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
eBay Seller Chat with Lori in Florida: Estate and Costume Jewelry - “There’s Always Something I’ve Never Seen Before” 🤓
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Hey, eBay sellers, you have landed on Episode 208, of eBay the right way. Today's date is March 12, 2025 My guest today is Lori in Florida. Announcements, well, this isn't really an announcement, more just a rambling thought, today, March 12 is a day I always remember, and I almost said today's date is March 12, 1908 because that was my grandmother's birthday. She used to come stay with us for a month around Christmas. Back in the 80s, when I was a teenager, after my grandfather died, she was funny and a classy, sophisticated lady. She always wore a dress and a girdle and stockings and low heeled leather Ferragamo pumps. My sister and I would drive her to the beauty parlor to get her hair done every week. And for some reason, she loved telling people how old she was. And she would always say, well, darling, I was born on March 12, 1908, so that date is burned into my brain, and I really wish I had talked more with her, or even made tape recordings of her telling stories about her life, the things she must have experienced and witnessed that future generations will never understand. Two world wars, the Great Depression, the automobile industry, air travel, changes in fashion, and just daily life in general. So a shout out to my me, Ma, Virginia Allison from Tampa, Florida. I'm thinking about you today. Okay, now on to the chat with Lori. Hello, listeners. I have Lori with us today, and we're recording later in the day, and we're both at our best in the morning, so we're just going to get through this. So how are you doing this afternoon?
Unknown:I'm very good, little bit tired, like you said, but I am plugging along
Suzanne Wells:okay. And where are you located? I'm
Unknown:in Oviedo, which is east of Orlando central area. Yeah. Okay.
Suzanne Wells:Are Have you been there for a long time? Is that where you're born and raised?
Unknown:I'm actually from North Florida. I was born and raised in Gainesville, and we moved down here 28 years ago. Okay, lived in the same house and raised five children. Okay,
Suzanne Wells:are you an empty nester? You still got some there? Yes,
Unknown:empty nester, we my youngest is 29
Suzanne Wells:oh, you don't look old enough for that.
Unknown:Oh, thanks. Now you're my new best friend. Okay, yeah, we have five kids. My husband was married before, but his first wife died, and he had two kids, and then we ended up having three together. So Right? Grandparents to nine. So we're
Suzanne Wells:busy. Wow, you are busy. Okay, so you got that going on, and is eBay your full time income, or do you work another job?
Unknown:No, eBay is my full time
Suzanne Wells:income. Oh, good. I love to talk to those.
Unknown:I've sell on other platforms as well, but yeah, I do the majority on eBay.
Suzanne Wells:Mm, hmm. Okay, later. And so what got you started on eBay? What? What happened in your life that pushed you into eBay? Well, I
Unknown:I joined back in 2002 just for fun, not knowing how to not knowing how to do anything back when there was cashiers checks and only online auctions and but I've always had a real good eye, and I wanted to stay home with my with my kids, and so I would pick up little things here and there. I I've always been an entrepreneur, anyways, and so I started. I would pick up a Barbie here or there. The first thing I ever sold was a brand new Rubik's Cube sealed and it went for $75 so that was fun. I paid like 50 cents on a yard sale for it. Back when the great recession happened, my husband got, kept getting cuts in pay, and so it kind of pushed me to start selling. And I did eBay and Amazon, I kind of eBay kind of upset me, because I just didn't I was learning how to do it on my own. I didn't have any training, so I kind of did more Amazon for a little bit of time because it was easy, very easy back then, and then during I just, I guess, about 10 years ago, I started doing more on eBay, I started watching YouTube videos and improving what I did. And I went to some of the when COVID happened, the virtual eBay open happened, right? And I started meeting other people, and just kept improving on what I do and what I know and so. But really, back to your original question, when the great recession happened, it was one of those things, is like I had to do something to make money. My kids were still at home, and they were classically trained violinist, and lessons were expensive. And if they were going to keep doing that, which was helping them get scholarships. We had to figure out what to do. So I just started really focusing on selling.
Suzanne Wells:Okay, good for you. So have you been doing it off and on? The whole time? I've
Unknown:been doing it on. I haven't. It hasn't stopped. So, yeah, I it what? At the time, we were just trying to make a couple I was just trying to make a couple $100 extra a month. And now it's, you know, after my kids left home, I was going to go back to to work because I'd gone to school and I became a medical transcriptionist. And I thought, well, I'll go back, but I make more money doing eBay. So decided this way I can stay home. I can help my kids if they need me to. I can vacation with my husband when we want, because he has a job where he gets about six weeks vacation. And so it's been I wouldn't get six weeks vacation if I got a full time job anywhere, right,
Suzanne Wells:right? Okay, what kind of things did you sell on Amazon?
Unknown:I first started selling on Amazon. The first thing that I sold on Amazon was a book, and it was on how to write a book, and I spent like, three or $4 on it, and it sold for 40 bucks. So that was like, wow, I could do this. And this is before smartphones. I mean, so kind of went with my gut. I sold video games. I sold video consoles. You know, I always say that if it I would sell anything that turns green,
Suzanne Wells:you know, yeah,
Unknown:and I even sold some antiques on there. I mean, it was back before they gated us. I you know, I sold CDs. I sold movies, you know, I sold new stuff. I sold Sony, Walkmans, and honestly, I made better money on Amazon than I ever did on eBay, selling any of those things. But eBay basically this, Amazon started blocking you so you it was everything was gated, right?
