BOULDER CITY, NEV.– Working at Hoover Dam as an armed guard in June 2003, Mike Plott dreaded another scorching summer in a sweaty bulletproof vest checking cars. He thought there might be a better way to earn a living.
One Sunday morning, Mr. Plott found it. He had just read a news item about a few U.S. states auctioning online the property that the Transportation Safety Administration confiscated from passengers at airports. The article noted that the discarded material at McCarran International Airport, which serves nearby Las Vegas, was going to Arkansas, which sold it and kept the revenue, he says.
Mr. Plott felt that the McCarran items should be sold to benefit Nevada citizens and, as an experienced eBay seller, he was the one to do it. Now, over two years later, the Boulder City native has created a new revenue stream for the town and an independent business for himself.
Some of the best new business ideas come from thinking creatively about an existing activity and adapting it fit your situation. Mr. Plott’s eBay operation is just such a venture. By taking initiative and using his eBay skills, he filled a void and built a lucrative business with very little investment and low overhead.
Mr. Plott, 49, had quit high school and earned a General Equivalency Diploma (GED). He worked a variety of jobs and also was a stay-at-home dad before working at Hoover Dam.
The morning he read the article, Mr. Plott called Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro and said he wanted to pick up and sell the McCarran items to generate revenue for the city. Mr. Ferraro liked the idea and made some calls. Within a month, Mr. Plott was collecting TSA items from McCarran Airport for Boulder City. He began selling the articles on eBay in July 2003.
To show the operation’s potential, Mr. Plott initially worked at no charge to the city, using his own computers and cameras. But within two months, he became so busy selling on eBay that he needed to quit his security job. He asked the city to begin paying him 50% of the net revenues up to $8,000 a month, after his expenses.
Working as a contractor for Boulder City, he fronts all the costs, including the salaries of his six full- and part-time employees, and is repaid after submitting a monthly report to the city. His employees are paid as part of his expenses. His eBay bill alone is about $2,500 a month, he says.
In 2004, Mr. Plott expanded the operation and started collecting TSA property at the airports in Reno, Nev., Sacramento, San Jose and Oakland, Calif. Usually, he gathers about three to four tons of unsorted material monthly. Last year, he made about $250,000 annually in eBay revenues. Of this, Boulder City received about $120,000, while he personally took home about $96,000 in commissions.
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