eBay the Right Way

eBay Seller Chat with Brigitte in Georgia: Full Time Seller with 3,000 Items - Doesn’t Feel Like a Job Because I Love It ♥️

• Suzanne A. Wells • Episode 231

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Suzanne Wells:

Hi, eBay friends, I'm Suzanne, your hostess, and this is episode number 231 of eBay the right way. Today's date is August 20, 2025 and my guest is Bridget in Georgia. Quick shout out to Becky and Stephanie, who took advantage of the new help via zoom call as premium library students. I helped Stephanie with bulk editing to revise her return policy across her 400 plus listings, and spent some time showing Becky how to use and navigate the bookkeeping spreadsheet in Google Drive. So just know that I'm here for you. If you need one on one help, we can jump on a zoom call to accomplish whatever you need. Okay, now let's talk with Bridget Hey there, eBay sellers, welcome back. And I have a guest today that is literally right down the road from me, maybe an hour and a half away. Bridget, and where exactly are you located? Yeah, I'm in Bishop so Athens, yeah, okay, near UGA, okay, yes, yeah. A lot of a lot of folks in Greenville went to that school and go back to the games, and it's, it's close enough.

Unknown:

Lots of college students,

Suzanne Wells:

yes, yes, lots of alum here in Greenville too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, and you reached out to me asking to come on the podcast, which is wonderful. So thank you for that. Now, we always start off with how you got involved in eBay and when that happened. Well,

Unknown:

you know, in 1999 my aunt was visiting from Jersey, and she came here on vacation and was telling us about eBay and how exciting it was, and how she was selling this stuff out of her antique shop on eBay. So she was showing it to me and my dad, and I didn't really, I wasn't on the computer that much in 1999 and it was, like, foreign to me. So my dad's like, hey, let's start trying to sell. So we just did it as a hobby. It was fun, you know, wait for the check to come, you know, and send out the item. And I was mainly focusing on Antiques. And I thought it, you know, had to be, you know, specialized vintage. And I wasn't thinking about clothing or shoes or anything like that. So that kind of waned, you know, and I just sold things here and there, just stuff that I had, old iPhones, things my kids wanted to get rid of, and I had the same thing that, I think that happened to you, I was in goodwill, and I'm looking at these shoes, I'm like, man, they're not my size, but these retail for like, $120 I'm gonna buy them and list them on eBay. It was a pair of dance cos, and that's when dance cos, oh, they were big, yeah. As soon as I listed them, they sold. Yeah. It was like, you know, Cha Ching, you know, you make your money on the buy. So I went home and I listed it. So I just started selling as just a hobby, you know. And in Athens, I owned a bar for 10 years and decided to lose it down. Oh

Suzanne Wells:

wow, yeah. So I'm busy all the time.

Unknown:

Oh yeah. So I went from being a bartender, being in the service industry and owning a bar and owning a business, to having to find something else, you know, because I the reason we closed is um, we had to sign a new lease, and I just wasn't up for it. I have horrible back problems. I have herniated discs in my back. I have arthritis. So I was like, you know, I told my husband, I was like, I think I can do this as a job. And to him, because he worked for UGA, he's actually retired from UGA. He that not guaranteed income made him nervous. And it's not like I had to cover a lot. You know, I needed 30,000 it's not a lot of money to me. That's kind of what I needed to to make our household still work. So before we close the bar, I started ramping things up and building my listings. Biggest mistake I did was thinking I had to just get as many things listed as possible. Don't look at sell through rate. Don't look at what's selling. I just have to list it. I've got to buy low and get it listed. Well, that was working okay, and I was building my store, and sales were coming in, but now you. Know, I sit with I wrote down the exact number. I have 3291 items, and those, yeah, 1000 of those just went on sale again for 30% off, because I should have never bought them. So, big mistake. But I'm not going to get rid of them. They sell, you know, I'm putting them on a sale. I like to do a 30% off sale and then send out offers so they end up getting like, 40% off, yeah, so, um, so in 2019 is when the bar closed, and I started ramping up my store. And I think when the bar closed, I'm trying to think I probably had about 1000 items listed, and I was doing pretty good, but I was struggling, you know, some weeks, I was like, oh, man, I don't even have enough money for to buy inventory. So my husband's like, Okay, well, here's some money. Go buy some more inventory. And I built it and I built it, and here I am, and I'm hoping, and I don't mind sharing these numbers, I am going to break$100,000 that's sales, okay? So you can take, you can take 50% off of that right off

Suzanne Wells:

the bat, right?

Unknown:

So I'm sitting in, as they call listing Nirvana, right now. Yeah, I list about six items a day, and I sell about five items a day, 12 items a day. I sell 12 items a day, or 10 items a day. So it's like I get to drive the motorcycle slow, or I can drive it real fast. I can throttle, I can throttle my sales. It's painful. If I want more money, I list more, uh huh. And it's, you know, it works that way, because I have all of this inventory. Some what you list today might sell today, and something you listed two years ago might sell today. So with having all that perfect storm, you know, I have, I have pretty good daily sales, and my average sales rate is about 50 to $60 per item. Oh, good, yeah. So I do pretty good. I'm happy, you know, I could, right now I'm listing, I list six items a day, and that's I have to do that. If I don't list six items, I'm fired. I tease my husband, who walk by and I'm laying on the bed with one of our cats, and I'm like, if my boss comes in, I'm done. You have to have discipline to do this job. And if you don't have discipline, you're, you're not going to I mean, if you're doing it serious, like I am, to have an income, you're not going to succeed. When you're your own boss, and I've been a boss, which I don't like being you're, it's not going to happen. It's just not. If you think that you can just list a couple things, forget about your store for 345, weeks, and not attend to it, not run sale. It's it's just not going to work well.

