eBay the Right Way

eBay Seller Chat with JD in North Carolina: Newbie Seller Experiencing Wild Success After Only a Short Time 🙌

• Suzanne A. Wells • Episode 234

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Suzanne Wells:

Foreign Hi, resellers, welcome to episode number 234 of eBay the right way. Today's date is September 10. 2025 my guest is JD in North Carolina. No announcements this week, so we will jump right in. Welcome back. Listeners. I have JD with us in this episode. And how are you doing this morning?

Unknown:

I'm doing well. Thank you very much for asking and tell us where you're located. So I'm north east of Raleigh, so it's like 45 minutes up there, northeast of Raleigh.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, Raleigh. Okay, yes, North Carolina.

Unknown:

Gotcha. Okay. So I'm in the near my my town is, like super near Rolesville. So yeah, that's where I am, North Carolina. Another North Carolina guest.

Suzanne Wells:

Yes, yes, we have several. So yeah, I'm in South Carolina, so we're, we're kind of neighbors, true. Okay, and you have a regular, full time job, correct?

Unknown:

Yes. So I'm, I'm a phone nurse, so I'm a nurse educator my full time career, and this is my part time job, okay, selling.

Suzanne Wells:

So you teach, or do you teach at a university or in a hospital?

Unknown:

Usually, I on the phone. I'm a telephonic nurse, yeah, okay. I teach patients, you know, any questions they may have regarding their status with the, you know, the medication, how to take it, how, what, you know, all of those process, yeah.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, great, yeah. We, we as patients, like nurses, like you.

Unknown:

Oh, thank you. We appreciate you guys too.

Suzanne Wells:

Yes, your your work is definitely needed. So good. And is it just you in the household? Or do you have

Unknown:

family? Yes, I have two children. One is an adult and one is all almost in high school. My husband and I have a 90 pound golden doodle who likes to sit with me all the time when I'm at home.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah. Okay, okay, so you got a full house there? Good, right? All right, now let's go back to how you got started selling on eBay and when that happened.

Unknown:

Well, I've always been thrifty. I didn't officially start until last, still a baby. I was watching a lot of Instagram after work, because I finish usually work at night, and just to relax, I just watch a lot of, you know, the usuals. Spend time doing nothing on social media, right, scrolling through, Yep, exactly. And then I actually saw a post, and I saw her multiple times. It's a nurse that quit nursing to become a full time reseller. Is that?

Suzanne Wells:

Is that cat? The nurse flipper?

Unknown:

No, well, I watch her too, but Oh,

Suzanne Wells:

her name is. You can say who it is, if you want to. It's fine,

Unknown:

Laura. Laura, okay, yes, she's a wild and almost free that I think that's, yeah, I like that. I like what she's saying, which is the truth for me, it's, I love nursing, so I don't really want to leave it, but at the same time, I spend a lot of times just going to Amazon or to eBay or to target online, just and then, you know, and I'm thinking myself, why? Why do I do that? Why do I just sell my stuff that I have enough and no make money for it, and because

Suzanne Wells:

the treasure hunting is the fun part, exactly. It's in person or online, right?

Unknown:

Right? So I figured, let me do that. So I made up my mind. I started, I'm a planner, you see. So what I do is I started putting things together. I started having a binder, which I am like that. I put a binder on in small business classes. I attended classes about eBay, about Amazon, and all of these. And after months, I figured, oh, maybe I could do this, because I'm a lifelong learner. I love to learn new things. I figured, you know what? I've did my research. Let me do this. That's a year ago, March. Oh, Ronnie,

Suzanne Wells:

okay, so you haven't been at this very

Unknown:

long. Oh, I'm a baby. Told you.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, so are you still selling your own things? Are you buying things to resell? Okay, so let's talk about some things that you have resold, that either you just already had or that you purchased to sell.

Unknown:

See, once I sold the home are twos of my children, my my older child loves sneakers, so he gave me some of his, and he said, here, mom not using it. And then my younger one, who's in middle school, going to high school very soon, he also has a lot of sneakers, but that's essentially where I started all the other ones. I just jumped and started buying stuff. But I did my research, of course, that one month of research to get ready, a month or two to get ready with things. I took all of those informations, the bolos made a list, kept looking and started buying. But of course, I made a lot of mistakes on my first few times of buys. Actually, I'm still making a lot of mistakes

Suzanne Wells:

now. So so am I, and I've been doing it since 2003 so you're just you're going to make mistakes.

Unknown:

Yeah. Do have a lot of funny shares and funny and, you know, lot of good, good sales that I have. But also there's a lot of heartbreaking stuff that I'm like, I'm just selling it. I can't be bothered keeping it. So my highest sales so far since I started this for this blanket. It's how you call it, a Jacquard type of blanket, right? The print on it, right? So I got it in an estate sale. And I think this is one of my first few estate sales last year. It was so big, and honestly, it was old and yellowy. I I washed it multiple times. It looks like a tapestry. I didn't sell it. Sell it straight away. Because, one, I don't know how to take a photo of it. Two, there's a lot of yellow stains that I found in it, even though I tried to, you know, obviously, clean it and all. Anyway, finally, after four or five months of it being in my money brow, I decided to open it up, and lo and behold, I saw there's a C 1858 on it. So it was an antique one. Oh, okay, right. So I took a photo of it, I Googled it, and I saw something similar that sold for like, $420 I'm like, Whoa, big money. And yes, $25 so I researched more about it. I decided to auction it because, you know, I've I've heard you, I've heard a lot of folks to say, if you don't know, and there's no pumps, my friend, just to auction it, and I did, but it put a reserve of 350 Okay, the highest the well, pretty sold one was 424 50. So when I put it on auction, the highest auction, and the highest bid I had was 162 so I ended that, and I just relisted it for 375 I figured, let's go for 375 there was a buyer that was because it looks like a cap. It looks like a capital building, okay? Building, yeah, in Washington, DC. So there was a question mark about my post in there I was, I wanted to show you, because it's very interesting anyway. So what happened there was back and forth. We were, we settled to 350 and that was my first big sale. And actually that's still my highest big sale ever at this time.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, see that's proof that you can be new and still have big sales. You just never know what you're going to find out

