Every weekday at noon, hundreds of eBay users log in to a live auction, Luxury Finds with Linda’s Stuff. In between bidding for high-end, gently used shoes, handbags and clothes, they trade TV show and book recommendations and congratulate one another on their wins.

“It’s a testament to the community eBay has built,” said Linda, the founder of Linda’s Stuff. “You can’t find that on any other online marketplace, and I will hang my hat on that.”

Linda began selling her kids’ videogames on eBay 25 years ago and is now an industry leader in luxury consignment. She’s sold more than 4.3 million items on eBay, all while maintaining an impressive 99.2% positive feedback rating.

Exponential Growth

Linda credits word-of-mouth advertising for her success on eBay. A self-described “fashionista shopaholic,” she began selling her clothing and accessories after seeing what she was able to earn from her children’s video games. Friends started to ask Linda to sell their previously loved goods and then told their acquaintances about her service. Soon, she was selling items from friends-of-friends and even strangers on consignment long before similar services became popular.

As the items Linda was selling took over her 3,500-square-foot home, her husband quit his job to work full time for Shop Linda’s Stuff. They hired college students to photograph their high-end fashion goods and moved into a larger 5,000-square-foot warehouse. Within two years, they had outgrown that space. They now have a 93,000-square-foot facility with roughly 60 employees, including one of her sons.

“It’s been a really great experience. It afforded us putting our kids through college,” Linda said, of her experience owning a small business on eBay.

The Fashion Mecca

Linda and her team have experimented with other third-party marketplaces, but 25 years after she started, eBay remains her favorite platform by far.

eBay has invested in a variety of new programs to support its fashion sellers, including eBay consignment, Authenticity Guarantee and a new “Pre-Loved Fashion Week.”

With eBay consignment, Americans can send their gently used clothing and accessories to eBay. The company’s fashion experts then post the items to the platform and the original owner receives a commission from the sale.

The Authenticity Guarantee provides eBay shoppers confidence that the handbags and streetwear they buy on the marketplace are legitimate. Under the program, after a sale, sellers send their item to eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee Program who then verifies it and mails it to the buyer.

Most recently, eBay partnered with the Council of Fashion Designers of America and the British Fashion Council to launch Pre-Loved Fashion Week, which included live runway shows featuring gently used clothing and daily drops on eBay of the best available looks.

All this, Linda said, makes eBay the place to be for fashion retailers.

“eBay, to me, is the fashion Mecca. It’s where you go if you need a dress for a wedding,” she said.