eBay the Right Way

eBay Seller Chat with Tricia in WV: Specializes in Plush, Loveys, & Vintage Christmas ā€œIā€™m Eclectic and Eccentric!ā€ šŸ¤©

ā€¢ Suzanne A. Wells ā€¢ Episode 239

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Suzanne Wells:

Hey, resellers, you have landed on episode number 239 of eBay the right way. Today's date is October 15, 2025 and my guest is Tricia in West Virginia. No announcements, so let's jump right in. Hello resellers. I am back with Trisha in West Virginia. My first guest that we think is from West Virginia. I don't recall anybody else. So how are you doing this

Unknown:

evening? I'm doing pretty

Suzanne Wells:

good, good, and we're recording in the evening, because you work a full time job. I sure do. And what do you do at your quote? Real job.

Unknown:

I am a full time daycare provider. I watch currently I'm watching a four month old and three year old. Usually I have a third kid, but I'm actually looking for a third kid right now, so, but, yeah, I'm a daycare provider, so this is in your home. Yep, I'm an in home provider. So I was actually licensed and eight, which is Maryland, and, um, over here, if they have different licensure regulations. So as long as I'm doing three and under, I don't have to be so, okay, like for three kids, like three spots, that is so,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, yeah. A lot of that depends on the state what they require. So, yeah, that is a busy, busy day with little ones like that. What they come in the morning,

Unknown:

they come at 730 and they leave at five, so and so. It's a long, it's not, not super long, but it's a long day. But I enjoy what I do. I blame Mary Poppins when I was a kid. I blame her for becoming gay. Okay, so, yeah, much have been doing daycare as long as I have eBay. Okay, so

Suzanne Wells:

And those two go together wells, when did you get started with eBay?

Unknown:

So I actually started in 2001 at that time, I was See, I was over in Maryland, living, think I was still doing daycare at the time, but I ended up transitioning back to work for my father, who owned a Motorola to a radio dealership. Yeah, so I started back then in 2001 and was kind of like transitioning between daycare and working for my father as a manager for his

Suzanne Wells:

company. Okay? And what did you start off selling?

Unknown:

So I actually started buying

Suzanne Wells:

everybody does, yeah,

Unknown:

Boyd spears. I was actually my first purchase. I was a collector, and my best friend, she actually was also a collector of Boyd's bears, and she got me into knowing a little bit about eBay. And as well as my dad actually, he actually was selling on ebay some of the older stuff out of the shop, like the ham radio and older, new old stock radio stuff. And so he was selling. My best friend was buying. And she was also beginning to start to dipping her toes into selling like her kids clothes and toys and stuff around the house that she didn't need or want anymore. And so she actually started teaching me the ways of eBay and how to make money out of our kids clothes and things like that, and even my father like he noticed how, like, once I started selling, he noticed that I was doing it a little bit better than him. So he actually started giving me some of his stuff that he was selling to help him out, because I could list faster than him. So I was actually listing some ham radio stuff for him, and I was listing my kids clothes and their toys and stuff around the house, because I was making more money than I would at a yard sale. And so that's how I started, like selling, but not flipping.

Suzanne Wells:

So how old are your kids now?

Unknown:

Oh my goodness. So my son is 27 and my daughter is 25 and they both turn at the end of the year, and they are actually still living at home, paying off their huge Penn State college loan. I.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, okay, so that's why you said daycare is kind of not the same as being a stay at home mom.

Unknown:

Yeah, it used to be like when they were little. That's one of the reasons why I stepped into it here, because I wanted to be home with my daughter, which is my second one, because my first one, my mom babysat him a lot, and I felt like I missed out. So I was like, I think, I think I want to go into daycare so that I can be home with my kids and also care for other kids. But I feel like, even with daycare, like I also graduated from career Study Center, which is a vo tech school for childcare. So I have a lot of background in the childcare field. I guess it was kind of a calling that I just always had on my life.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, very good. I think at one time you sold a lot of plush, didn't you? I still do Okay, okay. So do you consider that your main product line?

Unknown:

Probably I whenever it comes to plush. I don't I just have a knack at it. Obviously, I've done daycare for the past 20 plus years. So yeah, I mean, I see what they play with. I see what my kids played with. I know what I played with whenever I was, you know, in the 80s and 90s. So I have a knack for it. And it's really hard to pass it up whenever I see it, especially like the vintage plush, or even like Loveys, like more recent Loveys and stuff. It's just something that I have an eye for, and I've actually tried to stop behind plus, because eBay is pretty much flooded right now with a lot of the plush, because it just became a thing, like a couple years ago, there wasn't as many people weren't. Were kind of like looking over the plush, and I wasn't. And now everybody has found that as a thing that you know, that sells pretty well and flips easily, and it's easy to store and easy to ship. So I

Suzanne Wells:

sold the plush yesterday, a blankets and beyond lovey, I've had that thing for two years, and you just have to be patient. You got to wait for the kid to lose it, or, you know, somebody didn't need it, but it, it has slowed down for me a lot. Do you see the market for that slowing down?