Unknown:

there. Oh yeah, because, you know, I was thinking, Oh, this is going to be exciting. Because I know I hear you sometimes you look, you know what look, what should look like, right? Yes, I figured, oh, I wanted to show it, or maybe I'll share it on the on the Zoom call. Well, Zoom is not zooming right now,

Suzanne Wells:

we're in the non zoom zone. Yes. Okay, so you found that at an estate sale, do you remember what you paid for it?

Unknown:

$25 okay? $20 because the guy just asked me so last day of the estate sale, and I was just looking around, it was next to the cashier and be the owner of their state sale. And I asked him, How much are you asking for this? And he's like, how much are you going to pay me? I said, 15. He said, How I got higher than that? But okay, I think go 20. So how about we go 25 I said, that sounds great. Okay, let's do this. So yeah, we did $25 for that, but it's huge and it's heavy, so that's another thing. That's why it took me six months to six.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, yes. And so um, did you like wash it in oxy clean, or how did you Was it too big for your washing machine?

Unknown:

Oh, no, it was, it was heavy, but I have a heavy duty washing machine, okay, with oxy clean, especially those yellow stuff that I didn't realize that at that when I was washing that it's been that old, and maybe I shouldn't have, I don't know, but it actually covered my whole six seater dining table. I kind of dude, you know, I didn't want to put it outside, so I just to dry it. It's just there, but it's, it's humongous, but yeah, so that was my first one, and then so I started in end of March, 1 week of April. So around that time, 2025

Suzanne Wells:

or 2424 Okay, so you've been doing it just about a year and a half, right? Okay, and

Unknown:

then in around June of last year, so That's April, major of two, two months in, I saw a post in Facebook about Starbucks mugs. Anybody interested? So I figured, you know, remember how I told you I'd do my research and Bo lows and all of that? I figured, oh, Starbucks. No, it's, I know those are expensive. Um, mind you, I don't drink Starbucks because

Suzanne Wells:

I'm with you on that. I Yeah, it's too expensive and it's not consistent, like, you figure out a drink you like, and it just depends on who's making it. It doesn't taste the same, like, exactly the same every time, yeah, yeah.

Unknown:

Can't really, you know, I can't. No, I'm like, I'm not gonna pay that. I know I

Suzanne Wells:

can make my own for three cents a cop at home.

Unknown:

Starbucks up for sale on on Facebook, and it's just like 10 minutes away from me. So I figured, okay, let me go and and look it up after I've done my yard sale. Because it was a Saturday morning, so I went in there and oh my gosh, Suzanne, you won't believe it. It's like lines and lines and lines of Starbucks. And the lady and kids told me that apparently their lady's father in law likes to travel and collects all of these Starbucks months from different countries that he's been in, and it's the kids money. So whatever money they make out of the sales of all of these Starbucks months, it's the kids money. So I was actually wheeling and dealing with the kids. It's a high schooler. So I will ask, how much had these How much are you asking for that? Long and story short, it came back the following Sunday. So that was Saturday. It came up following Sunday because they had to close it too. They have stuff to do. And bought more. Essentially, I bought, like, 100 plus months. This is my second month. I was thinking, you know, if the opportunity there, grab it, yes. So I went back, bought $600 worth of Starbucks mods from all over the world, different types, the embossed ones, the relief ones, the you are here ones. The reason why I thought that it would sell was a month when I first started in April, there was a neighborhood yard sale in my neighborhood, and I bought us Starbucks mug that is from the Star Wars. Oh, okay, right. So I bought it for $10 at this house, and it comes, it came in the box, but I looked it up, and I came home, and I was excited because it was selling for $100 Oh, right. So I'm like, ooh, if I could do that multiply this many Starbucks nuts, I'll make money. So here's the thing.

Suzanne Wells:

Here we go. Here's the advice from the beginner, so

Unknown:

overwhelmed, and I'm not joking, because I was so overwhelmed with the amount of Starbucks my second life that I don't know how to arrange it. So I bought all of those, you know, under bed. Yes, yes. And then I cut, I cut cartons to separate them so they don't think each other. And then after I'm done with putting all in together, I put it on the side, and didn't open it since I was just tired of it overwhelmed, you know, overwhelms. I didn't, I didn't know. Look it up again until almost October, November, you know, Thanksgiving time. And I started posting it. And soon as I started posting it, I realized some Starbucks months don't really sell for crap, right? Some ones, some other special ones. And these, I don't know if you, if you want to look it up. It's the relief Lyd, okay, it's the most and it's big, big name, big name type of cities, like Saint Petersburg, Moscow, London, Paris, but it's relief. So it's, it's 3d so essentially, I started selling those first, because when I pumped it, it was the one that is higher than the rest. Okay, um, you want to hear how much I sold one? Of course, yes, yeah. So for the St Petersburg one from 2013 I sold it for $200 I dollars,

Suzanne Wells:

just one cup. Okay, well, you made a third of your money back then,

Unknown:

exactly. And then same person bought it because these, these ones, I put it high up because I know there's nothing in the market, and I, and I'm the only one that has it, people that wants it would have to, because I always put on my best offer. Would either, you know, offer, or they just buy straight away. But the same guy that bought the Saint Petersburg bought the Moscow scene relief Lydia mug for $100 so that's$300 for one person. Okay, excellent,

Suzanne Wells:

very good, right?