Suzanne Wells:

And I don't think people do that intentionally, because no, of course it happens, but you gotta realize, if you're not listing, you're not selling. And like you said, that thought goes through my mind every time I'm working on listings is like, this could sell today. Mm, hmm, or it could take two years, but at least I know things I listed two years ago are coming through the pipeline, and they could sell today. Yes. So yes, you don't look at it per item. You look at it overall, as you call it sales velocity, how fast things sell, but as once you get that pipeline going,

Unknown:

then, oh, that's exactly that's that's it. And that's something I want to talk about, that I'm really passionate about, and I think it's really important in your store, you have to look at sell through rate. You don't base everything on sell through eight I sell a lot of vintage stuff. Okay? If I can't find this vintage dress to compare it to sell through rate, it's not going to stop me from buying it. I know vintage can be long tail, but as far as let's just take something a Snoopy plush from the 80s, right? If I look that up and there is 200 listed and five sell, I'm not buying that item. If I look it up and 200 are listed in 100 sold, I'm gonna buy it. But back when I started, I wasn't looking up sell through rate of anything, and I was mainly just doing clothing I love. I mean, I sell everything. My um, passion is shoes. I love really good shoes. I there's nothing to me better than cleaning a pair of red wing boots that are worth 150 bucks. You know? I love that. Now I don't want to clean up some of these dirty old sneakers that have been running through the Georgia red clay. I hate that. I don't want to do, yeah, it's impossible. Yeah, to me, it's like cleaning a beautiful horse's saddle. I love good shoes, and I was actually going to specialize in just doing shoes, but, um, I realized that I would get bored. I want to say, I what I do, and I think, I think this hurts a lot of people, a lot of the people out on YouTube and a lot of influencers talk about how you have to kind of. Day with one thing. And I'm going to give you an example of somebody that I follow. They only sell jeans, right? They only sell jeans. Her husband does all the photographs. She does all the listings. I think they list 30 items a day. Well, I mean, I fall. I mean, I follow so many people on YouTube. But speaking of that, I started following. She's called lavender clothesline. Yeah, I know about her, yes. And when I saw that she was doing it, you know, and she was being real, you know, I don't think she's, you know, she's just, you know, not out there, just thrifting, showing stuff that she's possibly going to sell. Um, I was like, if she's doing it, I can do it. I know I can. And I knew by my sales. I mean, I've been doing this a long time. I mean, I've been on eBay since 1999 i I've seen it. I've been through the eBay wanting you to list things for 99 cents on auction, which I'll never do again to, um, anyway, not to get off track, but, um, I just think it's really okay back to the the jeans. So they just sell jeans and they specialize in it. Well, her husband can whip out getting photographs of these jeans and the measurements because he's doing one item. He's staying focused. He's not taxing his brain. Going from listening to purse to listing jeans to list listing, you know, a shirt and then shoes. He's not going back and forth that that boggles your mind. You can't you have to stay focused on one thing. So what I do, and I'm sure a lot of people do this, is I have purse day, like right now, I probably have 14 purses that I need to get listed. So I'll have purse day. So I'll be in the mindset of purses. I'll have shoe day. I'm in the mindset of shoes. I'm in hard goods day. I'm selling any hard goods or anything that's going to be my station that I have over here that I can grab, wallets, shoes, wigs. I love selling wigs. I do too. Yeah, they're my app. I love, I love to sell. I mean, there's only certain ones that sell really well. The what is it? The Paula, Paula young, Paula young, they sell fast.

Suzanne Wells:

That's a popular, sort of more affordable brand. Some of Yeah, yeah. Like John Renault or Raquel Welch those, yes, yes. Like, $500 new, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Unknown:

I just, I can't remember the name off, right? I just sold one for $110 and $10 and you can just tell, like, when I'm in the thrift store, I can see that it's quality. And when I pick it up and I shake it, I'm like, Oh, that's a pretty wig. And as soon as I look at the tag, I'm like, Yeah, of course. Anyway, so I try to stay on track with when I'm gonna list clothes, like women's vintage lingerie, nightgowns that are my favorite, uh huh. And I have lingerie day so I or I have just men's clothing, like, I try to keep the categories on my listing days focused into one group. Mm hmm, because I can go faster,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah. And I I do that as well. Like, stay within the same type of item, then you can just do sell similar and most of the item specifics are going to be the same. And my god, they keep adding more and more and more, but oh yeah, stick with one type of item, then you just do that sell similar, and it's not, you know, it's a better flow. Yes, yeah, yes. And one thing I wanted to throw in here, when you were talking about research and looking at how many are available, I call that market saturation, because that's very important, and I don't know what the magic number is like. If there's more than x, I'm not going to list that item or buy that item. But you know, when there's just a handful, and even if they don't sell through really quickly, just knowing that you have something that the market is not saturated with, and it changes over time. There's certain things I used to pick up. I didn't even, I didn't look it up. I just knew, Oh, I've sold this before. I've sold this before, and after a while, they don't work anymore.

Unknown:

Oh yeah. I mean, yeah, that happened with me with dance. Cos I, you know, and we all know, if you don't do that bend test, I actually had a nurse who bought a pair of white ones for me. This is in the very beginning. She's like, Oh my god. It was horrified. I went to work and my shoes started crumbling out from underneath my feet. I'm like, Oh no, I was horrified. So yeah, that dry rot crumble is something you really have to look out for. Me. Don't sell

Suzanne Wells:

has improved that over the years. So the older ones have yes of soul, yes, at some point I remember doing a video about this, that they've changed the materials that go into the souls. Oh, yeah. They, they won't do that as easily. Yeah, yeah, whatever happened, but yeah, that was a big problem back in the day, because you. Be so excited. You found these dance goes and, and they sold fast and, and then we started finding them with, you know, defective souls crumbling. And it's such a heartbreaker. You turn it over and you twist it. Oh, this is no good. I can't find this.

