eBay the Right Way

eBay Seller Chat with Laura in Michigan: Downsizing 1920s Home - Attic is Treasure Trove 🏠

• Suzanne A. Wells • Episode 199

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Suzanne Wells:

Suzanne, hi, eBay friends. I'm Suzanne, your hostess, and this is episode number 199, of eBay the right way. Today's date is January 8, 2025 and my guest is Laura in Michigan. Announcements, it's been a while since I've given you an update on what's been added to the premium library, I do add new content every single week. The last update was September 2024 so about three months ago. Now that we are out of holiday mode and back into work mode, this is the perfect time to take the premium library on a test drive. I'm up to 618 lessons, which adds up to 145 hours of education. And with the premium membership, you also receive unlimited email help desk support directly with me, and guaranteed 24 hour turnaround time for answers to your questions, usually much, much faster. So here's a quick summary of what's been added over the last three months. I've got a lesson in my online auctions course about how to buy on eBay, to resell on eBay, there's all kinds of strategies to snag items that are overlooked or mixed in lots that you can part out and sell separately. So that is definitely a resource that you can use. I've got another jewelry lesson. This is a vintage brand that is also a modern brand, and people often confuse the two, so you'll know the difference. There are four bulletins, one for each month, and these are like, short news bulletins where I give you trending items or news in the reselling world or eBay announcements, you've missed things I've sold that were in my bolo books that I actually found. So I'm living proof that that information is high quality and evergreen. Those are usually about five to 10 minutes long. Just catching you up on things once a month, there are some Q and A audios, which is like a podcast. It's just questions from other members and answers, so you can listen as you work. Okay, we've also got a course on Enid Collins handbags. Those are collectible and quite valuable. And you may not know about this brand, I've got a photography update. Some things I've changed doing my photography to make the process faster. It's all about saving time and how quickly you can get your listings up. So you might find that helpful. There are a few keyword lessons. These are either trending keywords or maybe you don't know the definitions to these words, or you don't know what these things are called, and this is crucial to having your listing appear in search so that buyers using these words will find your listings. If you don't have these keywords on your listings, you're not going to come up and search. So that's why vocabulary is very important as an eBay seller. Okay, I've got a brand spotlight on a clothing brand. It's one of those hiding in plain sight does not look fancy or expensive at all, but some of these pieces sell for over $100 I've started a course on wigs. There are two lessons there. I've been selling wigs for about four years, and they're fun and easy, and there's so many different ones, they don't take up much space. I've never had one returned, and they can sell for over $100 I've also got a lesson on Mahjong in the collectible section, all about the game, the history, what the pieces are called, and you can part those out. You don't have to have a complete set. So that's a quick summary of what I've added. Again, there's new content every single week, and I am here for you as your help desk. So the link to the premium library is below the podcast, and you can always download the table of contents to see an outlet. Line of all of the content. So let's make 2025 the best year on eBay yet. Now let's chat with Laura. Hello listeners, welcome back and Happy New Year. I have Laura with us today, who is a frequent poster on the money making Mondays, and how are you doing on this cold morning?

Unknown:

I hate winter. I'm in the wrong state. And what state are you in? I'm in Michigan. Oh, you're Michigander. I am. I was born and raised in Lansing. You're in

Suzanne Wells:

Michigan, and what is your weather like this morning?

Unknown:

Just the other day, we got about three inches of snow, and currently it's 20 degrees.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, excellent. Okay, it is 43 here in South Carolina. So that's fun, and that's cold for us.

Unknown:

Yeah? So

Suzanne Wells:

anyway, okay, well, welcome to the show. Thank you for agreeing to come on, and if you want to give a little recap of what brought you to eBay and when that was,

Unknown:

yeah. So I started eBay originally, back in 2008 but I had some issues with my account, so I stopped for a while, and then I picked it up again, more fervently, in 2017 and the reason I did that is because my mom was downsizing. We have a family home from 1920s and being in the attic is just an absolute treasure trove. And I bet, yeah, we my family didn't have many kids, so everybody that passed away, all the stuff went to the family home, and it just packed. It just piled up and piled up. And when my mom decided she wanted to take a few years to downsize, we decided that I could use the money from selling things and give a little bit back to her, but also help me pay my bills. And so I started that also, because in 2016 I was married to a man who had cystic fibrosis, and he got a double lung transplant in December of 2019 and had many complications after that, so we pretty much lived in the hospital, and it was very difficult for me to work. And so eBay was able to kind of help me make ends meet. And also my therapist said it was really good. It was a what do you call it? A necessary distraction.

Suzanne Wells:

Welcome, yes, a welcome distraction of something positive and interesting, away from the sickness and being a caregiver. That's hard. Oh,

Unknown:

yeah, and it, it completely burned me out. He actually passed away August 30 of 2022 and my life has been completely different since then, I bet he wasn't, not to speak ill of him, but he wasn't the best supporter eBay, but my boyfriend now is, which is fantastic. It's just such a stark difference. But so since, I guess his name isn't, his name was Michael, since he needed so much care, it was difficult for me to work, and I was raised as a teacher, so I have my degree in special ed and learning disabilities, and just between taking care of him and the kids, I just I burned out. I couldn't do it anymore, and honestly, I've lost my spark for it. So now I work in Finance.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, teaching is very draining,

Unknown:

especially since I was working with the kids that were severely multiply disabled. And so there were, there's feeding tubes at work, there's feeding tubes at home. There was all sorts of just stuff that I just I couldn't, I couldn't do it anymore. And so we were actually teaching online during the pandemic, which made for a whole new world because my kids were autistic, they didn't talk. How do you teach when the child can't respond online? It wasn't so much new to me, because I did part of my student teaching in a completely virtual setting. And so people used to look at me weird, like, how did you do that? Why did you do that? And now they're just like, Oh, that's cool,

