eBay the Right Way

eBay Seller Chat with Kathy in Wisconsin: Strong Polish Work Ethic, “Whatever IT is, You Figure it Out” 💪

• Suzanne A. Wells • Episode 218

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Suzanne Wells:

John, hello, resellers, you have landed on episode number 218 of eBay the right way. Today's date is May 21 2025 and my guest today is my good friend in eBay and in life, Kathy. Announcements, there are none this week, but hopefully there will be a big one next week, as I am plowing through a project I want to tell you about. So that is your teaser. Now I want you to meet Kathy. Hello, listeners, I have a very special guest this week, a very special friend, and long time eBay. We associates. Yeah, it's Kathy. And tell us where you're located. I'm

Unknown:

outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, just a suburb of Milwaukee. Yes,

Suzanne Wells:

you are. I have to throw this in before I forget, because I always think of you and the Green Bay Packers. I found a sweater down here in the South last year, one of those crazy, ugly Christmas sweater things and Green Bay Packers, and I sent you a picture of it, and I was like, Look what I found down here. And it sold right away.

Unknown:

Of course it would sell.

Suzanne Wells:

So you told me a very interesting fact about that football team that I did not know about, why the fans are so devoted to their team.

Unknown:

They're owned by the community there, and I'm going to have my numbers wrong, but it's somewhere around 30,000 shareholders own the Green Bay Packers. It's a very interesting story. You can go anywhere in the world and find a bar or a community of people that will be watching the game or share the game with you. We have been everywhere. And, you know, Packer backers, wherever you see them, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

well, I didn't know that. I'm not a real sports watcher, so I did not know that. But that explains their what's the best word for that? They're just very hyped up. There's a

Unknown:

loyal, you know, there's a huge loyalty. So season tickets are about the last time I checked they were 12 to 14 years out, because people will them to one another. They will their to their families. It's very interesting franchise.

Suzanne Wells:

So I love that. So thank you for explaining that now I keep my eyes open for Packer stuff, sure, and because it just sells, yeah. So

Unknown:

it's unique, for sure.

Suzanne Wells:

Um, but we, we came together. I think it was 2010 something around there, because I was doing some coaching, and you were one of my clients, and we stayed in touch over, Gosh, 15 years been

Unknown:

that long? Yeah, I think I was one of the when you started the Facebook page, and it used to be stay at home, mom selling on eBay. I was kind of in that first group of people, yes, um, so yeah, I've been on there very faithfully, yes. So

Suzanne Wells:

that was in like, 2000 fourteenish. Okay, but anyway, so can you recap, like why you were looking for eBay coaching, and what your life was like at the time? Well, back in 2003

Unknown:

we were not big concert goers. I'm trying to think how many we had, four kids over a 10 year period of time. I had a cleaning business, commercial cleaning, so I worked second and third shift. So we were co parenting. You know, one of us was home during the day, one at night, but my life was very crazy busy. And in oh three, we bought some tickets to go see the Dixie Chicks. We are not concert goers, right? We really wanted to go to this concert, and for whatever reason, we couldn't go. And it was a huge investment for us. And my husband's like, I wish we could sell these tickets. Like, back then, I, you know, the internet. I don't even remember what it was, but it wasn't what it is now, right? Um, so he said, Hey, I saw in that, you know, eBay, you can sell tickets there. And I said I'd like to try. I've always enjoyed buying things and or finding things people are looking for, finding great brands at garage sales. You know, I used to do that just to make ends meet and and whatever. So I opened up. A PayPal account, opened up my eBay account, put those tickets out there, and my husband said, we can afford to lose, like, maybe$20 on these tickets, but don't give them away. I you know, it was our hard earned money, and like I said, we had a house full to to feed. Um, so I put them out on eBay, and we made two to$4 on the sale. And it was so easy, and I put them in an envelope and I mailed them, and I was like, Okay, this was fun. And that's what started. I got really engrossed, and I would, you know, look at eBay and what it was, and try to sell little things around the house. I had heard you once say, I started picking up things around my house, putting them out on eBay, and that's how I started. And I thought, I can do that. And I did a Craigslist or whatever else was out there at the time, just I enjoyed the flipping process always have. So then I realized that burning the candle at both ends was killing me, and I wanted it to truly be profitable, not just my side hustle for fun. And that's why I signed up for the coaching, because at the time, I thought I could do it full time, and I thought I would be good at it, and that's what brings me here today. You've asked me to do this podcast three times,

Suzanne Wells:

and give up on people I love.

