eBay the Right Way

eBay Seller Chat with Mindy in PA : Specializes in Sewing Patterns, Craft Supplies, Embroidery Hoops - Likes to Find Practical Things 🧵

• Suzanne A. Wells • Episode 223

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Suzanne Wells:

Suzanne, hi, eBay, friends. I'm Suzanne, your hostess, and this is episode number 223, of eBay the right way. Today's date is June, 25 2025 my guest is Mindy, who is an active poster on the money making Mondays threads, and has been a member of my group since 2020 so it was wonderful to finally meet her in person. Well as in person as we can get with a zoom call, no announcements today, so we will jump right in. Hello listeners, welcome back. I have what seems to be the sewing pattern expert with us today. Mindy. And how are you doing this morning? Fine. Thank you. How are you? Suzanne, I am great. I am great. So let's start off with the business part of where you are, okay,

Unknown:

do you mean where I live, what? Yeah, where do you live? I live in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. That is in eastern Pennsylvania, okay? And it is maybe three miles from the New Jersey border, oh, 60 miles from Philadelphia and about 80 miles from New York City.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, so you're positioned, is that called the tri state area or the

Unknown:

Yes, and I'm actually in the Lehigh Valley.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, really. Okay, well, I don't know if, if you heard me say this along the way, but my dad worked for Lehigh cement company in, I think the early, late 60s, is before some of my siblings were born. And so when he worked that, he was in sales, and so he had all these boxes of notepads that had, don't forget Lehigh on them. And we use those for years in our house, you know, leave notes and grocery lists and all that stuff. So that's my only connection to the Lehigh Valley.

Unknown:

Well, I have to tell you something very ironic. I am retired and the first woman in the country to take a full pension from Hercules cement company, now called Bucha unichem, because I live in the cement belt, which encompassed a Lehigh cement plant I was in. There were three cement plants in my immediate area, and I spent 31 years of my life, hence why I worked so early in the morning. Okay, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

she was saying that she gets up between 330 and four, because you always did. And as a retired person, your body's just used to that, and that's when

Unknown:

you wake up exactly.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, you know, if you talk to somebody long enough, you will find things in common. And so how about the Lehigh cement company?

Unknown:

Absolutely.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay. Now, next big question is, how did you get involved with eBay?

Unknown:

Well, I actually started in selling on ebay part time in 1997 I believe, or 98 my computers took up the whole desk. I remember, right, yeah, and I actually started selling little golden books that my mother had given to me. It was something different, something to try. And I'm not very techie, but I did figure out how to sell and how to buy online, and I did rather well with those golden books. So from there, I graduated to Nancy, Drew books, and the Hardy Boys, okay, and back in those days, we didn't have a lot of things, like Google to look everything up. And I used to go to public sales, where you still went in person to this sale, and I bought box, lots of books, and in a box, lot of golden books. I found sewing patterns, okay, and that's how I started on patterns. And the first one was a Vogue Diane Von Furstenberg. It was number 1610, and I. I checked it all out, checked online. There weren't a lot. I sold it for $125

Suzanne Wells:

now, when was this?

Unknown:

Probably in 98 or 99

Suzanne Wells:

way back at the beginning, okay,

Unknown:

and that hooked me. I got stopped selling. Why? And I would sell full sets of Nancy Drew. So it was a lot easier to carry a sewing pattern to the USPS than taking a box full of books.

Suzanne Wells:

I can imagine, right? Well, I noticed on the past few money making Mondays. And you know where you post your sales on the group, you had several sewing patterns that sold for good money, and maybe you paid a quarter for them, and they sold for $30 or

Unknown:

more. Yes, I There are bolos out there that I look for anything religious, like the priest,

Suzanne Wells:

yes, the clergyman outfit, yes,

Unknown:

choir robes, that's another good one. I think sometimes I could go higher on them, but I feel guilty because they're going to a church,

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, gotta keep it in check there, keep it there, right? Be like, yeah, we're not gonna send you any customers, because your

Unknown:

prices, Peter, I gave them free shipping. What do you want?

Suzanne Wells:

Well, that that is a great tip. And they're not just for for Halloween. They're for, you know, plays or theater or what else. Just what else could they be used for?