Unknown:

Yeah, but, yeah. So anyway, for me, you know, I'm a full time reseller. I'm serious about what I'm doing. I treat it like a job, and I love it, and it's, to me, it's not a job, and I work a lot of hours to do, to do the sales that I'm doing, but I'm doing what I love, so it doesn't feel like a job. If you don't like shopping and you don't like doing that, you're just, you know, it's not you can't like so many people are like, oh, what does it take to become full time to really make a living doing it? You have to, you have to want to do it, you know, you really do. You have to have a passion. I love I can talk about eBay all day. I love it. I absolutely love what I'm doing. I love the hunt. I love cleaning the items. I don't love listing so much. But you know, if you don't get it listed,

Suzanne Wells:

you're not gonna say that's when you put on a movie or some music that you like and just kind of stay focused. And I set timers. I'm like, I'm gonna never more than an hour. I'm gonna do this for 30 minutes. Like podcasts. I'm gonna edit this podcast for 30 minutes. And I do stuff like that every day, so I'm doing a little bit of everything every day. But I think that helps you stay on track. Yes, and you have to give yourself breaks.

Unknown:

Oh, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

if you're an at home reseller, you can literally sit there for hours, and that's not good for you as a human. You gotta get up, move around and let your brain have a break. You know, I don't, I don't think we were created to stare at computer screens all day, but that's where we are. So list, and then you get up and clean some things and take some pictures, or rest on the bed with a cat, whatever you're doing.

Unknown:

Well, that's the thing, too. My style of listing, I know I don't think you're an advocate for listening from the phone, but that's the only place I list. I love it. I can go. It's

Suzanne Wells:

what you like. I just don't like it, yeah, yeah. And I'm just

Unknown:

faster at it. So what I do? And I used to all my listings used to go in paper books, and I keep them all in case I lost a piece of inventory, I can revert back to 2020, December of 2020, try to find that item. That's another thing you need to talk about. Is inventory, keeping good inventory. But now I have an iPad, so I use the notes on the iPad, and I have my listings there. And by the end of the day I sit there, I put my show on and I get one listing done, I I start the drafts on my phone. Like when I look stuff up, I'll always start a draft, but I always have my iPad next to me, and, like, just before we started, I listed an item, and I may list three more items after the podcast is over, and then tonight, I may list a couple more, but I always try to get six in. I really want to work. I was for a while, I was listing 12 items a day, and boy oh boy, did it show on the amount of money

Suzanne Wells:

I was making. Yeah, that's the thing. But you know, you mentioned you had some health issues and problems with your back, and you can't sit for long periods, but the benefit is that we can be back and forth with it all day. And I'll

Unknown:

lay on some ice and get a couple listings done from my phone,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, and so like in the morning, I'll do two or three as I'm answering emails and, you know, looking at my Facebook group and answering questions, and then I'll do something else, and then after lunch, I'll do a few more. And it's people may say that's not efficient, but for me to stay motivated and keep that momentum, I have to change up what I'm doing. Not sit in a chair and do one thing for eight hours straight. I could never I can't do that. I gotta get up and be doing other things. And I'm still accomplishing stuff. You know, switching the laundry over, unloading is getting on Instacart, doing my grocery list, whatever is. But people that say they they sit and list for eight hours a day, and maybe they're doing it from their phone, so they're just kind of doing it everywhere, which is totally fine. I have no problem with other people doing it. I just big screen and a keyboard. I'm just faster on a keyboard.

Unknown:

Oh yeah. And I know a lot of people are like, you know, you're crazy. Listing from a laptop is the way to go. I'm like, I just, I'm not, you know, I've never done Secretary Work. I am a business owner. Bartender. Been standing on my feet serving drinks to people I'm not, you know, the phone, and a lot of times I'll even use just they'll press the button, I'll say what I want to say into this phone and have it do it for me. Yeah, I love

Suzanne Wells:

the speak to Ted. Text. And I think that is a wonderful resource as we get older. And, you know, maybe you start having arthritis in your fingers, and it's harder to touch. I do actually, and you're slower, and you can do the speak to text, either through a computer or phone or whatever you're you know, the dictation mode. And that is so liberating when you have physical challenges all these ways that we can keep going, yes, when our bodies are like, ah, yeah, I'm not as fast as I used to be, yeah,

Unknown:

yeah, but yeah. So that's, you know, that's how I it's just, you have to, I guess you just have to find what works for you. And you know, the biggest thing is, I think getting back to being full time, I get so tired of a lot of people complaining online. Oh, eBay is dead, you know, I'm leaving. And some I'm like, I know some of the groups I'm in, they're just complaint groups. But the first thing I say to people on there, as I was like, Oh, how many items are you listing today? Oh, well, last week, I got one listing done. I'm like, well, there's your problem. EBay is not dead. You

Suzanne Wells:

are. I mean, you and when they they start that bashing, which it's not allowed in my group.

Unknown:

Yes, we don't, which is why I love your group.

Suzanne Wells:

You know, everybody knows their slow times, but let's focus on what we can do. Work on that death pile. July has been painfully slow for me, one of my slowest months in maybe two years, and I started to get a little bit of anxiety about that, but I'm like, No, I know what I'm doing. Have all these great things already listed. I have more things to list. And so let's focus on that gives you your power back when you focus on what you can do. Because if you just, every day get up, no, no, no, sales, nothing's selling. EBay's dead. It doesn't work anymore. You know, I say to those people, um, don't let the door hit you on the way out. You know, if you don't, go find something else, go get a job at the mall, do something.

