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 listeners, and welcome back. This is episode number 205 of eBay the right way. Today's date is February 19, 2025 and my guest is Denise in Illinois. No announcements this week, so we will jump right in. Hello listeners. Welcome back to another fun filled eBay the right way podcast. I've got Denise with us today. And how are you doing this morning?
Unknown:I'm good. How about you good Denise
Suzanne Wells:is an early riser and I am not, so she's going to be more awake than me. Anyway. Tell us
Unknown:where you're located, uh, western suburbs of Chicago. So, yeah, we're out in just north of Naperville. Most people have heard of that one. So
Suzanne Wells:yeah, we've got a lot of Chicagoans in the group, George Kelly and Allie house. And there's a lot more that I'm just not remembering again because I'm only on my first cup of coffee. So anyway, so lots of good inventory there.
Unknown:There is it's Goodwill has changed some of their policies this year, and I understand they're not offering like that. You know, they used to do the four weeks of colors, and then that last color was half off, and they're not doing that anymore. I've even seen some things priced like they'll still have the original price tag from Coles or or TJ Maxx, and they'll be like 799 and goodwill has some price for 999, so the I usually just if I'm sourcing goodwill anymore, it's the bins, and we go there every once in a while, all books are$1 my daughter likes to dig through some of the clothes and look there, and so, yeah, that we either do that or auctions and some other things like that. So
Suzanne Wells:okay, we'll get into that. More. Wanted to kind of tell the listeners your story, how to sell on eBay. What that evolution was all about. So
Unknown:I've actually been on eBay since 2001 hmm, back then, though, I was just, you know, it was the random thing around the house that, oh, I'll get rid of this. Maybe it has some value. And then a year ago, at Christmas, as I was digging out Christmas ornaments, I looked at some and I thought, I am not using these. And actually have a daughter with some intellectual disabilities, and she's kind of struggling to find her place as a young adult. And so I said, here see if you can list these. They were Muppets. They were the Muppets band and, you know, animal like, played the drums, and they were, they were motion sensors, and so we did it on auction, because I thought auction was the only way with eBay, right? I had used it for so many years. And, I mean, they went, they went fine. She learned some things, and then the buck kind of hit us. And we started looking around to protect, you know, purposely buy things with the purpose of flipping them. And as you know, it's kind of an addictive thing, and when I start you just it snowballs out of control. And so we also had some family members give us some items. My parents have always been collectors. My mom had some radical ornaments, and she's not putting them up anymore. So we sold some red cos, Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah, we were lucky. I mean, we're lucky to be given that by granny. And my dad had some ca pardell bronze statues, which aren't fast sellers, but, you know, they're 800 to $1,000 but they're a pain to ship because they weigh about 20 pounds. So we kind of learned that way. And then there was an estate sale down the street, and, you know, we went with our eBay app open and just scan, scan, scanned, and started learning more that way. So,
Suzanne Wells:okay, so you've kind of been all over the map with it.
Unknown:We have been all over the map. And we don't really have a particular thing we sell. I like the books, if I can get them at the bins for a good price. Um. Hmm, I also kind of like silverware, like I'm trying to hone into things that take up less space, right? And so if you know, if you can get the right set of silverware for 3040, $50 some of the pieces alone can sell for that much if you part it out, yes, but it's slow, right? And I this is a side, side hustle for me. It's not my regular job. My husband makes the bulk of our money, so I don't have to sell a certain number a day or a certain amount a week, you know, to put food on the table. So I have that luxury. And so some slow sellers don't bother me, as long as they're not big and bulky. So we've made that mistake as well already in our year of reselling, right?
Suzanne Wells:And it's just it is patience every single day you know you're looking at your waiting for your app to blow up with your sales. And sometimes they don't come till later in the day. Sometimes you don't get any. And every single day, I'm like, Okay, I'm waiting for my sales. Where are you? Where are you? And like, yesterday, didn't have anything till six o'clock in the evening, and then I had, like, four in a row. So I don't know if that's the, what they call the rolling blackout, where they give sellers a turn. You know, they kind of give, give everybody a turn to come up and search like, is that manipulated, or is that really how random it is there? You know, in some some mornings, I'll wake up and got four sales, and I've met my I have, like, a quota for the day. I want to sell a certain dollar amount. So, like, I like to see $100 a day, if that's 420, $5 items, if it's one item, whatever it is, like, I'm going for that, that quota. So it is, it can be so random when you get sales. And you know, you just have to keep the faith that, okay, if I didn't get any today, tomorrow's another day, and I could get a whole bunch tomorrow. So I'm right in there with everybody else. Of like, where are my sales? Where are my sales?
Unknown:I think I got spoiled because one of my very first flips of a purposeful purchase to flip at an estate sale was one of those micro cassette recorders. And I think I paid six for it, and it sold in like an hour.
Suzanne Wells:Busy item. They're tiny
Unknown:micro cassette recorders. Oh, okay,
Suzanne Wells:it, yeah, the sound cut out and I didn't get all of it. So, like, you know, yeah, micro cassettes and,
Unknown:and so I thought everything was going to be that way. And then I see, you know, some YouTubers like the nurse slipper, she had an episode last week where she was talking about quick flips, and she was saying two months was a quick flip. And so I need to definitely learn patience. So that's the hardest one.
