eBay Seller Chat with Rachel in Kansas: Books, Magazines, Quilts, Ice Cream Freezers - Keep Evolving with Life 🥰

Join my online school for eBay sellers here.

Set up a consulting session or listing review Suzanne@SuzanneAWells.com

Email your comments, feedback, and constructive criticism to me at Suzanne@SuzanneAWells.com

Join my private Facebook group here.

Find me on YouTube here.

Visit my website here.

Happy Selling!

Transcript

Suzanne Wells: 0:19

Music, hello, eBay errs. Welcome to episode 214 of eBay the right way. Today's date is April, 23 2025 and my guest is Rachel in Kansas. No announcements this week, since I bombarded you last week, so we'll go right into the conversation with Rachel. Hello listeners, welcome back. I have Rachel with us today, and Rachel is very busy, so I appreciate you working me into your busy day.

Unknown: 1:01

And where are you located? So, I am in south central Kansas, in a relatively small town called Hutchinson. We are about, oh, let's see. I wrote this down 3039, miles from Wichita. Yeah, just a small farming community central Kansas. It's kind of a flyover state, but kind of like that, because I like the wide open spaces and the lack of congested areas. So yeah, I've

Suzanne Wells: 1:36

been watching the Smithsonian channel, aerial America. Okay, you ever heard of it, but it's all filmed from the air. Oh, wow. So I just watched the one on Kansas. Oh, really, it was like, grain elevators and feed lots and farming and, well, it's whatever film from the air. So it's going to be that kind of stuff. Yeah, in western states, but it let's see. Amelia Earhart is

Unknown: 2:05

from there. Okay, yeah, yeah, a lot of you know airplanes. And Wichita has airplane factories,

Suzanne Wells: 2:15

manufacturers, right? Yeah, they showed a Boeing factory anyway, exactly.

Unknown: 2:19

Yep.

Suzanne Wells: 2:21

It's an interesting series, because it's all from the area. Well,

Unknown: 2:24

every area you know, one of the things that our small town is known for is we have a an underground salt museum here. So there are internationally like, it's internationally known because they house some original camera negatives from like, movies like Gone With the Wind, and it's a museum. You can go tour it. I personally have never done it because it doesn't really appeal to me to go 650 feet under the earth.

Suzanne Wells: 2:53

Yeah, that's that's already lacking, yeah, but

Unknown: 2:57

it is something that we do have going for us here. So very interesting. But

Suzanne Wells: 3:01

are there some random salt formations,

Unknown: 3:05

um, like above grounds,

Suzanne Wells: 3:08

yeah. Or maybe I'm getting confused with a different state. Oh, there I'm um,

Unknown: 3:11

there are salt flats, but I don't think that's here. Okay,

Suzanne Wells: 3:15

yeah, there several Midwestern states in Oh, yeah, probably, yeah,

Unknown: 3:19

ours is all underground, so there's definitely salt here, but it's under the Okay.

Suzanne Wells: 3:25

Now, is this where you're originally from? Or did you know?

Unknown: 3:30

No, so my husband and children and I moved here in 2014 okay. I do have family here. My parents and some of my siblings are here, and they moved here in 99 so my husband and I had lived together in Pennsylvania for 13 years with our family, and then we moved here to be closer to my family in 2014 and that's okay, yeah, we've been here since then, so 11 years. So yeah, okay,

Suzanne Wells: 3:57

wow, that's a long time. Yeah, okay, well, we got all that out of the way. Yeah, I always like to say where the guests are from, because you might be contacted by other people in your area that are sellers. And yeah, it's an isolating business, so it's good to have eBay friends that you can meet up with sometimes and share information and support each other. So you probably will hear from some people that, oh, maybe there, because that happens every time. Well,

Unknown: 4:29

you recently had somebody on, I think, from the Wichita area, and I was like, Oh, I'm gonna have to look for her when I'm out and about it, estate sales and stuff. But yeah, so Okay, good.

Suzanne Wells: 4:40

All right, well, and then the next question is, when did you get into eBay, and how did that happen?

