eBay the Right Way

eBay Seller Chat with Craig in Missouri: Lifelong Reseller Learning eBay - “I Have No Shame!” 🫢

• Suzanne A. Wells • Episode 236

Share episode
Suzanne Wells:

The lovely people out there in podcast land. I'm Suzanne, and this is episode number 236, of eBay the right way. Today's date is September 24 2025 my guest is Craig in Missouri. He has a lot to say, so we will jump right in. And I have Craig with us today. And where are you located?

Unknown:

Craig? So good morning. Suzanne, I am located in Saint Louis, Missouri. I'm in the like the western suburbs. So great thrifting and garage sale and sourcing territory, yes.

Suzanne Wells:

And I went to that giant goodwill outlet in is it Bridgeton?

Unknown:

Oh, yes, the Bridgeton goodwill bins, yeah, that's, that's, that is a treat

Suzanne Wells:

there. Okay, are you being sarcastic? Uh, yes.

Unknown:

And no, you know, I mean, it's, it's, I certainly am not a stranger to it, but it's not my it's not my favorite place on earth.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, that was my first goodwill Ben's experience. And so they change the stuff out twice a day, like completely clear the floor and change everything out. And then behind that building are so many goodwill like tractor trailers, just full of stuff. It was quite an experience.

Unknown:

It used to be a huge electronic store, and it's, you know, I'm more of a friendly Thrifter, I guess I would say, you know, I like to talk to the people and get to know more about the items. And, you know, there, you know, you've got people running and jumping over carts and bins, and, you know, I call them the clothes horses, you know where they're

Suzanne Wells:

over there, like Olympic sport, it seems like,

Unknown:

Yeah, you can't be afraid to be shoulder to shoulder, for sure.

Suzanne Wells:

And I'm like, You. I prefer a more peaceful Zen, like shopping experience, where things are organized and I can skip the parts I don't want to shop, and that's just me. It's kind of my break from the computer to just zone out and look through things so I am not athletically prepared for the bins when they're like that, but I'm glad I went to see what it's all about. So anyway, well, let's talk about what brought you to eBay and when that was

Unknown:

sure. So I'm fairly new to Ebay. I I, I've had three or four accounts throughout, you know, the last 20 years to mainly buy things, you know, baseball tickets or whatever. And I, but I've always been a, you know, a Thrifter or, you know, I've loved garage sales even before they were cool, you know, I when you go with your hat and mustache, nobody see you there, right? You know, right? I was there. And so, and that came from like my mom and her sisters, my aunt Terry and Aunt dot. I mean that even when I was a little kid, we would go to garage sales and look for toys. A funny story is, when my wife and I were were like dating, we went to the Missouri history museum, and they had a toys through the decades display, and we're both about the same age, and she's looking at all her toys from the 1980s and I'm like, where are my toys? And all of a sudden I look and, well, my toys are in the 70s, because they all came from garage sales. So, so, you know, I just kind of grown up with it. And then I got a job out of college, and I was always getting up early, and so I had nothing to do on Saturday mornings, you know, you know, my I was certainly wouldn't call any buddies because I'd woke them up. So I still went to yard sales, and I've always had a good eye for stuff, you know, I'd be like, Oh, that's worth a lot of money, or that's cool. And so I started collecting those things. And, you know, filled up garage and, you know, my area, the house in the basement, or whatever have you. And then about seven or eight years ago, my mom retired, and I said, Hey, Mom, you should do one of those vintage antique booths, you know, you'd be really good at it, you know? And well, she never really got around to it. And I always said, Well, I'm going to do that when I retire. And then it just sounded so fun, I just went ahead and did it. And so I started this one booth, and, well, one booth turned into two booths, and then I I never gave those up. And then I got a big one up front, and then now I have a double big one up front. So I'm like, all in on this vintage hobby, but I've got these, these items that, you know, I see at these same places, I'm going to find these vintage things that I know will sell, but they're not going to sell. My vintage booth, and then in my vintage booth. There's, like, there's, I'll call them psychological price points. So like, if I've asked something, I know it's worth $30 I'm not going to get that there, because people psychologically just don't want to pay more than that$20 same thing with $50 and same thing with $100 so I've started accumulating those items, and I've been moving them over to eBay. And I gotta be honest with you, I am just shocked with the success I'm having with it. So that's

Suzanne Wells:

such a bigger audience, right? Oh, your antique booth is whoever happens to walk by, right? And of that, whoever walks by that stops and looks so you've got all the search features on eBay of buyers looking for that exact item, and are you shipping

Unknown:

internationally? Absolutely, yeah, I think I've only had one international sale, which is surprised me based on listening to your podcast. But I'm looking for more. I'm certainly open to it, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

well, as long as you've got that set up and you're you're findable. And so your one sale, you printed the label and you shipped it off. And no big deal. Nothing complicated.

Unknown:

No, honestly, I wouldn't even known it unless I would have looked at the screen and seen it was shipping to France as a Coca Cola backpack, of all things.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, really. Okay, all right. Well, you you have jumped in with both feet, so that is great. Now, you mentioned your wife. Does she participate in this

Unknown:

only, only when she wants to. She, she, she tolerates the you know, we, you know, we're we have a large garage, so like my side is filled up with all my little treasures, and my car has to stay outside, and it can't migrate over to her side. And then, you know, here in the Midwest, we, you know, we, you can have big basements in your house. So I, you know, we have a guest room in the basement, and that kind of doubles as my eBay room. And then there, there's like a basement storage area. So as long as I keep my things to those three areas, you know, things will be harmonious,

Suzanne Wells:

right, right? Yeah, you gotta work around it. Does she like to help find things to sell?

