eBay the Right Way
Learn how to sell on eBay the right way. Suzanne A. Wells has been selling on eBay since 2003 and has been an influencer in the eBay community since 2007. This podcast is designed for the full or part time at-home seller who loves the reselling process including the thrill of the hunt, rehoming used items, and building a home business they love. eBay is a way of life, not just a side hustle. Suzanne has been featured in Money Magazine, Martha Stewart Magazine, Women's World, and All You magazines as an eBay expert. You can find her on YouTube and Facebook as Suzanne A. Wells.
eBay the Right Way
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Music, hello, hello, eBay sellers, you have landed on episode number 216 of eBay the right way. Today's date is May 7. 2025 and my guest is Dana in Texas. No announcements today, so we will get started. Hello, listeners. I have Dana with us today and tell us where you're located. Um, Dallas, okay, Dallas, Texas, that is a thrifting Mecca. I hear, yes, well, we can talk about that more a little bit later, and we usually start off with what got you involved in eBay and when that was,
Unknown:well, it's actually a really funny story, and kind of a great story to tell. I had never really bought or sold anything on Ebay. I hadn't even ever been on the website at all, but I had been speaking at to us, just a small group of people, of therapists and moms. I have a son with special needs, and the one of the therapists who host these meetings had asked me to come and speak and just tell a little bit about my story, about my in my son's story, and part of that story is how we had paid for his therapies and his tuition to school he goes to just out of pocket, and I had just kind of done everything I could do. You know, I had sold essential oils, not really as a business, but I would start making bath salts before Christmas to pay, like, to have people get Christmas gifts for their teachers. And then the next year I did sugar scrub. And then, you know, one day I thought, you know, I could have a garage sale. And that was just a, to me, a like, new idea, because I really didn't love garage sales, going to them or having them. So I thought I have some things around here I could just throw out all my lawn. And my friend said, Hey, if you're having a garage sale, I was about to take some things to donation, why don't I just bring them to you, and you can add them to your sale. And another friend was with us, and she said, hey, you know me too. I have some stuff I need to go through some closets. And so that was my first garage sale, and I made, you know, a couple$100 and called it a day. And so that was a part of my story, how I just been selling different things. Those garage sales had kind of grown to I've kind of became the neighborhood, family and friend thrift store. They would just drop stuff up on my front porch, and I would end up having a garage sale, so about two times a year. And so this lady approached me after the meeting that I was speaking at and said, you know, Dana, I my husband is love clothes like a lot, and he served recently, and his kind of, his physiology kind of changed, and he went from a large to a medium. And he has all the clothes that don't fit him, but he's kind of attached to them, and he won't let them go. But I think if he knew the story of your son, I think he would maybe give them to you to sell. Do you think people do people buy used clothes? That's what she said. And I never having sold on eBay. Said, you know, I think people buy used clothes on eBay. And she said, Well, hey, let me talk to him, and I'll get back to you. And so I gave her my number, and he called me a week later and introduced himself and said, Hey, I have have some clothes. If you're interested in them, you can come get them. Well, I had no idea what I was doing. Like, I went to his home, and his garage was full of, like, those portable type Container Store closets, you know, like, and when it was all said and done, it was over 500 button front men's shirts from the cleaners. Peter Millar, ag Behar, Robert Talbot, I mean, just some really nice labels. There's 400 pair of wool pants like zinella. There were 100 Brooks, brothers bells, 400 pairs of pants. Yes, 400 pair of pants.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah, you could wear one every day for every year, and never wear the same one twice.
Unknown:I know, and I don't I guess you know he was just a clothes horse. I. Oh no. He just really loved his clothes. And there were 100 belts Brooks, all Brooks Brothers, 50 of them still had the tags on them, like$100 price tags, and 50 of them that he had worn a few times, I guess, each. And then a few pair of shoes like and still in the box, Cole Haan Allen Edmond, 200 cashmere sweaters, 200 200 cash. Oh my
Suzanne Wells:gosh. I would have been going out of my mind to get my I was
Unknown:that stuff. I didn't even know, because I hadn't even been in that game. I hadn't even entered the game yet, so I didn't even know. I was just so overwhelmed. But I thought, Well, okay, just jump right in. And so I also, also, there was, like, 41 pair of Under Armor sweat pants like that looked brand that he'd all been taken to the laundry, like, professionally laundered. You know, he didn't do any of his own laundry. So I, on the way home, my car wouldn't hold half of it, and so I had a little Mazda five, and I loaded it up and I on my way home, he lived about 20 minutes for me. And so I just called my friend who lives in a neighboring town, kind of a big home. She was like a 16,000 square foot home, and four of her kids had moved out, and so I knew she had some extra closets, and I just called her and said, Hey, I have a strange request, can I please borrow a couple of your closets for a while? And she said, of course, they're empty. And so I just drove straight to her house, unloaded. That load went straight back to his house, loaded up again. It took me three or four loads to get all of it over there set up in her house, I cleaned out one of my closets, a very small closet that I could afford to lose, because I live in a pretty small home, and just would restock about one closet and list that, and then go over to my friend's house and reload. And so I just kind of jumped in with a lot of good, really free inventory, with a lot of room to make mistakes, because I didn't have any overhead, you know, I didn't have anything really invested in it, other than my time. So that's kind of how I got started. And that was in 2013
Suzanne Wells:Okay, so you've been, you've been going over a decade, yeah, that makes it for you. Okay, so are you still in the clothing business? You
