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 Lisa in NC: Thrift Store Volunteer, Obscure Avon Scores, Vintage Christmas 🎄
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Music, hi, resellers. Welcome to episode number 210 of eBay the right way. Today's date is March 26 2025 and my guest is Lisa in North Carolina, second North Carolina guest in a row. And that was totally random. Sometimes it just works out that way. Announcements. This week marks the four year anniversary of this podcast, eBay the right way. Yep, I started it back in March of 2021, so far, we have 210 episodes, never missing a week. I'm very proud of this podcast and absolutely love meeting other sellers, even if just for an hour. Thank you to all of my guests who have come on the podcast, and a big thank you to all the listeners who support this podcast by tuning in every week and telling your friends, Okay, now let's talk with Lisa. Hello, listeners. I have Lisa with us today and tell us where you're located.
Unknown:I am in Monroe, North Carolina, which is southeast of Charlotte.
Suzanne Wells:Okay, okay, lots of good thrifting in Charlotte.
Unknown:Yes, lots to choose from. Okay,
Suzanne Wells:well, we'll get into that in just a minute. We'd like to start off with a little bit about you and how you got involved in eBay,
Unknown:okay, well, I am an empty nester, and so I quit working About five years ago and kind of stumbled into eBay because I started volunteering at a thrift store to fill up some of my time. And in the thrift store, we had a lot of China that we didn't really know what to do with, that we wasn't selling very well. So I started researching, you know, how do we, what do we do with this China? How do we, what? How do you value? It didn't have a lot of background and antiques or thrifting or valuing old things, vintage things. So I go to YouTube, and I find some YouTubers, and I found Dr Lori, and oh yeah, she's I watched her, and I thought, you know, she was showing all these thrift fines and yard sale fines, and they were worth hundreds. And I was like, I could do that. So that's sort of where the spark came from. So, yeah, that's how I got into eBay, the
Suzanne Wells:thrift store you volunteered at. Are you willing to share what that is? Is it a one location place or a chain? Yeah,
Unknown:it is a one location place in Monroe, and it's ministry they they support a women's ministry that is coming for women coming out of addiction. Mm, hmm, okay,
Suzanne Wells:yeah, those are oftentimes some of the best because, yeah, I call it the filtering process of, you know, intake, a lot of times, you know, the people doing it are like you They're volunteers. They don't really know to mark things up, or they don't care. They just want to raise money for their their charity. And they like volunteering and getting out and being in that environment, and we've talked many times on this podcast about the the national thrift stores and how they just people just aren't finding stuff in there anymore. It's or it's too expensive, right?
Unknown:Yeah, yeah. I, I keep looking for new thrift stores where you know that haven't that, where they don't mark things up so much. So, yeah,
Suzanne Wells:and I worked at a humane society thrift store back I was like 2010 to 2012 and I. I actually was in there shopping for myself for eBay, and I just saw all this stuff that was just reseller gold, I call it, you know, and I felt kind of bad like not paying very much for it. So I approached the manager about, what if I sell some of this stuff for you on eBay, and we split the the proceeds, and I did that for about two years, and just I made great money, and they made great money, like there's no way they would have put $50 on this item that I sold for them for 300 you know, and they, they would have gotten that in that store. And I'm like, Oh, and, you know, resellers are coming in here and buying this stuff, and you could get so much more. That was what was killing me. It was like, you could get so much more, right? I worked in their intake sorting, and I made them lists of things to look for when I wasn't doing the intake. And it was a great arrangement. And after about two years, I just didn't have time to do it anymore. I was, I was doing Amazon, and there's other things, and I wrote them a whole business plan of, you know, you guys could hire somebody for, you know, $10 an hour to list this on eBay. And I wrote this whole business plan. And, you know, figured they could probably make $100,000 doing this just by having, they had the space, they had a little room in the back where they could, I was like, you could set up your photography here, and, you know, I'll help you if you need to call me or anything. And they could not get past paying someone $10 an hour. Oh, and I was like, ah, you know that it was a charity, and the board of directors are like, No, we're not going to pay anybody. We'll find somebody to do it for free, right to pay them the part of the proceeds and right? No, they never found anybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do what you can do. But you know, I've seen it firsthand that some of those little stores just what comes in there, especially if the people donating strongly believe in the mission of the charity. I want to, I want to donate all this to the, you know, women's shelter, because, you know, they'll benefit greatly from it, or whatever it is, right? Yes, good for you, for for volunteering and doing that. Yes,
Unknown:I've enjoyed, I've been doing it for about five years. So I really, really believe in the mission, and I see lives change. So it's been, it's very rewarding for me. And you know, I feel like I've contributed as I've grown in my knowledge of vintage things and eBay and pricing, I feel like I've been able to offer some, some some benefit to providing them with, you know, some them some knowledge. And isn't it
Suzanne Wells:great when you you're sorting through the intake and you see this thing and other people around, you're like, what is that? And you say, Oh, I know exactly what that
Unknown:Yes. Well, we had a set of China. I think it was the Franciscan rose donated, and it was beautiful, and it was lots and lots of pieces, but sometimes in the sorting, things get separated from each other. And so there was a, I think, a picture with a lid, and the picture was broken or cracked, chipped or something, and we couldn't find the lid, but we put the set out, and the whole set the same one person bought the whole set, and then they found the lid to the and they threw it away because they didn't know. They were like, Oh, it's just a lid. But I was like, no, no, somebody would have bought that,
Suzanne Wells:right? They would have bought just the lid, because maybe right, or it got lost
Unknown:in the move or whatever. Yes, yes. So things like that, you know, I see things other people might think are junk, but I see value in it now. And five years ago, before I started doing eBay, I probably would have thrown that lid away too, but now I'm, I can't let anything go. I'm like, oh, that might be worth something. Somebody's looking for that,
Suzanne Wells:right, right? Just every day, you learn more about what these things are and why people want
Unknown:them, right? Yes, yes. Okay,
Suzanne Wells:so are you the only one in your household? I.