Suzanne Wells:And then you had
Unknown:to take a return. EBay basically had my back more I felt like, so I kind of switched back to just doing eBay. And I haven't looked back. I haven't, yeah,
Suzanne Wells:I had that same experience. And just for the listeners that don't know what we mean when we say gated, it's if you wanted to sell on Amazon in certain categories, you had to be approved, and you had to show that you knew this product, and where have you sold it before, and what's in your inventory, and all this pre approval stuff for people that had had been doing it for three or four years. And so they they created this process for gating the categories. And I was selling groceries, I was selling books. And I don't know if books ever got gated, but it was all the, maybe the higher return products, or something like that. I mean, there was a there was a rhyme, and read. Into it. But as sellers that had been on there for a number of years, it was just, you know, you'd get that email, you can no longer sell in this category. You have to jump through all these hoops. And it was, it was quite stressful, if you were selling across a lot of different categories. Yeah,
Unknown:it was, it was, it was frustrating. And I finally got to the point it's like, I will just up my eBay and change. And I think that's part of being a reseller. You have to shift. You have to be willing to to see what's trending, what's gone out of style, and shift. I mean, back in when I was selling on Amazon, I was selling Palm Pilots all the time. And, you know, Palm Pilots are not relevant anymore, so no, it's like
Suzanne Wells:selling VCRs when blu ray or DVDs came along. I mean, now VCRs will sell because they're sort of a an antique item. You know, people still want them for different things. But if you were in the the VCR business, you had to figure out something else, because all the technology gets dated and until it becomes vintage and desired, again, like console TVs. Like nobody wants those unless you're going to make an aquarium or a dog bed out of it, you know, right
Unknown:on Etsy, the old old ones, those will sell to movie sets, but I don't want to deal with those. So
Suzanne Wells:that was just an example of you have to go with the flow, and you have to pivot and be able to go in a different direction if the product you're selling doesn't work anymore. And I did the same thing as you I went back to eBay 100% and vintage items, things they don't make anymore. That's what I always look for. And then you said, like trending, and not just clothing, but home decor and hobbies and all that kind of stuff is, you know, what's the hot thing? You gotta be in tune with that.
Unknown:Yeah, you're going to be watching what's happening around you, too. When, when the recession hit. My husband and I, because he was off on Fridays at that point, and so we would go out and we would watch what people were buying, because I'd always been a Thrifter. I'd always gone to garage sales and estate sales. And so we started really, we basically developed our own costume. So we would wear, like, khaki pants or denim jeans and a plain shirt without, you know, we're we're from, I'm from Gainesville, so I wouldn't wear a Florida Gator shirt anywhere, right? He would wear a red sox hat. Because he had a couple people say, Oh, you're a Red Sox fan. The your your price just went up. So it was like, we had, we kind of got into the game of, okay, this is what we're going to do. And we did it. And, you know, we dressed the part and played it, and we watched what people were buying, and that's kind of how I learned to do some of the things that I sell. Now it's like they were asking for this. They were asking. They would ask for the same thing every time. Do you have any fishing items? Do you have any jewelry? I buy gold and silver, or I buy costume jewelry, and do you have any video games? And I was like, I'd start watching to see what they were buying and and then we had to make a deal of what we were willing to spend. I was like, I'm too cheap. I'm only going to spend $1 or two. My husband's like, you're going to have to shift a little bit and start spending a little bit more, because I missed out on a there was a Blackberry, and I remember because we could have flipped it for $100 but it was $50 and I felt like, maybe that was too much, and I didn't have a smartphone, so I had home and research on the computer blackberries. And I was like, Man, I could have made $100 we went back, and it was gone already, and I sold a ton of blackberries too. I even sold those on Amazon, really, yeah, I did. But I sold, I did probably more of those on Amazon, because before I switched back to just eBay. Uh
Suzanne Wells:huh. Okay, well, do you have anything that you specialize in? I'm guessing, after all these years, you probably do.
Unknown:Well, I always say I know a little bit about a lot of things. Okay,
Suzanne Wells:what are some of your most successful sales? Um,
Unknown:well, this this year I sold. Um, well, not this year, but in the last few months, I had some. I got a hold of a Linux set of spice rat spices, a and they were, there was 24 of them. There was two of them brand new, in the box, complete, not ever, ever out of the bags. And then there was nine in a in a bag. This was at Goodwill. And they had the ones in the bag for like 699, and the. Other ones were, like, 12 bucks or something, and nobody wanted them. Nobody knew what they were. And I, I picked up the bag, and I was like, I saw what they were. And this is before they became really, I mean, before I knew that they were a thing. This is me finding things out. Is that I go, but I looked at the bag, and I said, Oh, those are Linux. I know those are something. So I put them in my car, and somebody was looking at the two boxes, and he says, Those are more spices. Said, Okay, so I picked them up and took them home, and within about three weeks, they sold for$1,000
Suzanne Wells:so, oh, gosh, yeah, and
Unknown:that was before they released. They're doing a new set, and you can get them, I think, for 300 or 350 and back in the 80s, late 80s, I think these were, like 1499 and you could get the whole collection. So, you know, these are hand painted and better made. And this is the I kept going back to the store looking they have a spice rack in the shape of a house, but I never could find it. I was disappointed, because I was like, somebody probably donated that too, but I missed it. I missed it. So that was a good one.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah, that's a great one.
Unknown:Last week, and I posted this on your Facebook page that I sold a smoking silk robe like the Hugh Hefner,
Suzanne Wells:okay, right.
