eBay the Right Way

eBay Seller Chat with Holly in Delaware: Queen of VCRs, Chat GPT, Gemini, Loves Technology 📱

• Suzanne A. Wells • Episode 238

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Suzanne Wells:

Hi, eBay friends. I'm Suzanne, your hostess, and this is episode number 238, of eBay. The right way. Today's date is October 8. 2025 and my guest is Holly in Delaware. Announcements, wow. Last week was a doozy. I moved from Greenville, South Carolina, to a charming Lake community at Lake Wiley, which is southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina. It is just beautiful here. The people are so friendly and kind, and I am much closer to my sister. Now, everything fell into place perfectly, including not having stairs to climb anymore. Life is going to be so much easier now I am back to work and ready for a prosperous and busy fourth quarter selling season. Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement during this difficult time. Okay, now let's talk with Holly. Okay, listeners, I have Holly with us, and she is a repeat offender. She was on in November of 22 so I can't believe it's been three years. Can you

Unknown:

me either time has flown.

Suzanne Wells:

So let's do a quick recap of where you are and how you came to be an eBay seller.

Unknown:

So I am in Delaware. For those of you who don't know

Suzanne Wells:

Delaware, you're my only guest ever that's been in Delaware. Correct me if I'm wrong, listeners, I think you're it.

Unknown:

Yes, I'm in Delaware, and I actually got an account on eBay in like 1998 99 maybe way back when it was a one off, I had something to sell. Sold it on there. I don't know how I figured it out back then, but um, and then that was it for eBay until about 2018 the summer of 2018 I my youngest son was graduating from, or was getting ready for a senior year, and it kind of started then, and then when he did graduate, that's when I went more full force, kind of reselling. I'd been a stay at home mom for what, 25 years or so, love that. Thankful for that. And this was just a great turned out to be a great fit, in the sense, those of us with adult children know they don't stop needing you at times, and it's the flexibility just was perfect. And I also have aging parents and father in law and doing some help in those areas. So it just allows that flexibility, but the added income to help.

Suzanne Wells:

So, yeah, well, and usually there's one thing that sort of makes you start and like, for me, I had just gone through a divorce and lost my job, and I was having a garage sale, and my neighbor's like, why don't you sell this stuff on eBay? And I didn't know anything about it. So was there something like that for you that was someone else was doing it, and you saw them

Unknown:

kind of so it's kind of funny how that started. I we were renovating our kitchen, and friends happened to be over the day they were taking out the kitchen island, which I would like to reiterate, 20 years old, all my kids had grown up using it. You can imagine the state it was in, and we were just going to put it out by the corner for the garbage men to pick up. And my the friends who were over happened to flip houses, and they're like, oh, no, you should sell that. And my husband, I looked at each other and thought, what? And long story short, I can't remember if it sold for three or $400 on Craigslist, but it was shocking enough that that I would say that was the catalyst. And those friends, I'm just super thankful for that suggestion. And then again, as I we were I was becoming more of an empty nester my kids all I love technology. I'm sure that'll come into the conversation later, and have no degree whatsoever. It's just something I seem to enjoy. And so everyone kind of thought when this time came, I would either move into some kind of I. Very low level consulting, helping people get a phone or computer set up or they were all my kids were all go work at the Apple Store, because I would love that. I love everything about it. I wasn't really actively looking, but really that selling of the island was definitely what started it. And as everyone else usually does, we just started saying, what else could we sell? And somehow, you know, down in the basement, pulling things out, and it transitioned to Ebay. I think that original Island sold on Craigslist, but I was familiar enough with eBay and comfortable enough with the technology to see if I could do it there. And I'm sure, early on, I fortunately found your podcast and your videos, and from there, like between the two, it just was an easy fit that I absolutely loved.

Suzanne Wells:

So yeah, that's a great story. I love to hear when the light bulb comes on. Like, wait, what else do I have?

Unknown:

The joke I always say is, my husband went down to the basement soon as that sold, and he's like, Here, try this. Try this. Like, all of a sudden it was like, let's try this. And it was true and and, you know that process of learning too. I think the best thing about the kitchen island was it's the last thing you think anyone else would want that will sell. It's just shocking.

Suzanne Wells:

Some statistic out there that says the average American home has 100,000 items in it. And, you know, I thought I was a minimalist, but as I packed for this next move, well, in my defense, half of it is eBay stuff, but you just you don't realize how much you accumulate, especially if you're in the same home for A long time, you just don't realize what's accumulating, that you can sell, that somebody else would actually want