Unknown:

She does. Yeah, she so she doesn't care to get up early and go to the yard sales on Saturday with me, but she'll go to estate sales, and then she'll also go to she is the she likes the bins. I I joke with her because it's like, said, I've kind of said it's not really my favorite. But usually when we go, it's because she wants to go. And then what I call her the vice president of Ben's acquisitions for our little enterprise here, because she finds the coolest stuff.

Suzanne Wells:

So well, it's good to have another person, another pair of hands out there, especially another mind. Does she get credit when something she finds, sells,

Unknown:

Oh, absolutely, 100% gets the credit and takes it. It's, I'm trying to think of a couple of things. I got a great one for you. So it was this wood box, and it was, it had like a little handle across the top of it. And I thought it was something you'd hang on a wall. I'm like, What is this? She goes, it looks like it's antique. So of course, we had Google lens. What it was, it was a like, I would almost say, primitive. It was a grain scoop, like from the grain stores. It had been repaired and had patina on it. And when I looked it up on eBay, I was like, wow. So I put it out there for $65 and got a best offer of 52 and I'm like, for something I picked out of the bins, absolutely, I'll

Suzanne Wells:

take that off. And didn't even know what it was,

Unknown:

yeah, right, right, but, but she has that eye for that type. She has a good eye for the bins. You know?

Suzanne Wells:

Well, I found that any items from the grain elevator companies or the seed companies, like the feed sacks, the sacks, the I did some thermometers. Oh, wow. From, you know, these companies that don't exist anymore, or they're named something different. Those are highly collectible. And the John Deere stuff, if it is true, vintage and not a recent reproduction, that does well. You already know all that you're, you're, are you Midwest your whole life?

Unknown:

Yes, yeah. I was born in St Louis. We did when I was a kid. We did a stint in Florida, and I go to Florida quite often. But yeah, we're, I definitely, you know, John Deere farm, all international, yeah, we see them all the

Suzanne Wells:

time, yeah. So any that farming stuff, grain stuff is, is collectible, and, oh, and the milk bottles, the little dairies that don't exist anymore that were family owned. Some of those I sold went back to the original family, like the last name was the same, really, so, and I found that the, I guess it's a half pint creamer size, with just cream in it. Those were more highly sought after than the bigger milk bottles the gallon, I guess, because they're smaller and easier to display and there weren't as many of them, right? I sold some of those cream size bottles with a. Name on it for$100 I couldn't believe. Oh, wow. Yeah. So all that collectible stuff out there is highly profitable. Do you have anything like that in your antique booth?

Unknown:

I do, yeah, I sell. Whenever I pick up the ones from, you know, the local communities, I'll put them in there. I've never, I've never had, like, a fantastic score on those, just because I think they're so, you know, they're, they're so common around here, but I've just added that to my, my, my Suzanne list of things I should be looking for. Well, here's the

Suzanne Wells:

thing is, you know, maybe it was Edwards dairy, and it was 5075, years ago, and now it doesn't exist anymore. But the family has moved, you know, they're, they're in Washington state, or, you know, they're scattered all around, right? So they may be looking for that online, because they're not at these garage sales. They don't live out there anymore.

Unknown:

Yeah, I that's what I should probably do, is move them online. I never, you know,

Suzanne Wells:

try it. You have nothing to lose. Even the bigger ones aren't that hard to ship, right? It's just bubble wrap in a big box. So that was an education. Okay. Well, do you want to talk about some other things you've sold, either on eBay or from your booth? Sure.

Unknown:

Yeah. So I made, I made a, I made a list here. So great. So some really fun things I can think of is, so I picked up a this was a grind. I'll try to remember where I found them each. This was a garage sale, fine. So it was one of those 1980s Barbie Dream House pools. Uh huh. I like big, right? And it was $5 and it had almost all the accessories. And so I have no shame. I'll buy Barbie. I'll buy whatever, you know. And I always joke and have fun with the folks too. I'll be like, you're gonna you're gonna laugh at this guy that came in and bought this Barbie stuff, aren't you, you know, as I'm leaving, but I bought that and just just dove right in. I'm like, I'm like, I didn't go, Well, how do I ship it? How do I do this? I'm like, You know what? I'm gonna put it up there for $75 and if somebody actually pays me that for it, I'm gonna figure out how to ship it. So that's what I did. And it took about a month, and that thing sold. And then I'm like, Oh, boy. Now what do I do? You know, right? So I put it in like a U haul size moving box, but I had to take it apart. And as I was taking it apart, I think this would be some good advice for anybody else that's selling something weird like this. I'm like, Okay, this is, like, 10 different things. So I took some painters tape, and I just labeled each thing. I'm like, Okay, this is, this is item A, and Item A goes here on the platform, and Item b, etcetera. And I got some great feedback from the buyer on that, too. So that was a fun thing that I found. Oh, well,

Suzanne Wells:

I have a little story about that pool I have to throw this in. I think I told it before, but we're on, like, 240 on the podcast. So, oh, I need to catch up. Maybe nobody heard it yet, but I had a my good friend, Jennifer, down the street from me when I was growing up. She was the only girl. I was one of three girls, but so as the only girl, she got all the great toys and nobody destroyed them. She didn't have a little sister that broke all her stuff. She got the pool, she had the camper and the plane and all the things. So we're out there in the driveway with our Barbies playing in the swimming, them in the pool and stuff, and we didn't have bathing suits for them. We just put them in there naked, sure. So her mom comes out, and she was a very modest lady, and she was horrified that we were letting our Barbie swim naked. And so she ran in the house and she got some gauze and she made little bathing