Unknown:My husband and I are, you know, empty nesters, and he travels a lot, so I have several days at a time that I can kind of do whatever I need to do, and I stay busy with not only eBay, but I'm a long distance care provider for my parents, and they live three hours away, and they are both of them have some mental issues that come with aging and so that actually, I do a lot of long distance care, providing for them. I'm in their patient portals and making appointments and taking care of their bills and things like that, so that that I'm able to I have the time to do that, you know, so
Suzanne Wells:and that is time consuming. I committed that because, are you the only sibling, or are you the only child?
Unknown:Um, there are. I have a younger brother, and he lives there near them, so he is in and out of their home quite a bit, checking home and fixing things and grocery shopping and things like that, and and then I do the things that I can do, you know, not be in there, right. Lately, I've been interviewing a lot of care providers and trying to, you know, get helpers to come in. And that's a challenge, and a little it's a it's a heavy burden to kind of think I'm bringing strangers into my parents house, you know, just finding a good fit and dependable and all that so
Suzanne Wells:well, my audience that listens to this is in our age group, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, that are in this situation, and I just went through it with my dad. He was in the hospital 76 days, or something like that. And our older sister, she's just, I don't know if it's because she's the oldest or that's just her personality, but she just stepped right in and organized everything and created a Google Drive folder with all of the medical stuff. Because, I mean, every day it was something new. Mm, hmm, you know, here's what's happening, here's what this doctor said. And, you know, audio clips of her just repeating what the doctors had said. And, man, she organized all that stuff. Wow, I couldn't have done it. You know, she was, she's local, so she could go every day and see him, and she even organized, like the family history. She would just talk with him. He knew, he knew his time was short, and he was telling all these stories from his childhood, and you know, about where his parents came from, and all this family history that hadn't been documented. And she documented all of that. Well, that's priceless, yeah. And so she made like a medical booklet with everything in there, and then the family history booklet. And so his wife, our stepmom, she's she's got dementia, and she just doesn't remember anything. So that was part of the reason for those booklets, so she could out and, and, oh yeah, this happened, and that happened, and all this but, and she worked full time job, yeah. So yeah, I know. I know where you're at on that is like somebody has to step in and organize everything, and thank goodness we have technology to have these patient portals, yes, in all these documents, and share these folders, so that everybody can be in the know as much as possible, right,
Unknown:right? Yeah, it's a lot to keep up with. And, you know, it's, it's a journey, for sure, you just, you don't have to know what the day is going to bring
Suzanne Wells:Exactly. Yeah, we were on a group text with I have three siblings and three step siblings, so seven of us, and then some of their spouses were on it. But man, though I could only check it once a day, because it was just so much back and forth. And here's what happened, and it's, it can be so draining, and you're not even physically there, right, reading all these things that happened, and doctors and this procedure and this infection and this medication, all the things. And so for, for those that haven't done it yet, prepare to figure out who's the organizer among your siblings? Because it is very helpful, but it's a lot of work. It is,
Unknown:it is, I'm just, you know, grateful that I'm able to have the time to do it, because I, if I was, that's one of the reasons I left my job, was to have more time. Time for, you know, helping my parents and my husband and I like to travel some, and I have two grandchildren that live five minutes away from me, and I love, love being available to drop whatever I'm doing if, if they need me, or even if they don't need me. Like to be able to, you know, spend time with them, have them come spend the night with us. So, well, they're only four, almost four and six months old, so, oh yeah, we haven't had an overnight with the six month old yet, but the four year old loves, loves coming to see Lolly and Poplar,
Suzanne Wells:I bet. And you know, eBay is just such a great addition to semi retired, retired life, because it is so flexible. And, you know, dealing with the parent situation that can be very draining and isolating, and you need something fun that's this a fun distraction from that heavy family stuff, because it can wear on you. So I hear that a lot with, you know, the retired, semi retired, you know, they love their treasure hunting days and just having that business going in the background, because it's, it's a welcome distraction to all the heavy, serious stuff of life.
