumer sellers and business sellers is what makes eBay unique; that’s really the flywheel of this business,” he said.

Another bonus of the sellback program: Customers who do resell their gifts on eBay have a tendency to purchase those gifts’ replacements on eBay as well.

“[Consumer selling is] a differentiator, and strategically, it’s critical for us to have healthy consumer selling on top of business sellers,” Payen said. “There is an average $3,000 in everyone’s home that … people don’t even think about selling, so it’s a huge opportunity.”