eBay the Right Way

eBay Seller Chat with Tina, Gemini Thrifts on YouTube: 10,000 Listed Items, One Woman Show 🌟

• Suzanne A. Wells • Episode 227

Share episode
Suzanne Wells:

Oh, hey there eBay friends. Welcome to episode number 227, of eBay the right way. Today's date is July. 23 2025 my guest is Tina of Gemini thrifts on YouTube. No announcements this week. So let's dive in. Welcome back listeners. I have Tina with us today, and Tina came to me through a mutual friend, Mindy, the sewing pattern lady. Tina has a YouTube channel, which is very successful. So we're going to talk about a whole bunch of things here. So how are you this morning? I am wonderful. Thank you. Great. And tell us where you're located. I

Unknown:

am located in Pennsylvania on the East Coast, about 15 minutes from New Jersey, so I spend a lot of time there as well.

Suzanne Wells:

So you are very near Mindy. I am she mentioned you and running into you at different estate sales and that type of thing, and that's how you met.

Unknown:

Yes, yes, we see each other at church rummage sales a lot. Ah, okay. I've also been to one of, or maybe even two of her own yard sales that she's held,

Suzanne Wells:

right? Okay, okay, good. Well, let's go over what brought you to eBay and how that happened.

Unknown:

Okay, well, I started eBay in 1999 and it's kind of a funny story, because my brother is 15 years older than I am, and he was the type of child to, and I don't know, I don't know if people, I guess, just have different personalities, but he was the type of child to save his toys instead of open them and play with them. He kept them in the original packages, kept them tucked away and, you know, in 1999 you know, it was a few years, four years, I guess, after eBay had launched, and, you know, he said, Well, you know, I have some of my toys from when I was a kid. Do you do you think you'd be, you know, interested in selling some of them for me? And I said, Yeah, you know, sure. And, oh, geez, that was so long ago. I think, I think when I first started, you didn't even have to have photos, you know, or you could add those. You had to scan them, or you I mean, it was like a big ordeal to try to, you know, get a photo up on eBay, though, but so the first item was a red line Hot Wheels bus. It was, what the heck was it called? It was one of the busses with, like, the surfboards on it. I can't even think of the exact name of it right now, but that was the first item I listed for him, and it sold for a little over $500 and it was auction. Everything was auction. You know, in the beginning, you know, you know how eBay was,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, and, wow, 500 Were you shocked?

Unknown:

I was not only was I shocked, I was hooked. I said, what else do you have for me? So, yeah, I was totally, totally hooked after that. And we split the profits. It was like, you know, 5050, and I used my half of it to get a good digital camera at the time, and then just continued to list more of his items. And I had, you know, a one year old at the time, so I was doing it very, very, very part time. It was just kind of whenever, whenever my brother would give me something. And that's how it kind of went on for for years, to be honest. And then I think I'm not sure what exactly happened, but, you know, I didn't realize at the time that I could go buy my own stuff and do this on my own, right? And then I finally did realize it. You know, there were others I was seeing on probably Facebook. I don't even remember. It's been so long ago, but it was probably like Facebook and stuff like that. I remember seeing a lot of the queen of auctions. Do you remember her?

Suzanne Wells:

Lynn drawley? And drawley, yes.

Unknown:

Post. She used to post a lot, which I believe must have been on Facebook. It must have been on Facebook at that time because, I mean, there wasn't a lot of other social media out there.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, she was on YouTube as well. Oh,

Unknown:

yeah, I think, I think maybe she

Suzanne Wells:

was, she had the boot camps. I don't know if she still does it, but it was like$5,000 for several days at a workshop and learning, she really focused on collectibles, because I believe her parents or grandparents had an antique store, so she had that knowledge,

Unknown:

yes, yes. And I remember, you know, I just remember her selling such a vast assortment of stuff. And I was like, Oh, wow, you know. And so, you know, like, there were her, there was it was her and a couple others. And, you know, it kind of like, inspired me. I was like, wow, you know, I'll go to a couple yard sales and see what I can find. And again, I was still doing this very part time. I ended up having, you know, two more daughters. And so it was very, very part time I had my my three daughters, I waitressed and I was, I started ramping it up, probably, probably about, I don't know, 2007 2008 and I just kind of just started doing a little more and more, and built my inventory, built my eBay store, and then finally, in 2012 I went full time with it. I finally quit my job, and I haven't looked back.