Suzanne Wells:It will come I had a $90 sale. It was a wig I had gotten at an estate sale in July of 23 I keep a spreadsheet that says, you know when I I put these items in my inventory, so I'll know how long I've had them. And it's sold on like January 23 of this year, 25 so almost two years. But I paid $20 for it. It sold for 90 hardly any room. And the lady said that, yeah, she this was her first wig, and she was going through chemo, and she's trying out different looks. And, you know, I was glad to be able to provide that item for her, because it was like a $300 retail item. So you know, she hasn't left left feedback yet, but I feel like she'll be happy, but, yeah, it's just some things take time. Some things sell in an hour or five minutes. I see that all the time, you do have to be willing to take on that risk. It's not a job that you go to and you get paid every day no matter what it's it's the ups and downs, and sometimes you have a $300
Unknown:day, right? I already had, I sold two $100 perfumes already this morning when I woke up.
Suzanne Wells:So you are kidding. Okay, talk about those. What were they?
Unknown:So one was actually from my mother in law. She's in the nursing home now. It was a door by Dior, and it was sealed in the box. So that was great. The other. One. My daughter and I went to an in person auction house a couple weeks ago and bid on a number of boxed perfumes. And it was, I think I paid 30 for that one, and it was a Faith Hill perfume, which they don't make anymore, and it sold for 105, plus shipping. We did learn some lessons at the the perfume auction, of course, because, you know, you get a little carried away bidding in person sometimes, and you have to always keep in the back of your mind that you are paying the bidder premium on top of that number, right? And then also sales tax if you don't have a retail tax ID, and you know. So we did fine. The other lesson that we learned was I did not open the boxes and look in them. I just assumed what was in them was in them. And I paid $40.40 actually, by the time I paid bidders premium, I paid about 4950 for one I don't can't remember what the name of it was now, but it had a resale or it its comps were 180 okay, I didn't mind paying 50 for a 180 sale, but when I got home and opened it to photograph it, that's Not what was in there?
Suzanne Wells:Oh,
Unknown:no, was it good sell? I can sell it and and the comps on that are about 40, so I won't be out a lot. I will have learned a lesson. Um, if they're not sealed, definitely open them and look inside. So
Suzanne Wells:Well, don't feel bad, because I get carried away bidding online. I do even there, yeah, and I've learned a lot about that. As far as sometimes the pictures don't show enough information. So I ask for more pictures, and still, sometimes they don't show all sides of the item, or, you know, you get it and there's a little ding on it or something you didn't see. So I've had to really restrain myself. I can't see everything I want to see, like it's in front of me in person. I pass because you're spending money on the item, on the shipping premium, and then you get it. I haven't had anything that was like completely a disaster. But, you know, it's everything has pros and cons.
Unknown:And I actually, at the online auction, I made a mistake recently, too. I bought a lot of books. They were grace, Livingston Hill. She's an old like, 40s, 50s romance novelist, and some of them were very old, and I thought, oh, I can sell them individually. And when I got them and really looked through them, I decided it wasn't worth my time, and I lotted them up, just like I had bought them and sold them, and I still broke even on that. But you know, my time was probably not worth it. The other thing I've learned on online auctions is sometimes you get a whole lot more than you are anticipating. Here
Suzanne Wells:is that yes, and
Unknown:not always in a good way. I recently won some items and my my niece picked them up because the auction was near her, so I did not have to pay shipping. But like, I have already thrown away a garbage bag of empty makeup containers and half used lotions and just all kinds of kind of junk, and I know some older things like that will still sell. So I'm looking through each item, but it's, it's time consuming, you know? And we think going out and sourcing is time consuming, but the online auctions are not without that time commitment as well. Yes,
Suzanne Wells:they are, and they're addicting. Once you start doing it, you get everybody's mailing list, and I probably get six emails a day, yeah, and that's fine, because I can go look at the stuff when I need to buy more. And it's now coming to me. I don't have to search so hard, but there is a time investment there, and
Unknown:there's a little bit of FOMO. You think you're going to miss out, like this auction is coming up and, oh, maybe there won't be another one like it. And now I have a huge amount of inventory that I need to list, which is a great problem to have, but I need to stop, because I could just Doom, scroll on the auction sites all day, looking at cool stuff and yes, yes,
Suzanne Wells:that's what I do when I can't sleep in the middle of the night, I'm like, Well, I'm awake, so I might as well do something productive, you know, instead of looking at, you know, dumb cooking reels or whatever, look for inventory. But I think you do have to come to a point where you realize, you know what, when I'm ready to to restock, I'll find things. I'm always going to be items there. Yeah, and there is that fear. Are missing out, but I just keep finding items that I would never see at thrift stores, right garage sales, and I like it. I'm making more money per item doing it this way. I still like to hit the thrift stores, but for the time investment, I'm coming out ahead on the the online auctions. Yeah. And sometimes items are in better condition than you would see at like, let's say you go to the bins, and sometimes that stuff has just been manhandled and dumped around in different bins, and it's shipped from all over the country and and it's kind of not in great condition, absolutely,
Unknown:yeah, yeah. Well, and I think our estate sales around here too, I have a couple that I like, I have a couple that I've learned that they just, you know, they're very proud of their items, and they, they think that you're going to pay eBay prices at the estate sale. And, you know, some people are there to buy things for personal use, and I get that, you know, but the same with the online auctions. I watched something sell a few weeks ago and and blanking on what it was now, but I had, I had watched the auction, and I wanted to see what this sold for, because on eBay, they were selling for 40 or $50 and on the online auction, it sold for almost 200 right? So, um, the the reverse happens as well. Not everything's a good deal, either, anywhere you go. Source,
Suzanne Wells:yeah, you just, you have to be careful, and you have to realize it's an investment. And I was bidding on a lot of flatware. I asked some questions about it on the group, right? It was the same pattern that my parents had. So it was Chantilly by Gorham, and quite expensive, and it sat there and sat there for days at $6 and it was like seven place settings. And I'm like that this is going to go really high. So I did the research of what I could sell it for, and it ended up closing out at $700 and something way above what I was willing to pay
Unknown:especially,
Suzanne Wells:I learned some things about it, yeah, going through that process. So, like you said earlier, even if you win something and you get it and it doesn't really work out, at least you've learned something about it. Either do that again. But, you know, keep this in mind, or don't do that again, or whatever. So anyway, you want to talk about some of your sales? Sure,
Unknown:sure, we have some interesting ones. I think yes,
Suzanne Wells:we do, which is why I asked you come on podcast.