Unknown:

it, right? And if you're not using it, you know, I follow someone else, an organizer, and she's always like, if you can replace it for$20 and or you haven't used it in a year, get rid of it. And it's a pretty simple thought process to go through that.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, and I'm looking at this as a reset. I'm I'm like, I don't want to take that. I'm sick of looking at that. I've had that for six years, or whatever. I have some really pretty dishes there. The brand is, like, Euro something. They're very pretty and colorful and, you know, breakable ceramic dishes. And I got those at Goodwill in a big bundle. It was like six place settings, you know, dinner plate, salad plate, the bowl, all of it for like,$3.06 years ago. And they're but they're really heavy. I'm like, I don't really want these. I could start over. I could find something else and another good right? So my neighbor across the hall is moving too, and she they're moving into a house, their first house. And I was like, I'm giving away these dishes. Oh, she was thrilled to have them just killed. And like, great, you get to carry him down the stairs, let your husband share, which is another thing you know, it's not a box I have to pack for movers. So right? I'm thinking exactly that. It's everything is really easily replaced, unless it's a sentimental thing that you've right life, or a family heirloom or something, if you can replace it within 20 miles, 20 minutes,$20 then right, don't pack it. Just let right. Oh, and I've been on the receiving end of people moving or going out of, you know, shutting down their eBay business and giving me so much stuff over the years, I am totally fine with letting things go, because it's just a big cycle we're in. So when you came on three years ago, how has your business changed over that time?

Unknown:

So I'd like to say that it has just wildly increased, but it has improved, and I would say that not as much as I'd like. So I'm always trying to work more efficiently and build the big business bigger. But I'm fighting against my own self in I'm very detailed and I'm it's hard for me to give up certain things. So that's the challenge. But I would say one one way it has changed is the location, so I know listeners can't see I'm in a different room, and that has been a helpful change. I was in a smaller office. My father in law came to live with us. We converted that to a bedroom, which moved me into our we changed the dining room into an office. Okay, I wasn't really using the dining room anyways. I'm not a fancy entertainer, so, yeah, it's going to be on the outside of the picnic table or something, if we're doing it. So that changed, and that's been a nice change. Just location, setting things up differently. I was able to set up more of a larger shipping area, which does streamline things, and that's really been helpful. Items and prices of things, the things I sell, has changed. I'm sure we'll get into it, but one of my biggest sellers is VCRs, and so the increased volume of the VCRs, I would say that is a change, that I'm selling more, and I have kind of a different system for doing that. I also, I think, since we last spoke, I've started doing a Monday morning zoom, meeting with reselling friends, not a huge lot of us. Sometimes there's three of us. Sometimes it's been up to seven of us. It's nothing fancy, and it's for an hour. So that has been, you know, I would say those changes, and then I would say, in the last three years, one of the bigger changes to help the business has been using AI and in particular chat GPT.

Suzanne Wells:

So Well, lots to talk about there. So I want to go to the topic of your reseller call. Now, are these local people or online eBay friends?

Unknown:

Well, I have to tell you how you it started, because you're a part of that. Oh, so when I was on three years ago, one of the other sellers you had on Rosanna, heard the podcast, okay, and I travel up. Like I said, I go up to my parents once a week. They're in the Lancaster area, and so I source on the way up, I stay overnight, come back on Friday, source on the way home, and Rosanna heard that I was going up to Lancaster, and she's in that area, so she touched base with me, and we've gotten together and become really good friends through it. Yes, and she and, I think, talked a little bit about it. I had another friend in the neighborhood who had been going to garage sales with me, just for the fun of it. After a year of that, she started reselling. So it kind of started organically out of that, in that I I'm a talker, so we'll start there. But on top of that, well,

Suzanne Wells:

that's, that's why you're on the podcast. Yeah,

Unknown:

probably I benefit from talking over with other people, that community of resellers, I always find helpful. So even just talking with Rosanna, you know, what are you doing here? What do you think of this? And I've always been one. As soon as I started this, I always call them my friends. Like in every one of the thrift stores I go to, it's more like going, I call them my work friends, the other resellers. Who are there? We are, you know, Hi, how are you? What'd you, you know, what is sell, what's this? And so I really wanted to have a get together. And so we meet on Monday mornings, nine to 10 on Zoom. Whoever can make it. I do it every Monday, and you don't have to RSVP. I've found that's the easiest method, and it just motivates us. We share ideas. We, you know, this work, this didn't, what would you do? And, yeah, we've really, sometimes we've taken a break during the summer. Sometimes we don't it just, you know, it's very flexible well,

Suzanne Wells:

and you do need people to talk to that understand the business. Yes, I have lots of friends that don't do anything with reselling, and they don't care. They don't get it. They're very smart. But this is something that I think we're special people. You have to understand the excitement of finding that thing and selling that thing, or the frustrations with the customers, or all of it. You need people to talk to who understand the business.

Unknown:

Yes, and sometimes you need that person to to be. What do you think I should do? Whether it's something small, like, I have this item I listed three months ago, I've got a low offer. What do you think I should do? Or, you know, this buyer has messaged me this. What do you think? How do you think I should respond? You know, it just always helps to bounce things off other people who are, you know, in the same shoes. So, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, really helpful. So it is very beneficial to talk with other sellers, like, what would you do? How would you solve this problem? And having your own little group like that, maybe you can get deeper into discussions than you could say on a Facebook group. You know, when you're live and talking, it's very different than when you're posting something on Facebook,

Unknown:

right, right? And also

Suzanne Wells:

differently, yes. And also.

