eBay the Right Way
Learn how to sell on eBay the right way. Suzanne A. Wells has been selling on eBay since 2003 and has been an influencer in the eBay community since 2007. This podcast is designed for the full or part time at-home seller who loves the reselling process including the thrill of the hunt, rehoming used items, and building a home business they love. eBay is a way of life, not just a side hustle. Suzanne has been featured in Money Magazine, Martha Stewart Magazine, Women's World, and All You magazines as an eBay expert. You can find her on YouTube and Facebook as Suzanne A. Wells.
eBay the Right Way
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Music. Hello, resellers. This is episode number 202 of eBay the right way. Today's date is January, 29 2025 my guest is Barbara in Arizona. Announcements, and this is a personal update some of you saw on my personal Facebook page that my dad went into hospice on January 17. Thank you for your prayers for my dad and for our family during this time he passed quietly on Friday, January 24 at six in the evening, he spent exactly one week in hospice, and he passed 48 hours after we ended our round the clock vigil and told him it was okay to let go. We know our dad is whole again and pain free, and it's been a tough 14 months for our family, losing our brother in law, Jeff, our mom and now our dad, but it helps so much knowing I have a supportive and caring community out there. You all are my friends. I love you, and thank you all so much for your support. Okay, now let's talk eBay with Barbara. Welcome back, listeners. I have Barbara with us and tell us where
Unknown:you're located. I'm in the northwest corner of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Okay, so it says it's a city called Peoria, but we're attached to Phoenix.
Suzanne Wells:Okay, so it's you said it was cold this morning. So normally it's not
Unknown:well. It's been a hot as heck here, this last couple years have been horrible. So these are our cooler days, although it's supposed to be 60 today, but we have this. You might hear some rattling of windows and trees because the wind is just whipping. So what's going on? But it kind of feels like Wizard of Oz, kind of, kind of, so a little unusual for us, okay, I think this is the coldest day we've had in probably a year. Okay.
Suzanne Wells:Now, have you always been there, or did you move there for the warm weather? Um, I
Unknown:moved here for a job, okay. I'm originally from Pennsylvania, uh huh, and then I spent about 10 years in West Virginia, and actually, you had a caller or a interview recently with somebody who also was from had lived in West Virginia and Arizona. Yeah, I think that was Katherine
Suzanne Wells:Racine. She's in Montana now, yeah, but she had ties to West Virginia, yep.
Unknown:So I met my husband there. I lived there for about 10 years, and then I had a job opportunity out here, and we plan to come for about two years, and that was about 35 years ago. Oh,
Suzanne Wells:okay, so, yeah, that did turn into a long term thing. Yeah. Okay, great. Now you are retired. I am the job is over, so good for you. You made it okay. Now tell us how you got into doing eBay.
Unknown:You know, my profile shows that I've been on eBay since 2002 so I think I originally started buying a few things. I didn't start selling initially, and at some point, probably, I don't know, 1820, years ago, my sister told me that she was selling some things on eBay. And I was like, Well, how do you do that? And so she kind of showed me what she was doing, and I looked for some things around the house, you know, kids outgrown clothes and toys and started listing a few things, and I think I got hooked
Suzanne Wells:very good. Okay, was there one initial sale that you remember that convinced you to keep going?
Unknown:I think the first sale I remember was a suit that my son had outgrown, and it sold pretty quickly, and it was pretty easy. I think, I think that was my first sale. Okay,
Suzanne Wells:okay, and so how long would you say you've been actively selling, like, on a daily basis, involved in eBay?
Unknown:I'd say 15 plus. Okay. So quite a few years. Good, long time. Yeah.
Suzanne Wells:Okay, so even as a seasoned seller, you have a item you're a little hesitant to ship out right away because of weather concerns. So tell us what's going on with that? Yeah.
Unknown:So I picked up a set of China, which I don't normally do, but it caught my eye. It was a beautiful, like a Tiffany turquoise color. And I looked up a few pieces, and they looked to have a pretty good sell through rate. And it was like half off price at savers day. So it was like $17 for the set. So I just put it in my cart, and, you know, didn't think anything about it. And I when I listed them, you know, I realized how, how expensive they were selling for. I said, I realized I had six full sets and a few odd pieces. So I listed each individual set for $75 and I think it was New Year's Eve, I got a offer of $60 a set. And I thought, oh, New Year's Day, I'm going to have to ship these. And it's, you know, under my asking price, I don't really want to ship them, so I'm going to counter. I countered, and they, I think they declined, but I had many, many watchers, 14, 1618, watchers, so I was pretty sure it would sell. And about two weeks later, it sold for full price, $450 for all six pieces. Wow. And I kind of anticipated they would, you know, somebody would buy a set to replace one or to add to their set, not all six pieces at once. So I was really nervous about shipping them. I ended up splitting it into two boxes, and they're packed really, really well, but I'm really concerned with this cold weather, if they'll crack just based on freezing. Mm, hmm. I don't know if you've any experience with pottery. I have not
Suzanne Wells:heard people saying that's a problem. Yeah, so and you said it's going to Louisiana. So Louisiana, it's not going to, you know, North North Dakota, where it's their high is 20 below, or anything. Yeah,
Unknown:I just saw a post this morning on one of the Facebook groups. I think it was yours, actually, that somebody was saying that they were in Louisiana and their roads were closed and they couldn't get out to ship and were really concerned. So then I started thinking, maybe it's really called a Louisiana right now. Well, there's
Suzanne Wells:that system coming through that is south it's the Gulf states across there. So I don't think it's going I know it's definitely going below us in Greenville, and probably below Atlanta too, but like they're talking about bad weather and Savannah and, you know, all down there coastal areas, so that might be it. So it might just be an icy mess and not so much brutal cold.
