eBay Seller Chat with Kari in Iowa: Costume Jewelry Specialist - Buy Low, Turn Inventory Over Quickly 🤑

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Transcript

Suzanne Wells: 0:18

Hey, there eBay friends. Welcome to episode number 211 of eBay the right way. Today's date is April 2. 2025 my guest is Carrie in Iowa. No announcements this week, so we'll go straight into the conversation. Hey, everybody, welcome back for another episode. I have Carrie with us today, and you've been busy all day doing what?

Unknown: 0:51

Well, of course, I got my listings up right away, and then I did my live then I did my live call, and then I went and checked sheet, because we're having babies on the farm. And where are you located? Right in the middle of Iowa, okay, okay,

Suzanne Wells: 1:08

so I don't think I've ever had a sheep farmer on my podcast before. Glad I can be a first. Yeah. How big is your farm?

Unknown: 1:20

It's not very big. We just have livestock. So it's only like 11 acres, but we have like, 225 head of sheep, which is half as many as we used to have. And we usually have a couple 1000 pigs, but we don't, right at the moment.

Suzanne Wells: 1:32

Oh, gosh. Okay, so is this been your life's work being on the

Unknown: 1:38

farm? Well, we bought the farm when I was 17, my husband and I, so

Suzanne Wells: 1:42

that is very physical when they're lambing. Are you going out checking on them all the time, like in the middle of the night and everything,

Unknown: 1:48

about every three hours we check to make sure nobody needs help, okay,

Suzanne Wells: 1:52

or if it's too cold or anything like that. And we are recording in the afternoon, because that worked best for you. So bear with me, listeners, this is not my best time of day, so maybe Carrie will do most of the talking.

Unknown: 2:08

I will do my best.

Suzanne Wells: 2:09

Okay, well, let's start off with what got you into eBay and and when that was

Unknown: 2:15

I have only been in the eBay game since like 2001 or 2021, excuse me. And I think my son, who was younger at the time, he's 17 now, but he wanted to try reselling. We've been watching YouTube and all that great stuff, and so we started off doing stuffed animals, because we do have really high end stuffed animals at our bins, and that was really fun. But that's how my jewelry store name got the name plush and much, because we used to sell plush, and then he went on to do mostly farm equipment now, and is super successful with that, and I pivoted to just jewelry, okay? And

Suzanne Wells: 2:53

you had an amazing jewelry sale that was on my business page recently. So that's why I reached out to you, because you must know a lot about jewelry, or was that just a lucky find?

Unknown: 3:04

Yeah. I mean, I, I decide time, every single day to do research for my vintage jewelry, or my I do some modern jewelry too, but, yeah, I think so. And I've led several jewelry calls, like live calls in the past, so I teach them and coach them. So I would like, I'm, I'm still new into it, because there's so much to learn. But, yeah, I think I, I try to have the edge on the competition by knowing just a little bit more. Okay,

Suzanne Wells: 3:29

do you want to talk about that great big sale?

Unknown: 3:33

So it was, it wasn't one of my biggest sales, but it was, you know, I, I paid $10 for it on Facebook marketplace. It was a Nolan Miller ruffle brooch, and I flipped it fairly quick, I think for five or 550 so it was a good sales. Good healthy sale. So sold pretty fast. I never mind taking a good offer. Never bothers me. I want to roll my money. I like the art of compounding money. So,

Suzanne Wells: 3:59

right. So what was the situation of the person selling it? Were they selling a whole bunch of costume jewelry? Was it in a lot, or was it just by itself? Yeah,

Unknown: 4:09

it was a charity that had gotten a bunch of home shopping network jewelry donated. Oh, okay, selling it individually. And I just said, Well, just sell it all to me. I'm a buy it all kind of fire a lot of times, if it's good. So she sent it all to me. She was in a different state, and it was really good. So, oh,

Suzanne Wells: 4:28

that's, that's the way to do it. You said you have a bins near you, of the blue bins,

Unknown: 4:34

yeah, in Des Moines, yep, about 45 minutes away from me. Okay,

Suzanne Wells: 4:38

have you ever been to another one? Or is that the only one you've been to?

Unknown: 4:40

It's the only one I hear. It's fairly tame. It's pretty well behaved, and all that so, but we do get good stuff, because I don't know that there's a ton of resellers there. Oh,

Suzanne Wells: 4:49

really. Okay, so Well, what else do you sell? What other kind of things do you look for?

Unknown: 4:57

Just jewelry. So I don't go to the bins much anymore. I do estate sales. I spend probably 10 to 15 hours a week sourcing. I go through, I try to get 225 pieces a week. So I draft 25 drafts every day, or 30 drafts. And I launch 25 seven days a week. And so I'm very, very diligent about my listings. So I usually have my list, my 25 listings, my photographs, drafts and launched all by eight or nine in the morning. Every morning

Suzanne Wells: 5:29

you must be an early riser

Unknown: 5:32

by five. Usually, yeah, because I've got my processes down enough, it takes me an hour to draft 30 and it takes me an hour to launch 25 Mm, hmm. And then I ship. I'm usually selling as many as I'm listing a day. So like, but like on the weekends, we usually are shipping 85 or 90 at a time, so a day that'd be for the weekend. So usually during the day, about 25 to 35

Suzanne Wells: 6:01

Wow. You really, you really have a good system going.

Unknown: 6:06

Yeah, my goal, my my next goal is to hit 57k for my 90 day. And I really like to hit 60k for my 90 day soon. Excellent.