Suzanne Wells:

So I've been so let me speak to that epiphany you had about buying stuff on purpose. I had that as well. I started in 2003 and I had just gone through a divorce, and then I was downsized out of a job. I'm always the one that gets downsized because I was, like, part time or last hired, or it's never a performance thing, but, and I was like, Great, now I gotta go find another job, and I was shopping at Goodwill for interview outfit because of the job I had was very casual. And so I kept seeing all these clothes brand new with tags, and I'm like, Oh, that is not my size. This is not my size. And I came across, I'll never forget it was a White House, no Banana Republic skirt. It was like white with black op art design on it, and it had a, like a $98 tag on it, and it was $3.02 and I'm like, Ah, I wish I knew somebody who could wear this. And then it just dropped in my head. You don't have to. You can sell it on eBay. Because I was selling stuff around my house at the time, it was like the voice from beyond that dropped that into my head. And I just, I just looked around and I thought, oh my gosh, this whole store is going to be full of this kind of stuff. And I just, I said, you know, what heck with the job interview, I'm gonna spend $100 and buy a bunch of really good stuff and put it on eBay and see what happens. Yes, I You just know, it was one of those. It was a knowing, like, we've got the internet, we've got a supply of stuff in this thrift store. Yes, I just saw it. You know, like, early adopter, like, I get it, yeah, today, some people don't get it. But, like, you just, it's a knowing. I knew this would work. Yes, excited about I'm excited talking about it all these years later. Well, I know, you know other sellers will tell you, like, what was their epiphany? That it just, it just made sense. And so, yeah, that's what I did, and still doing it. So, yeah, it just hits you, and you just know that I can do this. I can match this thing over here with this thing over here and and make make it work and make money.

Unknown:

Yes, yes, absolutely. I mean, it probably took me a little bit longer than it should have. But, you know, I just had so much going on with my Yeah, like that, but yeah, and, you know, my mom took me to thrift stores when I was a kid, so I was already familiar with thrift stores. My dad used to take me to the flea market. So I kind of, you know, always like, and I always like doing that stuff. I remember like being so excited. It even as a kid going through the racks at the thrift store. And that was just for fun, you know, just to see what what I could find that I liked. So, yeah, it's,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, I think that's what hooks us, is the let's see what's in here concept, because I don't care where you're shopping, estate sale, thrift store online, somebody's basement. You know, sometimes it's nothing. It's like, nothing resonates with you, like, oh, I don't, that's probably worth money, but I don't want to do that. That's not interesting to me. And then, and then you'll hit it, where you find a whole bunch of stuff that's you get really excited about, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you started off with your brother's toys, Mm, hmm, yep. And then what happened after that? Did you figure out the oh, I can do this on purpose and buy stuff to resell?

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah. And I was really, I was really more so always into the hard goods, as opposed to clothing. I really just kind of gravitated towards, you know, the dinnerware and the flatware and stuff like that. And I was going to a lot of auctions, a lot of in person auctions, and I would buy box lots. I would buy, you know, a box lot, maybe for one particular item that I knew was going to do well. And then, you know, a lot of the other items, even if I didn't have a clue, I would research them and figure it out. And a lot of them turned out to be great. Some of them turned out to be junk, you know, some of the items and and I would still, I'd still list a lot of the junk too, even if it wasn't, you know, spectacular. But that was a huge learning opportunity, because, you know, like I said, I would buy the box for one item and research the others, and then things that turned out to be really good, I would keep that in my memory banks and look for those items again. And I did that for years. I really I went to a lot of auctions. That was my main sourcing for a lot of years. It just worked out best because I still had young kids, and, you know, taking them out to yard sales that was a bit of a challenge, especially because I work nights too. So I, you know, a lot of nights I wasn't getting home until midnight and to get up and get out there with with kids in the morning.

Suzanne Wells:

That wasn't really, uh, that. Well, that sounds pretty tough. Yeah, it wasn't

Unknown:

really happening at the time. But now, all through that, my mom was still like, yard sailing, and she's like, You got to just come out yard sailing. And I'm like, Well, I know, but and eventually I did, eventually did start going out, taking my kids when they got a little older, but they always had to use the bathroom, and they always had to go home to use it. So many, many, many yard sale trips were cut short.

Suzanne Wells:

Yes, due to

Unknown:

this trick, I later learned that it wasn't always the emergency that they said it was,

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, get

Unknown:

you out. They just did not want to be out at yard sales. So, but yeah, and then, you know, eventually it kind of, you know, it kind of transitioned. My kids are all older now, so I have been my youngest just turned 20 last, last month. Now I can say, wow. Now we're in July, and this was in June. Was her birthday, June 21 so she's 20 now. And you know, now for years, I've just been able to, you know, go out to yard sales or whatever, by myself. My mom used to still come with me, but now she's, she's a little older, and she's, she's not able to do it anymore, so, but I go hard now. I go hard at the yard sales. Now that is, like my favorite place to source. I love the yard sales. I love rummage sales. Those are like my top two. And I do also like estate sales. I did go, I did do the bins for a while, probably back, like, 2018 2019 I was, like, getting into the bin scene, and then that kind of dropped off after COVID hit. And I've never really returned. I've been to, you know, maybe one or two trips, and I just it wasn't, I don't know, It's too, too time consuming. I like, yeah, it's,