Unknown:So one of the, one of the things I did want to mention is my husband and I met doing Spartan Races, which are obstacle course races. And at the end of everyone you get a medal that says, you know, you completed this Spartan Race. And we did these, like 10 years ago. We enjoyed them. But what do you do with those metals? And just on a whim, I looked on eBay, and if they sell, they sell. I don't understand it at all, but over the course of the last year, we've had a net profit of $500 selling our Spartan metals for more races we already did, and we figured we have the memories, we have the pictures. We don't really need the metal sitting around taking up dust. So
Suzanne Wells:especially if they're worth that much money, you sure don't need them.
Unknown:That's probably out of nine or 10 sales. You know, some for 10, some have sold for 100 based on the rarity of them. But that was really strange to me. The other recent strange one was at our nearby Auction House. I put in a $10 absentee bid on a box of empty camera boxes, because they did have the cables and manuals in inside. And within a week, I sold four of them for between 15 and $20 a piece, and there were a total of 12, so I still have a few listed that was really strange to me as well. My favorite recent one, I found a spice of life flatware set from the 80s, and it matches the Corning Ware with the vegetables on the side, and it was still in the box. I was about a 48 piece set. I think still in the box. Was 30. I didn't really want to spend that much on it at the estate sale, but they were not negotiating that day. But a woman finally reached out to me after just a couple. Months, which was sooner than I thought I would sell it. And I thought I could always piece it out if I didn't sell it as a whole set. And she wanted was in the process of redecorating her kitchen to match her grandmother's kitchen. And so it sold for $190 thrilled as could be to find it. And so I love doing that too. When you when you connect someone with their past, or, you know, help them with the memory, that's always awesome,
Suzanne Wells:yeah? And it makes you feel like your time has been spent. Well, right? Nostalgia is somebody you just can't put a price
Unknown:on. Absolutely, yeah, um, I we have a permanent site estate sale near us, where they just bring everything in there, and you kind of put a pile together and negotiate a price. So I found an old, really heavy wool coat there, and I it wasn't positive till I got home and researched further by looking at the buttons and some of the tags on the inside, but it was a Swedish army trench coat from World World War Two, and I, I only spent five or $10 on it. We sold it for 120 so that was really exciting, because it was like, you put it on and you just felt like you had 20 pounds on you. And then at the bins, we found a a Chinese opera robe, Emperor robe. It had an embroidered dragon on it. It was bright yellow and like wrapped around three fold. Um, I it was in so if you go to the bins, people kind of dig through and throw things in their cart, and then they go to another spot and throw the things out that they don't want to they don't want to keep. And it was in that bin where people throw it aside. And I just asked
Suzanne Wells:off Ben, and I thought, I
Unknown:have to, like, I have to have this piece. I don't know what it will sell for. And, you know, a quick search said they sell from anything from 100 to, like, 3000 but I think it was that end, right? Because it was you and I, I couldn't see any makers marks on it. Anyway, it Jen, I put it on an auction at first, thinking, you know, I don't know enough about this. Maybe someone will will find it. And that didn't work out. I think I posted in the group about it, looking for more information. I did learn that the number of claws that your dragon has is, you know, how high up the more claws, the higher up the person would have been in the royalty, okay, it might had four claws. So anyway, eventually, after a few months, it did sell on a buy it now for$255 and I paid by weight. I paid$7.50 at the bins. So, oh, that's fantastic. Really exciting. Yeah, exciting. So they're not all wins, but those, those were some of my big ones. And like I said, I do buy a lot of books at the bins, and I have sold them for everything from $9 up to I've sold some parts manuals for for in the 40s and 50s. I've sold some Bibles anywhere from 15 to 40. I kind of feel good about saving those from going to the landfill. Yeah, and then a fighter weapons manual from the army or the Air Force sold for 63 so, you know, those people think that what's at the bins is the leftovers and tossed aside, but there's still some value to be found there so well, and it's
Suzanne Wells:just like anywhere. It depends on who's been there before you and what they know, right? Yeah, I find all the time that our good wills have the date on the tag, the date it was put out. I don't know if they've they're all moving towards that, but, and I'll be like, Oh my gosh, this has been here 11 days, yeah, but he's, nobody's picked it up. And so you kind of feel like, when you go to the thrift stores like, is there going to be anything? All these people have been there before me. Is there going to be anything I can sell? And then that's kind of me building my self confidence and keeping faith that, Oh, I found this great thing I can sell for$50 sitting here for 11 days. And, okay, maybe that's when it was tagged, and it didn't actually get out on the floor on that date. But it, you know, it just goes to show you pay attention to things like that. Because, right, you have to have that positive attitude of, I'm going to find things today. There are things waiting for me. Other people before. Me, didn't know this.