Unknown: 4:47

Sure. Well, I looked back on my, you know, how long have I had my account? And I've had my account since 2014 but that was kind of in the when i. Use the account, then it was more or less just like buying or, you know, getting rid of some things. When my children were smaller, if I needed things, I would, you know, look to eBay or whatever. So I wasn't really like using it a lot at that point. But, um, in so in 2017 for about just under two years, I had worked for an estate sale company locally here. And during that time, you know, I was exposed to a lot of people that were resellers. And then my friend Rosanna, actually, you had her on the podcast, I think, yes, okay, 22 or something like that. Yeah, she, she and I were and still are regularly in, you know, contact. And she was telling me about her eBay business, and she's like, Oh, Rachel, I just think you'd be so good at it. You have such an interesting eye. And she kind of planted those seeds in my mind that, well, maybe this is something I should think about. And then in 2019 I was in another job that I wasn't super fulfilled with and by this point, all my children were in school, so I felt more like I had an opportunity that I could, you know, pursue making income to help with raising a family and such. And I thought, well, maybe I should try this. And so I kind of just dipped my toe in and, you know, sold a few things here and there. Well, the thing that really, kind of, like sparked it for me in 2019 was I was at a local thrift store, like a ministry type of thrift store, and I found a pair of Gucci men's shoes. And I thought, This is crazy. They were $7 and I looked at them, and I was like, well, for $7 you know, I'm going to take the risk and take these home and see, I was a little nervous because I didn't want something that was fake, you know, to get me kicked off of Ebay or something like that. But I brought him home and researched as much as I could, and I was like, Well, I'm going to list them. I list them for like, I listed them fairly high for, like, 275 and I thought, well, you know, we'll see what happens. And immediately, you know, I'm getting watchers. And then I started getting low ball offers. And I was like, Yeah, I don't really have to sell these for, you know, I kind of wanted$200 because I wanted $200 to do something specific with. And I thought, if I can get two, $200 I'm going to do it. I want, you know, I got an offer within, like, less than a week for $200 and I was like, I'm taking it. Well, I sent him off, and, you know, they got him and everything, and I didn't hear anything, but so I thought, well, all, you know, no news is good news. So that really, kind of, that was kind of the spark that really got me going into eBay. And what a good time to get into it right before 2020 you know, we were all then stuck at home, so I really got into it as a at a really good time

Suzanne Wells: 7:52

right now. How old are your kids? Sure?

Unknown: 7:55

My oldest is 21 I have an 18 year old, a son that'll be 16 tomorrow, actually, and my youngest is 12, so yeah,

Suzanne Wells: 8:03

okay, you got busy. Busy? Are they all at home? Yes,

Unknown: 8:08

um, my 18 year old daughter is currently gone at a Bible school for like, three months. But yes, they're all still at home. So yes, a very busy season. Very busy lifestyle. Okay,

Suzanne Wells: 8:20

okay, good. Well, you post on the group a lot about your sales, so I picked on you. Like to get her on here, although your name is you and your husband, I

Unknown: 8:34

know, right, yeah. So, like, is this? Are they both doing this, or

Suzanne Wells: 8:37

just how the account is set

Unknown: 8:39

up? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we just share the account. So does he help with the eBay part, you know? So he has a full time job outside the home, but he is very supportive and very enthusiastic and like, he's like, today, I said something to him about, well, you know, I'm hoping to go to a couple sales this afternoon. Is like, jokingly, oh, I'll just skip out and I'll go with you. So, yes, he helps me as he can, but it is not something that I necessarily count on. But, yeah,

Suzanne Wells: 9:08

okay, good. You know, sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't,

Unknown: 9:13

yeah, yeah, no, he's always down for, like, if I want to, like, last fall, we actually went on a there's, I mean, in lots of different areas, there's, like, these 100 mile yard sales. And so we did a weekend trip, did 100 mile yard sale in southern Kansas and Oklahoma, and that was just a good time. You know, he's very supportive of me doing this,

Suzanne Wells: 9:37

yeah. Okay, good. Well, you are prepared with notes. So, yeah, into talking about some things that you've sold and the stories behind those items, yeah, well,

Unknown: 9:48

I thought about, you know, where do I start? Where do I stop? But, like I said, when I got into this, like, right? You know, end of 2019, into 2020. I. That was just like, it's, it's, I can look back at that and think, oh, man, those were the good old days, because it has changed a lot for me. That was just like, just such a good time for eat, for reselling, because we were at home, and there was different opportunities, at least from my area and from my perspective. And one of the things that this is probably just one of my favorite stories about things that I've sold is early in the spring of 2020, you know, we'd all been like forced into homeschooling our kids. You know, schools shut down and all that, and my kids go to a private Christian school and but we were still affected. We had to, you know, finish up the year at home, and it was very stressful, and not something I was interested in doing homeschooling. But so in the spring of 2020, like, I think it was like in June, I was on Facebook marketplace, and I saw this listing for it was a local church that had bought a public school that had closed a few years ago. They had bought the facility and all of the contents, and with that came all of the curriculum that was with the public school. And one of my friends here in the area that had is part of that church had bought the building. She had advertised all the curriculum, and it was a picture of like, you know, this big shop room with just boxes and stacks of curriculum, and she wanted $50 for all of it. You had to take everything. And I thought, Oh, my now, that feels like an opportunity, because I'm not the only one forced into homeschooling, and, you know, my kids are. We have to figure out what we're going to do. And people were, you know, reassessing what they were going to do with their children. So we went over and looked at it, my husband and the kids and I, we took our truck and we took my SUV, and we loaded up the back of our pickup truck with books and the back of my SUV, it was an actual truckload of books we got for $50 and we brought it home. And we have, we have a small property with, you know, out buildings and stuff. So I had space to put it, put it on some shelves out in the shop, and went through it. And little by little, started, you know, photographing and listing. I made 1000s of dollars from that$50 investment, because everyone was in, you know, we were all in a crisis together, and we all had to figure out next steps. And it was just a great opportunity, because people were in need, and I saw it as something like, I can fill this need. It was just really fascinating. And, I mean, I was shipping out books every day. It was just incredible. People were just, you know, they needed books. And I literally, I mean, like I said, made 1000s of dollars. But up until just, I think it was the end of last year, first part of January this year, I told my husband, okay, we've sold all the good books. And I'm sick of these things. You know, some of them were really obsolete, and I knew I wasn't going to sell them, so I was like, Let's get them out of here. But I was looking back on some of my sales, like, even in the last year, I had sold a lot of seven literature books. Now, some of these books weren't like, you know, $20 books or anything. But even if they were$10 books, you know, I when I first started selling them, like, I sold three books and I paid for the whole truckload. And there was hundreds of books, you know, I just kept selling them. Well, last year, I sold seven books and they went and they went to somewhere I was never aware of. It was called, say, Pan Marianna islands. I didn't even know it was place. But anyways, you know, somebody bought 70 of these books. They must have had a small school. So it was just really fascinating too, because they went all over the country. I'm not sure that there was a state I had not sent books to so that's just probably one of my favorite, you know, eBay stories, of things that I sold that was super interesting and just a good time. Were