Suzanne Wells:

right? Well, gold star for you. I really admire and respect you that you, you know, made it through that ordeal with your husband and being a special ed teacher and you, you've changed your direction so you're, you're doing what makes you happy and what you enjoy, because you. Yeah, those, those two things together, would be very draining, and, but you did it. So yeah, as you know, you have a 100% success rate of getting through hard things

Unknown:

that I so far every day, yes, yes. And, but the one thing that's kind of been a constant the whole time was eBay, and so when I like, when he passed, unfortunately, when he passed. I little bit after that, I just gotten COVID, and I was coming home, so I was very careful about things, but I was just doing my research, and I realized my I have this stuff, I need to do something with it. Since then, my type of inventory has completely changed, because I work full time now, so I'm now longer. I'm no longer relying on my inventory as my income, so I've switched to like, smaller items, and they fit your three rules, which is, is it easy to pack, is it easy to ship? And is it easy to oh, sorry, maybe there's more easy to store being easy to list. There we go. Well,

Suzanne Wells:

and you have to make that criteria for yourself, what works for you. And I know I say this all the time, but it's just when I'm purchasing something for resale, it's like, okay, I go straight to do I want to ship this.

Unknown:

We had a box of, I believe, Mikasa crystal on my mom's porch for like, seven years because I didn't want to touch it. And I've just now recently been able to get the the gumption, I guess, to try to ship things, because I looked it up, and a few of the whiskey glasses, just two of them, were sold for 80 bucks. And I thought, You know what I can get over my fear of shipping for 80 bucks.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, and sometimes it's not even fear, it's just I don't wanna, yeah, do I really want to do that? No,

Unknown:

I would rather goodwill.

Suzanne Wells:

The other day, and I saw this beautiful light fixture, like a chandelier, and it was pretty big, and I'm like, Yeah, I know that would be good money, but I just, I just can't,

Unknown:

too, yeah, I'm a little limited on my space also, and I'm currently still moving out, because once, once Michael passed, I moved out of his parents home because we were living with them, and I moved in with one of my best friends from elementary school, who just always thought it was just amazing the kind of things that I would sell on eBay. So it was really great that she was supporting that too. And it's taken a while, but I'm just now finishing like I'll be out of her house by the end of the month. Okay, I still have some inventory over there, but it's made it very difficult between living different places and having my life in different places, because at one point, I was very close to losing my eBay account. I got those emails where it says, Hey, your account might be restricted, and it's because I would list something and sell it and then not know where it was. And I I canceled as I tried to cancel as buyer request, because that doesn't get you a a strike, but eventually happened enough times that I had to cancel as myself, and I got too many hits and I hadn't had as many sales. So my my ratios were just not great, and actually, I didn't realize it till a long time ago they took away from my promoted listings. Oh, and I recently got that back, like two months ago, and completely it's been night and day, huh?

Suzanne Wells:

Well, and I'm glad that you shared that, because it is difficult to, you know, share these kinds of things that can be a little embarrassing, but you never know why somebody's account is restricted or if they get suspended, because sometimes it's just life. And you're trying to do that you can, and you're trying to make money and take care of you know your terminally ill husband, and you're living with your in laws, and your life is just everywhere, and it's not like you, you know, are an irresponsible person. You just had so many things going on, and you're just doing the best you can. So I get emails from people all the time like, No, my account was restricted or suspended. How do I get back on and you know, there's a whole process to do that, but we really can't judge other people like what happened, you know? Because it's not that they're lazy or irresponsible, it's just sometimes things happen and

Unknown:

yeah and i Sorry, go ahead.

Suzanne Wells:

No, you just deal with it the best, you know. How and and there's no rule book. There's no guidebook to being a caregiver and having an eBay business. You know, it's right. Life takes precedence over things, sometimes,

Unknown:

exactly and so, I mean, I don't want to say that eBay was a blessing and a curse, but it definitely caused more stress at that point, when my account was restricted. And the first thing I did was went on eBay for business, and I messaged them and I said, Okay, I need documentation that I am trying my best to do my due diligence. And I would message them and say, Hey, this is the situation. I really don't want my account restricted. What can I do? And the best thing they said was, keep listing, keep selling and get feedback. And so I had to make sure my my ratios were a little bit different. Even though I had those hits on my account, the more I sold, the less those hits mattered. So I was able to it took a good, oh, goodness, six months to get back into what I call the good graces and back to where I have my promoted listings back. And now it's I'm just hitting the ground running again.

Suzanne Wells:

Mm, hmm, well, and that happened to me back I was doing Amazon. I think it was like maybe 2010 and it was when feedback was calculated differently. So one guy bought six things from me, and he was in the UK, and something about after he received him, he thought he I charged too much for shipping, so he left me six negatives in one day, and that was when each negative was counted. You know, it wasn't like per buyer. It's different now that this can't happen now, but yeah, my account was restricted, and I could only list so many things, and I had out, and I do have a video on YouTube how to get your account back. It was all the things I figured out to do, such as, whatever your selling limit is, list, keep that many items listed. List the maximum you can keep listing every day. Um, sell things even if you don't make money. Just to get this so the algorithm sees that your store is selling, and you get the feedback, and you, if you just keep doing all those things, you will eventually get back to normal. But, you know, I thought I was, like, the worst seller in the world, because that happened, and I had a blog at the time, and I'm like, here, I am trying to help other people, and my accounts restricted. Oh, this is fantastic, you know, but I think it was a good learning experience, like it can happen to anybody, and, you know, the reasons the calculations are different now, but that was, like one of the worst days of my life on eBay, six negatives in one day. That's,

Unknown:

oh, I'm so sorry that happened, but I'm glad

Suzanne Wells:

you know part of the process. And now I know it happens to people for all kinds of reasons. And it doesn't mean you're a low life, terrible seller. It's just it was the combination of things always.