Unknown:

suits. Oh, no,

Suzanne Wells:

so that we could be, you know, proper little southern girls, right? And our our Barbies had bathing suits. So every time I hear about that Barbie pool, I go back to that memory. Well, later that day, we said, Oh, heck, who cares? And we went over to the creek and we put the Barbies in the creek. We that was back in the probably 70s, you know, when kids played outside all the time, right? There's and we, we had a blast with those Barbies swimming, yeah, but that she still has all that stuff. I cannot walk her into letting me buy it from her. No, she still got all of it. And we met for lunch a couple years ago, and she brought it just, just to dangle that in front

Unknown:

of my oh my gosh,

Suzanne Wells:

and say I still have the plane, I still have the the camper and all the things, and she's not letting go of it, and she doesn't have any daughters. She has. I don't know if she's waiting for grandchildren or what, but yeah, is a highly coveted Barbie collection there that she's not letting go

Unknown:

of, yeah, and so much of that stuff ends up in just in goodwill, I know,

Suzanne Wells:

and gets trashed. I hate that. So anyway, on to your next item.

Unknown:

Let's see here. Okay, so I'm gonna tell, like, a long form story here. So this is I did a private pick, and I get those I should talk to talk about that a little bit. So I stole the idea. That one of your guests had about the business cards, because, well,

Suzanne Wells:

I think George County introduced that idea, but a lot of it, I think Carlos the mailman does it. Okay? A lot of people have those cards. So you didn't steal anything. You just joined the tribe, right?

Unknown:

I can't recommend that enough, because I talked to the people anyway. I'm very friendly and and, you know, I want to know about their things, and because, you know, I'm there competing for the stuff they've got on their driveway. But what about the stuff and all the other rooms of the house and the basement and the storage shed and the attic and everything else, right? So I leave behind those business cards, and I also get leads from my vintage mall too. So people will come in and, hey, do you buy this stuff? And I've, I've talked to the the the ladies up front, and they'll usually refer me as well with my card. So I get these calls routinely. And I had a lady that who's, she's been maintaining her her mom's condo. She passed away for years, and, like, everything's still in there, and she's trying to sell stuff. So I went over there and just started buying things from her, like, one at a time. And she was wanting to sell, of course, all the, you know, the the glassware and the stuff that, you know, it just doesn't sell anymore, you know, because everyone is trying to get rid of that stuff now, right? So she was kind of disappointed. And I said, Hey, if you'll let me, like, go, like, let's go to the basement. Let's go to the garage and look for some of that stuff, you know, and there's stuff that she didn't even think of. So there was a, like, the TV show flipper from I was back in the 70s or 60s, of course. Yeah, it was the dolphin. Yes, right. There was a metal lunch box down there, and the basement, just like, stuck up in the rafters, because I, my eye looks in those places, and I pulled it down, and she everything, you know, she she was very attached to something, something she wasn't. So it's hard to tell, right? So we pulled this lunch box down, and is, I was like, you know, hey, how much do you want for this, you know? And she said, Oh, $5 and I said, How about $10 you know? Because, I mean, it

Suzanne Wells:

was a premium. Well, you could probably get about 300 for it, right?

Unknown:

Yeah, I undersold it, you know, I think I sold it for about $78 didn't have the thermos.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, well, some of those older ones can go for 250,

Unknown:

300 right? Yeah. Well, I learned, so I sold that one. Of course, it sold in like, two or three hours. And I said, alright, and, and I comped it, you know, I looked for solds and looked at condition and stuff. So we're going to fast forward a couple weeks. I'm at another estate sale. This is like a hoarder house, and I find a grocery bag like, you know, wadded up or whatever, and inside there is a brand new Charlie's Angels lunch box. The thermos still has the wrapping around it, so it has thermos. So I comp that one, and I listed that one for $250 okay? And, you know, I got several offers, you know, you had the low ballers come, oh, $100 you know, I'm like, see you later, Charlie, you know, that sort of stuff. And then I had several people like, offering me, you know, 180 190 then all of a sudden, I got an offer from the same person that bought the flipper lunchbox for $220 Oh, really. And I'm like, Hey, repeat customer, that's pretty close to what I'm asking for. I haven't even owned this thing for more than eight hours. Let's sell that too. Okay, so I sold that lunch box. So I those metal lunch boxes. You know, if you can find them, they're, they're obviously highly valuable. Um, I did another, this a garage sale. So this is a day where this was back in the spring, and, you know, I hadn't hardly found any and I was about ready to quit, honestly, and I stumbled upon an unadvertised subdivision sale, which is my favorite in the world, right? Yes, the realtors, you know, though, they, they tend to sponsor those, and some of them do a really good job of getting the word out, and some of them not so much. So I love pulling up all these people have taken all this time to bring all bring all this stuff out, and nobody came, right, you know? So I came up on this one as all kinds of beer stuff. It's right up my alley. That's kind of how I started with the vintage booths. And I feel like I'm doing so well, because everyone else is there, you know, they people drag their boyfriends and their husbands there, and then they're like, Oh, look at all this great man stuff this booth has, you know. So it was all kinds of beer stuff. So I just started making a pile. And I finally, I was just like, I almost want it all. How much is all of it, you know? And of course, she was, you know, the lady didn't want to name a price, because she really didn't know, you know. And I said, Well, I said, How about $100 you know? And she was like, Well, I, was more hoping for 150 and I'm like, Well, okay, and then she goes in the house and pulls out another piece she hadn't put out yet. I'm like, Yes, I'll give you 150 Well, inside this lot, you know, I'm still selling some of it, there was four, like, Ziploc bags, and in each bag was a oven mitt, a chef's hat and an apron for hams beer with the polar bear on it. So I couldn't really find a comp on this. And as I've learned, I probably should have put up for auction, but I put them out there. I think the first one I put out for like, 2025 or $29 or something, and it sold in a couple hours. I'm like, well, screwed that up. So I did $39 then I got. I got some like offers coming through, but before I could even look at those offers, because I sat on for a minute, I people bought it at $39 so I put the next ones out of $49 and they sold. So I made my entire money back on this lot, which basically filled my car on those four Ziploc bags.