Unknown:

Sharing tips, little tips that you didn't think of. So, you know, instead of ending to save it, you know, in and schedule and move that schedule out, or little tips like that, each of us can share. And when you join that together, you either didn't know you could do that, or it's a shortcut on time. You know, it helps everyone's business when you're able to share like that, and

Suzanne Wells:

eBay keeps changing. I don't read every update and listen to every podcast or, you know, whatever the information is, there's still things you miss absolutely, you know, things just or things pop up that aren't even announced. It's just different all of a sudden, and they right, or

Unknown:

it's a little thing, like when they changed and they changed the default to where they were going to default your account, so that all the buyers got the eBay discount shipping rate and and that they did announce it, but it was such a small announcement that I know some in the group missed that, and also people who are starting new, who may have joined our group, at least the Zoom meeting and my group weren't aware of that, so I'm able to tell them again. I'm always happy. I don't I'm not interested in selling for others is too complicated. It's never worked for me every time I've tried it. But I always will say to someone, I'm happy to help you get started. I'm happy to show you how and and that would be one of the things that you're never going to know. Way deep down in there is this thing about default of shipping. You know whether you're going to give the retail and unless someone showed you or told you, they'd never know

Suzanne Wells:

well, and back to selling things for other people. I've been down that road too, and it's kind of funny. You know, I have a very sarcastic answer. I have a very sarcastic personality in real life. I try to control that when I'm doing, you know, my social media stuff, but sometimes you got to bite your tongue, but, you know, they'll say, Oh, I've got this, you know, beer can collection or whatever, to sell. I'd like you to sell it for me, and I'll give you half the money and all this. And I'm like, Yeah, I really don't do that because, you know, I give them a few reasons that it's just sometimes it's a lot of work up front that you never get paid for. And you know, I've got so many things on my own to list, I just don't have time and stuff like that. And I'm like, but, you know, I've got this online school, and I can help you get started. And they're like, oh, I don't have time to do it. And I'm thinking, what I really want to say is, why do you think I have time right items, when you don't even have time to learn how to, yeah, they kind of just see you as like a meal ticket. Oh, she knows how to do this. She could do it for me. But part of it is also I want to pick out my own stuff,

Unknown:

me too, and me too, and I don't think they do realize the work that goes into it, and particularly with me again, because I I like more of the hard goods, not so much the clothing. I don't I like to pick out my own stuff so I can check it make sure it works. I kind of feel comfortable with it before I'm going to sell it. One little tip I can share in terms of this, when we're trying to say no to that, because I'm also a people pleaser, so it kills me to say no, I can't help you, especially if it's a close friend or family member. But my husband was helpful in this. He said, Just tell them. It just complicates taxes too much. He's still doing the taxes. And it, you know, it just adds another layer to trying to figure out the taxes. And it just gets too complicated to keep track of it, to keep the records figured out. It's just

Suzanne Wells:

well in that answer, as much as this 1099 business has been in the news, and they keep changing the threshold and that, that is a great answer that most people aren't going to argue with, right, exactly about how we

Unknown:

pay right? It's pretty

Suzanne Wells:

that all the time. Oh, you have an eBay business. Well, do you pay taxes? And it's like, yeah, it's like any other business owning a restaurant or right, you know, of course, and yeah, so that's a great answer, because nobody's gonna argue with once you say exactly, their eyes kind of glaze over, like, oh

Unknown:

yes, exactly.

Suzanne Wells:

So I want to backtrack to your VCR inventory. I think you posted a picture of how you organize your inventory on the group. Somebody asked it was couple of days ago. Oh, yeah, yeah, yes. And I saw all the VCRs with, like, the painters tape on the front. So do you have any tips on which ones, what kind do's and don'ts on those? Because I don't even look at them. Maybe I should,

Unknown:

I do I think. Probably people look at VCRs like I look at clothing, and I mostly you hear, Oh, I don't ever want to do those. They're a pain. And I get that. But, again, you can't see but I have a little TV in the back on my table that I picked up at a garage sale for$5 or so that has the cords. I keep the cords in it, and I always keep the TV plugged in so it's ready for testing at all times, which that makes things easy, but I would say, if I'm looking at VCRs, if I'm in a thrift store, I always, you know, I pick it up, obviously you want to make sure it works. And even we, most people, know how VCR works, at least our age and older, who's used right? Not really that hard. Just plug it in at the store, go grab one of their VHS tapes from the other shelf. Stick the VHS tape in, hit play. See if the power stays on, see if it plays it, and try rewind or fast forward, and you cannot usually hear if it's moving or not, and then eject it. And if it didn't eat the tape, because half of them will, you'll pull that tape out, and it's eating the tape, or the power died, or it won't play, or fast forward, you know, it pretty much doesn't work. That eliminates, I would say, if you've passed all those tests, and that takes two minutes for the most part, you most likely have a working a VCR and working order. So that's how I test them. And even I'll do that, even at estate sales, you know, where I'll find a lot of them, and garage sales, there's always an outlet somewhere where you can plug in. And I do recommend, at the very least, test and make sure it powers on. If you can't do anything else, you can also look in them, and you may see a tape stuck in there, which is a sign. Chances are it's stuck, but not always the case. So so I would say that packing them is really not a big issue. It's one of those types of technology that is not as fragile as other ones are. So there's not, you know, if you were to shake a VCR, you're really not going to break it. So if you wrap it well, in bubble wrap and, you know, put it in a safe box, you're good. The things I've learned, probably, from three years to now is I used to sell whatever I found. So if I found just the VCR, I'd sell the VCR. If I found the VCR with the remote, I would sell it with the remote. Now I the way my business on this has changed is I almost always will try to sell them with a remote. Wherever I go, if there's a remote and it has a VCR letter on it anywhere, it means it can be used with VCRs. And I'll buy it, and they'll for the most part, here's another tip. For the most part, the brands are will work with each other. So if I find a Panasonic remote and I find a Panasonic VCR, chances are it's they'll work so and some of the brands are even interchangeable, but so that's pretty easy, and I now will this is something I think in on the bigger picture scale. It seems, if you provide your buyer with all the pieces, it seems that sells faster. So I've even gotten to the point where I'll buy a 10 pack of from Amazon. VCRs are old technology. So they take the red, yellow, white cords, the AV cords, and you have to have a TV that has that has to have the TV yes to test it, yes. So I will buy a 10 pack of those cords from Amazon, fairly inexpensive, so that when I'm selling the VCR, I'm selling it with the remote control, the AV cord and the VCR, and I definitely noticed an increase in sales once I started doing that. The other thing I've done that others can try this is where people would say, Oh, that's a waste of your time or a waste of money, and it it's up to you. But what I will also do is, if you ever notice the garage sales, people almost always have VHS tapes for sales. So I'll buy Disney VHS tapes, and I'll try to buy and buy a lot, like a box of them for $5 so with every VCR that I sell, I will also include a Disney tape that I have put in the machine and works. And so I'll tell them please, and I have a little insert I put in there that says, Please. You know, I'm providing this tape chat. GPT help me word this. But basically, I'm providing this tape for your convenience so that please plug it in, get the whole VCR set up, put this tape and make sure it's working before you because I don't want anyone's home movies chewed up,

Suzanne Wells:

right, you know? So you send them a practice one,

Unknown:

yes, and I I test the VCR when I first buy it. I always test it right before I ship it. And what I did also learn this is. Knew is that I'm sure I got rid of a lot of VCRs that worked, because you can have a bad tape so and I that's another reason I send the tape with it. I know the tape works, and I know the VCR works, and that way that if they end up putting in a different tape that doesn't work, they'll know it's not the VCR, it's the tape, and I'm thankful. Up to this point, I have very, very few returns. I can't remember the last return I had on one. So you

Suzanne Wells:

know the customer profile of who's buying these.

Unknown:

So I sell on Facebook and eBay, and actually, I just started on Etsy, which, oddly enough, I know it's on eBay topic, but electronic these are selling on Etsy too, which blows my mind. But this is

Suzanne Wells:

a reseller podcast, so yeah, about other platforms? Yeah.

Unknown:

So that's that was new to me as of March, but that's been good. I'll just give some numbers to give an idea, first off, that VCRs are selling, and then I'll we can talk about who the buyers are. So I look back at the last three months. On average, I sell five to seven of them a month. For some reason, last month, I sold in August, I sold 16. What what the rush was, but back to school, it's so hard. I've had one buyer who bought one this was and she bought it because her mom has dementia and she wanted to play home videos. And that she even messaged me later and said that brought her mom so much joy. So that's one around Mother's Day sales uptick and around Christmas. So I think they're gifts for moms a lot of times. I think the the bottom line for them is the majority are for home movies. So I have sold some on Facebook marketplace to young, you know, I'm thinking, you know, 20 year old. Why did they want to VCR? And they said, Oh, we were cleaning out my grand mom's house, and we found some old video tapes, and they want to see them, or grandparents who are having their grandchildren over, and they still have the Disney tapes, and they want to be their kids, to be able, you know, the grandkids, to use them. So that seems to be the market, or it's people who want to digitize their home movies. So they're buying them so they can digitize them. Okay, seems to be, I was thinking

Suzanne Wells:

more like for little kids, the Barney and all those that maybe aren't on DVD, because just everything is on DVD, but there's some things that aren't. So that's just what pops into my head when I hear Vcr is, you know, my kids watching the wearing out those Barney tapes and Thomas the Tank Engine and those things from, I think our little bear about the same age, yeah, and you know, that was a godsend. But I do know some Barney VHS tapes can offer good good, not hundreds of dollars, but can sell for good money. But you always run the risk of, is the tape broken? Is it going to work? Because when people donate them, they usually donate a whole bunch, and they're not testing them, they just donate them, right?

Unknown:

And I have never had really had any good luck with the VHS tapes themselves, right, both blank or others, except I hear that very like unusual horror movie, VHS, tape cell. I have never found any in that genre that work, but that's a big seller, yes, kind of like a hot one niche, yeah, but I did hear recently, which will be interesting to see if this takes off. I was probably a Facebook post somewhere mentioned somebody suggested they were setting up a VCR and tapes for their kids and grandkids, kind of a step back from streaming and technology so that their kids get to choose what they watch, and it's on with no commercials, no algorithm playing for them. It's kind of going retro and old school and helping the kids see things differently. So I thought that was interesting. It'll be interesting to see if that's a trend that actually develops or not. I don't know.

