eBay the Right Way

eBay Seller Chat with Dawn in Kansas: Reselling and Sibling Rivalry - Sisters Have Healthy & Fun Competition 🏆

• Suzanne A. Wells • Episode 196

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Suzanne Wells:

Music. Hello, everybody out there in podcast land. This is episode number 196, of eBay the right way. Today's date is December 18, 2024 and my guest today is dawn in Kansas. Announcements, just a reminder, if you didn't already see it, last week, I posted my sales update video on YouTube. That is where I show you items that actually sold, as well as my numbers for the previous month. And I'm proud to say that November 2024 was a record breaker for me. My sales were up 143% and I sold 90 items. I've been working long hours to rebuild my store, and I'm quite pleased with the results. I'm putting myself out there as a poster child for what's possible. So check out that video to see what I sold, as well as items I bought and listed since the last sales update video, I'm venturing into many new realms with all sorts of items and really delving into collectibles, since that's where the money is, okay. Now let's meet dawn. Hello listeners, welcome back. I have dawn with us today, and Dawn is another long time online eBay friend that we're finally getting to meet face to face on Zoom. Anyway. So how are you doing this morning? Dawn,

Unknown:

I'm doing great. Thank you.

Suzanne Wells:

Good and tell us where you're located.

Unknown:

I am located in Wichita, Kansas. Okay, the Midwest,

Suzanne Wells:

and what is your weather light this morning?

Unknown:

Well, behind me, I have my fireplace on first time. So it is just hitting in the 30s. It's beautiful, beautiful, sunny day. So it looks a little deceptive when I look outdoor, but yes, it's in the 30s this morning, so it'll probably warm up.

Suzanne Wells:

So I'm in the south, and it's, it's in the 40s right now, and that's cold for us.

Unknown:

Yeah, I know it is, you seem for us, that's still shorts weather.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, yeah. What is that outfit that they talk about out there in the Midwest? It's like a sweatshirt and cargo shorts and flip flops and that kind of goes any day moving

Unknown:

that pretty much does not, I wouldn't say for me all the time, but yes, I mean that that is a common something you will see often here, right there people that are COVID and do that even when it's snowing. I would not, but yes, some people do the shorts and then wear a heavy coat. So, you know, I think

Suzanne Wells:

I heard somebody call the polar duck. Have you ever heard that?

Unknown:

I haven't. I haven't, but it makes sense.

Suzanne Wells:

Maybe that was an Illinois thing. I don't know, but that was like a standard uniform. Okay, well, let's dive into what brought you to eBay. How long have you been selling and all those details? Yeah.

Unknown:

Okay, great. So I've been selling on ebay consistently since July of 2020, so not terribly long. I sold a little bit here and there. You know, just kind of one off stuff previously on eBay. But you know, nothing consistently. I had watched for a long time and listened and tried to learn. Because I'm like, I know people are making money and are doing this. I know they are. So I just needed the way my brain works, right? I have to kind of process things and figure things out, and then once I do, I'm full on very So, yeah, yeah. So it was, you know, of course, right after COVID, I had was diagnosed with cancer, breast cancer in 2018 oh, well, thank you, but I'm doing well. So I kind of went through all of that and and, you know, the treatments in the chemo. Aviation, blah, blah, blah, and you know, that kind of puts you in a different headspace. And then in 2019 my sister and I do eBay together. She lives in a different city than me, about two hours away that we are very competitive with each other, so she started shortly after me, and so it's just her and I in the family. But our mother passed in 2019 right before COVID hit. So now it's good. She had a long life. She was 91 so she had a good life, but it was kind of sudden, and so of course, then we were left with 60 years of accumulation of a home that we had to go through. I wish I would say, in retrospect, we should have sold a lot of it on eBay, but I think, as you've talked about before in your podcasts, right? It's just you're in a different state of mind during that when it's your own parent, right? Yes, and you have to deal with an estate, it's just a bit overwhelming. So we did kind of a little state sale. We sold some things, one off, wish we, like I said, wish we would have been more into eBay at the time to understand what we were doing and take some of those items. But, you know, that's the way it goes. So that's kind of where, you know, then COVID, and I think I just probably had a little bit more time and time to think and all these things that just happened. And I'm like, I'm just going to do it

Suzanne Wells:

well. And that is, that is a lot on you those two years 19, it was a

Unknown:

lot, but it happens, right?

Suzanne Wells:

So, right. And I heard something the other day that I'm going to start saying is, you know, everybody goes through stuff, and sometimes you just you have multiple things on you, on your plate that are just hard. And so you say to yourself, well, you know, I have a 100% success rate of getting through hard things.