Unknown:

I mean, reselling is not for everyone. If it's not for you, don't force yourself to do something. Go get you know, as my never forget my son when he was young, why don't you get a real job? I'm like, this is a real job,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah? Well, and being an owner of a brick and mortar business, you know, it's, there's ebb and flow with that. You know, on game weekends, you're going to be slammed and you oh yeah, everybody shows up, oh yeah. And there's times where it's like, you know, after the playoffs and everything, it's like, is anyone coming in here today. So you just have to accept there is an ebb and flow to this. And when you're in the valley, you have to intentionally do things that are productive, that will pay you back later. Talking about that pipeline, keep listing, and it is. It's demoralizing to keep listing. When things aren't selling, you're like, why am I doing this? But it always comes back. Oh

Unknown:

yeah, oh yeah. As a matter of fact, I mean, I can remember when I first started, I'd be like, I didn't, I wouldn't have a sale for like, two days. And I'm like, Oh man, this. And then all of a sudden, bing, bing, bing, bing. I'm like, I'm back, I'm back. I'm doing well, wait no, forget it. This is gonna work. So, yeah, I'm I actually keep books. So I go back and look like, I go back and look at January of last year. And of course, every year I like to see each week is higher and higher. But I trend every month, week to week. IT trends for me the third week in July, right after, you know, everybody's on vacation, that payday is lower. Like, I mean, I literally go back every month and look to see if I'm down or if I'm up. But it trends. Like, October usually is the busiest month for me. But yeah, it trends just like we do in the restaurant business, you know, you you put, you know, write down if it's rainy out, you know, what's going on? What's the weather like? To find out your sales for the day. As far as you know, goes for a restaurant, not so much eBay, but it trends. I mean, I have my books are trending that. Um,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, yeah, yeah, if you studied over time, you do see patterns. Oh yeah. I I always hesitate to agree with people that are like, oh, you know, it's because everyone's getting their tax refunds. That's why sales are up. Or I just there's too many variables, like, you can't pin it down. Why? Why is, is this week better than last week? And,

Unknown:

oh, that's so funny. I have a funny story to tell you, because you're part of this with Martha Stewart. So that Martha Stewart special that came out, this is hysterical, right? So that book, I had that book in my inventory, and I listed it with another book to sweeten the pot for 7995 because that book, that first book in the 80s, was going for about 50 before that Documentary. Came out. So I'm it's sold. And I'm like, Oh, I bet it's sold because Thanksgiving is coming up. People are thinking about the holidays. So one day, I'm sitting there going through Netflix. I'm like, oh, there's a new Martha Stewart special on. I put it on, I start watching it, and I'm watching it, and it occurs to me. I'm like, wait a minute. I went on eBay, and I typed it in, and they were going for $300 mine sold a week prior, right? Mine was one of the first ones to go. I was so mad that I wasn't up on this trend, that this documentary came out, that I was I'm furious now. I couldn't get over it's like, now I gotta find another one. Well, it's waning. Now that book is back down. But I, I read that book. I had it, but I missed that small little time where they were going for $300

Suzanne Wells:

and you're talking about this book where she's wearing white.

Unknown:

Yes, that that first, the first book. I don't was it? I forget the name of it, but it but it was that, that desirable book.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, I remember talking about that, and, yeah, it's her first book.

Unknown:

I don't know if it was weddings, but it's her with the white and she's putting something down on the table. It was one of her first books. And of course, after that documentary, everybody wanted that book. I haven't looked it up in a couple of days, but, um, it definitely went down in price, because I even saw one go for 400

Suzanne Wells:

now it's Ozzy Osbourne stuff. Oh, of course, he passed away last week. Yeah, that's all over social media. I'm not a fan of it when that happens. I think that sensationalizing and profiting off of someone's death is just I'm not wired that way. Like, I know the Anthony Bourdain cookbook, this the autographed one, you know, something like that is going to be, it's going to remain valuable. A celebrity, or famous person dies. I just somebody mentioned that on a group. And it was like, you know, get all your Ozzy Osbourne stuff listed. And I just, as we say in the south, I think it's tacky. Yes. I just, if you have something for sale, great, it's already there, yeah. Oh, that's, yeah, yeah. I think you have to, you know, have some ethics and have some class when those absolutely not all about money, you know, have some respect for the person, but, yeah, I've been seeing that with all the posters and, like, cassette tapes and all that concert tickets are, they're going to go way up the tickets.

Unknown:

I think the biggest thing is probably the vintage T shirts, which are going to stay high anyway.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, that was already an, oh yeah. If you have

Unknown:

an 80s Ozzy Osbourne t shirt, I'm sure it's worth $500 if not more or more. Yeah.

Suzanne Wells:

Now that is just maybe hang on to that stuff and list it later, see what the market does. But yeah, that happens all the time, and I'm just, I'm just not on board with doing that.

Unknown:

Yeah, I'm not on board with this. Makes me sick. Is that Christmas time when people buy all the x boxes, they pre order 15 so they can resell online, and then that kid can't get his for Christmas, and then they're probably going to return it anyway. That makes me crazy. That's That's just wrong. I had like

Suzanne Wells:

experience with that. When I was buying something for my daughter for Christmas, I don't even remember what it was. I think I was in Walmart and I was getting this toy, and there was a reseller, and she just had all these piled up in her cart. That was before there were limits and all that. I said, Oh, you're buying all those? And she says, Yeah. And I said, Okay, so there's none left on the shelf. And I said, Could I just have one of them to give it to my daughter for Christmas? And she would not, yeah, like, if somebody, if that happened to me, first of all, my karma is I never take all of anything in a retail store, sure. You know, leave some for the other people. That's just my comfort level. Thrift Store is different because it was donated and, you know, nobody know, that was a very memorable experience. I was very disappointed that someone could be like that. You shouldn't have to fight for these toys when you're actually giving them to your own cannon.