Suzanne Wells:

Wells, yeah. I mean, back in the day of cable, we all ditched cable because of all the commercials. Well, they call right. Now and now, here we are with streaming, and it's the same thing. And these these channels, they want to charge you extra to watch certain 30 year old movies, like I'm watching crazy. I'm not doing that, you know, I do have some DVDs of my favorites, and there's something with the copy. Right laws, or what do they call it in the movie business, where certain movies cannot be on streaming, it's the agreement, whoever contract, whatever the contract. Or there's certain movies that you just love that, oh, I would watch that, you know, and you can't get it like ET is one of them. Yes, hardly ever on streaming. And it's such a fun movie, and lots of memories and all that. But you do see the same ones over and over on all the channels, and it's like, oh, how come they never have little women, you know, right? Or have the ones I want to see. But, yeah, I get the whole wanting the experience for children to be different, because they their little minds are so inundated with with advertising and selling. And I hate that world of ads. Yeah, we'll pay a little bit more on some of these streaming me too. Not which is we do too. It is so the advertisers pay to be there, and now we're paying for them not to be there. Well.

Unknown:

And back in the day, you and I were around when the whole reason cable came about was you paid for it because there were no you weren't going to have that stuff on it, right? And they completely flipped that you still kept paying. But now we've got commercials

Suzanne Wells:

now, and yeah, it just keeps, it keeps evolving, yeah, looping weight and the consumer keeps, like, dodging that. You know, we zag like, How can I do those no ads without paying more? I started a new channel. It's through roku. It's called Howdy, H, O, W. It just came out in August or September, and it's like 295, a month, no ads, and it's it's TV, it's movies and all. So I ditched my Paramount plus, yeah, for the $3

Unknown:

one well, and that's the other game we play constantly now we have to keep up with what you know is the next best thing, but we'll do it

Suzanne Wells:

absolutely. So let's talk about chat GPT. I have not dived into that yet. I need to, and I want to. So what can you share with us about that? So I

Unknown:

would definitely say, as a reseller, you should be availing yourself of this tool. I know there's a lot of negative stuff out there about AI and all, but in this business, it can be such a tremendous help. I even, I think I wrote down, I wanted to be sure to remember you don't there is an app. I think on most platforms, you can download the app, but you can also just go to the website, and you can upload a picture and or describe, and you can say, write me a good SEO eBay title for this product. And I'm not necessarily saying use the title that they give you, but they'll give you keywords and they and it can search the best SEO search engine optimized wording that will be better for you that you might not have thought of. So that would be my first tip is avail yourself of that the free version of chat GBT only allows X amount of pictures to be uploaded per month, however many that is. But for the record, once you run out there, just switch yourself to Google Gemini and start doing it there. It doesn't matter. They're they're both. You know, all of these tools for our purposes are just really helpful for me. Again, I'm a talker. I have a very hard time writing and speaking concisely. So if I get a message from a buyer and I need to respond nine times out of 10, I will go to chat GPT type in my response and say, Please rewrite this in a more concise, friendly, professional manner. And it is amazing. Or when I have issues, this would be too long a story to tell, but I just had a FedEx item. FedEx lost a$200 item that the the buyer really wanted, and in trying to communicate with FedEx, I used a lot of chat GPT to help me make a more professional message to them and to accomplish what I was trying to accomplish, or put in bullet points in that case, but give me five bullet points. Sometimes I'll use it in again. I write a description. It's not short, it's not really long, but I'll put bullet points, and I'll ask chat, GPT Give me three short, concise bullet points for this item, and it'll list them out. So I do that identifying items. If you have an item again, you can upload the picture and you're not sure what it is or what style. Or what theme it is. You can say, What style or theme is this considered? Yeah, I think those are the four ways right now I've really used, I use it every single day at this point.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, so is chat GPT just an app, or can you go, like on your computer to

Unknown:

a website? You can just go on your computer, on your browser, Safari, Chrome and and you can go, I don't know if it's chat gpt.com, or just Google, chat GPT, and it'll pull it up. And, yeah, it's really easy. I know that eBay has its own built in. Ai, I haven't really used that because I just haven't. This has worked so well. I don't see a need to. And I've heard good and bad things about eBay's version. I think it's improved some, but I don't know. I've seen the descriptions that it will create, and they just seem a little too canned and goofy for me. Yeah, they're just they're too fluffy, they're too over exaggerated. They seem fake so

Suzanne Wells:

and they're not something the buyer would say or Right, right. You know,

Unknown:

it's right, like this beautiful, flowing, whatever, yeah, it's just not right.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, speaking of Gemini, I was somewhere and somebody was saying, oh, I need to make some new business cards for a new side business they're starting, and I just can't decide what to do. And somebody pulls out their phone and pulls up Gemini and says, make business card for home repair business. And it just popped up, yes. And I did that or and then the person didn't like that, and he says, you know, make business card for home repair, business with American flag or, you know, and it just does your graphic design stuff.