Unknown:

Yeah, I Yes, and no, I feel like it just depends. I mean, obviously it has slowed down a lot compared to, like, 2019 ever since covid happened. Like, that's when it kind of started being flooded market. I'm sure I'm not the only seller that feels that way. But yeah, I think, like, overall, like, it's definitely, probably slowed down some, but I'm still selling it. And if I'm going to buy it for 25 cents at the yard sale, or even $1 at the thrift store, and I'm going to flip it for even, you know, 15 $20 I'm going to do it right absolutely.

Suzanne Wells:

I think I paid 50 cents for the one I sold yesterday, and it sold for 20. So, yeah, ROI is really high if you get them cheap. But you do have to have patience, because you have to wait for the person to need that exact

Unknown:

one. If you want to talk about some of those kind of things, I do, I wanted to ask you, I'll have to, like, look here, reminder I had some of my biggest sales. If you want to talk about some big levy sales that I've had, I'll just kind of brief them real quick. I sold a okie dokie moo moo cow levy for$100 I sold like an angel deer Levy, which I noticed that you sell some angel deer love you. Yes, I do. I sold that for $75 and as far as other levies, so one of the stories I honestly would like to share, it's been a couple years, but I sold a levy to a cup to a family that lost one in Walt Disney World. Okay, so they were in Walt Disney World. The little kid lost their favorite levy that they had to sleep with, that they had to take everywhere. We all know this, those kind of stories, and they literally, like, could not find it anywhere else. They contacted me, and we messaged back and forth. We ended up calling and talking to each other on the phone about how, like, what was happening, and is there any way you could overnight this to where we're staying at in Walt Disney. And I'm like, Absolutely, like, I you know, I can do that. I understand it again, daycare background. I know what it's like when they don't have something that they need to sleep. And so we overnighted it to their resort in the Magic Kingdom, and they received it the next morning so that their little one was able to have it, not only that morning, but whenever they flew out to go home, and they ended up paying more for the shipping than they did the item. And so yeah, these levees are definitely even today. Are still really important to kids. Are two of my daycare kids actually currently that I watch. One of them had a sloth, what he calls a slothy and the other one has a pan, pan, which is a panda bear. So they're still, they're still, you know, kids are still using them to sleep and and to get through the day, so that, yeah, they're definitely something that I always

Suzanne Wells:

keep my eye out for that was commendable that you agreed to overnight it. Oh, for sure, you would have to have gone, like to FedEx or the post office to to do that and that. That's a little bit of an inconvenience for a seller, but you know how important that item was? Yeah, and like, the rest of their vacation might have been ruined without a replacement.

Unknown:

Lovey, I think, honestly, like, that's one of my favorite things about eBay and selling any kind of plush. I love the stories I get from families. And just to share another one with you. I had sold a vintage clown baby blanket just recently to a grandmother she wanted her granddaughter to have the same one as her daughter. I sold that, and so it was nostalgic for them. And I also sold a vintage clown to Germany, and it was an uncle that wanted his nephew to have the same clown that you know, that he had when he was little, and so actually, both of those clown items were Commonwealth. I don't know if you're familiar if you've seen the Commonwealth vintage brand. No, I haven't, so I'm not I'm assuming that's the brand, but it is on the tag. It says Commonwealth, and they're usually vintage, like, 80s, maybe 70s, 80s, 90s that that era.

Suzanne Wells:

So, so, yeah, some people are so creeped out by clowns, like the the penny wise clown and Stephen King, yeah, yeah. That's when I hear clown. I'm like, scary.

Unknown:

These are, like, circus clowns, right? And, yeah, I actually do well with those. My best friend, my other best friend, is actually terrified of clowns, and she had one listed, and she's like, What kid needs a clown? You know? Like, why are you selling that?

Suzanne Wells:

Well, my older sister had a clown for her special, you know, lovey toy when she was little, and she called him fun clown. And, yeah, he's in all the pictures, and he, you know, he wasn't a scary clown. I just, I just wasn't into I was more like Linus with a blanket, you

Unknown:

know, yeah, according to her, all clowns are scary.

Suzanne Wells:

So, yeah, yeah, there's a name for that phobia, yeah. So what are some of your highest selling plush or levy sales? And,

Unknown:

like, you know, the$100 Okey dokey moo moo cow and I sold Pokemon Build A Bear for$55 so that was kind of like double edged, because it's not just a Build A Bear, but it was Pokemon Build A Bear, right? So, yeah, I sold that for 55 and yeah, so I would say, like, most of them are actually there was a horse, a horse Levy, that I also sold that one for like 125 so, and it was like a horse, a horse Levy, like, yeah. So it was, like, around unusual.

