eBay Seller Chat with Kari in Seattle: Glassware Enthusiast - Glassybaby, Chihuly, Quetzal, More Fun Names 🤩

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Make More with Matt Heslin
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Transcript

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Hey eBay sellers, you have landed on episode number 140 of eBay the right way. My guest is Khari in Washington State. Today's date is November 22 2023, the day before Thanksgiving, so Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. If you want to eat a second or third dessert, just say you're eating one for me. I love dessert. So eat one for me. Announcements. Genevieve posted this letter on the Facebook group. She said this appeared in my feed, I thought it would be nice to see it is not mine. But it is great. It came from a page on Facebook called history in pictures. If you want to look this up and read all the comments below it because this really is a great thing. It says an 86 year old man sends heartfelt letter to eBay seller after buying a VHS player. The date of the letter is actually February 10 2019. So it's been circulating for a while. But let me read this to you because this just makes what we do seem all that more important. It says hello. I found many old VHS tapes recently and wanted to see what is on them and realized I had no player. So I went to eBay for the first time and discovered your offer. I bought your VHS player and you shipped it within a few days. The player it looks new and unused. Amazing. I had some issues getting it going, which were mine and not the player. I am 86 and perhaps not up to my game. But I do get there eventually. And I did and discovered the VHS works perfectly. Thank you so much for your care efforts and promptness. I watched tapes of my retirement party from 25 years ago, which I had never seen before. Geez, we were young, then a tape of my wedding with all the family and friends, many of which are no longer around. Then skiing trips, kids growing up, travels and most importantly, the gentle maturing of my family. Each one more fun than the last. And thanks to your generous selling of the VHS player. I thought you would appreciate how much someone has enjoyed your offer. Best regards and he signs his name. So isn't that sweet? This person was able to take a walk down memory lane and watch these VHS tapes that he had never seen before. So it was all new to him. And because of people like us that sell things that help people relive days gone by and just sit in that moment with nostalgia and enjoy it so I just thought this was very heartfelt and other eBay sellers might want to know about this. Okay, now on to the conversation with Khari Welcome back listeners. I have Khari with us today. And this was a reschedule do over because things happen so yay, we made it. Um, and you are west coast so it's 10 o'clock in the morning your time and one o'clock my time. Right. Okay. So how are you doing this morning? Are you feeling better? I am I've had this horrible flu for the last it's been two weeks anyway and I got better and then I don't know if it's the same flu or different flu but I started coming down with something else when last weekend, anyway. And where are you located? So I'm about 30 minutes outside of Seattle. So I'm in the foothills. So I'm east of Seattle, in the town of carnation. Same carnation with the milk production. Really? Okay. Yeah. So we're kind of, I'm East A. So if we go about 20 minutes, West, you hit Microsoft and a lot of the tech companies. And then if I just go east, I hit all this farmland. So I'm kind of in the middle of all that the best of both worlds. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Because we're big. We're my husband and I are really avid hikers. And we have Husky mixes. So yeah, that our dogs out every day. So lots going on there. Okay, wonderful. So I had you on my list to get on the podcast, I have a very long list. It'll probably take us my life to get to everybody. But then I put out a call for glassware specialists. And you were the only one to respond. So we're going to touch on that later. And maybe we'll have you back on for an episode dedicated just to glassware because I don't know that we can cram all that in, as well as everything else. Yes. Okay. But we start off with what brought you to eBay. When did you start selling. So 10 years ago, my husband and I moved up to the northwest from California, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. So we moved back and I had been working as a photographer for more than 10 years in California, I had like a wedding and portrait studio in California. And when we moved, I didn't really want to do that anymore. I was completely burnt out on that. And, um, but I didn't really have a plan for what I was going to do. We were we were pretty busy after the move. And I kept having to fly back to California to photograph weddings. And we got rid of a ton of stuff before we moved, we just donated everything so much. And so our house was kind of empty when we moved to the northwest. And so anyway, we were sort of approaching the holidays, and our house was really empty. And a friend suggested I go to an estate sale. And so I went to the estate sale, it was kind of interesting, because we had just had, we have these storms in October and November. And we were in the middle of this a big fall storm. And so like our neighborhood was without power and a lot of trees were down. And so I got to the estate sale and the power was out at the estate sale. And, and the the guy who was running, it was the first time I'd ever been to any estate sale and the guy running it was like, you know, I've got this beautiful Limoges set, if you want to have this limos china set, I'm getting rid of it for $20 Because we gotta get rid of everything in this house. And we've had a low turnout because of the storm. And I'm like, Well, I just I don't, is beautiful, but I really don't need, you know, I don't need it. And so I'm like, I'm here for I was like, I need furniture, I need stuff for my house. And so I left the sale and I don't know why I just kept thinking about that Limoges that and I looked, I was like googling Limoges china set after that, and I found Limoges, China online, and I was like, Oh my gosh, I could have, I could have bought that and sold it. And so then I got this idea in my head, well, maybe I could start, you know, buying and selling things online. And so I started going to garage sales after that, and buying things that things that I thought, I mean, this was in 2013. So it wasn't, you know, there weren't as many sellers online and for some reason, I didn't even know about people who sold online. I