Unknown:

Exactly, in fact, I did that for business cards. I have a business card, but I kind of want to revamp it. And so I did ask it. These are the cards I know other sellers have talked about to hand out at garage sales or when you run into someone, right? So I asked it make a business card that, you know, has my phone number and my first name. I obviously, I told that information, and I said, put a picture of a VCR, a Sony Walkman, a Bible, a remote control and one other item, the, you know, top five, and, you know, you can tell it what colors to use, whether to make it simple and minimalist or more. And it, it creates the graphic

Suzanne Wells:

it's amazing. It's gonna put some graphic designers out of business.

Unknown:

It's a good question. I don't know. My theory on this is always somebody's going to have to create, you know, work on these AI things. So whatever jobs are lost are going to create other jobs in other areas. So I think it's eventually, it's, it's going to even out. I mean, nothing can replace humanity, right? Exactly. It comes down to it,

Suzanne Wells:

you know, we have all these photo editing programs and like Canva and graphic design programs for, I don't want to say beginners, but you don't have to be somebody working in a graphic firm, you know. And so, right? People start their own business, or just want a business card for this or that. I think it's great. I do too. I use a tool called pick monkey, which is, it's like Canva. But my problem is, I get in there and I just, I can't decide. I just keep changing things and everything I make kind of looks the same. So have a different person make it. That's one thing, but, but now you can just tell it, oh, make it less, less businessy, more casual, you know? And and just see some examples. And then if you just give me, like three things to pick from, I'll just pick one. But if I have to make it from scratch myself. It's a huge time suck because I'm not good at it. That is not one of my gifts at all. I love that you're you're using that now. What is your professional background?

Unknown:

Again, nothing related to any of this, which is the most comical, my degree is a double major in German, so I'm fluent in German and elementary education. Okay, I was never cut out to be a teacher. Unfortunately, I didn't learn that until after I had my degree. So I did that for a while, and then I worked at a arco Chemical Company for like five years before having kids, I ended up in that's where I found out I like technology. I was working between a purchasing in the IT department. I was kind of the interim person and and so that's my background, until I was a stay at home mom for ages. But even. In that time between my church and the school the kids were going to, I was involved in newsletters, creating newsletters. So I kind of learned to look back in the day of Microsoft, publisher, we were learning how to use that. So, you know, I've kind of evolved with technology and some of the software through that. And it's, I mean, it's something I feel God put together, because I couldn't have put all these pieces together. But I love technology. I had some of that newsletter, and all these pieces fit into eBay in a different way, whether it's organization or people. You know, I'm out in the stores and meeting with people and so little bits and pieces of my different stages in my life have, all, you know, fed into this, which is always

Suzanne Wells:

that I kind of did the same thing as a stay at home mom. I have a business degree and was in banking and, you know, credit finance stuff, and I just couldn't be a working mom. I could not juggle it.

Unknown:

Yeah, so

Suzanne Wells:

I was like, I'll stay at home and live in sweat pants for five years. I don't, right, but I was always volunteered for stuff at the school and the PTA, and would organize things classrooms, and I would figure out, oh, oh yeah, I did learn Excel in college, but Right? How will all these different things? And I, I was the board administrator for Humane Society. That was a paying part time job, but I learned Microsoft Publisher and did their newspaper and, you know, mail merge, printing out the labels and you can mail merge the computer is just a fabulous invention, because you can just learn so much, yes, over time and things change. And I don't even know, does Microsoft Publisher even exist anymore?

Unknown:

I don't think so. I think they incorporated some of it into Word. And yeah, sure, because I'm no longer Microsoft, right,

Suzanne Wells:

right, so, but I'm with you on that and, and I really dislike the term just to stay at home, mom, because, right, you know, you're a household manager. Oh, you're keeping everybody alive every day.

Unknown:

Jack of all trades, yeah. And you learn more different, you know, time management, logistics, packing at certain things, you know, it's, it's, it's a full time job. And I

Suzanne Wells:

remember when I was in college at Queen's University in Charlotte, and that was 90 to 92 and I just, I was wanting to get a typewriter, like, I just need a typewriter to type my papers and stuff. And my husband, at the time, was like, No, we need to get a computer and you could do word processing. And I thought, well, I don't know how to do that. I don't know what that is. And then I learned it, and I'm like, Oh my gosh, you can make mistakes and just back up, and you don't have to, you don't have to have a correction ribbon in your typewriter and all that kind of stuff. And I was totally on board with that. And then the internet came along and it was like, this thing,

Unknown:

yeah, and this is where be open to change. So first thinking about the typewriter, I think who, who of us would have thought that the most valuable class we took in high school was typing Exactly, yeah, I could talk. I mean, I'm so thankful for that. But you know, being open to change is trying to is going to be to our benefit, and not all change is good. And even back to chat, GPT, I want to throw in there. Don't 100% trust it. Not everything's right, even if we're having it create an image or something, look at it. It may. You know, I've had it put the wrong thing there, but it's a tool, especially in this business, as the market changes. You know, what was selling three years ago for me, kind of cross stitch right now, three years ago, that was a sure thing, easy, fast sale. Right now, for some reason, it's not selling for me. You know, I think just just just continue to be open to change, and you're always so good about pointing out, and I so appreciate this. EBay is going to make their changes instead of being frustrated by it and fighting it just okay, they've made this change. We need to move forward. We need to figure out how to work with this change. It's just a lot easier