Unknown:If you ever find those, if they're silk, they're men, they can be holy. It does not matter. I mean, not people will buy them. And I paid $6 for that, and it sold for $189
Suzanne Wells:so was it red with the black?
Unknown:This one was like the red with black. Okay, I've have found them gray with black, anything like that. If you find anything like a Chinese kimono kind of thing they will sell. And I always ask. I had this one, I think I was asking $289 and I knew I would take an offer. And I did. I took an offer of $189 so that was that was good, not a bad flip for six bucks. No, no, not bad at all. I always, I look for unique things, and I try to find things that, because, you know, you have to so many people are doing this, and they're looking for some, you know, they're always looking for video games and such as that. But I sold a phone cord purse, and I'd never found one in the wild like I audit, I never found one. Have you heard of the phone cord purses? No, what is that? So they took the old phone cords from the 60s and 70s and 80s and made them into a purse, and literally, you see the cord. So some of them are really well designed with the the black phone cords from the 80s, and they have different patterns of them. And I paid 699 at Goodwill, and I sold that for$145
Suzanne Wells:okay, yeah, I'm I just looked that up here so I can see what you're talking about it. I envisioned it being the foam cords woven together, but they can just be laid out in patterns. Yeah, so, you know there's, it's a geometric looking thing, but, yeah, you can absolutely see it looks like they're glued on to another purse, like you get a plain purse, and then you glue the cord on and whatever stripe or concentric circles or, yeah, they were
Unknown:very they're very popular. And the ones that are really dynamic have a lot of different patterns. They're worth more. But I was pretty pleased to have found one and it people were walking by it, which doesn't normally happen.
Suzanne Wells:So that begs the question, should we be selling the old phone cords? Because people are going to be looking for those to make the purses out
Unknown:of. Yeah, I don't know. I haven't looked to see that would be something.
Suzanne Wells:And found old phones, and some of them are worth money, but not all of them, or if they're too beat up to even be nice to core, you could just sort of stockpile the cords and then sell those as the raw material to make the purses out of. Yeah, we got
Unknown:to look that up and see think about I also sell a lot of vintage linens, and it doesn't have to be like, super name brand, but I've sold some Ralph Lauren for 150 bucks. Oh, recently I sold another set of vintage sheets. They were really no name brand that I'd ever heard of, but they were from the 80s, and they were like, really.
Suzanne Wells:Late, bold, pink, blue,
Unknown:voice colors, and they were brand new, and those sold for $198 oh, gosh, and I paid, I paid $12 for those. Okay,
Suzanne Wells:so that
Unknown:was good.
Suzanne Wells:I just looked this up on eBay research just to see there were lots of phone cords, and what's at the top are the purses. So but it certainly could be a thing if, if you kept they were making them.
Unknown:They were making them back many, many years ago. So I don't Okay. I don't know if they're still making them.
Suzanne Wells:Oh, I see, so I'm late to the party on that. I did not know. I thought this was like, Yeah, but you could be on the lookout for the purses, absolutely, yeah, yeah. Those are funky.
Unknown:Another unique thing that I had no idea about I was cookie cookie cutters. And, I mean, I knew some about it. I'd heard about the Martha Stewart ones, but I haven't found those. I'm on the lookout for those, though, those can sell for a lot of money, but I was at a estate sale, and they are usually really overpriced, but they had all the cookie cutters in a basket, and I just sat down, and I started picking out the really unique ones, and I paid a buck a piece for them, and I sold one that was a it was a Christmas tree, and it was made by a company called K Dunwoody. Okay, I never heard of them. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't have known, but it sold for $90
Suzanne Wells:and what was the shape? It was a Christmas tree. Oh, okay,
Unknown:so there are some cookie cutters. If you get a chance to look at trend, you know, at different cookie cutters that sell, you'll see, and I've sold more than one of those and that. But the the Christmas tree was really a good one. So, yeah, I've sold a motor home on our old motor home on eBay too, and a truck. Oh,
Suzanne Wells:really big things,
Unknown:yeah. So those are fun things. But
Suzanne Wells:okay, well, you went to an interesting event before our call today. Did you want to talk a little bit about that?
Unknown:Yeah, so if you know, in all the areas, pretty much, and eBay is sponsors seller events, and I have a meeting that meets once a month here in Central Florida, in the Oviedo winter Springs area. And I got invited to one from a woman that is starting had just today was actually the first event. She's Trish Glenn, and she works for the list perfectly, and she hosts the meetup in New England. And she has bought a home down here in Florida. And so she hosts an event, and we we met at it was sponsored by list perfectly, and we went to Salvation Army and did a tour of Salvation Army, and I learned so much stuff just simply talking to or listening to the people that are working there and what their mission is. And you know, the closest Salvation Army to me is like 25 minutes away, and I rarely go, but when I do my donations, I always try to donate there or to a place like that. But they, they are a great company, and they showed us a whole tour of the building. And I don't know if they do this in every place, but they actually have an auction on, I think it's Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays. And they sell pallets of clothes out there, they sell furniture, and they they they auction it off, right? They're in the back of the Salvation Army. Okay, I don't know that. No, I didn't know that. I don't know if they do it everywhere. But this one in Orlando is, I mean, it's really, it's really clean, and the people that are working for Salvation Army, have gone through. Most of them have gone they do hire some people, but most of them have gone through the program to get clean. And they take a lot of pride in what they do. And it's it's really cool to go in and see what they're doing and and their prices. They even said they've gone down on their prices. I went in briefly. I don't, I don't want to buy clothes. Is not my thing that I really want to do. So I don't buy a whole bunch of clothes. And so I kind of went in real quick to look around. But they, they're dropping their prices instead of raising them. Yeah. Really, yeah. I mean, my goodwill locally is raising their prices on just about everything. I don't I haven't seen them go down on anything. So, you know, it's a good thing to keep in mind
Suzanne Wells:Absolutely, yeah. So what else? How long was the tour?