Suzanne Wells:

They're usually bunnies or bears or cats, those Angel deer. Yeah, Angel deer, I see a lot of cats, and I don't even know where that brand comes from, but I found one once, and look it up. I was like, Oh, this was pretty good. Yeah, back in the back in the day when I started doing it, gosh, that must have been like 2012 when I started with the plush, you know, it was all blankets and beyond, or Gymboree or just a few main brands. But really doesn't matter. Is whatever that child is attached to, it could be a Walmart brand. It's just they don't

Unknown:

make it. Yeah, very true. I agree with that. Oh, I did sell, just recently, I sold K Lux brand. It's actually by Kelly toy. It's, like, it's a style, I should say, okay, so it's, I didn't, it wasn't, like, a ton of money. I probably sold it for like, $25 for like $25 but it was a teddy bear, and it's by Kelly toy. But then it's K locks is they're very, very furry, and it's super, super soft. And I know that that those types usually sell around that price range, like 20 to 30,

Suzanne Wells:

so well. And I don't know if you do this, but if I find these Loveys, and they're 25 cents, 50 cents, I don't even look them up. I just get them because, you know, it's all that looking it up in the store, and it doesn't cost that much. And then, if they're a dud, I donate them to like Humane Society. Or Children's Hospital or something like that, where a child or a pet can play with it. It's not complete waste, but, right. Okay, um, so what else do you sell besides plush and Loveys?

Unknown:

So I would say that my top three selling categories would probably be like plush, obviously plush toys, which we discussed, and then vintage Christmas, vintage Christmas, and vintage seasonal as well Vintage Decor. Like, you know, like home interiors, that kind of stuff. Again, like, I'm very, I'm a very eclectic person, so I, call myself eclectic and eccentric, so my house looks kind of like a antique vintage Museum, and there's no rhyme or reason to anything. So I guess that's kind of like that got me started in selling those items is because I look for them myself, and so if it's something I don't want to keep, but I know it's worth something, obviously, I'm going to pop it on eBay.

Suzanne Wells:

Absolutely, yeah, before we started recording that, you're located in the part of West Virginia that touches Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Unknown:

So, so Maryland, so our tri state area is West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia, but Pennsylvania is only about an hour, ish, maybe probably not even an hour, maybe like 45 minute drive for me, so I can easily hop into one of those other three states if I want it to which I do to also thrift our our area, we probably only have, like, maybe three good wells in our area, and which might be more than some but I know, like out in Arizona, like, where my one, my other best friend lives, you know, they have good wells everywhere. Like, I'm in heaven when I go visit her, and she had, they have, like, a really cool savers, and I don't know what all out there and where my area, we're a little bit more limited. So, you know, we have, we have thrift stores aside from Goodwill, but we're a little bit more limited than some of their bigger cities. So I do tend to like stretch out to other cities around me that are in other states, just because, for in order for me to flip, if that's Oregon, for me to buy from my house, like that's where I go, right?

Suzanne Wells:

So you're more of a thrift store Hunter than garage sales and estate sales,

Unknown:

actually. So I used to be more of a goodwill thrift and any kind of thrift store. But again, in recent years, I noticed, obviously everybody has noticed, like prices ticking upward in those stores just because of the way things are nowadays with our economy. So when my kids were little, I used to go yard sealing. And I keep talking about all my best friends, but I love them dearly. So they we help each other out in one way or the other, and we me and me and my friend Christy, we used to go to yard sales, and then she introduced me to Goodwill. And because I never really went thrifting in goodwill back then, and like in the late 90s, and I was like, if that just started a whole new thing with me. So I kind of switched back then to Goodwill and thrift stores and then. But now in recent months, like this past summer, I've been at yard sales the past couple years every every summer, because I feel like I'm back in the 90s again. How I used to yard sale all the time. So now I'm going to yard sales all the time, and I probably actually have been doing that more so than I have been thrifting in recent years. I mean, I still obviously go to thrift stores. But

Suzanne Wells:

hey, whatever works, wherever you can get the goods, you know. Yeah, the

Unknown:

other, the other thing too, I used to, I used to frequent in in person auctions, okay? And I my very first auction I ever went to. I was a teenager, and I pretty much was hooked, even as a teenager, back then, just going to those I loved, in person, auctions and again, in our area, a lot of our auctioneers have went to online auctions. And I just, I've always loved in person auction, like there's just nothing like it, and so I actually haven't even been doing those as much as I used to, just because they're not as available, because peoples went to online I feel like, I feel like I'm an old school person.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, you know, it's you gotta try different methods and see what you and a lot of people won't even do online auctions, because it's just not they like to go in person and get out there and be involved in the excitement. And, yeah, that's me totally get it. You know, I explore. Afford that option for about a year now, and you can find some good things, but it's still time consuming to figure out, you know, find the items that you want, to figure out your maximum bid, and then you get outbid, and you've done all that work and don't have anything to show for sometimes. And that's but it's no different than if you go to the thrift store and maybe you don't find anything, or you don't find the big scores like you want. You know, it's a lot of looking,