Suzanne Wells: 6:16

So if you're buying jewelry and lots, are you getting a lot of, you know, pieces that are not great, and are you lotting those together? Or how do you what's your sorting process on that? Yeah,

Unknown: 6:31

that was our topic this morning in my jewelry call. So I talked about that, but I do not I feel like small lots will just eat your business alive, and you can do a lot of shuffling. So you know, you start, you start realizing when you're cherry picking your own inventory, because you got some lots, and you pick out the good stuff. I don't cherry pick, and if I'm not excited to list it, and I excited for my customers to see it, then I don't list it, so it goes right into my junk box. So people buy my junk boxes, usually get a great deal because there's a lot of wearable, good stuff. It just wasn't good enough for my store. So I don't mess around making a whole bunch of lots and forcing things in that don't meet my metrics.

Suzanne Wells: 7:09

Okay, diligent about it, yeah? Well, I mean, it's also a time efficiency thing,

Unknown: 7:15

yep. And I don't want piles everywhere I need to. I have a queue of about 30 days, so I have 30 items in each cue bag, and I just grab it and I have it ready for the next morning. So it's a very well oiled system to keep it moving.

Suzanne Wells: 7:33

Okay, well, tell us about these, these calls that you do with other sellers. So

Unknown: 7:39

I have in the past, I've done jewelry calls and eBay foundational calls for other YouTubers and other creators, and then now I created my own group reseller revenue, and we're kind of a small, close knit community. And I do a live call every morning at 9am Central time we meet via zoom, and I have a topic every day. And then on Wednesdays, we share flips and flops. And so we just get together. I talk about, like, this week we've done about returns, we've talked about lots versus cherry picking, and we talk about either, like, business rules, our metrics, our numbers. I'm big on keeping our numbers. And then I also do a jewelry call that's just all about jewelry on Tuesdays with Lynn from finds of yesterday. So we get together and talk about jewelry, since that's what I sell. And then I do YouTube with reseller revenue and do some jewelry content on that too.

Suzanne Wells: 8:36

So these calls, is that like a coaching thing? Yep,

Unknown: 8:40

and I do keep fairly busy during the week, doing one on one, private coaching for reselling. I do all platforms, but I specialize in eBay. Okay, well,

Suzanne Wells: 8:49

I looked at one of your YouTube group calls and you were, what's the best word, encouraging everyone to stop buying and list what you already have,

Unknown: 9:04

which I think my members called me aggressively helpful. Yeah, helpful. So I'm not the, I'm not the, let's give everybody a hug and give everybody a participation ribbon. But I'm very, very involved with them. You know? I just want, yeah, I don't get the whole I like everybody to have a queue. My favorite question is, how many days inventory do we have on hand? Because all businesses know my how many days of inventory they have on hand, and if we have boxes stacked floor to ceiling, that is where our money is. So I'm, I'm pretty big on that, like, why are we, why are we sourcing when you have years worth of inventory in your house? Yeah,

Suzanne Wells: 9:41

yeah. And I started coaching in 2009 and did that for several years, and I learned a lot about people doing that, but it's the boredom Buster to go shopping, yup, it's the treasure hunt, the thrill. I don't know if you know my story. But I started in 2003 and I had lost my job and been through a divorce in the same month, and had two little kids, and I had to hustle it, and I could not. I mean, it was, it was penny to Penny. I could not afford to go buy more stuff until I sold what I already had. So to create revenue to buy more stuff. I was very strict on list what you have, because how can it sell? It's not listed. And if you're in this to make money, which unfortunately for the serious sellers, there are a lot of sellers doing this just for a fun hobby, and so they don't even, they don't keep their numbers. They don't care, and that's our competition. So when you, when you look at sell through rates, you really can't look at them too strictly, because there's reasons things didn't sell, and the sell through rate is, is not great. It's hobby sellers, or people getting out of the business, or running the clearance sale, and they're, you know, selling their stuff for below cost, and the profit does not look great. So there's, there's a lot of reasons why I don't focus too much on sell through rates, because it's

Unknown: 11:24

easier with skew for skew items, right? You know, like, when you have a certain shirt from a certain brand and a certain size, and none of them are selling on eBay, right? Then that's a really good indicator. Maybe we're not picking that up, um, like, vintage jewelry and stuff like, our sell through rates are horrible anyway, like they're terrible. So if I really was a stickler, every time on that, I wouldn't sell what I do, because my sell through rates are terrible, like they run about 20, you know, less than 20% all the time. So it's just, you have to use all your I totally agree with you. You have to use lots of different factors well.

Suzanne Wells: 11:58

And I think it's just easy for analytical people to say, Oh, look at the sell through rate. But there's so many factors involved in that sell through rate, many of which we cannot see, and it's just not a number I really ever paid attention to. I look at what does well for me, because then you've got the algorithm of your store, and if something is working in your store, if it's working, do more of it is kind of my rule, absolutely or philosophy, not really a rule. Yeah,

Unknown: 12:30

I agree with you, because I have a hard time when I'm coaching jewelry sellers, because I have a strictly just niche down jewelry store, and I have 3000 almost 3000 followers, and so I have lots of repeat business and stuff. So prices I can ask for, something, the things I know I can get to move in my store, it's hard because they want to model after what I'm doing, because that's what's working for me. But I try to tell like it's going to be different, because it's not. It's not me thinking I'm any better than anybody else. It's just I know what I can get that my customers will buy, and I know what I can get more money for, but it's because I have that following, and I have that momentum and that niche. So it is different for every single store, in every single situation, I also buy so low that I can take those low offers and I can turn it over quickly. But if I was part time, and I was doing this for vacation, money, savings money, maybe I would hold out for those higher dollars, you know. So every my philosophy with the coaching and the groups is, we all have different situations. Like we have some we call them the retirement club. They're retired. They're doing this for extra money. So the metrics I recommend to them are going to be totally different than like for somebody like myself that's paying my family's bills with it. It's, you know, different situations are different,

Suzanne Wells: 13:44

right? And let me clarify, there's nothing wrong with being a hobby seller. Nope. It's just you're you can't compare yourself to other sellers, because everybody's strategies are different, and the end result you're looking for is different. And hey, I've sold things for $10 and still made money on them just to clearance them out or get rid of them. You know, everything changes over time. Stuff that worked five years ago does not work now sometimes, and you have to be fluid and be willing to learn new things and change your strategies. But you know, if you're a hobby seller, a part time seller, and you're making extra money, I I'm not criticizing you at all. I'm just stating that everybody like you said, your metrics are different depending on what you want out of it.