Unknown:So actually what they did was they offered breakfast, let's perfectly sponsored it, and they had breakfast, and we started at nine, and then the one of the one of the men that spoke with was telling us that he actually goes in and he does pull some things that he knows are valuable, and he they auction them off, starting at 1999 and they auction them off, they give them three chances, and if they don't sell for 1999 then they lower the price down to 999 and if they don't make the cut, then they either lot stuff together, or they put it out to auction outside, behind their building. And there's somebody that's in charge on the that does eBay auctions, and it they sell on eBay and as auction only, and he actually had showed us his facility, of his his room, and he has somebody working for him, and they do all the shipping and everything in there. And the tour went from nine to three. Mm, hmm, a little bit early. I didn't I didn't stick around and shop because I knew I was going to be talking to you. But they did a they did where you could go in and shop after words, so they were speaking. And then we did the tour, and then we had lunch, and then we went shopping, actually, and Trish spoke, and then Dana spoke. So it was very informative. It's really good if you're able to connect with any seller meetup groups or start one. EBay has been really good about sending me swag. And so if you come to the meetings I will have, sometimes I have gift cards or bags or cups or journals or, you know, stickers, something like that. And it's been, it's been really good, and it's connecting with other eBay sellers and learning something that you don't know, you know, or maybe you can teach somebody or help somebody, you know,
Suzanne Wells:yeah, I've had a few just informal Meet and Greet type things. Let's all meet for coffee if you're in this area, type of thing. And I always learn so much because we're all interested in different things, and especially if you move to a new location. That's the last time I did it. When I moved to South Carolina in 2022 because I just wanted to talk to other resellers and get their input on good places, the not so good places, the sales stuff that isn't really advertised. You know what the sale days are and, oh, get this little town newspaper, and there's coupons in there. We had something here called the attractions book. It used to be called the entertainment book, and like the high school band would sell them, and they didn't full of coupons for restaurants and, you know, anything in the area. And there were coupons in there for thrift store stuff, you know, 50% off your purchase, no limit, things like that. So I think the book was like $15 and, you know, it paid for itself in one coupon. So things like that that you might not know moving to a new area because I didn't have kids in school or anything, so I wouldn't have known about that fundraising book. But you're right. And if you're an organizer, starter type person, start your own group.
Unknown:Well, I the way I looked at it was, we all have to eat, so I try to do mine at lunch time. There's another one that's in Orlando that's in the evening, and I'm not on my I'm usually tired in the evening, so I could not I just knew driving 30 minutes and sometimes 45 minutes because of rush hour traffic in Orlando was going to be a challenge for me. So I started my own group to from people that meet at lunch, and there's several people that come, and it's been, it's been fun. We just eat, and we meet for hour, hour and a half, and it's been, it's been very entertaining for me. I'm not an expert. There's people that come that I'm sure they know more than I do. They've been doing it maybe longer, but, you know, learning how to ship or, you know, one of, one of the things that I think is we were talking about today, there was a lady that never come to any meeting, and she was fairly new, which she was talking about, she couldn't find something, so she canceled the cell. And, you know, you. Have to be really careful about canceling sales, because you don't want to go below standard, because they will you off. And she was just horrified that they would kick her off. They're not having the, you know, being able to send something out. And so we talked about that, and about she said she doesn't accept returns. And one of the key things I say is you may as well just accept returns. Like for the most of everything, you may as well accept returns, because eBay will take it back if they open an inat against you, which you know. So I always say just take returns. It's not if it's sold once, it's going to sell again, and it's not that big of a deal. Just do it and learn from it, because you're there's always a lesson in this stuff, you know? So that's my opinion about well,
Suzanne Wells:and you have to have the customer service mindset, because a lot of newer people coming to eBay are like, Nope, I'm not taking returns once I sell it, that's it. I'm done. And I'm like, that's not how this works. You know, you've got the customer can lead feedback, and they actually get the last word if, you know, eBay may force the return, or it's just better to sell it with a return policy, because I'm not going to buy anything online that I can't return. Because if it's not, if it's not right, if it's not the right color, if it's clothing and doesn't fit, and I love Amazon Prime, because I'll take chances on all kinds of things. And if it's, if it's some cheap, crappy thing made in China that falls apart in two days, I'm sending it back, sure that policy so, and especially clothing sellers. And I think people are going to buy clothing online if you can't return it, because, especially if it's pre owned, because it could be stretched out, it could have shrunk in the wash. You don't know.
Unknown:Yeah, I think most people, I think we, sometimes people have the mindset that everybody is a criminal, and you know they're taking advantage, but it's like and there are those people, there are people that you know will scam, and you know you have to be on the lookout, and eBay, if you accept returns, eBay is going to have your back anyways. And I have learned that I sold a cell phone and I it came the person before they even got it told me that it was not delivered, and I could see that it had been delivered, and then they told me it didn't work. And, you know, and I had, I contacted eBay, and they're like, well, offer them 50% and I'm like, I gave them a deal. I was really frustrated. They ended up refunding me and the person so and it was, it wasn't a it was a year old or two year old iPhone at the time. And it was like, you know, they actually did have my back. So I think, and most
Suzanne Wells:of the stuff we're selling, we get so cheap. So it's really, you're not out the $30 they paid. You're out the $3 you pay, right? And the shipping, if, if it comes to that. But again, returns. 75% of the people that open a return don't send it back. Yeah, it just times out on them. Yeah, it's true. So, okay, well, what other kind of fun eBay stories do you have from over the years?