Unknown:

yeah, what methods you use? Yeah, yeah. So one of my like, actually, my light bulb moment for flipping on eBay instead of just selling out of my house, was actually at an in person auction back then, I went to an in person auction. I thought I was bidding on pink depression glass because they had two people holding it up, and so the person that was holding up pink depression glass was the person that was holding up the thing that's coming up next. I thought we were bidding on that, and we weren't. We were bidding on ugly pixie planner, ugly. And so when they brought me the pixie planner, I was like, What's this like? I thought, you know? I thought like we were bidding on the pink depression glass. And they were like, No, you just, this is what you want. I'm like, great, you know? And when I went home that day, I was upset because I got this pixie planner. And again, somebody else probably thought it was the greatest thing, but I personally didn't like it. And I was like, You know what, I'm I'm popping all my other stuff on eBay out of the house, like for the kids and stuff like that. Maybe I'll try selling this and at least get my, you know, five bucks that I put into it back, and I put it on eBay, and it went for, like, $55 and I was like, I'm like, that light bulb just switched off in my head. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I could be buying this stuff at these auctions and getting more money for it, and it just was, like a light bulb went off, and I was like, that's what I need to be doing. You know, it doesn't have to just be the stuff in my house. So, so that's, that's when I and that actually all transpired in around the year of 2001 so I went from buying boys bears to selling accidentally selling a pixie thing for $55 just because I didn't like it on eBay, and realizing, Oh, I could be buying stuff to flip it, yeah, you could.

Suzanne Wells:

I got my light bulb. Moment was like, I was in a goodwill and buying clothes for myself. And I'm like, I could, I could sell this on eBay. It was just, it was like inspired, like I was the first person to ever think of that. It was just like, I could do this on purpose all the time. And yeah, that's what it is. So people that come from a reselling background, whether it's their parents or grandparents, had an antique store or something like that. They're kind of already get it, but those of us that weren't raised with that, yeah, it is a real light bulb moment when you figure it out. You can put this over here, this thrift store together with this online platform, and make good money on purpose all the time.

Unknown:

Yeah, I'll never forget that, only because I I cannot tell you how sad I was, but I wasn't getting the pink depression class for $5

Suzanne Wells:

and lesson remembered. So what do you sell, besides the plush and the Loveys?

Unknown:

Oh, yeah. So I do the I sell, like I said, Vintage Decor and vintage Christmas. So I'm a huge vintage Christmas person. I have about 13 trees in my house at Christmas time, my gosh. And I would say, like, I don't know if I had to guess, like, 85% of it is vintage and antique. So I know a lot about that because of my own collection. Obviously, I don't put all the great, wonderful stuff that I have in my house on eBay, but the stuff that I come across that I can part with that. It's not something I really want for myself. I popped that on eBay. One of my bigger sales for that would have been they were called menstrual caroling Christmas bells, and they played like 12, I think, like 12 different songs. And it wasn't like a huge amount, but it was like $110 I probably only bought them for like, three so and just stuff like that that I if it's something I don't want to keep for my own collection, I buy it knowing that it's worth something, and then I sell it

Suzanne Wells:

well. And I've had a lot of guests that are into vintage Christmas. But everyone has their go to item, like it might be table cloths. It might be. Ornaments. It might be Angel Tree toppers, whatever. And you know, even category within a category within a category of specializing. So do you do all of it? Do you do ornaments? What kind of things do you look for?

Unknown:

I you're going to think I'm crazy. I probably do. I want to say I do all of it, ceramic trees, and the glass, you know, hand painted ornaments, and the vintage tree toppers, vintage Christmas lights, even, like with the light bulbs, like a lot of people, you know, if they don't work, they'll use them, even if they don't work, for crafts, and so they sell.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, you're talking about like the string lights with

Unknown:

the old, the old string lights, yeah, that you put on your bushes outside in the 1980s right? Yeah, when you touched

Suzanne Wells:

them, yeah. Our, our house looked like a used car lot. We had everything flashing and lit up. And, no, I went a little overboard. But so you're saying that they don't have to work. It can just be the bulbs or the non working string, and they're used for crafts. So what would people make out of those?

Unknown:

I wish I had something sitting here I could show you I actually do. But so basically you just take like, like people make little scenes. Some, some people just take the bulbs and fill them up into, like, Mason jars, just to, like, fill as a filler, like in jars and stuff like that. A lot of people are making scenes where you put, like, maybe like a little home co Angel

Suzanne Wells:

Roselle, that was on a few weeks ago, she was talking about she would make vignettes for her antique booth with just random items like that. Just, yeah, little like a scene, I think they call it, and just, it could just be the most random vintage Christmas stuff. And she'd put it together, and people would buy the whole, whole little setup there, just to stick it right mental or,

Unknown:

yeah. So you take, like a little, like a little milk glass, or something like a little milk blast, like bowl, and you put your little filler in, and then you, you know, hot glue, your, you know, maybe a vintage bottle brush, brush tree with your little with your little Christmas angel in there. And maybe, like a little deer and a little bunny. And maybe like a vintage glass ornament, ball ornament, that's little that you know, and you make a little scene, and they'll use those, like the light bulbs off of those folding and teach strings that no longer

Suzanne Wells:

see. I never thought of that. I need to pay my attention crafting things, and it's just so much to learn and and know what people are doing with this stuff, yeah, actually, Oh, you do,

Unknown:

yeah, yeah, I do. I make this, but I don't. I probably should sell them, but I

Suzanne Wells:

don't for you, and it's a beautiful thing to have in your home. I get it, yeah, yeah. I love them. So, so are your grown kids into any of this reselling? No, they're not.

