eBay the Right Way

eBay Seller Chat with Suzanne in TX: Recap of eBay Open 2025 - AI Photos, Feedback, VERO, Improved Technology, Listing Experience 🤓

• Suzanne A. Wells • Episode 233

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Suzanne Wells:

Nick Hello, everybody out there in podcast land. This is episode number 233 of eBay the right way. Today's date is Wednesday, September 3. 2025 my guest is a repeat offender, Suzanne in Texas, she is an everything seller with 4000 items. So she will catch us up on what she's doing with her eBay business, and then we will switch gears and talk about all the great things announced at eBay open in August, no announcements this week, because this episode is packed with fantastic information from eBay, open 2025 so let's get started. Hello listeners, and welcome back. I have my sister on here with us today. We say that we're sisters because we spell our name the same. We say it the same. And we were both in the same sorority, but at different colleges, that's correct. Suzanne keen has the floor, yeah,

Unknown:

yes. And we spell our name the right way,

Suzanne Wells:

exactly, yeah, exactly. It's

Unknown:

not Susan, it's not Suzy, it's not sue, it's Suzanne, yeah.

Suzanne Wells:

So my family calls me Suz my

Unknown:

that's so funny. My best friend always called me Suz

Suzanne Wells:

Yes, yeah, but not Suzy Q or anything. Just, you know, the one syllable that was my mom, just like the kid gets one syllable, that's all, yeah. So anyway, you are a frequent poster in the group, both with your sales and answering questions and helping to mentor people. And so I really respect everything you contribute. I feel like we have met, yeah, out to Dallas. I think it was 2017 Yeah. And we met and had a great workshop day, and that was and so we do know each other as real friends too, but I feel like on the group, you know, we chat back and forth all the time, and you're always volunteering great answers. And so the second part of this podcast is going to be a little recap of, is it called eBay open, or eBay law? EBay open? Okay, so you attended that as it was streaming, and have some great information. So yes, dive into that. But you were first on the podcast in 21 the year I started it. So if you could give us a little summary of where you are and what your business looks like, just to remind everybody,

Unknown:

yes, I am. I started doing eBay full time, I think in, oh, 2008 not full time, but started selling on eBay, 2008 2009 around there. And I started out selling, you know, books, because I'm an avid reader, and I sold on Amazon as well. And then started, just like everybody else, looking at things around the house to sell and make a little extra money for my family. I stopped working in the corporate world in 2015 after we lost my oldest child, and I talked about that on the first podcast, and so decided to take some time off and not return to the corporate world. And then that kind of turned into full time. And so I've been doing eBay full time since 2015 and really just, you know, went into it full force, and I sell all kinds of things, still, lots of books, but mostly things for around the house. Don't love selling clothing, so I don't focus on that, although I still, I still sell clothing when I find something wonderful, or I'm just trying to get rid of things from that were my families. But love doing vintage kitchen items, lots of books, flatware, kitchen utensils, all kinds of things like that. And then decorative items. Also dabble a little bit into crafts, so just a wide variety of things, and I tend to get bored with something, and then I venture off into another lane. And I also love the same thing. I love learning. So for a while I'll go full on ephemera, until I get sick of it, and then I Okay,

Suzanne Wells:

thank you for saying that. I. Because I have been talking about letters, you know, course, yes. And I really got into that. I was finding them on these online auctions, just, you know, just messy box full of letters. And I would ask, are there actually letters in there? Are these just envelopes? And yeah, so I got a whole bunch of that, and I was really good about getting enlisted. And then I'm just like, Oh, look at that. It just, I do read some of the letters just to see what's in them, so I can use that for marketing. Like there was one batch where the guy is just constantly talking

Unknown:

about

Suzanne Wells:

the threat of a war with Russia. Oh, wow, this Soviet attack and all this stuff. And that's really interesting for collectors. But, um, and then you got to lay them all out. You know, I like to lay them all out. And I made a video on one of them, just sort of scanning What, what's in here. And but it's very time consuming to list those.

Unknown:

It's tedious. And so I think that that's one of the things that either I think it makes me a better picker, because I have a wide variety of interests, and, you know, and I'm curious about a bunch of different things, but also I tend to get bored and bogged down. And, okay, I'm sick of that. Like, right now, I just recently bought a whole bunch of brand new makeup that were all shelf pulls from, like, a an Ulta or a Sephora, and it was just such a great deal, I couldn't pass it up. Well, I didn't really sell makeup, but now I do so tons of listings for all kinds of makeup, and I'm getting I'm getting bored with it, so I'm going to have to move on to something

Suzanne Wells:

else. So are you doing it one thing at a time, or lots of groups? Or how are you doing that? I have it

Unknown:

right now as one thing at a time with multiple quantities and listings, so we'll see how that does some of the makeup that I acquired a couple of weeks ago has already started selling. So we'll see. I don't know if, going into the holidays, if it'll, if it'll start to sell. And then I just picked up more yesterday, and so now I'm trying to just get through that. And

Suzanne Wells:

that's what that's what I do when I buy lots of things, because I'm attracted to lots, because you can do different things with it, yeah, but, you know, I'll pull out the best things, maybe do those on their own, and then, okay, the rest of y'all, you're going in a lot together. And yes, is just get it out of my face.

Unknown:

But I agree with you can get tedious, because some of these I'm I'm finding out, like, I need to open them up, um, because people have sampled them either in the thrift store or maybe when they were in Ulta or Sephora originally, somebody opened them up and stuck their finger in it. So, oh, nice, you know. So you gotta, you have to be careful about what you're selling, because on eBay, you can't, it has to be brand new. So there are other places for used makeup. You can sell it on Mercari, but you can't really, yeah, I don't know

Suzanne Wells:

what if it would sell very well. I guess if you apply it, like, if it was blush or something, where, right,

Unknown:

if it was brush, yeah, but some of this is lip gloss and stuff, and you can clearly see a fingerprint in it, which is, yeah. So I don't know what I'm gonna do with that. I've just been throwing them into a bin, and we'll see if maybe it'll go into a garage sale, or maybe, yeah, I took a chance on trash.