Suzanne Wells: 14:10

they textbooks or just random? They weren't text. They

Unknown: 14:13

were textbooks. Sorry, yeah, they were textbooks, as well as, like, teachers manuals, just all kinds of resources for, I mean, all the different subjects, but, yeah, they were textbooks, so workbooks, All

Suzanne Wells: 14:29

right, great story. Yeah, you never know when you can do these, um, bulk buys, right? If how long it's going to take to sell everything, and how that's going to go, but it when the price is that low per item, I know, I mean, you were into that for pennies per item, probably

Unknown: 14:48

exactly, and it was just a little pipeline of continual sales. You know, for for years, honestly, I would say the majority of them, I sold in the first year and a half. Half, because that was kind of when the you know, need was the greatest. But like I said, even up until the end of last year, I was still randomly getting sales on those books, so that was a good time.

Suzanne Wells: 15:11

And you're kind of like, all right, I'm ready for this to be over. I'm ready to be gone. Yes, you know, these have been sitting here for three, four years. Yes, you know, everything eventually sells, but there's, I call it the irritation factor of life. Yeah, I'm really sick of looking at it.

Unknown: 15:33

And that's where I got to with those books. I was like, they're out in the shop. They're kind of not hurting anything. But I'm also just, I'm just done. They just need to so, yeah, I didn't feel too bad to get rid of the ones that were still left,

Suzanne Wells: 15:45

but that's a successful story. So good for you. And random, yeah, COVID time was weird, yeah. So you got into it in 2019 and I will say that the summer of 2020, when everything back up and people wanted to be outside, and, yeah, I sold so much athletic wear. It just I had it Yeah, the stores, they didn't have things, right? Try it on, right? We're buying online anyway, or stores weren't open, or all those factors. And I just thought that was that was a great time for some eBay sellers, depending on what you had, because we have all this inventory in our homes, and it's not a supply chain issue we have, right? That's still valid today, yeah, when you can't find something, you know, eBay sellers have these items on hand in their home, and I love it when, you know, I go to Amazon and it's currently out of stock, that is a, you know, a win, because if it's not available and I have it, yeah. And sometimes you can command the price or it sells faster, yeah. So yeah, that was just a really strange time. It was depending on what you had, but yeah, yeah, but yeah, that that was a good buy for you. So yeah. And

Unknown: 17:20

another thing, like, I had over 2020, and 2021, I got into selling some things for a couple of friends. One in particular, she had, you know, it's funny, like, in my world, buying used, looking for bargains, that's that's something I'm very familiar with. It's just kind of a lifestyle. But there's people out there that that is just foreign to them, like she had all these very nice things, like a lot of clothes and shoes and purses, and she has extremely good taste. It's not like she's got a champagne taste on a beer budget, she's got a champagne taste with a pocket pocket book to, you know, support that. And so she and I connected through we actually, we were in a running group together, and somehow, through that, I ended up taking things from her and selling them, and then we would split the profit. Well, that was just another, like, I mean, it was just free money for me because I didn't have to go source. And, you know, during COVID, there were times when that was a little bit of a, you know, am I going to go today, or is it even, are the thrift stores even open. But I was getting just tons of stuff from her, and we were both doing very well. And, you know, selling things like Lulu Lemon and, like you said, like athletic things that people were, you know, really into working out. So they were buying all that stuff, like crazy too. So that was a really good experience as well, which, I mean, we both were very happy with how that turned out. But the funny thing was, like, when I would give her a check, you know, and I'd write down all the things that had sold, she just couldn't believe it. Because to her, why would people buy used shoes? Well, I'm like, oh my goodness, yes, they will definitely do that. So you just never know. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells: 19:20

it is interesting to talk with people who are not resellers, and they just don't understand the market. And or they would, they would, first of all, never set foot in a thrift store, because everything in there is used, and, you know, germy. And you know, they can get past that, although going a regular retail store at the mall that stuff is germy too. So, yeah,

Unknown: 19:43

yeah,

Suzanne Wells: 19:43

exactly. Or they just can't, you know, just because they wouldn't buy a used item for whatever shoes, clothes, toys, they can't fathom why other people would. And so it's just you, you got to get out of your own head. Yeah, you wouldn't do something. Doesn't mean nobody would. I know, yeah, it is definitely where the resellers, if you get that, yeah,

Unknown: 20:09

you if you just

Suzanne Wells: 20:10

go into it with an open mind and try to understand your customer and why they're buying it, the world is your oyster. You can sell anything.