Unknown:

But last week I listened, or two weeks ago, I listened to two of these podcasts back to back, and it brought me to think that I might be a source of encouragement for people who don't think they fit in the mold for life reasons and personal reasons. I didn't fit into the I can do this full time and make a six figure income. I copied everybody, and it didn't work for me. So I never thought I was worthy of being called an eBay seller. Oh no, and it's true, and I've done this for all these years, on and off, hot and cold, but I never kept a store of 400 items. I'm overwhelmed when I have a pile. I I, I could, you know, I look at this picture and think there's gotta be a lot of women out there like me who have kids and parents to take care of and all the other responsibilities and just can't, you know, don't know where they fit in. So I'm hoping to be a source of encouragement for that, because I've done really well, and I have a blast with it, but it has to be okay that the business changes as you change, and there are not many businesses that can right?

Suzanne Wells:

Well, I want to speak to the source of encouragement, part, because I just admire you so much. And back when I was doing the coaching, I was a single mom. I only had two kids to take care of, but you just had a work ethic that was just so admirable, and you and your husband both just are so devoted to your family. And I just loved our coaching sessions and hearing about your life, because one thing that stuck with me was your four kids, and I think every one of them had some kind of dietary issue or some kind of something about your meals, and you're like, Yeah, I've got eight meals figured out that everybody can eat. And that's what we're having. Because I think one had maybe celiac, and

Unknown:

yeah, and currently, three of them are diagnosed celiac. Three of the four, one had, one had nothing, and, oh, okay, okay, she was just so over and wanted to have a regular donut in the house. But not only that, the youngest had other autoimmune so I had my fourth baby business, and you know, I was again, burning a candle at both ends, our cleaning company, my cleaning company, my husband works a nine to five job. He thought I was a bit nuts, but it worked for us. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

and you would talk about you would clean office buildings at night, yep, and we wanted to be Yeah. You wanted to be home with your kids to get them off to school, and you wanted to be home when they came home from school to help their activities. And boy, those kids were active. I remember seeing sports, and a lot of sports. I think all the girls ran track, and, you know, they were always involved in their proms and their all the things. And you just, you're just like, Gold Star mom award.

Unknown:

Not really well.

Suzanne Wells:

You put on, you fake it till you make it, I guess. But you know, what I'm seeing was like, boy, she she's a worker, and she gets everybody they need. And so you were, and are just a big inspiration to me. And what you've got three weddings in two years going on now, they're all grown up. And. You're back to eBay.

Unknown:

No, I really, I appreciate that. Um, everybody out there listening knows that that's your online you know, that's my online face that I showed the world, but I did. I'm the first generation American. My parents immigrated here from Poland, and they taught us that work ethic, whatever it is, you figure it out. And I turned my hobby, my my love of thrifting and flipping into some good cash into my house up up to this point, you know, I've prayed paid for Disney trips. I paid to go get the the hair treatment, or take all my girls to, you know, whatever.

Suzanne Wells:

Um, well, and they, most of them, went to college, didn't they?

Unknown:

All four kids went to college. That's

Suzanne Wells:

just crazy. Yeah. And that, yeah, to get them there, yeah. Our

Unknown:

youngest is currently married, living in Germany, to someone in the military, and they're both finishing up college online. She's 22 years old. She's 22

Suzanne Wells:

that little one, yeah, I think she was like, yeah. She was like, eight or nine when we when

Unknown:

she was born, the world turned upside down because she just her immune system wasn't functioning. We almost lost her a few times, just because her immune system wouldn't, wouldn't fire, and it just snowballed into the two of the older kids getting sick at age 16 and 10. And I was thankful to be home. The staff I had that cleaned for me if I needed to be gone. They just picked everything up. They were really I was blessed to have them. And, you know, I was really blessed to learn more and more about eBay because it was my mental I relate. You know how it you know how it is you go into a thrift store and just that smell? My husband will not go. They'll sit in the car. But I'm like, I just need to go to st Vinny just, and he's like, go if you need to go, go. Just walk around and smell everything. And you know, you're so relaxing. And if I pull out my Google lens, we're done. I'll be in there for far too long. But, you know, and I love that my kids are thrifty. My daughter is 28 she came over for the holidays or whatever, and the way she walked in, and she was kind of moving her shoulders. She wanted me to notice her coat. And I said, Oh my gosh, I love that coat. And she goes, I got it for six bucks, you know. And then something, we're playing a game. And I said, Oh, your jewelry is so cute. I buy all my jewelry at this thing. Everything's $9 and under, and they, you know, well, you'll have to come with me. It's once a year. My kids all get into that. My son was going to Valparaiso University, and he realized how expensive things were outside of my home, and all of a sudden, you know, he didn't have enough warm shirts or whatever it was. He goes, I didn't take enough stuff. I said, I told you, like, what do you want from me? I'm two states over, and he told me he went to Goodwill or some thrift or whatever. And he goes, Mom, I got these really expensive flannel shirts. Do you know how much they are at Bass Pro Shop? I got them for 499 a piece. I have a whole wardrobe

Suzanne Wells:

pride that they're getting great stuff and not spending that much money on it.