Unknown: 14:38

Yep, and you gotta keep cash flow going. If this is what you're doing for a living, too, you know, like, I have to turn it over quick because it's just, it's how it works with my business. So I'm very good at, like, trying to not blanket statement things, except for things like, I don't know that it's good for anybody to hoard a couple years worth of inventory unless it was just a phenomenal deal with phenomenal items at a phenomenal price. You know that? There are exceptions to every rule, but I like the hobby seller too, but I definitely would give them different advice,

Suzanne Wells: 15:06

right? And I think people have FOMO, you know, fear of missing out and but I never hear sellers complain unless they're at thrift stores that are raising their prices like Goodwill is doing. I can't find anything to sell. I just don't hear that, because there's so many different sources for getting inventory now, with Facebook marketplace and Facebook groups, estate sales and online auctions and all the different ways that it just it just keeps snowballing. And so if something's not working for you, look somewhere else. I live

Unknown: 15:45

out the middle of nowhere land. It takes me an hour to get anywhere. And I do most of my sourcing online, and I do most of my sourcing in different ways. Online. I buy off eBay, to sell on eBay all the time. I go on Facebook marketplace. I do online auctions, but I make a lot of relationships, and relationships even online become invaluable, especially if you're in a niche. So it's easier for me to do that than someone that sells everything, because I can be that in buyer for lots of estate companies. I I called in first on different things for jewelry. So and I don't like jewelry, so that's a fun fact about me. I don't even own any jewelry. I have a wedding ring and an anniversary ring, and that's it. I'm not a jewelry girl, but it's just a widget to me to make money. I appreciate it. I appreciate good craftsmanship. I enjoy the history behind some of it, but I'm the horrible jewelry seller that will absolutely crush out of 100 year old cameo to melt the gold, because it's worth a lot of money, and that's what I'm doing. Mm, hmm. So I'm not, I'm not popular with the jewelry historians, because it's just it's money to me. Yep,

Suzanne Wells: 16:56

that's true. I mean, it's all how you look at it, and you're so busy that you can't afford to spend time going down rabbit holes on things unless owning the hallmarks. But if you're buying these bags of jewelry online, you just go through it when you get it, and you've got your computer and google images right there to figure out what it is.

Unknown: 17:20

I process quickly. I have a way I process all the time, because you're right. I have to, I have to keep it. I use it separate phone to take my pictures, and that phone has no email, it has no texting, it has nothing else on it, because otherwise I get distracted. You know, my members message me and call me all the time. And you know, I have people calling me for farms. I all the time there's somebody messaging me. So I keep it totally separate when I'm listing, I'm listing and when I'm, you know, did I have to do plans for the calls everything. And I keep them totally separate. And I, I mean, I'm focused when I'm focused, because, and if I knock everything else out by 9am then whatever happens during the day, have my shipping done and have my listing gun, and that's, you know, those are the non negotiables in my world. So do I love doing it seven days a week? Not really, you know, it's a lot, but to I do usually try to, that's why I do 30 and only launch 25 so then if I have a flea market day, I can take the day off and I have those sitting there. But, you know, do I did? I love sitting in corporate America every day either, not really. So I'd rather be at home with my dog on my lap, listing eBay, talking to my friends on Zoom about eBay, which I'm passionate about. So we all pick our hard you know,

Suzanne Wells: 18:36

what was your corporate experience?

Unknown: 18:39

Um, so I did a lot of Accounting and Finance work. And I still do do finance work for the same company I worked for for a long time. But every time I try to quit, they just offer me the same full time wages for like, 10 hours a week. And it's hard to leave that so I stay on and do, like, financial compliance for a company.

Suzanne Wells: 18:57

Okay, so pretty boring stuff. You have three jobs,

Unknown: 19:02

Yep, yeah, I do the coaching, and then the have the group, and I do jewelry and sheep, and I gave up the doing taxes. I did corporate taxes for 16 years, so I gave that up a little while ago. But,

Suzanne Wells: 19:16

yeah, I can see how that would melt your brain after so many years.

Unknown: 19:20

Well, I love taxes. Actually, I'm a nerd like that, but it happens during lambing season. Oh, and the older I get, the more like two, three hours of sleep, just I can't do it anymore.

Suzanne Wells: 19:30

No, that doesn't work. So how many are in your household? How many people

Unknown: 19:36

just me, my husband and my 17 year old, rowdy, okay,

Suzanne Wells: 19:40

and animals and your son and your husband, Are they helpful with your eBay business?

Unknown: 19:47

Yeah, Rowdy pulls my inventory every day from my inventory system for me in exchange for his two trucks insurance. So he, he, he does that with for me, and then my husband does help with the shipping. Some when he has time, but he works full time off the farm too, so he's gone a lot.

Suzanne Wells: 20:05

How do you organize that much jewelry

Unknown: 20:09

carefully so you don't allow piles to overwhelm you. When it comes in, I process it immediately and it goes in a queue. So each queue is 30 items, and then I keep about 30 days in the queue. There's never piles of jewelry. As far as like they come in, they get processed, they get in a queue. So

Suzanne Wells: 20:28

how many listings Do you have?