Unknown:It is, it is, it's. It's been a good fit for me because I can, I may have to put it down for two weeks and not touch it, except for shipping things out. But then when I have a few days, then I can dive back into it and, you know, get some things listed. So it's been a good fit for me. Good.
Suzanne Wells:Well, let's talk about some things you've sold, or customer stories or treasures you found.
Unknown:Okay, back to the beginning of one of the things that got me hooked on eBay was my not my first sale, but my second sale was a set of Fauci whiskey glasses still in the box, and one of my first thrifting adventures after I made a decision to try the eBay I found these glasses for $4 and I listed them and they sold for$80 so I was at that point, and my husband was like, wow, yeah, he was impressed. So probably one of the most fun things I have sold is a plush bunny rabbit. I don't remember the brand now, but it went to the West Coast. I think it went to Oregon, and I got a handwritten letter from the buyer, and she was thanking me for, you know, having this bunny rabbit that she had searched and searched, she had had one that her a grandchild had given her, and it had gone missing, and she was using this bunny as a it was the inspiration for a book she was writing. Oh, so that was very unexpected, and to get a handwritten note for her to take the time to do that, that's kind of what, you know, I love being able to repurpose and help people find, you know, their treasures. So that was, that was neat.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah, I love it when that happens and you've saved something from the landfill or the recycle bin, and they're totally happy, especially if it's something that's not even perfect. It's, you know, imperfect or, mm hmm, effective in some way, but yet that buyer is is thrilled to get it. Yes,
Unknown:yes. Well, speaking of imperfect, I one time I had, I love finding the Christmas Village houses, and I I had one to sell. And as I was researching, I realized it was a house, kind of a Victorian house, and it had a really pretty bay window on the front, and it was supposed to have a Christmas tree in the middle of the dining room in that bay window, but there was no tree in mine. And I thought, Oh, no. So I got creative, and I said in my description, I I use the word grinched, so it sold, and somebody was happy, I guess, to have a house without a Christmas tree in it. So
Suzanne Wells:that's great. I love that. I was very creative.
Unknown:But one of my best estates, I like to go to estate sales, and one of the best ones was for Christmas. I went because I saw the pictures. And. And they had just a table full of the Christmas houses. And so I go in, I get there early, and I go in, and I'm just, you know, getting all the Christmas houses. And really, also they were nautical themed. Most of them were like boat houses and docks and fishing related and boats ships, and the little figurines were fishermen and things like that, which is really unusual. So I came out with a big hall from there. And as I was checking out, it was a family run estate sale, which are my favorite, because they usually price things very reasonably. So as I'm checking out, I guess it was one of the daughters of the family. She said, Yeah, my brother said, nobody's going to want these Christmas houses. So and here you are buying all of them and so, and at the same sale is where I found my first Avon advent calendar with the little mouse.
Suzanne Wells:Oh, I'm so jealous. I've had that on my list forever. Well, they
Unknown:didn't even have that advertised. There's no picture of it or anything, and so it was still new in the package. So it was rolled up in a plastic sleeve, and I could have easily overlooked it, and I'm sure other sellers or other buyers would have overlooked it as well, but I picked it up and recognized it, and I think I got it for $1 and within the next few weeks, I ended up finding four calendars, and I haven't seen one since so and that was a couple of years ago, but between those four calendars, I have probably less than $6 in those four calendars, and the total sales was $625 that is amazing. So three of them were new in the package, and one had a was open, used and had a stain on it and still sold for $76
Suzanne Wells:Mm, hmm. Now, how did you know about those
Unknown:from your bolo book? Oh, okay.
Suzanne Wells:Well, you know, I've seen a few posts on the group too, and I just like to know. Okay, how did you know that so
Unknown:good for you. Never would have known. I have a couple of your books and I know. Ma'am, thank you very much. Yes, very good.
Suzanne Wells:Okay, well, I'm glad to see the information is helping people make money. That's the main thing. Is, I think that's where we fall short sometimes, is you can't know everything. It's impossible, right?
Unknown:Yes, I pull them out periodically and just look through them and refresh my memory. And, yeah, there's a lot of things in there I'm on the hunt for, and I don't know if I'll ever find, but hopefully I will,
Suzanne Wells:and sometimes they just pop up. An item I found the other day was the Tupperware white salt and pepper shakers. They're like column ones, like everybody had those in the 70s, yes. And there they were. And I thought they don't sell for as much anymore. Mm, hmm, they were $3 and I think I'll put 30 on them, and they're just easy and lightweight and, um, they'll eventually sell. But right stuff like that where, if you have seen a picture of it, that's why I love the money making Mondays and the $100 sales threads, yes, yeah, get that you're more likely to remember something if you've seen a picture of it, than just somebody telling you about it. Yeah, it's cataloged in your brain. And then there it is. One day, there
Unknown:it is, yeah, yes.
