Henderson a major online port of call for eBay

By Mike Trask (contact)

Monday, March 12, 2007 | 7:37 a.m.

Mark Szarzak owns the iSold It store in one of the anonymous strip malls along Sunset Road in Henderson. His little shop shares a sidewalk with a payday-loan joint, a Dairy Queen, and, of course, a bar featuring video poker.

His business has only one mission: Sell other people's merchandise on eBay, the online auction site that's more popular than a prom queen. And, according to eBay, Mark has a lot of online auction allies in the state's second-largest city.

In November, 269 Henderson residents sold items on eBay at an average price of $61. (Most popular sales: magazine subscriptions, dolls and auto parts.) That same month, 447 Henderson eBayers bought stuff at an average of $345 a pop. (Most popular purchases: computer accessories and jewelry.)

This is how much Henderson residents love eBay: The company, with more than 200 million users worldwide, claims Henderson residents use eBay more per capita than any place in the country except Nashville, Tenn., and Lumberton, N.J., a Philadelphia suburb.

Szarzak doesn't know what to make of those numbers. But he knows this much: November, the month that elevated Henderson to the heights of the eBay world, was his worst month in the year he's been involved with eBay sales.

Some of the goods on Szarzak's shelves reflect the eclectic word of online wheeler-dealers: fancy wheel rims, baby formula and lots and lots of Barbies. The only rule he has for selling an item, and taking a 20 percent to 30 percent cut for his trouble, is that it should fetch more than $50.

Once he sold a pair of platform shoes, circa 1970, for $100. He suspects they're appearing nightly at a strip joint.

The number of eBay buyers and sellers may seem deceivingly low. Much of the activity is generated by so-called seller assistants, people like Szarzak who list and sell others' merchandise for a fee. Dozens of seller assistants are based in the Las Vegas Valley.

So what accounts for the relatively high number of eBay buyers and sellers from Henderson? Well, it's where eBay founder Pierre Omidyar lives, but even if he and his wife, Pam, still sit down in front of the screen to buy and sell, that only accounts for two users. So something else must be going on.

"You have to be computer-savvy," speculated Bob Cooper, Henderson's economic development director. "We in the valley have always been rated as among the more heavy computer and Internet users."

And Henderson enjoys a commerce-friendly demographic - a large number of seniors and young adults without children who have both time and money on their hands.

But launching an eBay business from Henderson doesn't guarantee success. Not only has Szarzak, a former member of the corporate world, yet to turn a profit, but Henderson retiree Edward Terry is giving up selling collector stamps online and by mail order because eBay prices are too competitive.

But then there are people like construction worker Mark Johnson, who uses eBay to buy and sell tools and other workman's materials.

"Instead of gambling, I screw around on eBay," he said.

And the payoff is better. Johnson said he typically makes about $1,200 a month using the site.

And he doesn't even sell platform shoes.