Unknown:

Well, when they realized that they but they do it for themselves. My son just swung by the other night and he goes, Yeah, I was doing a marketplace pickup. He can afford to buy whatever he wants. He still does this, you know, buy and sell on marketplace. So I love it. They they've learned a lot good,

Suzanne Wells:

good for him. So you took a break from eBay because you got a job in Florida. Yeah,

Unknown:

in 2020 I lost my job here. I closed my cleaning business after 23 years. Oh, I went to run operations for someone else here in town, worked for them for a little over four years. I loved working for someone else because I didn't have to worry about taxes and things. It is a bit easier. Yeah, it's you can use your skills and you don't have to think about the rest. I love people. I love being out there. And I had a great team of people. And then Milwaukee shut down 2020. Happened. I would never thought to move across the country away from my kids, but we didn't know what was happening. If you remember, someone offered me a position in Florida, in Pensacola, and we were there for 18 months for family reasons. We came home, um, my mother in law passed away while we were gone. It was just a lot. It was all that COVID stuff. And we ended up coming home and we we were glad we did, and we just kind of picked up and moved on. I did not do eBay down there because I my husband said, if you want to get back into it, that's great, but we can't have that pile of stuff. We didn't pay to move that stuff to Florida. I took one bin. I did a lot of good picking down there, and that's why. Got me, you know, I moved it back up here, and I started up right away again. So

Suzanne Wells:

well, and you didn't do too bad on selling your house and moving back, I recall, no,

Unknown:

we did not do bad at all. Crazy. You know, the houses were going up seven days a week. You heard pounding on roofs until the sun was literally down, so to put a for sale, sign up and sell our house, we just packed up and came home and it was a done deal. So I was so

Suzanne Wells:

happy for you, because, you know, you've struggled. Well, maybe struggle is not the right word, but just that work ethic you have. And this was a really good thing that happened. It got you back home. Yep, it I knew I had a gut feeling like she's gonna miss, she's gonna miss the North and the cold and the snow, and I was just observing you. You doing that? I

Unknown:

assumed all of our kids were gonna pack up and follow us. Why wouldn't they? And they looked at us and said, Are you crazy? We're adults now.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, well, you had pictures of them on the beach and stuff, and you know, they came for

Unknown:

a visit. Yeah. One moved down there with us. She finished high school there. However, now that I see it through clear eyes, of course, the kids are not going to all pick up and move and follow us. When they have their own, their own lives, it is the beach, yeah. But it just feels natural. Of course, they're going to come. I had to learn how to be an empty nester. I'm officially an empty nester as of last June, and so that's when I decided to enjoy my eBay business again and kind of target, changing some things and really looking at it. This is the first time I'm not scrapping and, you know, working in the wee hours, and now I'm actually deciding what do I want to do with it, and how do I and it's worked out great,

Suzanne Wells:

and saving those ties from the trash, I tell you what. In case you missed it on my you posted it on like, the money making Mondays. And then I put it on my business page. Basically, you pull save some ties from going in the trash. And it was a whole bunch of them, like 20 or 30. There were 20, yeah, okay, and Brooks Brothers and all the good brands. And that post just took off on my business page. Like You go, girl, and you save that stuff from the trash and you sell it.

Unknown:

I think you shared that, and you told me that it kind of blew up. And I think I know why now, because a lot of people have come to me and asked everybody, I will you get them? No people have tried to sell ties at one point. Why do some ties not sell. Well, there were better brands in that bag that are now back at St Vincent de Paul because they weren't going to sell. I literally pulled out and did my research, and I was like, I am not sitting in a pile of ties again. I've done it over the years, and that's one thing I wanted to say. I have dipped my hand. I made a list here. I've tried clothing because Suzanne does great with clothing and all these other I meet people all the time. I met a nurse who said, after my divorce, I do about 2500 a month in clothing. She said, I can pick out brands from a mile away her garage has I'm just blown away at what she can do. But that wasn't for me. I'll do unique I'll do surprise finds. I'll do high end, but I literally have to walk away from that section because I'm not good at it. I've tried remember when puffy vests were a thing, yep, um, I did vintage pirates because I love it. But you know what? I had more breaks I didn't know how to pack. I tried dishes. I did Halloween costumes. Because, do you remember there was a woman who made her, you know, she she paid for her whole year in these halloween costumes. When my kids came to me and said, you don't allow us to celebrate Halloween and you're making money off of it. Like, what do you do? I kid you not. I made good money. And I'm like, I gotta get rid of this. But my point is, all the different things, the crested blazers, the golf shirts, because Suzanne did golf shirts have got to be good. I couldn't find any.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, yeah, that's a location thing,