Unknown:

So I seen a meme the other day where it said, look, look, son, this is all yours. And like, yeah, and I actually sent it to both of my grandchildren, and they were like, No, it's not mine.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, nobody will, yeah.

Unknown:

I think they appreciate. They appreciate, you know, obviously what I do, it's just that it's not their cup of tea. I remember dragging them to yard sales when they were little, okay, dragging them to maybe a Goodwill or something, and they just wanted to go home. Once that started, I just always made sure that I had a babysitter or my husband was home so I could go do those things, because they didn't want nothing to do with that. And as adults, they still don't want to do with

Suzanne Wells:

it. So funny. How some some kids that are raised around this just go right into it, like it's second nature, and then others are like, Yeah, I'm not doing that. I'm not interested.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah, they don't they. I mean, I can't. Like, I mean, they still live at home. So maybe when they get older and they're my age and out on their own, maybe they'll change their

Suzanne Wells:

mind, even not your age, once they get out on their own and they realize they can make a few $100 extra a month flipping stuff, you know, then old might come on for them, yeah, if they want to do it, do you sell on other platforms or just eBay?

Unknown:

Yes, I sell on other platforms. I sell on Etsy, I sell on Poshmark and Mercari and Facebook marketplace.

Suzanne Wells:

Wow, you're all over the place.

Unknown:

I recently, I used to literally copy and paste all of my listings, and that took forever, and I recently found a. Form called Flip, F, l, y, p, okay, your first 100 Days is free, and I tried that, and I absolutely fell in love with it, and you only paid $9 a month after that, and it's been my best friend. Like it's so easy to copy everything to the other platforms off of eBay. You pull it from your eBay, and then you copy it to the other platforms. You just very quickly fill out the things all on flip. And then after you've listed it, cross posted it. If it sells on any of the platforms, it can also take it off of those platforms for you. Okay, that's great, great feature. Yeah, that's became my best friend over the past year.

Suzanne Wells:

So how many items do you have in your store?

Unknown:

I am close to 800 so I'm around plastic check 780 780 items right now.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, that's a lot. Do you have a dedicated storage area for that?

Unknown:

So my whole basement is my storage area. Okay, good. We have a very large basement, and I definitely store it down there. When I first started storing down there, I wasn't very organized, but I've became very organized because I have to to save time and things like, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

okay, so about how many items do you sell a week a month?

Unknown:

It just depends on the quarter. I'll be honest, this past quarter was kind of slow. I honestly probably only sold about maybe, like 30, maybe like around 3640 over the past two months or something. So it's been kind of slow for me. I just keep plugging away. I have a very patient person, and I think because of my full time job and doing that, I know I hear you guys always telling everybody to list, list, list, list, every single day. And I actually heard on one of your podcasts recently about how you said that you schedule some like, where you put them in this draft, so that the day that you can't list that way, you can list it. You could just pull that draft up and just go ahead and list it. And I need to get on that boat with you, because just like this weekend, like yesterday, I was not able to list at all. And if I would have had that draft, I could have done that. So I need to get better at doing that. And I think that that's honestly been one of my hindrances, is just the fact that I haven't I I'm not able to list every single day so, but I do try to, like, I mean, last week I list every single day, but then yesterday I did. So anybody

Suzanne Wells:

can, can do it every single day forever, because you just some days do not want to look at it. You're just go out treasure hunting today, or, yeah, I moved last week, and I didn't list anything for a week. I didn't really worry about it because, you know, making this huge life change and everything and things just I extended my handling time to five days, and things just sold as normal. So I was very happy about that. I think listing is something that we can control. So you want to do it a little bit every day, but sometimes you just can't. And you've done all this work with almost 800 items, they're going to keep selling. Yeah?

Unknown:

So yeah, I think I recently told you about an item that I listed, like, nine years ago, and

Suzanne Wells:

that's when I was like, Well, come on the podcast and talk about that.

Unknown:

Yeah, so it was a vintage Muppets McDonald's glass, like drinking glass, and I had listed it October of 2016 and it sold literally last week. I think it was last week or week before. So it's been nine years, and it finally sold. And I thought I got a I got a really good laugh out of it, because I thought it was hilarious, and because a lot of people I know, a lot of like, by listening to your podcast, and I know a lot of other sellers like, if they've had it for about, you know, like, a year or so, they go ahead and donate it back, or they give it to somebody, or whatever. I took the time to list it. I'm a list and forget. And so when I, if I took the time to take the pictures, to list it, and do all the things, I'm just gonna, like, leave it listed, and maybe, maybe play with the price a little bit and things like that, but I just leave it listed and forget it. So luckily, I did find it in my basement, and it did take me about 20 minutes so to find it, but I found it and I shipped it out. And yeah, it was, it was just a hilarious story. And I was like, I wonder, how many people can say that they had their item for nine years before