Unknown:

That's right, that's right. I like that. I like that. I have to remember that, yes,

Suzanne Wells:

because we get through it, regardless of how you'd get through it, or what you do, or what decisions you make, you get through it, yep. So you do, yeah, I'm kind of That's right. My dad still and in the hospital, and he and his I'm sorry that mom of almost 40 years, they live in a it's one of those communities. It's like a campus with different levels of care. So they're in the independent living right now, but that's about to come to an end, and they're going to be moved to the assisted living 88 she's 86 and it's, yeah, it's time. The family. I have four. There's four of us on my side, and then three step siblings, and so we're all on this group chat text thing even going on, and the ones that live in Atlanta are handling a lot of it. But you know, now we're talking about, Okay, what about their stuff, right? And it's a lot they care about anything. He's like, he's already figured it out, you know, gotten rid of stuff. Or, you know, I want this daughter to have these books, and this daughter to have that whatever. But our stepmom is very much identify it with her things, yes. So, like, they're like, Yeah, we gotta figure out how to do this. And I said, Well, let me give you one tip from having worked with a lot of people who are in this situation, is just don't put things in a storage unit, because you will never get them out, you know, figure out, you know, touch it once, donate it, give it to someone, store it in your own basement, something like that. Because, you know, that's the the knee jerk reaction is, oh, let's just put it in storage and deal with it later, yeah. And then later never comes, yeah. And

Unknown:

unfortunately, my sister and I, we did on a part of it. We do have a small storage unit. We've met one time to go through it, and then we need to meet again. But like you said, it just keeps getting right. She's busy. I'm busy. I have to go there. It's just right, trying to make it? Yeah, I mean, second part, I don't want

Suzanne Wells:

to judge anybody. I've just worked with a lot of people that want to learn eBay to sell their parents stuff because they and they don't know. Nobody in the family wants it, and collectors do want it. So, right? And it's just over. Overwhelming sometimes when you gotta go to that storage unit and you just don't even know where to start, yeah, and so I'm like, Okay, first thing you see or touch deal with that. Just don't make it complicated. You don't have to have a process. Just start and do one thing and do another thing and do one box and do another box, and just keep going, and you'll get there, but it is very overwhelming. So I do first, um, should I we clean the whole thing?

Unknown:

It's just emotional, yeah, yeah.

Suzanne Wells:

And then

Unknown:

I can go through other stuff, no problem. But you know, when it's your parents and the memories come back, it's, it's just an emotional,

Suzanne Wells:

absolutely, yes, and you have to take a little meltdown break and sit to the side and just have your emotions. Everybody has their emotions. Everybody grieves differently. It takes, you know, different time periods. But you know, I I feel you on on that. But so is that the reason you started eBay in 2020,

Unknown:

you know the reason I, I really think it was all of those things together. It was not because we were selling my mother's things. That is not why I think I went through COVID. So with my work, I was home. I, like I said, I had been researching for quite a while, because I just want, really wanted, I've always sold things, flipped things. My family, my parents were older parents, so they came were born in the Depression, so collectibles and things like that, right, were always part of the fabric of our family. And I think I just right, had time, and I have been through these things, and I just am like, I just want to do this for me, right? Was just kind of my thing on my, you know, myself. It wasn't because I necessarily needed the money. It wasn't I just, I wanted to do my thing. I wanted to see if I can make it work. I love the thrill of the hunt. I love learning. I love the research, the listing part,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, you know, I get through

Unknown:

because I have to, right? Obviously, have to list to sell. But you know, I love learning about all of the it's just fascinating to me, right? Yeah, the history of things, or even just the thinking about, why would somebody buy this? You know, even if it's not, I tend to like to do vintage items. I will sell anything. I don't have to do vintage I will do anything. But, you know, I lean towards, I do love vintage items. But even things that aren't vintage, some things I'm like, why would anybody buy this, you know. But so I just find it fascinating the way

Suzanne Wells:

people's minds, and the only way you're going to know why would anybody buy this is to ask that buyer, yeah, after they leave feedback, if they do, or after they receive it, he could just say, Hey, we're real curious why you bought this. It helps us be a better seller and see what they say. There's nothing wrong with that.

Unknown:

Yeah, so

Suzanne Wells:

it's enlightening why I

Unknown:

don't know that there's a real, concrete reason other than I had just right, wanted to for a long time to kind of give it a try and figure out how I can do it in a business sense, you know, make kind of a little business out of it, part time. And so I figured I'm going to try it and see they're going to work or it's not very

Suzanne Wells:

good. Now, you mentioned your full time job. What do you do there? Yes,

Unknown:

yes, I work in labor relations. I work for a general aviation aircraft company, right? We build planes business, turgor crops, for defense. And so I work on the labor relations side of it, which is dealing with the bargaining unit, the union, the contract that we have with them. So yeah, that's what I do in my full time job. Do

Suzanne Wells:

you have a degree in communications, or I have a

Unknown:

I have a bachelor's degree in business administration, and then I have a master's degree in leadership and global management. Okay, so, yeah, so I went back and received my master's degree in 2013 that's also kind of fine. Funny, right? I go to school to do all this, and then what I really want to do is Ebay.