Unknown:Um, well, one of the times I went out yard selling, and my husband went with me the next day, and I told him, I said, Well, I've already been to the sale. And so I let him go when he comes back in, and he hands me a pair of sunglasses. And I was like, those are hideous. And he says, well, but you should look at them. Well, they ended up being, I think they were Oakleys, and they had a special coin. And I got home and I listed them. This is before it was, buy it now, and I listed them, starting at 99 cents. And all of a sudden I was having all these offers. I'll give you $200 I'll give you $150 I'll give you 220 and I'm like, What is going on? And this is before I knew that there was a seller hub. This is before I knew you could get marked down for canceling anything with beds. And so I contacted everybody, and I said, I'm ending this auction because I listed it, I'm going to list all the flaws with this item. My husband works. He works with optics, and so he took the sun, he took the sunglasses underneath a microscope, and we noted every flaw, and I took better pictures, and I described it better. Right? And we sat there watching the auction. It ended at $330
Suzanne Wells:oh my gosh, that was fun.
Unknown:And they were just, he paid $1 and it was a picker. It was somebody that I know that goes out to yard sale and buys stuff to resell. You just can't know everything you know. But that was a good that was a fun one. Um, I have, I sold Disney princess. I don't know if you've seen the Disney Princess ornaments that are shoes.
Suzanne Wells:Yes, I have. So
Unknown:I have. The first one I ever found was brand new. It was 399, at good at Goodwill, and I sold it for $125 Yeah, and so it sold immediately to I was like, okay, so then within a couple weeks, they got all the Disney shoes, like several of them, and they put them all in the bag. And of course, one of the best ones was broken because they all in the bag. But I got those, and I've been selling, I sold another one. It was the one that I sold was, I think it was Tiana, and she sells for a lot. I think Pocahontas sells for a lot, and I still I'm selling them. I paid for the bag. I think I paid 1499 and I've been selling them little by little, but I sold another Tiana, and I sold that one for 98 and it was missing the ribbon to hang it on the tree, and they weren't new, so I've been selling them for probably around 40, $45 average. So those are good ones to look out for. Those are fun ones. Do you see a
Suzanne Wells:lot of Disney stuff since you're so close to it?
Unknown:Um, so I do, I do, but so many people are on the lookout for it, so I I don't, and I'm pretty careful, because, you know, Disney clothing doesn't sell if you find the new stuff, it does. I have sold the popcorn buckets. Those can sell for a lot. Some of them sell for quite a bit. And I've every time I find those, I just get them because I know I can sell those, and they're lightweight to ship. Um, and then, um, oh, I was at an estate sale, and I found some dishes, and they were marked at 40 bucks. And I was like, they were plates, and it was, like a whole set. And it was, it had, I could tell they were old, and they were white and blue and gold, and I flipped them over, and it was Linux for Tiffany, oh, and I paid $40 for the whole set. And I have been selling them little by little for a lot of money. I sold, like, four. I sold five dessert plates for$235 Wow, oh, and then I have the the cream I've had the cream bowls. I still have some dinner plates. I have the tea cups. So I just piece them out and sell them, you know, at Little by little like that. I sold a canon, Canon power shots always sell very well for me. Okay, any camera that is, especially the Canon power shot. But, you know, be on the lookout for cameras. I bought one for 1299 and I sold it $484 oh
Suzanne Wells:my gosh, you're great at this.
Unknown:I'm not trying to tell you all my big sales. I'm actually going through the stuff that, this is the stuff that has sold in the last three months, you know, there that I try to keep my profit margin really high, so I don't have to spend too much time doing this, you know, right? So I did sell some McKinsey child's dishes recently. They were, it was a children's tea set, and still selling them on their site for$175 I paid three and mine sold for 100 plus shipping. Yeah, that. And I didn't know about McKenzie childs until, I guess, in the last couple years by meeting other resellers, uh huh. So and I've sold a few of her things, which those are pretty unique and fun. How many items do you have in your store? I have over 1500
Suzanne Wells:Oh, and what's the bulk of it?
Unknown:I'd say jewelry at this point. Okay, one I will tell you another memorable cell for me was I was at a yard sale, and it was the next street over, and it was. Saturday morning, and I they always say, often they'll say, Do you or are you looking for anything? And I always say, jewelry. And so she says, I don't have jewelry, but my daughter's coming back, and I know she has some jewelry. So I went back and I got a dress for$5 and then I saw that she said her daughter was had brought the dress and the jewelry. So there was a wooden bracelet, and it was yellow, and it was signed in the inside of it. So I said, Well, that may be something, but I could tell was hand painted. And I got home, and I looked it up, and it was, it was a bracelet done by, I think his name is Rodolfo Contreras, I believe. But he's a painter in New York City in the 80s. And I looked up his name, and on eBay, they were selling for like 50 bucks. But there was nothing they had sold for like, 50 bucks, and this is before they had the three years that you I mean, you could look at product research for three years, you could go back three months. So I had worth point, and I looked, and there was a couple that had sold for over $200 and he did bracelets, earrings, several different things. I listed mine for $500 and I got an offer for 450 overnight. It was the name is a baseball player. I have it saved. I'll have to look and tell you. I think it's Rodolfo Contreras though. Okay,
Suzanne Wells:did you take that offer? I
Unknown:did. And she said, she says, she says, I'm a reseller too, but I am collecting this jewelry name, and I would love it and so, and it's really not something I would ever wear. And I took a chance on actually, it was $1 but then they just threw it in, so I didn't even have to pay for it. So I was like, you know, that was fun, like, when I was, like, almost too easy, right? Yeah. So some days like that,
Suzanne Wells:oh yes, some days there's nothing, and some days there's $450 on a free item.