Suzanne Wells:

and and on the eBay community boards, back in the day, it was very negative whenever a change happened, people just would spend all this time complaining about it and how it's going to hurt their business. And I'm like, You know what? It's done. Just the faster you get on board with the new change in any environment, the better off you're going to be. Just adapt, right? Keep going exactly. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see what, what's coming next. I I hope eBay, one day will have a feature where you can, when you're on doing the research, you can drop in a picture. Yes. Search by photo, because sometimes you don't know to call things. Now, I know you don't do a lot of clothing, but there's certain names for certain patterns. And like Athleta, the brand you know, they anthropology, they have certain names. You know, this type of coat has a name the Priscilla coat or whatever, right? And people who wear those brands, they know those names. So I usually, if it's a brand that does that, I drop it into, you know, Google image search to find out the name. And because sometimes the completed listings don't have it on there, right, wrong, or spelled bottom. And so I would love if eBay evolved to that so we can use it like the image search and just or you don't know what something is, and you've got to do all this research. What is this thingamabob that looks cool, but I don't

Unknown:

know what it is. Very true and to your point, I don't I don't know clothing, but I had a perfect example. That doesn't mean I won't do it if I see something that I really think will sell. I found a dress the other day, and I don't know again, I do not know clothing. I don't know a shift dress from an a line dress, from whatever else they're called. But so that would be a good example where even just something basic like that, if it could tell me what that style is that then I could do the research better on it for now, chat, GPT again, is great. Any AI is going to be great for that. And to your point, when you look it up on Google image search. I think we all know not to really trust the prices on there, but it's perfect to give you the words to then go in and put in the research so you do know what to look up. And that is such a big help. My wish would be, I'm happy they moved therapy now research onto the app, but I wish they would give you the same options to choose the condition new or used is just so basic in the if

Suzanne Wells:

you go to the category, so you have to, you kind of have to start drilling down, go to the category, then you'll get the option of new or used.

Unknown:

Oh, that's interesting. Go in a little further. Yes, okay, well, that's good to know. So I will try that see. This is what I mean about talking with someone else who

Suzanne Wells:

knows. Yeah, to your point about using the image search, not for pricing, just for keywords. I had bought a bunch of very fancy girls dance costumes, like what you wear in a recital and with sequins and everything. And I had, like, I'm not getting any hits on them. Like, what's wrong with these? And it's a well known brand, Wiseman, and they're very expensive. And so I had recital costume dress up, and then I went, after three months, to reevaluate my listing. I didn't put the word pageant in there. That's exactly what they're used for. Is the talent part of the pageants. And once I changed that, I started giving offers, and it was all about that one keyword. So I'm not my daughter was never in pageants. I didn't do pageants. It's just not something I would think of, you know, right world. But I was like, Oh, they could be a Halloween costume. It could be for dress up, dance recital, whatever. And pageant did not even dawn on me.

Unknown:

I wouldn't have either. And again, to your point, that's where those keywords do matter and and seeing what are the keywords is you're not going to come up with it. Quick side note on that I was able to have a conversation with an eBay person contacted me to have a one on one. I don't know why in the world I got lucky enough for this, but it was a 45 minute phone conversation where they had looked at my store and had some suggestions. And one of the things he said in that was, it's the first three words are the most important words in your title. I thought it was the first six, but that was interesting to me, that's the first three. Which is that is tough for me, because I also almost always when I am listing, I'll put the brand as the first word or two. And sometimes it's a three word brand. So then I'm kind of torn. So if you have a Pottery Barn, something, people are going to look it up by Pottery Barn, but it made me think, okay, something else that the brand's not as well known. I need to put that at the end of the title, not so much the beginning. So that was a helpful tip.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, I feel like changing your title, changing it up, if it's not moving Jeff, you know, go look at other listings again. Maybe there's one of those made up words, those esthetic words, right? You know, 10 years ago, maybe nobody knew what cottage core was. Was, it wasn't right. Barbie core grandma, core and coastal grandma and all right. Esthetics, they're making up new ones all the time. They are. So if you go to, if you, if you learn a new one, and you go to Google and put it in and it'll, it'll tell you how many hits, or, you know, go to Etsy and look it up. See how many there are people are actually using it, because a lot of them, it's a good idea. They're so out there, like nobody's using that. But, you know, cottage core is definitely a hot buzz word, and you got to keep up with the vocabulary.

Unknown:

Yes, it's changing, to your point. It's always changing. So you have to keep up and refreshing those listings, those titles, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, that's great. Well, what are your plans for the future of your eBay business?