Suzanne Wells:

I hear that all the time. I. Lawyers, doctors, yeah, there's stress, high level, high earning jobs, and a lot of them come to eBay. You know, you get burned out, yep, with all that serious work. And eBay is just fun.

Unknown:

It is, it is nothing like carrying the teaching.

Suzanne Wells:

I mean, it requires a lot of patience between sales. You know, sure, when is your next sale going to be? How long is that going to be? And watching that little red, red dot appear on your eBay screen writer, you have an offer. You sold this item, whatever. Yeah, just look for that all the time. So, okay, well, on that note, why don't we talk about some things that you sold?

Unknown:

Okay, awesome, as I said, right? I sell a wide variety. I'm open to selling anything, but I do you know, love looking for vintage. I go to a lot of estate sales. I used to do goodwill. In the beginning, we have a lot of Goodwills in Wichita. In fact, everything is probably good will, which I'm not too thrilled about, to be honest. I wish there was a little bit more variety thrift store. Everything here is pretty much goodwill. So a lot of estate sales. I do a lot of online auctions. I find that I really do enjoy the online estate auctions, just because it gives me time to research things. Right? I learn so much. Because usually when these estate options that I do right, people have maybe been collectors in their life. So there's a lot of one thing, and I can kind of look at it and get a feel like I have a pretty good instinct and like that looks like something, you know, that would be worth money, right? That somebody would want. And then I can sit in my own home and I can research it, look over it, right? Look at the comps before I make the decision to do it. So some of my sales I've had, and this one wasn't from an estate. This was right due to you, from my first listened to your the very first podcast I listened listened to was my Clorox pins. Like $400 worth of Clorox pins to one guy. I think you had a on, think you listed it on your video. When it when it happened. I had, oh, on the$100 sales, I think so, yeah, it's been a while. I mean, yeah, yeah, but still,

Suzanne Wells:

there are things still, because I don't think so

Unknown:

excited when that happen. Yes, I was real. I have sold things. Like one time I purchased a from an auction. It was a vintage 1930s Popeye pinball, like 36 inch old wood pinball like that would be in a restaurant where you kind of pulled it back. You know, it wasn't electronic. And I bought it. I paid up for it about$70.75 but, you know, I sold it for around 350

Suzanne Wells:

so you're talking about like the pinball machine.

Unknown:

It. It was kind of round in an arch. It wasn't like a pinball like we think of them today. It was like a push. I think they call it like a push, you know, where they used to pull the spring back, okay, okay, and it was right, and it was more like on a wall, I think, okay, probably. And then you would write, I think they used to have them in like, restaurants, okay, like a quarter or not a quarter, it would have been pi, a dime or nickel, or whatever. So I purchased that and then sold it for, like I said, I think 350 I recently, and then just put that on your $100 did some Sabino glass, which I had never most of these things, Suzanne, I've never heard of them before. I just research and figure it out. But an estate auction had some Sabino glass. A Sabino is glass from France, from Paris, and there's some that is very old. And there just happened to be this lady, I don't know why, in the middle of Kansas, she had these two pretty good sized pieces of Sabino glass. I purchased them because I think a lot of people didn't know probably what they were. For two pieces, the larger pieces are probably 36 $37 but I just sold I sold them to both, to the same person. Gentlemen, in Germany, you. Who was a collector, and I sold one, I think it was, I think it was 220 and the other one for 150 so right? And I just had received a note from him recently that they made it there safely, because he was very worried. I saw a lot of glass. I will say that's one thing. Maybe, if I have a superpower that might be it. I know a lot of people on eBay don't like to sell glass, and I'm just, I don't know. I'm just not I just don't worry about it. I just Well,

Suzanne Wells:

and it's, do what you love. Because, yeah, the I hear a lot of different reasons why people don't want to do glass. And you know, of course, the shipping is a little bit more intensive, right?

Unknown:

I think that's why people don't want to do storing it

Suzanne Wells:

