Scores of businesses have been altered by the presense of auction sites.
How does one handle the eBay effect? You can:
A) Bask in eBay’s afterglow.
B) Hide from the Nuclear Rays, or
C) Let your own soul glow…?
Our company, Vibrant Technologies, buys and sells quality used
servers, storage and networking hardware and we have observed the thick
of the eBay effect. We’ve mostly chosen not to go with option A in that
we don’t market very many products at auction. We also would be daft to
ignore the effect that eBay has had on the marketplace, so we aren’t
avoiding those nuclear rays, either.
Instead – you’ve got it – we’ve let our souls glow. No, I don’t
(necessarily) mean like Eriq LaSalle did in 1988's Coming to America. (I
admit it though, I did write this post primarily so I could include the
YouTube video.)
What I do mean is that we’ve chosen to stand out, and take
advantage of our strengths. We’ve realized that many of the basic
services surrounding our products are often missing when you go to buy
at auction, and we’ve built upon those.
1) Quality, tested and warranteed equipment.
Many items sold at auction are offered as-is without warranty – or DOA
warranty at best. Vibrant offers at least a 30-day warranty on our
equipment, so the client knows he is getting a quality product and that
he has plenty of time to install and test it.
2) Easy Payment Options.
For many people, PayPal or even Credit Cards aren’t good options –
especially on larger orders. We offer several payment methods; for
corporate clients and established resellers, we offer net terms and the
ability to send a PO as well.
3) Speedy Delivery.
Call us today and get it tomorrow. The process of buying something at
auction can take days (or weeks) depending on how responsive (or
unresponsive) the seller is.
4) Trust.
This has been our biggest trump card. We have successfully done business
since 1998 specializing in basically one thing, used IT hardware. We
have a great track record and the references to prove it.
Perhaps things will change again and we’ll explore models where we
work more with eBay, but for now, we think we have a valuable product /
service package to offer our clients. And it’s working well for us as we
continue to grow. (And glow).
(This was the final installment of our eBay article series.)