As the world of DIY online commerce continues to expand, so too does the range of services that facilitate it.
One of the latest entrants into the field is Sell It Easy, a San Francisco-based startup that — unlike established players like eBay and Craigslist, which require the sellers of items to be hands-on in the process — manages the pricing, Web posting and shipping (to buyers) for its sellers.
As TechCrunch notes, eBay’s Sell For Me service (AKA eBay Valet) will perform similar tasks on behalf of its users, as well … but the differentiator of Sell It Easy is that it — in San Fransisco, anyway — will pick up items from its sellers, removing the need for them to even package the goods they’ve sold.
Sell It Easy Cofounder Ben Rahnema (the other is Craig Brott) — who reportedly started his first eBay business when he was “12 or 13 years old” — told TechCrunch that a difficult experience he had trying to sell an item on that site (as problems with buyers required him to relist it several times) actually inspired the idea for his new venture.
“If you’re spending that much time trying to sell things now — and on eBay and Craigslist you have to deal with scams and flaky buyers — you’re way better off having someone else handle that for you, especially when it can be streamlined and low-cost,” he remarked to the outlet.
As the TechCrunch story also notes, Sell It Easy — which supports eBay, Craigslist and Etsy, as well as smaller local marketplaces — is currently available as a Web app, though an iOS application is in the works. While the pickup service is only currently available in San Francisco, the startup has designs on New York as its next stop in that regard.
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