Mr. Lister turns 'stuff' into cash with auctions

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Mar 18, 2005 by Tampone, Kevin

* Major player: Timothy Maloney, founder and president

* What does your company do? Mr. Lister is a registered trading post and trading assistant with eBay, the Internetauction Web site. That means people can bring just about anything to Mr. Lister's locations, and the company will photograph and then post it in an eBay auction. And if someone buys something through a Mr. Lister-run auction, he can pick it up there as well. "Most people don't even follow what's going on in the auction," says Maloney, a Syracuse native who graduated in 1995 from Syracuse University with a degree in finance. "They just walk in, hand us their stuff, and once the auction's over, they get their money. I'm basically handing out cash. I buy checks by the box-load."

* So you'll sell anything for your clients? Maloney's storage space in the back of his storefront on Ede Boulevard is filled with odds and ends. There are dishes, lamps, old toys, furniture, and even musical instruments. "When I started doing this, that was my one concern. That people would run out of stuff," he says. "I found out pretty quickly people never run out of stuff." The only items Maloney won't accept are pornographic materials. "I won't self anything I wouldn't want to show my wife or my mother," he says. The company's commission starts at 25 percent and goes down from there using a sliding scale based on the value of the item.

* What's your background? After graduating from college, Maloney worked in management at Wal-Mart and the May Department Stores Company. He then went on to work for The Ozer Group, a retail acquisition and liquidation company based in Needham, Mass. The company bought failed department-store chains like Caldors and Bradlees and liquidated their merchandise.

* So how did Mr. Lister come about? While with The Ozer Group, Maloney got the idea of selling excess inventory on eBay, instead of selling at 90-percent discounts in-store. When he realized the model could be successful, he returned to Syracuse and started his company in late 2003. At first, Maloney bought excess inventory from failed businesses and sold them in eBay auctions. He listed everything from musical instruments to Armani suits. Eventually, friends started asking him to list personal items in auctions, and the consignment side of the business grew from there, he says. Maloney still buys inventory and lists it for sale on eBay through his original company, Mr. Markdown, LLC. Mr. Lister, which started in March 2004, is actually a division of Mr. Markdown, Maloney explains.

* What kind of growth are you experiencing? Maloney started with five employees at his 6,200-square-foot Ede Boulevard location and now has 14. He opened his second location, in Oswego, this month. He is planning to open storefronts in Auburn and Oneida in March, Cortland and the Cazenovia area in April, and the Ithaca and Central Square areas in May. His ultimate goal is to have about 10 locations in upstate New York. Each will be about 1,500 square feet and employ two-people. Opening those storefronts will also necessitate adding two to four positions at the company's home base in Syracuse.

* Any plans to move beyond the Syracuse market? Maloney eventually plans to open storefronts in the Buffalo,, Rochester, and Albany areas. "It's Retail 101," he says. "Expand or die."

* Is there enough demand to support that kind of growth? "We've only been open in Oswego, I'd say, about two weeks," he says. "Someone already has a 40-foot container full of antiques ... to list. So, yes, there's definitely enough demand out there." Maloney says he actually has about five or six regular customers who make their entire living by going to yard sales and then selling the items they buy there through Mr. Lister.

* What kind of revenue growth are you projecting? Maloney expects his company's revenue to increase by about 50 percent this year from the $4 million it generated in 2004. That number is for both Mr. Lister and Mr. Markdown combined, Maloney says. About 90 percent of the revenue comes from Mr. Lister, he adds. Maloney forecasts similar growth for at least the next five years.

* What's causing your growth? Maloney says a lot of his business comes from word-of-mouth. He also does marketing on radio, television, and through direct mail. He says the biggest reason for his growth is that there are no other companies providing services like Mr. Lister in Central New York. "There's just no one else doing this. You may get some people that are just kind of doing it on the side," he says. "But they're probably going to be more expensive than we are, and there's a comfort level that goes along with giving your stuff to someone who has a track record with listing thousands of items." In a typical week, Maloney says he has 600 to 1,200 auctions running.

* Is there anything about Central Now York that makes it a particularly good market for this type of business? Central New York is flooded with valuable items like old glassware made by Corning, Inc. or furniture from Stickley, Inc. "This area has always been big on antiques,' I Maloney says. "This area is really just perfect for this kind of business."