Suzanne Wells:

it's, it depends on the binge you're going to Yes, this is true, how crazy and chaotic they are, and learning the system like, when's the best time to go? When do they replenish? Yeah, and I think that just certain people are are more cut out for that. I bet you. Times, and I just more prefer things to be organized. I feel overwhelmed when I'm digging. Not that I won't ever dig through anything, but when you walk in and it's this huge warehouse and it's just dig Now, some people love that. They're like mouth is watering right now. Yeah, thinking about it, but I feel overwhelmed

Unknown:

with it. I didn't mind so much of the digging. It was just the time consuming, like I mean, or I worded that wrong. It was. But yeah, it is. It is time consuming, you know, to have to wait for them, to switch them out, and stuff like that. And I like to move at my own pace. I don't want to stand there and wait. I like to try. So that's probably why I don't care for the bins as much. But yeah, I mean, I kind of veered off topic, I think. But yeah, I started.

Suzanne Wells:

There is no topic in this podcast. It's whatever we want to talk about. But I would like to hear about some of your sales. Okay,

Unknown:

yeah, yeah, definitely. Um, well, I mean, I do sell a huge variety. And you know, now I even, do, you know, some clothes, like I said for for a while I got when I still had everything at home. I ran this out of my house until 2021, 20 21 I rented a warehouse across town, but before that, it was taking over my home. So after I kind of got to capacity with hard goods and stuff, I did start to incorporate more clothing because it took up less space. Or, you know, you could store it differently. So, but anyway, now I have the warehouse, but, yeah, I sell such a variety. I'm not the type that sticks to just one thing that would be boring to me. I know some people love it. Some people like to, you know, only sell jeans, or only sell tea cups or whatever it is, you know, but not me. I sell anything and everything. So

Suzanne Wells:

how many items do you have listed? I

Unknown:

have a little over 10,000 items currently. You are

Suzanne Wells:

kidding. How long did it take to get to that number?

Unknown:

Um, well, it took a while. It took a while. And I am more of, and I know not everyone believes in this system, either, but I am more of, like the list it and forget it type and, you know, I know a lot of people don't like that, but for me, it works. It is, I mean, it it works. I mean, there's times, you know, my mom's older now, she's been kind of ill, and I, if I can't list for a week, I am still having consistent sales, because

Suzanne Wells:

I guess so with that many items,

Unknown:

yes, yes. So it works. I mean, there are, there are a few older items that I probably should end the listings at some point. But you know, then when I think about it, one of them sells. So I'm like, You know what? I'm just gonna leave it alone. I have a store subscription. I'm not paying extra for these listings anyway. So, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

okay, so did you have any help getting to that number? Listing, photographing, any shipping,

Unknown:

anything? Oh, I do this all on my own, really, all on my own. And you know what? Some days I would love to have help. I'm like, oh, man, if I had help, I could do this and do that and do this. But I am not, by nature, a teacher, so I don't know how I would teach someone to do what I do. And I'm kind of, you know, I'm kind of, like, maybe a little bit of a control freak, like I, I would want someone to do it the way I do it. And, and, you know, another thing is, I do sell such a huge variety. So it's not like I can give one blueprint on how to list this. And you know, when I'm listing and selling so many different things, so that's like my huge challenge in in basically, why I have not tried to hire someone yet.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, that makes sense. All those points make sense. So back to let's talk about some things you sold so interesting, or high dollar, or whatever you want to talk about.

Unknown:

Okay, well, I actually found a really good item this weekend, but I'm not I'm not really talking about that yet. We'll see what happens with it. Actually kind of crazy. It may be my biggest sale yet, but I have had some other really big sales, which I really wasn't expecting. Back in the summer of 22 I picked up a box of color Street. Are you familiar with color Street? They're like the nail polish strips. No, I'm not. Oh, okay, so color Street is basically. I don't really know what it's made out of, nail polish of some sort. I'm not sure what else is in there, but you just, you put it on your nails. You kind of like trim around your nails, and you have, like, a manicure. It's just like nail polish that you don't have to apply with a brush. You just kind of, okay, click it on, smooth it out. It's, it's like an MLM, an MLM, so kind of like, you know, like a Pampered Chef business, or something like that. That's what, that's what the color Street is. And so this woman had formerly sold it, and she was done, she was, you know, out of the business, as you see with a lot of those kind of, you know, companies of people you know that sold Avon and are no longer doing it, or you know this or that. So she had a whole box of it, and she just wanted it gone. And she said she wanted$25 for it. And I love, I am a sucker for a bulk buy, I really. And I thought, well, you know what, there's a whole box full 25 bucks. How can I go wrong? I just there. Can't, I can't lose with this. So I got back, I took the box back to my warehouse, started doing a little bit of research, and I was like, oh wow. I counted them up. I had 264 packs. And I was like, oh boy. And they were still selling pretty hot back then, it was still like a real, like, something people really wanted. So I listed them, and I sold them, I think about four hours later, for $1,500 i Oh, so you just did a bulk of all of them, yes, and I was, I was just so excited, because it was such a good sale and such a fast sale. It was like immediate turnover. So, and I've picked them up since I actually do have, I have a set listed now that I found back in February. I think I have that listed for 1000 with best offer. I don't think it's as many, but now the number, you know, the the price has dropped. It's come down a lot since 22 so definitely, I mean, I've sold, I've sold some smaller lots since too I've sold a lot for maybe 600 maybe 250 smaller lots. And like I said, I do have a bigger one listed now, but it hasn't sold yet. But that was, you know, that was, it was like, at the right time I found it at the right time when the market was still