Unknown:know, I do now a little bit of everything that I want to do. There are some things that people so my whole that really set up, also just the way my business, or I don't even almost call it a business, it's, it's just this weird thing of people just give me things they don't want and I sell them. So I heart you when you said Dallas is a great thrifting Mecca. I don't really thrift much. I kind of cut out the middle man. I just have friends and family, and they will call me and say, Hey, I have stuff I want to get rid of, and I'll typically even come pick it up from them, or, you know, they'll drop it off, or it's just this, you know. And then people who need things, if they need them, they'll come get them from me, and I'll just give them to them, like it's been given to me. I can give it to them. And, you know, we just, I just kind of have an open hands approach to it, mostly. So there's things that I don't want to sell. And I feel like some like, this week, someone said, Hey, I have my mom's China, you know, from 1976 or something. And I'm like, I know there are people who do that, but I'm not one of them. So thanks. But, you know, just probably donate it or any any electronics. I'm like, no thanks. If I have to test an electronical electronic device before I sell it, I'm out, you know, I don't, I don't really like to
Suzanne Wells:do them. So are you doing a consignment split, or these items just given to you outright, for free?
Unknown:The great majority of them are just given to me. I do some consignment. I have one friend. She's a friend, and she, she has some really nice clothes. She, you know, has a personal shopper that shops for her. So she does a lot of her stuff for with the real real or but if sometimes she doesn't want to do the real real, or sometimes she just has things that the real real won't take, you know, she'll call me, and sometimes I'll split some things with her. She recently moved, and I got a whole lot of McKinsey child stuff, which I had not known. I mean, I'd kind of heard McKinsey child. I knew how to spot the the check you know, I knew how to spot the courtly check patterns, but I like, I'm not out thrifting for him. So I just someone had him. I knew what they were, but I had no idea the the demand for that little niche market. I mean, I I sold stuff on the BST Facebook groups or on eBay as well. The other day, I put some things, some silk napkins. McKenzie child, silk napkin, napkins with the little tassels. And I am. And they wouldn't sell on the BST. So I was like, I'll just throw them on eBay. And, you know, I sold them, like, in 24 hours, for 50 or $60 so I just those McKinsey childs people. That's something to look for, for sure, if you
Suzanne Wells:bowl, yeah, definitely. And for the listeners, a BST is a buy, sell, trade, Facebook group, yeah, that's just an acronym, yeah, so I didn't know what it was at first, either. Trade, okay.
Unknown:That's like, sometimes, you know, when people give things to me, I kind of just go through them and go, I think this would be best for eBay. This would be best for marketplace. This would be best for a BST group on Facebook or, I mean, I've been through so many iterations of selling like from offer up to, you know, five mile to just those, of course, do anymore. I've tried Poshmark, I've tried McCarry, I've tried those other groups. I don't really love them. I feel like eBay has been my mainstay. It's what I started with. And when people say, you know, eBay's days are over, I'm like, Well, I don't I don't feel that way. You know,
Suzanne Wells:is all rep still
Unknown:going? I don't think so. I just was like, thinking about all the things I've sold in all the different places, and it's like, Oh, wow. That's funny, that all those things have kind of come and gone, but eBay is remained.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah, that's my feeling, too. I've tried different things, not not as many as you, but I did do Amazon, I did Etsy. I did not even try Mercari, my daughter did Poshmark, and she was like, yeah, that's not going to be for you, because it's all the sharing and liking and all that stuff. You have to be on it a lot
Unknown:well, you have to, like, wrap things in a bow and you know, they want, they want things delivered to them as a gift. It seems. I'm not really. That's not really my I want things to be secure and all in one piece when they get
Suzanne Wells:it's funny to see how these different sites affect eBay, because when Poshmark started and Instagram, there's all those lifestyle photos like the fuzzy rug with the pretty gold, shiny bowl and the plant in the background, and it's like A sweater laid out on the fuzzy rug. And that's just way. That's called a lifestyle photo, and that's just the way they do it. But eBay does not like that. Yeah, they only want the item for sale in the photo because buyers could come back and say, Well, I didn't get the rug or the bowl or the plant, yes, and and open an item not as described, and like all that happened, you know, I get it. Why people are doing it? They're trying to make their photography uniform for all the sites. Like, I'm just going to take one picture and put it everywhere. But, yeah, it's funny how all that stuff changes what people do on eBay, because they're trying to make their process more streamlined and and then all the background removal stuff happened. I don't even know what year that was, maybe mid teens or something, but it's amazing how easy that is now. I mean, it was, it was an ordeal, like you had to go get some kind of photo editing software and do all of that and and even now, the eBay background removal tool isn't perfect, like it, it takes out too much, and there's no way to put it back. It doesn't have a put back tool, or it doesn't take out enough, and there's no way to erase it. So if you're really into that, like, you still kind of have to have a backup plan for background removal, because it's, it's not perfect yet,
Unknown:yeah, and I'm not, I'm just not that professional, honestly. Like, I I have, like, white background. Sometimes I use black, brown, black backgrounds, or they don't like that. Some things I feel like, just pop a little bit around black. But I'm pretty basic, and I I've actually had people give me feedback, say, like, how they appreciate that what, like, what they saw was the thing that they bought, and it was, you know, like, just a photo. It wasn't enhanced in any way. It's not right, right? I sometimes hesitate when I have a piece of, like, I just recently sold some art Prussia China, some antique china pieces and, like, plates, cake plates and stuff. And I have a little cake little stand, a little plate stand so careful to put in my description, no, it does not include stand like they want. You know what? What's in the picture? Yeah,
Suzanne Wells:you put a quarter next to it to show the size of something, and it's like coin not included.