Suzanne Wells:

Don't you love it when you find multiples of things? Yeah, do you think those were some kind of promotional item?

Unknown:

I do, and the unique part about it, you were talking about the the dairy places earlier. So a lot of these beers, which, you know, hams, is still around, but a lot of the ones that aren't around anymore are very regional. Every one of those hams beer aprons shipped to Minnesota, but different people? Yeah, so I get it. It's based up in that area, I suppose. But yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

okay, who knows? You just never know if your stuff's going to a museum or to be on display. Or I've had college students buy things because they were doing a project. One girl bought some empty perfume bottles because she was doing some kind of project, and you just never know what they're going to use it for,

Unknown:

right, right? No, it's, let's see here. Okay, so this is a fun one. So I also will participate in online auctions. I've heard you talk a little

Suzanne Wells:

bit about, yes, they're very fun. Yeah, it's I

Unknown:

there. It's hard to find a bargain sometimes. And I never get my hopes up, like, Oh, I really want that. Lot of you know, Smurfs or Fisher Price or whatever. But I when I do win something, that's when I really sit down and I go, all right? And I start, I call it cherry picking, right? So I'll go through and I'll be like, Oh, wow, this, that sunbeam mixer and avocado green is only $3 and nobody's bidding on it. I'm going to pick that and pick this, and, you know, because I'm going to make it worth my time too, which is, you know, something that is important to me, you know, having a regular job, it's like, I got to make it worth my time, you know, I can't be going out and picking up a lot of and

Suzanne Wells:

that's what people don't realize is, is how time consuming the online auctions are. It's the same as going estate sailing all day, because you've gotta find something at a price and figure out what your maximum bid is going to be, and look at the buyer's premium. How much extra are they going to charge you? And do you go pick up your stuff locally, or do you have it shipped to you? I've only done locals so far. Okay, so there's just nothing good around me, so I'm doing more having it shipped to me. So I gotta factor in, and I I can estimate the shipping based on the item pretty good. So I get outbid 75% of the time, right? Just because it doesn't make sense to buy it at too high of a price. So you've done all this work and you don't end up with much. It's just like if you went to the thrift store and you spent two hours in there and you didn't end up with much, it's still time consuming, right? The bonus is that you can do it 24 hours a day, you know, if you're, if you're up with some insomnia, 2am you could, you could jump on there and look through stuff and bookmark it. And I like to bid, or I like to figure it all out. You know, days in advance, I don't, I'm not one of those last minute. Oh, what about this? And I just start bidding because I got to do the numbers that I'm not paying too much. And I had to learn a lot on that one because, oh, I really want that thing that I've been looking for that forever. And here it is. And yeah, I paid too much for it. Yeah, I like, Hey, I had the experience. I sold it. It's out of my system. I can move on to other things, but yeah, and then sometimes the pictures are terrible. Oh, zoom in, and you gotta be real careful buying clothing, because they don't often show all views or they, I don't know if they intentionally hide flaws or if they just have bad lighting and they don't see it. But note to the listeners, don't buy anything white online auction, because there's gonna be something wrong with it in most cases.

Unknown:

Yeah, for sure. So at this auction, I bought this Sunbeam mixture among other things, you know, I think I end up spending $150 or whatever, and got a whole, you know, whole you know, whole back of a car load. And so I tested it in Compton. I'm like, Okay, it's running. It's, you know, this can be 45 $50 on eBay, right? And I paid $3 so I get the listing already and everything ready to go on it. And I said, I'm gonna start this one more time. And it burned up. So I'm glad it did that rather than right after the buyer got it, right, you know?

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, you tested it and it, it went completely.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah. At first it was working great. And then it, you know, but then it's 50 years old. But I love to tell the story, because you. Know, you always gotta have a plan B, right? So I'm, you know, I'm ready to haul it out to the dump. And I'm like, alright, what can I harvest off this thing that somebody might want? Right? So there's these two glass baked bowls that came with it, right? That were the original bowls. And I'm like, I bet those have some value. So I put them aside, and then it came with, like, they had the back then they they had a universal cord, right? So you could leave the cord plugged in on your counter, and you could plug your mixer in or your blender. Okay, yeah. So I'm like, Okay, I have this cord, you know, the rest of the stuff, I'm like, Ah, the mixers, that was our dime a dozen. So the rest of it, you know, went to the recycle bin, right? So within 30 days, I sold the bowls for $30 just list price, and then I sold the cord for $13 so I still made $40 off a broken avocado greens.

Suzanne Wells:

I love that. Yeah, I love that. Just before you throw it out, think about, hmm, what? How could I salvage some of this is not a complete loss, sure.