Unknown:

And then I started the rest. I would have folks buying three worth, 5060, $70 cups each. So essentially, at this point, I'm way, I'm way on my What's the word for it, I already made my money off

Suzanne Wells:

of it, right? Okay, and don't feel bad that you bought so many, because that really is the mother load of Starbucks cups. And I'll tell you a little story real quick. This week, I was bidding on some finished cross stitch pieces on an online auction. And there were five different lots with 50 pieces, and they weren't framed. They were just the fabric, the cloth with the the cross stitch on them. And some had two things, like, you could cut it apart, and they were very intricate designs, like the Charleston row houses and, you know, like, butterflies in nature and samplers and, like, it took a lot of work to make all these. And I was like, Oh, that'd be perfect, because that'd be so easy to photograph, so easy to ship they sell. That's like, right up my alley of what I sell. And so I'm like, what would I pay? And I was like, Well, okay, I'm not going to go higher than $10 a piece. Some will sell for 80 to 100 and some won't be worth anything, but they're limited on how many pictures they can put up on this auction site, so I couldn't see every single thing that was in there, right? Well, I started bidding, and I got outbid on every single one, some of them went up to $700 and I thought, okay, who am I bidding against here? What? What are they going to do with this? But that was kind of outside my comfort zone, to pay so much for something. But you get in these situations where you see opportunity and you have to draw a boundary line of how much you're going to pay. Because, you know, what, if I had kept bidding, would would I have driven the bids up even higher? What is that person's maximum bid? You don't know, finding that on you said Facebook marketplace, right? Yes. And it's just 10 minutes away, yeah, and, and you walk in and, you know, that's the excitement of this business. It's what you don't know. When you go into a thrift store, you go into an estate sale, and you didn't realize that there were going to be so many mugs. Is that? Yeah, so you know, that's the excitement where the the dopamine kicks in, it's like, you don't know what you're going to find, and especially, going to somebody's house, you might see something else that they don't, they don't know is valuable. Or they'll be like, Oh, would you be interested in this? Since you're here, what about this? And that's where you can find those, those really great items, because they've been in somebody's house, they've probably been taken care of or on a shelf or whatever for years. And that's why these people do the private picks, is like, because you just don't know what's going to be in there. So you have

Unknown:

to do because I was most interested in those private picks and all that, and how I. Everybody kept on saying, well, you should really have a business card, but I that's my, one of my to do is to do to have a business card done for me so I can, you know, give it to folks. But at the same time, I really don't look forward get to getting a lot of necessary calls, you

Suzanne Wells:

know, yeah. Well, I mean, you can always, you know, just have them text you, and if they call, then you don't, it's a number you don't know, you just don't answer it. But mean that so many sellers are doing that now, or going to a garage sale and saying, Well, hey, if you got other stuff, you know, Here's my card. Let me know I'll come back and take a look. Or they'll be like, oh, I'll just go in and get it right now. So it is you have to draw that line between protecting your personal space and not wanting all these invasive calls. But you don't know until you try it. So maybe, maybe go ahead and get some cards made and try it. And if you, if you're bothered too much, then okay, maybe don't do that anymore.

Unknown:

I like that. I mean, I will do that, you know, one of these days, because I would like to have that. You know, the pics I, you know, the few other guests that I've heard are like, so surprised they get pics. Are they not afraid to go inside somebody's house. What if, you know, it's scary. What if I'm just one of those, there's, you know, well,

Suzanne Wells:

I guess you could bring somebody with you. I don't know that's, that's the key, though, is getting in their house so that you can see everything. The Find My Friends app, where somebody can see where you are, like, with your husband or somebody? Hey, I'm going to check out this person's stuff and they can see, they can see where you are. Yeah, that's, I love that app, because I have it on my daughter, and she's, she's in another city now, and I don't really look at it very much, but if I want to call and talk to her, I'm like, Well, let me see where she is. She home? Is she out? I won't bug her if she's out.

Unknown:

No, you're, you're, I should do that. But yeah, actually, my husband is slowly getting used to it. Because first time I started, he was not very keen on, you know, all of these, because in his mind, who would buy that? I mean, why would you spend money? And I'm like, Listen, I'm buying this shirt for $5 where can you find it for $5 these days? And it's hard to use, right? So I had to do that defensive stance with him for quite a while there, even when I bought this Starbucks haul, we call it the hole, the big hole, and we had to put it all in the back of my my Honda Pilot. And he was just shaking his head the whole time, like, what did you do?

Suzanne Wells:

What have my wife has gone off the deep end. Oh, what's happening here?