Unknown:Can? Yeah? Can? Right? Yeah, show,
Suzanne Wells:you know, a standard size of something to show that, you know, a lot of people don't, don't do the background removal. That's fine. I wasn't judging anybody on that. I was just talking about the evolution of it. Because when it started, it was all about getting your item to show up in Google Images, and the theory was it has to have a white background. And that's so not true, because even then, you would see, well before Google lens or Google Images was invented, go on Google and you'd see all kinds of backgrounds and there, you know that was, the objective was to get your item higher and search. So everybody believed that, Oh, I gotta have a white background. So either they have that white background when they're taking the photo, or use an editing tool to remove the background and make it white. So that's where all that came from. And but it's crazy. You'll look at completed sold listings. And it's just something thrown on somebody's bed, you know, on their kitchen counter, and all this stuff is in the background, and it's early. Worst on there. They said,
Unknown:Yeah, the the floor, their tiled floor of their bathroom next to their toilet. And I'm like, really?
Suzanne Wells:Or the dog bowl? Yeah. It's like, ooh, that item was next to where the dog is eating. Yeah, it's just, I don't know that would be a turn off as a buyer. I wouldn't like that. But some people don't care. It depends on what the item is, I guess, yeah,
Unknown:what the price is too, I guess, good deal, right? Yeah, we're included, yeah.
Suzanne Wells:Or people will like, if they're out thrifting or estate sailing or whatever, and they find a great item, they'll just stick it on the front seat of their car and take a picture
Unknown:of it. You're so excited. Yeah,
Suzanne Wells:somebody can buy in in one minute. And it's like, in their car, and you see, like, the Wendy's bag, and it's like, I don't know,
Unknown:slow down a little bit.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah. Well, let's talk about some things you sold, because you pop up on the sales threads in the Facebook group, and so that's why I am picking on you to talk about some
Unknown:Yeah. Well, it's just I sell a little bit like I said, of everything, things that I and you asked earlier about commission. So you know, most of my stuff isn't but sometimes I do some some things, I do commission on some things, I try not to do it. If it's under $50 it just doesn't seem to be worth it after eBay fees and the hassle, but sometimes, if there are nicer items, I'm I'm willing to be fair with people, and honestly, the way the relationship I have with people, it's, you know, they know they're doing it also to support my son and his school and therapies and just our our life that I can't really have a typical job, and I can't really work a nine to five job because I'm a caregiver first. And, you know, he's in school now, and that's great, but when that school isn't in session, I'm 100% on, you know, he's full time. So, so they know that, and it's just a way that they, I think, help support me, but then I also are support him too, but my family, we I think some of the things I've sold that are, I think, memorable, I guess one one time this guy, my husband's co worker, wanted to he had a Michael Jordan rookie card, and it was graded. And I know nothing about cards other than most people say they're not worth it, right? Like, but this one was,
Suzanne Wells:yeah, it's very specialized. And yeah, you hear the stories of like, that one card sold for $5,000 but that's rare. It's like coins and, yeah, and those very specialized items that you know, there may be one coin with a misprint, and it's worth a lot of money, and it's just, it's a lot of time evaluating the in people who have cards like that, sports cards, they have a lot of them, yeah, or they just,
Unknown:and they know they know it. Or coins, all those little niche things that I just in life, let someone else make that money, right? Right? Knowledge, right? That he wanted to sell this, and I knew it was worth something, and he wanted actually to give the money to the local food bank. But he said, what I would like to do is, if you're willing to sell it on your platform, you know, I'll give you a percentage of it. And I thought, You know what, this could be fun. You know, this, this could be a fun little thing. So I did sell it. I think it sold for like, $2,600 really, yeah, and he gave me four or 500 for it. This has been several years ago, and he gave the rest to the food bank. And, you know, like, that's great. I it was a fun sometimes I like to sell things just because they're kind of fun. Like, can I sell it? Like, empty? Shoe boxes. That friend I was telling you about, you know, she has a Christian Louis Vuitton shoes, if I'm even saying that, right, or Gucci boxes. And people buy those empty boxes. And I, I, I'm sure they might use them for their own nefarious reasons. They might be selling and, you know, not legit stuff or whatever. I don't I don't really care what people do with the stuff I sell, as long as I'm legit on the front end,
Suzanne Wells:I'm like, Yeah, you, you can't control that anyway. So, yeah.