Unknown: 20:19

Yeah, exactly. It is definitely a mindset. And I, you know, I would have grown up with a mindset of, well, you know, when you're raising a family, or you're in a family, you you gotta do what you gotta do. And I was always brought up with, you know, second hand, hand me downs, that sort of thing. So, do you have siblings? I do. So I'm the oldest of five kids. So,

Suzanne Wells: 20:44

yeah, so you got hand me downs from another family? Well,

Unknown: 20:47

if I got any, yes, I probably didn't get as many hand me downs as my siblings, though, being the old right?

Suzanne Wells: 20:52

Yeah, because I'm the second of four, and I had an older sister, and so I got all her stuff, yeah, um, my young sister, who's four years younger, you know, by then, the hand me downs were yucco, and so she got all new stuff. Oh, yeah, like, you know, the middle child syndrome I always get to use, but, you know, that's just the way it is

Unknown: 21:18

in a with a bunch of kids. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Okay. What else do you have on your list? Sure, so I kind of wrote down some things that I have. So when I go out looking for things to buy, I'm more I'm pretty drawn to a variety of things, but yeah, some things that I like to sell. I actually took a bunch of pictures of sold comps or sold, you know, things on my eBay. This was an interesting thing. I've actually sold something like this a couple of times. I had picked up some vintage like department store wrapping paper, like, big rolls, like, really pretty, but, you know, I picked the first time I picked one up. I paid $1 for it. It was a huge role, and I sold it for like, $130 Oh, wow. Then I picked up another role at an estate sale, um, last summer, I think it was $6 it was really cute. It was like a floral, you know, blue, green, orange, yellow, all those colors. And again, I sold it for like, $127 so that's just fascinating. Now, you know, it was kind of heavy, but it worked out okay. It wasn't a real it wasn't too bad to ship that. But that was kind of interesting, and that's something love finding.

Suzanne Wells: 22:42

Was it a specific brand or style? So

Unknown: 22:45

there were no brands on it. That was the other thing was really interesting. But you can tell, you know, it's, it's definitely vintage, and people want that kind of stuff. I have no idea, you know what? I don't know. I guess they're just using it for themselves, or, I don't know what they're doing it, but doing with it rather, but that's really interesting. Another thing that I'm not afraid to sell is periodicals. So I like magazines, you know, I don't currently have any magazine subscriptions, because I think they're kind of pricey to buy new. And I can get them at my library, but I'll pick them up, you know, at sales. And recently, I picked up a whole, I think it was like three boxes of actually, I have one some of them here. So they're these gardening magazines. I love gardening, so it's something that, you know, I'm going to look out for gardening stuff. And this person was a master gardener, so they had a lot of periodicals, like of older vintage gardening magazines. And I got the whole lot for like, 10 bucks. Well, you know, I'm not going to look at all of them, but I've looked at quite a few of them. Well, I lauded them up by year. So there's, like, here was actually, it was a couple years in a lot I had sold 23 of them. And I wrote on the listing, you know, what the magazine was and what the periodicals or what the dates were, rather like, 2015 to 2018 and that sold for like, you know, 28 bucks. And I had, like, I think I have, like, six more listings of those for, you know, 30 to 20 some dollars. Well, that's good money too, and they're easy to ship, you know, because they're media mail, so that's easy to do. So that's kind of fun. And I, I've sold several of those lots already, so I easily made my money back. Actually, I made my money back on the first sale of those. And I've sold three or four of them, and I have quite a few left so, and I've sold some, like, people probably know this, but like Magnolia home, I think is what it's called, or Joanna Gaines magazine, you know, I've sold those only come out maybe four six times a year, and those are expensive magazines. But I've, you know, saved some when I've picked them up to make, you know, a full year's worth of those magazines. And people will pay that for them because they want to collect them. So that's interesting, in my opinion. I think that's kind of fun to sell that Well, I think that is

Suzanne Wells: 25:16

a product that might be overlooked, yeah, when resellers are out sourcing. You know, obviously you're going to see them at your library sales, but the more obscure it is, the better. Yeah, and you don't have to have all the issues. You can just one at a time. I sold some magazines back a long time ago, and it was something about building boats. Build your own canoe. And, yeah, it was like a woodworking but for boats, yeah, those sold for good money. Yeah, not everybody wants the information electronic.

Unknown: 25:53

They right exactly,

Suzanne Wells: 25:55

magazine you can carry around with you, and just the whole experience of holding it like a book, yeah? So just because we've gone to so much digital information doesn't mean magazines are not wanted anymore, right,

Unknown: 26:11

right? I like that too. I like I like looking at magazines. I like holding, you know, objects in my hand instead of looking on a screen. I get so tired of looking at screens. Yeah, just need to, just don't enjoy it. After a while, I want to just hold a piece of paper.