Suzanne Wells:

A lot of makeup when I bought from that shoe enthusiast. I hate this reporter, but I bought a bunch of Skechers and easy spirit. And so apparently, this lady liked shoes and makeup. Mm, hmm. So there were several lots of Clinique just all this dumped out, you know, bonus gifts and the and there was a bunch of lipsticks in there. And, you know, the estate sale company, they can't go through everything. No, they can't. So I took a chance, and like, all the lipsticks looks like they've been used once, you know, I couldn't sell them because it wasn't new. It wasn't that smooth edge on the exactly, you could tell it had been used. And so, I don't know if I'll do that again. There were a few good things in there, but it goes with these mixed lots. Is, that's what we like, is, you know, picking through them and exactly, very picking the good stuff, and then, you know, sometimes there's waste, and that's just part of it,

Unknown:

right? Yeah, so I'm always trying new things like that. And I'm trying to, I'm trying to look at my I have a large store. I have about 4000 items. Yes,

Suzanne Wells:

you do I, and I follow your store and and you just have so many different things. It's,

Unknown:

it's a weird variety of stuff, I'll admit it. And I would like to, like I said earlier, when we were just chatting. And my husband and I are both retired now, and we live on some property that we are, um. Actually trying to sell. So when we get to the point where our land has sold, and we're going to be downsizing, I would like to reduce that inventory significantly. So I'm trying to take more offers, trying to be smarter about what I source, you know, and get some things out of here, so that when we get to that point, we'll be ready. And so what is your timeline? Five years? Yeah, within five years, I'm sure we'll be moved so and is your husband the same age as you? He's about five years older than me. Okay, yeah, okay,

Suzanne Wells:

and so I don't think he was retired the last time we

Unknown:

talked. No, that's pretty new. Uh huh. It's just been the last, yeah, it's been in the last two years that he would and

Suzanne Wells:

how's he adjusting to that? Is he like things to do, or is he pretty okay with

Unknown:

I think in the beginning it was hard. Didn't quite know what to do with himself, but he's very he's very handy, and he was a mechanical engineer. So he has a little collection of mini motorcycles, scooters that he works on. He's working on woodworking projects. So we have fun doing that together. And he I couldn't talk him into doing the business with me, but he's involved. You know, when something needs repair that he can repair for me, he'll do it. And he likes to go outsourcing with me. So

Suzanne Wells:

it's fun. It's kind of funny that, you know, the newly retired are kind of lost. So my brother in law, my sister, lives in Atlanta, her husband retired in May, so she's had a few months, but so you know, she's helping his retirement by constantly leaving him these honey do lists. Yes, today, now, well, now they got their house on the market because moved to Nashville to be near their daughter and their grandchild. So you know, they, she's works virtually. They can do that. But he's getting overwhelmed by all the stuff that, yes, he's leaving him all these projects to do is, you know, is he was like, ah, is this easier going to work every day? Was so, yeah. And I think a lot of people in that age group that retire. If they don't have something a go to, they feel very lost, and can get depressed and they they need a purpose. Yes, you could feel useful,

Unknown:

whether it's a volunteer job, yeah, some hobby that you have or interest you know, that you can explore. I think it's so important. It really is. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

well, I'm glad he's adjusting well, and probably enough time to, like, have found his groove and what he do every day. Ask you this both retired. Do y'all sleep in or do you get up early?

Unknown:

We sleep, we just sleep until we wake up. And I'm I usually get up before he does and but I do not set an alarm clock anymore. I love that. Um, I just, I just get up when I get up and they the only day I have to be somewhere is Sunday, because I volunteer at my church and I have to be there a certain time. So that's probably the only day that I get up early. Um, but I still don't have to set an alarm clock for that. I just it. My body is ready to get up and I get up. So that's, that's pretty luxurious. You know? That's

Suzanne Wells:

great. Well, I'm not retired. It probably never will be like retired, doing nothing but me either. That way for me, for years, ever since my kids were out of school, you know, graduated, I just, I love not having to get up to an alarm, right? I get it all done. I get more done in four hours than most people probably get done in three days. Because I just focus on getting it done. Me too. I don't, I don't worry about it. I'm I have this conversation every morning, you should get up, you should get busy, and I'm like, oh, there's so many years I had to get the kids off to school, and I had to get up for work and all these things, and another 30 minutes.

Unknown:

And you I used to, I used to commute a long way. My daughter went to a magnet school, my youngest, and I would have to take her to school and then drive to work, and it was like an hour and a half drive there and and then the drive back home every day. And so there are days where I'm just like, I don't want to get in the traffic. I don't want to, you know,

Suzanne Wells:

but now, are you still thrifting with your mom?

Unknown:

Yes, we do, and she loves doing that. Um, it's getting a little bit harder. She's, 89 oh, my god, we'll be 89 in October. And so it's a little harder for her, but she enjoys going. So we do, you know, when I spend time with her, we do find time to go and go to some estate sales or thrift stores together, and that's fine.

Suzanne Wells:

So yeah, you rave about how much she knows. And she does picks out,

Unknown:

yeah? It makes it super fun, yeah? Plus, she's got all kinds of stuff in her house that, you know, every once in a while she'll go through and give me stuff when I'm over there.

Suzanne Wells:

So she's in her regular home. She's not in, like, a senior community.

Unknown:

She is still in her home. Yes, wow. Loves being independent and stubborn and, you know, just set in her ways. Just come that's where she's comfortable.

Suzanne Wells:

So that's great to have that person of knowledge in your back pocket. Absolutely, absolutely, I like going thrifting with other people. They just don't like going with me, because I'm in there too long.

Unknown:

Yes, and my and my husband does that. He's learned now that he brings a book with him. So if we're at an estate sale and he's done, he'll come find me in the house and go, I'm ahead of the car, and he'll be in the car with a book. And okay, right for me, so, but not during

Suzanne Wells:

the summer, when it's 114 summer, when it's 114

Unknown:

degrees. Well, you gotta crank up that car and put the AC on and but usually there's a good lunch in it for him, you know, he'll pick a lunch spot, and then we'll have a good have make it a fun day. So,

Suzanne Wells:

well, I mean, there's worse things for a spouse to tolerate than their their loved one being in a house looking for treasures. Yes, it could be worse. You could be making him go to Broadway shows or something he doesn't like exactly.