Unknown:

She's tuned into this. And I'm like, listen, it's once in a lifetime. You don't need to see it all the time. And I have to do that, you know, explanation with him all the time. Whenever I come home, there's big bags of IKEA bags, you know, those little bits, yeah. But now he's so used to it. And when I come home, I when I tell him, you know, I just, I just sold the St Petersburg Starbucks mug for $200 he said, No, seriously. I said, yeah. Oh, and I sold one London for 200 Oh, I got this one for 100 it's like, you made up your money already? I said, Yeah. And it's still and he's like, now he doesn't question me anymore. There you go. There you go. Because my son is the one that always questions in his mind, and I cannot understand in his mind, he's one of those, not really all for people that buy stuff from the thrift store to resell, because it's meant for, you know, poor people and all of that. So that's my son, and he's my number one kind of like critic, used critic,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, we all have that number one critic, Yep, yeah.

Unknown:

And it keep on reminding him that listen, when I find a jersey on this thrift shops or on this yard sales, that I go to disparage sales, and I give it to you, don't I don't hear you complaining. You know, when I find this Nike shoes, like, couple of months ago, I got like, 678, pairs of Nikes, and these are hard to use Nikes, so he got two, and my husband got three out of I'm like, you don't complain. So I understand that, yes, that's the idea for the thrift shop, but it's, you know, to help, but it's a program. It doesn't mean that they're going to, everybody's going to buy from the thrift shop straight away. It was, it's a job, you know, it's, it's a side. Side moneys, what's your problem?

Suzanne Wells:

Now, he's, what's your problem. I love it.

Unknown:

My son is very vocal, and I think of him as me, but, yeah, tells what's on his mind. And listen to me, young man, you know, at the end of the day, this is my decision, and it's my money, you know, so, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

and it's like, you have to find people who get it. Because, you know, I'll talk to the people, my siblings and friends throughout the day, and, you know, some days I'm just selling stuff like crazy, and I'm in a great mood. That is, my dopamine is getting a sale. I don't care if it's $5 sale, I got a sale and and they'll be like, Oh, great. On eBay, you're in a great mood. And I'm like, Yes, it was. And then other times, nothing's happening for two days, and it'll be like, what's the matter? Is eBay slow? You sound kind of depressed. Like, yeah, yeah, it'll pick back up. But I think I've said this before. My mom lived with me back when I first started eBay. She had had some surgeries and needed some helps, and I had a spare room, so we moved her in with me, and she brought all her stuff, her lifelong stuff. So I started selling her stuff to go ahead and downsize before I had to do it later in life. And, you know, I would go thrifting and come back and be all excited, like, Oh, I found this Bobby Jones sweater, and I found this, you know, Ralph Lauren blazer with the the crest on it, and just all the things that were so high dollar back then, she had no idea what I was talking about. She was just, Oh, honey, that's wonderful. I'm so glad you're happy. Like I've seen people in my tribe here that understand the excitement of finding these things in the thrift store. Because you just, you find it, and you're like, oh, you know what it can sell for. And you just, you put it in your cart, like under something else, so that nobody could see it.

Unknown:

No, my husband understands that now he he's on board with it. In fact, we're supposed to go on a family vacation couple of weeks ago, but I couldn't really plan ahead for it, so I asked him, Are we going to go out? And he said, Well, I have a plan. What do you think? I said, Okay, so tell me the plan. So his idea was, let's go out of state, cuz so from North Carolina, we drive to Pennsylvania, because I mentioned to him Lancaster County before. Mm, hmm. So I figured I've never been to, you know, an Amish County. I wanted to see, I wanted to go. And I heard there's good, good option, and teak houses and all of that. Oh, yes. So we decided to go to Pennsylvania, and this is for our summer vacation. And apparently it ended up just me and my husband, without the kids. They stayed in the home, because, you know what is an adult and one is almost there. So we spent five days going around Pennsylvania. We went to actually, we also went to Tennessee. Where else we had, like, three states that we drove. It wasn't a lot that I found I have to stay, but it was a good deal. And I realized that my husband is now on board with this, and just very much out there to help me. So I'm like, Oh, my boy suggested that people, you know, we go yard sale, garage sales and estate sales. Oh, and these are the first, this is his first, well, not really first first, but where he really would spend time with me, in estate sales. And he's like, and he got himself a microscope, okay, he got him and he it was like a pet project, like, he got himself a lighter so, and sold it in Facebook marketplace. And I thought, you know, just because I'm thinking, if he gets interested on it, maybe he'll get on board more, maybe he'll go with me more. He'll like it. He He's not that interested in it right now, but he's getting there. You know, especially when I tell him stories of out of the blue sales that I had. If you don't expect, are you familiar with this? One of the things I was telling me, he wasn't like, really. Are you familiar with shearing? Shearing tool? No, what's that? So it's a it's a lamb, lamb wool cutter, so, oh,

Suzanne Wells:

to to get the the wool off of the sheep. Okay, no, I didn't. I'm sure they have special tools, but I don't know anything

Unknown:

about them. I went to an estate sale one Sunday, and I saw this big. It looks like a large beard cutter. Oh. Okay, you know, for for for men, but it's super large. It's like, 13 inches long. Okay, hefty. So I looked it up, and I saw it's called shearing, and there's pictures of lambs in it. So I figured, oh, it's to cut the lambs. Cool. So I looked it up, and it was heavy, yes, decided to Brooklyn lens it, and I realized it, it was selling. It's, it sells for hundreds of dollars. Okay,