Unknown:

No, no, it's just, it's just not fair. It's not fair.

Suzanne Wells:

Hence eBay the right way, exactly, exactly. That's my opinion. I'm sure there's listeners that are like, Hey, first come, first serve. You know, you snooze, you lose, whatever, but you gotta make peace with yourself on

Unknown:

how you do this. Yeah, yeah. That's just not so. Anyway,

Suzanne Wells:

let's talk about some things that you have sold over the year. Because if you have over 3000 items, you're selling all kinds of stuff.

Unknown:

Yeah, well, I mean a lot of I mean, I have a couple that stand out, and it's not one. I'll talk about one that's that actually made me subscribe to worth point. It's an assuance. Scarf. Are you familiar with the metal scarves from the 1920s

Suzanne Wells:

No, oh, like the chain mails is that we're talking about,

Unknown:

not chain mail. That's called a suet. So it's actually the metal is they weave the scarf, and then the metal is applied and then stamped down. You'll have to look it up. It's a wills, okay? I t and I got one from a yard sale, and I believe I paid five to $10 and it was just gorgeous. And I came home and I'm looking at it, and, like, this is just amazing. The woman's mother was a dancer, and she used it for dancing, but, um, I started looking it up on eBay, and I started doing research, and I was seeing that it sells for about $200 250 but there wasn't a lot out there, so there wasn't there was like three so at that point, I'm like, I'm getting worth point. I'm doing it. I'm going to start the seven day trial. Well, I'm glad I did, because when I looked it up on worth point, I found out that I can sell it for$450 $500 $600 Long story short, I was going to list it for 200 and then I got worth point. I listed, I think I listed it for 499 and the lady that purchased it best offer 450 and it sold within days out there. So right there that paid for my worth point. And I was like, You know what? This is so worth it because, and this is an extremely rare item, I'll probably never find another one, but worth point saved me, and they saved me many, many times. And this is before eBay was doing the um, the research, where, where? What does the research go back now? How far does it go? Back on eBay, years? How many three years? Three? Yeah, that's not enough worth points 10. So this way you can really look at the market, you know, and three is good, but there they weren't doing three years. When this happened. This happened a couple years ago. I think they were only doing, what was it six months?

Suzanne Wells:

I think Terapeak went back

Unknown:

maybe a year, that's what it was. Therapy went back a

Suzanne Wells:

year, and then they extended it to three years, and then it became eBay research, right? Got it on the mobile app, which was that was, like a dream come true. I mean, yeah, so, like, they're just getting into it. They don't know what a gift it is to be able to look things up on your phone. Have the technology where your phone has internet. You know, back in the day, I would, I would write things down, and I would go to the library and look it up on eBay. Like, I would figure out where the library was in relation to the thrift store I was in, and I would go look these things up because, like, you I was on a budget, like, I couldn't just buy stuff. It wasn't going to work. Yeah, and then I'd go back to the thrift store, and if it was a go, I would, I would get it. But,

Unknown:

yeah, I used to try to just go with my gut. And of course, I purchased so many things that were just not worth it. Well, I didn't do it all the time,

Suzanne Wells:

but if it was, you know, I was trying to make better decisions. Yeah, we didn't have the internet in our hand. You know, we had to go find internet somewhere to look. Oh, yeah, yeah,

Unknown:

yeah, back in the the before times as my kids say,

Suzanne Wells:

right. So the scarf sold for $450 and you got it for

Unknown:

how much? I think five to $10 I think five. There you go. So that's why you gotta love yard sales. I have a love, hate relationship with yard sales, but some of my best things, as a matter of fact, another thing just recently,

Suzanne Wells:

yard sales were there any last week during the heat wave, when it was a heat index of 108

Unknown:

Yeah, believe it or not, there was too bad in the morning. Okay? Morning, it wasn't so bad. Well, I bought recently. This is another thing that stands out. These they're, they're silver war folding chairs, and they were embroidered two different patterns. Yeah, yard sale, $15 the guy's like, I gotta get rid of my wife's probably gonna kill me, but they need to go. So I'm like, Oh, I don't, you know, I'll list anything. I don't mind you know, they folded down. They were going to be square. I kind of love the challenge of packing up big stuff. To me, it's fun. I love having to build a Franken box. So I listed them, and they sold to someone in Canada going to a movie company within a week, and they sold for 350 bucks. Oh yeah, but here's, here's a learning experience. After doing eBay for so many years, this was a learning experience for me. They emailed me on the message me on eBay, and they said, we want to send you a label because we want to get it in two days. And I was like, they're like, what's your email address? I'm like, Oh, I can't give you, I can't give you my email address on here. So I was like, I don't want to lose this sale. It's going to a production company. It's probably going to be in a movie. I've got to get this to them. So I messaged eBay on Facebook, which is the best way to get in touch with them. And oh, no no for this. I'm sorry. I apologize. I went on eBay and asked for a call back. They called me back immediately. And. Then I told her, what's going on? She's like, No, it's fine. You can give them your email address, but just say in the message that this is for the only purpose of me giving you my emails for you to send me a label to ship your item out, that it had to be direct talking about anything outside of eBay. So they said, No, that's absolutely fine. And she said, just be careful and make sure that you you get the tracking number, make sure it's a legit label before you mail it, make sure you're not being scammed. So I messaged them back, and they were like, great. They sent me the label. I went to FedEx with it. They got it in couple days, and I refunded them, because I told them. I said, just purchase the shipping and I'll refund it to you afterwards. So I just they made the purchase, and the shipping, I forget, was like, I don't know, $80 that I had to refund them for, because they were going to have it shipped to somewhere in North America, close to Canada. Anyway, went to Canada. It went to a movie company in Canada, and it was, it was, you know, folding chairs from the Civil War. That's crazy. Yes, it's crazy, and you're probably, I mean, you never know if you're going to run into that stuff, but that's the stuff I love finding. I love finding the one offs, the unique items, and it was a big sale for me, $15 into 350 I'll do that all day.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah. And just a side note for the listener, as far as giving personal information or a website or anything, it all goes back to the eBay policy of solicitation of off site sales. That's what they don't want you doing is, you know, giving your email to somebody you know, and have them contact you off eBay and buy the item for a lower price, or send them to your website or something like that. They just be real careful what you put in those messages. And I get messages from people all the time because they just don't know, but they're like, hey, send me an email at this and we can talk about whatever. And you know, their listeners or audience members, and it's like, I can't you, you don't know what kind of software eBay has to scan for that kind of stuff. Oh, yeah. And you don't want to be the one that gets caught, even if it's completely innocent. I had a lady buy a calculator a few weeks ago, and it was a little professor, and I got it, and I thought it was broken, and then I YouTubed how to work it, and it's it's like a reverse calculator. It gives you the problem, and you have to give it the answer, or something like that. I wasn't pushing the buttons in the right order to make it work, so I figured that out, and then somebody bought it, and I sent it to her, and then she said it didn't work. And I thought, well, it is an old electronic maybe by the time it got to her through the shipping being jostled around, and it didn't work. So and then she emailed, messaged me about a week later, and she's like, Oh, I feel like an idiot. It does work. And I'm like, the same thing happened to me. Yeah, I had to look up how to use it, and so I had already refunded her money, and she wanted to pay me, and which was very honest and commendable, but I reached out to eBay on Facebook and said, Hey, how do I do this? Because I don't want to give her my Venmo or my paypal if I'm not allowed to do that. And and they said, No, that's fine. They can pay you through one of those other payment services, and we have the record of this conversation so you're not doing anything wrong. But yeah, there's no way to rebuild somebody if they want to pay you back after a refund is given. So

Unknown:

yeah. And I was even thinking, Can you do it like a fake label, like you, but you would still have to put a tracking number in? Yeah? I was

Suzanne Wells:

like, well, I could create another listing for her, but I then I'd have to show that I shipped a second thing, right? I don't have no, we're not doing that. So,

Unknown:

right? So the big thing, the take of that is, it's fine, like, I was afraid to put my email address in that message like that. I thought was gonna they're like, no, just make sure that the conversation you're having is legit, that it's all being done through eBay. So that was a learning experience for me, because I, I was like, you know, I don't want to lose this sale. I definitely want to make sure that um, I talk with them another thing too, and I'm sure this has been brought up in your group before. Be very careful if you look up eBay's phone number. Um, I know someone that got scammed. They thought they were talking to eBay and shared their screen, and their account was debited $400 Oh, so be real careful. You know, if you want to talk to eBay, you go on eBay's website and you, I forget where you click, but you

Suzanne Wells:

well, and I think Facebook is better, because it's great you have you can save that conversation. You can screenshot what they told you. Yeah, I saved the conversations in my eBay. Sorry. Facebook messages. Is, and I feel like that's more reliable than going on eBay and asking, because on the eBay site, you get a lot of people that they're just reading scripts, like they're not problem solvers. They're just telling you what they're looking up. Is the answer. It's almost, you know, automated. But are

Unknown:

you talking about when you're having an actual phone conversation with an eBay run? I'm talking about,

Suzanne Wells:

well, that as well as, you know, messaging them about something. I just now always go to Facebook, because I feel like those are experienced problem solving people that look at your situation, they're not just plugging in keywords and what to tell you. They're right, looking at your specific situation and telling you exactly what to do. Whereas, if you go on the eBay site, it's it's script reading, they're just plugging in keywords and it's like, I already know that you're not, you're not reading what I'm telling you, right? Very frustrating,

Unknown:

yeah, yeah. And they're really efficient, they're fast, they're courteous, they're they're so helpful. I've never, I mean, they always solve my problems, but this one, I wanted to call. I didn't I because I needed to do it quick, and I wanted to talk with someone and really verify so that was a good learning experience. But as far as other things, I have sold the mid century modern lithograph that I can't even remember the artist. I just knew it was gorgeous. I knew it was worth the 1999 I was going to pay for it at the thrift store, and I sold that for $650 Oh, yeah, yeah. And I'm sorry I can't give anybody. Nobody will probably ever find one. But it was, it was just one of those things that you know are just, you know, Rarity. And I knew it. I knew it was gonna I knew someone was gonna want it. I think that's the takeaway. Is, if it's something you like and you would love to have in your house, or you just know it's special, sometimes you just have to go with your gut. You know, I did research. Obviously I had worth point at this point. When I bought this lithograph, I opened it up, I looked at it, and I did my research. That's how I came up with the price, because there was another one that sold for that amount. I even, you know, got there with the magnifying glass to make sure it was a true lithograph. And I, you know, the detective work. I love all that. Yeah, that's part

Suzanne Wells:

of selling. I think it's a combination of research, experience, yes, and intuition going with your gut, yeah, all of those mixed together. You know, we don't all sit there and look up everything on our phone. Fine, you know, but every now and then you'll come across something. Now wait a minute. What is this? This fills with high quality. This is really unusual. And you know, you can take a few minutes to do that, but as you go on in time, like you've been doing this almost 20 years, no, 30 years.