Unknown: 20:31

Like, 2400 maybe. Okay,

Suzanne Wells: 20:34

so as far as storage, how do you store all that jewelry? They

Unknown: 20:38

are in racks, in numerical, date based order. So every item gets a skew, and they just get put straight up in a box that's on a shelf. And so you just rifle through it, get your number, pull it, you know, according to the pick list. And if I screw up, I my last picture of all my listings is my SKU number on the bag, so that if I accidentally forget to change the SKU number, I can still reference it in my listing.

Suzanne Wells: 21:05

Okay, so you don't organize it by type of item. It's numerical. It's

Unknown: 21:10

all numerical, which ends up being date based, yep, because it's in the order that I listed it. Okay,

Suzanne Wells: 21:19

okay. Well, can you talk about some amazing finds that have shown up in these bags of jewelry, like you didn't even know it was in there when you bought it? So my

Unknown: 21:28

biggest, I think my biggest finds, have been like at small town Iowa garage sales. You know, I came upon one that was like, it was one of those that I wasn't even going to stop at. I wasn't in the mood. And I always tell people, if you're doing this full time, you have to push yourself, to give yourself as many opportunities to hit home runs as you can. Because, you know, if we don't put ourselves out there, then how are we ever going to have these? You know, I get called Lucky a lot. I am not lucky. I work really hard to put myself as in many situations to get these home runs as possible. And that's just what they see. They don't see the 100 people that told me no, or the 100 people that didn't have good stuff or that wanted to cry about grandma's jewelry, you know, which is horrible, but it's an emotional attachment thing that I have to deal with a lot, and I don't ever do a deal with somebody that I feel may ever think I took advantage of them with family jewelry. So if I feel that, I tell them to call me back when they're ready. Because I just don't want them to ever look back and think, oh, I shouldn't have sold grandmas whatever, or I just, I just don't. So I think the best ones have been one garage sale last year I went, and it was one of those, like, I didn't want to act like I was looking too hard, because there was like, Shriners laying on the table, which, anybody that's in the jewelry world knows those are, like, you know, cream of the crop type stuff, and it was all that good. And I was like, and they had really high prices on things, but I asked her if she was negotiable, and she ended up coming down, like, $4 an item, which was amazing. And of course, I asked the the $100 question, is there more? Do you have more? And she's like, Yeah, I have a whole it turns out her friend in a different state had retired and said, Hey, pack up whatever you want out of my antique store I'm closing. So she basically emptied the antique store. And all this jewelry had been sitting in this antique store for years, and it was amazing jewelry, and it was one of those business altering fines, like I bought everything. She had all the jewelry. She had no idea what any of it was, and she didn't really care, because it was free to her. She didn't pay anything for it. So the$1,000 or whatever I ended up paying her over the course of two deals was amazing to her. And I sold, you know, two brooches for more than that. So it was good deal for her, good deal for me. There was no emotions attached to it, just business, and that was a great one. And the other one I always call the bathtub deal. So I met a lady at a garage sale that had amazing jewelry out, but it was way overpriced, and she was emotionally attached to it. I bought a few things. Was very polite, told her how nice her stuff was, because we should never see stuff and go, that's really nice, but you're asking too much money. Like, I feel like that's not my place. If you don't like it, keep scrolling type of, type of attitude. And so I told her how nice it was. I gave her business card, and I heard her talking about how much she had and that she was going to be moving to assisted living and would have to be getting rid of it. And I just said, Hey, if you're ready, you know, let me know, and she called me, and we kind of got a friendship over the course of a couple months. And her Whirlpool bathtubs, and jacuzzi bathtubs were actually full of jewelry, like I have never seen a jewel, and it was all family jewelry. It was not she didn't do the shopping. It was all her mothers and grandmothers, and she was like, the last in the line, and it was everywhere. The first time I went to do the private pick, I was there for 11 hours just cherry picking all this jewelry. And there's still parts of her house, she wouldn't let me touch the jewelry in, which was fine. The course, while I'm picking, I had no idea what she was actually going to want for it at the end, but we made a. Really fair deal, and it was amazing. And then she caught she says, When I'm ready, I'll call you again. And she did, and I bought everything else in the house. And it was definitely a business changing game. I mean, there was several $1,000 old trafari sets, and it was, it was really good. So that was awesome.

Suzanne Wells: 25:20

Wow, that sounds like a gold mine. No pun. Well, pun intended, yeah, yeah.

Unknown: 25:25

No, she didn't, and she didn't have any gold in there. And everybody asked me that, and I was like, no, but those those great costume pieces, I'm still listing some of them that I'm that I'm processing. But the gold thing is a good topic, though, because it's really hard to get good lots of jewelry online anymore, because everybody's buying it hoping there's gold in it, because the prices are so high. And so I've tried to use that a little to my advantage. Is I call storage unit guys. I call people that are buying up those items, hoping for the gold, and saying, Hey, what are you doing with the rest of it? Because they want the gold. I'm I'm totally cool with you. Pick out the gold. You sell me the costume that you don't want anyway, and everybody's happy, right? Trying to solve their issues, you know,

Suzanne Wells: 26:07

right? Well, somebody asked that on my Facebook group the other day about, you know, how do you know when you should sell a piece that has gold in it, or take it to the We Buy Gold place because of the prices right now. So do you have a strategy for that?