Unknown:

Here's another one. So I do routinely move items between the booths, my vintage booths, and my my my eBay here in the last several months, it's I sell a lot of volume through the vintage booths. Like I am not a museum booth, I am a sales booth. Okay, if it doesn't sell in 60 days, it gets marked down. If it doesn't sell in 90 days, I'm practically give it away. If it don't sell after that, I give it away or or put it on eBay now and see what, see what the word is there. But I had this. Had it all last year in there. It was a Halloween like, one of them plastic novelty boxes, and it had these little, like cords wires coming out of it. And if you pulled the lever on it, like, think of like a circuit breaker, these wires would go crazy and go all over the place. And I mean it, I'd seen it sell for 4050, $60 on eBay, and I couldn't even get $25 at the booth for it. Why put that out there back in August, and I put it out for $55 and I got an offer of $48 on it. And I'm like, Hey, we're going to take that, yeah, uh huh. And then it was a garage sale find. I mean, you know, you I probably paid $1 for it. And I don't even, I didn't know if it worked till I put batteries in it, you know. So that was a fun one.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, they, yeah, there's such a difference in the number of customers on eBay, right? So it's great to see that stuff just flies out of there for you.

Unknown:

So this is and that's why, that's why, when you invited me to do the podcast this next story, I'm like, I have to do this, because I've learned so much from listening to these other sellers and the things that Suzanne has talked about. So you introduced me to the word ephemera, you know, several months ago, and at the same estate sale that I pulled the Charlie's Angels lunch box, I found a bunch of really old fun like sports related like programs, and one of them was a 1943 University of Missouri Mizzou Tigers program against the Nebraska Cornhuskers and advertised the big six, which that hasn't been around for years. And it was really cool, because, you know, you know about kind of a history buff. So inside the program, or on the cover of the program, the they had like an Uncle Sam looking character, and he had the big top hat. And inside the top hat were like World War Two planes flying through it. Oh, and I'm like, Okay, this is, this is an eBay auction item all day long. So I put it up there. I put keywords like World War Two and Mizzou and Nebraska Cornhuskers and big six. And it was so funny, because it started off, you know, them, auctions start nothing well, like five days in on like a Saturday, it went nuts, and it went all the way to$39 so I'm like, oh, right, this, you know, I mean, I bought it in a lot of stuff. I probably don't even have 25 cents into it, right? And I said, this thing is going to go crazy. Well, I guess that bidder that branded up to $39 knew what they were doing, because they pushed all the other bidders out, and I never got another bid. Okay, okay, 25 cents into $39 for a magazine or program or whatever you want to call it, I'll take that. I can do that every day. I'm good with that.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, and that's the thing with ephemera, is you may have a photo album or, you know, some kind of book where you can take it apart. You can take photos out of the photo album, or, you know, a lot of postcards, and just cherry pick the ones that you think will do well. That artist sketchbook I bought, I've sold several sketches now, it's a little slow to move which most ephemera is, yeah, but I think I paid $50 for that whole book, and the first item that sold went for $50 so it's all just gravy now. And I thought, oh, people might want to frame these and hang them on the wall. And the last one I sold was of a Stetson hat. It was a drawing like an advertisement. This was a an art student. And this was all of his, like, case studies and practice work, and it went to Jackson, hole Wyoming, and I'm just dying to know, like, what they do with it? Is this in a restaurant? Is this in a bar? Is this in a men's clothing store? Like, what to do with this? You know, just like your your top hat, you know, what they do with that? Are they displaying it? Are they just putting it in their collection? I'm just curious that way, like, what? Yeah, I

Unknown:

need, I should probably follow up with some buyers. You know, time is of the essence for that. But I do know it went to Nebraska. So obviously, there's only two. You know, there's either going to be a Nebraska fan or a Mizzou fan, I figured. So, probably an alumnus or something. But I did. I learned this from your podcast too. I did, like, take pictures of every single page that had a person on it, because I figured if anybody knew that person, I want them to buy this program.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, you never know. And if I don't know if the pictures had last names or they did, they did football players, I know there's a lot of people out there looking for doing their genealogy, looking for family history, and there's so many photos out there with no information. So I think there's some kind of program you can put a person's face in, and it tries to identify them. There's a site called Find A Grave, and I sold some Oh letters from this lady named Zelma fender. And forget where she was from, but apparently she was, she had a goiter and she was in the hospital. Those were all these letters and get well cards. I mean, this was back in the 40s, and it was, I got it for like$10 at an estate sale, just a whole bunch of these letters, and I just put them all together just to see what would happen. And they sold for $60 but I did go to Find A Grave and found her picture, and I put that in my listing. Oh, cool. You know, here she is. In case it was family looking for I did ask the buyer, you know, is this a family member? Do you have? Are you doing genealogy? I didn't get an answer. I think a lot of buyers don't know they're getting messaged, right? They don't know that little red dot there means they have a message. So, yeah, we all know what that red dot means. Don't think they're intentionally not answering. I think they just don't know. But, yeah, that was really interesting to like, I wanted to see who's this lady, because I'm reading all these letters about her health condition and in and out of the hospital. So I think just somebody who collected ephemera bought the letters, and they were from the 40s, and, you know, they had the postmark on the envelope, and it was like, I think it was pre war, so that kind of stuff is valuable. Cool.