Suzanne Wells:

so tell me again, what you paid for that

Unknown:

lot $25

Suzanne Wells:

$25 and you sold it for 1500 oh, gosh, that is the holy grail of eBay. It probably wasn't a huge box, because they're tiny little things.

Unknown:

Yeah, no, I mean it was. She had it in an oversized box, you know. But it, it wasn't really, it wasn't really, you know, when I went to ship it out, it wasn't in a huge box. I think it all fit into like a, you know, 12 by 12 by eight

Suzanne Wells:

wasn't right. So it wouldn't be like shipping a 12 piece place setting of dinnerware. It was not even close. Yeah, these little were they plastic or rubber, or what they

Unknown:

they're just in little packs, probably about roughly four by six. You know, it's got 10 strips in it. Okay? Nails, there are some that are for toenails, for like, a pedicure, but most of them are manicure and, yeah, pretty, pretty lightweight, until you get like, 264 of them, you know, right, right, probably around seven pounds or something like that. It wasn't anything crazy.

Suzanne Wells:

So what a flip. And you said they sold immediately,

Unknown:

immediately. It was like, four hours, four hours, hours from me listing them, until they sold. It was, it was incredible.

Suzanne Wells:

Wow. I bet you were on cloud nine for a while with that. Where else can I get some more of these?

Unknown:

Yeah, so, like I said, I still pick them up. If I can get a good deal on them, I will still pick them up. So, yeah, that was, that was that was a memorable, a memorable sale. And you know, I was thinking, and I had a couple others, and I said, I should have written them down. My life's just been so crazy lately. But, yeah, I mean, okay, last year, last year, I went to a an estate sale, and it was mainly Disney stuff and Hallmark stuff, and my friend and I went my I have a friend in town who is also a reseller. She's part time, though she's part time, I'm full time, but her and I sourced together. And a lot of people can't believe that we can do that, but we do. We have done it for years now successfully. So we went to this estate sale, and. And the prices were phenomenal. And there was just so much, so much stuff. And we filled up my entire car. I have, I have a Honda passport, so I have a pretty good amount of square footage, as far as you know, storage in the back. So we filled the whole thing up. We actually got so much stuff we and we waited though we we left at one o'clock in the morning to go get in line at this sale. It was, it was in the middle of winter. We actually went twice. We went twice, but the second time we went was the coldest. It was 14 degrees out, and it was snowing and the wind was blowing, and we had to get in line so we would be, you know, in the first, the first group that went in, and it was crazy. People had, like, hunting blinds, like, you know, the camo hunting blinds that they were in, they had. You know, there were people that had little space heaters, like propane heaters blowing on them. This line was crazy, but we took chairs. We took some chairs. We had heated gloves, we had heated blankets. I had one of those Halo battery packs, like QVC. So we plugged the heating, the heated blanket into that, and we just, we sat out there for hours in this freezing cold to get into this sale. But we made a killing. But we bought so much stuff, we ended up having to leave our chairs. We couldn't even fit the chairs back in to the car, so we ended up giving them to someone we you know, we just couldn't take them so. But I found a lot of great stuff. We both did. But I found two sets of Waterford Disney glasses. Two of them were like wine glasses, and then the others were, I believe they were doubled fashions, if I can remember correctly, but they had the Mickey kind of engraved into it. And they were limited edition. There were only so many sets of them made. They were made in Ireland, and I got $500 for the smaller glasses, and I got$1,000 for two of the wine glasses.