Unknown:Okay, that could well, keep your fingers crossed for me, because it
Suzanne Wells:was, I will. It was a nice sale. Yeah. And what was the brand? Again?
Unknown:It was called Castleton China, and it looked like it was maybe from the 70s, and it was beautiful, like a Tiffany blue color with a silver band, and on a white background, beautiful china. I'd never seen it or heard heard of it before, so Oh, well,
Suzanne Wells:good for you. That was a great sale. And your initial cost was dollars, $17 and it sold for 450 that's what we all want to do. And
Unknown:I actually had two random like luncheon plates that had some wear on them. They had some of the silver was worn off, and I already sold those for $20 and then I still have a cup and saucer left that has several watchers. So you know, it'll probably come in around 500 if it all sells. Excellent. So, yeah, that was pretty nice. So
Suzanne Wells:is that something you specialize in? The dinner wear and the breakables. No,
Unknown:no, no, no. My specialty is pots, pots, pots like cooking, like cooking, pots like beer, wear, okay, okay, that's what I love. And I sell the most of Okay,
Suzanne Wells:so do you wait till you have a full set, or you just find it and sell
Unknown:it? Um, pretty much I put sets together. Okay, so I'm not really sure how I got turned on to pots, but I lived near quite a few retirement communities, so I think back in the day, everybody got, you know, copper clad revere wear for wedding gifts, and you know, when they got married. So there's a lot of it out here, and I get it fairly inexpensively. I pay by probably maybe five or $6 on average a pot, and they look terrible. I mean, people don't take care of them. They're all the bottoms are black. The copper is ugly looking. So I think, you know, doesn't look like they have value. So I started picking it up and putting sets together. I. And I priced them kind of based on condition. Now, the pots clean up beautifully. The condition issues are more on the handles because they're bake light. Mm, hmm. And a lot of people put them in the dishwasher, and that kind of ruins the finish, right, but people still buy them. And between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I sold 14 sets this year.
Suzanne Wells:Oh, really, 150
Unknown:and 200 each. Actually, the last set I sold was, actually after Christmas. Was two $50 it was a pristine condition. And I usually have about, usually 13 to 15 pieces in a set with with lids, including lids, and they're really easy to ship because they nest and they don't break. I mean, they're 6070, years old, so they're really pretty easy to compact, and they they don't break in shipping. And people really want their pots.
Suzanne Wells:Well, I commend you for volunteering to be the cleaner upper because that is a part of it that some people just like, I'm not doing that. I don't want to take the time, but you enjoy the process of bringing it back to its beautiful original state. So that doesn't bother you the scrubbing and cleaning. No,
Unknown:usually I kind of, I'll do, like a one day where I'll just do an assembly line and kind of line them all up, and I'll have, you know, 30 or 40 pieces, and I'll, I use Barkeepers. Friend is awesome, and that's just a wonderful product. And, yeah, they clean up like brand new that
Suzanne Wells:was going to be my next question is, do you have any cleaning tips?
Unknown:Well, one thing that's really helpful, this was my son's idea. He got me scrubber pads for a drill. So for the really hard to clean, I use the scrubber pads on the drill, and it really saves a lot of time and takes a lot of that really baked on, black stuff
Suzanne Wells:off. Okay, so it's not just elbow grease. You're using a a battery operated drill with a special attachment, right? Yep, that's a great idea, yeah, and it doesn't scratch it or anything. No,
Unknown:I mean, it'll remove some of the finish. You'll see, you know, my sink will be kind of copper color, so it definitely takes off some of the finish, but it restores it to, you know, beautiful condition. So it's saved me a lot of time when he saw that I was, you know, scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing. Actually, he's a design engineer for RYOBI tools. Oh, okay, actually, near you outside of Greenville. Um, yeah, there.
Suzanne Wells:I know exactly where that, um, there's a corporate office right out next to 85 Yeah,
Unknown:tornado building. Mm hmm, yeah. Mm hmm. So he, you know, he knows all of his tools and attachments, and inside, outside, you know how to maneuver things? So, yeah, so he helped me with that. Well,
Suzanne Wells:that's a great connection to have. Yeah, do you have any tips for what not to do that would ruin it?
Unknown:I haven't had any problems. But, I mean, I don't, haven't tried, like, oven cleaner or anything. I don't know what that would do,
Suzanne Wells:right? You just went straight to the Barkeepers friend, and that worked great. Yeah, yeah. I've heard that before, too.
Unknown:Now, He restores cast iron pans, and he puts oven cleaner on those and puts them in a plastic bag and leaves them sit for like, two to four days, and then scrubs them. And he restores a lot of he loves his cast iron pans, so he restores those, and they come out brand new, but they're just cake
Suzanne Wells:thick. Yeah, they can be really gross, yeah,
Unknown:yeah, I would, No, that one's not for me, but yeah, he's, well, he's, he's actually been here for a couple months. He's traveling the country right now, and so he's been here, and so he's been, we've been doing some thrifting together, and he's been cleaning up some the cast iron and things like that. And he's had some, I've listed things for him, but he's had some fantastic sales. Was
Suzanne Wells:it the baseball globe? Okay, I saw that on the group. I want to hear that story. Yeah,
Unknown:yeah. We went to Goodwill, I don't know, two weeks ago, and new cart came out. There's at my goodwill. I'm sure that at the we have a lot of Goodwills out here, but at the one that I've closest to my house, there's a group of people that sit by the door where the carts come out. Uh huh. They're there every day, every day.
