For nearly two years, Steven Hoyland, who owns six pawnshops including Easy Cash Pawn in Galveston, has used eBay as a way to increase his business.
“I’m doing real well,” he said. “It keeps getting bigger and better.”
Use of the Internet is “a growing fad” among pawnbrokers, said Dave Springett of the Texas Association of Pawnbrokers in Irving.
Web sites like eBay open up the market, he said. More people can be reached through the Internet than at a single pawnshop.
“The practice of using eBay is certainly not a profitable one,” Springett said. “What it does do is help free up space in a store’s inventory. If (merchandise is) on the shelves for longer than a year, that’s not good.”
Hoyland said he has not only used eBay to sell some of his back stock but also to sell specialty or collector items. These items — high-end tools, musical instruments or camera equipment — may sit in his store for months, but on the Internet they can sell sooner.
These are items that collectors may be searching for, he said.
He said he can also make more money on an item sold on the Internet than at his store.
The Internet is usually not a good place to sell jewelry, Springett said, because people usually want to inspect its color and condition in person.
Using eBay can also be time-consuming, he said.
People who use the Web site to sell merchandise must enter a description of the item, information on its condition and upload a photograph. Then the seller has to be available to answer any questions a potential buyer might have, Springett said.
Although many stores rely on existing staff to keep up with their Internet sales, he said, many storeowners — like Hoyland — hire people to specifically track and enter their eBay items.
Mike Holcomb of Mainland Pawn Shop in La Marque said during the past few years, about a hundred people have suggested he begin using the Internet to increase his sales. But the idea has never been attractive to him.
Many of his customers are concerned with the condition of his merchandise, Holcomb said. It’s important that they be able to see merchandise in person.
The time and effort it would take to adequately describe an item’s condition on eBay would be too time-consuming, he said.
Despite some issues, pawnbrokers can’t resist the possibility of reaching millions of potential buyers through the Internet, Springett said.
A booth on how to use eBay has been set up during the past three Texas Association of Pawnbrokers conventions, he said.
Fred Hess, owner of Space City Jewelry and Loan in League City, said he is considering using eBay beginning next year.
Next year, Hoyland said, his stores will begin helping customers placing and selling merchandise on eBay.