Suzanne Wells:

Wow,

Unknown:

so and I paid so minimal, so minimal for them. I mean, I can't even tell you what exactly I paid, because it was a bundle deal. You know, they just bundled everything and said, you know, everything was, like, $300 or something like that. It was just, it was ridiculously cheap for all that I purchased. I had totes and totes of Hallmark ornaments and Disney stuff. I got Disney Christopher radco ornaments, which I'm still selling some of those, right? I sold a pack for 500 I just recently sold a pack of two for 200 so, yeah, I sold a lot in the very beginning, and I do still have some stragglers left from that sale. But that was, that was an extremely memorable bulk buy.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, I'm looking at your eBay store right now, and it says 48,000 items sold. And I've learned that number is usually not accurate, because they didn't start counting, you know, at the very beginning. No, they did not. Mine says 29,000 but I've never had, I've never had more than like, 600

Unknown:

items. Oh, okay, okay.

Suzanne Wells:

Do you want to say your eBay store name?

Unknown:

Yeah, sure. My eBay store name is Gemini. Asterisk, deals, so it's all one word, and then my My store is like, Gemini, asterisk deals, asterisk store. I believe, I believe that's how that shows up. But, yeah, I'm under Gemini deals.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, so you have lots of followers, which I've learned can be good or bad, because, like, you'll list something, and immediately you'll have, you know, it'll be in your send offer. So, you know, I set mine up as a teaching store, knowing that so a lot of people who come on this podcast do not want to say their store name, because they get they don't want to get people looking who aren't buying

Unknown:

right? I do understand that, and I know great

Suzanne Wells:

for the algorithm, because it says, oh, all these people have looked at this item and nobody bought it. So we're going to push it to the bottom, yeah. Then again, you get people that buy stuff because, oh, I've been looking for this, and we're. I'm thinking, if you're looking for something, you always want to set up an alert. But I guess people don't do that as much as I do. So yeah, well, you

Unknown:

know, I also already feel like I've shared my my store on YouTube already, so right? It's not hard to find me if somebody wants to, you know what I mean.

Suzanne Wells:

So let's, let's talk about your YouTube channel, because you're doing great, and thank you. Tell us about that evolution of you know what made you start and what kind of things you show on your channel?

Unknown:

Okay, well, I don't know if you have ever heard of taco stacks, he has a YouTube channel, uh huh, and he's local to me. And again, he's someone that I used to see in rummage sale lines and stuff like that, mainly, mainly rummage sale lines, you know, yard sales, maybe occasionally, but we became friends, and he would always tell me, like, you should start a YouTube channel. And so I said, Yeah, you know what? Maybe I will, like, I love what I do. I love talking about it. And all right, let me, I guess I'll do this and see what happens. So that's, that's honestly how I got started with YouTube. So I started out so I was super nervous. Oh my I remember my first couple of videos. I was so nervous, and now I'm like,

Suzanne Wells:

anything goes. Yep, here we are. Oh yeah,

Unknown:

people know me now it's so funny. But yeah, I started out, you know, do I did a lot of thrifting at the time. Now, I so, yeah, Gemini thrifts. Now, Gemini barely thrifts. I hardly ever thrift. I do. I guess during the winter, I probably thrift more. You know, I'll hit the, I'll hit the goodwill every now and then. But I that's, I mean,

Suzanne Wells:

Thrift is a, is a catch, all, right, public sourcing, treasure hunting, but, you know, out buying stuff to resell,

Unknown:

yeah? So, yeah, it just it, you know, it started out kind of like that, and it's just kind of grown. It's, it's just grown. And, like I said, it's definitely, you know, just like anything else, consistency is key, and being consistent. I mean, even, even in the past few months, I've noticed more growth and stuff like that. So, yeah, do you edit your own videos? I do. Yes, I do. Yep.

Suzanne Wells:

That's the time consuming part people don't realize, because, like, for a podcast, it usually takes me two to two and a half times the length of the podcast to edit. Yes, you got it well, depending on how meticulous you are, you know, taking taking out the ums and the odds and the throat clears and the I like to put in the sound effects, and you can't do a whole one in one sitting. I can't I gotta take breaks, because it can be pretty tedious. And if you're out there and you've never edited any material, whether it's podcast or videos, are even harder to edit. They take more time. So just appreciate this for the listeners. Just appreciate all those people you're watching and listening to, because it takes a long time to create a high quality product, and I love doing it, and that's one reason I'm more focused on podcasting than videos, because the editing is faster. But so you what kind of videos do you do you do the shopping videos do you do, like hauls and sales updates and