Unknown:

Okay. Yeah, it's a weird time on eBay for me too. I am. I do sell on four other platforms, and I have to tell you that my Etsy is may outpace eBay this year. That has really been my focus is to try to really buy a lot of vintage items to put on Etsy. And I'm really enjoying it selling there it it's got some quirks and in some issues that eBay does not have, but the buyers are more enthusiastic and kind of excited about the items that they buy, and you get lovely feedback every Once while you don't, and Etsy won't. Etsy won't delete feedback. They have a unless they have to either curse or say something about, you know, the post office left this in the rain or whatever, then they'll take it. But they but if they criticize the item, even if it's their fault, not yours. So learning how to navigate that you have to reply to the feedback and say, you know, the listing did say that this was, you know, turquoise blue, or whatever it's. So it's a challenge, but I'm having good sales there, and it's kind of kind of fun to see that grow and be another source of income, because I love buying on Etsy. EBay has become so unpredictable. It seems like, you know, people don't know why sales are just, you know, you'll go, you'll have one day where you sell like 10 things, and then the next, then two days of nothing, right? Yeah, it's just

Suzanne Wells:

weird, yeah? But I love going to Etsy for unique stuff. Yes, home decor stuff, just so you can express your individual Ness. Yes. And I mentioned I'm, I'm moving to a ground floor apartment in complex in the near future. And I'm just, I'm just like, I'm just going to make this the cutest place ever and do this, you know, I want one of those. I don't want you call it. It's not a hammock. It's like a chair that you hang from the ceiling and, Oh yeah, yeah, you know, I'm going to do all this. It's all going to be about me, yeah, because I have been in a three bedroom, sort of traditional IT WAS instead of buying a house at the time, right? I just don't get visitors. So I'm like, why am I paying for all the space I don't need? But I'm just like, Oh, I'm gonna do this cool thing. And instead, instead of a couch, I want to get those giant beanbag chairs. They're like, it's like, seven feet long and four feet wide, and I would love that, you know, and I only invite people over that are okay with sitting in a beanbag chair. I love it, yeah? Because, like, my furniture is too big for a one bedroom. I kind of gotta compact things, yes, yeah. So I've been on Etsy, looking for, well, I've been on YouTube, looking at, it's called apartment therapy, and it's tours of school, like, apartments 200 square feet. Like, what do people do? How do they arrange things? Yeah, storage ideas. And I'm getting all side. Tracked on the decor. Oh, that lamp is so cool. I don't want like that.

Unknown:

Yeah, I love apartment therapy. It get has great tips for maximizing a small space and like different storage solutions and things like that. It's, it's really fun to look

Suzanne Wells:

at. There was one this girl's in the fashion industry, and I think it was around 300 square feet studio, and she's, she's loves shoes. She's, yeah, shoes and but she doesn't cook. She gets sandwiches and that kind of stuff, and eats, yeah, so she's using her kitchen cabinets to

Unknown:

store her shoes. Mm, hmm, Oh, wow. Like,

Suzanne Wells:

but you can do that for eBay, you know, all those high up cabinets that that like what's even in there, and just intentionally store overflow, shipping supplies, whatever it's like in an RV, you know, you got to figure it out. But, yeah, I just, I just get sidetracked on all the decor, and then I go on Etsy and look for it.

Unknown:

Love that. Well,

Suzanne Wells:

how many things do you have on Etsy?

Unknown:

Probably about 1500 13. 1500 pretty big. They're cross posted. Yes, they're cross posted, yeah. So I cross post there because some things don't qualify. It has to be 20 years old, or it can be a craft supply um, or just a supply of some sort. So also have household cleaning supplies and things like that that I put on Etsy that sell um, it's it's really fun. It's fun to learn a different platform and to just see the differences people are. What I find about people on Etsy is a lot of people will message you, and they're more social about their questions and they want to know, like, if you have a cookbook posted, they'll email you and ask if a certain recipes in that cookbook, maybe their grandma was in the cookbook or something. And that happens on eBay sometimes too, but, but more so on Etsy and or I'll have somebody message me and say, I see you sell a lot of cookbooks. If you ever run across this cookbook, I'm looking for it. It's just more of a relationship, and not in the way that Poshmark is. Poshmark is more like about likes and friends and followers, and Etsy is just more, I don't know, conversational. I don't mind as much, because the questions are more intelligent, if that makes

Suzanne Wells:

sense. I think Etsy has a more sense of community, all on the same page about loving vintage and yet, items and that sort of thing. I've never sold on Poshmark, but I do hear that a lot, that it's, you have to be very active on the site. Yes, it's more like likes and the friends and the, you know, boosting that for social media purposes, right? Than just loving what you're selling.

Unknown:

Like I had a lady just the other day, for example. Because, you know, I sell a lot of belts, men's belts and leather goods and things like that, and a lady reached out to me and said, My son wears a size 36 pants with these with this belt fit him. And I had to explain how belts are sized, and you figure out what size belt you need. Um, but it was not a question. Like, sometimes we'll get those questions on eBay and they'll just say, Will this fit me? And you're like, Well, I don't know. I don't know

Suzanne Wells:

you. So the husbands that are like, do you think this will fit my wife? No idea, but you can return it if it doesn't.

Unknown:

Yeah, I don't know her. But it was just more of a intelligent question. So it wasn't the exchange was very cordial, and I just explained to her, you know, here's how you figure out what size belt you need. And, you know, I have a lot of belts. Look at the rest of them. You know, I this size 36 belt is not going to fit a size 36 pants. So you're going to hide,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, belts, and you probably find a lot of good Western Texas belt buckle fun things.