Suzanne Wells: 26:26

And I think there's something about the connection of what you're holding in your hand, and it goes into your brain. It's like doing math with a pencil, rather than like on a calculator or whatever. Something about the hand brain connection and photography can be so beautiful, it's just a totally different experience than looking at on screen.

Unknown: 26:46

Yes, for sure, yeah. Another thing that I really like to pick up, and I love finding, like when I look at estate sales, I often will look for, do they have quilts? I love selling quilts. I love picking up old quilts, and I've done quite a bit of that over the years. Like that's I have quite a few listed in my store currently, too, but recently so I I actually work part time in a furniture store where we sell handcrafted Amish furniture. And I work nice with an Amish man. And I, you know, I talk about my eBay business, and he had made some comment about, they have, they're getting ready for a farm sale, actually, this weekend. And he said, you know, they were also having a garage sale last fall. And he said that they had picked out all this stuff. And I asked him, I was like, what about you guys? Have any quotes? Oh, yeah, but nobody wants those. I was like, Well, I said, Well, I'd be interested in them. And he's like, Oh, really. And I said, Well, yeah, I would be. I said, you know, I'd like to look at them. And if we can come to a price that we both feel happy with. You know, I'd be interested to buy him. So the next time I worked with him, then he brought him into the store, and he had three quilts, which, to me, it's, it's, it's a little sad that nobody in his family wants them, but they were like his mom, and they were, they were old, anti handmade and hand stitched quilts. I mean, this is none of this, like machine quilted stuff going on here. And they were, they were beautiful. So, you know, I felt like I wanted to be respectful of like I wanted to give him a fair price, but I also wanted to get a good deal, but I also have had enough experience selling them and that I was like, Well, I'm pretty sure, I think I know what I can get. And so this is, like, I told him, this is the top of what I'm willing to pay for these. He had three of them there. I said, How would you feel about $40 a quilt? He thought that was great. And so we were both really happy with that. You know, I brought him home, got him listed, and I've sold all three of those. And the most I got was like 175 the Okay, I sold for 150 and 130 now, you know, maybe I could have held out for more, but I'm also not storing them forever, and someone else is enjoying them. So I do. I do love selling quilts. I just think it's a, it's a, it's a dying art. People aren't, you know, doing that as much anymore, but they're just so beautiful. And I love when I can find, you know, good hand stitched quilts that people will pay good money for. And they do, like, yeah, it's, it's really fun. And I've had a lot of repeat buyers with that too, because they're, you know, apparently they're, you know, following my store or whatever. So that's been fun. Now, can you speak to

Suzanne Wells: 29:52

how to tell if it's hand stitched? I think this was on the group the other day, yeah. But since you're in that world, can you. You some tips on that,

Unknown: 30:01

yeah. I mean, you can tell, like, I couldn't see very well on those pictures, but I thought, just from what I could see that those look pan stitch, the machine quilted, will just be continuous stitching, hand quilted, there's like a gap in the stitches, you know? So, like, yeah, that's the main thing I would say, Well, you know, most quilts would be machine pieced, wherein they've, like, stitched the pieces together with the machine. Then they, you know, would press them out and, you know, assemble, you know, the pattern together, sew it all together, and then they put a like a batting or whatever, in between the back and the top, the top being the quilt part. And then they would put, like a binding around the edges. But then they would quilt on the top of it. And that you, I mean, from my perspective, you can, you can pretty easily tell, because the machine stitching is just a continuous stitch. Does that make sense?

Suzanne Wells: 31:04

You have to look really closely at the stitches and there. If it's a good quilter, they're going to be pretty uniform, yes, but you can still tell there's some gaps. Yes, yeah,

Unknown: 31:18

yeah. There's definitely, there's definitely a market for that.

Suzanne Wells: 31:23

My eye out for a cathedral window. Oh,

Unknown: 31:27

I have one of those that my great grandmother made, and I'm really hard with that. It's,

Suzanne Wells: 31:31

I mean, you can get like, $1,000 such detailed, intense work is very, very very time intensive to make that particular one. So,

Unknown: 31:44

yeah, that's a beautiful piece of art. That's another thing that I guess you want me just keep going here. Yeah, absolutely. So, like I mentioned, my husband and I had gone to 100 mile yard sale last summer. And it was, it was Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and we had gone down Thursday morning and hit sales the, you know, along the way, and a lot of the sales were just, you just never know what you're going to find. And this was my first time doing this, so my expectations were pretty, pretty neutral. I was like, well, anything we find is great, because I don't know what to expect. And on our way back, like, out of town down there in Oklahoma, we saw a sign off to the, you know, off the road, and we took the beaten path. And it was honestly one of our last sales. And I found they had, actually three, but I only got one. They had the White Mountain ice cream freezers. Are you familiar those? Yeah, looks like a big wooden bucket, yes. And it was electric six court. It was the anniversary edition, and she had three of them. One of them was working perfect, and the other two, I think there was maybe she had said something was like, you know, they needed this, or for parts, whatever, and I didn't want to mess with that. But I got it for $37 which I thought was a screaming deal, and I brought it home, and I listed it right away. I listed it pretty high, but I was, you know, going to take a reasonable offer because I just wanted to get it out of here, because I didn't want to store it. But anyways, I sold that thing within a week for $300 and they paid shipping. I was so excited that paid, you know, for our whole trip, right? Great. That's wonderful. Of course. Then I was like, Oh, why didn't I get the other two? You know, I could have sold the parts or whatever, but we were kind of maxed out in our car with space,

Suzanne Wells: 33:50

right? Those are, they're not small, yeah? Well, six cores, yeah, that's pretty

Unknown: 33:55

big, yeah? But that was, that was pretty fun.