just thought I had this brilliant idea. That's not uncommon. The average person on the street doesn't realize that we do this on purpose. Yeah, yeah. Not just downsizing or getting rid of something. We are actually proactively buying things for the purpose of reselling. And exactly. It's amazing. We do this all the time. And it's amazing that the average person has never thought of that. Yeah, I know. And I hadn't I just was like, I thought I thought it was some kind of genius because I'm like, I should have bought that set. So I went to sales and I bought I bought all this stuff that I thought oh yeah, people will want this. The first thing I bought and sold was like this Looney Tunes. Um, Like Sylvester, you know, like a Tweety and Sylvester mug. And then I put them up on eBay for just because they were what was that this garage sale? I was like, Oh yeah, people probably want to buy this. And so, and they didn't sell option for 99 cents. And yeah, they didn't sell. But I think the first thing that I actually I bought a bunch of stuff at that sale. And I bought this Royal Albert, um, the pattern was called SR EDA. And I bought this little BonBon dish and put it online and I put it up for auction because I think, back in 2013, it was still pretty common just to do auctions. So and, and, you know, the bidding went crazy. And I think it sold for over $100. And I was like, Wow, this could work. And so I just time I was like, I just need to learn the difference between, you know, the Looney Tunes stuff and, and the stuff that sells for over 100. So what people want versus what they don't want. Exactly. So, back to your, your Looney Tunes mug. It's not that nobody wanted it. It was just nobody wanted it within that timeframe. Exactly. Yeah. And so but actually before then, I did have an eBay account, I had an eBay account. Because when I was a photographer, my I would have my assistants sell my stuff on eBay. And I thought, like selling on eBay was all this coding involved a lot of coding. So I had my say, sell my equipment on eBay. And then when it was my turn to sell, I was like, Oh, I gotta learn coding and all this stuff. I don't know why I thought it was so complicated. So how I guess, if you are a computer person, and you know what HTML is? You would assume that that oh, this is, you know, to make my pictures show, I'm gonna have to, you know, do use HTML code that and I wonder if other people think that, you know, it's it's very user friendly and cookie cutter now, but back in the day, if I don't know, I mean, people sold stuff without pictures, you know, you just, yeah, like it was an ad in the paper. You just wrote something about it, and how much to ship it and people sent checks and money orders in the mail? And, you know, that's kind of unbelievable. Very old school. Yeah. So I can see that people would be intimidated. Are you a tech person? I am not. I mean, even though I worked as a photographer, and I'm not really a tech person, and I'm not a person that I don't love reading manuals so well, and like, some people are just terrified of the computer and like, Oh, I'm not gonna be able to do it. Because I'm not a computer wizard. And they don't realize if you can answer your phone, you can do Ebay. I mean, it's that easy. It's true. Yeah. And I was, I worked with digital cameras and everything. And so I was a tech person when it came to cameras, but just not computer like, you know, I mean, I knew Photoshop and all that. So it's, it's intimidating for a lot of people. Yeah, I see. We're especially back in the day when everything was all about coding. You know, that's very understandable. So, you got over that, and an item for $100. And then you were hooked. I was hooked. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so what happened after that? Um, so I did, yeah. So I started, I got into selling and then I, I started I bought some books on Amazon, like, you know, how to be an eBay like tricks of the eBay masters and all these and I started and I think it wasn't long after that, that I found the scavenger life podcast and and so there were there was a woman who had like a eBay sellers group, and I joined her group and and then she was supposed to come to Seattle, and I paid for her to come to, you know, to go out with her buying stuff. And and then she cancelled and then she didn't refund the money. And you know, yeah, and so, but she had this a group and she I did learn a little bit from her in that time that I did the group. I don't even remember what her name was. But I had posted it in the thrifting board and she she refunded me right after. Good Okay, yeah. And so but I guess she was at the time known to not be a scammer, but just not be legit with our business does not follow through on these workshops and things just Yeah, money and then that's it. Oh, that's terrible. Oh, yeah, but I did learn something from her. Like I learned. That's when I learned like to not to not do auctions to just list things. And maybe that's when the big transition was happening between people doing auctions all the time. And then just doing now with best offer and, and I think she had taught, you know, just how to look at solds. And to sort by I always sort by highest to lowest and yeah, so I think I kind of learned that from the beginning. And yeah, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of moving parts to learn. But the hardest part is just starting. Yeah, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna throw myself to the wolves. And I'm just gonna, if millions of other people are doing it, you can do it too. So I had come from a photography background, and I so we live in the Northwest, and our house, my house is dark, because we kind of live in a forested area. And I just, I took pictures inside and everything was so dark, I think, I don't know if I was taking pictures, just my camera at that time. But I remember my pictures just looking awful. And I was like, this is horrible. I'm a photographer, and I should take better pictures. And so and then so, and I'm like, You know what, I have lights. And I have I gotten rid of I started getting rid of a lot of my equipment then. But I was like, I do have studio lights. And so I went on Amazon and I bought one of those little photo boxes to do to set up a little studio. And so then I set up studio. And but then I became a little bit. You had a podcast a while back where you said you had an assistant that was a photographer, and yes, too much time. Back in the day when I was trying to figure out how to do more by hiring people like what tasks would I give them? And I yeah, I had to laugh at that one. Because I was that's how I was when it first started. I was so nitpicky about the