if you don't have a lot of room to store it, because some of it you can that is true, you know. And are you going to put it in, uh, tubs or bins, or do you have shelving? And if, if people have limited storage space. Glass is kind of a stepchild. It kind of takes up a lot of room, and it doesn't stack very well, because everything's different shapes.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah. So that I yeah, I enjoy doing the glass. And, you know, sometimes I kick myself for works. I'm like, God, I just, in fact, I just sold, I purchased another estate auction online, some Waterford Crystal. Oh, and I just, I'll be putting that on your $100 post. So I just sold that. There were two sets that I had listed, and somebody bought one for 120 and then the other set for 90, I gave them a discount, you know, to bundle it together. So, yeah, so I just, like, I said, like to look for things and and just kind of, if they strike me as maybe I don't want to say is expensive. That's not the, really the word I want to use. But you know, if they strike me as being good quality, I can just, you know, write, not things made in China. I can tell right sometimes. And then I just start researching it, and I'm like, Oh, wow. You know, these are collectible and going for a lot of money. I have found, I will tell you, that is certainly a lot. You spend the same amount of time listing and shipping something that's going to solve for a lot of money. Then, you know, if you ship something for that sold for $15 so that was something I feel like I've really learned over the course of eBay is to how to maybe I still have other, I mean, smaller items in my store, I do, but I'm starting to probably be more careful about what I purchase, and purchase things that I feel Like are going to give me a larger return than just buying a whole bunch of smaller stuff to make up, you know, the same amount of money, right, that I would in purchasing maybe one larger item that's going to bring me, you know, X dollar amount,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah. And that's definitely a choice. And a pattern I noticed is sellers like you that have a full time job, because you're not relying on that eBay income as much. Others, you know, maybe are retired or stay at home moms, right? Or because, you know, I'll be the first one to tell you, those $10 sales add up, you know, if I know they do and but it's a time factor. So if you're working a full time job, you don't have as much time to do it as you know somebody who's retired, and this is all they're doing, or for, for whatever reason. And so I kind of see that split on like, who was it? Jeremy that says that he's doing, not doing goodwill anymore. He's doing auctions and filling up his vehicle and, you know, but he's, he's gainfully employed in the tech industry, and he doesn't really rely on the eBay money, the way somebody else would, who, you know, one$10 sale a day is $300 a month, which, right, not like much, but if you're retired, and this is all you're doing, yeah, you know, that could be a car payment. That could be groceries for the month. So I don't want the listeners to feel like, you know, the small sales don't matter, but it's all about time. You know your own time and what your life looks like. Because, yeah, I totally see why you would focus on higher dollar items, because you know you're. You're gone working all day, and you only have emails and weekends. So you're going to want to list those, you know, heavy hitter items.

Unknown:

My sister, who does eBay, she she lists and she, she kicks my butt every month in sales, she lists a lot of smaller items. You know, she has a little bit more time. She's not quite retired, but almost since her hours are less at work, and she lists, you know, a lot, and every month, she definitely excels, you know, in herself. So, yeah, it's just a different right? It's just kind of picking whatever I think business model works best. Mm, hmm, you know, for your lifestyle, right? And what you're doing at the moment, and mine might change when I retire, because I want to take this and definitely do eBay, you know, into retirement, and then I think my husband will become more involved in it as as we retire. So, you know, then my whole business model might change again, right?

Suzanne Wells:

You never know. Now, how many items do you have listed?

Unknown:

Right? Now I only have, I think 223, today, because I'd sold like five, but I'd say normally between 220, to probably 232 40 is, is where I'm at. I'd like to do more again, for me, it's just, you know, like you said, it's just the time to be able to find, to be able to list everything, right?

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, no, there's no judgment. I just, you know, I'm always curious, you know, how many items do you have listed? I did an interview with Stephanie, and she has recently retired, and has something like 4800 items, but this to be her retirement, right? Activity, project, hobby, whatever you want to call it. And so she planned for and that, to me, it's just mind blowing that that much inventory. But people do it all the time. There's lots of sellers out there that have 1000s of items, and it works.

Unknown:

I would love to, in retirement, get to be, you know, like 1000 or 1200 right? For me, I would love that. That would be, like a good number, I think, in retirement, right? That I could probably manage. Well, once I retire, that would be, yeah, that'd be a great goal to see you

Suzanne Wells:

have lots of storage space.

Unknown:

I don't have a lot of tons of storage space, but we live in a house, right? It's just my husband and I, so a lot of it is taken up, but we are building a home. So in the next year and a half, two years, we'll have our home built, and it's going to have an outbuilding. And so that out building will be half of it will be his shop, and then half of it will be my eBay. Oh, good. We'll say our eBay, because hopefully at that time, maybe he'll be able to join me. So

Suzanne Wells:

it sounds like he supports you, but maybe you don't have, he just doesn't have the time to put into it.

Unknown:

He doesn't, I think too, just because, right now, because we don't have as much space, right? I know where everything's at, and everything I've taught him to list, and he doesn't list like on a regular basis, but he's done it just to know what I do. He, you know, will take things to the post office for me. He'll help me if I need a Franken box, right? He'll help me kind of get that put together. So he's definitely very supportive. And he said, definitely, when we get, you know, we're retired and we have, it's a little bit more organized, so he would understand maybe where exactly to go to to get the item, you know, he'll probably be more on board and selling, like car parts and things like that, would be my guess.

Suzanne Wells:

There you go. Yeah, do what you love. Do what you know. Yeah.

Unknown:

So right now, like I said, I just kind of do it, and then I compete. My sister and I, normally we haven't been able to this quarter because I've been very busy with work and some things, but normally we have a little competition every quarter between each other. As far as who sells the most items, what's the dollar amount we sell? And that just kind of keeps us very motivated.