Suzanne Wells:Well, wow, I can't believe you found so many of those calendars in such a short period of time, right?
Unknown:Well, the when I the first one, like I said, was at the family run estate sale. This the the next two, I found it was an estate sale. And the tagline for the state sale was house full of Avon. And I thought, you know, Avon doesn't really sell that much in general, but I zoomed in on some of the photos, and I thought I saw a calendar sticking out of a box underneath a table. Uh huh. So again, you know, I get there early, and I make a beeline for the Avon room. And it they must have been a big Avon rep, because they had a out building full with shelves from floor to ceiling, full of Avon enough. There were two new in the package and the one that was used and so, yeah, so normally I wouldn't have run after an Avon estate sale, but right now on I will,
Suzanne Wells:well, there's, there's three things that come to mind that are worth something are the those advent calendars, the hair brushes, some of the older hair brushes, still new in the box. I don't know why it's would have. Are the bristles made of something special? I don't really know. I've just seen that. If you go to eBay research and look up Avon hair brush, you'll see they came in different colors, pink and blue and white, and they still sell for around $100 Wow. And then the other one was a collaboration Kenneth J Lane necklace with these multi colored, primary color stones. It's very chunky, and the stones are like, you know, red and blue and yellow or green. And it, you know, once you've seen it, you're like, Okay, I know to look for that. And that sells. Prices are up and down depending on how many are available. But generally speaking, most Avon is not going to be worth anything, right? Like you. It's like, oh, and you see that a lot of the state sales with Yes, so much of it because everybody, either you or your mom or your aunt or somebody connected to you, sold Avon, right,
Unknown:right? Yes. The other item I found with Avon that sells pretty quickly is a fiber optic snowman family, okay? And it's, it's a mama, daddy and a child, three separate pieces, and I had found one set at a yard sale. Didn't really know much about it, and it sold pretty quick. I think I paid about $5 for it, and it sold for like 30 and then this estate sale, I found the same set again, and, of course, bought it, and it sold pretty quick as well. So the fiber optic snowman family,
Suzanne Wells:okay, I was not aware of that one. Thank you. Yeah. So
Unknown:another fun sale I had was a Child's kitchen play set by Chilton, okay? And it was at an estate sale. It was 31 pieces, and it was the blue corn flower set. So it was the tiny little casserole dishes, all different sizes. They all had the lids, little coffee pot with the corn flour on it, 31 pieces, and they had it. It actually was in a bag, just a nondescript bag with a zipper on it, and I opened, picked up the bag and unzipped it to see what was in it. And it was full of this blue cornflower playset. And so I paid $12 for it, and I sold it for 70. So that was a fun flip, and just fun pulling the pieces out and seeing what all was in there. Okay, another fun sale was some soft soap. I found it in the state sale. It was brand new, full and it was from the 80s, and it was, it was like a bright orange bottle. It was something like you would see in a garage for grimy, you know, extra grimy hand cleanup. Okay? And it was $1 so I bought both of them, two of them, and one sold pretty quick, and it went to Burbank. So I feel like it probably is going to be in a prop,
Suzanne Wells:oh, California
Unknown:somewhere. Yeah, probably, okay, yep. And then another one i that is also movie related. I found old art life preserver ring like you would see hanging on the side of a boat. Yeah, and estate sale. So it was, I think I paid $5 for it, and it actually went to Atlanta, and I got a message from the buyer that they needed it for a movie that they were filming. And I don't remember the name of the movie. Your but anyway, so that was, that was a fun sale.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah, there's a lot of filming going on down there in Atlanta. I have a friend that worked for a prop company, and I don't know what. Maybe it's just cheaper to do it there, or the it's warmer all year. Yeah, weather's cooperating, or, you know, the nature, I don't know, but that's become a big industry there.
Unknown:Yes, yeah. I think it also has to do with, I think, incentives, tax incentives, and things like that, too.
Suzanne Wells:Yes, absolutely, yeah.
Unknown:I love finding Christmas. So also another good find was a Holland mold Christmas nativity, okay, and it was large pieces, I mean, like the camels were probably eight or nine inches tall, all hand painted. And I've seen hand painted Holland molds since then. This was the first one. I really didn't know what Holland mold was. That's one thing I love about Ebay. I have learned so much, and I feel like it's been really good mental stimulation, because they, you know, if you don't use your brain, that's one of the ways you can fend off dementia, is by using your brain and learning new things and doing puzzles and, you know, challenges. And so I feel like eBay is helping me stave off some dementia,
Suzanne Wells:absolutely, because you're constantly using your brain.