photos. And I was like, because I well, I went from horrible photos to being really nitpicky. And then I was like, Okay, I have to find some happy medium where the photos look good enough, but they don't have to look perfect. So, um, so anyway, yeah. And that was just the way her mind worked. You know, she would adjust the clothing. Well, should we do this? Should we do that, you know, and like all the different ways and I'm like, just just pick one and do it. So I get these things listed. And so it wasn't the best fit for what I was looking for. Because I never paid hourly, I always paid by the piece or by the task, because in that situation, it took her a long time to take pictures of 20 things. And it was close on a mannequin at the time I hadn't switched to flat lay, which I tend to like better now. Know when when Poshmark came along, and a lot of things were flatlay I was like, it is faster. And if it's working there, then I'm going to try that. So anyway. But if you are listening and thinking of hiring someone to take photos, it's really more about speed. And, you know, I say good enough is good enough for eBay. This is not going into Smithsonian, it's not going into a print, you know like a magazine does not have to be perfect. Now we have all these great editing tools. So doesn't have to be perfect. You want somebody who can chug through that pile? Yeah, get through. photographed and, you know, some, some people just have too many perfectionist tendencies for this to work and it just takes too long. Yeah. So like, Hey, that's a thing that's gonna sell for $20. Hopefully, it'll be gone in two weeks. You know, it's just let's go. So, yeah, I feel you're on that. Yeah, so I think, but I do think I mean, I buy stuff on eBay to and I do think there's, there are a lot of sellers, where you look at the photos, and they look, you know, they need to look a little bit better. Oh, let's on the floor next to their dog or whatever. I mean, yeah. So far, and you can't see the color or, you know, it's like and you're looking through souls, and you're like, How in the world did this sell? Picture like, and maybe they have five words in their title dish with duck on it or something like that. And it's terrible. The lighting is terrible. It's blurry. And somehow it sells. Yeah. And it's just you want to talk to both the buyer and the seller. Like okay, what happened here? Yeah, yes. Yeah. So You have that photography background, which is definitely a plus when you come to eBay. Yeah, I mean, I think so. Yeah. And I, what I liked about selling stuff on eBay, I think because I was so burnt out on just dealing with brides and like mothers of brides made brides zealous and moms villas. Yeah, I mean, I had great I, for the most part, I had really great clients. But I just was like, it's so nice to just work with objects for the most part. And I mean, you know, when it came, you know, you get messages from buyers, and sometimes there's difficult buyers. But for the most part, I would say, like 99.8% of, you know, transactions go really smoothly. And, you know, most people are great on eBay. It's, I mean, many people leave feedback. And you know, when you hear the horror stories, because that's what people when you're upset about something, you want to tell everybody, hey, this happened. I need some sympathy, I need some advice, or whatever. And you don't hear about the millions and millions of transactions that were perfect. You. Yeah, I agree. Have you ever heard of Pareto Principle? It's, like 80. It's the 8020 rule. Oh, it is. You know, and, and I remember this with my photography business, because I would focus on the small percentage of people who were kind of difficult. And I had to remind myself, I need to focus on the 80%, or, you know, or more who were really great, really great clients. And I feel like the same is true with eBay, you really have to, you know, most transactions, you know, most of the transactions go by super smoothly, well, and with an online business, you have the time and space to step back and say, Okay, take the emotion out of it, what's the best thing to say here be professional care about the buyer, they want to be heard, where if you're in the middle of a wedding shoot, you've got the mother having a meltdown over here, you have to deal with it right then on the spot, you have the luxury of stepping away and figuring it out. And also with photography. Photographing objects, as you say, they don't move. You put them where you want them, and they stay there. They don't complain. They don't have to go fix their makeup or their hair or whatever it is that their flowers aren't the right color or, you know, it's just you know, objects are, are a nice break from people sometimes because they just, they don't talk back. And you leave it there and come back tomorrow. And it's everything's the same. I stopped taking pictures. Like I'm tired of it. I want to go do something else. And I'll just leave it right there. Turn off the light. And it's waiting for me tomorrow. Exactly. So yeah, well, let's hear about some more things that you sold because you sent me a pretty long list. I did I know. I want you to pick out what you think the listeners want to hear because that is their favorite part. Like what sells Okay, so something that I've never heard anyone say on your podcast is so I live in the Pacific Northwest and I find a lot of Native American items. And so I you know, I end up selling a lot of Native American items. If you and I think a lot of people are confused about it, if you can find a signature on an item or like if you're selling Native American jewelry, most of it not most, but a lot of it is signed and you can figure out who who the artist is, you know, you just can Google like silver marks and go so I sell a lot of that um, I sell a lot of there's a lot of Pacific Northwest coastal, like so I will find a lot of totem poles totem poles. I will buy and sell any totem pole I find. They are there's just huge collectors of totem poles they'll they'll sell really fast um, and I also one of the one of the better Sellers was I bought a Native American wolf mask once and I was able to figure out it was from the macaw tribe. Anyway, it was the scariest that was the scariest looking mask. I mean it's that some of these masks are really frightening looking and it was interesting because my husband and I were we go up to Whistler Canada a lot worse gears and we we ended up walking through this gallery once and we saw all this my husband's like, Oh, that looks like that mask that you bought and We went in the gallery and there was one, one of those masks that was I mean, it was much more elaborate than the one I had. And it was selling for $28,000. And