Unknown:

And one of the, I guess, best benefits of being able to list, like, while he was in the hospital, sort of many multiple stays, where he was there for like, two weeks and it was an hour from home, is I would extend my handling time, and then so I'd still put my store, I didn't use vacation mode or anything like that. I would just extend my handling time to like, a week. And then if somebody messaged me, I would tell them like, Hey, I'm and with my husband. I'm not trying to be a sob story, but I would be very upfront with them and saying, Hey, this is at my house. It's an hour away from home. I'm with my husband here at the hospital. I will get your item as soon as I can. And most of them were completely understandable. Mm, hmm. And so I I really appreciated that, and right now I'm at two day handling, which I know I'll get more sales if I go to one day, but since I'm still kind of getting all of my inventory in one spot, two days is okay for me. I like when things sell on Thursdays and I don't have to ship anything until Monday Well,

Suzanne Wells:

and it kind of takes the pressure off if you've got two day because you know that one day can be can cause some stress, especially if you have something that requires a lot of time to package it. Some people like to package their items ahead. So I'll have to do is grab it and ship it. But you know, that's just how you like to run your business. But you know, sometimes you get those sales of like the framed artwork or the breakables, and you know it's going to take you half an hour to pack it well. And a lot of people don't do one day handling for that reason is they there are shipping a lot of larger items, breakable. Electronics that take time to pack, and they just don't want that stress on them. Like, okay, what if you have to ship it tomorrow? And you know you have to take your child to the doctor, or you have to go to the doctor, or, you know your electricity goes out, or all the things that can happen that throw a fly in the ointment, it's like, oh, no, I can't ship this today. You don't need that kind of stress in your life. Oh, I know. I mean all

Unknown:

the labels I heard you recently purchased a Rolo, and I got mine back in 2018 and it's still kicking. I've now bought instance and has paid for itself multiple times over. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

I got mine in, like, 2020, 2021, and I was very late to the party on that. I should have done it much sooner, because I love it. You never have to buy ink. Only thing that can be a problem sometimes is it doesn't feed right. And so it's like, you have to uninstall the software and reinstall it, and then it will work right again. But it's tiny. It doesn't take up hardly any room. The labels are like, two cents a piece when you buy them in bulk, and, yeah, sometimes I'm a little slow to embrace new technologies, if what you got there, and that's the important especially when they're expensive, because it was, like, $200 and you have to justify that expense for your business. And it's like, really, I should have done this a long time ago. Yeah, I

Unknown:

saved up some of my Christmas money and bought one. Yeah, that's been phenomenal. Why don't we talk about

Suzanne Wells:

some things that you've sold? Because you've got that treasure trove attic, which could also be a blessing or curse, and you post on the money making Mondays, which is why I reached out to you. I'm like, she's doing really well.

Unknown:

Thank you. So I like to sell the weird and the obscure, uh huh. And I say that because my my specialty, I guess, would be ephemera. And a lot of stuff is just stuff people haven't seen in forever or ever seen it all. And my family was a, definitely a paper family. We saved cards, we saved scrapbooks, we saved tickets to every baseball game, receipts, brochures and traveling all sorts of stuff. And so they kept these in there were boxes in the attic, and eventually my mom would go up and get one and bring it downstairs and take out what she wanted, like the family photo she wanted to keep, and then she would just give the rest to me. And I've definitely found some gems. My highest sale was actually a John Dillinger wanted poster from the 1930s and it was just part of a newspaper clipping. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah. It was in her scrapbook. Well, I want to know how much your mom would charge for me to come over and go.

Unknown:

Fortunately, we just got her into a not assisted living, but her own individual apartment with other people her age, and we just moved her in in August. So we're still finding things here and there, but we, we're done treasure hunting in the attic for now. Well, I

Suzanne Wells:

sort of joke, but not really, because I have done that for people. They're like, Hey, can you help me go through this? And then you can take some things to sell. And I think that's all. So, yeah, they just, they just need help with the sorting process. I feel like, in my future, I'm going to do like a American tour of Suzanne, going through your death piles. Just like run an RV, the whole trouble series. Yeah, run an RV and just drive around to all these stops that I have planned ahead and be like, Okay, I'm here for the day. Let's go through your stuff.

Unknown:

I've always thought it would be so neat to have an RV, and if you do it right, you can ship from, you know, wherever you're kind of going out of, and just travel around the country to all these little like mom and pop shops or yard sales, and then just list as you go, and sell as you go. And you can just focus on the small things, which is what I do. How liberating would that

Suzanne Wells:

be? Or you just do the small things, you can do free shipping, so you don't have to figure out the Calculate it's going to be based on where you are and where the buyer so if you just do smalls with free shipping, then no matter where you ship it from, it'll work,

Unknown:

yeah, and with the rollout being so small, all you need is, you know, you're a plug in a generator, and then you're all set.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, I've talked to sellers who do that. They're working at an RV and they just do smalls or and there was a lady who's a truck driver, and she did it out of her truck. And you know that cab behind the the truck, there's a lot of work back there. You can, you can set up whatever you want now with satellite internet, you know, you can figure it out. And there's another lady. Gail, who is in the group, and she lives on a boat half the year, okay? And she's doing it from her boat. Oh, wow. In in this age of technology, you can figure out how to do it from anywhere.

