Word: ebay
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Young's niche is quirky but lucrative: selling bubble wrap over eBay, largely to other eBay sellers, who use it to wrap their own items for shipping. That Young supports herself through an eBay business is not unusual; an estimated 75,000 Americans do. But her rise illustrates just how powerful eBay's 22 million-user platform can be for aspiring entrepreneurs...
Young's small-business career began as an eBay cliche. A stay-at-home mother of two school-age daughters, living in rural Crawfordsville, Ind., Young had more time on her hands than money. She had always been good with computers and had an eye for collectibles. She started scouring local flea markets and estate sales looking for undervalued knickknacks she could then list on eBay. At first Young tried to keep 15 auctions going at any given time; then 25; then 50. Eventually, she reached 100. When the packing and fulfillment got to be too much to handle...
Then Young decided, on a whim, to start listing the bags themselves on eBay. Her good deal and her low overhead meant she could charge less than retail stores, even after shipping costs. Soon she was doing well. Very well. That's when she decided to sell the bubble wrap itself, not just the bags. Young was already buying the stuff for her own packing needs in 750-ft. rolls. She just increased her order. By a lot. And she got a little system going. Since 250-ft. units sold best, every roll that came off the semi...
Young is the biggest shipping-supply seller on eBay, although competitors are multiplying (you can't hide on the network). She handles 150 orders a day, nearly twice as many as a year ago, and she has 35,000 customers in her database. Young has reached a legendary status on eBay. She's one of only a handful of "shooting stars": users with a feedback rating, eBay's form of customer evaluation, of more than...
...across the U.S., high-tech givers have been scaling back. eBay vice president Jeff Skoll, who commands a $2.1 billion net worth, pared his contributions from $47.5 million in 1999 to a still hefty $39 million in 2000. The cutbacks came as eBay's stock lost more than 70% of its value last year. At Kana Communications, a troubled software maker whose shares have fallen more than 98% from their 52-week high, the $1 million worth of stock that vice president Michael Wolfe pledged to Stanford a year ago nearly evaporated. By the time the school received and sold...