Suzanne Wells:

Now, is your sister in the Facebook group.

Unknown:

She is, so I've just, I just saw her the other day. In fact, she came and we went to the state sale. She is. She was having trouble with the picture, you know, she was taking the picture, I think, and getting rejected because it was too small. I was even she knew I was doing the podcast, so I showed her. I was like, You need to get on there, because she sells some wonderful things, and she sells a lot. So. So I've I showed her. I was like, this is the picture. This is what it needs to look like. This is what you need to send in. So hopefully she'll start, she'll start posting, but she is in there. Her name. That's

Suzanne Wells:

not a prerequisite to be on this podcast at all. She

Unknown:

has a antique booth in her town. We did one together for a while, but it in the beginning, it was just too difficult for me. I was, it was in Topeka, which is two hours away, and so I was trying to drive put my product in there. It was just got to be too much, yeah, to do with that. But she, does it. She's been doing an antique booth in eBay together simultaneously.

Suzanne Wells:

Great. Well, do you have any other sales you want to talk about?

Unknown:

I'm trying to think, let's see. I just I found recently, and they have not sold, maybe quite as well as I wanted to, but they have. I have sold some Brad coat from Christopher radco ornaments that I just purchased recently from, again, in a state. I'm assuming it was somebody that collected him. So I got about 15 or 20 of those, and I've been selling some of those. I other things that I have done that I've enjoyed have been Phoenix, consolidated glass. I don't know if you've ever heard of that, but not it was a company that was in Pennsylvania in the 1800s late 1800s um, until I can't remember what year they went out. They came very popular in the 30s, but again, from a collector, I'm assuming, from a estate auction. So I purchased several large vases, they're sculpted glass, and was able to sell those. And of course, I do some Fenton, which is always, right, very collectible. There was one lady in this in a town about two hours for me. I don't know what I don't know. I don't know how she could have collected this much, but they have three or four estate sales from her estate where she was doing Fenton and Phoenix consolidated glass and Cambridge glass, which I purchased a lot of too, they have, like, the nude stems. I don't know if you've ever seen those. They they were in the 30s, from the 1930s and they kind of had, like a clear nude stem and so that, for that reason, they're very collectible, because people like the way that that looks. And they have, like, little when you call them the compote compote dishes, uh huh. And I have some glasses, like champagne glasses, and they have the nude stem. And so, you know, those sold for, gosh, anywhere between 100 to 150 $75 for those items. So yeah, and then I also recently just purchased some Brighton from an estate sale, like the Brighton charms. Yes, they were all Christmas charms, and so I've been selling those. So that's been kind of fun. So these

Suzanne Wells:

online estate sales, they're local. You go pick up your stuff.

Unknown:

I do. Go pick up my things. I don't do ones where they ship. Not that I would be opposed. I just kind of feel like, for me, that just wouldn't, you know, right, how much money I would have invested to it to what I could sell it for, probably would make sense the return that I would receive. But I do. I'd either do local in Wichita, which we are very lucky to have several, I mean, any at any point in time. We can really probably have 10 to 15 estate sales going on during the week, and then, usually, probably six to 10, you know, online auctions that are local or within a certain amount, you know, parameter, right? Like I said, I'll, if I can find it within an hour, hour and a half, I've driven two, but that would be right. I'll do that if it's worth it, if it makes sense. And I can, you know, buy several items at once. I'm probably not going to do that to go pick up one item that,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, that's the thing is, is when you get into them, bidding and everything, if you have to drive any distance, you want to make it worth your time, exactly things, and you don't know until. So the bidding is over. Like, did you win it or not? And then, okay, maybe you won, like, one little thing, you got to go all the way over there and get it. Yeah, right. And the shipping, I'm doing that because there's just not anything around me that is close. So, yeah, I focus on smalls and lightweight items and read the shipping terms. Sometimes they'll say, you know, we only charge the exact amount of shipping. Other ones will say they send it to the UPS store, which is a huge red flag, don't do that because you're going to be way over or, you know, it's $15 per item to ship it to you, and just all this crazy, super marked up prices. And I'm thinking, right when you make it fair and create a repeat customer that you know they but a lot of these people aren't business people. They don't look at it like that. They look at the one sale and how much can I make, and they don't look at it as this could be a repeat customer that could generate 1000s of dollars for us. Let's be fair on the front end. So you really have to read terms, those shipping terms, and sometimes they'll say, you know, we can't give you an estimate, which is fair, because they don't know what you're going to win. You're going to win, but or if it's just one item. Now, can you give me an estimate? No, we can't, and that's it is. I just find a lot of these estate sale companies are just, they're not real good business people. You got to find the ones that are.