Suzanne Wells:They're the vultures, yes, the vultures, yes. And
Unknown:they, um, yeah, I don't know. I guess they're allowed to do it. I see it on other posts too. It happens apparently everywhere. But a new cart came out and I went over, and I kind of was looking through, you know, what? I could squeeze through, some of the elbows and things like that. And I. Was, I called him because he was somewhere, you know, off in the store. And I said, Come on over here. They got brought a new card out there. I've met two or three new carts. And he pulled this baseball glove off, which I would never look at, because I don't know anything about baseball gloves or right boards. And there are couple of them on there. And he looked over them, and kind of did a little he loves to do research. And this one, he said he was, you know, pretty valuable. I think we paid like, $6 for it, and it was a catcher's mitt, and it was part of the hide professional mitt. Anyway, he researched it all night. Was on Reddit asking people questions because he couldn't find this model, and we posted it. I think we decided on, or he decided on, 225, and we posted it, and it sold in five minutes. Wow, maybe it was a little too low, I don't know, but it was pretty quick, pretty quick flip. So we were excited about that.
Suzanne Wells:Excellent. So how does the money work on that? Was that a 5050, split? No,
Unknown:we're, we're going to work it. He's got several other things that have sold, so we're kind of keeping a little, a little tally page, and I'll settle up with him when he he's leaving, and I think in about a week, and I'll settle up with him then,
Suzanne Wells:okay, well, good for you, yeah, because he actually lives in my area, right? Yeah, he lives in Malden. So does he thrift and resell on his own? No, okay, good.
Unknown:I'm just kidding. You know, when I've been out there, um, I've been to a few of the stores around there, it's, there's, it's not very good.
Suzanne Wells:It isn't, um, that's why I started buying more online. Yeah, I kind of go to the local ones for mental health day or, you know, just to, just to get out for thrifting therapy or something. But I haven't been finding the big scores in our stores at all.
Unknown:Now I saw where, and I think I get emails from them that it was, it did a new bin store open. Yes,
Suzanne Wells:yes, they there is a new bin store. There was one over by the mall, and then they opened a new one, maybe a couple of weeks ago. I have not been yet. I'm kind of waiting for the first month to go by, and kind of the hype to settle down and talk to some others who have been and see what it's like. But yeah, there's a new one. I'm thinking it's, it's sulfur Springs Road, something like that.
Unknown:It's better. I've been to the other one. The other one's pretty yuck. Not I didn't think it was very good.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah, it was. It was very empty the time I tried it, and I just didn't get a good vibe in there. So, and there's choices. Do
Unknown:you know where Malden is? Yeah,
Suzanne Wells:oh, I go there all the time to the the miracle hill by Ingles, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, folks up in there, and they opened a new miracle Hill boutique in Simpsonville, Main Street, right next to that Food Lion across from the Walmart. Yeah, I have not been there yet either. Their grand opening was a couple months ago. And you know, people say, Oh, everything's marked up. Well, that's okay. If it's $25 you can sell it for 100 that's doable. Yeah,
Unknown:yeah, yeah. I found some actually, my son's fiance's mother was interested in learning. And we went over to that mirror. Was it miracle Hill in
Suzanne Wells:Malden? Yeah, yes, yeah. We,
Unknown:went over there and found a few things I was trying to help her to get started, and that I did think that was a pretty good store. And there's also, like, a kids consignment store, yes,
Suzanne Wells:that is kind of around the corner from miracle Hill. I have not been in there.
Unknown:It's really big. It's a little, yeah, they have kind of a clearance section up front, and I've bought a few things there, some pottery barn linens, okay, but for the most part, their prices are a little high because it's consignment, but they do, you know, mark them down, and it's a really big store. Yeah, I think
Suzanne Wells:it's next to the boot barn or something. Yeah,
Unknown:yeah, yeah, that's it, yeah. No,
Suzanne Wells:I haven't, I haven't checked that one out yet. So, I mean, I like to go up to Cherrydale. I don't know where that is, which is on the way to Travelers Rest. Okay, that's a good area. And then, actually, there's a goodwill in Simpsonville, right there by 385 it's old and crappy. They said they're building a new one, a new free standing one, within the next year or so. But that one's really old and crappy. But I find good stuff in there. Well,
Unknown:yeah, I think I bought a few things in there. I do remember being at that one and what probably. Probably my son's. He's getting married in Anderson in May, okay, and so, and we're thinking, we'll probably, if they stay in the Greenville area, probably end up moving there, maybe even part time in the next couple years. Okay, my kids are all gone, so we don't have anybody here, so I've got one in Seattle, and then he's in South Carolina, so there's kind of no reason for us to stay here when our kids are at opposite ends of the country. You
Suzanne Wells:mean, you don't want to move to Seattle.
Unknown:He's a little cold and rainy. Have you been there? Yeah,
Suzanne Wells:yeah. You might have better luck here. And then you've got all the lakes around and, yeah, yeah, okay, well, let
Unknown:me know if you move here. Okay, alright, fun.
Suzanne Wells:We could, we could have coffee and talk about eBay and share notes. I did that when I first moved here. There was about five people that came, and we all, you know, compared notes about where to go, where not to go. And everybody is everybody's ideas are different. So I just feel like we're competing with each other. Because there's some people that, you know, they hate clothing, they're never going to do it. There's some people that they only want to pay $1 for things because they're just kind of doing it part time for fun, and they don't want to pay much for their items. And some people here go to Charlotte, they take a two hour road trip up to Charlotte to hit those stores. And, you know, there's all kinds of options.