Unknown: 26:24

Boy, I get that people are saying that's going to go to 5000 I get that the financial girl in me, and just in general, says, I'm never crying right now, when I take my gold in, I'm, you know, like a pair of 14 karat gold earrings that aren't even that big right now is, you know, two, $300 so I'm selling. That's what I'm doing. I'm not hedging anything. I'm selling. So I have a really good relationship with my I call him my gold guy. I trust him enough when I get a small flat rate box full, I just seal it up and send it to him, and they send me a check and they pay 90% a spot, which is pretty fair if you're new to the game or you've never gone and sold gold, always ask what they pay on spot. You know what percentage they're paying. Make sure you know whether they're going to pay you for gold filled or not, or whether they're going to pay you for you know what their rates are, what their acceptable amounts are, because some of them won't, and you might as well keep it if they're not going to pay you for it. So know what you're doing. Weigh it up before you go. Have a good idea. So if you're with somebody new, you don't get taken advantage of. I've seen lots of especially elderly people that I've done business with that I'm like, Whoa. No. Like, I have no skin in their game, at their gold game, but I'm totally taking them to my guy, because they're getting taken advantage of where they're at so just know your know what's appropriate and acceptable before you go and look up spot price before you go. Don't take their word for it. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells: 27:49

I think a lot of people just intimidated about going to those places because they feel like they're going to get ripped off. Because, you know, yep, not everybody's a gold expert.

Unknown: 28:01

Correct? Absolutely. I'm not a gold expert either, so I'm actually, that's my worst that's my softest point. I'm not well versed in precious metals, so I don't sell any of that on Ebay. I don't feel like I can do a service to the customer. Well, there's

Suzanne Wells: 28:18

higher risk when you do sell precious metals on eBay. As far as getting scammed, or, you know, a return, that's a switcheroo, and you get something else back. Or, you know, there is jewelry and other items that are are marked and it's fake. You know, there's a lot of that all the

Unknown: 28:37

time, all the time, I would say almost half of my marks gold and stuff ends up being it's not right, it's not real. So you gotta I test it, because just because it's smart doesn't mean it is right.

Suzanne Wells: 28:50

Exactly, yeah, you gotta be careful with that. And silver too, like the 925, you gotta do those tests to verify, because there's all kind of shysters out there making that fake stuff

Unknown: 29:04

there sure are.

Suzanne Wells: 29:06

Well, what would you say are your top brands to look for? Like, when you're sorting through a lot and you come across these and you're like, Oh, that's a win.

Unknown: 29:17

I really like old, well done rhinestone trafari. So all is not created equal. No brands really are across the board, but I really like an old, good piece I've studied for firing enough that usually I can tell what like collaboration or what section it is, whether it's, you know, like that, whether it's an empress piece, or whether it's a jewels of India piece, or, you know, I know enough about it, but I enjoy the history behind that. So I really like those. I like some of the modern stuff too. Like home shopping network type stuff. I like, I like coming across, you know, a good like that. One thing was a Nolan Miller. I enjoyed. I liked that, but I would say that, or really old coro and Holly craft, just because they're just. It's like the old Holly craft is so well made, you know, it stands the test of time.

Suzanne Wells: 30:06

I haven't heard of that one. Um, when was that made? Uh,

Unknown: 30:10

early 50s, or the better pieces like

Suzanne Wells: 30:12

Holly craft. Okay, I'm learning jewelry too. It's a slow process because I'm I'll study something for a while and then kind of move on to something else.

Unknown: 30:24

Yeah, it's easy to get burned out on a niche, but I just try to, I pivot once in a while on what I really am focusing on, and try to learn something else. Or it's easy to get burned out.

Suzanne Wells: 30:33

Yeah, absolutely. Have you had any customer issues with selling jewelry, like they challenged that it was fake or something like that.

Unknown: 30:42

Oh, all the time. Well, the biggest, latest one was an old Sterling terhari fur clip got sent to authentication because of the price. I sold it for. It was like 700 and some, and I knew what the issue was going to be, because old Sterling, like really old Sterling, like old Sterling and trafari, it doesn't always test nine to five. It tests like 90 and so it didn't pass authentication with eBay, because it tested at 90.3 Well, it was absolutely not a fake. It was just old. And, you know, standards change, and the standards of what Sterling needed to test that way back when is different than than how it is now. So luckily, the customer said, I just want to know if you if it's a that it's too far that it wasn't a fake, because they faked your Fauci all the time. And they said, No, it looks to be authentic. So she took it anyway. But technically, technically, all that old Sterling to Fauci stuff is probably not always going to pass authentication with eBay, which I feel is an issue, because it's not a fake, it's authentic, but it might test it 90 or 90, you know, below their standards.

Suzanne Wells: 31:48

Another way to have jewelry authenticated?

Unknown: 31:52

Well, I don't even know that it needs, like, I'm not an expert, but like, if you hand me a piece, I can tell you if it is. And so then I wonder who is authenticating it on that other end, you know, like art, do they have? I think a lot of it goes to the GIA. Well, that's not their specialty, isn't, you know, so I don't really know, um, I think to to sell it through eBay, it's got to go through their authentication. So I may have to sell some of that stuff on a different platform, because I can't keep failing authentication when things are real, you know, right,

Suzanne Wells: 32:21

that's true. So are you only on eBay now? Are you selling other places? Well,

Unknown: 32:27

I do posh in, you know, I list on, like, Depop and whatnot, but I don't think I've ever gotten a sale on whatnot or Depop. I sell like one a day on posh. So not great, but enough that it keeps my, you know, my VA transfers it over for me. And that's a that's really the only listing thing he does is just uses vendor to cross post to to not smart for me, and it works really well. But I do have customer issues all the time. You know, that's just comes with the territory. You have, you know, people that say, well, this isn't what this is, or this isn't what that is. But I use a copy paste method because it's so easy to get upset when you know you're right about something. But first, I always assume I'm wrong. I mean, I assume that it could happen right things get busted in the mail, even though we packed imperfect it happens. And I just copy paste and like, Well, I'm sorry the news. I offer eBay's best return policy of 60 days free returns. Please open a return. I'll be happy to take care of you again. I'm very sorry, please. You know, please open that return. I'll take care of you because it doesn't matter, right? They're going to get the return if they push on it hard enough with eBay anyway. So we might as well make it a pleasant experience. And how do we know they haven't been scammed by sellers before us, and it's put a bad taste in their mouths, so I want them to come out of it saying, Hey, she took care of me. It's all good, and it doesn't really matter in the you know, it's just part of doing business. Don't