Suzanne Wells:

so, yeah, it's very, very specialized. I'm looking them up here. Um, there's, like, sheep shears. They're like, great, big scissors. Is that what you or is, or is yours like an electric one? It's an electric one. Okay, yeah, so it's just like what you would use at, you know, at the barber shop to get a buzz cut. You know,

Unknown:

it's really big, okay, okay,$15 and this is date sale, because it's the last day, and I sold it for $135 Oh, yeah, very good. Yeah. I'm selling my husband about, how did you do? Because he's, he's from Scotland, and I have a sister in law in Scotland that takes care of plants. She's a, she's a air traffic controller, but she has a farm, so she has lamb, she has bigs. And I was like, I'm sure Carrie has one of these. So, and then we were chatting, and then when it finally stole, it's like, wow. I didn't know who sell that amount. I said, I know. I didn't need you, but hey, you know, so I think he, he's, he's like, at that point now where, well, my wife knows what she's doing, so let her be,

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah, you, You've almost got him over to the dark side. Keep working on him. Yeah, keep working on him. Yeah.

Unknown:

And so anyway, yeah. But I also have, well, not saying that I always have big sales, because I really don't. I do have those small sales that, you know, sometimes I'll just take $10 $12 just to have it moving in my mind, and every time I go downstairs, because my office, because I work from home, right? So my office and my storage area in the same third floor. So every time I go downstairs and to drop off, you know, to get ready with the stuff that I need to drop off at the post office, my husband said, Oh, another sale. I said, Yes, it's not a lot. But I always tell my husband, and I always tell it to myself, it's better than nothing, right, right? So it's better than nothing, because it's like a mantra in my mind, I'd rather sell, you know, little bits and pieces, because it adds up. You know, an $8 here, $15 there, $20 in a shoe. Oh, I love shoes. My store is just shoes, a lot of shoes, but I, I'm an I'm an everything seller, but my shoes are my passion. I love shoes. So, yeah, so

Suzanne Wells:

some people just don't want to sell shoes because they're like, Ooh, they're, they're worn shoes, and it's has that ick factor, but it just all depends on what brand it is and the condition. And I mean, if you find good ones, yeah, go for it. There was a shoe seller I was friends with back in the day, and she had something like 1500 pairs of shoes, and she had an entire like, outbuilding behind her house with all these shoe racks, and it looked like a Shoe Warehouse, but that was

Unknown:

the Marcos from the Philippines.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, yeah, exactly, yeah. I know, would you like to get your hands on some of those shoes? But yeah. I mean, hey, if it works for you, and you have to like it. Yes, you have to like it.

Unknown:

You remember, I remember you saying this, and I actually have a little, a little middle point that says it. It says bloom where you're planted, yes. So in my area, there are not a lot of nice clothes we don't get, you know, those Lululemon, it's not a lot. There's not a lot of them. There will be some, but, you know, there's not a lot, a lot of Ralph Lauren, there's not a lot of big names. I can't find those. What I find are shoes. And I have no complaints, because I love shoes, right?

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, you have to, you know, go with what you find. When I first started, I was finding all these men's golf shirts. They were everywhere. And so that's what I based my business on at first, and then I graduated to other things, but it, it's all about, like you said, Bloom, where you're playing. To You know, figure out what is in your area that is plant that is plentiful and profitable, and unless you just absolutely hate it and don't want to do it, because that's not going to be enjoyable and you won't keep up with

Unknown:

it, because I find it plentiful in my area, I love cleaning. There's something maybe I'm just viewed that way. I don't have an egg factor. I'm a

Suzanne Wells:

nurse, so, oh, right, yeah, you've seen lots more icky things than shoes.

Unknown:

Discussing the tables. I've seen those. I've cleaned those. I've dealt with it. I have no egg factor. So with shoes, first of all, I don't pick up shoes that will take forever to clean, unless it's very expensive, you know, unless I will make a lot of money out of it, like the Danner shoes, you know, those combat boots, they would sell 7080, higher amount of money. So if they're a little bit muddy, because it's an outside shoes, right? I will be more than happy to just, you know, spray it and put it and put it in a basin to, you know, to loosen up all the muds. And, you know, I have no problem, but if it's a cheaper kind of shoes, because in my mind right now, it's a year and a half of selling, I figured I should have a cut off of how much I would work on one item, right? I would still, you know, there's still some that I will pick up because it's cute, but doesn't sell a lot, but usually now, I try to achieve at least 25 $20 profit from sale. So you know, because it adds up. But shoes that I will pick up are usually minimal cleaning, but if I have to clean it, especially on sneakers, the edges of it, if it's white, I have to clean those it, for some reason I find it relaxing and calm,

Suzanne Wells:

yes, whatever you like. And I'm like way with clothing, i To me, it's, it's sort of a meditative activity. It's not, I don't feel pressured. I know the product. You know