Unknown:Yes, yes, I feel like I'm a little sharper thanks to eBay. But so this Holland mold set was, let's see 21 pieces, and every one of them was meticulously painted beautiful colors. They had gems, like the wise men, the camels and everything were embellished with gems and, Oh, pretty, just gorgeous. But it was so big when I sold it, I had to put it in two separate boxes, and the I paid $100 it was one of the first things I ever paid up for. So I paid $100 for the set, and it sold. It came with the creche also, uh huh. I sold that separately. So the pieces of all the characters and animals and so forth sold for $349 and the crash sold separately for $80 oh, gosh, that was a really good sale, but the shipping in two boxes was a challenge. I had never done that before, and I went to your premium library and you, I think you had a video on how to do two separate boxes for one order, right? That was very helpful and it got her safely. I never heard back from the buyer, so assuming all 20 pieces arrived without being broken, was morale. News
Suzanne Wells:is good news. I always okay so that you quadrupled your investment on that.
Unknown:Yes, I did. So I haven't found a set quite as elaborate or as beautiful as that one since then, but it was a big challenge to figure out how to get that shipped safely.
Suzanne Wells:Well, I meant to ask you, what was your career before you retired?
Unknown:I was work. Well, my I have a degree in psychology, which doesn't, it doesn't do a whole lot for
Suzanne Wells:you. I still highly sought after these days, right?
Unknown:I say I use it, and it's an undergraduate on psychology. I say, I use it on my kids and my husband more
Suzanne Wells:than anything, okay, practical applications, right?
Unknown:Yes, yes. So my first job was working in my field. It was working with adults with disabilities, and then I stayed home for a few years with my kids, two sons, and when it got to the point that they didn't want me hovering over them to help them with their homework and so forth, I decided it's time to go back to work, to work in insurance, home and auto, and then. In, I did that for a few years and transitioned over to working in a food broker office. And so that was where I ended up in in the working for fruit food broker.
Suzanne Wells:Okay, we had somebody else on here that did that too, yeah, but I remember somebody talking about that was their, their latest job anyway,
Unknown:so, yeah, that was a that was a fun job. A good way to end my career? Yeah? Okay, well,
Suzanne Wells:it's just fun to see where people come from, because everybody has a different journey, you know. And sometimes your your previous career has nothing to do with eBay at all. Has nothing to do with reselling or knowing antiques or customer service or anything. It's just right, yeah, anybody like, there's no barriers to entry on on eBay, anybody can start doing it
Unknown:right. You No, no experience needed. Definitely, you figure it out as you go. And you know there's so many resources between YouTube and podcast and Facebook. It's easy to find learning opportunities, and that's how I did it. I just figured it out as I went
Suzanne Wells:and I don't think people coming to eBay maybe in the last 10 years, they don't realize how great they have it with all those resources. Because back in the day, the veteran sellers will remember this, we didn't have that. We had the eBay community boards, and they were awful. People were not helpful. They were very territorial. They didn't want to help others be that didn't want to create competition for themselves, and it was kind of ridiculous, because there's so much stuff out there. There's just no way that you know and that that's what drove me to create online platforms to help people, because there's just no way one person can get it all, or know it all, or sell it, and, yeah, I just, I got kicked off of so many of those eBay boards. I'll be like, hey, you know, don't be rude to people. They're just trying to do what you you know, they're just trying to learn this, and yada yada, and nobody wanted to hear that. So is just great that we have YouTube and you can comment. And, you know, sometimes you get an answer, sometimes you don't, or the Facebook groups, or just everything. Now everyone is connected. And all the all the groups to help identify things. Oh yeah, the American Girl doll clothes and Barbie clothes and antiques. And just, you can get an answer in an hour, right? And save so much time that you don't have to, you know, go out on the internet trying to find this yourself. Just go to one of these specialty groups and ask
Unknown:yes, and there's some very obscure groups. I found a couple of eye wash cups, antique eye wash cups at an estate sale. Had no idea what they were, so I google lensed at the estate sale. What is this? It's a little cup, glass. It's about an inch and a half, two inches tall. Imagine a tiny little goblet on a stem, but it's oval shaped, so it will go around your eye and you it's an eye wash cup. I guess an eye doctor would have used it, or would have you would have had it, if you I really don't know what they were used for, but I had to find a group on Facebook to help me identify the maker of it, and I ended up selling both of them. I had a blue one, cobalt blue, and one was clear. The blue one sold pretty quick. It went to England, to a museum.