Unknown:

Actually, maybe plays, right, like you said, or movies, sewing patterns that I'm pretty sure went to costume designers and such. I see New York City right for Broadway, and a lot of movies and TV shows are also shot in Manhattan, and some have gone to California to Hollywood. So that's always fun and but I have deviated from the patterns a lot. I do like selling other crafting items and making group lots to sell. Now, are you a seamstress? No, so you just figured this out. Yes, I wish I could sew better, but I'm not very good at it, so I like doing this

Suzanne Wells:

part. Yeah, I had a Martha Stewart phase when my well before my kids were born, and I just decided I'm gonna, I'm gonna learn how to sew, and got a sewing machine and asked some friends that were good at it, like for tips and show me how to do things. And number one, I didn't have the patience for it right, because if it's not right, you got to take it apart and do it again. And I just seemed to do everything crooked, and it was just not something I enjoyed. And I applaud anybody that has the patience for it and can make these beautiful things basically from scratch, with just the pattern the piece of paper telling you what to do. So, yeah, I'm kind of like you. I gave it a try, but just it wasn't for me. And then the internet came along, and I really didn't want to do it anymore, so I didn't make like things that didn't matter if they were perfect, like kids Halloween costumes and little craft items and pillows and stuff like that, but like to make clothes actually wear. Yeah, that was not my thing at all. Martha Stewart would be ashamed of me. Now that's a good thing. Me too. So do you know if you can go online and print patterns now, yes, you can, but people still want the old ones because they can't find what they're looking for, or they just like to

Unknown:

do it that way. Well, there actually are collectors of old patterns, especially patterns from the 40s, 50s. Okay, I like to tell people who are searching for them, if they are resellers, but it's not their domain, but they're going to look while they're there. For me, the lower the original price, the better the pattern is for me, because really a lot of the old patterns from the 40s were 25 cents or 10 cents. But. They they're hard to come by anymore because they used them during World War Two, when everything was rationed, including toilet paper. People weren't wasteful like we are today, right in those days, if the women bought a sewing pattern. They actually used it to make a dress, and they took meat wrapping paper from the butcher. They traced the pattern, because the patterns are made out of very thin tissue paper, even thinner back in those days. And they had the pattern to use over and over again, but they used the original sewing pattern for toilet paper.

Suzanne Wells:

I had no idea. Yeah, that's it. Very fascinating piece of history.

Unknown:

My mother gave me that piece of information. Oh, she did. Okay, mother, yes, yes.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, well, I'm really getting into the history of of these items. I don't know if you saw those letters I sold. I've been buying box lots of old handwritten letters, nice, because I know people sell them, and the value depends on the time period the content of the letter, so I'm reading all of them, and that's kind of like a become, like a hobby, like I'm going to read five or six letters while I eat my dinner, or whatever it is, and just the things people talk about, but some of them, the letters in the 1930s lot were just written on anything, a piece of A grocery bag, the back of a piece of mail or a flyer, or blank space on a newspaper, just whatever they could find, because they didn't have they didn't have money to buy paper. They were using their money to buy the stamp, which was most of them were two cents. Everything's written in pencil, because I guess they didn't have, you know, fountain pens and ballpoint pens hadn't come along yet, or, you know, that's what they had, was a pencil. So it's not only the content of the letter, it's all those aspects of it too. And I'm really just fascinated by the history, and I feel like I hope teachers are buying these because, well, the students aren't going to be able to read cursive, but what a an interesting way to learn about history. Like somebody wrote this letter, and this is what they said, Absolutely, instead of reading it in a book, and looking at pictures of, you know, most of the history we learned in school was about dates and you know when this war happened, and it wasn't like the personal side. So I get where these collectors are coming from a they want all this personal history, whether it's for genealogy or just it's it's fascinating to read. It's like reading a book.