so yeah, these masks if you can find them. So that was a lot more. I think mine sold. Can't remember, that was a few years back. But I think it's sold between 350 and 650. So that was, yeah, and my husband swore that. You know, that one Brady Bunch episode when they go to Hawaii, where they find the little guy, the little statue? It's bad luck. Yeah. So at the same at the time, we had that mask, our dog got cancer, and my husband's like, You got to get rid of that that wolf mask. That's bad. Like, gosh, like it's bad luck. Okay. Okay. So I just quickly looked up the Native American policy on eBay. It's called artifacts and K formations policy, and I won't read all this. But for the listeners, you can Google that. But it's, there are very specific things you can and cannot sell. And like you can't put in your title. It's keyword spamming. You can't put Native American if it's not, like Yeah, yeah. Like, you can style the contract. So you find something that signed, you can often figure out what tribe that person is from so and so. Yeah, so artwork, like, I'll find paintings or drawings, things like that. So I found that there are better sellers than others. So let's see. The pottery Native American pottery is doesn't sell as well as some of the textiles I've sold. Like, these little carpets are their horse blankets. Blankets. Yeah, I actually have one for sale right now I found at a garage sale was like, a little blanket. What is this for? Yeah, says on it saddle blanket. So yeah, and um, yeah, you can tell the Native American ones versus the ones that are like Mexican, by the, by the corners, by the they have these little salvage chords. So if it has fringe all the way across, I believe that that is not Native American. But if it has the little, you know, in the corners, the little salvage chords, then that is like, I think that the tribe is Chimayo. Or I might be saying this. Yeah, I might not be pronouncing this right. But um, anyway, I that I found out because I went to garage sale. And this, this man had a vintage store. And he was he was older. And he said he just retired and just brought everything home and had it for years. So I bought a big stack of blankets from him. Okay, so those were good sellers. So I just looked at my saddle blanket in my store. And it's El Paso. So that's totally not native. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot that are from the southwest or from Yeah, from Mexico that are not so. Yeah, I mean, the ones that I sold, I believe that they were he had told me they were from like, the 1930s to the 1950s. And those sold for for a decent amount. So So where are you finding these Native American items? Um, I find them at I so I don't go to like thrift stores. And I only go to I go to garage sales. And I go to a state sales. And for a long time, for the past few years, I've mostly gone to this one through this one estate sale company. And they I'm so sad. They closed their doors this year. Oh, no. They were I just I loved going through that estate sale company because they would just make a huge pile. And and then they would do it at the end. They the woman who ran it. I just loved working with her. I loved her customers. Like there was like a whole crowd of us that were at every sale of hers. And so the only thing is she would just let you know, two days before the sale. And I was like, great. And so most of the people, I'm 51 but most of the people were, you know, retired and a lot older than I am. So because they you know, they had flexible schedules and but she'd always just let us know about the sales two days ahead of time. And it was just the same group of us all the time. And I knew, like I knew Dennis was there for the records and I knew, you know, Sandy and then there's some more Woman I call her my Russian Nemesis and I never got her name. So, um, but you know, there was just a group of us, like most of the men were there for the tools. And so I loved going to that estate sale company, because the owner would I made, I would just make a huge pile. And at the end of it, she'd say, Okay, be honest, she'd say, let me know what you think, what do you want to pay? And so I would just throw out a number. And usually I'd pay her like, you know, $100, or 200. And what I learned over time is, the more I got, the better it would be, because I'm, so I would just get as much as possible. So I usually go through the whole house several times. And because sometimes I would see stuff, because if you're trying to go fast and get stuff before everyone else, you're just grabbing the good stuff first. And then the second or third time I go through the house, I kind of just look more deeply. And so I would actually spend hours at her sale. And one of one of her employees once said to me, you're the best Looker that we have. And I bet she was complimenting my looks. I was like, well, thank you, you're so attractive. And you're like, they're like, No, you. She said, No, what I mean is you look through everything. So at one sale, she said, somebody lost their keys, and if anyone's gonna find them, you're gonna find, yeah, that's great. And so but anyway, I, yeah, I, I loved the sales, because it gave me a chance to kind of take risks and learn about different things. And then, and I kind of have a process where so I take everything home. And I like I said, I tried to get as much as possible, and take everything home. And then I would immediately look things up and sort them. And so I would make a big pile to immediately get donated, like because that once I would look it over, I'd look for any flaws or so I make a pile for donation aid that either immediately goes back to a thrift store or I'm pretty active on my buy nothing group. So I'm constantly listing stuff on the Buy Nothing group. So, um, and it's just really neat to, I really love to give to that group. Because, you know, I have like, I gave a cookbook away to that group once since someone said, it was like vintage Louisiana. Recipes, like from the bayou or whatever. And very obscure, yeah, and this woman was like, I'm making copies for all my grandkids. These are great recipes. And it's really rewarding to like, give stuff to that group. And, um, yeah, so, um, and I think one thing that's pretty recent, that has really revolutionized the way I list is Google Images. And now because a lot of stuff, I buy it, and I have no idea what it is, I'm just like, this looks interesting. And you know, and just bring it all home. And sometimes like, oh, I have the biggest death pile. I know. You're like Don't? Don't, you know, all depends. I have this model, because I don't like to leave things behind either. You know, yeah. Get it because it might not be there when you