Unknown:Yeah, and there's enough to go around. You know that you'll see other people you know are resellers and in goodwill or obviously at estate sales, and they're all looking like you said, for different things, there's enough for everybody. So
Suzanne Wells:you do clothing
Unknown:a little bit. Um, well, like I said, we sold some clothes for a friend of mine, and we have picked up a few things here and there. I don't like it. I don't like photographing it. It's easy to ship, but, you know, you get a lot of returns for it, not fitting, which is fine. I understand that that's part of that game, yeah, I just, I don't care.
Suzanne Wells:Well, you know, it seems like sellers either love it, right, or tolerate it, because it's so plentiful, it's like, Well, okay, and sell this not my favorite. But, you know, I just wanted to get your your input on that, because I think when I went to the bins in the Midwest, most of it was clothing, yes, or at least 75% of it. So definitely kind of feel like, well, I'm in here. It's cheap and I can make money on it, but either you love it or hate it or just put up, right? I've got a whole bunch of stuff to list today, after we're done with this. That's, that's my day is prepping and photographing so I can list things. And I've got some linen stuff. I've got an iron, I've got some cashmere that I've got a deep Hill, and, you know, make it look nice, but I enjoyed the process. So you've got, you know, a full time job, right? Yeah, you've got a full time job.
Unknown:And I actually have, like, three part time jobs, you know, you
Suzanne Wells:got other sources of income too. And so it, it is, it's a it's
Unknown:all about your time. It is, yeah. And, I mean, you know, that's not to say I'm not going to turn down something if I walk in and see. But I don't know the brands. And I like, I know linen is good, right? If I see so a linen piece, I'm going to look at that up. But, and I do a few shoes. We've actually had good luck with selling crocs that we find at the bins. And again, they hear that, yes, so little at the bins that you're not out a lot for them. And they're they're very light to ship as well, but you definitely have to look at the bottom to make sure that's what I
Suzanne Wells:was going to say. The ones I see, the bottoms are worn away. And it's like this could be a lawsuit. If this person walks on something wet or slippery right
Unknown:where the the little band goes behind your heel or in the front, crocodiles on the sides there. You have to look at those too. I've made that mistake. You they wear off because people rub them together, and people want them to still be intact. So
Suzanne Wells:are those stickers, or are they? Is it like a metal it's plastic,
Unknown:but they're that's, it's like printed on there. So it does wear off.
Suzanne Wells:That is a great point shoes you do have to look at more closely, because there's so many things that can be wrong with them. The you know, bottoms are dry rotted, or the buckles don't work, or they're two different sizes. I always forget I had
Unknown:that with a pair. It was, it was a lot at that same Auction House. It was a a lot of Uggs and other boots, but in in the bottom, there were some toddler Nikes and whatnot. And I started to photograph one pair, and they were toddler shoes. They were actually a resale looked like it was going to be 35 $40 and when I started to look at them closely as like, something's off. And then I and they were two different sizes. So
Suzanne Wells:weird. I have a niece. She's like, 24 now, but she was born with two different size feet. One is significantly smaller, and so she's, they've always had to buy two pairs of shoes for her, um, and, you know, the joke was like, We need to find a person, a group, opposite problem, so we can share this. But yeah, sometimes that happens. It's just a, you know, physical thing that it's got two different size feet, and they have to buy two pairs of shoes every time they buy shoes, it's just it's expensive, but yeah, so we have that in our family.
Unknown:It does happen. So we have sold some empty liquor bottles. Nothing like your guest. You had a. Few weeks ago that had some of the big ones, but my, my daughter, found some Cabo WABA tequila bottles at Goodwill for $1 empty, of course, and they sold for $22 a piece. Okay, that was pretty cool. Um, I'm waiting on some flatware. I bought a lot of silverware on an online auction, and in it were two spoons. I don't remember the the type they were now, and they some of the used ones have sold for 140 and these are new in the plastic. So I'm closing in crossing my fingers that those will sell pretty soon.