Unknown:

Wow. Time. 1999, so 26 years,

Suzanne Wells:

30 years, and you just, you get a feel for things. And people ask me all the time, how did you know? How did you know that would sell? And it's like, well, you remember back to other things you've seen that other people sold, or you just had a gut feeling, or like, Oh, my parents had one of these. And I know it's valuable, and it's all that mixed together,

Unknown:

yeah. And speaking of that, you know, back in the early 2000s I would say, like 2004 I'm guessing, it seems antiques really fell off. People, the antiques really, really got hit badly in the the recession, and they haven't really recovered. But a lot of the you know, the next generations weren't really into antiques, but now they are. Now it's cool to go to vintage shops. Now it's cool to go to antique shops, thrift stores to find unique things. I'm not saying hutches are coming back anytime soon,

Suzanne Wells:

good,

Unknown:

but, you know, maybe they'll repurpose them to put their albums in. Who knows?

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, I love all that repurposing, that old, bulky furniture that we all had, because that was the thing. Oh, yeah. And you know what people are doing with that stuff?

Unknown:

Yeah. But that's when I realized that, wait a minute, people are buying clothing and everyday items on eBay. So that's when it really that's when it hit me. I was like, I can sell clothes, I can sell trendy things. I can sell these great shoes, you know, I high end stuff.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, and you're in an area where you're going to find that being in a college town, I think, gives anybody who lives in college town or near one a little bit of an advantage, because there's just so much turnover, moving moving in, moving out, those move out days where stuff gets, oh God, down the curb and so Wait Is your husband a professor?

Unknown:

Sure. No, he was in EIT. He's actually 15 years older than me. Okay, he retired a while back. Okay, he was in it Okay, University of Georgia and retired. And actually, that's something I want to bring up, which is really nice with working from home. He had a heart transplant. Oh, years ago, had a bad heart attack, and he anyway, that's a long story. He let it go to the point where he had to have a heart transplant, and I was able to be here, cuz I'm

Suzanne Wells:

wow, is right? I mean, was he on the list for a really long time? No, we got

Unknown:

it in 24 hours. Are you kidding? No, I'm not kidding. Oh, he was on life support. Oh, my God, when you're on life support, you get a lot faster. So in Atlanta, he had his heart. I think the that hospital does like 50 something a year, is it? Emory? No. Piedmont. Piedmont, okay, yes, and they have a big transplant center there, but he's doing great. It's been two years, and it was a rough road, but I was able to be here to take care of him and still do my job. And

Suzanne Wells:

that's the blessing of not only work at home, but this business where, okay, well, yeah, you've got 3000 items listed, and a life crisis happens, and you can step away and deal with it and be available and maybe just ship stuff once a day, and you've got momentum. You've got that pipeline where it's going to take care of you. So back to the slow July faith. You have to have faith that everything's going to come back and there's just going to be slow times. So look at your numbers over a year, not really month to month, or if you do look month to month, just realize, okay, this slow time is coming, and I'm going to work through it. And, you know, we've been doing this a long time, and it always comes back,

Unknown:

yeah. And, you know, I think coming from being a tipped employee, you know, my entire life, I started bartending at 19 years old, and not knowing what I was going to make every day, you know. I mean, I, you can take the average, you know, I knew I was going to make a certain amount, because you just do, but you're going to have better days than other. And that's why I think eBay works for me, because I'm kind of used to that. Anyway, I've never worked corporate. I've had three jobs my entire life, and you know, most of them were, I was my own boss. I mean, I've only worked for two other companies, so, yeah, I mean, it's just, I guess, because I was used to that, you know, I'm okay with, you know, today I may make 300 tomorrow, I might make 60. I don't know, you know, it's I'm okay with that. It all balances out in the end. I know, because I've been doing it, you know, full time now for six years, I know what I'm going to make, and I know that when I need to make more, I need to list more. It's that simple. It really is that simple. This isn't me telling stories. It's that simple. If I start listing today 10 items every day for the next week, what I sell every day is going up. It's not going to be five items a day. I mean, right now, you know how they give you that 90 day total on your Yeah, you know, I hover around 23,000 for those 90 days when it gets up to, you know, closer to the holidays, that'll hover around 26 27,000 and it's every year it gets busier. You know, I'm hitting with, I said my goal was 3500 items that that's kind of maxing me out. So I'm hoping to not grow much more. And I did the math today that if I continue to list six items a day and only sell five, that means my store is going to grow 365 items in a year. I don't want my store to grow probably more than 4000 items. I just won't have the space right. And I don't want that to

Suzanne Wells:

happen. That formula you're giving of if you list X, you sell X, I mean, there's a lot of variables in there. It depends what you sell, and personality, and what you're willing to ship, and how long you're willing to hold on to things, and just know there's no cut and dry formula. And what a lot of people do is they say, Well, if I double the amount of items in my store, then I'm going to double my sales. And that just does not a

Unknown:

formula. No, the formula is my formula for what I'm selling, right? I were an iPhone seller, that would be a different formula. Yes, it's absolutely but it's what I keep my books and look at what what I'm doing long enough now to see a pattern, and I've tried it, and when I went from listing probably about five items a day up to 12 items a day, I looked at my sales graph, I was up. 74% a couple of weeks. So I've done the test. As a matter of fact, starting tomorrow, which is August, I'm going to list seven items a day. Now. Granted, we are now you have to look at everything. We are going into the busy season. People are going back, you know, Georgia, they go back to school next week. So, yeah, exactly. I'm ready though. I'm ready for all the kids. I love children. I'm ready for them to be out of the thrift stores in