come back. Exactly. So yeah, I tried to. So I try to go through, I write everything down. And then I, and then I kind of go, I do all the research and write down what things sell for. And then I just kind of highlight the stuff that sells for the most. And I list the stuff that sells for the most first so that I can I do. I can make my money back as you know, as I evaluate my haul, and then I'm like, Okay, we're going to start with the most expensive thing and work down. Yeah. Because that's still in five minutes, and then you've made your money back. Yeah. And I've had stuff in my pile that I didn't know what it was, before. I had, like, discovered Google Images. And I actually do Google Images. And I'm like, oh, like I had something that I had in that pile for over a year. And then I'm like, Well, what exactly is this and I did Google Images and I it was called, it was from a company called collider vision. So it was like this kaleidoscope kit. I listed it. And I when I looked it up, I'm like, Oh, they sell for you know 200 250 And so I listed it and I got an offer, like within I think within a day for $200 that had been sitting in my pile for over a year because I wasn't quite sure what it was. And so right. So that was kind of exciting. But yeah, the one thing I would say I know sells for a lot but I have a hard time selling or getting listed is flatware sets. I have so many flatware sets because whenever I would go to this estate sale, I immediately grabbed the flatware because most flatware sets sell between, you know, 50 to 200. So, so immediately, I grabbed the flatware unless I would see it was like Ikea flatware or something like that, but even IKEA flatware sells but they can Yeah, if it's Oneida, um, and if you find the cube on the back, Oneida flatware sells for a lot. So, but yeah, I sell because of going to this one a state sale through this one a state sale company so much. You know, I've learned about a lot of different areas like home decor, like glass, kitchen items, textiles, the one area I don't sell a lot in is clothing. I don't do a lot of clothing. So that's okay. You don't have to. Yeah, and it's because I, you know, I don't like I actually will set up like a big studio when I do clothing and it's kind of a pain. So anytime I get clothing, I have to set it aside and I can't say why I like it so much. I just like working with it. Yeah, I just like, the whole time I'm working with it. I'm thinking, Oh, this is so beautiful. Somebody's just gonna love this, this feels so wonderful. This cashmere is so luxurious, someone's really going to enjoy this. And that's where my head is the whole time with clothing is like, Oh, somebody's gonna love that. And so that's, that is my, my playtime is listing stuff, you know? Because I do all these other things. And so it's like, Okay, today, it's all about me and listing. And yeah. So, but going back to finding a favorite estate sale company, I think that's really important to like, the way they run the sales and the like the people. I've gotten more into that this year. And there's one company that I really like, they don't have them every weekend. And you go to one, they'll they'll tell you when the next one is. And here's a tip, if the next one's not for like three weeks, it's gonna have a lot of stuff. They give themselves time to go through and organize. And there are what I call more junkier than others that so many of the companies are going to this boutique look. It's it's like where's all stuff? I feel like I'm in a hotel lobby, like there's art, and there's vases. And there's furniture. Where's where's the junk? Yeah, I like digging through that and looking through the boxes and going in the basement, like what's in here. And so that company that I like the most does that. And they negotiate with you starting on the second day, same thing you said, just bring them your stuff, and they'll give you a price or you you negotiate. So I love at first I was like, Oh man, you're not having another one for three weeks. And they'll be like, Oh, but it's gonna be a doozy. You want to come to that. So I'm like, Okay, you just got to pace yourself. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. I also love family run estate sales, too. But that can be hit or miss because people, like I've gone to certain ones where they're like, Oh, well, this figurine is $200 because I looked it up on. And then I'll be like, well, how much is that little, you know, that? throw rocks box or recipes? Or that box of postcards? 50 cents. Exactly. So, so you have to just know how to navigate those. Right? Yeah, I mean, it's, they think, in garage sales, too. And they've got the eBay printout next to the item. And it's a baby monitor, and they want $50 for it. And I'm like, I have that card with my eye. It's called Cash for stuff. And contact information on like, well, here's my card. When you're done with your sale, and you still have this. Let me know and I'll negotiate. I'll buy it. Some of your leftovers. You know, and because good luck with that at a garage sale. You get that? Yeah, because it's all and they have an active listing, not a completed listing. completely clueless about how to find comps on eBay. We are there's Phil just Google the item and then you know, here it is on Mercari. Here it is on, you know, Amazon, whatever and they just do that printout like okay, yep, that's nice. And I'm like, Yeah, you pretty much don't know what you're doing. Yeah, they get to you, but no, you're clueless. I got really into going to garage sales during COVID Like because yeah, it was. So I went to You know, during COVID things, like, I think people were so bored and everything was selling. And then there were no sales. There was nothing for a while. And our state was, so Washington State was, I don't know, if you, you remember, like, you know, there was that nursing home that had the outbreak. Your state was pretty strict as far as it was, because that's where, like ground zero for COVID All the rules were like your state was the poster child for COVID spreading. Exactly. So I, and I think that's what made me become like a, like, I've have a huge desk death pile after that, because I'm like, I don't want ever run out of stuff again. And so, um, but yeah, I was selling everything. And then there were no sales. And so I, someone had posted a sale, this was like, probably like June of 2020. And they said, I'm just have like, a garage full of stuff, and I'm gonna keep the doors open, and people can just come and everything is free. And it was, it was like, 45 minutes away. And I drove, I was like, I'm so bored. I drove there. And I got to her garage, and I walked through the whole thing. And I'm like, everything