Unknown:Hm, well, my, my son's fiance is from the Charlotte Fort Mill area. Okay, so I was showing her mother and her sister how to do it, and but they and they've been shopping in Charlotte, but they said they can't really find good places to shop. But I don't know that they're looking hard enough. It's gotta be some decent places in Charlotte.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah, you gotta go try em out. Yeah, but two salvation armies here, and I, I've been to one of them, the that's kind of out in the suburbs, and I walked out empty handed. There was nothing good, and everything they had was priced too high, like $8 for a golf shirt, $15 for shoes that weren't even good. But then there's also a Salvation Army, kind of, in the downtown area that is, that's not super safe. You know, there have been shootings in the parking lot next door, and homeless people gather there. And I don't know, it's just not my vibe. I'm not that desperate to treasure hunt. I want to stay kind of in the safer area, the lower crime areas, yeah, but yeah, they're they're just not good here. But, you know, they're great in other states. I hear people talking about it all the time, yeah. Well, Phoenix
Unknown:is a great place to source. I mean, we have good wells. Oh gosh, every mile. They just opened two new ones last week, really. Oh, they opened grand openings all the time, all the time. There's so much here. I mean, the prices have gotten high. Um, any it they fluctuate. You know, different stores have different pricing. Everything's priced individually. There's no standard pricing. Everything's tagged for a while. That the one I go to a lot, all the Chico's was like, 1799
Suzanne Wells:even. Oh, that's ridiculous, ridiculous. And she goes, I mean,
Unknown:it's, you know, nice stuff, but it's not going to sell for that for you can't even sell things for 10 or $12 but then they do a half off color tag. And then they have, if you sign up for their coupons, you get a 20% off coupon every month. So you always get 20% off. And then they have senior day, which is 25% off for student day, or, you know, military day. So they do have some discounts. And then Thursdays, everything on the color tag goes to $2 so you can find, used to be $1 but they rate, about a year ago, they raised it to $2 some things that way. But there's just so so many good wells and so many estate sales. I've just started kind of going to them. I work part time, so my time is still somewhat limited, but I've just started hitting estate sales. There's so so so many because we have a lot of retirees out here too. I think, right?
Suzanne Wells:Well, I don't know if you saw that thing circulating around the first of the year about Goodwill is stopping all discounts.
Unknown:I saw that, and that
Suzanne Wells:is like no people No, do your fact checking. That could have been somebody who just wanted a bunch of views on their video. That could have been he heard it wrong. I think
Unknown:people realize that every state or even community has a differently managed good. Yes, there
Suzanne Wells:are there. They're like, regionally managed, so even all the ones in the same state aren't the same, right? Um, so, you know, I asked around. On and showed a couple managers. I say, what do you make of this? You know, is, is that happening? And they're like, no. If we got rid of senior day, they would be a mob scene, and they would burn the place down. We are not doing that. We would not sell near as much. They have a an excess inventory problem. You know, they they have too much stuff. They can't get it out there fast enough. So I don't know what the deal was on that post. Listeners, you can Google it. It's something about Goodwill discontinuing discounts or something. It. This guy was up Chicago area, maybe. And who knows, he could have just made the whole thing up just to get a whole bunch of views on his video. That does happen. Don't believe everything you hear. But yeah, I think if you work the discounts, that's the key. And do you go on senior day? I do today's
Unknown:senior day. I'll probably go a little bit later. Okay, all right, okay. I mean, I get 20% off all the time, so it's not, you know, a big deal, but
Suzanne Wells:could see, wait, how do you
Unknown:do that? If you sign up for their coupons? Oh, okay, that here. Yeah, it's awesome. So you always have 20% senior days, 25% and they've got the color tags that are 50% and then they those, you know, drop down to $2 on Thursday, and then a new color goes half off on Friday. But lately, I used to think we have a couple of savers in the area. I think there's maybe three in the Phoenix area, and I always thought they were just way overpriced. It was just never my my I didn't like them. And for some reason, I started going, I'm not sure when they started having half off on Mondays. For a while they were having half off, like, like the Sunday before a holiday, or something like that. But now it's every Monday is half off. And those are big gold mines. That's my really, one of my main sourcing locations now is half off savers day. Matter of fact, I don't schedule myself to work on Mondays. When I originally scheduled to talk with you was on a Monday, and then I was like, oh, no, I
Suzanne Wells:can't. Oh, I can't do it that day.
Unknown:That's why I changed this Tuesday.
Suzanne Wells:Okay, well, that's fine. So what is your part time job? Um, I
Unknown:work at a local university in the testing center at Proctor tests.
Suzanne Wells:Oh, okay, so you watch dog over the test. Yeah, okay, well, that's, um, that doesn't sound too high pressure. No, it's kind of
Unknown:like Walmart greeter. I mean, it's actually we, we make, they put out a test schedule for when the tests are and then you sign up for the shifts that you want to take. So I was in Seattle last week visiting my daughter, so I just don't sign up for any shifts. Okay, like, you know, you work when you want to. But the other thing that's really nice is that while we're, you know, walking around, because, well, you know, rooms of 202 50 students, we can listen to music or news or podcasts, uh huh, and so that's mostly when I listen to my podcast. And so you're
Suzanne Wells:really just kind of a glorified babysitter, yeah? Okay, well, that works. That's a great retirement job. Perfect. It's awesome. Yeah, bring the work home with
Unknown:you. Exactly no stress, no pressure. Work when you want to. Yeah, it's really worked out really well. That's
Suzanne Wells:that's fun. How'd you get that job? Um, I, I
Unknown:had a business I sold about three years ago, and I had done some catering with the university. It was actually across the street from where my store was, and so when I was starting to look for something part time, just because I knew I needed to do, you know, something else I just, you know, went on their website and they were looking for these test proctors.