Unknown:

right? But I tried type vintage typewriters. Do you know how heavy those are? I swear many. However, I used to do whatever would bring in some money, and I realized I was working almost too hard with the little time and energy that I had. So it's okay if you can't do golf shirts. I used to think, I've got to figure this out, and I think that's what went so big with the ties. Because everybody sees you can make some money on some ties, but it's not all brands. It's not all the time. It's not anymore, because who wears ties anymore? Well,

Suzanne Wells:

and I sold one the other day. It was a higher end. I've had it for two years. Years, and I just thought it was cool. It had like, insects on it. Okay? I feel like the animal ones are, like the really themed ones. Yeah, better. Who knows why the person bought it, but they finally did. But yeah, and it's they just take a while. So that's good to know, but the whole evolution of your business is why I kept asking you to come on, because it does change over the years. And so you said 2003 was your first, yeah. So what? 22 years now? And it just like me, it just changes like I'm we didn't,

Unknown:

we didn't have cell phones to take until no and we didn't have all the things you've done it even longer. But I will say that I went to a garage sale with my son when I was really and I'm trying to think he's 30. He'll be 32 so he was probably like 12, and there was a brown paper bag with these go bot toys in them, new and packaged. It was $33 for all the toys in that bag. That was a lot. That was part of our grocery budget at the time our kids went to private Christian school. It wasn't an easy bill to pay, but it was a choice that we made, and it was just a lot of plugging away. So we had to run to where we could get Wi Fi, which was outside of a McDonald's. And I started looking up, I just had this feeling, and there were also all these John Deere tractor toys, and that's what I was focused at. My son was googling the Go bots. I was Googling the the John Deere, which I realized there were nothing. I didn't buy one of them. But I went back and bought that bag, and I sold that to five different countries. I wrote it down here. How much I made on it probably around $700 over five months time. Uh huh. I had two returns that I turned around and resold. And I got such a big view of what I could do if I was really, you know, if I was really thoughtful about it and no longer just doing it to see what happens, I used to kind of throw it up in the air and grab as many cards as I could catch. And I decided to start laying my cards down and making more use of my time. And that's, you know what's brought me here. The other thing was, I liked when you used to, I used to pay for those lists you would sell that were bowling,

Suzanne Wells:

yes, the Hot List of discontinued things. The very first

Unknown:

thing I did was I heard something about Tickle Me Elmo. And my 22 year old was in a little stroller, so she must have been about three or four. She was very ill at the time, and I went to KMart, and I saw five tickle me. Almost two boxes were damaged. They were $20 a piece. And I bought them. I spent $100 brought it home. That was a lot of money 20 years ago. And my husband goes, Are you kidding me? Like you're you're running your business at night. We've got all this kid stuff to deal with, like, nobody's going to buy these, nobody's going to buy them. And I said I saw it on Good Morning America, like people are going crazy, right? And I put them out there. And that night he called me, and he goes, I've been watching your auctions because I couldn't see them on my flip phone. And I thought, oh, here we go. He's going to tell me, I'm wasting my time. And in the last minutes of the auctions, I profited $80 on each one of those, and it provided a really fun Christmas for us, like we've kind of bought the extra things. I did that a number of times for Christmas, and it was fun for him too, because we didn't have to worry about it. Everybody who needed new boots or new jackets or I didn't have to go find thrifted ones. We could buy new ones, and it was little bits of fun in it. For us, I had a foreign exchange student that left so much valuable clothing in my home, the retail value that he left on the floor. And I called him, and he said, I don't want it. I don't want it.$30,000 of designer clothing, and I put it on eBay, and I made enough money. We took our oldest daughter and our youngest she was 16 on a weekend, let's go to Disney, because the youngest never got to enjoy those things when she was sick, right? And 75% of that trip, I would say, and we stayed on grounds and we had fun was paid for by the junk somebody left in my house. If one of these air pods got lost or didn't work, he threw him in the car. I picked three sets of air pods out of the garbage. I sold the chargers, and he didn't want it.

Suzanne Wells:

So is everybody listening to this going to be like, Hmm, I think I'll sign up to have a foreign exchange student.

