While millions of people have caught the eBay craze, those who aren't as computer savvy found themselves left in the dark. That was until iSold It was founded, making it simple for people to sell merchandise on the Internet through eBay's auction website.

Nearly three months old, the Conklin Street store's team of experienced eBay sellers handles all components of the transaction. From photography to copywriting to shipping and handling, they will cover all one's Internet auction needs. Founded in California last year, this chain of high-volume eBay drop-off stores has quickly made its way across the country. Craig Geiger, along with his father Bob Geiger and brother, Brian Geiger, opened Long Island's first iSold It franchise store in Farmingdale. While they are newcomers to the franchise business, Geiger says his family has owned the building at 422 Conklin St. for over 28 years.

"We've had a graphics company [Scan-a-Chrome] in this building for 36 years," Geiger explained. "We had some office space in the front that we decided to convert over to a retail store and try this new concept out."

While Geiger isn't a native Daler, he said he feels like he lives in Farmingdale because he has been working at the facility for quite a while.

"We've tried to help clean up the area and for the most part the Farmingdale community has been very receptive and we've been having some really good feedback with it."

Geiger said that nearby residents are their primary customers.

"About 85 percent of our business is from local Farmingdale residents," Geiger stated.

iSold It offers a comprehensive franchise program that includes site selection, lease negotiation, store layout, training, marketing and promotional support. The company's website boasts this is an "exciting new franchise opportunity - one that is inexpensive to start, easy to operate and holds enormous potential." While there are only about 30 stores nationwide, they claim to have over 270 franchises under contract, including five more on Long Island.

"Really what attracted us to the iSold It franchise was the kind of people that we were dealing with," Geiger said. "iSold It just happened to be a very personable group of people and had very heavy franchising background. It had a good service and that's what we wanted to offer. People need to have a good experience and that's where we come in."

EBay is best described as the world's largest garage sale. One can find infinite items; however, some are more popular than others. Designer clothing, electronics, jewelry, memorabilia, event tickets and antiques are always considered hot ticket items. When an item seems impossible to track down, one can usually find it on eBay.

"What we do is handle the whole transaction," Geiger said. "Part of our service is to give you some expectation as to what will happen if we put it up on eBay. We have tools at the counter that allow us to appraise what kind of eBay value your item has."

Individuals, organizations and companies also use eBay to auction off merchandise as a means to generate funds for charity. If an item doesn't sell, iSold It will donate it to a charity on your behalf.

"Lots of times people bring us an item that they never want to see again," Geiger explained.

Hurricane survivor Vincent Caraccio currently resides in Florida, but he is originally a Long Islander. Caraccio recently auctioned off his 1977 pinstriped Rolls Royce with over 160 Yankees signatures on it at the Farmingdale location. His intention was to donate 40 percent of the proceeds to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. The opening bid was $50,000, but it was valued by baseball memorabilia experts at over $1,000,000.

"I brought the car to iSold It because I've never sold anything on eBay, and the process just seems too complicated," Caraccio said in a press release. "iSold It is going to do all the work and make it very easy for me to sell the car and help other hurricane victims with the proceeds."

While the car didn't end up selling, the highest bid price was $186,000. Caraccio had set a reserve price of $200,000. Caraccio retrieved the car and iSold It was responsible for the fees.

"We donated our time and effort to the cause," Geiger said.

While iSold It does not charge anything up front to list an item, once it sells they deduct both their commission, eBay and payment processing fees before sending the seller a check for the balance.

Commissions vary by store, but the Farmingdale location charges a 30 percent commission on the first $500 and 20 percent on the remaining amount. For listing an item including a gallery photo with a starting bid of up to $9.99, eBay charges $0.60 plus 5.35 percent of the first $25, $2.75 percent of the next $975 and 1.5 percent of any amount over $1,000. Payment processing fees are $0.30 plus 2.5 percent of the final selling price.

"This is a no-lose situation, Geiger said. "If it sells, we collect the commission, if it doesn't we don't collect any fees. It's fairly risk-free."

For more information on the iSold It store in Farmingdale call 249-2345 or visit www.i-soldit.com.