Unknown:

I agree with that 100% because, you know, once, since I do so many of them, yes, I do find that there are repeat, you know, right ones that I go to that do the different auctions. And some of them I really like. I find them to be fair and, you know, giving an accurate description of the item. And some I realized, you know, not so much, right? You get there and things are a little bit different than what you thought they were, right? And they're, you can tell they just really don't care. They're just kind of slinging the item to you in here, right? They're just giving money in the

Suzanne Wells:

mountain of stuff. Do you ever buy box lots or just individual items

Unknown:

I never have? I wouldn't be opposed to it. I would need to probably first be in an, you know, we'd probably need, I'd need to be in our new house where I would have more room to store. If I'm going to do that, give my husband, right? He'd probably be like, Oh my gosh, what are we doing? But I haven't, I wouldn't be opposed to, I just haven't done that yet. Okay, well, some of the

Suzanne Wells:

box are, some of the box lots are, are really small. It's like a shoe box, and they just, oh, random odds and ends. And ends, and there might be one thing in there that that you recognize that's sellable or a high profit item. Those are kind of fun for the the hunt, I guess the online hunt, it's like, what else is in this box? Yeah. And then sometimes they don't show you enough information to make that decision. I just bought a box, lot of stuff that hair receiver in it. Do you know what that is?

Unknown:

Hair receiver, it's

Suzanne Wells:

a it's a round ceramic or porcelain. Looks like a trinket box, trinket container that was on a woman's vanity. And back in the day, like, way back, you know, when you brush your hair and it comes out onto your brush, or, if you're older, it just comes out,

Unknown:

no, right? Yeah, no, I know that. That's

Suzanne Wells:

you put it in the this hair receiver. It's it's got a top with a hole in it, so a lot of people don't even know, like, what is this? And they would put the hair in there, and it would accumulate, and then they would use it to, like the pompadour hairstyle. They would roll it instead of having a form under there. It's their own hair that they make into what's called rats. Or they just would save their own hair to even make free out of or that was a thing human hair art. There's all kind of things made out of it from, you know, back in the 1800s early 1900s anyway, so Well,

Unknown:

I'm gonna have to look that up, just so I can see what it looks like. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

there's one in there, but it didn't, they didn't show the bottom, so it didn't have the information that the maker, where it was made, anything like that. So I won the box lot for like, $6 and there was some little trinkety things in there, but it's like. Oh, it didn't show enough in the picture, so you kind of have to take a risk of, okay, well, I've always wanted to sell one of these, so I'm going to get this and and learn on it and see how it goes and and then I can mark that off my list of things I wanted to sell.

Unknown:

Yeah, that's what I did, too, right? I have, like, a bucket list of things, right? That I challenge myself, that I want to try to find. I don't know if they're going to go well or not, but Right? It's like it just becomes a my own little competition, right to yeah, see if I can go find this thing.

Suzanne Wells:

So what are some things on your list?

Unknown:

Well, I think what's left on my one of them I just found which, and I haven't listed it because I need to clean it up. Was a one of those, space maker coffee black and Dicker Decker, space maker coffee makers, right? That you put, you know, under the counter, because people buy them for like, campers and things, right? Right? So tiny living,

Suzanne Wells:

tiny homes, and Van life, all these things where people, yes, under the cabinet can openers, and any of those types of appliances that don't take up cabinet space.

Unknown:

Yeah, I just found one at an estate sale paid like 1254 so I just need to clean it up a little bit and get it listed, and then I still want to find a glass baby. I've never found a glass baby. Oh, a candle. Yeah, the candle right holder. I've never found one of those. So I'm always looking to see, you know, in the Midwest, it's probably harder than if you're in the California area, right? Exactly, right. But I keep trying to find one. I'd love to find, what is it? Fire and Ice. Is that right? Fire, fire and ice glass,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, it's called Fire and Ice Art Glass. Oh, okay,

Unknown:

yes, yes, okay, so that's what I would also like. I know they, I know they're highly collectible. And so those are, those are, yeah, a few things that are just kind of on my list. I always add more right. Like, when I listen to you or read your bolo book or right, hear another podcast or something, right, I'll find right, another Bolo and like, Ooh, I want to find that.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, and it's so hard to keep up. There's just so much stuff to be on the lookout for.

Unknown:

There is and what sells for, you know, one person doesn't sell for another person, as you know, right? I've, I've tried selling, like, plush and the lobbies, I know you do well with the loveies. Me. I'm telling you, Suzanne, I can't hardly sell a love you to save my life. It's just, you know, it's just funny like that, right?

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, the algorithm learns what works in your store, and they send, they send buyers there, you know,

Unknown:

it you

Suzanne Wells:

I think so, because there's things other people sell that I cannot give away. And like one thing that's doing well for me right now is Speedo swimwear. I have no idea why I sell all kinds of swimwear, but that one seems to be the top dog right now. So I, I habitually buy swimwear, and I'm like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pull back on that a little bit, because I'm getting too much.