Suzanne Wells:Oh, how about that? Okay, that's fun,
Unknown:yeah, not a big, you know, money thing, but another, another learning a lesson, something I never heard of, but I,
Suzanne Wells:you know, yeah, and that's another great resource is Google lens, because, you know, you start there and see if you can find it yourself, and sometimes you get results that are completely unrelated to your item. It's like, no, that's not what I'm looking for. Yeah, I love that group that's antique and unusual item identification. I think there are over 200,000 members now, and people are so helpful, and they come from a lot of them come from antique backgrounds, or they used to run estate sales, or they. They have very specialized knowledge. And some of those people are on that group all day, and they just love to answer questions like, Oh, I know what that is, you know. Or, here's who made that, and it's free, and it's just a wonderful resource. And the fact that comparing to the eBay community boards back in the day when Good luck getting any help there. You've got all these people that just are waiting to share their knowledge. And I think it's, it's fantastic because it's all free and people want to help,
Unknown:right? Yeah, it's great to have, like you said, we have so many resources that we didn't have years ago. So
Suzanne Wells:technology is a great thing when it works, right,
Unknown:right, yes, yes. See, another thing I really like to find is I enjoy linens, especially Christmas, like table cloths, which I don't find a lot, but I have found a couple that were a lot of fun early on, when I started eBay in 2021 and I found a really beautiful Christmas table cloth that had Santa and the reindeer flying over snow village. And it wasn't really that big, but it was in really good condition, and that was one of the first items I put on auction. And just because I didn't know much about it, I was learning. And so it ended up selling for, think it was $120 on auction, and I paid for it. So that was exciting.
Suzanne Wells:And how much did you pay for it? I paid
Unknown:10 for it, yeah,
Suzanne Wells:yeah. So You increased your your money over 10 times on that investment.
Unknown:Yeah, yeah, good. So I always keep an eye out for really pretty Christmas table cloths. And I think I've posted on your money making Mondays, I've sold a lot of Lennox Christmas linen. It sells. It sells very quickly. I found and I keep running across it at estate sales. So that's a good thing to look for. Is the Christmas it's got Holly on it, usually embroidered on the corners and red and gold and green, and it has cut outs the Holly and the berries. So that's always a quick seller for me.
Suzanne Wells:Have you gotten any feedback from buyers about why they like it, or is it just because it's vintage and and beautiful?
Unknown:I have not really gotten any feedback from anyone but, but it does. I usually put the napkins up in sets of four, sets of six or eight, and, you know, yeah, they sell pretty quick. I've only found one tablecloth, and it had quite a few stains on it. And, you know, I put that in my listing and a good picture of the stain, and still sold pretty quickly. So, and I
Suzanne Wells:think linens have a lot of nostalgia tied to them, table linens, because, oh, my grandmother had this, and we always had Thanksgiving at her house. And it's just one of those things. It's they're tied to celebrations and holidays and family events. You know, maybe more so than bed linens, yeah? Because, you know, it was the, it was part of that family celebration, and you just sometimes can't put a price on nostalgia,
Unknown:right? Yeah, yeah. That's what keeps the eBay engine going. That's
Suzanne Wells:right, yeah, I think as time goes by, well, I know my store keeps transitioning all the time. I'm really getting away from so much clothing now, just because that market just feels very saturated to me, and things take a lot longer to sell, and they're not selling for as much. And maybe I've blabbed too much about what to sell, but the those unique vintage items that have nostalgia are what I'm looking for now, because you just there's not as many of them out there. They're not being made anymore. And some you just can't put a price on nostalgia. If somebody wants that item, you know, say it's a daughter buying that tablecloth for her mom that used to have it and then it got ruined, you know, red wine spilled on it, or whatever. And, you know, great gift and something that. The recipient will love and use, and not just, you know, some crappy thing from Target, you know, right? More and more people are buying those types of items on eBay because they're meaningful,
Unknown:right? And I think, personally, I have, in the last since I started with eBay, become more conscientious of the value of the older things and the vintage things, as opposed to going out and buying a new whatever from right or Walmart or whatever. And so I've kind of changed my buying habits, and as well, I would prefer to have a a vase or a whatever that's old and collectible now, then you know something more modern and made in China, right?
Suzanne Wells:And it's just that recycling aspect and preserving history, because you try that face over and it says, made in Japan, well, you know the time period was made, when made there, or made in Taiwan or Hong Kong, or tell when something was made based on where it was made? Yes. Now we've got all this, everything made in China. When you go in the thrift store and start flipping things over and looking at the bottom. It's not that nothing from China is going to be worth money, but you stay in a better chance if it is not right in the USA, those things have value. Yeah, absolutely.
Unknown:Yeah, yeah. I see quite a few things come through the thrift store and I think, Oh, this looks really neat. I flip it over and it's made in China, or it's got a TJ Maxx sticker on the bottom of it, right?