Suzanne Wells: 33:51

let it get to me. Yeah, and if you sold it once, you can sell it again,

Unknown: 33:55

yep, it'll come back. And if it doesn't come back, then I know you handle it. You know, people get worried about getting scanned by a buyer with it coming back before they even see it, I don't worry about it at all. You know, it comes back. I check it out, it's good. We list it again. And sometimes things have gotten absolutely destroyed that I think there's no way they're lying. You know, that's what I'm thinking to myself. And then I get in, it's a million pieces, and I think, wow, I would have felt silly being really unprofessional and accusing them of lying, right? Because it's destroyed. So things happen. Didn't just roll with them. If I don't, I'm not block happy. But if people try to get one, you know, over on me too much, I I might block them. Usually not. I just very customer service oriented and hope they have a good experience. Lots of times, they'll come back and say, Look, I'm sorry I was harsh with you. I've had bad experiences. I assumed you were going to give me a hard time. So I want them to want to shop on eBay.

Suzanne Wells: 34:47

Yeah, and with the product line, like jewelry, you can get a lot of repeat buyers.

Unknown: 34:52

Oh yeah, I get, I mean, I run like, have some all the time. I think I run like 10% which doesn't sound like a lot, but it really. Kind of is with platform like eBay, and I have multi quantity orders every day.

Suzanne Wells: 35:04

So really, okay, so they're buying multiple pieces,

Unknown: 35:10

yeah, and I do ship overseas direct, so I get lots of lots of orders that go overseas too, the

Suzanne Wells: 35:18

eBay international program or just direct through I ship

Unknown: 35:23

flat rate, $28 anywhere in the world.

Suzanne Wells: 35:27

Is it more expensive to use eBay's program? A lot

Unknown: 35:31

more expensive. Okay, they're very expensive. I get it though. We get lots of protection, and I do do that too, if the customer wants it. I am all for eBay's international program. I think it's great because then, you know, it's never coming back, and they take care of us. Um, a big fan, but for customers of mine that buy all the time and buy several items, it's just a lot more cost efficient for me to at least offer that service so and they're much more likely to fill a box. Like, I'm all about filling a box. You know, you want to put a $700 order in to fill a box, and I'm gonna send it to you in Australia. You in Australia rates, you know, let's do it. And with $28 flat rates, I'm hardly, I don't think I've ever lost money on that shipping. So,

Suzanne Wells: 36:12

yeah, that makes sense. I've been selling I only do

Unknown: 36:16

it to like, four countries. I'm not, it's not everywhere, you know. I do like ones that basically our postal services are, like ours, like Canada, Australia, Japan, ZZ, just the in the UK. I think those are the ones I do. Mm hmm.

Suzanne Wells: 36:32

Before even the global shipping program came along, which that might have been gone by the time you joined eBay in 21 I shipped all kinds of stuff, first class, international, 1000s of things, and you just put the, I think it was called insure post at the time. There were several different ones of insurance, and rarely did anything get lost. And we have to remember, you know, we are in a country where goods are plentiful, and not everybody has that luxury living in different countries. Or it could be Americans living overseas that that can't get what they want there. So you're not always dealing with someone who can't speak English, you know, even you know, I've had

Unknown: 37:22

great experiences with my overseas clients, and a lot of them are regulars and buy from me a lot. And I just have to be mindful of things, like I can't ship certain countries, so like mother of pearl, there's just certain things you can't i can't ship to certain places, and I just make sure I try to be conscious of that. I've got a few things taken at the border, like coin jewelry, you can't let that in certain countries. China was always my issue. That's totally a non political statement. It's just their postal system. It's nothing to do with how I feel about them at all. I would get it stopped a lot when customs. So I quit shipping direct there, not because of the people, just because I was having trouble getting stuff through

Suzanne Wells: 37:58

customs. And Italy stuff. Yeah, I do Italy. I figured out their system. When I was doing I had, like a grocery business and held a beauty business where I would buy things at Walmart or whatever, and, you know, put them on eBay, and they would all go overseas. And that was, that was like 2010 2012 that era where eBay had didn't have a presence in those countries yet. So a lot of it was Americans overseas that just wanted products from home. But Italy was so strict you couldn't get anything in there. And I'm like, Why? Why is it like that? And it's because of their sales tax system. They want goods sold in their country so they can tax them. And they just don't like all these products coming in from other countries. That was my experience at the time. It might be different now, but and then, it was great to see like trends of what people in different countries ordered. And you might see this with your types of jewelry. But like, for the the countries that are the Land of the Midnight Sun, and it's it's bright all the time in the winter, you know, they were ordering melatonin and sominex and sleep stuff. And then the the Spanish people in, you know, Spain and Portugal, they're ordering a skincare, you know, face stuff to look younger. And in London, I sold a lot of lip treatment stuff, not just chapstick, but Abreva and Blistex and all that, because the damp weather makes your lips chapped. And so it was interesting to identify what was going to different countries, so I could be a better seller and offer more of those types of things. So that leads me to the next question of, Do you see that with countries you ship to is. Know, this country's people likes this type of item,