Unknown:Exactly, exactly. So.
Suzanne Wells:So, do you have vintage costume jewelry, or is it just all kinds? Um,
Unknown:so I do all kinds of costume jewelry. I've gotten to where I've I will tell you that worth point has helped me with that, because I found a piece, and it's Hobey. And I had never heard of that till I started watching YouTube videos and reading books on jewelry and I couldn't find it anywhere. I paid $15 for it was a rhinestone set. It hasn't sold yet, but I found it on worth point. And the reason I found it on worth point because I looked at the highest sold Hobey item. And I have the same set that was owned by it is it? Mine's green. The one that had sold was owned by Marilyn Monroe and her color. But mine is green color. So I'm hoping I can get, you know, five to $800 on mine. Um, it's very unique. It it's amazing. So I have so much jewelry, though, in my shop, I I'm listing, I'm getting. It took me a while to learn. I'm still learning, but I'm learning how to list it because jewelry is overwhelming. There's so many different things with joy that there's no way that I'll ever know everything. If I find a brooch that's unique, I'll list it and i i have earrings sitting on my table in front of me that are. I know there's something I don't know what they are, and they're costume jewelry, and they're beautiful, so I will probably put them away until I learn a little bit more, right? You know, I sold one of the big sales I had was a Shriner brooch that was, I It wasn't marked, and I didn't know anything about Shriner at the time, and I sold it for $475
Suzanne Wells:okay? Like, where are you finding this estate sales? Um, this
Unknown:was at a garage sale, yeah, and I paid, yeah, I ended up buying a whole set of stuff for 40, $40 and it was all these brooches. And so actually, she said $40 and her husband said, You can't ask that at a garage sale. You need to ask like, 25 and I, I know that somebody's going to be behind me trying to pick stuff up, so when he said 25 I said, No, I'll give you 40. So she said, Well, hold on a minute. Because I was like, I wasn't going to sit there and go through it, because I. I've had people breathing down my neck before. So I looked at it, and I said, No, I'll give you 40. So she says, Hold on. She goes inside, she comes back out with a handful of stuff. And I said, Well, how much do you want? She goes, Oh, no, honey, you can just take it. And I said, No, I'm not just taking it. And I said, I'll give you more money. So I gave her another I don't know. I think I gave her 25 more dollars. And she says, Do you have a card? I have more stuff. And she says, Do you think you could come next week to look at it? And I said, Sure. So I ended up going back and I I will buy people's estate of jewelry now at this point, because I do know some stuff. I, you know, I, so I got home with that stuff, and it's just so much stuff. It's just, of course, I'm it's a wealth of I'm becoming more knowledgeable, because you have to have a wealth of information to know every piece of jewelry. And it was all over jewelry, they were moving, they were downsizing, and, yeah, yeah. So I'm still working on selling some of that
Suzanne Wells:well, and we're fortunate. We live in a time with so many resources to research. You know you can do Google Images, there's jewelry groups, Facebook and you know you can get, you can get help with the identification, but I'm on board with you, as far as it's very overwhelming, especially when you get a whole lot at a time, because you're thinking, what's the most valuable stuff? That's what I want to find first and sell that you know, to to get your, you know, your profit going so
Unknown:but it's small
Suzanne Wells:and it's tedious. And you know, you do, you have a jewelry loop where you look at things or a magnifying glass, or I have jewelry loops
Unknown:in every purse that I own, and because I always need them, and I do, I actually have bought this stuff to test to make sure it's gold or silver. I have the Presidium to check to see if it's gems or, you know, diamonds. And I, you know, a lot of times, if I don't, I don't necessarily want people to know that I know anything, because they may take it away. Because that's happened to me, even at estate sales, it'll say, Well, this is a dealer, and I'm going to let him buy it. And I'm like, but I'm a dealer too, you know. So, so I don't want anybody to think I know too much, but sometimes you want them to know that you know something. So, so I do. I carry my loop with me, and I will pay up for things if I know it's worth it. And I just, you know, I'll, you just have to sit and take the time to do it. I mean, jewelry, the good thing about jewelry is it doesn't take up as much room as clothing does, right? So I find myself putting it away and pulling it back out and and it's the way that I've got to keep things too, that I would never buy, because I'm I'm pretty frugal when it comes to stuff, and I don't want to spend a whole bunch of money on jewelry or whatever, so, yeah, but I was watching a video this morning on plastic that sells for a lot of money. And, you know, and there's always something I've never seen before, always so you're talking about the
Suzanne Wells:vintage plastics Lucite and that type of stuff,
Unknown:yeah, Lucite, Bakelite, um, you know some of it has is interesting because some of the Lucite is with Sterling Jelly Bellies, right?