Suzanne Wells:Is that Sterling or, yeah, stainless, okay, Sterling. I
Unknown:actually I'm not even sure which they were. Now that you say that, I think it's just a really popular type. I've actually found that sometimes stainless has a higher resale value than some of the Sterlings, just because people use them. And everybody has teenagers that lose their their forks and spoons, right? I'm not the only one that never has any forks in the drawer, and so some of that those two seem to be the ones that sell more than the knives, but teaspoons and dinner forks are usually the bigger ones. What else have we sold that's been pretty cool. We've We've bought some Uggs at the bins as well. And I know people say that, like big sizes don't sell, or small sizes don't sell, but we've had decent luck with flipping a pair of Uggs that are three or $4 at the bins into 30 or 40. We tried the plushy market, and we've had varying success the squishmallows. I think the market's pretty much gone on now, except that
Suzanne Wells:has closed Hannah, um,
Unknown:but we have gotten some Disney ones that have resold for, you know, a decent profit,
Suzanne Wells:um,
Unknown:we've cleaned up some of my old Hallmark ornaments and things like that. I'm trying to get a lot of Barbie accessories. And I keep losing those auctions because I want to sell Barbie shoes any space at all. They're pretty tiny, yeah? Some of the Barbie shoes and Barbie outfits sell for, you know, 15 to $25
Suzanne Wells:per item. Yeah, yeah. Those can be great. And I do see those on the online auctions a lot, but it's also it's just a whole bunch of them shove in a zip lock bag. So yeah, and you don't really know, like, Are you just getting one shoe, right? Outfits are in there, right? I know there's a lot of helpful websites where you can figure out the name of the outfit, or what goes with the outfit. Yeah, some research time, but Right, would like to learn about that more, but I'm just not finding a lot of items that is worth taking the risk, because the prices go up pretty high. They do.
Unknown:I was bidding on one, and I think it went to $70 and I was like, I'm not in for that, for the for, like you said, the risk of not knowing if both shoes are there and some of that stuff. And I just, I'm just trying to gear towards smaller items. My husband gets a little frustrated with the all the stuff around the house. And so, you know, I think if we can gear smaller that helps that little headache as well.
Suzanne Wells:So you don't want 200 of those giant, thick wool coats. No,
Unknown:even though it was a good profit, we'll, we'll keep to smaller items and hope for a good profit. So yeah, I
Suzanne Wells:think a lot of sellers are going to that, yeah, what year were you born? 73 okay, so you're a Gen Xer. Yeah. Think when we get to retirement age, the downsizing is going to be a real thing, like not. We're not going to want to hold on to these big homes and have to take care of them. There's so many options now. I'm so addicted to the the tiny home concept, or the transitioning a vehicle into a home idea, right? The space is used just so well. They use like, 100% of the space, you know, make drawers under the stairs and do all these things. And I'm just fascinated with, with how much room there really is in there. How much does one or two people really need,
Unknown:right? I admire it. But then, like, I have a day where I cook and I am all over my entire kitchen, and I think, how do they cook in those tiny homes? That's true.
Suzanne Wells:That's true. They don't they go out. Yeah, right.
Unknown:You're probably not feeding four hungry teenagers either. So
Suzanne Wells:they do, they do takeout, or they just see sandwiches a lot, I don't know, but I just think it's fascinating how little we can really get by with if you want to Now, not everybody wants to, right? Let's go over to your three part time jobs. What are you doing in your spare time?
Unknown:This is a very unusual one I'm sure you've probably never heard before. I work at a at historical farm that is based in the 1890s so we are a museum, and we basically demonstrate farming how it was done in the 1890s for the public. So I just got done with five days of ice harvesting. I
Suzanne Wells:saw that on your Facebook. I'm like, Why is she doing that? Does she not have a freeze?
Unknown:So, yeah, which is, it's fun, and we all get really into it. But at the same by the end of five days, those blocks of ice grow every day, because the lake keeps putting on an inch of ice each day. And so by the end, they were probably about 120 pounds a piece. And you know, we use the horses, the draft horses, to haul them from our lake up to our ice house, but then you have to load them down in the light ice house and get them arranged in there. And so it is a beast of a job, hand milking in the spring and summer. You know, help it will have lambs in a few weeks starting to come out. And so, yeah, so that's, that is my permanent part time job. I do that just one or two days a week, unless there's something special, like the ice harvesting, tapping the maple trees, you know, having the baby lambs, the baby calves, that's fascinating.