was there wasn't anything that I wanted. And she was like, it's free. And I'm like, No, it's free. i There wasn't anything I wanted. And she, she's like, You have to take something. And I was like, really? And so I walked around it again. And I found this box full of Bibles. And I, and I think I had remembered someone on the scavenger life podcast talking about Bibles once. So I, I was like, Okay, I'll just I'm like, should I, I'll just take this box of Bibles just like fine, everything is going to be donated. And so I took that, and I don't know if it was because it was COVID. But those Bibles, they were from the 1930s. And they were all these Catholic catechisms. And, I don't know, they were like, from the 1930s 1940s leather Bibles, and they sold like hotcakes those. And so that's something that I always buy now. And I've learned that it's really the leather ones that people want not just I mean, I will sell other Bibles. But the leather ones are the Yeah, you do have to choose carefully, because it's not just oh, pick up any Bible. You see, it has started. And Eileen Cole and Suzanne Kean are two that come to mind that, that know about this. We need to have a Bible episode. You know, it's all about how old is it? And is it a leather bound? And is there writing in it? You know, is there like a family tree in it? And is that important? And all the different versions and like the the Catechism ones, and it's very overwhelming to me, because I don't know what to pick? Yeah. Yeah, I know, one guy. I did sell one Bible, and I did not see the writing in it. And this guy wrote me a message saying, you know, all the parts that they underlined, were not the right parts. And this guy was very upset about it. Isn't it open to interpretation? Just have your buddy back. The person who owned this did it wrong? Yeah. That's pretty funny. Okay, let's segue into what I'm gonna call the glassware teaser. But you can tell us some things and then we can go into more depth on a future episode. Okay, so I won't say that. I'm a Glassware expert, but I do sell a lot of glassware. And, um, anyway, I in our air area, glassy babies are made in our area. So maybe it was Candace. Yep, they're made in Seattle. So I do find a decent amount of them at garage sales. So I hate you. I have never found one. I always look I look with the shot glasses. I look with the candles. I like where might they put them? Because people in this part of the country aren't familiar with what they are. Yeah. No, but the people stocking the shelves of the thrift stores. They don't know. Well, I, you know, I picked one up at an estate sale. This was probably about seven years ago. And I have one sister who's really into collecting, collecting them. And you know, a lot of a lot of people in the Northwest have them. They're very popular here. And so I swore I looked it up on eBay, and I didn't I think I misspelled something and I'm like, Oh, I guess people outside this area don't earn into them. And so I didn't, I just bought it for my sister. And I think I paid $5 for that one. And, um, and so, but I went to another sale and I looked him up more recently. This is like in the last two years and anyway, yeah, I've sold. I got one at a garage sale. I think someone sold it to me for $1 and it was one of the more rare ones that one sold for I think 300. So, ya know, now whenever I see him, I just I just snap, snap him up because so those are they're easy to find here in this area. So that's in one of my bolo books glassy baby candles, guys that I saw that yeah 32nd what they are for people that have never heard of this, their little glass votives I think they're about three or four inches tall. And I'm, and I'm trying to remember what the logo looks like on the bottom, you'll have to, like, look up what the logo is. But yeah, they're a little photos that you put candles inside, and they have them in all different colors. And so yeah, and and each, you know, different ones symbolize different things like some can symbolize friendship, or birthdays or love. Um, so anyway, those are, that's a good seller, it's a good easy thing to find in the northwest. There's a story behind it. And I'm going to just refer to my book here that it's in the 2022 bolo book. So it's on page 34. For those of you that have your books, you can get them out look at them. And handblown artisan glass candles and glassware. And didn't it start in a community that wanted to do something with all the glass because it's no longer profitable to recycle glass. So it might have and I think a certain percentage goes towards cancer, cancer, either cancer research or so I think that's why one of my sisters, actually two of my sisters had breast cancer. So that's why, you know, they're, they can be really popular for that reason, as well. Another type of glass that I find a lot and then you can find is Waterford, or fours. A lot of I'm trying to think of all the Tiffiny so around like the fine crystal Exactly. So you can find, you know, paperweights, vases, pitchers like spirits decanters, so, I feel like the Waterford doesn't sell as much as it used to. And same with like the orrefors. So, Waterford is from Ireland initially so and then but they don't make it in Ireland. I don't think anymore and, and then orrefors is Swedish. I think it's O R, E, F, o r s, and, and there's, there's a lot that's like Scandinavian. So in our area, there's a lot of Scandinavian so I do find a lot of that Scandinavian glass. And then there's Italian glass, which is usually Murano glass. And I find most Murano is not marked. Sometimes you can find labels, and sometimes it's signed, but I think it would be really good for people to identify themselves with Murano glassware. And like you can, and that's copied a lot. There's a lot of Murano glass that that looks like Murano glass, but it's actually from China. My sister and I traveled there years ago and we went to Morocco and you know, you take a little ferry across and you can see them blowing glass. It's really cool. So yeah, I have some friends that just seemed like everyone I know went to Italy this year, everyone but me. Morocco is so beautiful. And it's it looked has a certain look. Yeah, yep. And so And there's different types. You know, you can see some with these canes that are like twisted and I think they call it ladders see No, or it's probably pronounced totally differently than that. But um, so you know, it's pretty good to me. It's probably like less Chino or something like that, but someone will tell us trust me all the time you pronounce this wrong. And it's like, no, I just throw myself to the wolves sometimes and just Yeah. And then and then there's a lot of American glass American made glass. There's