Suzanne Wells:

they well? And that question comes up all the time, especially from newer sellers. How long should I leave something listed? And some of them think, if it doesn't sell in 90 days, well, forget it. I'll just take it. No, you've already done the work. Okay? Reevaluate if it's been. A couple

Unknown:

of years, I will say that I do, I do pull down all of my items, like once every three to four months, and then I sell similar on all of them, so that that makes them look fresh. It makes them all look new to eBay. And I do believe that that has helped me. I know that there's some everybody has a different opinion on that, but my opinion is that it does help to refresh old listings that way, by taking them down, ending the listing sell similar and I don't do it all the time, like I said, probably once every three to four months, basically once a quarter. I do that. I definitely have proven facts that it has made old stuff sell when I do that.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, there's, there's different schools of thought on that. And eBay said at eBay open this year in August, that not to do that, because it confuses Google, because every time you refresh, you know, end and sell similar it gets a new URL, and it confuses the search engine. And but like you said, when you do that, things sell. So they really do take their advice and say, Okay, that's that's one school of thought, and, but if you're doing something that's working for you, there's no reason to stop doing that. And, you know, eBay changes the rules, so to speak, all the time. You know, used to be white background, white background. You have to have a white background for show up on Google. And now it's like aI backgrounds, you know, use these funky backgrounds. And so it's, it's constantly evolving. Yeah, I can't give advice on what's right or what's wrong. I pay attention what eBay suggests. But you know, if you're, if you're a seller with 800 items, and you're doing something that's working for you, I'm not going to say, Stop doing that. It's working, right?

Unknown:

Yeah. So what year were you born? I was born in 1978

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, so you are a Gen X, talking about the ceramic Christmas trees, the old big fat Christmas bulbs and The Muppet Show. I know you said your age at the beginning, but I go by what year you were born, because in three years, this podcast will be three years older, and the year you were born will always be the same, right, sir, I think that us Gen Xers was the greatest time to be a kid, to be a teenager. It was just before, you know, we're the last generation that was raised without technology, cell phones, computers. And sometimes I wish it would go back to that. It's, yeah, sometimes it's, you know, that's, I think, what people like you that gravitate towards the vintage Christmas because it, it was just enjoying the holiday. And, yeah, the commercialism was ramping up, but you didn't have a room full of people getting together on Christmas Day, and nine out of 10 of them are just looking at their phone the whole time. You know, I think technology has its problems with social interaction and personal relationships. And I just remember being a kid. I was born in 1966 so early 70s is when I start remembering things and just, you know, Christmas morning and getting up and ripping open the presents and playing with your toys, and you got some roller skates, and you went outside and skated, or you got a bike, or board games, or it was so simple. It was a simpler time. You didn't have everybody getting an iPhone and, like, I don't know how to work it, and all this kind of stuff. So I see the attraction to the vintage Christmas, the Vintage Decor, all of that. It is nostalgia. It does very gate these emotions that remembering all that stuff from the past. So keep doing it, because there's a lot of customers out there that want

Unknown:

that my cousin, a few years back, her father, my uncle, passed away, and they threw all kinds of stuff into a dumpster. And I was like, What do you mean? So hand to God, I went to Virginia and I went into the dumpster. Did you put on all of the like, Halloween ghost blow mold, Santa blow mold. And I told my guys, and I'm like, Look, I will pop these on eBay. I will split the profit with you. And that's what we did. And just so much other stuff they just pitched, like, they just, I'm like, This is crazy. So, but yeah, I mean, and those. Sold for, you know, couple $100 each, just because they were blow holes so and me and her split the profit. But yeah, I certainly did. I went into the dumpster to get those benches. I was

Suzanne Wells:

warranted, you know, to do that. But do you think they got pitched just because nobody knew their value, or they were just trying to get finished with the job and get stuff out of there, or what,

Unknown:

I honestly can't speak I don't know. I mean, I'm not honestly Sure. I just think that it's stuff that they didn't want and they didn't want to take time to deal with, you know, having an auction or anything like that.

Suzanne Wells:

It's kind of, everybody's just, let's just get this over with, and know what to do with these things. And it becomes overwhelming. You have to make all these decisions about what to do with things, and it's exhausting. And sometimes you just have to people just pitch stuff like you said. They don't want to have an auction, they don't want to have an estate sale, they just want it to be over so and that's where we come along, and jumping into dumpsters and picking up the curb.