Unknown:

He lived with us for two years. He was from China, oh, he became a Yeah. He just came back for the last wedding. But the point is, you know. Was it was trash to him. I even drove it to, you know, boxed it all up and brought he goes, I don't want it. Like, I don't even know where to give it. I'm like, whatever. I was so upset with him.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, no, that that was just a blessing from above that dropped into your house and good for you, for for working it. And back to the tickle me. Elmo, I think that was the first retail arbitrage item back in the day, when they come out with the Christmas toys. And then, you know, that was the early adopters understood that, you know, go buy em and then resell them online when the supply in the stores gets low. But for the listeners, that doesn't work anymore, because the retailers are onto it. You have limits that you can buy. What happens is the parents will buy the toy online for whatever price it is, sometimes through Amazon or eBay or whatever, and you've got that return window. So after Christmas, when the supply catches up and the prices go down, that's why they call it return. You worry, because those get returned, and then the parent is just a switcheroo. They just switch it out and go buy it for the regular retail price. So just to let the listeners know, yes, we rode that wave while

Unknown:

we could, I did it for years using pets. Those little motorized

Suzanne Wells:

hamsters were a thing, and then, like, the Monster High dolls, and it was something every year that was the going to be the hot toy. And yeah, all the morning shows talk about it, and bloggers would be like, this is going to be the thing, but just I caution you, this is a cautionary tale. If you do that, don't buy a whole bunch,

Unknown:

because, well, I shifted when that all changed, and I shifted to finding the one that you can't get in a set. So if I Oh, yeah. So we have a lot of farm stores here in Wisconsin, fleet, farm, farm and fleet, those type stores. And when they have their toys and it's it's not the same anymore, but it was after the big, the big, you know, arbitrage, when that, when that settled down, I could go find the Polly Pocket that was camping, or, you know, those unique horse toys, because they're, they're at the feed stores. And I remember when I found Polly Pocket with a campfire and a sitting there toasting a marshmallow or whatever, and I put that on eBay. There weren't any out there. I mean, I could've put$100 on that little thing, which I didn't, but I could have, because it was so unique, and they didn't make as many of those. So anyway, that was always fun for me to find the accessories

Suzanne Wells:

or the, you know, the ones that come out later. Yeah, that's where your money's going to be, definitely. But yeah,

Unknown:

I will say that you shared the big, the big discontinued tampons. Do you remember that OB tampons had like the super, super duper plus, and I remember you said, I don't know what people use them for. Maybe they pack war wounds. And I went to our our local little grocer, and it's a small little like boutique grocery store. And I thought, I wonder if a place like this would have it. I just thought that I literally put my baby in the car, drove over there and looked up at all the and sure enough, there they were. They were 650 a box. And they were selling on ebay at the time for about $65 a box. So I went that day to every one of those grocers, and I bought all of them. And so my husband said, nobody is going to pay $65 for a box. And they did. And he still to this day, it's so funny, he'll be like, This is crazy.

Suzanne Wells:

And it's like the today sponges, when those were,

Unknown:

I did those two $100 a box.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah? I mean, I went around everywhere and got those, and they were about $10 a box. Yeah, it was something. It was a temporary thing where the factory had shut down to move or something like that. It was only a short window of when you could do that, and because of, I guess, supply chain issues, or whatever it is called, but I had no shame. I did not care. I'm like, You know what? This is a frill. There's all kinds of birth control out there. You don't have to use this. Yeah? I mean, I just sat there and shipped those things and as money just rolled in, and those were some great days.

Unknown:

Yeah, I enjoyed doing those discontinued items. I also came across at a building store, they always had cases of candy and snacks. And whatever. And I went in there, and there was bazooka bubble gum. So I bought a bag, and I thought, why would they be here in the closeout? I took it in the car, and I called the 800 number on the back, and I said, could you tell me, what's the deal with this bazooka bubble gum? And she said, Do you have the carton number? And I did. So I told her in the parking lot. She said, that's our last batch of bazooka bubble gum made with real sugar. Oh, so I went inside, I bought it all, and over a six to eight month period of time, we made about $3,500 on that gum because I sold it slow, but sure and I just I made it in three packs, and I was down to one of the last people anywhere so, and I saved one box for the very end, but I profited over $3,500 and my investment was not that much. They were 99 cents a bank, and I bought cases of them. So that was a fun one. My house smelled like candy for a lot.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, what is what does your husband say today when you're back to your eBay business because you're selling some expensive things?

Unknown:

So I decided I am not good at keeping a store full. I I get very antsy. I don't call myself an eBay seller. I tell people I flip things on eBay, because that's how it feels to me. I like it to flip for a large amount or a good profit or quickly, except for a few staples. I love vintage linens. I'll sit on them all day long because I love them. Um, he still says funny things, because we were going to a dress sale for the last wedding we had in February and in November, I said, I gotta get some things out there on Ebay. I want to pay for the dress with eBay, just because I love to challenge myself. And he said, Oh, you have a couple Christmas things in the basement, really ugly ones, which I'm assuming they're going to sell. Well, he said to me, so I put my Bulldog Christmas tree that I bought for 50 That's right, yes, I saw that days before we went wedding dress shopping. I put it out there. It was $15 that I paid at Goodwill. I replaced a piece on it for 35 he said, You really bought something for $35 for that ugly tree. I said, just trust me, in 48 hours or so, it sold for over $600 um, he was blown away, and we went dress shopping. And I didn't have