Unknown:Like, so I but also I think, like, some of those Gucci boxes people use for little gift boxes, or they're really nice and Louis Vuitton boxes, so I sell empty boxes. So don't ever like overlook those things. Oh,
Suzanne Wells:yeah, I just sold some last month. They were vintage hosiery boxes. Oh, really, they had, you know, the vintage chunky 60s art on the front, you know. But also, back to the shoe boxes and the like, handbag dust bags and things. Oh, uh huh. You know, they may have that exact item they just want to put it in the box, in their closet and have it all be nice and neat, like Oprah's closet, where everything is perfect, and just maybe they just want the box. Or, I've heard people that have either consignment stores or little boutiques selling, you know, used clothing and shoes that they want a box to go with a product they're selling in their store that is vintage or used.
Unknown:Yeah, I think it increases the value on, depending on their platform, it could increase the value
Suzanne Wells:right, right? So there's, there's legit reasons, Oh, for sure, you can't do anything about the Nike boxes, where people are selling fake Nikes and you know all of that, you can't do anything about it.
Unknown:No, it's not my I don't have to answer for that one. So, right, right. So a couple of other things I think that surprised me. One time I sold i Someone gave me some Cabbage Patch dolls and clothes. And I didn't I just, you know people I don't know. I just didn't have a whole lot of knowledge. So I thought, I'm just going to lot these clothes up and try to sell them. And I actually started on marketplace first, and someone immediately circled one of the one of the little outfits, and said, How much for this one? How much would you sell this one for? And so that made me go, you know, she would have just like, bought it for however. Hold on. Yeah, I would have just said, Hey, you know what fair I listed it for this or pay me this. But because she didn't say I want it. I was like, Oh, let me see. And so I did some research, and I'm like, Oh, I think this one thing is worth quite a bit of money. It's somewhat primary color, little cat pattern, Cabbage Patch, Kid outfit. And so, you know, I just, I just told her, you know, sorry, it's no longer available for sale. If she would have said she wanted it, I would have been upstanding and said, You know what? Here you go. But she didn't. So, you know, I just took it down and sold that little cabbage patch outfit for I undersold it too. I think I left, I think I sold it for $40 I left some money on the table. I think because I couldn't really find what it was, I should have auctioned it, but I didn't. And, you know it, I'm like, okay, you know, let let someone else have a good buy. You know, that's fine, but don't tell their
Suzanne Wells:story. I love it when buyers tip you off like that. And, yeah, there's like, the helpful buyers that, hey, did you know that this is worth you know, whatever, you should research this more. Yeah, ones that, you know, I only want that one. We want that part of it. And then, you know, they've tipped you off to dig a little deeper when you're right, they should have just bought whatever the lot was. And, yeah, and kept their mouth shut. You know, I do this business, the more I learn there's that you shouldn't share.
Unknown:Yeah, right, and with in that case, I mean, fine, you know, I've undersold things, but I'm kind of like, not going to stress about it, like I sold a blanket once. I didn't, I don't even remember the details of it, but I know I sold it for $50 and it sold pretty quickly. And then I went back and looked, and I'm like, Oh, I think I could have gotten probably three or three or $350
Suzanne Wells:for this, but only so I was
Unknown:a little disappointed. But I'm not one of those people, you know, you see on, I think, in your group, and a couple, and I'm in another group on Facebook too, you know, you see people go, Oh, I undersold this. Should I cancel it? And I'm just always like, No, I just say, let them have their good day. You know, they they got a good deal. I learned something. If I ever come across it again, I'll know better. But I'm not going to, I'm not going to do that. Just let them have their let
Suzanne Wells:them have their story. Well, you're not out there. Buying for resale as much as others might be, you know, we'll find things for $1 that we sell for 100 or more. And so, you know, we have our good days. And yeah, I had to learn not to beat myself up about that. You know, I made my money. Yeah, really? How much of this stuff is just circulating? Yeah, somebody buys it, and then they have it in their eBay store, and maybe it doesn't sell, and then maybe they decide not to do eBay anymore, and it gets re donated, and it just then somebody else comes along and buys it, and it's just this whole cycle of things circulating between people. And, you know, I've become more of a fast flipper than the, you know, then the long tail seller. I did that for years, and it's just, I just like to keep things moving. Yes, you know, I'm going to make good decisions, some things you will wait for. But you know you're you're turning that item over that inventory and putting that money back into more inventory. So you're doing that more times a year than you would with a long tail item. I sold something yesterday. I've had since December of 22 I remember the day I bought it. I did up to Charlotte and and hit some thrift stores. And I remember buying this item. It was a tie. I paid $2 for it. It finally sold for 30 but I was like, yeah, it seems like I've had this forever.