Unknown:

Oh, yeah, if I can list from a hospital ICU room, then anybody can do it. And I remember saying that in your in your group, multiple times, as long as you have the right mindset and you have the right stuff, like, here's an example. I have this little like bag that I carry around to work, and I just put whatever I want to list in there, and then I can just set it down and use it or not use it. But going back to the the main things that I sell. One of my other best sellers was, I believe, like cubs, ticket stubs, the early, early, I want to say 40s or 50s in the summer book.

Suzanne Wells:

And so this is from athletic games or airline. Oh, I have

Unknown:

baseball okay, but I don't know. I don't remember. It was a long time ago. I don't remember a lot about this sale, but I just remember, how is this tiny piece of paper worth, like$80 and other people just consider it trash, and it breaks my heart thinking, how many people buy a house, flip it and then just throw away everything that they don't see value in. And that's probably my favorite part about being an eBay or is being able to see value in many things that others don't right.

Suzanne Wells:

Did you hear the podcast with Marla and Ed that run the estate sale company? Yes. So that's what she said, is like, we have to say, don't throw anything away, because they'll get there. And, you know, some things have already been cleaned out, and they just, they don't even know what's been tossed. And it's just heartbreaking, because we as resellers understand the collectors. And like, oh, somebody would want this. It doesn't have to be perfect. It's okay. Somebody will want this. And yeah, so that that is a heartbreaker when it's like they've already cleaned out.

Unknown:

But sometimes I wish I could work for an estate sale company, because there's a few in the area, but I just know that's a bad idea, because A, I will submerse myself too much, uh huh, and B, I would just get way too much inventory, which would just be durable,

Suzanne Wells:

if they would let you some. Yeah, let the workers buy items, because then they're more they're motivated just to go through this items and put things aside for themselves. I did work for a state sale company for a brief time last summer, and learned a lot about what's allowed, what's not, and what they throw away. Because, yeah, that's and that's where George Kelly came from. He used to run estate sales. Yeah, he knows a lot, but I feel like that would be such an valuable education to work for an estate sale company, just for a month or so. And just like, see how they do things, see how they sort things, see what they think is important, and then the things they put aside that no just trash that you're like, no

Unknown:

money off of that. I didn't think I'd be able to make any money selling, like old family postcards, but real photo postcards, there's some really nice ones, and since my family's been in the same area for so long, I don't necessarily read them, because sometimes it's difficult to read. But I'll have a few, quite a few from like Frankfurt, Michigan. And so it have the it would have, like, barges on it. And so people aren't buying it because it's from Frankfurt. They're buying it because of the content of the photo. And I think what originally brought me to reselling was my whole life, my mom was a Thrifter, and she had a craft booth, and she would let me make things and sell it in the craft booth. And then we eventually got into a craft and antique booth, and then she still has her craft and antique booth. And so we decide, do things go here, or do they go on eBay? We can make more money on eBay, but it's a larger item. I don't want to ship it, but I was always raised around also, because I have an older family, I was always raised around antiques. And so growing up, I thought it was so cool that I'm like, I know exactly what this thing is. And even sometimes now, I'll go to a thrift store, not recently, but I'll go to a store and be like, have you seen this before? Do you know what it is? I know what it is. So I think being raised that way just gave me automatic appreciation of things.

Suzanne Wells:

So you do most of your sourcing out in the wild locally. You do online stuff.

Unknown:

I've done online options a little bit. There is. One here that I went to for the first time in years last no two weeks ago, and I found a US Marines scarf that I sold for on auction, for $89 it was a US Marines. Oh, yes,

Suzanne Wells:

I saw that. It was like a wall. You had it as a wall hanging, or a scarf, yeah,

Unknown:

a table, yeah. And I bought it for $3 online because nobody knew I couldn't find anything like it. And if I can't find anything like it, it's going on auction. Is was

Suzanne Wells:

it silk? Yes, okay, that matters. I think, yeah. I saw that sale. I was like, good for you. It's very military, patriotic themed. Yes, yeah. I've

Unknown:

been trying to think, because I've been listening to your past podcasts, I've been trying to think of like, what I want to say something else, because I know I didn't post in your group for a while, something else I found in the attic was a, just a creepy looking baby doll, and because attic had no I see, the arms were all scrunched up, so I listed it around Halloween as a haunted baby doll. Oh, and then I sold it for like 39 bucks.

Suzanne Wells:

Good marketing. Yeah, it's

Unknown:

all about how you want to market something because I have a, let's say we have a coaster that's like made out of rope, and it is in the circle, right? Well, that's not just a coaster. It could also be a dollhouse rug, but as a dollhouse rug, it will sell for much more money than a coaster, absolutely so really, it's, it's well, it's always about keywords, but it's also just about the type of marketing that you put for something

Suzanne Wells:

well, and it'll be too late for this when this comes out, but not for next year, New Year's Eve clothing, any fine That is black and gold or sequiny like these people dress up on New Year, but the black and the gold. I go back through my listings around after Thanksgiving, and I put New Year's Eve in the title. It could be a sweater, a jacket, a dress, anything that is glittery, black, gold, silver. It seems to work. They seem to move in December as New Year's Eve clothing. You could do the same for Christmas, if it's, you know, looks Christmassy. Doesn't have to be the ugly Christmas sweater, but, you know, red sweater, or red a pretty red wool coat, anything like that, that people would wear around Christmas. You know, people like to dress in red and be festive. So every holiday I kind of go through like, what can I change the keywords on to market this for the upcoming holiday and with clothing. It works with gift items. It works. I sold a wool rich blanket. It was the buffalo plaid. It was new in the package. It sold in like 45 minutes, and that was just this week, mid December, and I just know it was going to be a gift, because it just looked like something that would go in somebody's lodge or cabin or camping or just, you know how people change their decor, Christmas, and they change everything anyway. Yeah, that one's sold really fast. So you know, just for the listeners, think about what you have that could relate to the upcoming holiday. You gotta think in advance, so six to eight weeks in advance, so that people have time to find it and buy it and receive it, to use it for whatever that holiday is. So that's why holiday sells all year long. I've sold Easter stuff in the fall just because people collect certain things, or they have a theme, or Christmas ornaments when they're either putting up the tree or taking it down, and their favorite one breaks, they buy a new one.