Suzanne Wells:Very good. I like that. Okay? And then back to your discount days. I have started foregoing senior day, especially at that miracle hill we were talking about, yeah, I mean, the lines in there to check out are just, you know, 15 people in line, wow. And it's the seniors, and they're just buying glassware and trinkety stuff. And, you know, it takes extra long, because everything has to be wrapped because it's breakable, and I don't know, I'm willing to pay 25% more to not have as many people in the store. Wow,
Unknown:that's the like the Savers I was there yesterday. The lines on half price day are to the back of the store, right? But they have self checkout. Oh, okay, so there'll be like, 10 or 12, you know, where you scan and pay yourself. It moves pretty quickly. So even though you think, oh my god, I'm gonna be here for hours, it does, it does really move. So I think it, I remember the checkout counter at that place, and there's only like, two stations or something. So it's kind of limited where
Suzanne Wells:you right. Right? Yeah, it's pretty limited, and everybody's all chatty. It's a social event, and they all the cashiers and the employees, and it's just, it just slowed me down so, and a lot of times, my best stuff I find, has just been put out, so it's not going to be discounted anyway,
Unknown:and, well, they don't discount everything on senior day. Uh, no,
Suzanne Wells:they do. But what I'm saying is, the best stuff I find has just been put out, so I'm willing to pay full price for it on any other day, because it's going to sell for more, alright? And it probably won't be, you know, I'll pay $5 for something myself for 50, right, right? I'm not so worried about that 25% discount. I don't know. It's just a time efficiency thing. It's not as bad as at Goodwill as it is at the miracle hill. But yeah, I was like, you know, I think I'm going to skip going on Tuesdays for a while just to to see how it works out and see how the, you know, financially, if it really matters, you know, you know you spend $100 you're saving 25 but it can be very frustrated and aggravating if there's so many and and like the seniors will just kind of stop and talk in the middle of the aisles And chit chat, and it's like people I'm working you king, no, I don't say it like that. That's what I say in my head. But I'm like, Would y'all fucking movie? So I could look at this rack, you know? Yeah, realize there's resellers in there. They're working right, right, right? And they close at six. So, you know, good wills open till nine, right? You gotta get up there and hustling and get your stuff anyway. It's just, we're constantly evolving in our business, you know so well, let's go over some stuff you've sold because I kept seeing your name pop up on the money making Mondays, and you're just killing it. Well, I
Unknown:don't know about that, but I've had some pretty good sales. Well, the pots and pans are just very consistent. So those are usually sell between, like I said, 150 200 I put sets together. I have a lot of odd ones that I'm going to try listing some individually, see if I could move some of them that way. But, but those are always good. I just had a really good sale yesterday for it was$170 $170 it was two twin size custom duvet covers that had, like to on one side and like a plaid on the other side. And I sold them, either for as duvet covers or as fabric. And I think I picked them up for it now to and those, it was kind of country colors. And it actually went to North Carolina, because out here you just don't see that. It's those type of colors and style is just not big out here. So I think I picked those up for maybe $8 a piece, and they've took a couple of months. But it went to a town in North Carolina that was wiped out. Oh, October. What was the name of it? Asheville?
Suzanne Wells:No, but it was a little town around Asheville. Yeah.
Unknown:Anyway, so maybe they were, you know, rebuilding, or had an Airbnb, or something like that. So, yeah, I had listed for 200 sold for 170 maybe $20 in those
Suzanne Wells:congratulations. That's a great sale. Yeah, to your point on rebuilding, I think we're going to see a lot of sales to California after fires and still in the the mountain areas near Asheville. That's going to take a long time. Somebody brought up that point. They were going to put that on the Facebook group to just, you know, be aware that could be happening, and what a blessing we could be to those people, because we're going to have things that they're trying to replace. Mm, hmm, whether they're collectibles or, you know, just special things that they had that aren't made anymore, right? Were destroyed. I don't know what the final count was. I don't know if this accurate, but something like 100,000 homes were affected in those fires. And you know, that's a lot of people having to rebuild. And you know, fire is just this is so much damage. It's the smell, it's the fire, it is the water, all of it together that just ruins everything. Yeah,
Unknown:I saw a lot of California anyway, just, I think because we're so close, right? So I sell quite a bit to California because it's big and we're close. So, yeah, I think that's probably true. So I do, I look for a lot of linens. I do really well with, you know, if you can find pottery barn or Waverly or proscalite, those always do really, really well so, and you can buy those for pretty inexpensively. They're not, you know, marked up, and I don't think highly sought after at the thrift stores like some other things are. So I. Another one, so we have the glove. Another one that was really good was, and I saw this on a Facebook group that I think, since that Martha Stewart documentary came out, right let's people were looking for that Martha Stewart entertaining book. Yes, we stopped at an estate sale. Like the next day, we were actually going somewhere, and we saw a sign, and we said, oh, let's just pull over there. And I walked in, and there on the bookshelf, it was for like, $3 and that sold. I think I took an offer in a day or two for 250
Suzanne Wells:oh my gosh, yeah, one. That
Unknown:was awesome. And I'm just finding that in
Suzanne Wells:eBay research real quick, just to see what that sells for. I went back 90 days. So it's entertaining. Martha Stewart, I think that's her first book. She's very on the cover. She's setting table with some orange flowers and blue glassware, and the signed ones are selling for almost 1500 Yeah, yeah, so, and then we're first editions are 800 and then let's see what else. Yeah, I've always knew that book was a bolo, but I've never found it. So yeah, here's one that's just entertaining by Martha Stewart used $535 Wow. Most of these higher dollar ones are in November and December of 24 around the time that documentary came out. Mm, hmm, yeah. And
Unknown:her other books. There was a couple others there, and I just went ahead and grabbed them for a couple dollars, but they're not worth anything.