Unknown:You kind of have but then also, it doesn't take up much space. It's kind of some there's also that kind of listed and forget about it, kind of mentality. I have some of that for things, like, I list it, I inventory it. I I have just really two closets here in my home of inventory. So I keep things kind of small, because I just don't have a lot of space. And I, I don't, it doesn't, you know, listed and forget about it to tie. That's, you know, minimal space. Yeah,
Suzanne Wells:that, yeah, that's not a big deal. I'm just as my business evolves and I get older, I'd rather see the the faster profit and turn it over. I take lower offers than I would, you know, two years ago, just Yes, eBay is different. It keeps changing, more and more sellers and more and more competition, and you've gotta find the items that don't have a lot of competition. You know, I don't want to sell something if there's already 5000 of it listed. Yes, that's going to take a long time. So, okay, so you talk about those. You said dishes, some Russian dishes. Oh,
Unknown:ours Prussia. It's just, there's some just, I don't even know, I can't even describe. They're just the one you probably recognize. And maybe they're like a lot of floral patterns, and there's the ones that are kind of worth something. Are the ones with swans on them. I actually just sold the bowl yesterday. I had a plate I sold about four or five months ago, and I just put the bowl in the mail this morning. So it's not my it's not my style at all. But, you know, they came across my path and I sold, and then I also sell things like I do. I do estate sales too, actually, but on a small scale, like people who are moving or downsizing are changing. I've done three or four for people friends that are kind of changing from, like, a more traditional style to a more modern whatever, or farmhouse or whatever. And so they're selling a lot of their furniture. So estate sale companies might not really want to come in and do it, but I'll do it. And then they normally, they're friends. I bring my own stuff over. I get 100% of the stuff I bring for my inventory. And so that's also been a little way. So eBay is not my main, not my main thing, but it's been my constant thing. You know, I kind of hustle and do some other little things, and I'm a caregiver for a friend's mom one or two days a week. So I do that, but eBay has kind of been the mainstay for me. I think over the years,
Suzanne Wells:how many items do you have in your inventory?
Unknown:I think right now I have, I think I have only 280 which isn't many. I just did an estate sale three week, three or four weeks ago, mid mid March, and I took, I took the opportunity to go through my entire inventory, which I recommend. I'm not very good at it, but especially if you have so many items, it's so hard. But you know, things get dropped. EBay drops things like, I think when I went I had about 375 when I started doing this, about I did it about six weeks ago, and when I got through, I touched every item I cross checked it with, like, cross referenced with things I had in inventory versus the things I had listed. And it took a little while when I was. Done. I had like, eight things that were in my inventory that were no longer listed. I had three things that were listed. And I know I have sold and I and I know eBay says they don't do that, but I always say you should check because I know I sold it. I have a record that I sold it, shipped it, it was listed. I don't realist things from my own soul anyway, it's just, well, you
Suzanne Wells:know, it could have been one of those duplicate listings, and it was there twice and you didn't know, and then one sold. And, yeah,
Unknown:that little duplicate Lister tool is also good, yeah. And
Suzanne Wells:I checked that a couple weeks ago and it wasn't working. So I don't know if that's going away, or if it was just down for maintenance or whatever. But there is, if you Google, eBay, duplicate listing checker, yes or tool, the page comes up, but I put in my information and it just said, No, cannot process your request or something like that. So I hope it's still working, because I do, I do check that, like, once a month, yeah? Because, yeah, eBay does some wonky stuff and listings evaporate, and it's like, I don't mind going through my inventory a couple times a year, because then you have all this stuff that's not listed, and you can It's like Christmas. Oh, no wonder this didn't sell. It's not, yeah, alright, it shows up in your best offer workflow, and then it just stops showing up, and it's because it's dropped off.
Unknown:Yes, so I went through my inventory and called a lot of things that had been listed for a while that hadn't sold, and I took them over to that estate sale to sell them, so just to kind of clear out my inventory. So it's, I don't keep it to to my numbers too high, because it's not my only source of income. It and I don't have a lot of space, and I'm not really interested in trying to find more space. It's, I'm kind of keeping it at this level, you know, I kind of like what I have going. And I like that. It's, I'm not depending on eBay 100% you know, I like the income. It's nice income. Some months, I need it more than other months. But I'm, I'm not always, like, I'm not trying to grow a big business. Or, you know, I'm not, that's not really how I use eBay. That's why I'm just not super business minded. Honestly, I'm, I'm mostly, this is, honestly, this is true. I don't like things to go to the dump. I have a real like, I I just, I don't like it when things that can be useful to someone go in the trash it, it really bothers me, so I would rather be able to just get it in someone's hands that needs it, even if I give it to them, like, just more than if it goes in the trash. I really have a problem with people who are just like, I'm the same way.