Unknown:

you don't have to do, you know you don't have to think much of you just wanted to clean it if it's nice and shiny, or if it's nice and white on after you clean it, oh, that's me. I'm done, and all have to do is take photos of it. I like it. I don't know I like shoes. So I have sold a lot of shoes in my store. The way I look at it is I still have a lot of money pile, because I will buy hats and caps and neck ties. But in fairness, the neck ties that I will buy are name brand neck ties, like Brooks Brothers, like, you know, failure vines or some high end but right, I don't like taking the photos, so have a lot of them, and I have coach bags, one after the other. I get lucky, and that's another thing that I've always you know, I'm all for people. You know what they say about Fortune favors the gold. If you really want to find stuff out there, you really should go out and just not hope to find something you need to look because I would find coach bags on yard sales that are almost closing. Oh, found it. Yeah, they're almost done. I just saw it on the end of the their driveway, and nobody's there. It's a it's a young high schooler just planning their board out of her mind. And I asked her to say, how much are you asking for the bags? And said, Then, how much do you want to bake? One, $2 that's what she said, not me. Mm, hmm. She said, One $2 I said, Okay, so I got all four of it and I got it authenticated on this Facebook group. Oh, good. Okay, yeah, all four coach bags that I bought are all authentic for $2 a pop. And I'm like, you know, it can't be serious. But anyway, my daughter is enjoying my nails the Coach bag. You know those 90s type the the leather unassuming, because I like those kinds of coach bags. It's unassuming. It's it doesn't scream Big C for coach, right? Yeah, it's the 90s versions. I like those, so I have several of those, but I don't like taking photos, so I have a lot of bags that are there that I know is money sitting in there, but one day I will tackle that. Yeah. And then also have this, this really funny sale. You know how they always say you have to go, and I'm also a proponent of this, you have to go early on a yard sale or a garage sale. So you get big the nice

Suzanne Wells:

stuff. Yeah, you get first pick, exactly.

Unknown:

But see me, I sometimes make bad decisions. Oh. We're in I will go to this huge community yard sale 45 minutes away from me when the because in my mind, there's another community yard sale 20 minutes away from me. I'll go to the park first, so get the nice stuff in there, which, unfortunately, I didn't get good stuff, you know, from there. So I went back trying to the place 20 minutes away from me. And this is around 1030 11 o'clock, same place, same neighborhood that I went to. I picked up a jacket. It wasn't, it was an Adidas jacket from the 90s. It's, it's, what's the title? Again, it's a it's for a Bhutan, b, h, U, T, A, N. It has a dragon on it. Okay. Anyway, I sold, I bought it. I can't remember how much, because it's 1030, 11 o'clock. We're almost at that time. It was getting hot, so I was trying to get a good bit of it from them before they close. So the lady gave it to me, I can't remember, for 10,$10 and then same house, there's, I think the sun was selling his shoes. So he has, like, three Converse shoes. It looks like the shoes are high tops, but the converse is not fabric, the the shoes are not fabric. It's like a rain boots. Oh, okay, like a vinyl, similar, like a rain Yeah, like rain boots, right? So had three. He had three colors, or four colors of it, yellow, a red and olive green and a black so I bought all of it because I was thinking, let me ask how much he's going to give it to me, along with some cold hands and another penguin type. It's penguin is the brand, okay. So I bought the shoes for like, $5 the Converse shoes for $5 each. So those Converse shoes, so for 30, $35 each, I sold all of them. And that jacket that I got, I sold it for $193 Yeah, so, so that, that Bhutan jacket, yeah, it's, it's like a track jacket. It's like a yellow orange. It's, it's, it's rare. It's hard to find. So I was like, Whoa, and I was telling my husband again, so he's like, whoa, 100 Yeah, it's $193 but I always try to remind him, Listen, this is not the take home, because it's the fees, because it sounds nice when you sell $200 or 193 but at the end of the day, you realize, Oh, hold on, there's fees involved. There's taxes involved, right? You know? So I keep on telling now, he's like, No, it's $293 for a jacket. The same. So that has the one one house, right? House. This is, again, the 1032 log and I arrived there because I made a wrong choice of neighborhood to go to. So I went on the other house, same community. And because I work on the phones, you know, I have this headset, and my headset is one of those are not cheap. It's called, I don't know if you've heard of it, Plantronics, Yes, uh huh, right. So that's my headset. It's a Plantronics if it has a mic and all of that. So on this other house that I went to, it was almost the end of theirs as well. So there's a lot of folks trying to, you know, have deals with the buyers that are there. And I was looking, and I saw this Plantronics headset, but this one doesn't have the ear muffs. You know, it's just a small one. It's like a smaller version. But I looked it up, and I was like, Ooh, I can probably use it for myself, if my other one perhaps out right, you know, and it looks like it hasn't been used at all, because it's still on the container, on the sealed container. But I just still want to share because, you know, sometimes they're very good at just re taping it, right? So I asked the lady. I said, Hey, good question. And she's very busy, so she's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no. I said, good question. Have you guys, have you used this before? Have it? Has it been open? He said, No, no, no, I haven't bought that. I haven't used it. I just bought it, and this I did not use I said, Okay, how much are you asking for it? You can have it for it for five. I said, okay, yeah, $5 and I'm like, hey, you know again, if my my headphones that I'm using craps out, I have a $5 replacement that I can use. I went home and I commented and was selling for 200 $25 I know I was like, whoa. I posted it for 225 and I can't remember. I think I died 195

Suzanne Wells:

for that. Okay, so you did not need a backup at that point. No cheaper backup. That's right, yeah, good for you.