Unknown:

Wells, as mentioned earlier, I would like to increase the business so trying to figure out new ways to streamline it, what to keep, what to cut out. We'll see how that goes. I think just being open to change and looking for what the market is. You know, now I would like to everyone gives out their cards. I I have, I had 100 cards printed, and I do hand them out. I can't say I have had a whole lot of luck in that area, but I guess I didn't mention this. But the one thing I would say I've had luck in is just in the midst of meeting with friends other resellers, being open to telling them I'm a reseller, I have developed friendships where I have a friend who goes to my local Goodwill. He is not a reseller at all, but he knows I look for VCRs, and if he sees one there, he'll text me and say, Hey, there's a VCR here. Do you want me to hold it for you, or get it for you, and I'm only 10 minutes away. Or I have another one who hits estate sales, and he hit whenever same thing, when he sees them, he'll grab them for me. And so developing those friendships, I want to continue to develop those friendships so we all can help each other, I think. And it's possible, the market is big. I have my other one of my close reselling friends, couple of them, along with Rosanna, you know way more about linens and things. So we're not even, you know, in the same market. I don't know. I walk by those racks and I try, and I last about a minute, and it all looks like old sheets to me. I just don't know a thing about it, no matter.

Suzanne Wells:

I think it's beneficial for everyone to have different interests. You know, yes, VCRs, that would be very boring,

Unknown:

right, for most people, from what I gather, yes, yeah. So, and

Suzanne Wells:

I want to tell you about five years after I was selling on eBay, I got this idea of, you know, I need an army of pickers. I need people out there be everywhere, all the time. And I tried, I tried that with some people I knew that like to go to thrift stores. And I'm like, you know, here's a little list. Look for these things, and, you know, paying them like a finder's fee if they found certain things. And I couldn't, I didn't, couldn't make that work. But I just thought, how can I leverage the fact that there's all these people going to different stores all the time, they're looking for what they want and they like, and they don't even they're not interested in what I would want and like, how could I get them to pick up those things for me and bring them right?

Unknown:

And you do want it to be selective, because to our discussion earlier, someone else who you know, they may think it's a great thing, but like for me with VCRs, if it doesn't work, I don't want you to buy one that doesn't work, right? So it's not necessarily asking, I guess they kind of learn what you look for and you be selective, but it is just helpful to have the eyes out there. And the other flip side to that is I would say what I have learned from the other resellers. For instance, in the Lancaster goodwill I go to, I see a person there frequently, and she and I always catch up what's selling for you, what do you have? And one of the things she had the other day, she had a football in her hand. And I was like, wow, you know, I just don't think to pick up a football, especially if it's used. And she was like, there can be good money in these Well, lo and behold, wouldn't you know? The next week, I think I was at a garage sale, there was a another football, and it was actually in the package. It didn't look very special me. It was like from some Super Bowl a few years ago, maybe 20, I don't know. Long story short, it sold for $110 and I would have never looked at it if I hadn't had that discussion a week or two earlier. It just wouldn't have been something I would have even thought about. So, you know, just continue to develop those relationships

Suzanne Wells:

and and you just never stop learning.

Unknown:

No, you never stop learning, right?

Suzanne Wells:

Thing now. What people want now is different than it was even a year ago, and you just have to be willing to pivot and adjust right to right to what's out there. But that happens to me too. I'll learn about something, and then I'll see it a week or so later, and I'm like, I never want to get this a second look before and now so well, thank you for taking time out of your busy day to chat and chat. GPT, yes,

Unknown:

well, yeah. Well, thanks for having me. It's always a pleasure to spend time with you, but also so thankful for the information you share and the Facebook page is so helpful. Well, thank you. Now, what are you up to today? So on Thursdays, there is a ongoing they call it an estate sale, but it's really a warehouse, two guys, they clean out houses, and then they sell some of that leftovers on Thursdays and Fridays. So I usually head over there on Thursday and then I'll after that, I think there's an estate sale I'll hit and head up again to my parents and the Lancaster area and hit a few thrift stores on the way there. So we'll see busy day of treasure hunting. Yes, fun part. Well, we will look

Suzanne Wells:

for your wonderful questions and answers on the Facebook group, and I appreciate you being so forthcoming and sharing your knowledge about these different products, because you know that's how we learn is is from each other. So thanks so much. Have a great day.

Unknown:

Thanks you too. Bye, bye.

Suzanne Wells:

Holly mentioned not knowing clothing and styles a great tool, which I forgot to mention, style guides. They used to be all over Pinterest, but now they are everywhere online. So if you are learning clothing, shoes, accessories, like handbags, hats, anything in the clothing and accessories categories, just Google whatever the item is and style guide, for example, dresses, you'll find a chart or a grid with sketches or images of the different kinds, such as shift a Line umpire, waist coat dress fit and flare, maxi wrap and so on. Style Guides are so helpful for learning the keywords. Or you can come to the premium library and learn all about clothing. There I have hundreds of videos and lessons about clothing, not just brands, but fabrics, styles, keywords and more, not having the proper keywords on listings is the kiss of death on eBay next week, my guest is Tricia, who specializes in plush Loveys and vintage Christmas I think she wins the award for the most Christmas trees in her home. She decorates 13 trees and places them all over her house. I think she needs to charge admission. That's a fun episode to kick off fourth quarter, so you won't want to miss it. Okay, that wraps up this episode of eBay the right way. Keep working hard, stay positive, and I will talk to you next week. Take care, everybody. Bye. You.