Suzanne Wells: 34:00

Yeah, that's just a fun summer time thing of family event. It's ice cream and yeah, but yeah, I've seen quite a few of those older ones. I don't know what the difference is, other than the obvious, they're they're more well made and sturdy and terrible. And maybe the newer ones, you know, crap out too fast. No, burns up, or they're not as big. I'm not sure what the attraction is, but people do like those older ones. They really

Unknown: 34:33

do. I had been at a sale not long before I found the one I got, and a friend of mine was there. We were both standing in line, head of the sale, and I we both were kind of eyeing each other up, like because we had seen it in the listing. And I kind of figured, when I saw him, I was like, Oh, I bet that's why he's here. And I was like, I don't, I don't think I'm going to try to go for it. I'll, I'll look what it's, what they're asking for it. And he ended up buying it. He paid. $200 for it because he was sure he could still, you know, make good money on it. So they are really valuable. I don't like you said, I don't quite understand all of why, but because you can still buy other ice cream makers. But maybe it's like you said, the nostalgia, I don't know, but yeah, it

Suzanne Wells: 35:17

might be, oh, we had this exact one. They just, it's a, it's a nostalgia thing, yeah,

Unknown: 35:24

and they are cool, but I was happy to get rid of it because

Suzanne Wells: 35:28

I didn't want that is a lot. That is a lot for an ice cream maker. So I know, plus

Unknown: 35:32

they paid the shipping. Yeah, yeah. Another thing that I found just trying to look here, I don't think I wrote down when this was, but I think, yeah, it was in the last year. I was at the local Goodwill. And, you know, as we all know, Goodwills are, they have not decreased in their pricing, which is frustrating, but I've just learned to shop different there. But I had gone back by the house, wheres and the purses and bags and stuff, and I saw this brown leather case, a small case. And, you know, I have a I come from a family of hunting and stuff, so I was like, I'm pretty sure that's a gun case. Picked it up, and sure enough, it was a vintage Browning rifles shotgun hard case, and it had the key, and it was 699 I was like, well, for 699 I'm going to scoop this up. And I brought it home, and, you know, oh, this is cool. And so I did some quick researching, and I thought, Well, what I'm seeing, I feel like I should be able to list it for I felt like one. I listed for 160 I felt like that was pretty decent. Maybe I could have got more, but I was like, I don't really want to again store this forever. I listed it, and within like, 10 minutes I sold it. Then I'm going, oh shoot, I should have priced it higher. But I was like, Nope, it's out of here. They paid the shipping. They were thrilled. I was happy. You know, I turned six bucks or seven bucks into 160 can't argue. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells: 37:06

you can't and just don't beat yourself up the price of the higher. Because I'm sure you know that buyers have alerts, yes, soon as it's listed, they get Yeah, I have several set up for things I'm always looking for, for my personal, yeah, self, right? And, oh, that got listed, yeah. And so it doesn't mean you price it too low. People just assume that. And that's not, maybe not at all, yeah,

Unknown: 37:38

exactly. But I was, I was I was pretty happy with that. And of course, it's always exciting when you can tell your family that it sold. You know that fast. They're always really into that with me. So that was fun.

Suzanne Wells: 37:49

How many items do you have in your inventory? Yeah,

Unknown: 37:53

right now I have about 470

Suzanne Wells: 37:55

Okay, so

Unknown: 37:58

I feel like that's a good place for me. Of course, I would like to see more, sell faster, but yeah, I feel, I feel happy around 450 that's

Suzanne Wells: 38:09

where I stay. And as one person, I feel like that's that's good, that's what I maintain. And yeah, you know, you've got this family and all these kids and responsibilities, and, you know, I've got my other things I do, and podcasts and videos and all the stuff. I mean, I don't think I could just be 100% Ebay. I think I'd get too bored. Yeah, I like having different creative projects to do, but, yeah, I would love to have more inventory, because you're going to sell more. There's just only so many hours in the day that you can focus on it. Yeah, I just don't know how these people, if, if they really do work on it 12 hours a day. I just, I just think that's a recipe for burnout. Yeah, that

Unknown: 38:59

that is commitment. I'm I have too many interests, and I have too many things I want to do in life. I won't live long enough to do all of them, let alone, you know, spend 12 hours a day on one particular thing,

Suzanne Wells: 39:10

good on people that can. Yeah, you can find items for $7 and flip them for over 100 you don't need to have as much. That's true. You make the money you want to make, and we always want to make more than we're making Exactly. There's no threshold of like, Oh, I'm totally satisfied with this amount of income. No, because it's, it's unlimited. You could exactly. You could work on your eBay 24 hours a day until, you know, you die, right? Still have not get it all done,