Unknown:

My mind. I always think you know, you always keep an open mind, what you see, what you know. I know shoes. That's one thing, because my kids, my my eldest, loves shoes and sneakers. So I know shoes. I know headphones. But besides that, don't ask me about, you know, gaming consoles or games I don't know anything about that I have. I'm sad, not sad, but I'm ashamed to say I have, like, four VHS DVD players, because everybody says to get one, because it sells for big bucks. But have those in my money file that I haven't even processed yet. So, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

you can't get motivated on those. I have stuff like that. Everybody has stuff like that. It's, it's kind of like you pick out what you're drawn to, or or what will sell for the most, and get those listed first, and then you kind of, we all kind of push things aside, like, I gotta list that. I don't really want to. Why did I buy that?

Unknown:

But let me go ahead and buy it. Maybe I'll process it next time. I have a lot of silver rares, I have read and Barton, oh yes, and I have on Ida silver rares. They're hard to find, but I'm but I bought so much because whenever I see one, I will comp it, and I know it will sell. But in my heart, it's too much stuff to to polish, to get ready to take photos of you need a really good backup background for it, so it doesn't, you know, Shine too much and all that.

Suzanne Wells:

And I'm thinking, yeah, those are anything that is reflective or shiny like that is it's a challenge to photograph it, not get your reflection, and to get the light where it's not, you know, causing a glare. It takes a little more time than you would think

Unknown:

take a photo. You have to go on the side so the reflection the photo doesn't show you

Suzanne Wells:

right, exactly. And I think as Oh, I know, as I go along, in my business, I'm always looking for items that are are quick to list, because, you know, yeah, oh, this will sell for $200 but like your antique blanket that that took a lot of work to get it clean enough, and it was so big to figure out how you're going to lay it out to photograph it, that was that was a tough item to start with for A new person once, just

Unknown:

because I don't know how to deal with it. I'm like, and then, you know, finally, when I got the courage to do it, I realized it's big money. I'm like, yes, it's all worth it. In the end,

Suzanne Wells:

yes, absolutely it is worth it. But as you refine this business, especially if you're working a full time job, you don't have all day to do this stuff. You know, you have to figure out what's the fastest to process and photograph. And you know, it's a choice. You know, if you if you want to spend two hours on one item, that's your choice. You can do that or figure out in the future. Okay, yeah, I did sell that, but wow, it took a lot of time and effort.

Unknown:

You know, whatever, those small ones that I don't want to deal with. I have a lot of stuffies, flushies, because I thought, Oh, this looks like it's from the 80s. Ooh. This looks so interesting, you know, interesting slash ugly, maybe people will like it because, you know, ugly cells. So that's what I've heard. But so, oh, I like this one. I like that one. And then I realized it's just too much work for so little money on flush. If you don't really get the good ones, it will just sit and sit and sit. And that's when the beauty of yard sales comes into focus. Is ever since I started selling last year, I've had two garage sales. Mm, hmm. It actually helped me a lot, because the last two garage sales I had, I averaged between 700 to $900 for the stuff that I sell, and it's like stuff that I was just sitting here that I don't want to deal with and, right? And my husband, you know, gets a cut because I give him, you know, his snap money. And my daughter has a cut for manning as well, keeping eyes out so everybody's happy. And I get money.

Suzanne Wells:

Bag to buy more stuff. That's right, you just kind of cycling everything through that revolving door. And I think it's great that you and other sellers have yard sales for your overstock stuff instead of just throwing away or, you know, you can re donate it, but why not try to make a few bucks on it? If you can,

Unknown:

usually we donate stuff that I don't sell on yard sales. Because in my mind, you know, if people don't want to buy it in yard sales, then probably there's just not going to sell at all. So that's when I just we donate them. But I have favorites. I have favorite thrifting stores, you know that I give it back to, like the one that supports the animals or the one that supports rehab centers. I like doing those. I as much as possible, I try not to give it to Goodwill.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, I URI on that. You know,

Unknown:

I will buy from Goodwill, but I will not do any from Goodwill. I'll, you know, give it to some other folks or some other stores that I think has more.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, well, if you're going to buy from Goodwill, you gotta bring your own bag now, so,

Unknown:

oh yes, that's how it's been since I started selling last year. It's okay.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, I know North Carolina was a little head of South Carolina on that. And so now I keep a a folded up IKEA bag in my in my purse, because I always forget to bring my bag. And so I just keep that with me all the time, in case I might happen to drop by goodwill. I have my bag with me because I bought their bags, like four times, and I'm like, okay,

Unknown:

myself, put it inside my truck. Thank you very much, right? Yeah, you know those little IKEA bags? Yeah. So I got, I think I bought, like in Charlotte, when I went to IKEA, I bought, I can't remember, 1012, of them, so, and I felt there's a technique in folding them, so I fold that all of them, and I would have it on the sides of my truck, on the doors, yes, but it's a get up and go, kind of,

Suzanne Wells:

you know, Girl Scout always ready, right? And that you're right there. There is a technique in folding them. You have to, kind of, fold the bottom up into it, and then you fold the sides in, and then you fold the bottom up again, and you get it into this little square, and then you wrap the handles around that, and it's, it's this very compact, you know, very compact little bag. And, yeah, I keep, I bought a bunch of them on eBay, just because I'd had some, and they were, they get kind of gross and crappy over time, but, yeah, I've got like, 10 of them, and I use them for everything, schlepping stuff everywhere.