Unknown:

There was a neighbor. There was like a neighbor up the street not far from my house. They they had a huge barn, and again, vintage Christmas will always stop me in my tracks. And they had trees and not I went all out the curb, and I stopped and got it, and they seen me getting it, and they came out and they were like, do you want to come look in the barn? I'm like, Yeah, I want to come look in the barn. So I went and I looked in the barn, and I got a bunch of other stuff, and I was able to keep what I wanted and looked what I didn't very good. I did want to talk to you. I was going to share with you guys and to your listeners about big items, okay, like your large items, I, I obviously do a lot of Smalls. It's just easier to do that. But one of the things I've noticed, at least for me, a lot of people, I just recently had this happen this week, I purchased something off of eBay, and I noticed that the person was here local in my city, and I was like, Oh, I, you know, I messaged him. I'm like, you know, would you want me to come pick it up? And she couldn't figure out how, like, we'd have to cancel the sale and everything. You know, just because she didn't offer local pickup, I actually offer local pickup on all of my items. Didn't matter how big or how small. And I don't know if that's ever been talked about, but it's actually something that I find is a really good tool on eBay, is local pickup. And when they pick it up, it's actually like a barcode, like a QR code, that lets, lets you know that that way, it keeps you guys, you know, safe or whatever, so that you definitely, you know, they know that the person received the item. I actually purchased a 2001 Ford Mustang in Massachusetts back in the day when I still lived in Maryland, and we went all the way to Massachusetts to trailer at home in a blizzard. Oh my gosh, I purchased that on eBay, and my father purchased his 56 Plymouth Belvedere out of Texas, and it was trailered to him. So that kind of made me think, like, you know, I'm willing to travel to pick up a car. My dad's willing to ship a car. Why should I limit my buyers? And so one of the biggest items I sold on eBay was iron, one of those cast iron claw foot bathtubs. Oh, god, my husband, my husband works at a quarry, and they acquired a piece of land with a house on it. Everything was taken out of it that the people whatever was left they didn't want. So we were allowed to go in and get what we wanted. And we took the barefoot, I'm not the barefoot, but the claw foot iron tub, brought it home, and it's worth money. We sold it for $500 on eBay. And the people drove, I think, if I remember correctly, like, four or five hours to come and get it. I have so many stories like that. I've sold I've sold furniture on eBay that way. I've sold a pioneer. I don't know if you remember the Pioneer radios with the 100 CD disc changer, and it has, like, the, you know, the big speakers that you

Suzanne Wells:

sit in. I was just going to say, I remember the giant pioneer speakers, yes,

Unknown:

yeah, that. Well, my husband had that from whenever he was a teenager. We still used it, even when we first, when we first moved here in West Virginia, we were still using it. We decided we didn't want it anymore, and so I listed it on eBay. The people lived about again, like three or four hours away, and they came and picked it up, and they bought it. And I've even had local stuff, like small stuff, like maybe, like some milk glass or, you know, plush, you know, they see it on eBay, they realize that they're that is here in the same city as me, and it saves them shipping, and it saves me shipping. It's just. Some it's just something that I don't know if a lot of people really think about it. No, I know that maybe some people might not like the whole meetup type thing, like having to meet them, or having them come to your house. Obviously, I told you earlier I do Facebook marketplace, so I'm I'm meeting people on there anyway, I don't know. I'm probably a little that kind of stuff, I guess doesn't bother me. Let's put that way, I think so.

Suzanne Wells:

At first I think Facebook marketplace and Facebook buy and sell groups gave a bad name to local pickup because so many people didn't follow through, at least in my experience,

Unknown:

that's true. And

Suzanne Wells:

so you kind of think about, well, on eBay, maybe they're going to do the same thing, but eBay is different in that, you know, you're committed to shipping that item or showing that it was picked up. Where Facebook marketplace is getting better with that, but I put some stuff on there before I moved, like, I don't want to move this one more time, and something like 15 people. Is this available? Is this available? I'll come get it in 30 minutes. I'll be there, you know, whatever. Nobody came and finally took it down off of marketplace and brought it with me, and I went, Well, try again at my new location. Maybe it'll be better, because they different cities in different areas, it is different as far as people committing and actually following through on wanting your item, some in some locations, marketplaces is not great.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah, marketplace, I It's definitely hit or miss in my area. I mean, you know, I've definitely had people stand me up, you know, whenever they said that they're going to come and, you know, meet me here, or whatever. I've definitely had that. However, with the sales I've ever had, all that I've had on eBay, those sales, I do feel like they've always followed through. I think that was, there's definitely a difference. And it's just a thought for your listeners to think about, like, you know that they could always add that local pickup, especially if it's a big item and they don't want to have to ship it. The local pickup feature is there. And I live, I promise you, every single listing has that option. Because I just like, I said the I bought a glass bowl this past week. It was a blinko bowl, and I was like, I wanted it for a project that I'm making, and I'd rather went to pick it up, to be honest with you. For one, it's wouldn't have gotten broken because through shipping. And for two, I could have got it quicker, but she didn't have the local feature, you know there. And I know that that's not going to happen a lot. It's not like, it's not like always, but some

Suzanne Wells:

sellers don't think about it. Or as a buyer, you have to ask, Hey, can I come pick this up? Yeah, I've got, I got a question about that last week from one of my students, and he just noticed that the buyer was very close to her, and she's like, Well, should I offer a local pickup? And at this point, I would just ship it because they're going to get it the next day, because they're so close and right on your schedule, what you want to do if you want to go meet them, you know, if you want to do it. I see this question on the group a lot, some giant or really heavy item, you know, how do I ship this? And everybody's like, you don't you do local pickup marketplace, right? You don't want to ship that marble top coffee table. No way. Just do local pickup. And if people really want it, they will drive, like you did, hours to get that item, and then do things along the way and maybe make a little adventure out of it and stop in a fun town or stay at a hotel or whatever. So don't think that people won't do it. Yeah, I don't think you can do local pickup and shipping on the same listing. Yep, you can Yep, you can offer both.