Unknown:

Okay, so this is a fun one. So this is a garage sale story. And I had, I had my daughter with me. Every now and again, she'll, she likes to get up early and come out with me. And I think my nephew came to and it was a subdivision sale. And I, you know, I plan these out like, I, you know, I, I sort my garage sales out by zip code. And, you know, I there's certain areas I like to go to and I like to get, you know, I don't particularly care to be like the person that's there at like, 630 in the morning, like, as their garage door comes up. I think that's a bit obnoxious. But five minutes before it starts, yeah, I'm there, right? So I like to get back in the subdivision. So this one garage sale, they had all kinds of Flamingo stuff. So I started buying a bunch of this stuff and and there was two department 56 like Christmas buildings. And I'm learning, right? And I had no idea what they were, they were 750 and I thought, well, certainly these can sell for, you know, 20, 3040, $50 right? So I picked those up. And then my daughter brings over this little, like, little pink little wallet type thing with the flamingo on it. And she's like, Hey, Dad, I want to buy, this is $3 is that okay? I'm like, yeah, yeah, go ahead. You know, that's, you know, it was 10. Probably told her, No, you know. So we buy these things, and we head out to the car, and all of a sudden, I hear the two of them, because I've kind of taught them how to look things up. They're back there just talking and talking. I'm like, What are you guys talking about? And they're like, Hey, Dad, this, this wallet has a tag in it that says $135 I'm like, really? And so it was a Kate Spade wallet. Okay, call, I guess it's a discontinued pattern called flamingos by the pool, and we pick this right in May. So perfect timing, so, and it made, it made my heart so proud. My daughter goes, Hey, Dad, you think we can sell this?

Suzanne Wells:

You like, I thought you never asked, right? And I'm like, absolutely.

Unknown:

So she's like, but now I paid for it, so I get the money. And I'm like, Well, of course you do, yeah. So I listed this wallet, you know, her, and I looked through it, I kind of taught her, you know, you know, she first she wanted to sell for 135 I'm like, No, you don't sell stuff for what the tag says, you know. And I taught her how to look up what stuff sells for, and that we agreed for 7999 and within a couple. Couple weeks, I got an offer for $70 so when she got home from school, I said, hey, somebody wants to give you$70 for your $3 wallet. Do you want it? And she was like, of course. So I took that and that was, you should have seen the look in her face as I was fanning out the 55 or 58 or whatever, dollars her profit was on it into her hand. How old is she 12? Okay, yeah, so she's

Suzanne Wells:

catching her at the right time to get her interested in reselling.

Unknown:

Yes, she is definitely. She won't get up every Saturday morning, but every now and again, she's like, Hey, Dad, can I come and see if I can find anything well? But she

Suzanne Wells:

knows it works, yes. So, like, my kids were six and eight when I started doing eBay all the time, and they, you know, it's whatever you grow up with. You're like, Yeah, everybody, everybody's mom does this. It's not a big deal, you know, like Reese Witherspoon says my daughter thought every mom was an actress. So my kids didn't really get interested until they needed money. As teenagers, they wanted to go to movies with their friends, or they started driving. Oh, okay. And then they got really interested in huh? I can pick things. I can go to garage sales. I can, I don't have to be at a job at a certain time. I mean, they had jobs too, but this was a great side gig that they finally the light bulb came on when they needed money. So daughters right on the cusp of that, yeah, she's,

Unknown:

she's definitely gonna, she's definitely gonna do really good with it. I think it's, it's, I call it my hobby. You know, what I, what I, what I do here on Saturday mornings. But this grad sale, I still had those two department, 56 so once I started looking those up, I'm like, and this is where eBay has really taken, you know, this quote, unquote hobby to the next level. For me, these had solds of $200 on them. And I'm like, wow. So I listed them, and I, you know, they're, you know, as I've learned, they were discontinued. They were in great shape. One was called the flamingo club, and it was in like, Art Deco style, which I recognized from my trips to Florida. I've been to Miami and, you know, know that architecture. And so that one sold for $200 and then the other one was, like, one of those, like, metal trailer, travel trailer type things with like, an addition built off of it, and it was just kitschy. And that one, I got an offer after as probably about two months, I got an offer of $150 and I'm like, I could maybe wait till Christmas, but no, I'm good. I'll take $150

Suzanne Wells:

me too. Now, were they in the boxes and everything

Unknown:

in the boxes with the styrofoam? You couldn't have asked for a better find

Suzanne Wells:

so easy to ship. And was the trailer? Was it like an

Unknown:

Airstream, I wouldn't say an Airstream that style, but it was, it was bigger. It was bigger. It wasn't like, you know, because we're used to those Christmas decorations that have the traditional Airstream trailer. This was more of like a, like a travel trailer that somebody parked by a lake and built additions off and they live in it. Now it was, it was very, very kitschy.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, that department, 56 can be really profitable. It just depends on how many of them there are. There's some from the vacation movies the holiday What is it the holiday vacation movies? There's some of those that are really valuable because there weren't many made. It was a you limited edition and all that. So some of the sellers in the group are really knowledgeable about department 56 and to me, it all looks the same.

Unknown:

It does to me too, honestly, but yeah, I happen to, I happen to get lucky with these. I think

Suzanne Wells:

I helped set up an estate sale one time that it was a department 56 collector, and it was, it was just tables and tables of stuff in the basement. And I thought, Oh, I could buy some of this. And I started researching it. And it's like, this is going to take is gonna take forever. You kind of just have to know or be able to identify the limited edition ones for the best price. But, and then they wouldn't let me buy them anyway, because I was a worker at the estate sale, so,

Unknown:

oh, I could never do that. I get fired. I get fired. This is

Suzanne Wells:

terrible, you know, people in to buy it for me, yeah. Well, stop. Then I should have done something like that. But anyway, so, yeah, I get the the flamingo garage sale turned out really well for you.