Unknown:

Yeah, I do folk. I do try to look for those things because, of course, being in Texas Western, you know, hats and boots and leather goods and belt buckles are all things that we have an abundance around here. The difference is a lot of times, like on Facebook marketplace and places like that, people know what they have because they spent the money to buy the right the $500 boots. So they know that what they spent on them, sometimes you do better at garage sales and estate sales, where they don't really know the difference in the brands, because different cowboy boots are handmade versus things that are mass produced and have plastic soles, not leather soles. They weren't handcrafted. And so sometimes the estate sale companies don't know what they have. And you

Suzanne Wells:

can do many belt buckles. I do, um,

Unknown:

I don't always look for them, unless I can buy a whole bunch of them at once. Um, but I had, I don't remember that may have been another collection that my mother had, was a whole bunch of belt buckles that I started out with. So,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, I look for those on the online auction. Is there? They're small all. They're not they don't weigh that much. And I like the big groups, yes, yeah. I bought some last year. I think I got the whole lot for less than $10 and there was a Harley Davidson, it was a rare one. And, yeah, they sold that one for around 40 Wow. Yeah, you know. And so even if you just get a few duds in there, and I love to go and zoom in on the picture and do a screenshot, and then put that in Google Images, yes, and see, like, okay, is this a rare one? Like, what is this? Oh, no, there's 200 of these on eBay. I don't want that one. Yeah,

Unknown:

yeah. And I do that sometimes, when I find stuff at estate sales, sometimes you'll find some that are just mass produced. They're cool looking. And you're like, Well, this is a really cool one. It's so detailed. And then you find out, Oh, this is, like, from sheplers or whatever. So, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

so I find the the Harley Davidson, or if it says a specific state on it, one from that said Wyoming, and one that said Montana, and anything motorcycle related, yes, you know, sell for a whole lot. But if it, or if it has a skull on it, yeah, like a scorpion or something cool, and then beer, yeah,

Unknown:

yeah, different beers, yeah. The best sale, and I had put it in the money making Monday this week, was the Bible story book that was in Spanish that went to, oh, Mexico,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah. You're the one who fun taught me about Bibles because you kept talking about it, yeah, showing those on the money making Mondays. And I know that some thrift stores if, if they're Christian based, they'll even give them to you for free.

Unknown:

Yes, and we have estate sale companies around here that do that too. I recently there's one estate sale company that I love to go to, and he's a real estate agent as part of his service. If the family lives out of state, or something like that, and they've already come in the house and gotten what they wanted, and they don't want the rest, he'll do an estate sale. So he really doesn't care what he gets for things, because it's just icing on the cake. Right? A lot of times, he's already sold the house, and he doesn't put a lot of effort into staging his merchandise in the estate sale a lot of times, it's just a whole bunch of boxes with stuff in it. And you get to go in there and dig, and you go up to the front, and his dad runs the register, and he'll scream across the house for the son to come over, and he'll just start going through your bag and price stuff. And he does that. He gives away Bibles for free. And one time, I had more than I had three of them. And he said, Well, every customer gets one Bible free. And I said, Well, I want all three of them. I'll pay for the other two. And he's like, okay, and he charges me $1 you know, it's still worth my while to go and and get those. So, yeah, some of

Suzanne Wells:

those sell for for good money. And, like, it really do, or somebody was talking about but, you know, they have all these Bibles and their names written in it, and it's like, yeah, resell it because my name's in it. I'm like, No, you can resell it. It depends on what it is.

Unknown:

And some people don't mind if it's underlined or highlighted. Bibles are expensive to buy in the store, so if you went to a Christian bookstore and bought a really nice Bible that has a leather cover, it's going to be expensive. So people are going to eBay and going to Etsy and all these other platforms to get a deal on. Maybe it's the same Bible they already have and they worn it out. Or maybe they're just getting started into Bible study, and they want a good Bible, and they're expensive to buy, so they don't mind if it's used. And they could put a cover on it. Even if it's got somebody's name on the outside, they can put

Suzanne Wells:

it right, yeah, just for the listeners, it doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be perfect. It

Unknown:

does not have to be perfect. Hopefully all the pages are intact. But right? Sometimes it's the Bible their mother had,

Suzanne Wells:

or their I was just gonna say that, Oh, someone in my family had this exact one. You just want it for the nostalgia.

Unknown:

Or they're a seminary student or a pastor, and they like to have several different translations at their Betty, and so they don't mind if, if it has somebody's name on it, or it's written in or whatever, because they're using it kind of for research purposes. So they're looking at. Different translation relations to see you know how different passage reads in King James versus NIV or whatever, and trying to see what the differences are in the different translations. So

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, thanks for that summary. Yeah, because if I look at the books, that's what I look for. Yeah, is Bibles and books, the elusive Martha Stewart entertaining book. And, you know, the ones that I know are high dollar because I don't have the patience to look through every single book. Yeah, I'll just admit that about myself. I don't have the pain well,

Unknown:

and most books are not worth anything. That's the heart. That's the challenge of it is people who are like, I'll get started in books. Well, it's it cannot be more tedious, because the vast majority of books are not worth anything. So

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, and even if you have a scanning app or tool, it's not going to tell you buy this or don't buy this. Yeah, it's going to show you the market for that book, and it's very important to look at active listings. Somebody on the podcast a few weeks ago was talking about a very specific cookbook in the Midwest. I think it was Alicia.

Unknown:

Mm hmm.

Suzanne Wells:

I forget the name of it, but I'd never heard of it. It was a regional thing, and it's big in the Midwest, and, like, I never heard of it, I'm down here in the south, and Southern Living cookbooks aren't worth anything. No, they're not the, you know, Peach Tree Road Baptist Church cookbook from 1972 right? Like looks handmade and it has the little comb spiral on it, right? You know, somebody's grandmother or mom's recipes are in there, and it's more of a nostalgia thing, or it's maybe that very church putting together a collection for a little, you know, viewing area in the lobby, like, here's all the cookbooks we ever did. I mean, you never know when your item is going to go to a museum situation, right? So those are the ones I look for. Are the handmade, homemade Junior League, yeah, Junior League one sells there. Yeah. Some of those are worth money the earlier ones, because then they got to be a real, a real thing, and they mass produce more of them. But yeah, I've got my little look for list in every

Unknown:

section. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. It's fun.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, well, thanks for that quick lesson. Now we're going to switch gears and talk about what you learned at eBay open. Those of us that have not listened to the recording yet and you attended virtually. Yes, I did.