Suzanne Wells:Yes, I learned about that last year. And for the listeners, they are brooches or pendants that are like mixed metal, like it'll be a fly, but the body is that Lucite stuff. So I had a brooch that was, I think it was a bumblebee. And so his body was the yellow, blue site looks like gel, but it's hard. And I did some research like, is this a copyrighted name? You know, like Kleenex is a tissue, but is Jelly Belly a copyrighted name? Because I saw it on a lot of listings, but the research showed that, you know, one jewelry company invented it, and now it's just kind of the standard name for that. So you're not, I didn't want to be keyword spamming if it was right. And so I got off on, you know, went down the rabbit hole on that one like I want to, I want to put the correct keywords so the buyers can find it. But I don't want to keyword spam, if that's not what is supposed to be called, right? Yeah,
Unknown:some of them you have to, actually, if you know the research is fun, but sometimes it's very tedious, like you said, because you have to. I mean, I have found some pieces that I actually have to go back find the patent number on a certain. Item and try and find out when it was made, so that I can make sure that I get the amount of money out of it that I should and, you know, I mean, Google image has been my friend in a lot of ways, but then sometimes people will put the wrong things. You have to really do enough research to make sure you know exactly what you have. And you know, that was a problem. I went to one sale, and a lady, a young lady, was selling her grandma's stuff. And as I grabbed stuff, she said, Oh, $1 a piece. And I was grabbing stuff and and so she took her phone and Google imaged something. So she took something back, and it went with one of the things that was in my pile. So, and she once, she started grabbing the stuff that I sorted through. And that's happened to me before. I just said, Oh, I have 15 items. And I paid her because it was like, I don't like doing all the work for somebody, either, like, it takes me time, and I have spent a lot of time learning how to do this. And so I said, you know, I'll give you $30 for that. But she wouldn't do it. She must have seen that it was selling for$400 or something. And, oh, okay, yeah, it was a it was and it's costume jewelry can sell for more than gold or silver. You know, it's crazy, yeah?
Suzanne Wells:And that's, that is a popular category right now, costume jewelry, especially the brooches, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I always thought, Oh, it's just something the lady would wear to church on her jacket, you know. And I never wear it like our parents generation, yeah, they were big into that in in just look at old photos. I sold an old photo album the other day. That was fun. But all the the ladies are in their suits, and they've all got brooches on, and it was, you know, 60s and with their little pill box hat and stuff like that. So that was, there's a lot of them around for that reason, because our parents generation had so many and they they dressed up to go places, and we don't do that anymore.
Unknown:Now, I was one of the play, one of the times I went out and I had found a and it was old stuff. It was even the 20s and 30s that our grandparents were wearing this stuff. But I was, I stopped at the last yard sale. Was like around 1111, 30, and the lady says, Are you looking for anything? I said, I I'm looking for jewelry. And she says, Well, I have some. So she went inside and she came out, and I didn't know what it was, but she said, I want $40 for all of this, and I'll the rest of this. If you want it, you can have it for 15. So I just took it all, and I got home and there was, it was morning jewelry.
Suzanne Wells:Oh, died,
Unknown:yeah, and the black and gold and seed pearls and yeah, and I, I've, I made so much money off of that. That's what really got me going, and really saying, I can do something with this, and I can also keep things that I want to keep that I wouldn't buy on my own because I'm too frugal, right? You know, so and I've bought a few people's estates and and, like I said, and take the time to and I will pay up for things if I know that it's gold and silver, you know, or costume, depending on what it is, but
Suzanne Wells:plenty of storage for your eBay business to grow.
Unknown:Um, I have a it's not a huge house, so I try to get things to move, but I have a four bedroom home, and no kids at home, and we have a garage, but I'm in Florida, so we don't have a basement. So I try to move things quickly and not buy things that take up too much space I was buying. You know, I'm shifting because I was selling, buying VCRs and things like that. And I'm like, I'm not buying those anymore. I don't want the headache of having to ship something that big, you know, anymore. And, you know, sometimes jewelry can make more than a VCR. So yeah, uh huh. It's like, I'll just I try to downsize, get rid of stuff. I'm enjoying learning toys. If I find cool toys, I'll buy those. I bought some master of the universe toys, and I bought ninja turtle toys. And so I'm learning a little bit here and there, and I recognize old stuff. So there's things that I had a samovar. Have you ever seen a samovar? You know what that is? No, what is that? So it's, it's a Russian tool that they like, a thermos that you can get, like, pour hot coffee out of. Okay, for the Russian. Winters that was really, really cool, cold, and most of them are really huge and ornate. And so I sold one for $675 oh yeah, oh yeah, on eBay. And the person bought it and came to pick it up from my house, so I didn't have to ship it. So that was nice. And then I had a that. So those are kind of cool. I've had a couple of them. There was a some of them can be made out of silver, right? So, yeah, and I mean, and the only reason I even had heard of that was because we were reading crime and punishment by Dostoyevsky, okay? I think I said his name, right? And he talks about it. And then my friend actually had one that was, like, her family's, and she showed it to me, and I'm like, Oh, that's a so I knew what it was, and it was just a coincidence that we went up to an estate sale and I found it.