Unknown:

Oh yeah, it's like, all my friends and, you know, my buddies, like, what is wrong with you? Why would you get up early on a Saturday morning and do this? I'm like, where can you go for a couple hours and spend, what do we spend 15 plus $18 and turn it into $450 you know what's wrong with you? Is what I say.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, that's what I thought when I first started back in 2003 I'm like, I can't tell people what I'm doing. Everyone's going to want to do this, right? They're all going to. Be at these sales and in these thrift stores, I can tell people, and then I kind of got more comfortable with it, and people knew what I was doing, and I don't know. 95% of them, that's too much work, right? Too complicated. That's too confusing. I don't, I don't, I wouldn't know how to ship anything, just all the reasons you hear. And I'm like, Hey, this is an opportunity. I see it as a huge opportunity with endless potential.

Unknown:

Sure, you and you have to have an eye for it. Not everybody has that eye. Not everybody walks into that garage sale. They see those flamingos, and I think, look at that junk, you know? They don't. They don't realize that, you know. I mean, that's, that's why the stuff is out there in the first place. So it's, you know, if you have the eye, you should definitely be doing this one well.

Suzanne Wells:

And, and there's that quote we hear from people who aren't resellers, who would want that right? And I'm in my head, I'm like, oh, somebody who lived in Florida, somebody this, somebody that you know, and I'm just thinking about all the people that would want it right, and all the possibilities. And the non resellers are like, I don't know why anybody want that. I was like, Oh, that's okay. You don't have to know.

Unknown:

Yeah, right, right, yeah, here's a fun Ben. Ben's one for you. So you always see the bowling ball bags in there, right? With the bowling balls in them, and they, you know, they shoot, they run away. 15 pounds, yeah, that would cost you 30,$35 there, right? Well, okay, I dumped the bowling balls out of the bags that have the really unique logos on them, and like, at the bins, right? It just fell out. I didn't touch it. I promise you, I

Suzanne Wells:

was just like this, and person in front of you could have taken it out to look at the ball and they didn't want it, yeah,

Unknown:

yeah. You know, it's, it's all garbage anyway. You know, I'm not, I'm not going to buy it otherwise. So I take them bags, and then, you know, I mean, bowl, bowling is, you know, it's a pastime. But people that do it, they're very nostalgic about it, and if they still do it, they probably do it because their dad and their grandma or whatever did it, and they like buying those bags. So I always get, you know, between 15 and $25 for those bowling bags without the balls from the ovens.

Suzanne Wells:

Good for you.

Unknown:

Let's see here. Here's a fun one. So this was a garage sale in Florida. I go to Florida three or four times a year. My aunt Terry, who I referenced earlier, she lives down there. They live down there their whole life. So there's, you know, we, I call it a sourcing trip, right, right, right? Those airline tickets off, yeah. And you know the, you know, your bags fly free on Southwest, if you're a priority, a or whatever member. So I make sure to keep that status so I can check all those bags and carry em on. And we found at a garage sale down there. This 1958 White Hall, patriotic Eagle, beautiful. Had you know was it was painted in the it was like, What do you want? Cast iron? And it was painted, not even a chip or whatever on it. And it was one of those garage sales where everything was in boxes, and you had to hold it up and ask, how much it's far which I love those, by the way, right? Opportunity there, right? I pull it out, and I go, Hey, how much is this? Is this this eagle, this American Eagle thing, you know? And they're like, oh, $1 you know? And so I listed that for $100 and took a best offer of $78 on it.

Suzanne Wells:

And so it was cast iron. So How heavy was it?

Unknown:

It weighed about it wasn't very heavy because it was hollowed out in the back, right? Okay, so I'd say it weighed about three or four pounds. Okay, not bad. So I think I shipped it for, you know, just, just over $10

Suzanne Wells:

well, in shipping cast iron, you know, it's not going to break right, unless it's rusty and, like, breaks apart. But you wouldn't sell something like that. Anyway, yeah, that on the online auctions I'll be looking at, oh, that's a cool thing, cast iron. That's going to be too heavy to ship to me, right? Unless it's something small, but anything like, of course, the cookware, the skillets, the door stops, the bookends, all the stuff, cast iron. I have no problem shipping it. It's just getting it to me is going to be too expensive.

Unknown:

Yeah, you just mentioned a skillet. It got me thinking of another story. So I almost quit eBay before I even started. Susan, so, you know it's, I've had, I've had about 200 or so sales. And I've had, I had two sales that have fallen through, right? So I'm, I'm at 1% it's, it's perfect. Those two sales were my first two sales. So, yeah, I from the bins. I got a mag light like a skillet with a lid and all that, you know, very popular. I know nothing about, you know, skillets or anything. I mean, I barely know which way to put them on the stove, right? You know, right, you know. So I list this thing and describe it and it like it had like a wobble to it, right? So it didn't lay flat. And I put that in listing, hey, it doesn't lay flat. Probably wouldn't use on an electric range, you know, etc, again. Don't know what I'm doing, right? So the lady. Got it. And she's like, You should have never sold this. This is terrible. And I'm like, and I have a lot of experience in, you know, customer service and issue resolution. And, you know, in a previous job I had for 20 something years, I was an account manager, so, you know, high stakes, like, you know, stuff. So I'm like,

Suzanne Wells:

good at smoothing it over, right,

Unknown:

right? This is, this is nothing. Let me tell you, you know, yeah. So I'm like, hey, you know what? I'm so sorry. I had no idea that that would be wouldn't work on a gas stove. As a matter of fact, let me just refund your money. And why don't you keep the lid, which is in good shape, and go find one without a lid and get you a good deal. And she did. I got good feedback. I'm like, okay, alright, we're done with that, right? And then the next one, the US Postal Service, I guess, confiscated the package because they said it had improper shipping on it. It didn't, I mean, it's, it was a regular us priority bail package. I still don't have it back, but I had to refund that buyer, so I'm like$100 in the hole here. And if it wasn't for a bunch of other sales coming through, I think I would have signed out and just stuck with my booths. Quite honestly, it's, it's funny how you know, but you always say that you know it there, you know. Every now and again, it happens, but it's not a big deal. And that is