Unknown:

Yeah, it's perfect. You know, if you're in a thrift shop or in an estate sale and you don't want people to find, you know, to look at your stuff. Well, my stuff that I'm buying, it just settles on the bottom. So nobody really, yeah, I always bring one of those. But anyway, oh, by the way, I wanted to tell this one in case nobody's aware of it. Are you familiar with those types of dressings for wounds, wound dressing, because I'm a nurse, I'm familiar with it. If you want to look it up, it's called Silver cell antimicrobial alginate dressing,

Suzanne Wells:

okay, I've not heard of that,

Unknown:

so I'm familiar with it because my father in law has the wound. He's diabetic, so he has a bond on his leg. And so he's from Scotland as well. So he would have the dressings when he travels here, and you would usually just change it, because I don't mind doing it. So once, when I went to an estate sale here, I found it in the bathroom. It's those silver, silver cell, non adherent, antimicrobial algebra dressing. And there's like, it comes in boxes, and each box has 10 of them. It's just imagine it's like 10 big, humongous band aids. Okay, each box. So I, and I think I saw like 20, 2015, box a little bit. Oh, good, yes. And keep in mind that some dressings as well. When it's if you look for it, they put it in scars, so it lightens up the scars. If you have a deep scar, okay, has hydrocolloid on it. So, so anyway, I decided, Oh, let me pick this up. Let me see because I know I knew it. I knew it was made in the UK. So I'm like, Oh, let me pick this up. And then I started Google lensing it. And then I realized it sells mm. So I figured, let me go ahead and just sell and just buy it. I bought it from the state sale for $1 a box. Oh, good, right? And then I sold each box for $30 each.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, that's a great flip. Good for you. It

Unknown:

is. And that's why I'm thinking myself, maybe I should share this, because I'm, you know, keep, keep your eyes out for bandages or for dressings. Because, you know, if you go to state sales that people have passed, Mm, hmm, these are the ones that are always left and sometimes thrown away. But you can use it for, you know, for your first aid kit at home, you can use it, you know, if, if it's not open, you can resell it. And, you know, it just takes it out of the lab, so it's not a lot of folks are familiar with it, so they're just pass it by.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, I mean the medical supplies, as long as it doesn't have a prescription, anything like the the disposable medical supplies, those are good sellers, because you never know if the person buying them, maybe they don't have insurance, or maybe they just want to get some extras on hand that insurance doesn't pay for that kind of thing. Yeah, the medical supplies new and sealed are, are good sellers.

Unknown:

Yeah, I actually bought again on an estate sale, because I'm familiar with this medical supplies, right? Because I've worked with it, I've seen it, I knew how it was used, but I'm always conscious of the RX sign. Mm, hmm. If there's an RX sign, full stop, don't buy it, because you can't sell it, right? It's prescription only. That's what RX is. Prescription, yes. So I bought this air cushion. You know, those masks for CPAP, but it's just a mask, right, right? So it's not, it doesn't have an area, any RX on it. But I realized when I was trying to, well actually, I got a warning that, even though it doesn't have that eBay, for some reason, doesn't like it, and just gave me a warning. Well, I think

Suzanne Wells:

the issue is the keywords, because the machines are definitely not allowed and some of the supplies are not allowed. And so I think if you have, you know, CPAP in your title, it's just automatically, it's automatically catching that and giving you a warning. I don't think it's a human doing it. It's keyword related. So sometimes you'll find an item and you'll go look up the comps, and like, half of them have that red circle. This listing has been removed for a policy violation. So like some are getting through, but some aren't, I would not sell that item. I would not risk it, because you do too many of those in a certain time frame, and they will close your account.

Unknown:

So, oh, that's true. Just never use the word CPAP. But in any case, I've seen folks that have solved it. I've seen but there's not a lot of it.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, I think you know some kind of get through, but when you see so many listings that are removed for a policy violation. It doesn't tell you what the policy violation is. It doesn't say this item is not allowed, or there's a stock photo, or whatever it is. It doesn't tell you. So we have made it to the end of our interview here. I really appreciate you reaching out and wanting to come on the podcast and share what are you up to this afternoon,

Unknown:

I'm going to be working in 20

Suzanne Wells:

minutes, working at your nurse job or eBay. Yes, okay, okay, great. Well, then, yeah, we better get off here and let you go so you can do your real job.

Unknown:

I like it. It makes me happy, and I think it equalizes me, because nursing is not easy. No, it's stressful. It is stressful, whether you're on the phone or you're in front of a patient, or, you know, wherever you're located, nursing, full stop is dealing with patients and their concerns and their worries, and it's just this is distressing for me. I like it.

Suzanne Wells:

I'm kind of saying that jokingly about your real job, because people, people who don't get eBay and don't understand it, you know, we know it's a real job, but they'll say, Well, what's your real job? So anyway, there's that. So okay, well, I will let you go and take on your day, and you are doing outstanding as a beginner, and just keep doing what you're doing, and you'll get your husband on board

Unknown:

soon enough, hopefully. Thanks so much. It was nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Suzanne, have a great day. You, too. Bye.

Suzanne Wells:

You. On next week, my guest is the famous Casey Paris, also known as rock star flipper on YouTube. He has been reselling most of his life, and you may be familiar with his YouTube channel, which he started in 2014 we had a great conversation about the evolution of eBay and reselling and the early days of eBay, and how his business has grown and changed over the years. So make sure you catch that episode up close and personal with the rock star flipper. Thank you all for supporting this podcast, and I want to remind you again, there's always an open casting call for guests from all walks of life and all reselling levels to join me on the show. Don't hesitate to reach out to me if you would like more information. Keep working hard and stay positive. Talk to you next week. Bye, everybody you.