Suzanne Wells:Yeah, those will fool you. It was like, Oh, this is a really cool looking item, yeah, oh, TJ Maxx, yeah, it won't sell. But you know, you're going to do better to find some of that Polish pottery with the blue circles on it, right? Yes, or things like that that were made yesteryear. Did you get much ephemera? Paper stuff coming through the thrift store? Um,
Unknown:we don't get very much ephemera. I feel like most people, don't know the value of it, and they throw it out. I don't. They don't think there's any value, so they're not going to donate that to a thrift store. I did find some great ephemera at an estate sale last summer. I found a whole stack of newspapers from New Orleans. Apparently, the family had spent quite a few years in New Orleans. So these were all newspapers, and they were about from different major historical events. So we had the man walking on the moon newspaper. Okay? We had Reagan assassination attempt. We had Nixon resigning, and we had the pope Visiting New Orleans. And so I bought the whole stack of newspapers for $5 and I so I separated them out into topic, and listed them, and I sold a couple individually. I can't not for a great amount, but I'm like, maybe 20 bucks. And then around Christmas, I had a gentleman reach out to me and tell me he wanted to buy I had, like, four different lots listed, and he wanted to buy all four lots. And so another first for me, I had to do a private listing for him, and just of what he wanted to purchase. And he offered me $50 for these four, I think it was four newspapers. And he said he didn't even want it for what the topic for, what the headline was. He said he collects newspapers for the movie listings. Oh, okay, yeah. So, okay, I'm not really, don't really care what you use it for, but
Suzanne Wells:sure, I'll take your money. I'll take your money. Well, I have some letters. It was a big box of, you know, mail letters. I didn't know what was in them. I just was like, $7 and I was like, I want to look through this and see what's in here and see what I can do with this. So most of them are get well cards to a lady in the hospital in 1948 Oh, wow. It's not much written in them, other than, you know. Best wishes, or we're praying for you, or whatever. But there's a few letters in there written in the you know, beautiful penmanship, yeah, looks like they were written with a fountain pen. Oh, and but they're all postmarked in the 40s. I don't know how I'm going to do that, how I'm going to separate those. I don't know if people are going to want the cards. Are they going to want the envelopes, all of it? But I kind of got caught up in reading what they're talking about. And I think that's what collectors want, is Whoa. You know where they went that day, and what they did, and so and so's birthdays coming up, and what they're doing, and just a slice of life, like a time capsule, right? Time, like, you know, they didn't sit around and watch TV shows and, you know, fool around on their phone because they didn't have any of that, you know, it was all what they made for dinner. Or, you know, cousin Ethel's coming to
Unknown:visit, right? Yes, it's just I got caught
Suzanne Wells:up in it, and I'm not even a collector.
Unknown:Yes, my husband's family, he's from Kansas originally, and they had a farmhouse, and, like, three or four generations lived in this same house, and they've all the last of you know, his grandparents passed away, and they sold the house, and his father brought back. My father in law brought back a tub of ephemera, probably a couple of tubs of ephemera. Photos, old photos, letters, postcards, wedding announcements, all that type of thing. And it's fascinating going through that I would never sell any of that because it's family history, but if I could run across that at an estate sale, I would probably scoop it up
Suzanne Wells:well. And I don't think people realize, like old photo albums, you know, it's just their family going on vacation at the beach or something, and the clothing they're wearing and the hairstyles and the, you know, women have on the cat eye glasses and
Unknown:just stuff like that sells, yes, bygone
Suzanne Wells:Yes, family pictures, and it's nobody famous, and it's not even famous locations, but you might see the Howard Johnson's in the background, right? Some a
Unknown:famous landscape
Suzanne Wells:landmark that's not there anymore, but it's captured in this family photo. Yeah, I would love to get my hands on some stuff like that. And I bet people who run estate sales, you know, they get there and they're like, Oh, what do you mean? You threw that away already. People would have bought that. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, we have been talking almost an hour. Do you have, like, one more sale you want to share? Yeah,
Unknown:speaking of nostalgia, I got into my old I was not a real big as a kid, into skip Barbies, okay, but I had, I had one Barbie and I had a skipper from that was her little sister, and I had, I didn't even know I still had this stuff, but we were cleaning out our attic, and I found the case with everything. It was just packed full of clothes. And so I started selling the clothes, the skipper clothes, and I sold probably about six or eight different outfits of skippers for,
Suzanne Wells:gosh, you're prepared. What is that paper you're flipping through? I'm out all your sales.
Unknown:I have a spreadsheet. Yeah, that. Oh, wow. Don't be impressed, because I'm not. Have not in the past been that organized, but as I mentioned to you when you asked me to be on the podcast a year ago, I thought to myself, Okay, you really need to get yourself in organized. So prior to that, I didn't have really an inventory system. I did not have a spreadsheet of sales, and so last year, this time, I purchased a spreadsheet on eBay, on Etsy, and got my inventory system in place. And is made so much space in my brain very
Suzanne Wells:good on
Unknown:paper, instead of trying to remember it all
Suzanne Wells:well, if an invitation to be on a podcast can result in that, yes, great. I'm glad I could push you in that direction.
Unknown:So anyway. Can't find the sheet right now that has all that on it, but I sold anyway. I sold multiple outfits and made like $250 on Skipper clothes that were hanging out in my attic for the last 30 years. But I have a question for you. I have an outfit that I haven't listed yet because it's the outfit she was wearing when she Yeah, when you buy the skipper, she had this outfit on and had some other accessories. And I have the skipper, and I have the outfit, and I have a picture of me when I was about 10, holding her because I got it for Christmas, and I'm holding it up, and I'm debating if I should put my picture in with the listing,
Suzanne Wells:sure, just, you know, blur out your face if you don't want your face. Well, if you're a little kid, it's not going to matter. I would. Yeah, why not? You have nothing to lose. Maybe, maybe blur out your face or crop it so it, yeah,
Unknown:that's what I was thinking something.