Suzanne Wells:

the um, the Christmas trees with the dogs, is it Danbury mint? Dan

Unknown:

very meant, but I did not have a box and I did not have the styrofoam, so they were listed all over 1000 so I figured if I want to flip it quick, I'll do it for 600 I have to say that he's always he still shakes his head. He's amazed I didn't have to sell it to go buy the dress. It's I don't have that, you know, need for the funds anymore. But for me, that's what drives me, that challenge of, you know, being able to do it. It's just fun, you know.

Suzanne Wells:

And so our investment on that Christmas tree was how much, um,

Unknown:

35 plus 15, so 50 and or 625, maybe something like that. 649, 99 I believe that's

Suzanne Wells:

that's just killer. And you had it in your house. I

Unknown:

picked it up at Goodwill. Oh, you okay. You just had but I put it in the basement, and it was, I just didn't get to it yet. And he said, Hey, I wanted to remind you, because I told him, I have to remember to put the holiday things out in time. You know, we had a wedding last June, and that daughter was living in Nebraska, so we had to pack her up. She moved to Germany two weeks after the wedding. So I had a lot of lot to help pull together. And then we had another wedding come up. So I had, you know, I was just kind of stockpiling a few things that I found interesting, from my decompression visits to the thrift store. I have to say that I, I'm, I love some of my my biggest sales, like the Go bots in the bag that was many, many years ago. But most recently, I was still questioning, should I still be doing this? Because I don't know why. I was just having a bad day, and I stopped at an estate rummage sale. So it was a sign that said estate sale, but I could tell it was handwritten, and it is just, I knew it was a family, you know, run sale, and I made somebody an offer for $50 for a box of items. And there were Walkmans in there. There was an off brand Walkman, and there were all these mini discs. So I said, How much for these two boxes? He goes, make me an offer. And. I said, like, 50. And he said, that works, take it like, get it off my hands. And to date, in about eight weeks, my sales from that $50 box are over $3,000 Wow. It happened fast as well. So I did a couple auctions. I did a couple buy it nows everything had an offer. And I will say that my husband is now. He's looking at me a little bit different, like he asked me today, are you going to any church sales this weekend? You know?

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah. But look at how much your business has changed over the years, and how much smarter you are, and you know it, I think it's great that that you're just picking up things that are going to be worth your time. You know, you don't have to be involved in, you know, selling $20 items just hand over fist all the time. And you know, I've gotten that way too. And as we get older, it's like, you know, you know your time is limited, and I'm, I'm transitioning away from so much clothing, I don't think I will ever completely stop, but the accessories are their value, like gloves, you know, nice leather gloves. I found some cashmere line gloves for $3 and you know, those, those will sell between 25 and 50, easy. Oh, wow. And you know, like, the, what do you call them, beanies, that the hats that are, like, fun themed, or I like the accessories, yeah, they they're easy to photograph, and some of them are, are pretty high dollar, but, yeah, that's and a lot of it changed for me when I lived in the Midwest and started doing the online estate sales, because there just wasn't anything where I was, and it was too far to to go, like, where I was doing it in Georgia and South Carolina, he's just right there. But you just get so much better stuff. And so, like, I haven't been to a goodwill in almost three months. Oh, wow. Because when I do buy on the online auctions or local estate sales, you get better stuff and you get more stuff. Like, just take this whole box of things and yeah, warning all kinds of things that I would never, ever see at Goodwill, like the cabinet card photographs, you know, the back in the 1900s all those old photographs and ephemera stuff, you know, letters and handwritten things. And I love it. It's so interesting. And you learn about all kinds of things. I'm dropping all these old photographs. Some of them are from civil war time. Oh, wow. I'm dropping them into Google Images, and it will tell you about the date, because it's looking at the clothing or it matches up with one that's online somewhere. You don't have to go into the eBay search. And do you know antique photograph? Man, woman, Civil War, whatever you know, you just put that into Google Images, and the research is fast.

