Internet Auction Service Raises Money for Charity
by February 28, 2005 12:00 am 67 views
The Auction Block LLC
Owner: Sean Wright
Address: 3422 N. College Ave., Suite 6, Fayetteville 72703
Phone/Fax: (479) 442-4533
Hours: 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Saturday
Startup date: Jan. 17
Web site: www.the-auction-block.com
Sean Wright is taking his Internet auction business beyond simple eBay listings. He’s handling discontinued and overstocked items from retail businesses, estate sales and yard sale-type items.
“We’re a little bit different than most consignment stores out there. Most of them are just drop-offs,” Wright said, adding that The Auction Block has several divisions, including a motor division in which the company lists used vehicles on the Internet.
When it comes to estate sales, Wright said auctioning such items to a massive Internet customer base nets about 40 percent more money than a typical auction held locally.
Not everything sold at a typical yard sale is worth listing on the Internet, but listing items worth $35 or more and donating or disposing of the rest can save a lot of work leading up to a yard sale, Wright said.
Wright is also offering fund-raising opportunities for local charities.
Wright has one 1,800-SF store in north Fayetteville now, but has plans to add five more within a year — two in Fort Smith and three more in Northwest Arkansas. He and three employees operate the existing store. If his expansion plans are successful, Wright said he’d likely have 28 employees when the new stores open.
Wright said he invested $200,000 to start the new business. The Auction Block also has a couple of venture capital firms interested in the store concept and he’s hoping to use as much as $3 million in such investment funds to fund the five-store expansion.