Unknown: 40:04

not so much by country, but it's the same with all reselling, right? We have to be mindful of trends, and I also have to be mindful something I was just saying this this morning, is I, you know, I like to sell brooches. That's my favorite thing to sell. But that doesn't mean I can sell enough of those to really buy, right? So I have to try to buy. We always have to be mindful of what our buyers want, not necessarily what we like to sell. And I, I tried, I have a hard time with that. So I know that bracelets really sell the best and for the best money, but I don't always love selling bracelets, right? So we, I always have to keep that in mind, but maybe not country wise, but trend wise. Jewelry trends can change in the blink of an eye, and so I try to keep an eye on that, because I am not a trendy girl. You know, the sheep do not care what I'm wearing out there. And I if I don't leave the house for two weeks, I am happy camper, and that's the case a lot of the time. So I'm not trendy. So I try to watch the trends report Google Trends, just like terfari. It was super hot a couple years ago, I could sell anything I wanted to for trips, Fauci for good money, and it is cooled way down. Uh, Juliana's cooled way down. Um, you know, of course they, they all have their shining stars that will always be good money. But, you know, the trends have turned same way with like Monet and Napier, the really good stuff still sells good the not so good stuff doesn't at all anymore,

Suzanne Wells: 41:21

right? And I know there's a few pieces of Joan Rivers that's worth money. Do you run across that often? Yep,

Unknown: 41:28

yeah. And I really like it. It's the same way, like there's those shining star ones do super good, but there's, there's some of the other ones that you know, you can't hardly give away, and that's just knowing your niche, you know, knowing what you sell and and anybody can change. I'm not against everything sellers. I think a lot of a lot of coaches are very niche oriented. I like selling a niche because I think it's easier, like I do think it's easier for my processes. But I'm not against people trying to make a living being an everything seller, because niching down isn't for everybody

Suzanne Wells: 41:58

well, and I think there's pros and cons of both ways, and you just have to figure out what works for you. I think the boredom factor is a big part of it. You know, you want to sell things in different categories or, like, I'm really getting to ephemera right now. Just, I've always wanted to, and now I figured out a way to get it in my hands. And I just think it's fascinating the history of it, but 20 years ago, I couldn't have cared less about that, you know, I just was like, let's go to Goodwill and see we can find. And a lot of it about time and how you're sourcing. Because if you are physically going to estate sales and thrift stores and you're in there, you might as well look at everything and see what you can find. But there's some sellers that just have their one thing they want, like electronics, and they'll go to five Goodwills every day looking for their, you know, top items. And it's just how you want to run your business. There's there's no right or wrong, and there's ways to do it successfully, no matter what your strategy is,

Unknown: 43:05

and personality wise, you know, like, I'm more of a I want to be an expert in my category, because that's I want to just keep educating myself on it and keep learning more and more. Whereas I have people in my group that have amazing average sale prices, because they go to the garage sale, and they find only things that are like huge, amazing items. But you know, they'll set they'll they'll ship huge stereo systems and stuff, and that keeps them going, and it motivates them, and they really enjoy it. Whereas, you know, I don't have anything to ship in besides six by nine padded envelopes, and I like it that way.

Suzanne Wells: 43:38

But yeah, I love shipping 30 stereos every day, not

Unknown: 43:43

Yeah, and so I don't envy that, but yet they make great money lots of times. So there's definitely different ways you can be be profitable, and it depends on what's important to you. Like, I don't love shipping. That's like, my least favorite thing to do. So if, if shipping was a lot harder for me than it is now, I don't know that I would be able to stick it

Suzanne Wells: 44:02

out. Well, in some items, the work's on the front end, yep. And so jewelry is one of them. You're buying these lots, you're sorting through them, figuring it out, and then when it comes time to ship it, it's 30 seconds, throw it in a padded mail or print the label, and you're done so a serious system or DVD VCR combo thing, those types of items, the work is on the back end when you're shipping it, so there's no sorting and and you gotta figure out the pricing, but

Unknown: 44:34

you gotta store it. You know, they have to store it. You know, everybody's got space restraints or not. You know, everybody's got the you gotta find what's going to work for you. Because I really do think when people see something on on Well, that's going to be profitable. So I'm going to go all in on it, but then they don't. If it's not for you, it's not going to you're not going to thrive in it. Because I I always tell people, I want you to I get it. It's kind of not a popular opinion, because it's not necessarily business. The space, but you kind of gotta like it a little bit, right? So, like, I'm not a jewelry girl. I don't own any, but I really appreciate the history with old jewelry. So I like listing it. I like getting it. I like finding it. And if you're in a niche, just because you saw somebody on YouTube making lots of money doing it, and you have no interest in it, your listing process is going to be

Suzanne Wells: 45:20

harder, well, and one thing I fuss at my students about is you have to factor in your time. You may think your time is not valuable, but as a reseller, you have valuable experience and valuable knowledge. And if you don't love shipping big things that take 30 minutes to package, then don't do it, because that is your time. And what is the best use of your time? Is it finding more items? Is it listing the items you already have? You know what? What is that for you? So we all have 24 hours in a day, and it's how you use it. And it just, I cringe. Sometimes students contact me and they're like, oh, you know, I've got 400 items. How do I tackle this? What do I do? And that's really not something I can help you with, because I think that's an organizational skill, and that is a discipline skill, the discipline of of listing, doing what you need to do to get the money to come in. So that means just what you said in your group call, don't go shopping. That is the first step to tackling that death pile. Is focus and okay, you just start pulling stuff. It doesn't matter if it's clothes, knick knacks, MCM, jewelry, whatever, just pull something out and go because it's analysis paralysis. Well, what should I list first? And how many things in that category should I list? And what's selling right now doesn't matter. Get it listed. Everything eventually sells.