Unknown:

I have to say that I'm always asked, you know, well, how do you know about this stuff? Like, what makes you an expert? I've gotten some attitude from and recently someone who I'm doing some consignment. I said I would never do it again, but it's a friend, and my son asked me if I would help. I'm just kicking myself because it's just a lot of work, but I'm doing some for them. They're moving. And she asked over and over, how do you know? And I said, you know when you sit and watch television? Well, I sit with my phone on my lap, and I have a very good memory for what works and what doesn't. I'm also the reason I read all the different things I've tried over the years is because I'm willing to try everything once or twice. And an example is just recently on making money Monday or something. On your page, someone said, I go to the estate sale on the last day, and you can get things for free. And I thought,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, like, that was Joshua Harrison. He sells a lot of expensive stuff

Unknown:

so that. So my husband was golfing or something, and I he was golfing, which means the snow melted. It was the first day out last your two weeks of summer up there in Wisconsin. So I googled, just looked real quick for an estate sale. I thought I had some projects I was doing around the house, but I thought I'm just going to take and just jump into a thrift store or something. There was an estate sale ending, and I went in the last hour, and I was so excited to try whatever. But I've read that so many times last day of the state sale, and I found some really good flatware that I wanted to get my hands on. I also noticed a couple Sterling pieces in there, which I do? It was a junk boxes. Well there was, it was well worth a purchase. And I would have paid 20 for it. 25 you. And I said, How much for this broken box? The box was broken. I said, of all these pieces? I said, my daughter in law is interested in making jewelry from old silverware, which is a fact, but I wasn't saying out of this silverware, but I just made a statement. And he goes, five bucks, I'll take it up to the front for you. So he scooped up the whole thing because it was falling apart and all the different there were few different things in there, like, I don't know what they were thinking, by God, for five bucks. I was so excited. I went to my car and I sent my car, and I'm Google lensing in my car, and I did it just to see, could I get a good deal on the last day? So it's fun to learn things and try them. And if it works for you, it does. And if it doesn't, it doesn't, you know, you and your golf shirts that weighed on me for years, like, why can't I find a good, you know, tournament golf shirt? And I realized I'm living in the land of Harley Davidson.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, yeah, I saw that sale too, that little Yeah,

Unknown:

yeah. And I got that for five bucks at that estate rummage sale. I listed it for 200 it sold in days for 150 but we have t shirts. I I went to a garage sale once last day, and they sold me Harley leather chaps, Harley vest, Harley all this five pieces for 20 bucks. Oh my God. And that was a that was really they were all new. The woman said, Yeah, I thought I'd get into it, but I didn't. Um, so that was fun. I, you know, I turned around and sold those pieces. We can bump into Harley things everywhere. So that's yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

yes. And back to the golf shirts. At the time, I was just teaching what I knew, and I knew that people in different parts of the country were going to have access to different things. Of course, you know, even I've transitioned away from that, because I just burned out. I just was like, I did it too much. I see your sales being posted, and, you know, it's like $100 $200 things consistently. Yeah, I'm sure you're selling other things for less,

Unknown:

um, not, not as much. I I've been really choosy about what I'm putting out there, what you know, what I'm putting, you know, with my time, my life is slowing down a little bit now. You know, wedding things are over. I don't know. I think it's going to slow down. Who knows, but I just enjoy making a better profit margin, if you will. Yes, I've sold some linens and things. Where my profits are, you know, maybe 20 to $28 per those are easy. It's, it's kind of like golf shirts, right? It fits right in the poly bag, and you can just sign off. I got something for free from my father in law's estate. My husband did not take you. Took two things from his dad's house, and one was a socket set, and it happened to sell in the last minutes. I wanted to make about$300 on it. And this was about a year and a half ago, and it it sold for $1,003 in the last minute. And someone said that is such a unique piece because the case is not rusted blah, it was, it's a socket set. I don't know. I can't explain to you, it's from the 40s. It's a craftsman. But he said, Please package it well, because it could get damaged, you know, whatever. And I did. I packed the inside the outside, you know, whatever. So those are the things that I've I think I've built my reputation on. I get more thank yous for and in my comments, you know, people say it was packaged Well, it was nicely taken care of, you know, that kind of thing. But I do that takes time and and whatever. I just do enjoy a bigger flip, if you will, because, you know, I'm limited on energy with it, or I get mentally kind of bogged down. I don't know that's just the direction I'm going right now. I will say that. You know, there's so many. I used to let doubt get in my head too, and that's why I tried to copy your golf shirts or somebody else is selling flags or whatever. And I just tuned all that out. It's working, and if it works once or twice or 10 obviously, for me, I'm looking at my list, it worked more than once or twice over the years, but I challenge myself. I want to make money for a vacation, or I want to find something. The first time I went to the goodwill bins, I found something that's been on my bucket list, and it was vintage Ralph Lauren, and I found it that you taught me to look, feel, things. I reached up the bin. There are people everywhere, and I felt the quality, whatever it was I hold this king size comforter. Wow, yep. I saw matching curtains. I saw a 32 foot valance, 32 feet one piece. I pulled that thing into my cart. I have made. Hundreds on those three pieces because I sold it as fabric, you know, whatever. But my point is, I took all the little things I've learned and, you know, I just I set myself a goal for what I'm looking for or how I want to go about doing it. One time, my daughter was at Driver's Ed, so I told myself, I was on a nice side of town. I'm going to go into goodwill with 20 bucks and find the best flip for 20 bucks, that's what I'm going to spend. And it was just my fun for an hour. I found a seat belt bag. But that was those are cool, and that was on my list to find, like I've always wanted to find one. I paid five bucks for it. I sold it for probably 120 if I remember correctly. The point is, do what you enjoy. And if you have to copy someone to try to figure out the process or whatever, that's okay too, because that's what I did. And now I can kind of sit back and do what I do, what I like I do, walk away from the dishes every time, because I love them. But I will say, if I find a unique teapot, I've always looked for teapots, coffee pots. I know that's where the value is in those sets, you know. I've also done anything Pottery Barn that seems to be, you know, but all those things go in phases. I don't worry about running a sale, dropping a price, sending a remarkable offer, because if I can, you know, if I meet my, my need for it, say I want to make 80 bucks off the, you know, I'll drop the price it, it's okay. I used to squeeze the highest price out. It was almost like a bragging right, you know, but that exhausts me. And then I waited, or something wasn't needed anymore, whatever, so Well, I love