Unknown:

Yes, I was going to say that. Yeah. So

Suzanne Wells:

back to your point about the sewing patterns. I don't think we will ever fully grasp what people went through during the Great Depression, like what they just had to figure it

Unknown:

out, yes,

Suzanne Wells:

and use what you had and conserve. And I'm just fascinated with that time period, because these people were survivors. They were tough, absolutely. You look at our society today, and it's like wasteful and convenient and easy and over consumerism and all this stuff. I totally got off topic there, but I think maybe I'll start looking for old sewing patterns. I did that at one time, and I had no idea what to buy, because it's pretty overwhelming if you don't know anything about it. Exactly

Unknown:

there's I'm still learning every day you look for them everywhere you go. Yes, that's a priority. Sewing patterns and the embroidery hoops, the older ones. Yes, I've had, I've found two of them out in the wild. Did you find the queen embroidery? I have them, yes. And did I

Suzanne Wells:

put that on one of my videos? Yes? Okay, several people had found them, and I just they're out for the listeners they are. Well, why don't you explain why they're special? Uh,

Unknown:

the tension on them, what I believe that the special part is, not only are they vintage, very vintage, they're wood. Some of them are made out of mahogany, I believe the dark. I have yet to find a darker wood type, but the tension is the round dial, and then they have. Are on the dial queen, I believe are also Duchess. I have a duchess, but they're not worth as much. Okay, I don't embroider, so I don't know what the concept is. All I know is, when you find one, and I was checking this morning, they have gone up significantly in price,$300

Suzanne Wells:

is that? Oh, over$450

Unknown:

now that's good to know, yes, because, like, in an hour,

Suzanne Wells:

they're gone, and the people that find them explain, oh, this was at the bottom of a sewing bag. This was in with a bunch of craft supplies. Like, it's not something that is being sold on its own at estate sales. It's usually mixed in with other stuff. And it's a surprise when you get home and it's in there

Unknown:

absolutely that what happened to you? The last one I found that you had featured on the front of $100 and plus sale. Okay, okay, that was the second one I found, and that went to Japan. I believe someone in Japan bought that. I was at a church rummage right up the street from me, and I had just passed a YouTube influencer from my area. I'm sure a lot of your subscribers watch her also, Tina from Gemini thrifts, okay, I wasn't standing in line where I usually converse with her in the morning, I passed her in an aisle. And it's funny, because she and I like embroidery things also she does too. And I thought, oh, Tina was right ahead of me, so there's probably nothing good left. And as we were exchanging good mornings to each other, I looked faster, and I saw in a baggie two embroidery hoops, and I knew that one had the round dial. And I just completely stopped talking to her and went over because, until maybe a few weeks ago, I finally told Tina about them, and she did not know anything about those embroidery hoops, so now she does, but it was in a bag with a bigger one that wasn't worth anything for 50 cents. So that was a snag, and I try not to scream or yell out a squeak, I just very quickly went through the rest of the sale, looking for a few things because I'm trying to downsize and my I don't want to call it a desk pile. The older you get, the less you use that term. I call it, and we all have them, my money Mountain is about to shrink drastically. It's I'm having a huge yard sale, okay, but I quickly got out of that church basement and went right home and listed it, and within a half an hour, it was sold. So that's, that's my favorite kind of thing.

Suzanne Wells:

What price did you sell it for? That

Unknown:

one I sold for was that$350 I think,

Suzanne Wells:

are craft supplies, sewing supplies, your main focus.

Unknown:

They have become now I've I finally have decided on just a few things that I'm concentrating on, and people are buying supplies for crafting online like crazy. And I don't know if it's because Joanne has closed or the financial situation that people are just staying home more and turning to crafting, and they're trying to save money to buy groceries, and all I know is it's working for me, and I'm a small

Suzanne Wells:

seller, they're not saving a lot of money if they're buying $300 embroidery hoops.

Unknown:

Oh, no, no. Well, they were both from different countries, so maybe they have a better world.