Unknown: 39:43

right? Exactly, endless, yep, exactly, which is such a great thing about it too. Like, yeah, that's the other beautiful thing about eBay is, like, you know, whatever season of life I'm in, I can it. Can adapt, you know, I can do more, or I can do less. Yes, and that's just been a real, real perk of eBay is like, whatever I'm in the midst of, if I can't fit it in, okay, it'll be there. I can pick it back up. This last year I had, you know, other life experiences and hard things going on, and I didn't do as much as I would have wanted to. And it's easy for me to look at that and think, oh, you know, compared to, you know, my eBay business two or three years ago, Oh, if only I was back to that now, but I was in a different season, a different set of events. So

Suzanne Wells: 40:34

yeah, it's okay, and I'm so glad you recognize that, because so many sellers get to the end of the day and they're like, Oh, I only listed eight things today. Yeah, I only did this. But those days add up. They do. So even if you just list one thing that's Yeah things a month, if you just doing one a day, yeah, more than the person who's not doing anything, yeah, exactly. It's, don't beat yourself up. This for the listeners, you know, look back at your day and say, Oh, I got this done and that done, and, well, it wasn't optimal because, you know, the washing machine broke, and the repair guy had to come, and my day was interrupted. And that's life. Yes, that's going to happen. And you're never going to have the perfect day where you're you're never interrupted, or you get as much done, my to do list is always way longer than I could possibly do, yep, oh, I just roll it over to the next day

Unknown: 41:30

it'll be there. That's yeah. I thought I would talk a little bit about one of my favorite places to source, as I've probably thrown in here a couple of times, is estate sales. I love estate sales. So like I said in the beginning, I worked for an estate sale company locally, and I I really loved it. However, it is very hard work. I'm not opposed to hard work. In fact, I have a very strong work ethic, but it was back breaking work, and I just got to the point where I was like, Okay, I need, I need something different, and it was time to move on. But I love going to estate sales, like I love going and seeing someone's, you know, life in their home set up for sale by a company, and seeing their house. Like last week, I went to Wichita for some estate sales. One in particular I wanted to go to because I knew this, the lady that does these sales, she gets, she gets the cream of the crop. From my perspective, she just, she lands the good sales, and she has good pricing. Like, I feel like, I go to her sales, and I feel like she's fair with her pricing, but she just always gets, like, these amazing homes. And this home was just like, I mean, it was just exquisite. It just everything in. It just evoked, like money, like, it was just incredible. And, you know, but along with that, like, so a lot of things were priced out of my range or didn't really interest me, but it was interesting to see. But along with that, like, you know, they can't, they can't know, pricing on everything, and they can't, like, get everything priced. Like, I was down in the basement at this sale, and I found a couple boxes of, like, vintage Christmas ornaments. And she had, like, can you see that? Yeah, little like, Father Christmas, Santa Claus. They're, they're vintage ornaments, and they weren't priced. And I took it up to her, and I was like, I, you know, there's a box of these down there. How much do you want? She said, Well, how about$2 a piece. And then everything was 20% off that day. I said, Oh, sure, that sounds fine. So I brought them all up there. And then when I was telling them all my stuff, they wanted me just like, go over the stuff that I had and and I showed her as like, well, I have, like, I think I had nine of these, and then there was three that weren't in boxes and didn't have the little strings on just like, up 20 bucks for the whole box. And I was like, sure sounded great, you know. So then I brought him home, and I could have I debated, like, do I want to list all of these in a lot? I went with the route of listing them individually. I listed them all for like, 15 a piece. So, you know, I haven't sold them yet, but I feel optimistic about it. And if they sit there, you know, too long, maybe I'll change my strategy and lot them up, or something like that. But I just think it's fascinating. And, you know, they can't see and know everything that they sell. And another thing that I got there that I'm kind of excited about is this pair of Porsche designed by Carrera, their sunglasses. Uh huh, they are aviator sunglasses. Oh, wow, yeah, they're pretty fancy. And there's two, there's two lens. Sets with it. I don't quite understand all of this about these, but I found them back in the one of the dressing areas they had, like a big walk in room closet with just racks of clothes and, you know, shoes and purses and stuff, just all, just all manner of exquisite stuff. And I found these, they were just thrown in with, like, a basket with other random, like, little bags and other glasses and stuff. And I didn't know anything about them. And I was like, well, Porsche, that's, you know, pretty expensive car, so I didn't have good cell phone service in there. And I was like, well, for $12 I can learn, you know? So I brought them home and showed my family and quick comps, and what I was seeing on eBay, they could be worth like,$200 so, you know, I can spend$12 to learn about a pair of sunglasses. So that was

Suzanne Wells: 45:58

kind of, yeah, yeah, you'll get that back at least. So, yeah, just get it in your hands and work with it and do the research and see how many, how much interest you get, views and offers, and just see where it goes, so you'll know in the future, right? Another thing about estate sales and getting bargains is they need to move that stuff out. They need to get it sold so you can some things are marked up, yeah? But for other things, it's like they can't mark everything up, or they're not going to sell enough stuff to make it work worth their time, because they're getting paid, right? What are they going to do with all the leftovers? Yeah? So Yeah. And, I mean, and you have a negotiating power too, yes, at least on the second day, yeah, you know, okay, everything in this box. How much do you want for it?

