Selling Education Surplus on eBay™
We manage your online auctions from start to finish.
July
2007
Volume 5
InterSchola Success With Fryers Keeps Heat Out of Clovis USD Kitchens
Clovis Unified had a dilemma: the district had eight, almost-new fryers that they no longer needed due to new nutrition requirements and new fire regulations meant they would have to upgrade their fire extinguishing system just to keep them available in the school kitchens. The fire department had given them a short deadline to come into compliance, and they had to move quickly. The best answer was to turn them over to InterSchola.
The District and InterSchola worked together on the logistical challenges. “The District had no storage space in their warehouse to hold the fryers until we could complete the sales,” according to InterSchola’s Field Auction Manager, Dennis Espindola. “So we did the inventory at the school sites where they were installed, and then the District moved the fryers to an area just outside of the warehouse at the last possible moment before the inspection.”
The auction round was a success. InterSchola marketed the fryers to its significant database of buyers in the food service industry, while aggressively seeking out additional buyers through other promotional channels. A bidding war on one item, a Pitco Frialator 3 Section Double Fryer & Food Warmer, drove the selling price up $800 in the final 90 minutes of the auction, to almost $1000. All eight fryers sold for over $5,000, bringing in welcome funds to the district vs. a cost to the district for a fire suppression system upgrade. “InterSchola was quick to respond to our needs to get the fryers on eBay, get them sold and move them out of our Warehouse,” said Brian Cotham, Clovis USD Director of Purchasing. “InterSchola has always helped us to maximize our return on selling obsolete or salvage equipment. We are then able to put that money back into the classrooms.”
Small District Nets Big Win with InterSchola
The Emery Unified School District has just two schools and a small warehousing operation. When its Sheet Metal and Wood Shop vocational programs shut down in the 1990’s, all the vocational equipment was stored in the District’s Shop B. For more than a decade it lay unused. Shop equipment sat two and three layers deep, because the district had no process in place for surplus disposal. Joe Frantz, the Assistant Superintendent for Business, asked Interschola if the company could help.
InterSchola Field Auction Manager Richard Cash first conducted a complete inventory of the surplus items that he could reach and provided a list of items for release for submission to the School Board. InterSchola also guided the district through the process of posting Public Notice.
After the first set of auctions went smoothly, InterSchola moved on to the next "layer" of surplus items. Interschola helped clear out almost $22,000 of surplus items in the warehouse and surrounding areas and will now handle the surplus food service items at the district's school sites.
"Because the surplus equipment in the warehouse area came from programs we no longer planned to operate, it had no value for us,” says Emery's Frantz. "We knew it had value to someone else. Through InterSchola, we were able to get a great financial return for our surplus items, while freeing up valuable space. It was win-win situation for us." With the space freed up by the surplus sale, the district will create a badly needed teen health program in the old Shop B.
Just Who Buys
All This Stuff, Anyway?
With the power of eBay and InterSchola's massive database of buyers, InterSchola makes the connection between a school’s excess inventory and buyers looking for that perfect treasure. But just who are these people who buy your surplus?
interSchola has come to know these people pretty well, and they do
some very interesting things.
Two of our buyers refurbish copiers and other items and ship them
to Asia, where many of the electronic items were originally made. One customer,
a recent immigrant from
No matter the season, food service equipment is always a “hot” item, and our customers are using your old surplus to cook up some surprising deals. One caterer not only bought kitchen equipment, but also purchased a delivery vehicle, as well as tables and chairs through our auctions. Another buyer had a dream of starting an organic frozen food company – and thanks to InterSchola’s auctions, he was able to outfit his kitchen without bankrupting his life savings.
Many shop tools – band saws, table saws, drill presses, etc. – have
found new life by being refurbished by our customers. Grounds maintenance and farming
implements are also popular with buyers who purchase older or broken
equipment for refurbishing.
A couple of years ago, we had a school sell off a large lot
of church pews to a religious group that was constructing a new
building. We had another
customer absolutely thrilled to buy a collection of dishes that had been
used some 40 years ago in a home economics class. Her reason for buying -
the pattern on these dishes was identical to her mother’s own
set.
These buyers are a loyal group who appreciate the value that school surplus sales offer and their interests vary as widely as the schools we serve. We keep detailed lists of all of our buyers, sorted by their interests. Many more potential new buyers regularly “opt-in” to our email lists to keep track of what we are selling on your behalf. If there is a buyer out there for your stuff, we will find them!
|
New InterSchola School Surplus Blog launches In order to facilitate communications with our clients, we’ve
created a blog at http://schoolsurplus.wordpress.com/ Our
staff will post news and information to help District officials
maximize the value of
their no longer needed surplus items.
Please bookmark this site, and feel free to add your comments to the articles posted. |
Letter From the President
Happy Summer!
Greetings from the floor of eBay Live, eBay’s annual user
conference in Boston, Massachusetts. Several members of the
InterSchola team were in
I
wanted to share a few of the highlights from our eBay Live experience with
you, our clients. The
business and industrial, technology and vehicles (eBay motors) categories
on eBay are seeing tremendous growth in terms of both supply AND
demand. These categories include many of the asset categories that
InterSchola sells on behalf of our clients (maintenance and operations
equipment, buildings and grounds equipment, food service equipment,
facilities supplies, office equipment, technology, maintenance vehicles,
buses and passenger vehicles). These
trends bode very well for InterSchola clients that have these items to
sell.
There was significant discussion regarding listing
strategies, start prices and eBay psychology. Economists and
psychologists agree that the strategy of setting low opening prices to
spur interest is a significant factor in increasing sell through rates and
final values in the online auction environment. InterSchola has
certainly seen the benefits of listing strategies using lower start prices
and we encourage our clients to allow InterSchola to use these strategies
to the fullest!
InterSchola received strong accolades regarding our success to date as an eBay Top Seller (top .001% of the eBay seller community.) We also received great praise regarding our positive feedback rating, our high average selling prices and our stellar average sell through rates (>70% on eBay)!
My colleagues and I had ample opportunity to meet with senior executives of the eBay community during the 3 day conference to share information about our unique model of working with schools and other local government agencies. There is tremendous support and praise for the work we are doing to help schools convert idle assets into much needed cash. We look forward to further strengthening our relationship with eBay to the benefit of our clients!
Melissa Rich
Founder and President, InterSchola
Visit our website:
For information about
partnering with InterSchola or to learn more about our services, contact:
Jeff
Greenholtz, Sales and Client Management
jgreenholtz@interschola.com
888-653-7360
ext 2