Suzanne Wells:

That's true. That's true. It's, it's, there's such a dichotomy there of frugal people and then people who will pay up for these rare vintage antique items, whatever. And I see sellers making assumptions, cause and effect assumptions all the time. Well, nobody's buying anything right now because the economy and this and that and the other and and then over here, you've got people selling things for hundreds of dollars that are completely non essential items. They're they're collectibles, and so I just don't think you can make those kind of generalizations. It's really you spend money on what's important to you exactly, and that's different for everybody. So if your sales are slow. Don't assume, Oh, people aren't buying. You know, it's the July slowdown, or whatever it is, because go look at completed listings over the last 30 days, and you'll see what's selling. And yes, people spend money on what they want to spend money on. Maybe they don't go out to dinner anymore. Maybe they buy collectibles instead, or maybe they have a certain allowance they give themselves to spend every month where they're looking for that one specific thing, and they've got an alert set up and like that embroidery hoop, maybe they had an alert set up, absolutely alerted that you listed it, and they snagged it immediately. Yeah, I quit analyzing stuff and just focus on what's selling and do more of that.

Unknown:

Yes, you know, I like to watch uh Justin resells. He likes to educate on keeping track of your sales and, you know, those things. And I just don't do that. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is only a part time thing. I used to do it for the extras. Now I actually have to sell to help pay the heating bills in the wintertime. And if I I'm a huge baseball fan, and living so close to Philadelphia, I can take bus trips there, but that has to come from eBay, money from sales and Craigslist. I also sell on Craigslist, and I have no luck on Facebook marketplace. All I get is, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

I don't either. I think it depends on where you live and what, yeah, that's the marketplace is yes, just aren't. And that because I tried it several times in several locations where I've lived, and I just can't get any traction

Unknown:

on it, I seem to think in my area, if you're selling things for children, clothing, just toys, different toys for children, that seems to go pretty good things I have not so much so, oh,

Suzanne Wells:

here's the word I was looking for. This is senior moment. What was your professional career before you retired?

Unknown:

I was a licensed way master at Hercules cement company. I loaded trucks on scales. Oh,

Suzanne Wells:

really. Okay, so there wasn't any sales or bookkeeping or anything like that.

Unknown:

No, actually, when I was in high school, I went to our vocational technical school and took distributive education, which was all forms of wholesale and retail sale selling, and it did help me as far as loading trucks and dealing with customers every day. But before the cement mill, I worked as a cashier shop, right? That was my first, okay, full time job. So I always worked in sales. My father was a salesman, so I don't know if I was pushing toward that. I'm the only person who said no, I don't want to go to college. Everybody else in my family went to college. Okay? I wanted to be a union worker and work with my hands. So I did a short gig at Bethlehem Steel in the plant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, that was a scary place to work, cute and

Suzanne Wells:

attended bar, okay, well, and Pennsylvania is known for the steel industry,

Unknown:

absolutely. And cement, right? Okay, very rich limestone, although it's being depleted. At one time, there were 42 cement mills in my area, and, gosh, yes, way before I was born, Lehigh was the king. Of them were your Father? What year? What year were you born? I was born in 1955

Suzanne Wells:

okay, so you're baby boomer.

Unknown:

Yes, yes, I am. Okay, and I I always like the concept of selling on eBay. They were in 97 when I started. I can't remember the name I went under, because eBay shows I think that I've been a member since 2001 and that's so vintage lady. That's, you know, what I morphed into, and I am still so vintage lady, s, u, w, and I just I part time on eBay for me is full time. That's a full time job. I detest listing as I understand many people do, but I'm I'm getting better at it. I don't

Suzanne Wells:

know what it is. I had a listing day yesterday, so I put on some of my favorite movies just to hear them in the background. The way I was doing it yesterday was. Yes, take the picture list the item. Take the picture list the item. Instead of doing these big batches of items and photographing them, because they just sit there and they don't get listed. It's whatever system works for you. But I did get, I was doing those horse ribbons yesterday and lotting them up, and that takes a little bit longer than just, you know, listing one thing, 10 or 12 listings done, and that was good for me. I can't do that every day. It's just, I need more variety in my day.