Unknown:

Yep, I know. I think I've heard you say a few times, eBay knows no seasons, right?

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, you haven't right around,

Unknown:

yeah, right around Halloween, I tend to go into some of my like Toy listings, and then I'll put stocking stuffer. Mm, hmm. Because people are, what are they going to look for? They're going to look for stocking stuffer. So if you have, if you don't have that in your title, it's not going to come up unless they send

Suzanne Wells:

out their own Google as well as eBay. That sometimes they don't think about eBay, they're just Googling, you know, stocking stuffer for fishermen, stocking stuffer for Chef, and they're just looking for they don't know what they're looking for, looking for cute, little unusual items that relate to that person's hobby or profession, and they end up on eBay.

Unknown:

Yeah, that's why I don't mind selling two zero feedback sellers, because. Because you could be their first experience on eBay, and they could have only come to eBay and made the account and everything just to buy your item exactly privilege. It's an honor. And so I don't exclude zero feedback sellers from anything

Suzanne Wells:

I know. And everybody was zero when they started. Yeah, everybody's been there. I think it gets a little more suspicious or complicated when you know they're in a different country and they're speaking in broken English and they're asking strange questions,

Unknown:

or even communication outside of eBay. Yeah, you

Suzanne Wells:

have to look at the whole big picture. Don't just look at, oh, they just opened their account today, because they may have been looking for something, especially if you sell unusual items, that you might be the only one out there that has it,

Unknown:

yeah, which is the case in a lot of my sales. One thing that the nurses just couldn't understand this in the hospital. So Michael had cystic fibrosis related diabetes, and so he had a before he got his insulin pump, he had a the test strips for the

Suzanne Wells:

machine, oh, the diabetic test strips with the Little Reader. Yep, yeah.

Unknown:

I didn't sell the test strips. I sold the containers that they came in because I thought, hmm, I don't want to recycle these. These might be worth some money. And we got them on such a regular occasion, they didn't have any personal information on them. People use those for so many things, right? I sold a lot of, like, 10 of them. I'm like, this was free to me. I don't remember how much I maybe had, like, I maybe got, like, 15 bucks out of it, but it was trash otherwise.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, and I think the crafting industry is our best friend, because we are the supplier of the raw material they need to make whatever that thing is. So, for example, the aroma therapy, the liquid that comes in the little bottles, those bottles you can sell empty. You know, all kinds of things that crafters are upcycling, like the cashmere cutters, that's my favorite one, the cashmere sweaters that might have a hole in them or some damage. And when you're out in the world, you just as you see them cheap, go ahead and get them if they're $1 and you don't have to repair them, you don't have to do anything, and just let them stockpile, sell them in a lot of 10 or so, maybe of the same color group, you know, like the reds or the pinks or whatever or not. And people make things out of those. They either unravel the cashmere and re you know, wind it into the balls and start from scratch, or they cut it into pieces and do like patchwork scarves and baby clothes and dog clothing and all that stuff. I found this out way back when I first started eBay, and I had a sweater, and I realized it had a defect on it, and I just, I'm on the list it anyway, and it sold for like,$15 and I asked the lady, hey, I'm just curious, are you going to repair this? And she says, Oh, no, I make clothing for small dogs. That make sweaters. And it just opened up a whole world of, Oh, I could do this on purpose.

Unknown:

And I think you have to be very creative to be anything, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

so I became a supplier of a raw material for crafters. And it there's new things coming up all the time that these crafters are so creative. You know what they're doing with things they're making, like burlap bags, feed bags, you know, seed bags, those burlap bags. They make those into all kinds of things, window treatments, and they'll put it around the potted plants on their front porch for a real rustic look, or just different things. I totally got us off topic. But yeah, just you

Unknown:

have to think outside the box a lot. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

I was just going to say that, you know, what else could this be used for? Don't throw it away somebody, you know, lids to all these different products, food products, the lids will sell. This is Tupperware lids. Yeah, yeah. Now you

Unknown:

can find, there's a quote on the top. You can easily find out what it goes to. And one time

Suzanne Wells:

people were selling those Crystal Light plastic containers, it's like a tube, and there'll be, there would be, like, I don't know, five or six of the little Crystal Light in the plastic containers, inside this big tube shaped container, and they were making something out of those. And those sold for a while. I don't know if it's still a thing. If you just go on eBay and put in upcycling or repurposing, and you'll see all the things people are using, and you're like, I can you. Yeah, I can look for that. I have some of those, and it's really mind blowing.