stupid and and I've sold some of this probably the wrong pronunciation too. It's called Quetzal, and that is glass. Like they do lampshades. And so you see these, it's called like pulled feather designs. And, um, and that was probably one of my best sellers on eBay was I had these three catesol lampshades. I actually went to an estate sale and I had said to the person running the sale and this was not the same company that I worked with. This is years ago. I said if I buy them all will you give me a deal on them and so they I bought all the lampshades and they were stupid and cuts all but I sold three together. I think I sold those for 750 but Hmm, yeah, for the three. And they were, what did they call them, they were like very pearly. And then they have this beautiful pulled feather like these green pulled feather design. And I can't remember if it was that that design period, I believe is from like, 1890 to 1920. And it's beautiful. And it was interesting because that estate sale was one of the more unpleasant estate sales because I, I got there, I took a ferry over to to get to that sale. And I got up at like, four in the morning to get there. And they had they had so much amazing glassware at that one. And, and I had called the company beforehand, saying, I'll buy my bottom all if you give me a deal. And they said, Okay, and so I got into the house, I pulled all the glass to me, and I kind of had it all in front of me in a table. And and a guy came up and just grabbed a lampshade. And I said excuse me, that's mine. And he said it's mine now. And and then. Yeah, and he saw so they had $130 price sticker on it and, and he said well not for that price. And he slammed it down and I'm like, watch out. These are antique. I was so annoyed. You know. So sometimes there's classes REITs bad. Yeah. And so, but anyway, I ended up buying it all. I think I bought it for 100 apiece. So my profit wasn't as much but it was still really good for and but anyway, yeah. Yeah, though, I think that the maker was called Quetzal like qu e z EY, L, M, okay. And that was signed kits, all like on the, on the rim. And then there's more modern glass or glass from like the 1950s on in the US. So, and the big glass designer is in our area is to huli Dale to Hooli. And I actually found it to Hooli at a garage sale. And I didn't realize that it was a truly because I in my head, I was like you can't find it to Hooli at a garage sale. And so but I saw it, it was signed. And so usually if I see glasses signed, and I don't see any chips, or I'll buy it and so, and it was interesting, because at that garage sale, I got there. So all usually if I'm going out to garage sales, I'll make a list and I'll just go from sale to sale to sale. So I got to the sale at like two in the afternoon. So it was late in the day. And I was thinking I'm not gonna find anything here. And I bought this, I found this beautiful little vase. And I thought it looks like to Hulu, but of course it's not to Hooli. And anyway, but I saw it was signed, and had a $10 sticker on there. And I negotiated and I said would you take $7 And the woman said, Well, you know, it could be a Hooley. And I'm like, if it was a jeweler, you'd know. And so really, but I saw a signature, but I was in my head, I'm like, it's not a totally and, and I brought it home. And so in our garage, I have all my inventory in the garage. And because we have earthquakes here, I set up our garage with these big shelves, and I have the shelves hammered to the walls just in case. So it was just on the shelf in the garage and and I photographed it and listed it like about a month after I got it. And I posted it on a message board saying I can't figure out the signature Can anyone and I thought it was a certain artist. And people said that's to Hooli and I'm like it's not totally like it can't be totally so someone had pointed me too to Hoolies. They just said why don't you contact their studio. So I contacted the to Hooli studio in Seattle. And they said, We don't authenticate. But there's this woman Her name was Kate. They said, we'll send you to this woman. So I contacted her. She used to be delta police assistant, and she works with the Department of Homeland Security or she had because there's a lot of fakes that come in from China. And she said it's $500 to authenticate. And I'm like, well, let's Yeah, and I'm like for $7 apiece. I'm not going to do that. And so she said just between you and me that's a real to Hawaii, like that one's real. And how do you spell that? c h i h u l y? Holy I thought you were saying with a T but it's the CH a hard CH sound Julie? Yeah, he's okay. The artists that if you go yes, he's very famous. Yeah, go to Las Vegas like the ceiling of the Bellagio. It's all daily. So but anyway, and I just thought there's no way you could find this in, you know, at a garage sale and so, but she said it is a to Hooli. And I actually didn't sell that on eBay. She referred me to an auction house in New Jersey. So I went through rego auction house and worked with a woman who was on antiques roadshow. And it sold for. Yeah, and it sold for $1,500. For you, I just looked this up, because now I know you're talking about and some of his work reminds me of that scene and Sweet Home Alabama, where they stick the rods in the sand. And then the lightning hits him and it just makes these shapes like these. These curly Q thing. Exactly. Yeah. No, he has like a whole see form series. And, you know, there's a there's a museum in Seattle, and I think wanted to comb my hair, you know? So yeah, it's really very funky, I guess abstract looking. There's lots of light fixtures that are Yep. And, and there's a really, there's an I was I was Googling this and trying to spell what you were saying. And I was like, nothing's coming up. How do you spell that? So yeah, okay, good. That was probably one of my but that didn't sell on eBay. So I was a little bit nervous about selling that one on eBay, just because. And it was interesting because the auction house, they they do a glass auction every year. And they had I signed a contract with them that they would put that in there. And I mailed it off to them. And they asked me to step out of the auction, because this was they valued at it between one and 2000. And they were selling pieces that were about 188,000. You know, that's and so this was kind of too small for them. And but they said by because they signed the contract, they were obligated to have it in there. And they said it's up to you. And I said no, I want to keep it in there. Because I thought for people who don't get those big, you know, $188,000 pieces that they wanted, I wanted them to get little pieces for their bathroom or right. This was just