Unknown:

Yes, well, you know what I I want to enjoy and go out and do things with friends and go to baseball games, and I live very close to a triple A affiliate of the Phillies, maybe 2020, miles away, and it's not expensive to go there, so I like to go there, and I am supposed to be retired, but I think I'll be selling on to be eBay until they shut The coffin lid on me. Oh, that's funny, because there's

Suzanne Wells:

there's no reason

Unknown:

to stop if you love it, right? And I do love

Suzanne Wells:

it. You've refined your business to a point now where you're, sounds like you're shipping small things that aren't too time consuming or energy consuming to pack. How many items do you have in your store

Unknown:

today, I'm at 116 which is very high for me. I'm I'm over 100 I can't believe I hit 100 and I saw consistently for that small amount. But when I do stop for a couple days, I should pre schedule at least one item a day. I'm not going to list, but I don't do that, and it I pay for that, because I realized if you don't list, you're probably not going to sell for a few days. Yeah, but I am slow. I am slow at listing. I tried.

Suzanne Wells:

You don't need the pressure of a job where you have to have speed, sure, take your time. You know you're retired. You don't need that kind of pressure. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life where you put pressure on yourself. You've already done that. Do you have children and grandchildren?

Unknown:

No, no. I actually have no one left. I have friends, my sister, so your

Suzanne Wells:

life is all about you, and that's great, and you do what you want. And I love that. No pressure, no pressure. Now, wait, I just had a thought drop in about the sewing pattern, because you did mention something about cut versus uncut. So as luck, if it's cut and all the pieces are there, is that going to be a problem? Or do people want the uncut ones? It depends

Unknown:

on the pattern. The gunny sacks as long and from that time period, patterns usually only came in one size, which that was a size 14. So it was cut in a size 14. But many of the patterns, it's say, from the mid to late 80s on till today, have three or more sizes. And say somebody cuts the smallest size of a pattern, then that's it. No one in any of the other sizes could use that pattern. So, but a very special pattern, it doesn't matter, as long as you count those pieces that's time consuming,

Suzanne Wells:

right? So, and for the listeners that have never explored sewing, like you said, it comes in three sizes. Well, it's, it's still one piece of paper, and there's, like, dotted lines, and you cut the size you want, so it's not like three separate patterns in there. Once it's cut, it's cut,

Unknown:

right? Yeah, I and they're so easy to list. Yes, that's one thing I like, and I can put them in the regular up USPS box. I don't have to go into the post office. I can ship on Sunday, just throw it in the box, and it's gone easy. Easy in and out. So I'm very picky about what I buy, though, but I do. I have a place where I like to go and I can clean them out of sewing patterns every two weeks. When I go there and they're 25 cents, I might hit a sale day where I get two for 25 cents, and every time I get them, if it's not a pattern that's worth a whole lot by itself, I lot them together, maybe 50 or 60, and I'm actually feeding other people. All resellers will buy from me. I have a lot of repeat buyers when I do that, and I can usually sell them anywhere from 40 to$50 plus they pay the shipping. That's fun to do. And, yeah, sewing patterns are a good thing to start picking up, and newer ones that are uncut. I that's what I sell in lot, in a bulk blood.

Suzanne Wells:

What kind of things are problematic? Do you ever get returns, or people claiming that pieces are missing, or problems have you encountered?

Unknown:

Not ever any with the sewing pattern? Really knocking on wood. That's good to hear. Yes, but I'm trying to get away from breakables, because that has been and I've only had three or four of them. I've been lucky, and sometimes I think you can overdo it on packing. Maybe I caused a tension spot when the box landed the wrong way. I do like selling coffee mugs. That's another thing I do. Like to pick up. But I've I've set a ground rule. If I'm not going to net 20 plus dollars, I'm not going to list it anymore. That's probably why. I mean from my death pile, I'm pulling lesser things, because, as Tina pointed out to me one day, sometimes those bread and butter items can carry you through if other things aren't selling. And she is so correct, and I think about that every time I pull something out, but I'm only going to make $8 on this, if I'm lucky. Well, I have five of them, so I'm going to think positive if I sell, that's$40 right? So sewing things are fun along the way, I've just been very lucky when you see me put things like that, Canon power shot that I just sold, that was right, first one I ever found for $5 and a lot of extras. And I virtually I was lucky. I was able to turn it on to prove that it worked. It's not my thing, but no one else picked it up. And I always have something like that every month, so it helps carry you through and keeps you motivated when you find things like that.