Unknown: 46:53

Yes, absolutely. And I, you know, some of the estates held companies locally here in our town, you know, I rub shoulders with these people regularly, and it's important to me to maintain respect for their pricing. I want to try to, you know, be willing to give what they want within reason. I mean, we all want a good we all want a good bargain. But, you know, when I look at the picture, like objectively, like these estate sale companies, you know, they're they have to pay themselves, they have to pay their employees. And you know the people that they're doing these sales for, whether it's an estate or a living estate, you know they're probably paying for someone's retirement or their children's inheritance. So I feel like, you know, it's a a fine line to walk. Like we like I said, we all want a good deal, but also like these people are just trying to, you know, do the best they can. Now, there's, of course, there's cases where it might not be just that. There could be other, you know, ulterior motives in mind. But I want to try to be respectful of the whole process, because it is someone's life. When you go into an estate like their home and their belongings, and, you know, the things they curated, curated in their lifestyle. So it, yeah, I just love estate sales, though. I just, I just enjoy them so much, and you

Suzanne Wells: 48:14

just never know what you're going to see. Because, Oh, this guy was into beer hats. Yes, I just bought a bunch of coffee burlap sacks. Oh, yeah. And the man was in the coffee business for his whole life, and so he traveled everywhere, and he had all these different bags that he had saved. Some of them still had coffee beans in them, yeah. And it's like, oh, this is very interesting. And that's one of those things is going to take a while for themselves, because they're not flying out the door like other things would. But yeah. So what you know, they're not going to expire. It's a utilitarian item that can be used for a lot of different things, crafts and home decor and sac race at your family reunion, whatever. Sure. Yep. Like, yeah, I just had a gut feeling, yeah, get those and, yeah, we'll just see how they sell. But you know, it's one of those things that I didn't pay very much for, and they'll sell for around 20 bucks. And yeah, like your books, it'll just take a while to go out the door. But yeah, you just never know what you're going to see that that person

Unknown: 49:23

was into, oh yeah, elected.

Suzanne Wells: 49:26

And I also have another thing I bought. It's an artist sketch book. Oh yeah, I got this one online, but apparently the artist was a cartoonist somewhere in New York, okay? And I looked him up, and he died 10 years ago. Oh, wow. His children must just now be dealing with his estate. But it's, it's all these where he's practicing drawing and of, you know, children and animals. Wow. It's very, very talented artists. And I just feel like, yeah, that that could be something like we go in a coffee house, just for people that, or maybe an artist museum or or just a budding artist that is interested in that. So I'm looking for more like things like that that are usual and very personal. Yeah, because I'll put his name in the title, Yeah, who knows, maybe some relative will find it and want to buy it and have it that that happens time, yeah? So that's cool, yeah, okay, well, we have about used up our time here. Any parting words for the listeners?

Unknown: 50:40

Well, I know you had asked me if I had any advice for other resellers, and I thought, well, maybe I do, and I think it goes back to what I said previously, like, grow and move forward and but be okay with where you're at, because who you are today isn't who you were yesterday or last year, and your life circumstances aren't the same either, and so you know it, but don't compare yourself. But keep moving forward, because, yeah, every day is a real gift, and we're given opportunities to, yeah, work with so I guess that would be my advice to just grow. That's

Suzanne Wells: 51:22

great advice. And you are not where you were six years ago when you started this. Yep. So yeah, you just keep growing with it. And this is a business where you will never stop growing, right? You will never learn it all, because new things pop up all the time, or we figure out what people want, and, oh, really they want that, because it was on this TV show that just came out last year. Yeah? So, yep, excellent. Well, thank you so much for fitting me into your busy day, and you said you're going to go to some

Unknown: 51:51

estate sales aside. Yeah, I'm meeting a friend to walk at lunch, and then I'm going to hit a couple of sales. So, excellent. Good for you.

Suzanne Wells: 51:58

Well, Happy hunting. I hope you find lots of great things. And

Unknown: 52:01

I'm sure you know, yes, thanks so much. Suzanne, this has been great. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells: 52:05

thanks for coming on. Bye, bye. Parting words today. Go back to Rachel's comment, referring to rising prices at thrift stores. She said, You just have to learn to shop differently. And she is absolutely right. We have to keep evolving and figuring out new ways to do this business, where some people see roadblocks, other people see opportunities. So think about it that way. You can also have the mindset of, oh, this is impossible. I can't do this. Or, Hmm, how can I do this? So become one of those, how people and I've seen so many things change since I started selling in 2003 but I've adapted, and so can you just keep rolling with it? Next week, my guest is Stephanie in Texas. Part of her semi retirement includes eBay, and she is a smart cookie. You will love her perspective, so don't miss that episode, and thank you all for listening and supporting this podcast. Keep working hard, but take time to nurture yourself too. Talk to you next week. Bye for now. You