Suzanne Wells:I would love to see that or work in that. That's just, it's
Unknown:fun. It's a lot of work, but it's fun. And I grew up on a farm, so for me to move to the suburbs and be able to get a job in farming was ideal. Yes, so, and then I teach agriculture in the classroom. So I go into elementary schools and I teach them where their food comes from, like this or or other things that farmers contribute to their everyday life. For example, in January, we talked about football and all of the things that farmers contribute to the football or the uniforms or the snacks and things like that, where they come from, how they're harvested. And that's very flexible. I set my schedule there, and then I do have a little business of my own where I make all natural products, skincare, like body butter, sugar, scrub, deodorants, soaps, and that's where my eBay name comes in, because my store name is a dirty hoe, because my business name is a dirty hoe, because we garden all the botanicals that we use, it's hoe Ho. We was like, What
Suzanne Wells:is this all about? And then I got the gardening reference. So right, right. I wonder how many of the listeners have seen that when you post your
Unknown:sales. Wait, I've got a couple of comments on the sales, yeah, from the store name. But like, we grow all the botanicals, like the lavender buds that go on top of our soap and so that we tied it in that way. And it's funny, it's it's fun. So anyway, those are all flexible. All of my jobs are pretty flexible. So that helps work with the eBaying as well. And like I said, my daughter helps with with a lot of it, taking the pictures and and starting the listings, and then I edit them and proofread we both source because, you know, she's 20, so she's looking at completely different things than the 51 year old is, yes, which is, is good. You all see different things. And you know, recently, we were real near the bin, so my husband, I made him go to see it, because he he had no idea what we were talking about when we talk about the the frenzy of the bins. And so he even found a couple things, and he brought to me, he's like, I think this is a good hiking backpack. And he was right. So everybody just has a different perspective of what they're looking for.
Suzanne Wells:So, so do you just have the one daughter?
Unknown:So I have one. My husband has three. So when we're all together, it's quite the crew, okay? But ever, yeah, his kids live with their mom most of the time. Hey, a week so and what kind of work
Suzanne Wells:does your husband do? He's
Unknown:in corporate finance. Okay, so that sounds
Suzanne Wells:to me, I think my head would explode if I had to look at numbers all day. Yes.
Unknown:Yes, absolutely. It's funny. Sometimes when we go out to eat, he actually has to, like, hand the check to me and be like, I cannot figure the tip. Because really looking at numbers in the billions and millions that, oh my gosh, you're right.
Suzanne Wells:You know, there's an app for
Unknown:that, I know, I know, for Christmas. So
Suzanne Wells:funny, how most of the the restaurants that let you check out, you know, on a electronic device, they already have it figured, how did you leave? And even if you're just picking up a pizza, like they didn't even do anything but make the pizza. I asked you if you want to tip em, and when that first started, I was like, no, no, but I think it's just the standard format of those electronic
Unknown:checkouts. Is it is right? I If you are a restaurant, it automatically does that when it because when I was setting up my square for the other business, it was asked automatically if you want tips. And it's not a you can't set it for two different settings. It's either you accept tips or you don't. Oh, so yeah, you
Suzanne Wells:always want to leave that door open,
Unknown:right, right.
Suzanne Wells:So well, how many items do you have in your inventory? So
Unknown:we have 837 listed as of this morning. Okay? And then I just picked up a bunch of items from an auction, actually, from the people the auctioneers you had on a month or two ago in Indiana. Okay, so I just picked that up when I was at my brother's house for Christmas this past weekend. We had to have a delayed Christmas. And so anyway, once I get all that listed, we'll be we'll be closer to that's
Suzanne Wells:funny, because I just got a box of stuff from them that I did. I wonder if we were on the same auction. I do
Unknown:wonder that sometimes, like between you and some other people I follow, I'm like, if I am I bidding against them for this item,
Suzanne Wells:what did you win from them. I'm just curious. I
Unknown:got some vintage perfume lot and a Bakelite vanity set, and then I got, like, the whole bathroom lot, which was where a bunch of the empty makeups came from, and things. But there were some items in there that are going to be worth flipping. What else did I get on that one? Were you able to go pick that up? Or did you have it shipped? My niece lived just 15 minutes away, so she went and got it for me, and was shocked when she went to get there, and there was so much stuff, right?
Suzanne Wells:Well, I wonder if we didn't bid on the same things, because I had mine shipped to me. Yeah, I bid on some some clothing. And, gosh, I forgot what all was in there, because I was doing two on that day, two different auction houses on that day. So it gets confusing, but, yeah, confusing. I did some nice clothing.
Unknown:Sometimes I just go through and I hit watch on a bunch of the lots, and then I'll go to my thing, and I've got like 30 that I need to look through. But right,
Suzanne Wells:yeah, exactly, yeah. So 800 items in inventory, do you have a average that you sell a day with that amount of inventory.
Unknown:No, not necessarily, you know, like you said, it definitely ebbs and flows. You know, there will be days when my daughter takes 11 items to the post office, and there are days when we don't have anything. Today, she'll be taking four items. So, yeah, we have some definite long tail items in there and and would probably need to go through and look at some stuff. We actually just today I had to cancel an order because we had a garage sale last summer and accidentally left it in our inventory. So and unfortunately, that is my third cancelation in a year, so I will lose my top seller status. That the first mistake we made was a listing error, and that's going to fall off on March 11. That'll it'll be a year old at that point, so I'm not super worried about it in these next few weeks. But um, yeah, so yeah,
Suzanne Wells:I'm waiting for a negative to fall off. That was about this time last year. It was the the lady with the long legs. I had sold a Saint John skirt, just the pull on acrylic skirt and gave the measurements. And in the title, it was something like, or in the item specifics, it was knee length. And this lady must have been seven feet tall, but she sent a picture of her wearing it, and said, This is not knee length, huh? Up is because she her legs are so long, yeah, so I've started putting that in the description of, please check measurements for how this will fit you, right? You know, it looked like a knee length skirt for an average sized person, you know, with average leg length. And she sent that picture, and she was furious. And I'm thinking, you're that tall, run into this before, where things are too short on you. So I was like, Yeah, that's fine. Return it. And she was so mad that it was knee length in the description.