Suzanne Wells:No, that's not a coincidence. No, that was a meant to be kind of thing. Yeah, that it was a God
Unknown:thing. I tell you, he does look out for me. I will, yeah, and I pray about it before I go out. And I'm like, just, you know, try help me to find something that will bring me decent money. And, you know, so I don't have to go to work. Yeah,
Suzanne Wells:I do that too, and ask the thrifting angels to help me. And sometimes I'll go to one store and just won't find anything, and it's very frustrating. But then that pushes you to go, Well, I'm going to go one more place and check and then you find great stuff, yeah, and it's like you have to have that disappointment to have that push to go to where the items are waiting for you. And right sometimes you'll find things. You're like, I cannot believe this is still here. Yeah, our goodwill puts the dates on the tags. So you know how well that it's when it's tagged. I don't know. Yeah, I understand too, but on the floor. But sometimes it's two or three weeks, and I'm like, how has this been in here so long. And I know there's other resellers in my area. How has nobody picked this up yet? So feel like it's, you know, put there just for you. Yeah, we
Unknown:were, we were had gone on vacation, and I walked in there one day and there was this globe. And I was like, what is that? And I just took my google camera, yeah, I mean, my phone, my Google App, and I looked, and I'm like, is that what I think it is? And it was, you know, I open, I went, looked at it, and it was to hold a telephone. You know, the telephones that they're like, stick telephones. Apparently people thought they were really hideous. And the people that were very wealthy had these things made. And there is a globe that covers it up, and it would look like it was just a piece of decor, but to me, it was hideous. And they sell, somebody's got one listed for $1,200 okay, a hold of stick can. It's like the candle holder phone. And I'm like, of course, mine doesn't have a phone with it, and theirs doesn't either. I've had that phone, though I wish I would have kept it now, but it, it's made by Myers, and it holds a telephone, and I'd never seen it, and had been sitting there for two weeks, okay? And it was, I was like, How is this here? I don't know, right, right?
Suzanne Wells:Well, I think we kind of get stuck in our own rat track, so to speak, looking at the same things all the time, and you just have to constantly push yourself outside of your comfort zone. And sometimes you don't want to stop and look things up, or you don't have time, you know, you gotta go pick your kids up, or get your dog at the vet, or get home to do something, and you just don't have time to look things up. And, you know, I get it, you don't want to spend money on something if you don't know what it is, unless go with that gut feeling, because sometimes that'll push you. And I love that saying, where your your intuition is, is God talking to you? Yeah. So you know our when we pray or talk to God, that's us talking to God, but that's that internal, you know, in the pit of your stomach pushing you to do something or not do something and listen to it. Because a lot of times it works out really well
Unknown:and it doesn't. You can consider it school, and you can write it off Absolutely. Yeah, you know? I mean, you will learn it and you won't buy it again,
Suzanne Wells:you know? I mean, they're familiar with I'm not doing that again. I'm familiar with that going on in my head.
Unknown:Well, you know, there are things that I love, and I'm I always have loved glass, and I've always loved books, and so I will find things, and I think, Oh, I'm gonna buy that, and I'll carry it around at Goodwill, not at the at a garage sale is typically cheap enough that I just take a chance and I'll buy it. If I'm at Goodwill, I'll think about it, and then I end up sometimes putting it back, but sometimes it's like, you know what? You've had that just because you like it. There's a memory that is my grandma may have had that, or whatever it's like. Do I want to have that? It will sell, but it's going to take a year, and I really want to own that again. I'm careful now about buying the Pyrex. It has to be super unique to buy, pirates to sell. And Linux, there's not, there's a lot of Linux that just won't sell. So it has to be really unique, um, so you have to be careful about what you're buying, or you're going to get stuck with it and you have to donate it again. But,
Suzanne Wells:you know, yeah, well, I love that as your final words, because we've been going about an hour and, yeah, it's just, this is an evolution. It's constantly changing, and you have to be able to tolerate some level of risk to do this business, because nothing's guaranteed. Now I would say, Well, if I can sell it for what I paid for it, I won't be out anything. So great to finally meet you after all these years and talk ebay so your day is coming to an end. I usually say, What are you doing for the rest of the day? But are you, are you going to be doing any eBay work this evening? Or do you just relax with your husband?
Unknown:Um, I think I'm going to have him take me out to eat tonight, perfect. And, yeah, I actually have some things ready to ready to list. I've been working on listing little things that I ventured out last week and I got a few things at a different goodwill, and that was kind of fun. So I'm just I've been slowly adding them to list perfectly so I can add them to eBay when I want to, right? But taking it easy, I get up really early anyways, so I'm not going to do too much.
Suzanne Wells:What does really early mean for you?
Unknown:Well, I usually am up by four o'clock. Oh,
Suzanne Wells:that is really early
Unknown:anymore. I don't sleep.
Suzanne Wells:If I get up, I say, Oh, goody. I got three hours.
Unknown:I know, I know. I wish I could do that. I I did. I woke up at 230 last night, and I got up to do a few things around here, because I wasn't planning on going to the event yesterday and and I wanted to make sure I had some things done, so I did get up early. And so then I did sleep until 530 today, but usually I'm up came on. You
Suzanne Wells:sleeping in that late before the sun even came up? Yeah, terrible. Well, I admire anybody who can get up that early consistently. And if you're a workout person working out that early in the morning, my body just won't do it. It never has. I've tried it all different times in my life, and even just recently, and it's like I just can't it doesn't feel good to me. It's more stressful than anything. I'm an I'm an afternoon, early evening,
Unknown:530 in the morning, if I can get out of 530 in the morning to jog, it starts my day, and I'm good, and I'll just jog in my neighborhood, but you just
Suzanne Wells:go do that, and I will think of you when I'm under the covers. Thank you, please. Okay, well, thanks again for coming on, and we'll look at you on the Facebook group,
Unknown:thanks. Suzanne, bye,
Suzanne Wells:bye. Next week, my guest is a different Lori who is in North Carolina. We had some challenges scheduling the interview as she's in the area of western North Carolina that Helene demolished, she's back up and running and has lots of great information to share. And thank you listeners for supporting this podcast and tuning in every week. Keep going and make it a profitable and productive week on eBay. Bye, everybody. You.