Unknown:

Yeah, I did now that you say that, Suzanne, when I first started, it was one of my first purchases, because it was COVID, and we have a Dillards Clearance Center here. And so since it was COVID, the Clearance Center is already packed with clothes, right? They're highly discounted, but because nobody was shopping and blah, blah, blah, you know, nobody had really went swimming. Could go swimming that summer, they had tons of men's new Nike swim trunks. And I got the $3 a piece, and I bought probably 40 pairs. I still have some that I'm selling, but now I'm kind of down to some like size small, so not as many people, guys, you know, want those, but, you know, I sold those forever for like, you know, 20, $25 forever I sold those. But that was kind of like, I said, like a COVID, buy when. But

Suzanne Wells:

don't you love those types of items that you can, you know, buy in quantity and then just kind of sell them off, yeah, just do have a quantity. Or even if they're all different, you have to do different listings for each one. It's still okay. This is good to have. And I was gonna say back during COVID, July of 2020. Was. My biggest month on eBay back that far, I think I have my records back to 2018 that July of of 2020, when everything opened up and people were able to go outside and, you know, do activities, and it was warm enough to go outside. Yep, I sold so much athletic wear and see our thrift stores never close in Georgia, our

Unknown:

student either. So

Suzanne Wells:

I will still close. I was still out there with a glass like, yeah. I was like, like, don't judge me. This is how I earn my thing. If you're open, I'm coming like, Okay, so that's what I was buying, was athletic wear, the skirts, the tennis stuff, swimwear, any of that. And it just went crazy. And that was really a very unique time in history. I don't think that's ever going to happen again. Who knows. But I look back and I'm like, oh, I want that again. I sold so many items that month,

Unknown:

yeah. And I wish right July, that's the month that I got in, right? So I wish I would have started a little bit earlier. But, you know, it's such as life. Well, the problem

Suzanne Wells:

was, I mean, it was this whole goodwill was good then,

Unknown:

though, that's when goodwill was good. I mean, okay, I don't know everybody was, yeah, everybody was at home, I think cleaning out their closets and getting rid of stuff, because, you know, everybody had to be at home, so there's nothing to do. Yeah, right. And Goodwill for us anyway, during that time was very cheap and a lot of product, right? You could find a lot of things at Goodwill. Now, not I, I don't know what's happened, but

Suzanne Wells:

well, and on top of that, back in 2020 the stores weren't open, right? And go, just go up to coals and buy some stuff, or they had very limited inventory because of all the supply chain issues. And so it was this whole cocktail of things happening that made this so unique. People were at home and shopping online. People wanted to get outdoors and do things. There was nothing in the stores, if they were even open, things were out of stock online, like, if you go to coles.com, or Amazon, stuff was out of stock. So we had the greatest power, because we had all this stuff in our homes ready to ship. And so eBay just blew up because, you know that's that's a good time to have a death pile.

Unknown:

That's right, that's right, yeah, okay,

Suzanne Wells:

oh yeah, those were the days who knows maybe something like that will happen again, but not with an illness.

Unknown:

No, I hope not with an illness. But you know, who knows, you're right, who knows supply

Suzanne Wells:

chain things, right? Right? Okay, well, we have almost been going an hour. Do you have any final comments for the listeners?

Unknown:

No, I think I would just, you know, say, as far as any advice, just be curious, you know, be curious and research, right? Does it mean if you don't like something, don't sell it. I mean, if that's you, if you're not feeling it, you know, don't do it, because it probably won't work out well for you. But if you you know, don't be afraid to to look at at different things or learn about things, right? And just research, right? Be very curious and keep an open mind in what direction right your business can go, because you can pivot so much with eBay, and that's kind of right. The fun thing about it,

Suzanne Wells:

I have one more question about glassware, and I think I'll put this absolutely somewhere else, but a lot of it's not marked. Do you just learn what certain brands look like

Unknown:

I do. So when I'm I'm doing my research, like, especially with the online auctions, like I said, I love it because it gives me, you know, they usually go for a week, right? So I have time to go down the rabbit hole. I take pictures of it, and then I google image it, right? And then I Ebay. I have a worth point subscription. I know a lot of people don't, right? It's so pricey, but for what I do, I feel like with a lot of my glass, it does help me be able to look things up. So I'll look things up on worth point, and that's kind of how I'll learn, right? I can, usually, because I'm buying it from an estate, know that it's not a reproduction item. I. I think I feel more confident than if I just found it, maybe, like at a goodwill, right, right? Because usually, like I said, I'm buying from an estate that was a collector, and there's usually more than an item of that thing. Sometimes they're marked like, you know, fitness. Sometimes will have the stamp or, you know, some things have the impressed mark on the back, but yes, like my king Cambridge glass, a lot of my phoenix glass, they'll stay in the auction that that's usually what it is. So that gives me a starting point to really then go research it and find out if it is supposed to be marked. Because a lot of things that were in the maybe 30s when glass was very popular, a lot of them in the beginning weren't even marked right. So they didn't start doing that, sometimes till a little bit later, to either, you know, marking them, etching them, or adding, like a sticker stamp or impressing them. So yeah, have you ever

