eBay used to be a site where individual users listed items for auction. Now the company no longer wants to be known as an “auction” site, and instead wants to be a site where large chain retailers like Toys ‘R’ Us sell their wares, and where individual users pay “valets” to list items for them. To promote the latter, eBay is offering free valet service, including real-life sales stations, after Christmas to help people sell unwanted gifts for cash.

Valet users usually gt 60 to 80% of the item’s selling price, but the service accepts a limited selection of goods. To be sold through Valet, your stuff has to be in good condition, an easy qualification for a new item that you received as a gift. It can’t be breakable or heavy, or so valuable that it needs to be authenticated.

Items that sell best are the exact kind of things you might receive as a holiday gift: clothing and electronics. eBay wants to turn ditching your stuff into an annual tradition, and will have temporary in-person valet stations at three Westfield-owned malls in San Francisco, Chicago, and Paramus, NJ. People in other cities will have to delay gratification, and have to make do with drop boxes in some other Westfield-owned malls, or mail their items in. These have the very inaccurate name of “regifting stations.”

Got a Holiday Gift You Didn’t Like? eBay Really Wants to Help You Sell It [TheStreet] (via eCommerceBytes)

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