Suzanne Wells:

how you talk about putting your intention out there, because I think there is something to that, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to find this, you know, in the next month, I'm going to find this thing. And I found a bolo that a$300 item on a at an estate sale, I saw that God bless, God bless our pad, old vintage 70s, cruel thing. And it was just it was in a pile of half done needlework stuff at an estate sale. And but this was completed,

Unknown:

and I barely

Suzanne Wells:

just saw a little piece of it sticking out. And I'm like, wait a minute. I remember that was in my first bolo book, I think back in 21 but I'd known about it for like, 10 years. Like it was popping up everywhere, and one day I found it. And so it's like that where, like the the seat belt bag. It's like, you know, I really want to find one of those. I think there's something to that. It's like eBay voodoo or something. It's just,

Unknown:

it's fun, you know, you see someone did it. And I had so many questions about those vintage ties, but I knew when I saw them going to the trash, they were in a grocery bag. I said, You know what? I'll take those off your hands. And I saw Brooks Brothers on one or two of them. I'm like, Yeah, I'm taking those in the back of my mind. I knew because I had seen it or read it somewhere. But there are certain things you learn, and then you put it on your your list.

Suzanne Wells:

So did you Where was this? Like at a landfill or something like, I

Unknown:

was working a part time job, and the job included, on occasion, taking things to thrift for people we weren't supposed to, you know, go through it or anything, which I didn't, but this was literally going into the trash. And so I said, You know what? I'll take those because your trash is overflowing, the woman was moving, and she said they were her husband's, and he didn't own them. He only saved some of his ties. I don't know. I just grabbed it, threw it my car. I didn't look at it for months because at the right time, then they were all wrinkled up. I had to deal with,

Suzanne Wells:

oh, okay, well, yeah, your presentation was, was great. I love how you organize them for the photo. That was really, really great. But, well, we've been going almost an hour. Oh, okay, probably go for more hours. Maybe we'll, we'll do a part two to this, because, yes, you're very worthy of being on this podcast. And like I told you, it's, it's about the eBay way of life. It's not about who's the biggest seller and who sells the most expensive things, because, as you've explained, you know, your your life and everybody else is there's different phases. There's different times where, like, Hey, I'm going to do some more eBay because I need money to pay for a wedding, or, no, be nice not to go into debt for sending my kids to college. So I'm going to work this little harder, you know, or put the student loans on them, or whatever it is that you're doing, but that's the way it should be. You. You pick it up when you need to, and when life happens, you can set it down and it'll be there when you you're ready to come back. Yeah,

Unknown:

it's um, you can't compare yourself to other people, and you can't live. Listen to what people say about it. It is a very flexible business, and I put my hand at Amazon. FBA for a while. I've done other things, but eBay, to me, is the most forgiving. It's just the kindest. I've dealt with customer service as a seller, and I've always walked away feeling taken care of so and thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. I hope this encourages somebody to just keep plugging away or doing their thing, because it's a lot of fun. It's a good community too. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

it is, and it's going to be there. It's not going anywhere so well, thanks again for working me into your busy life, and I can't wait to see what happens next for you. Thanks. Okay, have a good day. Bye, bye. Next week, my guest is Roselle, who frequently posts on the money making Monday thread and does eBay alongside juggling many other things in life, like many of us do, I really enjoyed talking with her, and you will get a kick out of our chat, so make sure to come back next week. Thank you all for supporting this podcast. Keep plugging along and working hard. Remember delayed gratification, slow progress is still progress. Talk to you next week. Bye, everybody you