Suzanne Wells:

sold an unmarked glass item and had the buyer dispute what you called it like if it was Murano, or any of that

Unknown:

I have, but I will tell you, Murano is one for me. I love Murano, but Murano, I would be a little bit more picky, because it is so reproduced, and they do such a job of reproducing it, like a TJ Maxx or Marshalls or wherever. You know, you can go in home goods and find things that look like Murano. So if it doesn't have the sticker, and I can't find things that were exactly, you know, other items that were that for Murano, for me, I I probably wouldn't advertise it as Murano. I probably put Murano style just because I wouldn't be a shirt.

Suzanne Wells:

You couldn't put that in the title, because that's keyword spamming, if you don't know if it's Murano, but you could put that in a description,

Unknown:

in the description, like Murano style, right, right? So, but yeah, I probably would not feel comfortable on Murano just because it's reproduced so much. But like Phoenix glass, these are big, huge faces, and so they were not like reproduced. They're not a thing that probably they're just going to be reproduced all the time, even the Cambridge glass is probably not sought after enough, right? I think the one they're just sought after by certain very specific collectors,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, and it's just like anything else, um, yeah, just like anything else that's reproduced, uh, counterfeited, like handbags. The easier it is to reproduce, the fewer details it has, the more likely it's going to be a fake. But So you're on those great big glass pieces, or if they have a lot of detail that's probably not going to be reproduced, like the little trinkety things that you would put on your or, you know, the little trinket boxes or whatever. So that's a great point. Yeah, okay, so yeah, but

Unknown:

yeah, you definitely have to be careful, right? Because, yeah, yeah, there are certain things that definitely are out there, reproduced and so, but I never have had a dispute, and I feel pretty confident in the things that the ones that I'm selling, like I said, because I would probably err on the side of caution, just for me. I know not everybody would. If I don't really feel really, really confident about it, then I'm not going to do it. And if it is an issue, I have free returns, so I

Suzanne Wells:

guess just return it. And, yeah, absolutely. Okay. Well, what are you up to today? Are you working your regular job? Are you

Unknown:

not? Not today? I'm not. So I'm just going to run errands. I recently had cataract surgery. I had my glasses on now, but I recently had cataract surgery, so I've been off a little bit for that. So yeah, so I'm, I'm off the rest of the day, so I'm just going to go run some errands and and that's about it.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, that's great that you now your eyes are sharper and you can see more treasures out there.

Unknown:

I'm hoping Suzanne that will be,

Suzanne Wells:

that's an investment your eBay future. Yeah, it's

Unknown:

very weird. I will tell you, though, to go from glasses to no glasses all of a sudden. That's just a very weird transition. So I'm still getting used to that. So I have them on for this, but I'm used to it so

Suzanne Wells:

well. Thanks again for agreeing to come on and sharing all your valuable information, and we'll look for your on the face. Facebook group.

Unknown:

Yeah, I'm thrilled to meet you. I just want to tell you how much I really do appreciate you and your style and the way I just I can't tell you how much forward I look to your videos and your podcasts, because I just really appreciate the way that you present it in a teaching style. I think it just really is value added in the way. Thank

Suzanne Wells:

you so much. Yeah, I love the way, the information, yeah, I love the business, and I love helping other people succeed. So it all works, great. Okay. Well, enjoy your day. Thanks Okay,

Unknown:

thanks. Suzanne, great to meet you.

Suzanne Wells:

Dawn mentioned her mega sale of Clorox bleach pins A while back. So here's an update on the market for those Clorox bleach pens, according to eBay research going back 90 days, these are still selling for between 20 and $25 each. These are sought after because they were discontinued in 2020 due to Clorox prioritizing production of cleaning products in response to COVID, 19 Clorox focused on their top selling items, and the bleach pins did not make the cut. Also people like these because of the delivery system, the small applicator, as well as the less messy gel product inside. While these are not in stores anymore, you might find them at estate sales, garage sales, flea markets, or even thrift stores and Clorox may or may not ever bring them back. Here we are almost five years post COVID, and these are still highly sought after. The regular retail price was about $3 and as of this podcast, they sell for between 20 and $25 each. So that is your hot bolo tip. If you were not aware, next week, my guest is Katherine in Montana, who is a wife, mom of three, and homesteader in a rural area. She still manages to find inventory to sell and keep her eBay business running in a very small space. She's pretty amazing. Make sure you tune in for that episode. EBay the right way. Podcasts always drop on Wednesdays, whether it's a holiday or not, so that will be there for you when you have the time and desire to listen to it. That wraps up another episode of eBay the right way, and I will talk to you next week. Bye, everybody. You.