Suzanne Wells:It's that first one people want. Yep, yeah, that's the
Unknown:one. So that was kind of fun. It was just, and how much did you sell for? Again, I think I sold took 250
Suzanne Wells:and how long did it take to sell a day? Oh, wow. So it's very highly sought after. Yeah, I just thought,
Unknown:I think I listed it for like, 350 and I thought, you know, as as more there's got to be a ton of them out there, and as people realize and put them out there, I just thought, I'll take 250 and just, you know,
Suzanne Wells:but you wonder what the rush is. Because, okay, yeah, that documentary came out. But that book is from 1982 like, if you were a Martha fan, you would know, you know, and it's out there. And what did the documentary? Why did that encourage people to buy that book? Yeah, that
Unknown:thing. But why? Why that book? I mean, there's, I've got plenty of others.
Suzanne Wells:I think there's a wedding cake book that's also can sell for good money. And actually,
Unknown:that was the cake on the cover. That was the cake I did at my wedding. Oh, really, yeah, yeah. That was, that was my inspiration
Suzanne Wells:cake, Martha wannabe.
Unknown:Yeah, that book was out right when I got married, which was 1989 and that was the that was how I had my cake done.
Suzanne Wells:Do you know about the Martha Stewart cookie cutters?
Unknown:Yes, but I've never seen one in the wild.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah, I learned about that, and it's in one of my books, but it's the copper ones that were in her Martha by mail magazine thing, and so they're early, and there weren't as many made, and some of those can go for $100 a piece. Wow.
Unknown:I've seen people talk about those, but that's a good thing to look at estate sales for, I think. But I've never seen them. Yeah. How many of
Suzanne Wells:those are sitting in kitchen drawers around the United States or the world pushed to the back, and they're not going to come out until there's an estate sale in that house, right? It's like all these treasures are just hidden everywhere waiting for us. Yeah, we need some kind of, you know, divining rod or something that's to go, go up to their door and say, Do you see these in your kitchen? Yeah, do this for them.
Unknown:That's what's neat about around because of the retirement communities here. I mean, there are dozens and dozens of estate sales, and it's just, it's just fun. I enjoy going with my son because he likes to research and so we've had fun doing doing that. My husband's not too into it, but I think
Suzanne Wells:Brian on the Facebook group who does all the sports jerseys, and I know him, yeah, okay, so he, I believe his, his area is Gilbert, so I don't know where that is, in relation, about an hour
Unknown:for me. But hey, you see him at sales before? No, because we're we're quite a quite far apart. But we were in the same it was called East Valley eBay sellers group. Oh, I see okay meetings every month or two, kind of before the pandemic. So I know him very well, and he actually is originally from Philadelphia, which is where I was born. Okay, so we had a little bit in common. So yeah, but he's related to the sports memorable, yeah, and the estate sales and, yeah, I'd like to tag along with him sometime, or have him come up to my side and tag along. But yeah,
Suzanne Wells:I think he does some electronics too. Um, I'm gonna, you know, pigeon hole him and say he sells guy stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's not doing the Pottery Barn tablecloths and all that. So, you know, that's what's great about knowing local resellers, is everybody sells different stuff. Yeah, I got into some of the vintage linens. I did a batch of, like, dresser scarves and table runners, and then I did a batch of, like, doilies and stuff like that. And there was like, 12 or 15 in each batch. I got them on online auctions, and, you know, they were fun to work with, but it was so much time ironing them and making them look presentable. I'm like, Yeah, this is too tedious. I get it that people love them, but it took me all afternoon to get them look, you know, I washed them in oxy clean, and then I ironed them, and then I made the different sets of similar items, and they sold pretty fast. But I don't know if I'll do that again. I would rather go with like, one table cloth that's worth a lot of money, right, right? One set of napkins, something like that, because it is work to prepare it for photographing. Yeah, every time
Unknown:is valuable. It's not. I think that's why a lot of people don't do clothes, even I'm trying to get out of clothes. I mean, they're, they're easy to find. There's so many of them, but they're, you know, they take time to measure and iron and photograph, and I'm trying to kind of divest myself of the whole clothes, unless
Suzanne Wells:you find some awesome like spider or ex officio ski jacket that is worth$300 you know, that's ordinate. Yeah,
Unknown:yeah. The big, the big stuff, but the on, and I think most people start, especially women, start with clothes because we like, like to shop for them. But as you get further into it, it's just really not worth the time and effort. See, I'm the rare bird. I do enjoy it.
Suzanne Wells:It's kind of a mindless activity where I can be creative and mindless at the same time. And, you know, take the pictures and just imagine what, what person's going to buy this I sold, which, I don't sell much chicos anymore, but if it's really beaded and or boho or looks unique, I will. And I just sold a top just like that. And the lady's feedback was, thank you so much. Can't wait to wear it on the next cruise so she can be all pretty and fancy and sparkly for her.
Unknown:Yeah, I don't mind selling clothes. I don't, I don't, I just don't think that the turnaround slower and the profit margin isn't always as but I've had some good sales, that's for sure.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah, you got to be picky and and find things like the lands in tall bathing suits or, you know, sort of the odd sizes, yeah, better with, like, plus size swimwear. I sold a lot of that in January. Everybody's getting ready for cruises or aqua fitness or whatever they need it for. But it's, you know, just clothes. You've gotta be picky. You have to have some criteria, and experience helps is like, oh, yeah, I know this is going to sell, because I sold this before. Yeah,
Unknown:I just sold last week, a lands and 3x down puffer coat. Oh, nice, full price. 9999 went to New York. I don't even think it's been delivered yet, but, and I'll do like, large size formal wear do really well. You know, somebody wears it for a wedding. It's pristine condition, but the larger sizes seem to do really well. I like doing those more. Like I said, Patagonia St John. I mean, if you find the, you know, really good names, we don't have a lot of wear and things here.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah, yeah. I don't find much of that here either. Well, you know, people move down here and they don't realize until three years later, I'm never going to wear that coat here. Yeah, you know, and I do look for coats in the off season. That's when they're going to be the cheapest. And I saw the really stylish classic Rick brothers overcoat paid $3 for it last summer, and it sold for 90, you know, right at the in December. So and the person loved it, it was exactly what they wanted. And so you have to be willing to hold it, maybe until the next season. But, you know, buy low, sell high kind of
Unknown:thing when we get a lot of those too, because people moved to Arizona from all over the country, and then they dumped their heavy stuff, because obviously they're not going to wear it here. So I've sold several like cashmere overcoats, and I've had several Burberry coats that have sold, thinking back over all the years. You definitely can find them, and they flip pretty well. So you're good.