Suzanne Wells:

Can you recall a sewing pattern that sold for the most,

Unknown:

uh, that Diane Von Furstenberg for me, very first one? Yeah, and I've had several others from designers from that time period. I just can't remember,

Suzanne Wells:

right, right? Okay, those are

Unknown:

getting hard to find, too, the larger designer Vogue patterns, because actually, the Diane Von Furstenberg pattern dropped drastically in price because the sewing pattern companies are reintroducing, like the retro and they're selling them again. And I just looked this morning, and that Diane Von Furstenberg, there's only one listing on eBay the same age as mine was uncut, with the sewing label from Vogue included, and she has it listed for $115 and it's not selling. I don't know how long it's been there, but there must be 40 of them sold from the new ones that they introduced the vote.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, if you go to the eBay research and search for it and go to the active listings, instead of the sold listings, you can see the date it was listed. Oh, okay. I don't know if you have to add columns or if it's just automatically there, but I look at that too. If I have something similar that I know is going to be a, you know, long tail item, I'll look for other people that have it and, okay, well, how long has it been there? But maybe they don't have best offer on it, right? Maybe they aren't one of these people that sends offers. I know sellers like that. You know their price is their price, and even if it shows up and send offer, because send offer has nothing to do with whether you offer best offer or not, it's just a different thing. So they just don't send offers. And I think you can see, if you go to the active listing, you can see how many people are watching it the little part in the top right hand corner of the photos. So that'll give you an indication of. Are other people that might have it that haven't listed it yet. Yeah, that eBay research can be helpful for active listings as well. Okay. Well, do you want to talk about some of your other sales?

Unknown:

Yes, you had in your email to me, your most memorable sale? Okay, it's a good one. You might have to edit it out. I went to a church rummage at the church I go to in Nazareth. This was in 2015 and my mother used to always help set up the rummage sales it's I grew up in, and she was actually too old at that point. She was probably 90 years old. And I went and I was looking around, and I was buying decks of cards that used to be a hot item to sell vintage decks, and I saw a little deck in a clear box, and all I saw on it was Cartier. I'll take a chance on that. I didn't know a whole lot about cards, like playing cards. I picked it up. It was 50 cents, put it in my bag, came home, and I started looking at things, opened this up, and I said, Oh my gosh, what do I have here? And I did a search on eBay. They were actually called Casanova cards. There's a lot of French to it. They're actually pornographic ink drawings by a famous French artist, and I listed them immediately for $350 for because these were brand new, never used, plus I gave free shipping, and it wasn't within 15 minutes they were sold. A dealer bought them for there were sets that were selling for 500 600 but when I pay so little, I want a quick flip. I wanted that $350 and the the man who bought them was from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which is about 80 miles from where I live, and I forget what he said to me in an email. He said, You do know how much these are really worth? And I said, Yes, I do. I just found them at a church rummage sale, and I just wanted to flip them. And I said, I hope you don't get mad at me, but I'll tell you what I paid for them. And he said, Please, you won't you know, because I'm probably going to double my money when I sell them. Resell them. I said, I paid 50 cents for them. He said, at a church rummage sale, you found this deck of cards? I said, Yes. He said, Now I'm going to have to go to church rummage sales. Who would have ever thought? Well, yeah, I told my mother about it, and the first thing she said was, I wonder who donated them. And I said, probably the minister. No, no, you know that. I just never thought I would pick up something that was of a pornographic nature. They were nudes called Casanova nudes, or

Suzanne Wells:

something like that. But you know, that sells the best on different types of ephemera, like matchbook covers and, yeah, the playing cards, the swizzle sticks, any of those kind of things with the nudes are, are that more valuable the

Unknown:

old uh calendars from the 50s, right? And if you find Marilyn Monroe on anything, you probably are going to make a fortune a true

Suzanne Wells:

place as true vintage, and not a reproduction

Unknown:

Exactly, exactly. So, yeah, that was my most memorable. I will never forget the the deck of cards, the nudes from the church rummage sale. That's

Suzanne Wells:

and that doesn't really go together nude cards at a church sale, but just shows you that anything can be anywhere, exactly. And I love those church sales because just all kinds of stuff gets donated and, um, you know, if you visit the same thrift stores over and over, you kind of see the same stuff over and over. Yes, those church sales, it's like a wild card. It's just like anything could be there.