Suzanne Wells:

the morning. Yeah, that is a thing, isn't it, and fourth quarter is not that far away. We just have to be like the little red hen and just get in there and bake that bread and just keep going and just keep going. And it will pay off. Oh yeah, you just, it's almost, it's that intermittent reinforcement, like in psychology, like a slot machine, you just put money in, and eventually it's going to pay off. And we just just, we don't know when or how much, but we know it will

Unknown:

that dopamine, the hit of hearing Cha Ching is, well, no, that is the best feeling in the world. Yes,

Suzanne Wells:

it's those days I have a lot of good sales. I do physically feel better, and it's that dopamine, yeah, and then there's days where you're just okay. Is is my email broken? Is my phone broke? It's

Unknown:

funny. I gave the analogy to my sister, I think, I think I told her about this. Every time I list stuff, like, I grab everything, and then I walk out to my garage and I decide where it's going to go for inventory. And as I'm trying to find little pockets and holes in some of my bins to put the stuff, I was like, it's like building a castle, because my two car garage is slap full, and I'm putting it in this bin and putting in this bin, and one by one, I'm building my castle, and I'm almost there. I'm almost I'm the 3500 items was, you know, where I thought I should be at this point, and where I feel comfortable back to, you know, knowing what my sales are going to be. I've, like I said, I with the things that I sell, the vintage lingerie, the expensive shoes, the things that have a higher sell through rate. I do know that if I doubled my listings, my listing every day, not double in my store, it's going to up what I'm selling. It just is, it's, you know, it's, it's where I'm at with what I sell and my sell through rate, right? Yeah. And there's, you know, there's a lot to consider, you know, if you have you sell postcards, which has a very slow sell through rate, you're not gonna, you know, yeah, if you have 20,000 in your store, of course, you're gonna sell every day, but you have to, everybody gets into their groove, you know, of what they're selling and what they specialize in. And if you specialize in a certain thing, I swear eBay pushes those people to your store.

Suzanne Wells:

What percentage of your items are clothes and shoes? Um,

Unknown:

oh, I haven't looked at those analytics, but it's large, because that is the party of the stuff that I'm selling more than 50% Oh yeah, yeah. Oh absolutely, oh yeah. Clothes and shoes are be interesting to I just looked at my my refunds, and that is my returns as 4.7 I just looked at that. I'd never, I don't even know if I ever looked at that, but yeah, 80% of the stuff I'm selling is clothes. I love linens, too. As a matter of fact, I have to have linen day soon because my bedroom has a stack this high of comforters. That's one of my favorite things to sell, because the money is there. It's, you know, Ralph Lauren, you know, people spend hundreds of dollars on that stuff that I pay 10 bucks for,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, and a lot of it is vintage and not made anymore, and maybe they love it, and they're replacing their old, beat up one. Yep, so that that is a healthy market, for sure. But

Unknown:

yeah, it's cumbersome. It's annoying. I hate having to put it out on my bed and make it all perfect. But it's, I can't stop it. Just, you know, duvets, like pottery bags, they just do so well, I can't, I can't stop myself, because I make so much money on it,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, that's good, and it's available, and you're able to find

Unknown:

it, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's plentiful. I'm, I remember my husband saying, You know what? If you know, you go out to store and you can't find anything. I'm like, I'm sorry, but that's impossible. It's impossible. Yeah, I go into a store and I may only find four items, but then I'm like, Okay, I'll go to another store. I'll go to a yard sale. My cup runneth over.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, absolutely. So okay, well, what we need to do is wrap this up, and I will put you in my calendar to check back so that when you get to that 3500 we can talk about how that's changed your store, your sales, your business, or if it's kind of just stays the status quo. I would love that. Okay, great. Thanks so much for reaching out and coming on, and we will definitely have a follow up in the. Future when we can check in on you. Yeah, okay, well, have a great day.

Unknown:

You too. Suzanne, thank you so much. Bye, bye.

Suzanne Wells:

The Martha Stewart book we referred to is called entertaining and was published in 1982 however, when I went to research the date of the original publication, I found an article on Martha stewart.com so the authority of Martha Stewart her website, and this was published in February of 2025 the title is Martha's iconic first book entertaining is hitting shelves again after 43 years. So they are celebrating the success of her first book by launching a reprint October of 2025, so if you're a book person and you look for books to sell, be aware that in the future, there's going to be a second edition that is not going to be as valuable as the first one, at least not at first but I was not aware of this, that they were going to do a reprint so you can google Martha Stewart entertaining book and see what it looks like. It's Martha wearing a white looks like a white dress or a white blouse and skirt, and she is setting a table with orange flowers on it and pretty blue glasses. And there is a window behind her with the sun coming through, so you can look that up and see what the original cover looked like. If you need a visual for looking for this book out in the wild. And as we mentioned in the podcast, the value of the book went up when the documentary came out on Netflix in the fall of 2024 so as with any collectible, the value is going to go up and down. So just you know, recheck that to see what you can get for it in the present moment, because it does change. Okay, next week, my guest is Sharon, and we have been online eBay friends for about 12 years. She was the one who sold the porcelain McCormick's pepper container for$217 that was the cover image on the July 2025, $100 supersize sales video on YouTube. So if you want to go look at what that looks like. So we get to hear the full story about that item, among other items she sold. Thank you for spending the last hour with us. I love doing these podcasts, and I'm so glad that you like them too. Keep working hard, stay positive, and I will talk to you next week. Bye for now, you

Unknown:

I think.