Suzanne Wells:Okay, what else do you have on your list? Let's see now.
Unknown:This is another one from my son. He had. This was probably one of my biggest sales before that China. It's called a heath Heath kit clock. Have you ever heard of that? No, we were. This is probably eight or 10 years ago. He was moving to California when he started work, and we were looking for some stuff at Goodwill. And he walked past this. It was a wooden box. If you look it up, you can probably find one listed. It's like a wooden box was maybe eight by four. Looked like a wood box to me, and it had kind of a black screen in the front. And he said, Oh, that's a clock. And it was, I don't know, three,$4 so he said, I want that. So we bought that, and he got it home, and it looks like kind of a LED clock with just red letters. And he took it with him to California, and then when he came back here, before I moved to Greenville, he said, You know, I don't really want to take this with me. Why don't, you know, why don't you sell it? And as I was photographing so this, if you look, I think there's one listed now for about$850 and I don't really know what they What's so special about them, they're all wired inside. And when I was taking pictures of the one that we had, I it was working fine, and I think it chimed anyway, I turned it over, take a picture of the bottom, and something popped, and it quit working. I was like, oh, so I listed it. I had pictures already, and I listed it, and I, you know, I just disclosed I turned it over pictures and something popped, and we still sold it for about$500 ah, and the guy that bought it, he said he fixed, I think we looked at it and tried to figure out which of the wires, you know, was loose, or what had happened. And he said he fixed it. And he had had one as a child growing up, and he'd been looking for one for five or six years, and he was thrilled. He was thrilled to have it. So that was, yeah, I think we sold it for about $500 excellent kit clock. And again, I don't know. I would have never picked it up myself. I have no idea why it's so sought after or rare. I think it was maybe a kit that people built, okay, back in the 60s or something. Okay, so that was that was very unusual. Really good one.
Suzanne Wells:So let me interject something here. Now you said your career, before you retired, was being a caterer.
Unknown:No, actually, I said most of my career, I was a hospital administrator, okay for 30 years, and then I kind of got burned out, and the system that I worked at was acquired by another system. Anyway, I ended up buying a franchise and opening a couple of Italian ice and custard shops, okay, in Arizona, and so I had those for about 12 years, and then I sold them three years ago. So I did catering the last 10 years of my career for my my ice cream business, I did catering.
Suzanne Wells:So where I was going with that is that you may have specialized knowledge in cooking utensils, all of that, no,
Unknown:yes, only as it applies to scooping ice cream.
Suzanne Wells:Okay, well, I didn't know with your cake side of it. So yeah, because you knew about the Martha Stewart stuff, but she's more of just like an icon that we all follow. Yeah,
Unknown:I think that was all because I saw it in a, you know, as a bolo on on one of the it could have been on your group, but I just saw, you know, I mean, I love the post that you do with the money making Monday and the $100 sales. Those are my absolute favorite. Oh, good. I followed them religiously. I read them. I like to post on them. I just learned so much. It's just such a helpful, you know, a lot of the other groups, they're just negative, and everybody's, you know, spammers and talk bad about customers. But, I mean, I just love your podcast. I love your money making Monday. It's just my, my favorite, favorite thing on Facebook. So
Suzanne Wells:great. I'm so glad you enjoy it. And we do work hard to to stay out of the weeds in the group, just to keep it on a positive note. Yeah, cuz there's, there's enough negativity out there, we don't need to do that. That's for sure. Where I was going with that is Pioneer Woman stuff. I think the only things of any value are the rolling pins that are like the gingham. There's some creamers that are shaped like cows that were her early stuff, because that stuff is so mass produced now it's all over Walmart. It's. All over goodwill. It's there may be some valuable pieces in there, but, you know, just for the listeners, I don't think there's that's not really something to look for. You want the you want the older stuff, the vintage, the like you do the Revere wear, because that could be cleaned up so pretty and, yeah, it's not going to be chipped like glassware would be. Or, you know, dinnerware, you always have that risk that something's going to be chipped and imperfect, or the somebody put in the dishwasher and the design is all faded off, and we had that revere wear growing up, and it's kind of indestructible. It
Unknown:is. It really is. I mean, what you have to really check the handles. There'll be some breakage in the bake life, especially if it's been the dishwasher, really hurts them screws. So I have a bunch, when I first started buying them, that I just was buying everything that I came across, and I've got a bunch that the handles are missing screws or cracked or, you know, that probably shouldn't have bought if I you know, know what I know now, but that's just learning tax, right?
Suzanne Wells:So with the things that get put in the dishwasher and get ruined, when were dishwashers popular late 60s, 70s, they started going into the houses. So I can see those tired moms and tired, you know, household managers, whatever you want to call them, like I'm putting everything in there. I don't want to wash dishes anymore. And things got ruined because I didn't know, you know,
Unknown:my my daughter just got married, and I gave her a full set of Revere, I mean, many, many pieces. And I said, don't put it in the dishwasher. And I go to our house in the dishwasher, washing those pots. I'm like, Are you kidding me? So people, I never put my pots in the dish. And you're like, Honey,
Suzanne Wells:they weren't from Target.