Unknown:I was just going to say that same thing. You think she because I have, I'm not super tall, but I have really long legs, and I check inseam on everything I buy. And measurements, I had the opposite. I had someone who it was a petite Capri length pant. And it had, I put the inseam and said petite twice in the title, like with the 10 p and petite. I spelled it out, and she she wasn't mad, but she returned them, saying, item is not as described. I didn't know it'd be so short. I was like, but,
Suzanne Wells:but I did everything I could to tell you
Unknown:it would be short. I don't know what else you want me to do, but that those things happen. That's
Suzanne Wells:close, yeah, yeah. And it's just, if people are going to get that upset, then don't order online, right? Go to the store and try it on, right?
Unknown:Yeah. And it's not an up, it's not a thing to upset. It's just a no active life. So,
Suzanne Wells:yeah, I've got another return that was open. She hasn't shipped it back yet. She may not. It was a, like a tennis skirt, like a stretchy skirt. And she said that it was, it was all stretched out. This is not a size. Well, no, she didn't dispute the size. She just said it, it was all stretched out. She sends, you know, a measuring tape across the waist, and it was exactly what I said it measured as. And, you know, they they feel like they have to make it your fault to return, and I don't care if they return it right. I just sold a pair of Louis folds or shorts that were returned because the lady said they were measured wrong, but they weren't right. We listened. Sold them for more, and the person left feedback yesterday. These are wonderful. I love them so much. They fit perfectly, you know, right? And so it's just
Unknown:a business, you know. You no matter what business you're going to be in, there's going to be someone who's upset or doesn't like things one way, and everybody is just different. I, you know, in my other business, I one of the body butter scents I make is peppermint, and I, one of the very few returns I have is because it wasn't minty enough. And then I'll get comments, well, this is too peppermint. So, you know, everybody is just so different about how how things are. Yeah, 1000s
Suzanne Wells:cents are a very subjective thing, and people actually get angry about it. Sometimes it's like, I guess I am not that sensitive of a smeller. I'm not going to sell something that smells bad, or alcohol odor, or some cigarette smoke or something that is just really hard to get out. But you know, they'll, they'll send it back, and they'll say, oh, this has an odor, and I'll get it back. And I'm like, I don't smell anything. And so you wonder if they're just saying that, yeah, to get the return for free or something. But I
Unknown:had a I had someone reach out and ask me about one of the Bibles I sold if it smelled musty. And so I smelled it. I had my daughter smell it, and I responded to her message, and I was like, we don't smell it, but my mother, I've always said she had a bloodhound nose. She can smell anything from a mile away, and she's very sensitive to smells like we would have to move in church if someone had perfume on then sat. And so I was like, I'm going to see her tonight. I'll have my mom smell it to double check if you want me to. And she she said, No, she thought that was funny, but she was glad to know she's not the only one with a sensitive nose around. And she was, you know, of course, left very positive feedback, but she got quite a kick out of that well.
Suzanne Wells:And in your defense, sometimes those church ladies do put on too much perfume.
Unknown:So much I've been, I've been gearing towards perfumes because, again, they're smaller. And I'm like, I don't know why I'm doing this. I hate the smell of all perfume.
Suzanne Wells:Well, you working in the natural world and making your own products, probably can tell a huge difference in that, you know. And once you're away from you.
Unknown:Yeah, once you're away from all that stuff, everything's very, very potent. You know, you go outside smell your neighbors like dryer sheets outside when they're doing laundry. So,
Suzanne Wells:yeah, you become more sensitive to it. Yeah, there's a lot of toxic smells out there. But anyway, okay, well, we've almost been going for an hour. Do you have any final words before we say goodbye? I
Unknown:did write down a few tips to share for new people. We've kind of talked about one of them. First of all, be cognizant of your time, right? Don't just scroll, scroll, scroll, looking at things to buy. Be organized from the start so you don't have to cancel any sales because you think your first one is no big deal, but then all of a sudden you're sitting at three like I am. One of them was a cookie jar, and when I sent my daughter to get it, I she didn't know it was a cookie jar. She picked it up by the lid, and the base fell. Oh no. And always check condition when you buy things. Don't get excited that you just found a Saint John sweater or something, and just buy it. Make sure you're checking the conditions of things. So yes,
Suzanne Wells:and I think we all fall short on that sometimes, because especially if you're in a thrift store one by one looking at things, or you're tired, you know you're you've been doing this for two hours, and you miss things. Or if you're at an estate sale and it's very hustle and bustle, and you just want to grab that thing, and like you said, the people at the bins that go over to the side and and preview again. They review what they're going to buy and make sure that there's nothing wrong with it. And I do that at at Goodwill. I'll go over to the furniture section and just sit down at on a couch or something and just go through everything again, because the excitement of finding that great item is like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna get that. I can't wait to list it. And then big old stain on the front or
Unknown:something, right? This is a bolo. I finally found the Bolo and boom, it's, yeah, it's messed up, a chip or something somewhere. So, okay, well,
Suzanne Wells:what do you have planned for today with your eBay business and your three jobs. Well,
Unknown:since I just got done with five days of the physical labor, it's on everything I could not do when I got home after those eight hour days. So I do need to do some listings and wrap up my sales and get those shipped. But yeah, most of it is just going to be resting. So