Unknown:

You better believe it. And you know, if it's a church near me in my immediate area, I go in in the very beginning, and then I will return to. Either later on that day or the next day, if they have it two days when the crowds are gone, because there are things under the tables that are missed because it's so crowded. Half the time you can't bend over to do anything, let alone to see what's under the table. And I always find really choice items that a lot of people overlook. Maybe that's what is I pick up things that no one else really wants, and sometimes I'm surprised, sometimes I already know,

Suzanne Wells:

right well. And also estate sales too, they'll have boxes of things under the tables. And as things sell out, they'll put more stuff on top of the tables, exactly like their replenishments, and so maybe people aren't even looking through them yet, right? Gets put up on the table,

Unknown:

something I'm looking for now I just picked this up for maybe a quarter Irish Spring original.

Suzanne Wells:

No, what's did they change the formula?

Unknown:

Yes, actually, in 1986 and I didn't know that, they added flax seed oil, and it changed the aroma. Okay? And people don't like it as much. But there are others. The men's sport is also that actually sells for quite a bit of money. I was surprised. I buy Irish Spring and put it in my garage every fall to keep my style.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, mice don't like it. So does that vintage box. Have a date on it?

Unknown:

No, I haven't found it yet, but it does not have flax seed oil in it.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, you're looking at the ingredients. Yeah. Okay, so

Unknown:

as long as it doesn't have flax seed oil, I'm going to be picking them up and selling them as a lot and and my garage smells really nice.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, I remember when Coast deodorant soap came out, and it was like the eye opener and the guy in the shower like helping him wake up in the morning and but those really heavily scented soaps from back in the day terrible for your skin. Oh, your skin so much. I mean, they do smell good, but in our toxic world, like back then, we didn't have all this attention to toxic ingredients, people just use stuff, you know. But I don't, I don't think the coast is worth anything. I've seen that Irish Spring and wondered what's different about it. Why is the older one different? So now we had to research

Unknown:

it, because I thought the same thing. And I don't know what, I just get into the habit of everything I bring into the house. I look it up on eBay, because this was actually just going to be kept in stock for when the fall comes up. And when I saw the prices, I was, oh my gosh, but the things people spend money on,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, exactly. And I think lever brothers, soap, lever 2000 or whatever that one was. There's something special about the old ones of those too, because I've seen those sell for a lot. Oh so well, you just are knowledgeable in all kinds of categories. Aren't you

Unknown:

enough to be dangerous, I guess, or lucky, let's say lucky, because friends will call me up all the time and say, Mindy. I found this up in my attic. What do you think of this? You know, and I have fun, because sometimes I will know a little bit about it, or I'll look it up for them. That's that's fun. I like to find practical things, though, right? That's,

Suzanne Wells:

well, unique, unique that you don't have a lot of competition on, right? Just that the item is unique and the buyer likes it. For that reason, it's the marketplace. How many of them are out there?

Unknown:

Yes,

Suzanne Wells:

that's a huge decision maker for me. If I find something and there's only one or two or zero listed, but yet there are completed solds. So that tells me

Unknown:

it's desirable. Yes, absolutely. I started going to estate and yard sales. I don't do a lot of yard sales, but if there is crafting and sewing involved, I'll go buy them out whatever they have. And I just recently did that. That actually one of my neighbors, the nephew, was selling his late aunt's sewing stash, and I made him an offer, and he took it. There were a lot of good sewing patterns in it, and I actually made my money back immediately from the sewing patterns. All the rest were in those Sterling drawers on wheels. I think I brought 10 of them filled with you, and all kinds of sewing notions, crafting notions, and I'm in the process of breaking them all down into lots that crafters will buy. I went on and started do some research on it, and it's a good money maker. And I never was a person who went and bought out anything anywhere, but I'm learning,

Suzanne Wells:

over time, we build up some courage to buy bigger lots or more expensive things, you have to have some success before you feel comfortable doing that. And it's taken me a long time to get to the point where I'm okay with spending the money on whatever, lots of things or one specific thing. I go both ways. I like just like one thing, just list that and sell it. But then I also like lots. If I feel like there could be a few valuable things in there, it's worth my time to go through it

Unknown:

absolutely. But, you

Suzanne Wells:

know, some people say, Oh, I just love going through junk boxes and picking out stuff. Well, yes and no, it just depends on the the possible return on your investment of both money and time. Yes, oh, I did not like the dollhouse

Unknown:

furniture. No, I don't get into that

Suzanne Wells:

was too small. I just it didn't resonate with me, like, like these letters and old stuff. I can't wait to dig in there and see what's in there.