Unknown:

It was cool. There was a lot of cool stuff that came out this year, and I've tuned in probably the last three or four years, and I would say that this one was more exciting than they've been in years. This is the first time eBay opens, been in person in five years. I think in 2020. Was the last one, and then the pandemic hit, and they went virtual, and they haven't been in person since that time. So this is okay. This this eBay open commemorated eBay's 30th anniversary as a platform. So the keynote address, and I do recommend if, if your listeners are interested at all, and that presentation is actually up on YouTube. I checked yesterday. Okay, good. All of them are not up yet. They will eventually probably post all of the presentations, but right now, just the keynote speeches are up, and I do recommend watching the one with Jamie ioannoni, the CEO, because it goes over a lot of accomplishments over the past 30 years and some really cool, big announcements and improvements on the platform that are coming that were very exciting. So it was it was motivating. Got you excited about being an eBay, eBay seller, and I do recommend looking at that, so that's fun. I know there's lots of platforms out there now and a lot of competitors with eBay, but eBay is still the oldest. It's still the biggest and the most successful platform out there. So even though a lot of us may be dabbling in other platforms, eBay still kind of the granddaddy of them all, and they're they're doing it right in a lot of ways. I know it's got its challenges, but there's still a lot of really cool things that eBay is doing that other platforms aren't, aren't doing. Be excited about. One of the cool things that he talked a lot about in that keynote was about eBay's efforts to be on the leading edge of technology, helping sellers streamline their business, do things faster and easier, and then also helping buyers find exactly what they're looking for. A lot of y'all might may have seen the the new advertising that's out there, the new tagline. Is things people love eBay, things people love. And all of that is around helping buyers kind of connect with things that they're enthusiastic about. They're doing a lot to attract new buyers, to attract younger buyers from other platforms. And it was just cool to hear about all of it. So on the seller side, a lot of improvements in AI, which is artificial intelligence. And a lot of people, that's a big buzzword these days, a lot of us are starting to use some of that technology. One thing which I didn't realize was actually AI is background removal in in photography. And probably, that's probably the one thing that all of us have used. Then also, eBay has what they're calling the magical listing tool, and that's the AI that'll help you generate your listing. And I think when it first came out, it was super clunky, and I was probably one of the people I think you posted one time, asking if people were using it, and I actually responded and said, It's too flowery, it's too fluffy, it's too much information. Well, it's improved and it's evolved. And I have to admit, I don't use the eBay one. I use a cross listing platform that has AI built into it, and it's actually quite good, and I love it, so I may try the eBay magical listing tool and see what happens. But the way that it works, from what I understand, is you can just populate the listing with photographs, and then it will generate your description and your item specifics into the listing for you now, you still have the ability to go in and edit all of that. So it's not even though it automates all of those things, you have the ability to go in, you're still in control. You can go in and kind of tweak it and mess with it. So it may be something people want to try and and kind of figure it out if it works for your business. But you can also, not only use it to just generate listings from scratch, but you can also use it to polish your listing. So maybe you've got some of those things that are really old and stale and you want to refresh it. You can update your photos, research the prices, revise the descriptions, also use it to fill in autumn specifics. So that's kind of cool,

Suzanne Wells:

right? Well, let me just interject one thing, when that AI feature came out, like on the description box, and what I noticed was it like you said, it's too flowery. It'll say something like, um, this lovely bohemian print will look fabulous in your living room. And you know, it gave all this information that a buyer would not need, like, they know what they're looking for exactly it was, it was like a magazine article explaining

Unknown:

decor or

Suzanne Wells:

whatever, about the item, and know what you could use it for. And I just feel like no people go to eBay. They know what they want, and they just and do they even read that right? And

Unknown:

it was kind of it also it was awkward. The eBay one was awkward in the beginning. I think it also seemed to kind of follow a formula, like the first sentence would say something flowery about, you know, this beautiful vase, blah, blah. And then the second sentence would say, it's perfect for but it was, it was almost the same, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

and you'll be proud you display this in your home, stuff like that. That. It it was the same,

Unknown:

yeah, and I think it's, I think it's improving. You know, I can't say, because I haven't used the the new eBay one or the evil the way it's evolved. So I can't, I really can't speak to that. But the one that I use on my cross listing platform is actually quite good, and you can control the tone. So if you want it super flowery, you can set it to that. If you want it to be funny, you can set it to that. You also have the ability just to say, make it concise, and that's the one that I use. So it's just the facts, you know. And so I love that, and it has come in handy. Another cool thing on the seller side that they talked about is introducing AI into messaging on eBay, and this has rolled out. So I saw that yesterday. It's on your app and it's on your desktop. You can toggle it on or off. And what this does, which is, I'm excited to use it, and I have it turned on, but it hasn't. It hasn't generated anything for me yet. What happens is if, if a buyer messages you and says that, let's say you're selling a pair of jeans, and they say, do these jeans have any. Spandex in them or any stretch. Well, the AI messenger will be able to go into your description and your item specifics and answer craft, a draft answer for you that says, yes, these jeans contain 2% spandex. Oh, wow, you will be able to edit that answer or dismiss it if you don't like it, but it's it's designed to help you save time, and it's only information that's already in your listing, so it's not going to make up stuff that you don't even mention. It's just going to look at your item specifics and look at your description, because you still are going to have this. You may have measurements in your description where somebody says, What's the waist size? Yeah, that happens all the time. They don't what's the

Suzanne Wells:

chest to see it, yeah,

Unknown:

what's the chest? Pit to pit? You know, whatever they'll ask and it's already in your description. So as a seller, you've been having to go copy and paste and say, you know, it's, you know, those of us who can get snippy, like I do, sometimes

Suzanne Wells:

we said it three times in the listing, are you not reading it?