Suzanne Wells:good. Well. And back to the ice harvesting. I saw that come up on your page because you delayed it because of weather or something. Yeah, it's this funky looking machine. It looks like a plow, but it has blades on it,
Unknown:so we have to set a grid on the ice. To start, you want the blocks to be about 15 inches square, and then however deep the ice is on the lake, we don't start until they're seven inches deep. And so we kind of score the grid first with that plow. And then you saw two sides of the block moving backwards on your grid. And then you take a 16 pound breaker bar and chip away at that seam that's running horizontal, and then that block will float off and goes down the trench. And then we use, we use Kid power, because we let the public help us. Yesterday we went, we couldn't let the public on the ice because it was starting to crack. But the public does get to help us saw and break off blocks. And then we have to pull those 100 to 120 pound blocks of ice up this ramp with a pulley and a rope. And so we look, we put the kids on the rope and let them pull. So yeah, so we got a large crack yesterday, and I, I made the call to get everybody off the ice, but then my supervisor went out and checked, and he's done this for like, 20 years, and he said it was okay for us to be out there, but maybe not the public. So we canceled. We pushed it off. So anyway, we have to have seven inches of ice, and sometimes Mother Nature does not give us that, but this year, it did. And now today is 45 and by Friday, it's going to be 50 and raining, so there will be no more ice to harvest.
Suzanne Wells:Oh, okay. Well, I just think it's fascinating you're doing all these old timey things, old timey way and kind of like homesteaders, or people who live off the grid, you know, learning how to do all this stuff so you you can if you need to, but just for the historical value and teaching the public like, this is what they used to do, and
Unknown:this is why they ate 8000 calories a day.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah. So them. And they didn't need tick tock showing them how to do it. No, no, okay. Wells Great to meet you. Got the wonderful work with your eBay, and we'll, we'll keep looking for more fun sales from you.
Unknown:Awesome. All right. Thank you.
Suzanne Wells:Have a good day, too. Bye. Okay? Time for parting words. Denise talked about time management and being organized well with three part time jobs, really for county eBay, she would know. Here are some eye opening Facts About time wasters. Remember, we all have 24 hours in a day, but what's important is how you spend it. So the first thing is, multitasking is a hot buzzword, but really it's a huge time waster. It's considered a time waster, because when you switch between multiple tasks, your brain needs to refocus on each one, leading to a loss of efficiency and ultimately taking more time to complete everything, compared to focusing on one task at a time. So essentially, the switching cost between tasks adds up and eats into your productivity. And I think you have to define multitasking based on what you're doing. So if you're sitting at your computer and listing your eBay items, and you've got the washing machine going with clothes in it, and the dishwasher going, and you get up every hour to tend to that. That's not really multitasking. So I think the concept is just stay focused on one thing and finish it before you pick up something else, because you waste time switching between tasks. Okay, and the next big one is social media. People spend, on average, two hours and 23 minutes per day on social media. This amounts to about 35.8% of the time people spend online each day. So over a third of your online time is spent on social media. So think about that. What else could you be doing with two and a half hours a day, not just eBay related, but in general, challenging yourself to learn something new, playing word games or doing crossword puzzles or trivia games, something to exercise your brain and improve your memory. Sure you can still use your electronic devices, but focus on apps or games that challenge your brain, rather than hanging out on social media so much, because remember, and I have to remind myself of this too, pretty much nothing on social media is real. Photos are edited or use filters. People exaggerate their accomplishments and downplay the difficult or embarrassing things in their life, or don't mention them at all. People are not truthful, or they're only showing you the best parts of their lives, which may or may not even be real. So it's mostly fake news. So yeah, it's entertaining, but just remember, people only let you see what they want you to see, and maybe your time is better spent learning something new or doing some research or entertainment in a different way that doesn't make you feel bad about yourself. And the third thing I want to mention, is lack of organization. Being disorganized wastes time because it often involves spending unnecessary minutes or hours searching for lost items. Yeah, we've all done that, dealing with clutter that distracts your focus and redoing tasks due to missed details, ultimately leading to inefficiency and delays in completing work or projects, a messy workspace filled with clutter can easily draw your attention away from the task at hand, causing you to lose focus and spend more time getting back on track. And being disorganized also causes mental stress, that constant feeling of being overwhelmed by disarray can contribute to stress and anxiety. So just think about those things as far. Is helping you become more organized and save time during the day. Two hours more a day adds up to 60 hours a month, which comes out to be two and a half whole days. So just imagine if you tightened up your time wasters and put that energy and activity into other more productive things, how much more you could get done? Okay? Lecture over next week, my guest is Heather, who is a librarian at a small town library, so make sure to come back for that episode, and as always, thank you so much for supporting this podcast, I'm wishing you all a profitable and productive week on eBay and in life. Bye, everybody. You.