Unknown:

Yes, I just found a in my money making pile. A huge lot of old Christmas cards, Easter cards. There's a whole mix. I remember, I bought them through Facebook marketplace, and I did sell one lot of them. I broke it down, and I forgot about them. And in there were cards that were sent home during World War Two to his mother. It was local, and I enjoyed reading his note that he added, and they were military cards that they actually sent home, and that was very interesting. So I understand where you're coming from there.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, yeah. And it's not just oh, this is going to be more valuable. I truly enjoy reading over the history and just comparing their lives to our lives and how different the world is, yes, and we just we don't, we'll never know, because we weren't alive back then we didn't, and sometimes movies and TV are just not accurate. No, so, okay, well, we've been going almost an hour. Do you have any final words for the listeners?

Unknown:

Watch how much you buy if you're just starting out. That's my advice. And you don't have to take everything home, because you'll regret it when you end up with too much stuff. That's what I'm going through right now. So I'm being very productive these 30 days in June. And I think if I hadn't have done that, what would I be doing with this time? You know, so that is my only regret with reselling that I went overboard after I retired, just filling up bags at estate sales and things. There's no reason to do that. Pick a few things and be good at those

Suzanne Wells:

right? Because there's always more coming.

Unknown:

That's right. It was a real pleasure. And

Suzanne Wells:

have you ever had a a time where, like, you couldn't find anything to sell?

Unknown:

No, I always have something.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, when I was doing the eBay coaching back in the was like 2009 to 2014 sometimes people would say, I can't find anything to sell. And I was like, Where are you going, you know, and they just didn't have their eBay glasses on. It was overwhelming. They didn't know what to pick. It wasn't it wasn't that there weren't things to buy. They had trouble making the decisions of what to buy, right? Right? I just don't think we will ever not have anything to sell right during

Unknown:

COVID. That's I went out and started picking garbage again, and I got creative there, because I really I had a lot of smaller things I could list, but I didn't have that thrill of the hunt. So I went out and picked garbage, and I found beautiful mid century furniture, tea, oh, furniture on on the people were cleaning up family members who passed, and they couldn't really do anything on the lockdown with it, and they didn't care. They were too young to appreciate what they had. So I took my little car and I jammed things and put it on Craigslist, and people came from New York to buy beautiful pieces of furniture from me. So not something I really want to do, but picking garbage can be fruitful at times. I haven't done it for a while. I did find an old stamp collection that somebody put out. It was a young kids from the 60s. There were four books. I know nothing about stamps, so I took them to a pawn shop who I deal with at times when I find silver and things like that. I trusted them. They sent it out. They made me an offer, $350 or I could take it and sell it myself, but I would have to pay the expert that they paid to look through everything. Well, right? What do you think I did? I took the $350 but you never know what's on the side of the road too. That's

Suzanne Wells:

That's right, that's right. Well, thank you for agreeing to come on the podcast and sharing your information with us. There's a lot of good information about sewing patterns and craft supply. Yeah, definitely. Listeners make notes. Watch for Mindy's big sales on the group,

Unknown:

and I'm watching everybody else's Yeah, of course.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay. Well, enjoy your day. Thanks again.

Unknown:

Bye, bye. Thank you. Bye, bye.

Suzanne Wells:

And just to follow up, Mindy's Queen embroidery hoop was the cover image of the November 21 2024$100 Super Size video on my YouTube channel. Her sale is at the 23 minute, 46 second mark. If you want to go check that out. Next week, we will talk with Candice, who is an extreme couponer and overall deal queen, and uses that business model to get some of her inventory to sell on eBay. So something a little different. And thank you, listeners, so much for hanging out with us for the last hour and make it a great week on eBay. Bye for now you.