Unknown:

what? Yeah, so I do, and I sell a lot of stuff during the week. So, you know, I do a weekend, what sold video? So I'll do on Monday, I'll put out a video that will be my sales from Friday until Monday, when I when I film it, so just kind of like weekend sales, because and even that takes a while, but if I did the whole week, it would take way longer. And I really, I actually stopped doing those videos for a while, because they actually get the least views. Because a lot of people do just check my store. If they want to see what's sold, they'll check my store. But some people just do enjoy the videos. And you know, when I took the break from doing those, I kept getting the request to do them again, to do them again, to do them again. So I'm doing them again. So I have been doing those for a while. I also do during. Yard sale season. I do the yard sale videos. I do, I still do estate sale whatever pops up. What I mean, it's kind of seasonal, whatever's going on. Like, right now, I'm putting out a lot of yard sale videos, a lot of rummage sale videos, not so much estate sales, because I've been, haven't really been going to them, they're more of like a winter thing. But if I do happen to come across a good one, I'll go, you know, if I find like a hoarder, hoarder estate sale or something like that. But yeah, so right now, it's a lot of oh and flea markets, because it is flea market season as well. So I usually, and I have a flea market that's about 10 minutes away from me, so I usually head up there every weekend and put out a flea market video as well. So

Suzanne Wells:

how much time would you say you spend on filming, editing your YouTube

Unknown:

videos? I would say probably about, maybe like 15 hours a week?

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, that's a lot, yeah. So I'm kind of like you. I do a lot of different things that are based on my eBay store. So I have my online school. I write the bolo books, I do the podcast I do. My goal is three videos a month on YouTube, so I kind of have a cycle, and I think you just have to have the personality for doing the shopping videos. Because I just, I don't know, I just, that's just not my personality. I like to show things that sold. And the reason is because I started my YouTube in 2007 Mm, hmm. That wasn't like my main objective to, like, make money on YouTube. It was in response to all the crap out there, all the people that are standing next to their Ferrari. And I bought this with my eBay money, and it was all fake. It was all just to get you to buy their program to learn how to do it. And I just got so sick of that because, like you, like, I'm a real person that really does this, and it's not all this flashy stuff, you know, standing in front of your $2 million beach house that you bought with your eBay money, and I got interviewed for a reality show back in like 2011 when those were really big. You know, they wanted me to do all these things that aren't real. They're like, we want to film you go into the goodwill with a U haul and getting, I'm like, but that's not what we do. Yeah, you know, we want to film you waking up early in the morning and going to this and that and the other and, you know, 12 hours of estate sales a day. And I'm like, but that's not real. So

Unknown:

I do have to inter I do have to interject there, because I I will, I mean, not estate sales, but yard sales. I will get up at four in the morning and, you know, get ready to go and everything. And, you know, I have a whole routine with my dog. Well,

Suzanne Wells:

what I mean was I did not do it that way. I did not have stamina to do it for 12 hours a day,

Unknown:

I'd have yard sale for 12 hours. Well, I'm sure there are people all the driving and stuff, yes, after all the Yeah, with

Suzanne Wells:

enough coffee and determination, you can do anything. But the bottom line was, that's why my channel is the way it is. And I do the educational products, because this is real, you can do this. And I just got so sick of the hype, and it's like I'm fighting the silent battle against these people that just make up stuff. And I've seen how it can change people's lives. You know, the lady who learned eBay, she'd been in a car accident, all she had was one arm that worked, and she was in a wheelchair, and her goal was to make enough money to put an elevator in her house. And she did it. You know, people sending their kids to college so they don't have student debt. And, you know, helping women get out of bad relationships and start over and just all kinds of stuff. And it is real. You can do it. So, yeah, getting upset here, but no,

Unknown:

listen, absolutely, I mean, and I've been a single mother for the majority of my life, right? Okay? I mean, and I do it, and I'm, I'm single right now, and I and I have been for a very long time, and I do it, I make it work. And I think that that is what attracts some people to my channel as well, though, because I'm not just making this up like I am really doing this. I'm not. Just on there talking about, what's selling. I am actually selling this stuff. You know, there are

Suzanne Wells:

the haul videos and the shopping videos. When those first started, I felt like a lot of them were staged, like, Okay, you go to Goodwill and you find, like, 10 of these things that are super high dollar bolos. Was that real? Did you real? Or did you put those there? Yeah, you never

Unknown:

know. No, you don't. You don't ever know. But, I mean, I will say that I have found some amazing things.

Suzanne Wells:

I'm sure you have. And so I have to consider, you know, what you're not seeing sometimes, and I'm just all about, like the real picture, like what this really is.