Suzanne Wells:But so I don't know if you know Jay and Ryan, the eBay scavengers. They used to do a podcast, and then they got into they've got a coffee shop or two, and they've got Airbnbs, and they just do a bunch of stuff, but they they stop doing their podcast, but their store, they model the clothes they sell. So you know, you'll see wearing this jacket, and their faces are in the pictures, yeah. So I don't think there's any kind of eBay rule against that. You just might want to do it for privacy. And then there was this lady, I don't know if she still has an eBay store, but she was like a grandma, and she was like an Appalachian Mountain grandma. So she was kind of like she'd seen some hard times they had. She had this antique store, and you'd see her holding up the items, you know, and she's in the picture with them. Oh, that was kind of her marketing trademark, you know, thrift store, whatever, antique store. Those two just come to mind of like, yeah, they, they were in the pictures. And, you know, Ryan and then Jay's store is called Ryan's Valley vintage. I think, R, Y, a, n, n, e, you can, you can just Google that, and it'll come up. And they have, like, 10,000 items. They have a huge, huge store. But yeah, you can see them modeling the clothes and holding stuff up. And that's just the way they do it. That's their branding. Is
Unknown:they're having fun with it, yeah, yeah. So
Suzanne Wells:back to your situation, yeah, I would definitely show that. And I think it would also show that this is it actually the skipper doll with the just, yeah, okay, yeah. So one owner like this hasn't been passed around and manhandled in thrift stores and garage sales. You know, it's been very gently preserved your home all this time. So it's gonna be condition. Yeah? You totally put the backstory on there. Yeah,
Unknown:well, that'll have to get that listed soon. Good,
Suzanne Wells:well, and going back to Skipper. So there was another one called Dawn, D, A, W, N, either another sister, Barbie or a friend of Skipper. And I loved skipper and Dawn, I didn't care so much about Barbie, I guess I couldn't relate to her as a Yeah, but Dawn and Skipper were my my favorites.
Unknown:I had one Barbie and she was disco Barbie. Uh huh, disco Barbie, and my brother had Johnny west. So Barbie and Johnny West were a couple in our house.
Suzanne Wells:We had Barbies because I have a sister who's a year and a half older, and then my brother's a year and a half younger, so we had GI Joe and Barbie going out on dates and stuff. You just use what you had, that's right, and throwing them off the balcony of the deck, you know, skydiving and stuff. Oh gosh, rough on our toys. They didn't last anyway. Well, it's been wonderful to finally reconnect with you after a year. Thank you for circling back and saying you were ready. So other listeners out there, if you've been invited and changed your mind, it's never too late to contact me and come on the show. So we will watch for your your sales on the group, and best of luck being a remote caregiver and all the things that you do. You're very busy. Yes,
Unknown:I do feel very busy, but thank you for having me, for letting me have a second chance to come back. Of course. Yeah,
Suzanne Wells:sometimes it's just timing. I get that all the time where, oh, I'm moving. It's not a good time, you know, check back in a few months. And I do. I keep a spreadsheet. So if, if you said, check back. I will,
Unknown:well, I appreciate all you do. I don't know how you have time to do everything that you do, but it's been a very wonderful resource for me and all the other followers. So I appreciate all you do, and hope you will keep at it.
Suzanne Wells:I absolutely will. So what are you doing this afternoon?
Unknown:Um, I think I'm going to have to do some yard work, because we have a lot of limbs down trees, right? And okay, he was like that. We had, yeah, we had a storm come through yesterday. So that's probably on, on the agenda for this afternoon. Well,
Suzanne Wells:you know, on that note, my sister lives in Charlotte, kind of near you, and they delayed schools. They kept delaying it. And she's, she's like, a teacher's aide. So she's like, No, forget it. I'm just not going to go, yeah. So she stayed home and did housework and stuff. But yeah, they people like, why are schools closed? Because of the wind, and it was all the branches and trees down and, you know, blowing the busses off the mountain tops and all that stuff,
Unknown:right? Yeah. Well, we lost power, water and internet yesterday morning. Okay, flowers, so we were just kind of twiddling our thumbs.
Suzanne Wells:I know, I know, but you're back, so I'm glad to see that so. Well, thanks again, and we'll see you on Facebook. Thank you. Okay, bye, bye. Next week, my guest is Carrie, who specializes in costume jewelry. You may have seen her recent score on my Facebook business page. She paid $10 for a piece on Facebook marketplace that she sold for over 500 so we will pick her brain about vintage costume jewelry, because it is everywhere and a very hot product right now. Thanks again for tuning in to eBay the right way, and I will talk to you next week. Happy Selling everybody. Bye. You.