a tiny little thing. So um, anyway, that was kind of it was fun. So um, we've bout run out of time, and you've just barely touched on glassware. But I do want to ask you what is the most expensive thing the highest price thing you've sold on eBay? On Ebay. I think it was probably those the kits, all lampshades, and either that or I did sell so that was 750. But my profit wasn't as high because I paid 100 apiece for those. So I think next would be I do a lot of jewelry. And I sold a necklace that was it was an Italian necklace. It was 14 karat gold that I got at a garage sale for$1. It looked like costume jewelry. And it was 14 karat gold. And it had like this little Spartans carved into so it had like green glass. And I believe it was like Carnelian. And it had like these carvings in it and had like a Lapis. So it was green and Lapis. And so I think it might have been either Jade or trying to remember what the other it wasn't Jade. But anyway, it was I think that sold for 550. So that was good, good profit. And it was $1. And it was $1. So I try to keep the things that I buy at. I don't spend a lot for things. Because you never know if they're gonna sell. So yeah, I hear you on that. Yeah, I was looking at my inventory the other day. And I'm like, you know, if everything sold in one day, what I haven't priced at, I would make this much money. And yeah, Dream on. That would be nice. But you know, it didn't work like that I sold. So today I've had for two years. It's like, I didn't give up on it. Finally, you just have to have patience. Well, I found out about an estate sale company in our area that is doing selling everything through Mac sold, because I think a lot of the estate sale companies now during COVID they switch their models and they're not doing as many in person sales. Right. And I and I think part of that is also because people break into the houses in our area, there's a lot of theft, and so they don't want to list the addresses. So a lot of them will come in and just grab all the inventory and sell it. And there was one estate sale company that does partial estate. So because I got so much stuff this year, because I knew this company was going out of business. I mean I just went I went for broke at the sales and I have such a big death pile that my husband's like why don't you just bring it all to that one estate sale company and just get rid of it all? But I'm like put it I'll get as much for I can do and it's just gonna take a while. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, if only Yeah, I must have. I think I probably have 30 flatware sets that I haven't listed yet. And I know they'll sell. But I just that's the one thing that I, I buy, and it takes me forever to list is the flatware sets just because I don't know. I mean, it's not that hard to list them but for some reason I'm just like, oh yeah, I have things like that. It's just I dragged my feet and I keep putting it aside, I'm gonna do these other things. I'll get to that later. But the whole buying online I know a lot of people do it on online estate sales and goodwill online and everything but I think it's just the hunter gatherer in me, I like to go in person and just see like, on like, other people are looking at it and, and negotiate my price. And, exactly, I felt I feel very defeated, trying to do it online, because I lose so much like, yeah, I didn't get that one. I didn't get that thing. I feel like it's, it's, it's discouraging. But when you go in person, you always seem to come out with things, you know. But I'm tempted to take all my inventory and just have them sell it all and and start over. But then I'm like, well, then what would I do? And so I feel my days if I don't have the list? Yeah, exactly. And then you would go out in the world, and you might find things that somebody bought from you that's in their garage sale. Okay, well, um, you have just been a wealth of information. I really appreciate you being patient and getting this recording done. Because you haven't on my list for a while. Yeah, it was really fun. And I can't believe an hour went by really fast. So what we're going to do is maybe put a post on the Facebook group about, you know, glassware questions, because we didn't touch on any of the vintage glass, depression, glass, Carnival, glass, all that stuff. What is it uranium, glass, Vaseline, glass, all that. I have to say that type of glass that pressed glass is not my forte. That is not, I tend to do more blown blown glass. Okay. Well, we can we can talk further, you and I and figure out. I would like to put some questions out to the group. Because people do shy away from glassware. It all looks the same. I don't know what to pick. I'm afraid to ship it. You know, can you sell it if it has a chip in it? All those kinds of things that people ask all the time. That's why I put out a call for glassware people, because we think about it. And I'd like to learn so I can recognize it out in the world. Because there's plenty of it out there. So we'll just have you come back on in the future and talk more about that. So sounds good. Thank you so much for coming on. And we will look for more of your amazing sales on the group. All right. Well, thank you for having me. This has been a lot of fun. Good. Okay. Bye. Bye. Bye. What a pleasure to have you on the show Chari. Thanks for taking the time to chat. Now on to today's trivia question. Khari mentioned Murano glass which has a rich history. Why are the glass factories on Murano Island? Here's a few seconds to think it over. Okay, glassmaking existed since the 10th century in Venice, and has been operating continuously since then. Glass was one of the renaissances most wished for treasures. Glass at one point in history was extremely luxurious and a valuable commodity available only to the rich and wealthy people. In 1291, the Venice government banned the furnaces from Central Venice, and moved them to the island of Murano. This was due to the fear of fire in the wooden structures of a crowded Venice city, and also to isolate the master glassblowers. To prevent their sharing valuable glassmaking secrets. The glass blowers became virtual prisoners on Murano, where the penalties for divulging glassblowing secrets could in include death. So when you visit Murano, you take a ferry over to the island, so that's why it's there. Okay, next week's guests are Toby and Colleen, a dynamic duo husband and wife team who are also traveling medics. They have figured out how to craft their eBay business around their regular jobs and have sold some really fascinating items. So you don't want to miss that episode. Thank you listeners for spending the last hour with us and I will talk to you next week. Bye for now