Suzanne Wells:I just, I hate waste. I do too, whether it's food or money or, you know, whatever time that's a big one. And I just, I don't like to see things wasted. Now I I've seen pack rats that like, save every piece of board they've ever saw. And have, you know, they save all these things. Like, well, I might need that for a project later. And, you know, their shop is completely full of all this stuff. Or, you know, there you have to find the balance for you. Of, okay, yeah, I can get rid of that, but I'm the same way. It just, it's mind boggling how much stuff it's probably in the landfill. Mm, hmm, dump or burn trash that could have sold that or that, more importantly, somebody would have wanted, yeah, that's up to me. And that's such a I sold some perfume this week, and the lady was like, Oh, thank you so much for accepting my offer. This is for my 92 year old mom. They don't make it anymore. I'm going to give it to her for Mother's Day. She'll be so happy. And you know, it cost me 15 and I sold it for around 50. So I made some money on it, but it was more fulfilling to get her message. And yeah, for sure, I found that an estate sale. It was full nobody. That's what
Unknown:I was about to ask. I can't sell perfume on I always, I have, actually a special place. I keep people that give me perfume, because I don't even try anymore on eBay, like, I don't get, I know you can sell it like, what, as collector bottles.
Suzanne Wells:Well, you can't. It has to be either full or empty, okay, of the FDA rules for cosmetics, and that's what it falls under, even though it's a spray, and there's no way it could be contaminated. So what you could do. Do is, if you can, if it's a fun bottle, you can empty it out and then sell it empty, which is, is wasteful, or just use it yourself. And then when it's empty, you can, because I've sold Chanel and Gucci fragrance bottles empty, you know, I just sold
Unknown:a Chanel full bottle in the box, like three weeks ago for so I just sold that a friend gave it to me. She said my husband gave this to me so many years ago, it was still on the wrap. She's like, this is not my it's not my scent. Um, so she just gave it to me. She like, I might as well go to someone else so that I that's also I'm not a perfume wearer, but I know that there are definitely people out there that are looking for that one brand or whatever. So technically,
Suzanne Wells:the rule is fragrances have to be completely full, brand new or empty bottle. Yes, there are probably 1000s of listings on eBay for you can look it up. I see doing my research like 80% full full and you know, just if you want to try to sneak it in, that's on you. But is it worth risking your account being having the item pulled and possibly your account suspended for temporarily or forever? So I'm not a risk taker like that. I'll just I'm not either. I do have a Chanel number five that came in a lot of perfume that I bought, and the the squirter sprayer on top came off. And I'm like, I keep it's useless. I cannot get the other piece off around the neck of the bottle. Oh no. Like, there's no way for it to come out. It's half full. I'm like, well, I could empty it and sell the bottle, but then, no, it was just like, it's gonna be a loss.
Unknown:Things happen. The time invested is not worth it sometimes, yeah, because in the in
Suzanne Wells:the picture on the online auction, it had a the outer cap on top, so there was no way to know that the sprayer was broken. Mm, hmm. So sometimes you win. And then the other day, I bought a lot of needlework stuff, and most of it's completed. And in that Lot was the god bless our home, 70s groovy piece that I've got it up for $300 so I didn't even know it was in there. I'm that was my surprise. So
Unknown:my surprise it
Suzanne Wells:was just like a basket of needlework stuff. I could kind of see what was in there. And I won the whole lot for like 10 bucks. So
Unknown:that's a nice one. Yeah, I was just so completed needlepoint. I've done several of those two people just get, you know, sell them for cheap, or give them away, or whatever I have. I do say, I will say that probably five or 10% of what I do is thrift not thrifted. I don't really go to thrift stores, but I will go to estate sales. And I remember my first estate sale. It was probably seven years ago. I because I had started reading your your Facebook group, and started learning about different things, like I saw this estate sale sign. I kind of wheeled in and I saw these three Winnie the Pooh books. They were the 19, I think 1961 or something, first edition Winnie the Pooh books. And I thought, and books are normally like I was. I have a degree in English literature. I taught gifted humanities. I love to read. I I'm a book lover, but I, I'm not a bookseller. I, you know, I leave that. I know there's some money to be made, but I, like I said, That's not my thing. But I've sold first editions of some things. But I saw those winning the poo books. I kind of looked them up while standing there. I bought them for $9 all three of them for $9 and and sold them for 61 and that was the first time I had ever bought something to actually resell, about seven years ago. And so I was like, Oh, this I see. How come this could be fun too. You know, I I just kind of what people give me. I just see if there's value in it, and sell it, if I can, and give it away, if I can, and donate it if I can't, do either of those two things, so that I do sometimes now go into an estate sale and kind of look for the some kind of little deal. I'll say, I'll tell you. The thing I go to first is coffee mugs, for some reason, because they're always, like, 50 cents or $1 you know, coffee mugs at estate sales are so inexpensive. But I, I flipped several coffee mugs for, you know, I bought them for 50 cents and I sold them for 25 or 30, like, there's certain i. Um, my brands are all hand thrown pottery, which is something I have trouble selling, because it's, that's the thing. I don't like a lot of things. I'm not a collector of too much, but I do love hand thrown pottery, so I do have a little bit of trouble selling, selling those, if I come across them, but that's just the little, little things you go to right