Unknown:

I'm not specifically into, like, doll house stuff, but I think it's just a very interesting way to think of something as something different. And if you think of it's just a miniature, there's a lot of people that buy doll houses and do miniatures, and they will spend the money on exactly what they want. And this goes beyond, I'm thinking more realistic doll houses, not, not necessarily the Fisher Price loving family kind of,

Suzanne Wells:

right? The the old fashioned ones, the wooden ones,

Unknown:

yes, yeah. And so that's why I thought, well, this is, this is a poster, but it's also a rug. Now, I told my mom, because she's a crafter, I was like, you can make Barbie bed sets and sell them for decent money. I was like, you can crochet a coaster and we'll sell it as a rug. She hasn't quite caught on to the idea, but we're getting there. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

and I think people forget that's just they may not be playing with dolls inside the dollhouse. They may just have that fantasy world of all the miniatures. And some stuff is expensive, especially if it's old, not made anymore, and it was made of something like cherry wood, or one of the more expensive woods, and it's but people want it.

Unknown:

Yeah, my mom has a kitchen tree. She calls it a kitchen Christmas tree, and it's all decorated with kitchen themed items, and one of them is a little mixer, like stand mixer. And I thought, oh, man, if she was not to use that for an ornament that could sit on the counter in a dollhouse as a miniature, you know, Kitchen Aid, stand mixer, Mm, hmm, who would think about that?

Suzanne Wells:

So do you sell a lot of dollhouse stuff, or is that just something you're drawn to? It's,

Unknown:

it's just something I'm drawn to. I have, I have a few items that I purchased at a yard sale, and I have a little box of stuff that I go through every once in a while, the majority of my inventory I get for free, either from Mom's attic or from a few of her friends. So I have a large stockpile that I just need to organize and go through before I unfortunately go treasure hunting some more.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, yeah, I know, but sometimes it's just therapy to get out there in the world, yes, go to a thrift store or a yard sale and just look,

Unknown:

yeah, well here, I mean, yard sale season ends honestly around like October, maybe because it just starts getting kind of yucky and the weather gets unpredictable. Gets unpredictable. So you have to find alternate ways to source. One that I found that I really, really like is the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. A lot of them. Just get things from people who are just moving, or demolish a house, or it's just a, I think it's an untapped resource that a lot of people don't consider.

Suzanne Wells:

So what kind of things have you found there that aren't like, you know, flooring and building supplies?

Unknown:

Yeah. So the one that I go to that's just about an hour from my house, they have two separate sections. One is more like, this is construction stuff, and the other is home decor items. I found some pottery pieces that I've sold from there. I found a knife block. I don't it wasn't cut COVID brand, it was. But definitely got like 60 bucks out of that. Sometimes I'll find little, like, small pieces of artwork. I find a lot of flatware there. I love selling flour, and it's mostly, you know, kitchen related items, I guess, or home decor. But a lot of people don't know what's there, so they automatically go to a St Vincent's or a Goodwill or Salvation Army, which are the main ones we have in our area. And sometimes they have, you know, really good stuff, and sometimes not so great. But I like to go to the obscure places that I think somebody won't like. I'll make my own Honey Hole, I suppose.

Suzanne Wells:

Right. Well, and the Habitat for Humanity. We've got a couple here, and I have checked them out. I just didn't, hadn't found anything yet. You know, it all depends on what's donated, too. But you'll have things like cabinet hardware, light bulbs, like obscure, weird size light bulbs, things in the package. I like that things, if, yeah, package. I have sold some light bulbs, but I

Unknown:

think I felt some casters for a metal like tray, okay? I thought I can sell those. Yeah, sometimes I look at the old tools. If I see a wooden handle, I'll kind of, you know, Google, Google image search and see what's going on. I. Um, I have found some hardware, like a ceramic drawer pulls, Mm, hmm, which are pretty neat. Um, oh my goodness, all sorts of like doorknobs and hinges and most of the stuff I don't know about. But just because I don't know about it doesn't mean it won't sell, right?

Suzanne Wells:

And for the listeners, it's not all big stuff, big light fixtures and plumbing and all that. There's, there's all kind of little doodads in there, but I think you just have to check back often, because you don't know they somebody could have cleaned out a house from the 1800s and donated all this stuff, and it just depends on your timing. Yeah,

Unknown:

I did get it sat there for a while, so I actually made an offer on it. They accepted my offer. It was a big box of poker chips. Oh, and so there are ones that were solid, like red, white and blue. They were the ones with the little like designs on the edges. And I have sold a few sets. These are, like the clay chips. They're they're heavier, they're not the plastic, like flimsy ones. And so I've, I have a few listings, and I think I sold a set, roughly, for like $1 a chip, and I have this huge bag of the box weighs like 1520, pounds. And so I just, I also like it, because I can make a multiple, multiple item listing, and I can say, hey, I have a set of 24 but I have six sets

Suzanne Wells:

of this, right? And any of them bake light? No,

Unknown:

no, I have found some big light items in the in the attic, right now I'm learning about the big light

Suzanne Wells:

dice. Yeah, there's all

Unknown:

sorts of fun stuff. I do semi chrome testing. That's the best one I found so far with the

Suzanne Wells:

it's like a paste, yep, the semi Chrome, right? I have some flatware

Unknown:

that I need to do. Thank you for reminding me. I have some flatware that are big light on them, really

Suzanne Wells:

big light handles, okay, yeah, it's on all kinds of little items, you know, could be on jewelry. Drawer pulls any game pieces that are really old, chess pieces, backgammon pieces, the dice. They just made all kind of little items with that.