Unknown:

So this is designed to help you with that, to help you avoid having to restate what you've already the work you've already done. It's supposed to streamline that in well,

Suzanne Wells:

even if it's just two minutes, yeah, and, but you have, you know, 10 of those a day, that's going to add up over a month. And I'm

Unknown:

really excited to try that out. And like I said, I've had two questions this week. One was about shipping, and the AI assistant didn't answer that. And then the other one wasn't something that was in my description. So we'll see. I'm anxious to see how it works, and

Suzanne Wells:

that's kind of like having a personal assistant, yes, fielding your your messages. So

Unknown:

I'm super excited about that one. That'll be really fun. And you can turn that on in your app. If you want to turn it on, it's in your if you go to selling on your app and then messaging, there's a little toggle to turn it on, and then on the desktop, it's like, go in messaging, and it's that little gear at the top right, you can switch it on or off. So okay, great. If you want to try that out. It's really fun. They have worked and it's already I noticed this week that it's in the app to streamline the research tool. So you know how they added it to the app about six months ago, where research was one of the bubbles at the top. Now it's big and it's prominent to research an item, to research the value, like, if you're out and about and you want to scan a barcode, or you want to look an item up, like typing it in, you know, Calvin Klein sweater, you know, or whatever. It's a real prominent now, it's a bigger, a bigger field, and it's right on the front of your eBay app. So that's exciting. That's fun. They're also continuing to improve the image editing, the AI portion of the image editing. So now you can, I think we talked about it on your on your Facebook page too, about using AI backgrounds, yes. So you can put it on you can put clothing on a model. You can pick an appropriate background if it fits the item. And they're saying that this actually does help convert sales in certain categories. So he gave the example of a pair of hiking boots and putting them in a mountainous setting, right? And you would only do that for one picture. I wouldn't recommend doing it for all your pictures, but maybe one picture and then a pair of vintage aviator sunglasses. Somebody put a jet in the background, okay, but they had their little sunglasses there, and that helped sell the sunglasses. So try that out. That might be a fun thing. I know

Suzanne Wells:

that's so counterintuitive, though, because for years it was white background. White background to show up on Google, white background. Everybody, first of all, we all went and got the white background, like a physical yes background, and then started with the background removal tools and just made it white. And so now this is, I don't know how many years ago that was at least 10, like we're that's ingrained in us, yes, and have been here for a while, but now this is completely opposite,

Unknown:

absolutely, yeah, it's can be confusing. Everything's completely changing. They also are introducing bulk listing, using just the AI, the magical listing tool, whatever that is, using just photos, so people who list a. Whole bunch of stuff at once. You'll be able to use that tool in bulk and then inventory mapping with AI for large sellers. I don't know if that applies to any of us in your group, but

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, what's the definition of

Unknown:

large seller? You know, I don't know. I don't know if this is people that are like, you know, hundreds of 1000s of car parts or something. Maybe, I don't know, on the buyer side, and I'll just quickly tick through these because, but you know, most of us are buyers, too, on eBay, so they're using AI to hyper personalize things you're searching for. And it's funny, because I the other day, I had this happen to me, and it was the AI tool they were talking about it eBay open, where they'll say, here's some things you might like. I can't remember what eBay called it, but I clicked on it. And it was funny, because it was all the stuff that I had recently researched that I'm listening Yeah, so like, boots and and makeup and belts and things that I sell. So it was, it made me kind of giggle, but it was, but, you know, I guess it's showing it's looking at what you're looking at, yeah, also showing it to you. And then it also will show you deals, people that are running sales on those items, and people that are recently listed those items. So

Suzanne Wells:

when I started getting emails, uh huh, something I looked at, I was researching, and I started getting emails, you know, this XYZ item still for sale, make an offer, you know? And I had to turn that off. It just automatically started. I never turned it on, yeah, and it might get a new suggested. Or there, I just feel like they're being too pushy, like I might my buyers having all my items show up in their email, or, you know, lookers and and get insulted, or like, feel pestered by eBay, and people might

Unknown:

not know how to turn it off. Yeah, they might hate it. I don't know. And I know sellers, all of us gripe about getting offers on things that we researched. So, yeah, you get, you get offers. Yeah, look at something once, and you didn't, you didn't watch it. You just looked at it, right? You get an offer from the seller. Well, that's going to be on steroids, it sounds like. So they also have a thing called shop the look, and you've probably seen that before, where it'll be a person in a whole outfit, and you can click on the hat, you can click on the shirt, you can click on the jeans that the model is wearing, and then find it on eBay. So it makes it fun. I guess for buyers, they're working with big influencers and celebrities, like the big thing that he talked about, which I remember seeing in the news, was chapel. Rowan was at the Met Gala, and wearing head to toe, everything she was wearing was from eBay. So that's Oh yeah, so they're doing more of that sort of thing, reaching out to celebrities who are enthusiastic about vintage or maybe secondhand goods, circular economy, that kind of stuff, and using them as spokespeople to drive people to eBay. Another thing that they did, which was really cool was the Formula One races. They had a big eBay presence and a pop up shop secondhand fashion and racing gear and advertising that eBay sponsored. They talked about because eBay has been around for 30 years. They have 30 years of buying data that they can put into their AI technology and know what people are shopping for what's trending. So you'll see more push around those kind of things. When you go to the eBay homepage, there's trending looks and fashion and just more of a focus on that.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, I saw the feedback issue posted on a couple groups, so yes,

Unknown:

talk about that feedback thing. Yes, that's really cool. Beginning in September. So that's coming really quickly. EBay is going to institute, and they started out doing this in the UK and Australia, and it was highly successful. So now they're rolling it out in the US, beginning in September. Sellers who ship an item using eBay labels and have a track service, obviously, if an if the buyer files an item not received claim, and then that item is later delivered to them, eBay will, and you've already maybe they fire they filed an item not received claim, You went ahead and refunded them, because you don't see that it's been delivered, well, then it's later delivered. EBay will automatically go back and refund, reimburse the seller. Great. So there's no more having to and I see we see that question all the time on your page, and other pages where people have to. To chase down the buyer, basically, and say, Hey, I see it's delivered. You know, can you PayPal me or or maybe the buyer says, hey, I want to pay you for that. No more. You won't have to do that anymore. EBay will just take care of it and reimburse you. So that's exciting and great for sellers, but on feedback, beginning in September, if the item is shipped with a track service and delivered on time, and the buyer hasn't reported any kind of issue at all, then eBay will automatically put positive feedback on your account. I don't know what the time frame is, but there's, there's a time frame in the UK and in Australia, it was only seven days, which seems kind of short to me, but I'm thinking maybe 30 days. Yeah, I don't remember if he set a timeframe. And I actually went back and listened to that part of the presentation to see if I could see if he specified, but he didn't. So it's great for new sellers. If you're trying to build your account, you'll be able to, you know, build up your positives, and then also it kind of pushes down any negatives you might get. So it's good for all of us,