Unknown:

You know, another thing that that just came to me, as far as sales go, last year, last spring, in April, I found a set of the Lennox village spice container. You did. This was right before they re released. You know, they re released it again for and I think they were selling it for like, $600 or something like that online website, I can't remember, but I found a set, and this was in one of my videos. I found it. I can't, I can't remember if it was 10 or $20 but it was no, no more than $20 I honestly think it was 10. I'd have to watch my video again now, because I can't remember, but I sold that. I sold that for, I believe, about 1500 as well. I don't have the exact price on that either I remember, I remember listing it high and putting best offer on it, but, and that sold to within, within a couple weeks. But I said, Man, that was just at the perfect time, because then a couple months later, Lennox re released it, but they sold out, then they sold out, but still, you know,

Suzanne Wells:

well, I did just put that on my Facebook business page, because I I put, you know, bolos and people in my group that post things. And this one was went for 1200 it was within the last 90 days, and it had 1989 on it. So it was the true vintage one. All got started by a Tiktok influencer that had that, and she started showing it, and then just the the price just skyrocketed. But for the listeners, yes, beware on the Linux spice rack and jars, they have been re released, so verify the date they were made.

Unknown:

Yes, absolutely. And you know what else I just shipped out yesterday. Last month, I was at a yard sale, and I found the village flats. They call them. They're just wooden, wooden houses. Lennox village wooden houses. There's six of them in the set. I picked them up at a yard sale. Again, it was kind of like a bundle deal. So I don't really know what I paid for them individually, but it probably wasn't more than $5 if you would break it down. Now, mine had wear all around the perimeter, so I listed them a little lower, but I sold them for $119 for these six wooden wall wall plaques. Basically, they're wall plaques, and they sell for, if they're in good condition, they're going to sell for at least $150 so yeah, that stuff is that stuff is hot. Yeah.

Suzanne Wells:

And the vintage Linux spice jars, like the garlic or cinnamon or whatever, some of those sell for $100

Unknown:

a piece? Yup, yes. People

Suzanne Wells:

are trying to complete that set, either they one broke or whatever happened. So they're even on Amazon for that price. Oh, okay, as a owned item, yep,

Unknown:

Yeah, gotta you do have to keep an eye on the trends, that's for sure, because I know I think it was one of the Kardashians was setting their table with, and I could be wrong. I mean, I could be wrong. It may not have been a Kardashian, but I'm pretty sure it was. She was setting her table with the Royal Albert Old Country roses, and that kind of went nuts for a while. That's, I mean, that's actually been a very good pattern. For many years, I've been selling it for many, many years. Is that blue? No, it's um, it's, well, there is, there is a blue version, but it's not old country roses. I think that's called, uh, Moon, Moonlight, something or other. But this particular pattern is like, red, red, pink. Uh, okay, um, roses. So, yeah, but that really went went crazy

Suzanne Wells:

for a while. I know that's a cottage core esthetic. That's Orange Country. That's a big thing right now with the esthetics as they Yes, okay? Okay, well, I do appreciate you being real on your channel, on your

Unknown:

videos, because, yeah, sometimes I'm a little there's no,

Suzanne Wells:

there's no YouTube police that says, you know, fact check everything. It's just whatever people want to say, and it as long as it's not profanity or hate stuff, right, go. Anything goes. So for the listeners, you know, study the people that you are watching. Mm, hmm, absolutely make sure they are real sellers. And you know, most of them are just documenting this journey and sharing what they know, because it is exciting, and there's so much to learn, and you can never know it all, because tomorrow, there's going to be something that that hits the scene that we haven't heard of yet, and that just keeps going.

Unknown:

I agree that is one thing that that that might be my favorite thing about all this, is that it is a never ending learning journey. I am always learning something new. I think almost every day I learn something new. And that is, that's, that's exciting for me. I love that I really do. I really do. But, yeah, one, one thing I will say is, you know, some people don't like when I haggle, when I haggle at yard sales, flea markets and stuff. I think people who aren't, you know, resellers, and people who aren't familiar with this kind of thing don't always get it, and sometimes they do get mad. I I get a little bit of hate from time to time with stuff like that. But you know what? Like, I said, I'm going to do it anyway, because that's what I do. Like, I'm not going to be there for a while. There was this trend on YouTube with people paying more than the seller would ask, and I think the whole thing was, I personally believe it was for views. I don't think it was authentic, because there were a lot of people doing it, and I'm not calling anybody out, or calling, you know, any names or anything like that. I just feel like, in reality, in this business, the goal is to buy low and sell high, and anybody who tells you any different is BS, ing you because this is that. I mean, at least for me, this is how I make a living. I if somebody, if somebody wants $10 I'm not giving them 50. I'm sorry,

Suzanne Wells:

right? Take, will you take eight? Yeah,

Unknown:

well, exactly. And some people get really mad about that, but, you know, I'm like, well, it is what it is. I'm gonna keep doing it, because this is what I do. I do this off camera and I do it on camera? So that's how.

