In this conversation, eBay’s Leah Erwin chats with Kathy Terrill, a longtime eBay seller, Small Business Ambassador Network (SBAN) Captain, and passionate advocate for the seller community. Kathy transitioned from a successful career as a QVC product presenter to building her own thriving eBay business. Now a leader in the eBay seller community, Kathy shares how she advocates for eBay sellers, organizes meetups, and helps sellers make their voices heard on critical legislative issues—all as a volunteer.
Leah Erwin: Tell me how you got started selling on eBay and what’s that been like for you?
Kathy Terrill: I’ve been selling on eBay for over 15 years. I’m in Manhattan. I started very casually. For me it was a family situation - eldercare situation where my mother was declining in health and going in and out of the hospital a lot, with a lot of visits to doctors. At the time I was a product presenter on QVC shopping channel in Westchester, Pennsylvania, which is quite a commute from New York City, and it was becoming harder and harder to do what my clients had hired me to do on QVC and take care of my mom, so I stepped aside to really be able to focus on her. I was looking around for work that was really, really flexible. If you’ve ever dealt with somebody that’s having really serious medical issues, you’ll know that things can literally happen within minutes and you have to be able to drop everything and be by their side.
I had a friend that was selling on eBay and my sister sold on eBay very casually. So I was like, ‘heck, let me try this.’ Living in Manhattan, I don’t have an attic, I don’t have a basement, and I don't have a storage unit, so I literally just started with decluttering things that we have on hand while bringing some income in and taking care of mom.
After mom passed away, I didn’t know if I wanted to go back to presenting products on QVC or acting (I’m an actress). I really liked selling on eBay. I really enjoyed the flexibility of the hours and that it is my business. I set my hours and I get to source my inventory. I wanted to see if I could scale this full time and I gave myself three years. I did it in one year, and I’ve never looked back. I love it.
Leah Erwin: I love how every seller has a different story. I love how eBay can be there for people in whatever way you need over time.
Kathy Terrill: The great thing about it too is that you can be anywhere in the United States and really anywhere in the world, and that’s also something that attracted me to selling on eBay – that it’s the type of business that I could pack it up and move it within the United States. I wasn’t bound by being in New York, or New Jersey, or Illinois. Truly it’s a business that you can do anywhere in the United States or anywhere in the world.
Leah Erwin: You’ve become really active in this eBay community as a representative for small business and as a resource for other sellers. What made you decide to do that? Why have you decided to become so involved in this wider community of eBay sellers?
Kathy Terrill: It actually kind of started in reverse. Sellers started to come to me. Part of it was my background with QVC where I am very comfortable in front of a camera, also my theater background. One of my real strengths is bringing information together, breaking it down, and making it understandable. They approached me to be a guest on eBay radio, the predecessor to the eBay podcast which has sunsetted. They approached me to be a guest and it went well so I became a regular guest for them. So it was more people coming to me.
Taking the information from eBay corporate and breaking it down to be user-friendly, it’s something I enjoy. It’s something I’m very passionate about because of my success selling on eBay and what eBay has enabled me to do. I love encouraging others because being a seller can get discouraging at times. Sometimes new rules come into effect that are hard to understand. I like helping people understand how to abide by the rules and be successful.
Leah Erwin: You’ve tried to be someone who is really uplifting and really motivates other sellers. You’re a seller meetup lead, but you're also an SBAN (Small Business Ambassador Network) Captain. Do you mind explaining what an SBAN Captain is?
Kathy Terrill: I am a captain for the Northeast, and it is completely voluntary. What that means is that if there is an issue that impacts my area, I am contacted by the eBay Main Street Team to lead a campaign. Usually that is the form of an email campaign that takes sellers about 60 seconds to fill out.
As a Small Business Captain, I post on social media and on my personal profile. I have a large Facebook group with sellers that is now over 20,000, so I’ll post in that group. And I’m always very clear. I’ll state the issue and if it is something they agree with, they have the link, and they can send an email. I am very much about educating people, giving them the information, and then encouraging them to use their free will to make the choice that works best for them.
A lot of sellers are thrilled . They appreciate the heads up on the issues. I encourage people that their voice matters. Sometimes people will think: “Well I am just one seller; what does it matter if I send this email or not?” It does! I know that on some issues, literally 20,000, 30,000, 50,000 emails will be sent. If you don’t think that legislators pay attention to that, think again, because they all want to be re-elected. So it’s important that when there is an issue that is important to us as small business people, that we speak out.
Leah Erwin: I also wanted to do a little plug for your meetup. You are also a seller meetup leader. Can you talk a little bit about what seller meetups do within the eBay community. What’s the purpose of it and what value do you see in hosting these meetups?
Kathy Terrill: There are meetup groups all across the United States. You can go online and see them. They are broken down by regions, which is really helpful. If you are in the Northeast you will see my meetup. From the Central to the Southern United States - there are literally meetups all over. The reason I started the meetup - and it has been going now for 10 years - is it is a wonderful opportunity to meet your fellow sellers face to face. The New York City meetup includes the metro area, so we pull in sellers from Connecticut, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, and we’ve also had sellers come up from Washington, DC. It’s great to meet sellers face to face. Nothing beats tips coming from sellers, which my sellers love.
The other thing people may not know is that there is a New York City eBay office and a lot of great teams that work there. We meet quarterly at the New York office. We also meet more regularly on Zoom because a lot of my sellers are commuting two or two-and-a-half hours.
For our next meeting June 10th, we have someone coming up from Washington, DC from the eBay Government Relations team to discuss what is pertinent, and we also have someone from eBay Community that is coming in for the event and we are pulling in teams from the New York City office to discuss different issues for sellers. Sellers love it - they love trading tips. And also, when eBay has updates, when the updates roll out, people have questions, so to be able to help the sellers and answer questions about updates, such as new legislation, it’s great. You can ask anything. We have a format with speakers and there is always plenty of time for mingling and Q&A.
Just so people know, we do meet in-person in the daytime because we are in the eBay New York office, and it’s easier to meet with team members because they are in the office. And coming from DC you can literally go up and back in a day.
Leah Erwin: If anybody is in the Northeast I hope they come to one of those meetings. It is amazing to meet other eBay sellers, to get tips and tricks and learn what you don’t know. And it’s also just a really cool community.
Kathy Terrill: And we have a great variety of sellers! We have eBay motors, clothing, and collectibles. What is great is that sellers often say something like, even if they are a clothing seller, “gee that tip that eBay motors shared really helped me with my business.” We have part-time sellers, full-time sellers, and we always have at least one seller come that is brand new, that just listed their first item. It really is for sellers of all levels and all the different categories.
Leah Erwin: Last but not least. Do you have a crazy item that you’ve sold on eBay?
Kathy Terrill: This always surprises me, but I always tell people: If you have something like a TV remote that you don’t need anymore (like if you get a new TV like we just got and you got a new remote) you can sell that TV remote on eBay. Because you know what it is, you know what it is for, and they sell like hotcakes! People’s dogs chew their remotes, or they lose their remote in their home. When you have an appliance die that has a remote, sell it on eBay. Every remote that I’ve put on eBay, they sell within two or three weeks.
Leah Erwin: Thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your expertise, Kathy!