Suzanne Wells:

absolutely. Yeah, I guess we just need to start watching our feedback. I watch it every day, like anything new here, I have to a negative drop off. They've been on there a year. Person didn't even contact me to work it out. It was just some shoes that had an issue and whatever,

Unknown:

and that was in that time frame yours were probably I had two really stupid neutrals, or I had three. And it was during that time frame when eBay stopped removing neutrals and negatives and had no clarification on what they would remove I had I had one that was a makeup sharpening pencil, and the person said, This doesn't fit my perfume pencil. And I'm like, Well, I never said that it would, you know, so different product totally. And then the other one was they didn't like the color of a craft kit that I sold. And I was like, well, you could've returned it, you know

Suzanne Wells:

this, I know, yeah, people just don't. There's just people that aren't going to try to negotiate. They just blindside you with

Unknown:

those. Yes, both of those, eBay wouldn't remove, but they were silly. And so mine dropped off this week too. I was really glad

Suzanne Wells:

that, and we can start watching in September, like I don't get that much feedback. I mean, I sell between 70 and 80 items a month, and I maybe get four feedback. I know they send out those reminders, because I get them as a buyer. You know, don't forget to leave feedback, and we love your feedback, but people just still don't do it. So I think that's a great solution to helping sellers build a reputation, and not just waiting for the buyer to decide they're going to leave feedback, because I don't want to ask for it. I don't want to poke the Sleeping Bear, right? I've had that happened in the past, where it's like, Hey, did you, you know, so you received your item, what can you leave me feedback? And they'll Well, now that you mentioned it, there was this, you know,

Unknown:

don't want to go there, but it will. It'll be a great improvement for all of us. And I think that the feedback that they leave is very generic. It says something like this transaction was completed successfully or

Suzanne Wells:

something, right? Okay, well, we can watch for that. That's great.

Unknown:

That's sort of generic. And I think, you know, Mercari has that same kind of thing. So it'll be something similar, I'm sure. So other cool things, let's see. The other cool thing for sellers was on offers. They are consolidating the place. And I this is already on the app. They've consolidated all of your offers in one place. So under selling tools on your app, you can look at your all of your active offers that you've sent out, and then also the ones that are automated, if you have that turned on, where it'll keep sending offers that are automated. The other cool part of it is your offers are now integrated within messaging. And you may have seen that that's already rolled out. I I noticed it this week because I had sent out some offers on an item, and then somebody sent me a message and said, Would you take this amount? And it was only like $2 less than the offer I'd already sent them, but I could just scroll up and see that I'd sent that person that offer, and then we had to figure I couldn't send them a new offer because the other offer was still active. So what they had to do was decline that offer, and then I could send them a new one. But but it it was really cool, because I send out so many offers every day, and I have such a big store that I don't remember what I sent out. And if it's been a slow sale day, I might have sent out 25% off offers, you know, and if it's another day where I just listed something, I might have sent out 10% offers. So I don't, I don't remember what I sent to who, and. Who I sent it to so unpaid items, which is another hot topic all of us want to know about, is expanding into auctions. And I don't know how many people do auctions, but all new I all new buyers on eBay now are required to provide a payment method and a verified phone number, and somehow they verify that payment method, unpaid items, the changes they've made to it thus far have already greatly decreased the number of unpaid items. And they said at the conference that now only less than 1% of transactions go unpaid. So

Suzanne Wells:

okay, so that's exciting. And I think it depends on where it is in the best offer situation. Mm, hmm. I've had, like, I'll send an offer, they'll counter offer, I'll accept it, and then they don't pay right

Unknown:

next week. Yep, I had one this week. So even after he said that, I'm like, Okay, well, I guess I'm the lucky one, because this one, this one didn't get paid just earlier this

Suzanne Wells:

week. But, yeah, I guess it's just for programming and such. I don't know how it's possible for them to require immediate payment when there's all this back and forth on an item. I

Unknown:

don't either one is there's going to be a new cogs field in your in the listing tool. So you'll be able to, I know a lot of us probably use the the custom skew for not only where you store your item, but I capture my cogs there. But now there's going to be a separate column for and it's just going to be called your cost. The cool thing about it is that field will also show up. When you get an offer, you'll be able to see what you're you don't have, because I know, and I have to do this all the time. You go back to the listing, okay, how much did I pay for that? And then to decide whether you want that to accept that offer or not, it will also show your net earnings for something that you list. So you'll see, after cogs and fees, etc, what your profit is going to be on that item. So that's really I'm excited for that to roll out. Yeah, it's not there yet. I went in this morning to see if it was in the listing tool, and I didn't, did not see it, but it's supposed to be there before the end of the year. It'll also show up in your end of the year reports if you run reports for your taxes and stuff like that. So that's

Suzanne Wells:

cool, just for the listener, she's talking about, C, O, G, S, which is cost of goods sold. It's an accounting term, so it's whatever it's, your cost of the item, plus fees, plus, I don't know if the shipping would be factored in, because you have shipping coming in with the buyer paying for it, and then you print a label, and that's, that's a cost of goods sold, yes, so we'll have to see how it works. But that's a very interesting addition, because you're right. Sometimes, you know, sometimes you do pay $25 for something, right? Let it go for

Unknown:

30. And you can't, yeah, you can't remember what you paid, and so you have to go searching for that before you accept an offer. So

Suzanne Wells:

is goes back to keep your records, keep up with what you're paying for stuff.