Unknown:Oh, well,
Suzanne Wells:yeah, but I can see that happening with as modern appliances kept evolving. You know, I'm using that that's that's so much easier than scrubbing these pot myself.
Unknown:Yeah, yeah. So that's okay.
Suzanne Wells:We have time for one more. You got another item to talk about?
Unknown:Um, I did find a beautiful, the grandma's flower garden quilt.
Suzanne Wells:Oh, really, yes, lovely. I saw
Unknown:it coming out of the back on a rack, and I just thought it was a printed blanket. And I kind of glanced at it, but didn't go look at it. And then as I was walking around, I saw it was hanging in the, you know, in the rack, and I touched it and realized, this is a handmade quilt, so and it was dated on the back, and it was kind of not my colors. It was very bright colors, which I think that flower garden quilts tend to be. And I think that went to North or South Carolina also. I think that sold for about 200 or 250 okay, I paid, I think, our goodwill. I probably paid about $15 for it. That's sold very quickly. And I found a Pendleton blanket. I was just, you know, walking down the racks, and there's a Pendleton, gorgeous Pendleton blanket, which, in retrospect, I wish I'd have kept, but, yeah, I don't remember what. That's couple$100 that went for us very quickly. That's, those are the things that you know. You get so excited when you find because you don't, you know, could be years before you find another one exactly.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah, I that Pendleton blanket, the Beaver State blanket that's on my list. I have never found one. Not to say they're not down here in the south, but I think it's funny.
Unknown:I went to Oregon. It seems like they go back home. Oh, really, yeah, went to Oregon, huh? How about that? So we, I mean, I think wool blankets here, actually, that's the second one I found. I found another one at a yard sale for about $10
Suzanne Wells:and again, it's just, we can't use the type of wool blankets here. It's just hot, you know, too hot to use that kind of stuff. I saw one in a movie the other night. Was on the back of somebody's couch. It was like a log cabin thing. And I was like, Oh, I can see these on TV, but I see them locally, yeah, yeah.
Unknown:And I just found this was on Christmas Eve. I was thrifting, and the stores were pretty empty, and at the checkout counter was one of the Atlantic mold Christmas trees, uh huh, Christine, I mean, a really big one with the bulbs and, I mean, I couldn't run out of the store fast enough. It's about a $200 tree, although my son and his fiance have claimed it, so I'm going to give them to them. But I haven't seen one of those in a long time either. But it was Christmas Eve, and it looks like it had just been put out. So I was thrilled to snag that, but I'm not going to sell it. They can. I'm
Suzanne Wells:not going to judge you for working on Christmas Eve. It's not really work if you're just looking through a
Unknown:store. Yeah, exactly. That's a good time because, yeah, store was empty. I picked up a lot of stuff that. Day, yeah, yeah, that was awesome. So, and I just found my first look, crusade, Dutch oven. Yeah, I picked that up for, I think it was a yard sale, and they had it for $40 and offered them 30 and they took it. So I think I'm keeping that one too. I would say one was, was listed, I think for like 250 or 260 I saw that same one. It's an older one, but I've never had one, so I think I'm going to keep that one. You can use
Suzanne Wells:it for a while, then when you're ready, yeah, then sell it. Yeah, good for you. Okay. Well, do you have any final words? Keep doing what
Unknown:you're doing. Yeah, and I'll, I'll keep following you, but, yeah, great retirement job, fun hobby. I just, I love it. It's a good fit for me, and I thoroughly enjoy it. I
Suzanne Wells:love it when I'm out treasure hunting and I see older generations doing this? Yeah, is it gets you out, keeps your mind sharp. You're providing a service. You're keeping things out of the landfill. It's fun. It's interesting. You learn a lot of new things. You know, I'm going to do it as long as I'm physically able, and maybe even if I'm not, because you can buy so much stuff online now, yeah, as long as I can have vision and operate a computer, I'll keep doing this. Yeah, no. Plans to stop. So my family doesn't really get it, yeah, they're like, you don't have a pension. You don't have and I'm like, No, I built a business over 20 years that's going to provide income for me. So that's kind of my pension, and it's just, either you get it or you don't, it's okay. I don't feel like I have to convince people if they because, like my siblings, learned how to be good employees, and I just went the other way with I'm going to be in charge of my own business. So,
Unknown:you know, the nice thing about, I mean, I had a career, but I also did this for fun. Were for enjoyment, but now, as I'm retired, it still gives me some income and fun. I just enjoy it. Yeah,
Suzanne Wells:and you're doing a wonderful job. I love watching your post because you're selling these all kinds of things. Yep, baseball glove. And I was like, what?
Unknown:That wasn't me. That was, that was Tyler. But still, yeah, but I learned from him, you know? I mean, he looks at different than guys look at different things than than women do. So yes, helps you to branch out and right. So now I'll look at loves, and probably call him and say, What do you think of this one? But right, I kind of know some things to look for now. So good. Yep, okay,
Suzanne Wells:well, what do you have planned for the rest of the day? Oh, you said you're going to
Unknown:senior day. We're going to go to senior day. Yep, okay, we could rustle up.
Suzanne Wells:All right. Well, Happy hunting. We'll look for your posts on the group.
Unknown:All right. Thank you. Thanks. Bye, bye.
Suzanne Wells:That was great. Thanks again. Barbara, next week, my guest is the adorable Joe myRA. She has a thriving eBay business as well as a family and a full time job as an urgent care nurse. You will love her, so make sure to tune in next week. Thank you all again for your support and make it a great week on eBay. Take care and bye for now. You