US eBay drop-off store expands to UK and Ireland
Howard Lake | 7 January 2006 | News
iSold It, the US eBay drop-off chain which started off as a charity fundraising venture, has begun opening stores in Europe and should have over 200 locations in the UK and Ireland by 2010.
iSold It’s first store in Ireland opened in Dublin in November 2005, and the first UK store will open in the Birmingham area in the spring of 2006.
Drop-off stores for eBay allow individuals, businesses and charities to sell items easily on eBay. The store photographs the item, uploads details to eBay, and handles the transaction, taking a percentage of each sale achieved.
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Existing suppliers in the UK such as Auctioning4u are already helping charities fundraise in this way.
The concept for iSold It was created by Elise Wetzel as she was helping to fundraise for a new playground at her children’s school. Elise recognised that auctioning donated items on eBay could be a powerful fundraising tool, especially if there were a service that helped make it easy.
iSold It works on a franchise basis and currently has 600 stores under contract.
“We are thrilled by the items coming through the door,” said Ireland’s master franchisee William Bodenham. “eBay has always been hugely popular in Ireland, and folks here are delighted to finally have a way to sell through this great online marketplace.”
The U.K.’s master franchisee is entrepreneur Phillip Molloy.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.