Unknown:

One more thing that I thought was really, really interesting was in the categories where you can list something for not working or for parts, they are going to a process where no return and you won't accept returns on that item. You say no returns, it's going to be a true final sale. So now somebody can't buy let's say you have a broken cuckoo clock, and you list it as a broken cuckoo clock, and you say, no returns on this item. Well, a buyer can't come back and say, I want to return this clock. It doesn't work. You'd already said it didn't work. So now if the buyer buys something that you've listed for parts are not working and they want to return it. They can't claim item, not as described, unless they can provide photographs or clear evidence that contradicts with what is in your listing, and they only have three days to do that, so the return window is not 30 days for that or whatever you have on your account. It's only three days, and it has to directly contradict with what you have listed. So this is not for things like you list a sweater that's missing a cardigan sweater that's missing a button. It's not for that. It's for just those categories, and I think it's in appliances and car parts. And there's different places where you can list something they actually have the listing the place that says not working for parts,

Suzanne Wells:

I wonder if that is addressing like, okay, the cuckoo clock. And you you buy it, it's got all the parts, and they just pick out what they want. You. I really only needed the pendulum and this springy thing, they want to return it, and they return all the rest of the stuff they didn't want. I know that goes on with anything with multiple parts, you know, games, pieces, anything like that. You're, you're subject to that happening. So maybe that's part of it is addressing that issue Absolutely,

Unknown:

and it's been other people may have seen in some other groups, it got misreported that all returns were going to go to three days. Well, that's not true. It's only this category. So don't get too excited. There were people celebrating in other groups. And I was like, no, no, no, that's not what he said. I know

Suzanne Wells:

I have 30 day returns, and somebody will open a return, and you're just watching it if it's not shipped back by this date, and then, darn it, they ship it back on the 29th day.

Unknown:

Yes, that's always the way it is.

Suzanne Wells:

The procrastinators procrastinator you know, most of them drop off, and they don't get shipped back, right? It just evaporate. And, you know, I guess the the buyers like something else shiny came along to distract them, or it's buried on their dining room table and stuff or whatever. But I don't get too, too worried about returns anymore, because, yeah, a lot of times they don't even

Unknown:

happen. The vero program, right? Something that can be the bane of some of our existence sometimes, but it it fascinates me, and I've tried to learn more about it over the years. It's a source of mystery and confusion, I think for a lot of us, sellers, because you don't always know that something's not allowed, and there's really no way for you to look it up. The myth out there that the Vero people call it the Vero list, it's actually not a list. It's not it's not comprehensive. So anybody that owns a prop intellectually intellectual property rights for an item or a brand or image, eBay has the obligation under international law, not just US law, but international law, eBay has to respond to their claim of intellectual property violations. So that list that's out there on eBay is actually just a list of participants in the eBay vero program. And what that list is is people who have provided eBay with information about their brand and how it can be resold. Not so if you go out there and you look at that list, and something that you tried to sell got pulled just because it's not on that list doesn't mean anything. They have to respond to anybody who owns an intellectual property like they own, the copyright they own. It's a registered trademark. It's a they have the copyright for that item. They have to respond. Some of the interesting things that they talked about, though, were that eBay doesn't automatically take down listings just because something is reported. They actually decline some of those claims, which I thought, I thought they just take everything down. Well, they don't. They actually investigate the company, make sure that the person that's messaging them is associated with that company. So it can't just be another seller who doesn't want you to sell that item. And also, it can't be just because they don't want you selling their item on eBay. It has to be a clear copyright violation or trademark violation. Also, one thing I thought was interesting was that there are two different types of zero violations that you might get. One is an infringing listing that's infringing, and she the one of the speakers said those things are fixable, so you can make changes to your listing and put it back up if you fix the things that are infringing. So for instance, if you were selling cell phone chargers and they were compatible with a whole bunch of different types of cell phones, but in your listing title, you had Apple or Samsung, and that charger is not actually made by one of those companies, you can fix your listing to say it's compatible with Apple or Samsung, and then your listing can be listed infringing items, that's when you're venturing into counterfeit territory, or replicas, or maybe a designer bag that's not authentic. Those cannot be relisted because your items been deemed to be fake for whatever reason. So you have to really pay attention to those. So when eBay tells you do not re list this item, you need to take them seriously and don't try to find a way around it, because they will you. You have a mark on your account, and they're going to watch that and they're going to find it again. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

it's not worth it. It's not correspondence from eBay says you made a mistake. Don't list this then, just

Unknown:

drop it right there. Yeah, don't it. Trash it. Put it nothing

Suzanne Wells:

valuable, like put it on Facebook marketplace, or I wouldn't even do any online site if you got pulled from eBay, then just sell it at your garage sale or whatever. Yeah,

Unknown:

so we all know about Velcro, like I got one lately. I got one recently for lycra. I had no idea, oh, lycra, and it was just a pair of pantyhose that had lycra in the title. Lycra is a registered trademark, and it's a there's a specific way you're supposed to type it out. So I just edited all my listings that had lycra, and I took the word lycra out. So, so don't you know lycra spandex? I just put spandex. Spandex is a generic term, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

or whatever's I guess. You just take a picture of the content tag, and then you don't

Unknown:

have to see, you don't have to say it, just in the picture. Yep. So that was interesting. That was that was a really interesting if you want to know more about it, maybe you want to watch that presentation also. But I thought, I thought it was fascinating. They actually had a attorney from eBay. Was one of the speakers.

Suzanne Wells:

Too. Oh, great. Okay, cool. You said these are going up on

Unknown:

they should go up on YouTube, on the eBay YouTube channel. There was also a very good another session that I would want, that was Google, a speaker from Google and a speaker from eBay about best practices in listing and search. So they gave all kinds of hints on your listings and making your own listings perform better. And that was a really good presentation also, so I highly recommend that one. Thank you for that recap. You're welcome. I know that was a lot,

Suzanne Wells:

no, but it's it's good. Like I said, I haven't gone through the recordings yet, but you've given some highlights that have really good things coming. So forward to that. So even

Unknown:

hopefully, we'll announce some of these things too in the eBay announcements. So, you know, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, as they, as they become active, they'll put an announcement up. So that's wonderful. And okay, well, thank you for spending some time and explaining all this. What is on your list of items to do today?

Unknown:

I have a lot of listening to do. I did some sourcing yesterday, and have a whole trunk load of items that I need to get good listing.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, well, I will send you good vibes on that, because I'm doing the same thing. Okay, well, thanks again, and we'll look for you on the group with your sales and your excellent advice on questions. Thanks. Okay. Bye. Next week, my guest is JD, who has only been selling a short time, but she is wildly successful. My objective with this podcast is to talk with sellers from all walks of life and all reselling experience levels. JD has had some incredible sales for a newbie, and she has some I won't do that again. Lessons to share. Thank you for supporting this podcast, and I will see you next week. Keep working hard and stay positive. Bye for now. You

Unknown:

I think.