Suzanne Wells:

true, yeah. And I love the ones that buy something and they didn't read it. Oh, yeah. And so I sell empty perfume bottles, and this has happened twice now. Two different people have bought it, different bottles, and they received it and they said, Well, this is empty. And I said, right. If you look at the listing and the title, it says empty. In the description, it says empty. We have a picture of it showing it's empty. Please tell us how we could have made that more clear. And they didn't. They just didn't read it. They didn't read anything. And so neither one of them got returned. I don't know if they were embarrassed or if they just didn't want to fool with it, but, you know, that's my comeback for like, I know they didn't read it. Help us understand what we could have done better to make this more clear, and they don't usually have an answer, because it was their mistake, right? That'll happen. It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when people don't read, but that's all we can do, is show pictures and describe it. Okay, well, we are getting close to the end. Do you have any advice for people just getting into this, maybe with a reselling background or without?

Unknown:

Yeah, so I took a couple notes here, so the first one and this, but this probably the single is, just be nice, right? You know, I go to these garage sales, and so many of these people, they are just so obnoxious. Suzanne, you know? I mean, it's seven o'clock in the morning and they're sitting there asking for like, 80% off of a price. What is wrong with them? You know? It's, that's for later in the day, you know? So I just, just be nice. Talk to the people. If there's a, if there's a little boy there, ask him if, hey, you're here. You must be security, right? You know, if, if the lemonades 50 Cent, I poured out more lemonade, you know, from the kids at the garage sales or whatever, you know, just, just make their day and be nice, because at the end of the day, you know, I'm this is fun to me. This is my my fishing, or my hunting, or whatever, you know, I joke with my wife all the time. When all this stuff comes in the house, I go, you know, I could be like, drinking or gambling, you know, so I'm buying some

Suzanne Wells:

stuff, right? There's a lot worse things you could be doing. And you are actually the poster child for Midwest polite. I didn't know there was mean, rude people in the

Unknown:

Midwest, yeah, yeah. It's, yeah, they're definitely, you know, another one is time efficiency. Don't do things that are going to waste your time, like I don't go to to thrift stores because there's nothing there, and when you find it, it's overpriced, and it just, I just don't need to, you know. So, I mean, unless I'm going for myself, you know, because I want to look for, you know, business shirts or something like that. I just don't go, you know, buy, buy, buy the price, not the item. Like, don't be like, Oh my gosh, this, you know, this lunch box. I just have to have this. I like to buy, hey, that's $5 that I know is going to be 30 or $40 or that's $1 that I know is going to be 10 or 20. So buy, buy the price, not the item. And this is one, this is going to be my winter project, because I didn't do it. But have a system before you start eBay, right? Have an inventory system. You know, I had the luxury of having all this antique booth stuff. So I just, you know, I just started grabbing and listing and all that. And now I'm going to have to go back and kind of put that together a little bit, you know? So those would be, those would be my pieces of advice.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, that sounds great. Yeah, you have a good business. Since what is your I hate to say real job, but sure, your other job, yeah,

Unknown:

so. And it's funny, I worked an account manager. It for 23 years for a large like fortune 500 company, and I just got tired of it, you know, it just, it just wasn't, I didn't enjoy doing it and that. So I made a career change a couple years ago, which is kind of why I've ramped up this, this reselling thing as well. And I estimate aircraft parts for a living, that's what I do. So like, you know, it takes some business savvy and and you got to have some experience. And I deal with vendors on pricing of, you know, you know how much metal costs and that, but that, that's what I that's what I do during

Suzanne Wells:

the day. Okay, so you have some some knowledge in reselling on a big scale,

Unknown:

yes, and my previous job, you know, lots of, lots of, you know, reselling. And yeah, so it's nothing new to me, you know, you know, it's all about margin, margin, margin, margin and demand. And so those things that I've learned through the years certainly have helped me with this by far

Suzanne Wells:

well, and I commend you for having no shame. And, you know, buying the Barbie thing and buying the flamingo things, and just, you know, it's, it's all about making money, right, and enjoying what you're doing, yep. So it seems like the flamingo items, you enjoyed that research, and you knew it would go to somebody who's going to

Unknown:

love it. So I didn't want them, but I certainly that's the bottom

Suzanne Wells:

line. Is enjoying the whole process, from finding the item, marketing the item, shipping the item, and then the buyer is happy, and it's just a whole cycle. You have to like all the parts of it so well. Thank you so much for making time to come on the podcast and share your experience and thank you for having me. We'll look for more of your

Unknown:

stuff on the group certainly Okay, have a good day. You too. Bye, bye, bye.

Suzanne Wells:

Next week, my guests are Laura and rujaanne, who answered the call for traveling eBay sellers to talk about their business on the road, they have mastered reselling while they travel for months at a time. Some of their tips can be applied to going on an extended vacation or even pausing eBay for various reasons, which happens to all of us. Make sure you tune in for that episode. Another reminder, there's always an open casting call for guests on this podcast, so don't be shy. Everyone has different experiences to share that we can all benefit from. And thank you for supporting this podcast and tuning in every week, I will talk to you next week. Happy Selling everybody bye, bye, you.