Suzanne Wells:for me, coffee mugs take a long time to sell. Do you see that when you're selling them, it's,
Unknown:it's a hit or miss, and then I don't care, because I only sold, I only bought it for 50 cents. So if I end up giving it away, or selling it and or whatever, just clearing out my inventory, I'm like, wells, that's a 50 cent loss. They don't take up a lot of space. I have a little shelf. I probably only have now. I probably only have four or five of listed. I don't have a whole it's not like a whole thing. I do just always look for them, right? There's just a few that I look for, fire, those old fire King, oh, yeah, those, like, people don't know sometimes that they are selling that are selling them, they don't know. Oh, those are actually worth some money, right? Like
Suzanne Wells:the the character ones, or the ones that restaurants gave away, like the donuts and the Snoopy Red Baron and some of the more rare patterns, yeah, those are
Unknown:little Morton Salt ones, the little coffee mugs with a little girl with the umbrella. Uh huh. I just sold a pair of those recently. I bought them for 50 cents each. You know, I'm sold them for, I don't remember the number, but it was, it was more than, more than $1
Suzanne Wells:I think those are just fun to find, because, yeah, know that buyers purchase things for nostalgia. And I think sellers enjoy selling things for nostalgia, like, oh, I had this doll, or, you know, I had this exact Barbie outfit. Or, you know, we had this in our kitchen, the the funky, like, atomic Starburst clocks and stuff, oh yes. Or dishes like we go back to, yeah, that was in our kitchen. Everybody had that wooden spice rack, you know? And then you buy it, and you re put it up for sale, and you kind of enjoy it for a little while, and then you let it go to somebody else. Yeah, I know I'm like that, me too. And sometimes the things i i have nostalgia for, they don't turn out too well, but I enjoy doing it
Unknown:right? That's worth something too.
Suzanne Wells:Yeah? I mean, you have to enjoy it. If you're just doing this, just for the money, you're not going to do it very long, no, have to love what you're doing. Yeah?
Unknown:I see it as just a sweet way that to help, you know, to help my son, to help for his therapies in school and and actually, I do a thing. This might sound a little cheesy, but I keep a my husband named it, which he's, uh, we're just a little word, nerdy a little bit, but they call it my gratitude grid. And I started it probably not when I first in 2013 but a couple years late. So I started a spreadsheet where, like, I started with that man who gave me all those clothes, he's number one. And at the end of every month, I go through and I do a little inventory on marketplace and eBay, because those are really the only two platforms I'm selling on now. And I just kind of keep a add, add up all the things, how much money that I sold of their things and and it's just a little way for me to be grateful. And just, you know, just say a little prayer asking God to bless them for whatever you know, in return for what they blessed me with. And it has over 100 I think, has 109 or 110 names on it. Now, really, yeah, so over the last 10 years, since I started keeping that or really, 11 or 12. Now, you know, there's been over 100 people who have donated to to this cause, to my son's cause, and it's just a way of some able to stay grateful, and that's why I'm not really in it. Like, how much money can I make? It's like, how much, how much am I willing to open my heart and hands to receive, and how much am I willing to keep my heart and hands open to give? You know, like, it's, it's more that then it is a business mentality. I would fail miserably if I was having to, like, ROIs and blah, all those business terms that I'm just not very business minded. So if I was in it for that, I would have, like, jumped ship when
Suzanne Wells:I don't have to be. I think. The the word on the street, through social media and stuff, is, if you do eBay, you have to have this giant business, and you have to want to grow it to where you have employees and storage unit and all this stuff. And no, see, I started in 2003 so I've never wanted it to be that. And it kind of, kind of irritates me. That's kind of, that's why I do these podcasts and videos on YouTube, is to tell people it's okay to have it whatever size you want, whatever works for your life. Because I don't. I tried to grow it really huge, and I I ended up managing people. I didn't even get to do the fun stuff anymore. So I'd rather just have a business that I can manage. I can do more. I can pull back and do less when I need to. And I just I'm not a good manager. I don't want to, I don't want to manage people and hire them and have to know they do things wrong. And I got enough of that when I was a mom, you know, with my little kids. So, yeah, not having to explain anything to anybody about why I'm doing it this way. I just do it. If I succeed, I succeed. If I fail, I just don't do that anymore. Move on.