Unknown:

Yeah, buttons. I sold a just one button. It's called a picture button. So it's very intricately carved, I suppose. And I sold that just one button for like, $15 good for you it is. It just blew my mind. How fast it took a few days. I'm a long tail seller. I'm also an everything seller. So I don't mind if I, you know, just list it and it sits. That's fine. But I just, I, it just makes my heart happy when I can take one tiny little thing and make a lot of money off of it. Yeah, just,

Suzanne Wells:

and it's amazing what people are looking for and will buy. Yes,

Unknown:

I said I sold a set of just plastic buttons. They're like, six plastic buttons for like nine bucks. I I have not yet gone to, you know, the thrift stores in particular to look for the more like St John's or the higher end clothing. But because I've been listening to your podcast for a while, I now know if I go to a thrift store and find some high end clothing that might have some defects, take the buttons. Mm,

Suzanne Wells:

hmm, yeah. And that Saint John can be moths like it. You know, sometimes you find it's a beautiful piece and turn it around, oh, there's big old hole in the back, and you really can't repair it to look right. So, okay, it's $3 I'll take this for the buttons and yeah, and then also you can cut the tag, the label out of it, and put it with the buttons. And that's good, yeah, people will go get, you know, an el cheapo, Walmart blazer, whatever, and jazz it up to look like Saint John. So, yeah, um, that's, that's kind of a upcycling of the buttons in the label. But I was, when I first saw that, I was like, why are they selling the label with this? We would want that. And then I realized, Oh, they're doing an incognito Saint John.

Unknown:

Incognito Saint John is something a good banding. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

you have any more sales you want to talk about?

Unknown:

I did write some down. One thing that I have been selling recently is needlepoint kits. Also I love the probably going to say it wrong. Bucilla, I. Yes, those. I love those. And growing up, my grandma made every single stocking every single year. She had the tree skirt, she had everything. And unfortunately, when she moved into a retirement home, all that stuff just got thrown away. And now it breaks my heart thinking of how much cool stuff the trash and I have found a few spinach stockings out in the wild estate sales. Um, they're very easy to, you know, find, but my, one of my mom's old, older friends that also passed away, I had everything cat you can possibly think of, so I now I have this big banker's box full of needlepoint kits, and one of them sold. It was only, like 12 bucks sold within like two hours, one of them sitting there. It's a cruel kit, uh huh, and it has 15 watchers. Raise the price, that's a

Suzanne Wells:

good idea, yeah, raise the price, and they'll get a notification that the price has changed. And that kind of creates a sense of urgency, like, Okay, you're watching this, you're going to do anything about it, because is it going to go up more? Price is going exactly. Price is going up. Go up more.

Unknown:

That's a, see, I would thought of, I would have thought of lowering it, but not necessarily making it higher. It's never on my games, I

Suzanne Wells:

know. And then so if you lower it, they'll wait for it to go lower. That makes true. But, I mean, they may be like, Oh, good, I can afford it now, but raising the price kind of is like, it's like, when the gas price goes up, everybody rushes out to get gas for it goes up anymore. Yeah, these situations where it's like a big increase, oh yeah, I

Unknown:

do that with my if I know I'm going to put my store on like a 25 or 30% sale, I'll increase my prices so that I still get the price I want afterwards. Yeah? And that's, that's, that's really all it is. It's just mind games. Well, it's like retail in a good way. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

oh, everything's always on sale at Kohl's, at some point, if you just wait a few weeks, it'll be on sale. No one should ever pay full price for anything at Kohl's, because if you can just be patient, it'll be on sale two or three weeks. Mm,

Unknown:

hmm, of course, I don't follow I shop at Costco for almost everything.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, okay, it's probably

Unknown:

my favorite store, and it's just me, my boyfriend, but, or my boyfriend and I, but we like the clothes and we'll get, you know, some of the food and stuff, but it's not really a place where I can, maybe I like it, because it's not really place I can go in source. Mm, hmm, I don't really think about you day when I'm in there. Yeah, that's a good point. It's just kind of a you walk in the store and then your thoughts go away because you're in this big warehouse, uh huh, and I know that I'm not going to find anything for eBay in there, so I don't have to look. I can just do my grocery shopping.

Suzanne Wells:

That's a good point, yeah, but I'm pretty sure most of us eBay ers, we don't want to pay full price for anything now that been out in the world at thrift stores and estate sales. And it's like, we know what we can get items for. I just absolutely cannot pay full price for anything.

Unknown:

I won't. I'll find a sweater that I like, and then I'll go on eBay and be like, Okay, I can either buy this from a big store, or I can buy this for small business. And I get the same thing. Yeah, I want to support the small business. Mm,

Suzanne Wells:

hmm. I do the same thing. I get all my bath and body works, products that I love, like the lotions and the shower stuff, I go on eBay, and a lot of them are super cheap, and they will take offers so and they have things that are hard to find, because that business model Bath and Body Works is like, all about changing scents, new stuff, new sense for spring and like, sometimes you want the old ones that you have used for years, and they don't make them anymore them. And Yankee Candle do that a lot with continuing. And it's like, no, I want the old and established. I don't want the new and improved, because a lot of times the new one does not smell the same, or

Unknown:

it's not as potent when you burn it Right exactly. Yeah. Just recently, I was looking up being nostalgic, and I found a Victoria's Secret so sexy shampoo that I used in like, high school. It's $125 a bottle. Now, yeah, my goodness, I can't justify 120 $5 for shampoo. But if I had some, well,

Suzanne Wells:

it's, you know, some people, as we say, got more money than since, I guess. But you know, if it's important to them, you know it doesn't have to be important to you to be the provider of the item. It's important to them. I can't tell you how many times I've heard gotten communication from a buyer. Bought a discontinued scent of something, and they're like, oh, this was my mom's favorite. You know, she's 80 years old. She's in a nursing home. This will just brighten her day. You know, maybe she can't see it, maybe she can't speak because she's had a stroke, but she could smell it and make it feel good. Um, and did you see on the group, Somebody sold a bottle of Gee, Your hair smells terrific, shampoo. You are too young to know this. That was a big thing in the 80s, and they had all these commercials about Gee, Your hair smells terrific. And it was in this purplish pink bottle, and somebody sold that for $125