Unknown:

I have, yep, oh yeah. Every single one of my listings has shipping and or local pickup.

Suzanne Wells:

That shows you how much I do it. I didn't know that. Yeah. So,

Unknown:

like, yeah, I you know you, whenever you go in, you punch in, like, how much item weighs, gotta, gotta? You put your, you know, USPS, UPS. You do it like you normally do a listing, and you keep scrolling down, and there's a little check bar, check box, local pickup or not, and just click it and it, and yeah, and they can choose. They can

Suzanne Wells:

choose along the way. You couldn't do that, I'm not sure. But thank you for educating me on that, because that's something to think about. It is if you're not wanting to ship those claw foot bathtubs. Yeah, that was, actually,

Unknown:

that was, honestly, that was probably one of my highest that was probably. That might have been my highest I don't. I do a lot of smalls, small sales. Like my I'm more of, like, high quantity, like lower value kind of person, I guess, like, I know some people that you know obviously have like, huge sales, like $1,000 you know, $800 you know, I'm more of, like, I sold 10 items for 30 bucks. You know what? I mean, that's $300 yeah, probably the the claw foot tub was probably my highest sale of like$500 and it was a local pickup. And yeah, so I just, I did want to share that with you, just because I thought it was an interesting thing to be thinking, for everybody to think about.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, that's a good point to make. So we have gotten to the end here. Do you have any final

Unknown:

words for the listeners? Yeah, I do. So several things, just for encouragement is obviously, just keep listing the way Nemo. Just keep swimming. Just keep listening. Be patient. The sales will come. You will eventually find a buyer for anything. And even if it takes nine years, I

Suzanne Wells:

was just gonna say, even after nine years,

Unknown:

I do believe that consistency is key, and even small, daily efforts do add up and never give up. Keep fighting the good fight. And I do believe that everything I really, I know that sounds hilarious. I really do believe everything

Suzanne Wells:

I do too. I really do you have to be patient and wait for them so and you don't know who's you get watchers, but you don't know why they're watching. Are they going to buy it? Do they have one the same for sale? They're watching yours. We don't know any of that, and we don't know why they're not buying. Maybe they don't have the money yet. Maybe they're not ready yet. Maybe 1000 reasons that we wouldn't know. Some advice is to look at your traffic reports and see are your listings being looked at. That's the important thing, because that's what leads to a sale. So if you feel like nobody wants this, why do I have this listed? And you go and there's, you know, zero views over 60 days. Okay, maybe there's something wrong with the title. There's a reason that people aren't finding it or 300 views, okay, people are looking at it. You just got to wait for the one to pull the trigger and buy it. Yeah, so you're right. Well, thank you so much for making time to come on and talk about your eBay journey. It's nice to finally meet you after all these

Unknown:

years. I know I do want to, yeah, I've definitely followed your group, and I followed you, and I'm very thankful for you so through the group and the people in the group, as well as just you personally, like, you definitely have taught me a lot. I didn't mention it earlier, but, like, You are the one that taught me about hidden Mickey's, I don't know, okay. And yeah, so, like, yeah, I've definitely, I remember you even had like, a short lesson about, like, cleaning Velcro on, you know, on some of the stuff that has velcro on it.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh yeah, to get the stuff out.

Unknown:

Yeah. I definitely enjoy following you, and you definitely have definitely been a mentor to me. Oh, well,

Suzanne Wells:

thank you for that feedback.

Unknown:

Yeah, for sure.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, well, you've had a long day of child care and go and we'll look for some more of your sales on the Facebook group. Okay, thanks. Have a good evening. Thanks. Okay, we mentioned a fear of clowns that is called cholera phobia, an intense and irrational fear that can cause anxiety, rapid heartbeat, sweating, nausea and shaking. Possible causes include negative childhood experiences disturbing media portrayals of clowns and the uncanny valley effect where a clown's exaggerated and unreadable features trigger a sense of unease, while not an explicitly listed diagnosis in some manuals, it is a recognized specific phobia that can be treated with therapies like exposure therapy and cognitive Behavioral Therapy. So Everything You Always Wanted to Know About a phobia of clowns. Okay, next week, my guest is Kathy in Canada. She is enjoying her retirement with a part time eBay business, and has been selling all sorts of items and keeping. Life interesting. I hope you will join us for that episode next week. Thanks so much for sharing the last hour with us. I appreciate all of you out there in podcast land. Talk to you next week. Bye, everybody. You.