Suzanne Wells:

So with 10,000 items, how many do you sell a day a week? Um,

Unknown:

you know, I'm probably, I'm, I'm probably selling between like 15 and 20 a day. And, you know, certain days or more, certain days or less. You know, especially q4 q4 is, like, off the charts. I mean, where I'm selling 40 things sometimes. So

Suzanne Wells:

that's a lot of time shipping every day. Thank you. Couple

Unknown:

hours, yeah, and, well, depending on what it is, you know, if it's and that's another reason, I like to have a mix of things. It is nice to have a few clothing items when you're shipping out, you know, dinner plates and tea pots and this and that. It's nice to have some quicker items to just shove into a poly mailer. And, you know, it's very helpful. That's it's another reason where, you know, a variety comes in very, very useful. But yeah, I days when I do have really heavy shipping, like that, though I don't get much listed, right? But, you know, it is, it is what it is and, and I do try to list consistently as well, unless I'm out all day yard sailing and And lately, you know, this is kind of a season of my life right now where I've been spending a lot of time taking care of my mom, so that's kind of cut back on my listing a little bit. But again, at least I have a large inventory. It certainly hasn't cut down on my buying. So I'm

Suzanne Wells:

going to ask you the next question is, what's your death pile look like? Do you think you have in there?

Unknown:

It's piling. It is piling. Let me tell you something. It is a lot. It is a lot. I've picked up so much the past couple months. It has been a fantastic garage sale season. I mean, I could probably, I could probably list like for the next month and not have to worry about it, or maybe even more, to be honest, so. But you know what? I'm not mad about it. It's, it's like. Like, you know, if something crazy would happen. I have this inventory to list, so I am not,

Suzanne Wells:

oh, I'm not judging at all. I try to motivate people. You don't need any motivation. You've got it, but you've got to get it when you can get it exactly, and you're not going to walk away because, well, I have, you know, 400 things to list you're not going to walk away and that you can make good money on. I get

Unknown:

it exactly,

Suzanne Wells:

exactly educational hazard. I call it, I

Unknown:

know. And, you know, sometimes it's funny, because my mom doesn't always get it, and she'll say, Well, you know, if you have so much to list, maybe you should stay home this weekend, like, don't, don't go out, don't go out shopping. She'll say, and I'm like, I'm like, Mom, if I don't go out, I'm potentially missing, like, that crazy, high dollar item, you know, and and that's been proven time and time again. I'm like, Wow. I mean, like, this past weekend, I I found some, some fantastic stuff. And if I would have stayed home, I wouldn't have found any of that. So I am like,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, that's what my dad used to say when he saw, you know, my business, and you know, all the things that weren't up for sale yet, he was like, you know, he was a corporate man, so went to his job, did his job, and that was it. And he's like, Well, why are you buying more when you have all that? Well, that it's just a different mindset. You know, you you never stop looking. It's like you're mining for gold. You never stop looking. You don't know where it's going to be or when it's going to hit, but you never stop.

Unknown:

Yes, that's a good way. That's a good way to look at it, mining for gold. Yeah. Well,

Suzanne Wells:

I've taken up enough of your time today. What is on your schedule for the rest of the day?

Unknown:

Well, I am. I'm hopefully going well, actually, I have to go ship. I have like, 16 things that have to go out today, so I'm shipping. I would have had that done by now, but like I said, there was that situation at my warehouse, which I'm hoping, I'm hoping, has been fixed by the time I get back there. So we'll see. But I'm going to try to, you know, get that shipping done and get some, get some listing done today.

Suzanne Wells:

Good, yeah, me too. It's, it's already 86 here, and the humidity is 78% so, yeah, I'm just going to stay in the air conditioning today. It was in the high 90s last week with heat indexes over 100 and we had days I've had and it was early. That was in, like, you know, June. It's early for that, so, yeah.

Unknown:

But then we've also had some really cold days mixed in. So it's kind of weird. It's like we've had days that don't feel like summer at all.

Suzanne Wells:

I'm hoping for some of that soon. So anyway, pleasure to meet you, Tina, and everybody check out her YouTube channel, Gemini thrifts.

Unknown:

Yep, it's all one word. All one word. Gemini thrifts, okay,

Suzanne Wells:

sounds great. Well, pleasure to meet you, and maybe we'll have you back in a few months as a repeat offender. And you can, there's a lot of stuff I didn't even get to ask you, so I know

Unknown:

I could, I could honestly talk for hours. I we will do it again. Yeah, no, definitely reach out and we will definitely do it again. This has been a lot of fun. Okay,

Suzanne Wells:

great. Well, Happy hunting. Thank you. Suzanne, bye, bye. Next week, my guest is a repeat offender and my very good friend, Marlene the horse lady in Oklahoma. She was last on the podcast in March of 2023 so she will catch us up on how her eBay business is evolving. Thank you all for listening, and don't forget, there is always an open casting call for guests on my podcast. So if you are interested, let me know, and we can discuss. You can reach out to me on Facebook or email me directly at Suzanne. At Suzanne, a wells.com I'll talk to you next week. Bye for now. You