Unknown:

I when I go to estate sales, the first place I go to the bathroom, that's excellent. Good for you. Mm, hmm. And nobody else goes in there because they're too busy in the books or the records or the

Suzanne Wells:

silver, also in the China and the cookie jars. And I want

Unknown:

the linens in the cupboard, and I want the old towels

Suzanne Wells:

and the old all that. Then, like Mark Cheryl in Ohio, he sells all those old products, and just the boxes, sometimes, of products from the 70s and 80s. And people collect that so well, they use them as props too. Yeah, absolutely,

Unknown:

yeah. I sold one. Oh, gosh, right. When I started out, I sold a, you know, the pool cubes, their pool cubes, the chalk, the blue chocolate was on the end of it. I sold it to the set of young Sheldon. Okay, yeah, I'm not gonna find the episode where this is, but, my goodness, that's cool. If they bought

Suzanne Wells:

it, I bet somebody listening is, is gonna be like, Oh, I saw that one. You know, people who love their shows, know all the episodes,

Unknown:

oh, yeah, yeah. And I know people that have sold, you know, like a lamp to Mad Men and that kind of stuff. And what a marketing ploy for those places, because they're getting guaranteed watchers.

Suzanne Wells:

Absolutely, yeah, good project.

Unknown:

So sometimes I'll put prop in my title, uh huh,

Suzanne Wells:

but really, you don't have to, because these people that seek out props, they're not putting that in the title. They're just That's true for what they need. You know, vintage G or Harris Mills, terrific shampoo. And they they know it's going to be a prop, but I feel like you know if you don't have room left in your title, you don't need to use that word. That's true. Yeah, you could use it for something else, but okay, well, we have been going about an hour now. Do you have any final words for the listeners? I

Unknown:

do. I have two sets of advice. One is use the custom skew. It'll help you find your items. And that's the hard way. I learned that the hard way. And I do mine very different. The way I have mine set up is I put where the item is located, and then slash and then where I got the item, or how much I paid for it. So I'll put, like, ys point two five means I got on the yard sale for 25 cents, and then my last plug, another dash, and then I put the date it was listed. And the reason I do that is because if you go and we realist, relist your items, you're not necessarily, you're refreshing it, but opportunity to see if you should give offers right? How long have I been sitting and not selling,

Suzanne Wells:

right? Since the time period since you've originally had it like, Okay, I've had this item for four years. I keep refreshing and nothing's happening. Do I donate? What do I do here? Right? Exactly?

Unknown:

Because, yeah, it's really helped me. And the other one is to schedule your listings, because that saved me so many times when I had the time to list, I would do like 20, and then I would schedule out like three or five a day, and then I could do all my listing at one time when I had the opportunity, and then I just kind of coast to the rest of the week, and then I don't have to worry about making my daily quota. And I still do it to this day, sometimes it's only one or two listings, but that's okay, because eBay just wants you to feed the beast consistently,

Suzanne Wells:

right? And the algorithm likes active stores, and it is kind of a catch 22 because I feel like, Oh, you don't have a listing day. I'm going to list 20 things today. Any of them could sell within minutes. So do I really want to hold that back for another day?

Unknown:

Yeah, it's difficult to, you know which, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

which thing do you want to do get the quick sale or, you know, massage the algorithm? Mm, hmm, so yeah, even one listing a day scheduled is that's a listing. That's something I

Unknown:

do utilize drops quite a bit. I'm

Suzanne Wells:

so excited about listing this, I don't want to get it up there because it could sell right away, and I don't want to wait three more days to have it go up, you know? So, yeah,

Unknown:

I don't usually like to schedule them out too far, right? I'm making the items sit and I don't want to do that, right?

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, okay. Well, thanks again for coming on and sharing your story with us. You were really brave to tell us some of those things.

Unknown:

That's an honor. Thank you for having

Suzanne Wells:

me. Oh, great. And so we'll look for some more of your cool mom's attic sales on the Facebook group. Um,

Unknown:

so my eBay store is, Mom, look what I found. And I did that because it's something that somebody can remember. You don't have to worry about spelling it wrong. And that's exactly what I did, is I'd go up in the attic, I'd bring something down, or I'd be in the thrift store, and I'll say, Hey, Mom, look what I found. So that that has to be, they had to be the name. That's

Suzanne Wells:

very clever. I love that. So the listeners can go take a look at what you've got. Yeah, that'd be great. Alright. Well, enjoy your day and stay warm.

Unknown:

How are you too? Okay? Bye. Bye.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay. On to parting words. The video I referred to on YouTube is titled How to recover from below standard. And as I shared with you, I've been there and done that. So if you ever find yourself in that situation, it's never intentional. It's just something that happens. There is a way out. There is a way back to your regular status, either standard or above standard, so that your selling limits will increase again and your account will not have any restrictions. So just know that this does happen, and there is a way back and a happy note, Laura reached out to me on New Year's Eve to say that she and her boyfriend are now engaged, and I am so happy for them. What a different life she has now than three years ago. So Laura is another one that has a 100% success rate of getting through hard things and moving on to happy times. Next week, my guest is Joe myRA. You may have seen her recent sale of a Mahjong set for $750 on the Facebook group. She sells all kinds of interesting items, so you will learn a lot from her. Thank you again for supporting this podcast, and I will talk to you next week. Happy selling. Everybody. Bye. You.