Unknown:And I'm a little bit too much of a control freak like to let go of that, like I don't want anyone elses work to influence my platform. You know, I'm a little bit, I think I'm a little too much of a control freak for that too, which is, I don't know if that's well,
Suzanne Wells:it's your business. And what I learned was these other people, they don't need skin in the game. Yeah, care if the pictures are crappy? No, I have very high standards. And even my daughter's like, No, I'm not taking pictures for you. I was like, I could. I could sell more stuff if I could get your help. And you know, this was way back when she first started helping me, and she did it for one day, and I was just,
Unknown:well, she made it a whole day. Yeah, exactly
Suzanne Wells:right. I know, because I'm just, I don't want to say OCD, but, you know, I got a lot of people looking at my store and my videos, and I'm just, I'm about high quality standards. And, you know, even these podcasts, I edit them so they they sound wonderful. And so that's just what I learned about myself, is, is better. It's better for me to do it and not do as much, but do it at the quality level that I am proud of and want to put out there so, you know, you don't have to have a big business and a lot of sellers, you know, retired, semi retired caregivers, you know, in that generation, just, you know, they do it for fun, to break up the monotony of all the seriousness of life, and it is fun when you get the sale or you find a great thing to sell, you know, brings joy to your life. And so for the listeners like you don't have to grow your business any further than what you're happy with. You don't need employees. You don't need to have 10,000 items. Just do it. What makes you happy and be consistent and keep going,
Unknown:right? That's how I view it. For sure, it's not anything in it to make, you know, fund some kind of retirement account. I'm just it's a fun business. It's a fun little side gig to do when I have time. And you know, like the past, honestly, the past eight or nine days have been pretty difficult with my son like and he had four days off for Easter. So you know, when he's home, he's 100% eyes on him. He's 17, developmentally, about 15 months old. So it's like having a full grown man with a capacity of a toddler, you know, and so he is full on 100% eyes on him. I don't, I can't really do a lot of work whenever I'm in, like, when he's in my care. So those four days I can't, I can't press through and just like, well, I'm going to list anyway, or I'm gonna, you know, I have to just give myself a little bit of grace and be like, No, this is my first job. My first job is to care and love on him, and, you know, make sure he's, he's safe and and cared for. You know, we went on a lot of walks and, you know, so there's just, I can't, I can't function. And and think of eBay as a business like,
Suzanne Wells:right, right. You don't need to and, and you are a special person called to do a special job with your son. So it's first for sure, well, but I think you're managing it very well. And. And, you know, working things in for yourself as you can. That's important self care. Yeah,
Unknown:I do try to, I try to go on one, you know, one solo trip a year. I started that Well, I hadn't been anywhere in 10 years. Whenever I had him, I didn't go. I didn't spend one night away from him for 10 years. Oh, wow. And I you just really, you can obviously burn out. Is a real thing when you're a caregiver. But I went on a 10 day silent retreat with some months up in New York. That was the first time I'd went away just to be quiet for 10 whole days. I love that. And it's I just did love it too. And I am I so I've been to a couple of places. I try every, every year, to get away for just 3345, days, Sedona. One year, I just got back from Arches National Park. I went on, I saw
Suzanne Wells:your pictures on Facebook that looked like an amazing trip.
Unknown:It was really, it was really great just in Sedona,
Suzanne Wells:with the the vibrations and the vibe of it, yeah? Really kind of grounds you, and I'm glad you did that for yourself.
Unknown:Yeah, it was good time. So he kind of helps pay for those things too. You know, that's a little Yeah, a little bit of mad sometimes. That's part of caring for Jonah, my son is caring for me, right?
Suzanne Wells:And that's a wonderful mindset, because, yeah, caregiver burnout is definitely real, and you have to be intentional and deliberate taking care of yourself. Because, especially us women like if you don't take care of yourself, nobody's going to sure you gotta do it so well. Thank you so much for agreeing to come on, and I wish you all the best, but you're balancing things beautifully, and we'll look for more of your sales on the Facebook group.
Unknown:Oh yeah, thanks. Thanks for doing that. That's been a real that's been a real help for when I got started, I think you were, you were what I went to first, what I found first. Okay, learn from first. So,
Suzanne Wells:yeah, everyone loves that thread platform. When it starts on Monday, it's just boom, comments just start. Everybody waits like, post my stuff. So it is. It's so wonderful that everyone will share their information, and we can great place
Unknown:to learn and to celebrate people and and to learn like bola is, like, always, like, just, or just, also just to celebrate what other people are doing and how, like, wow, that sold for, what, what, you know, it just being,
Suzanne Wells:who knew, right, yes, okay, Well, what do you do on the rest of today? Well,
Unknown:today, today's Wednesday, which is my day that it's kind of my down day. I don't, I don't work as a caregiver other than when I my son comes home. But like I said, I a caregiver for an elderly lady one or two days a week. Today's kind of my down day. I'll probably get off of this zoom call, and I probably will do a little bit of eBay, honestly, and then I'll probably go for a bike ride. It really rains and the sun now is shining, so before I pick up my son, I'll probably go for a bike ride around White Rock Lake and then go get him. That sounds great. Do it? That's the plan. Okay. Well, thanks
Suzanne Wells:again for coming on and on Facebook.
Unknown:Thanks for having me. Bye, bye.
Suzanne Wells:And now on to parting words. Yes, offer up is still an active site. There have been so many community selling sites over the years, it is hard to keep up with all of them if you don't use them very often. So offer up is still there next week, my guest is Nina, who lives in a rural part of Oregon, so her sourcing is a little different, and she reached out to me to come on the podcast, which I love. So any of you listeners that would like to be a guest, please get in touch with me. My contact information is below, or you can reach out to me on Facebook, or my email is Suzanne at Suzanne a wells.com thanks for listening everyone, and I will talk to you next week. Make it a profitable and productive week on eBay. Bye, everybody. You