Unknown: 47:03

Yep, I get asked all the time, I want your secret to your motivation. I'm like, do you think I roll out of bed at five o'clock, 430 in the morning, and I go, Oh, I can't wait to go list on eBay. Some days, I'm okay with it. It's fine, but I'm not like, I don't have any secret sauce to the motivation. I have discipline and I keep a schedule, because I know personally, it's not for everybody, but for me, if I stay on a schedule, then it feels wrong when I'm off the schedule. So if it's in here at two o'clock in the afternoon and I didn't have my listings done, it would be eating at me all day. So if I'm very strict with myself, and that doesn't mean I don't enjoy my family, it doesn't mean I don't if you know, like my nephews, I love, you know, they're still young enough that their eyes light up and they love Annie Carrie, either I take advantage of that when they want me to take them to the movies or whatever. But my listings are done first. You know, I just have priorities. So I have no secret motivation. It's just that I get it done

Suzanne Wells: 47:55

well. And sometimes the motivation for people is that student loan or this bill coming up that I gotta pay. That was my motivation when I first got started, was I'm not losing my house. I'm gonna get my bills paid. No matter how many hours I gotta put into this. I'm doing it, and I just get out of my way because I'm doing it. And so it you have to figure out what what is your motivation? Because it's different for everybody. It's Do you just want to see those dollars in your bank account? Are you saving up for a dream trip that you've wanted to take your whole life? Are you getting ready for retirement and you don't want to worry about money every single day? You know that's where you find your motivation is in your own personal situation, there is no and everybody

Unknown: 48:42

is different. You have to know what it is, right? I always ask people that, what is your reasoning? What is your reason to do eBay or or reselling? What what is? And if they're like, oh, I don't know, and I'm like, we have to find a no, because on those days you don't want to list and you don't want to do it, and then you know what happens is they fall off the wagon for a day, and that day becomes two months, so three months or four months, and so I can't, that's why I do it seven days a week too. When I take the weekends off, I don't want to do it on Monday, but if I just keep doing it as part of my normal routine, then it just, it's just a normal day. And, yeah, it's hard. That's, that's the thing people want to know. How to make it easy. It's really, when you get to a certain level of reselling, it's not easy, and it's hard and it's a grind. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells: 49:23

and I will say, you know, don't neglect yourself absolutely. About once every six weeks, I take a me day, and that can be binge watching something and eating popcorn, or taking a really long nap, or you have to recharge yourself, because if you I get what you're saying, don't miss a day. But then again, you can look back and say, Wow, especially you. I've got 2400 items listed. I got a family. I'm tired. I don't want to look at the computer today. And you could take a day every now and then for self care, so that you can come. At it, renewed and revived and excited about it, because you can say, burnout. No doubt you can get life, and

Unknown: 50:08

I do. It's a balance. And I I take, like, 10 days in the spring and 10 days in the fall. So it's really hard for us to all get away at the same time because all the animals, so it's hard to do family type stuff, but so in the fall, my husband and I go away for a week, and I I don't actively do eBay, but I have my listing scheduled, so I do schedule them. So I work harder before we leave, but I take that week off. And then in the springtime, me and my son, we usually go to like sourcing in Ohio, and it's started. He was a national shooter, a national competitive shooter, and our nationals were in Ohio, so me and him would go to Ohio, and now he doesn't do that anymore, but me and him still go to Ohio. So we go to antique malls and thrifts and flea markets, and so I take that time off, and I totally agree with you, and I feel like there's a difference between just being like, I don't want to go to work today, and like, where you feel like you're getting burnout, like there's a difference. And I will take a day, usually about every quarter, you know, but if I needed it once a month, I would take it once a month. I'm also, like, an amazing Napper. So I get up at

Suzanne Wells: 51:14

four, whatever napping challenge. How about that? I

Unknown: 51:17

have an amazing Napper. So if I can't keep my eyelids open, and I'm fighting it. It's doing me more harm than good. And I if I go lay down, I wake right back up at 25 minutes about and I'm refreshed and ready to go. And I never, ever apologize for taking me a power now,

Suzanne Wells: 51:33

right? And you shouldn't, and because when you push yourself too hard, that's when you're going to make mistakes, and sometimes they can be very costly mistakes, and so, you know, it's finding the balance of what works for you, but you are very driven and dedicated, I can tell, and disciplined, the three Ds, driven, dedicated and disciplined and very successful. So that's almost been an hour. How about that? Oh,

Unknown: 51:59

wow. Well, I appreciate you very much. So Well,

Suzanne Wells: 52:02

thank you so much. And tell us again the name of your YouTube channel where people can find you

Unknown: 52:07

reseller revenue on YouTube, Patreon and Facebook. Okay,

Suzanne Wells: 52:12

great. Well, thanks again for taking time out of your 87 jobs to chat with me today. And

Unknown: 52:18

no problem, I appreciate it. A lot of our group members are huge fans of yours.

Suzanne Wells: 52:26

Well, I'd love to be a guest on your show

Unknown: 52:28

sometime. Well, I love you. They, they speak very highly of you. So, oh, really. Okay.

Suzanne Wells: 52:33

Well, hey, I'd love to be a guest on on your call, or however you want to do it. They would love that. Let me know. Okay, well, thanks again, and keep posting those amazing jewelry sales. That's just you're doing it. We'll try. Okay, see you soon. Bye, that was such great information. Thanks again for coming on the podcast Carrie next week. My guest is not only an eBay friend, but a friend from life. Catherine and I have been friends since 2013 and some of you in the Facebook group know her because of her very entertaining antics, she just keeps us laughing. You'll really enjoy that episode. Thanks so much for supporting this podcast now go tackle those death piles, happy selling everybody see you next week. Bye, bye, you