EBay minus the drudge work

On Sunday, Bob Golub posted 10 auctions on eBay, including listings for a mink coat, a vintage comb and brush set, and an embroidery tool.

But it's not stuff he found while rummaging through his basement. Golub owns the QuikDrop franchise in Sudbury, a storefront that sells things on eBay for people. The store opened last week and by yesterday customers had turned over everything from rodeo belt buckles to porcelain China, hoping for a good return from the wildly popular virtual marketplace.

''It's been a very good week," said Golub, a Newton resident.

Golub, 49, is one of a growing number of entrepreneurs offering to do the drudge work of selling on eBay for you. While many individuals have offered the service out of their homes and pioneering independents have set up stores, nationwide chains like QuikDrop, iSold It, and Snappy Auctions are aiming to make online consignment as convenient as shopping at a mall.

The market: people who lack the know-how or the time to sell on eBay and other websites. The businesses are betting the new twist on old-time consignment shops will grow along with eBay's reach, even though the idea runs counter to the do-it-yourself, eliminate-the-middleman ethos of the online auctioneer.

It typically works like this: Customers bring their stuff to the stores -- often called ''drop-off centers" or ''drop shops" -- which photograph the items and set up the auctions. Once the item sells, the business ships it, and the customer receives a check.

The business takes a commission, usually 20-40 percent of the selling price. The customer might also have to pay fees to eBay. Some businesses will turn down items if their expected sales value is deemed too low. And others, like Needham online consigners NextWorth, buy outright a hot item such as an iPod, and sell it on eBay, or other websites such as Froogle or Craigslist.

Ebay executive Walt Duflock said that less than 1 percent of its sales, which totaled $44.3 billion last year, involve a middleman. In Massachusetts, eBay lists more than 100 drop-off locations, including businesses run out of people's homes. Two companies, AuctionDrop and Instant Auctions, collect items at UPS Stores. (There are also businesses that will pick up items from you.)

The drop-shop concept got a recent boost in pop culture: The love interest in the Steve Carell comedy ''The 40-Year-Old Virgin" owns one.

But the trend may not last, said David Steiner, president of AuctionBytes.com, a Natick newsletter and website for online buyers and sellers. He notes that some previous eBay consignment stores went out of business because rent and salaries were too high.

''The beauty of eBay is that it was a person-to-person transaction that really eliminated the bricks and mortar," he said.

But that's not stopping chains such as iSold It of Pasadena, Calif., which has 165 stores nationwide with about $35 million in sales, and expects to grow to 400 stores this year, said chief executive Ken Sully. Stores in Westfield and Weymouth opened late last year, and Lenny Barnes, who owns the Weymouth franchise, is planning five more stores over the next three years on the South Shore, Cape Cod, and the islands.

One of Barnes' customers, Carol Cullivan of Weymouth, discovered iSold It while stopping by a coffee shop next door. She had been discouraged by her own previous attempts to sell on eBay.

''It was too confusing," said Cullivan, 49. ''I just didn't feel comfortable doing it." Barnes ended up selling an old stove and sink that she had removed from her kitchen during a remodeling project for about $800.

Nashville's Snappy Auctions, which has 50 locations, recently signed an agreement to open its first Massachusetts store, south of Boston, said founder and chief executive Debbie Gordon.

QuikDrop, of Costa Mesa, Calif., has about 86 stores nationwide and has sold about $25 million in goods in just over two years, said cofounder Jack Reynolds. Golub, the QuikDrop franchisee, expects the chain to open as many as 20 locations across Eastern Massachusetts. Golub is a photographer who sold computers in the early 1980s, just before personal computers started to take off. He thinks he's getting into the eBay business at an opportune time.

Along with the national chains, there are independent players. NextWorth, whose founders honed their business plan at Babson College in Wellesley, recently opened in an office park near Route 128. The company works with individuals, businesses, and nonprofits, selling items on several websites. They hope people begin to see the value in things they might once have put in the basement.

No matter what it is, said NextWorth founder and chief executive David Chen, ''there are people in the world who will want it."

Brenda Colgan recently bought a struggling two-year-old independent drop-off store in Yarmouth called A&B Eclectic Auctions. She used eBay to buy materials to remodel her home and saw the website's potential. Colgan hopes to turn the business around through advertising and by accepting a wider range of items.

Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops, maintains that eBay is not a threat to the 1,000 traditional resale stores that are part of her Michigan trade organization. She said many people still prefer to buy things like furniture and clothes in person.

''It's more difficult to sell apparel on eBay," Meyer said. ''People like to touch and feel and try on."

In his book ''FutureShop," Daniel Nissanoff argues that online auctions make it easier for people to trade in their old stuff for cash, which they can then use to buy something new.

''It makes no sense to keep something for some fantasy in the future that you're going to use it," Nissanoff said.

Globe correspondent Corey Allen contributed to this report. Emily Shartin can be reached at eshartin@globe.com.