eBay the Right Way

eBay Seller Chat with Mary in Ohio: eBay Alternatives, Retail Arbitrage, “Reselling Got Me Out of Debt” 💪

• Suzanne A. Wells • Episode 241

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Suzanne Wells:

Hi, resellers. Welcome to Episode 241 of eBay the right way. Today's date is October 29 2025 my guest is Mary in Ohio. No announcements today, so we will jump right in. Hey everybody, and welcome back. We have a little bit different of a format this week. We've got Mary with us. And how are you doing this morning? Good. How are you I'm great. So I reached out to you to come on and you said that you don't really do eBay anymore, but you do reselling on other platforms, and that's still useful information. So we're going to dive in and talk about your your whole journey from eBay to other platforms, and all the things that you do. And you had a reseller meetup a couple weeks ago, and we can talk about that. So you have a lot of information. So first thing is, where are you?

Unknown:

I am in a plain city, Ohio, okay, Ohio, okay.

Suzanne Wells:

Are you so? Are you Eastern time?

Unknown:

Yes, I'm Eastern Time, yes, okay.

Suzanne Wells:

I guess I had on my calendar that you were central time, so I was ready an hour earlier, thinking that you were Central time. But anyway, here we are, okay. And when did you start reselling in general?

Unknown:

My The first item I ever actually resold was in 2018 but I was selling like through, through Facebook, and then I started on eBay with my own stuff. I'd say 2012 Yes, so I guess 13 years selling, but then seven, seven years reselling.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, so how long did you stick

Unknown:

with eBay? I was on eBay until about 2021, or 2022 Okay,

Suzanne Wells:

and we'll have to dive into what made you move on to other sites.

Unknown:

Okay, well, I am, around that time, I was already starting to sell on Mercari, and then I wound up just having a little bit more fun on there at the time this, this might be a really lame reason, but eBay added so many item specifics. And I do work a full time work for someone else job, and it for me to be ambitious enough to do it after work and on my lunch break. I really, it really had to be fun. And it was taking me so long to list something that, and it was taking me a lot less time on there, and then eventually I started Poshmark. But I might have already been done with eBay by that time, but it was just taking me so much less time to get get it listed on on the other platform. So it wasn't like, oh, eBay was causing me all these problems, or it wasn't anything like that. It was just I wasn't having fun anymore because it was taking me so long, right? But when I started, you know, it was, it was a lot of, I remember, I it was a lot of bidding. Now, maybe I just wasn't aware of the buy it nows as much. But I remember, you know, at the very beginning, I was doing a lot of auctions,

Suzanne Wells:

right? Okay, what type of items were you selling?

Unknown:

At the very beginning, I wound up moving from a three bedroom, three story house to a one story, one bedroom apartment, and I had this garage full of stuff. It was a detached garage. It was full of stuff. I was really just downsizing. That was, that was what got me so I was selling things on Facebook, and then I started, it's like, oh, I can do this on eBay too. I had tried eBay years before, probably in the late 90s. I tried to sell one thing, it didn't sell. And of course, I decided eBay didn't work. So it was many years later, I gave it another chance that time. Well,

Suzanne Wells:

I know that as a clothing seller that you know the clothing item specifics have just gotten out of control, and I know it's eBay trying to make searches more efficient, because if you're looking for a red cardigan, button up sweater. Are, you know, and then there's like, 20 more items. It just they're trying to accommodate the buyers and how they're searching, so that's why they keep adding these item specifics. And it does kind of drive you crazy. There's not as many on vintage items,

Unknown:

and, yeah, and that's, and I'm not a clothing seller, and so, but even, even what I was telling it was, you know, a lot of vintage Christmas stuff at the beginning, and then, you know, I moved on to just other stuff that I had, but, and at the beginning it wasn't, it wasn't like that. But I think around the time I was discovering these other platforms, that's when it was just like, oh my gosh, this is taking me forever, and it's just me being an impatient Italian. We aren't known for our patients,

Suzanne Wells:

right, right? I've noticed the item specifics can be a real drag, and some people just don't fill them in, and that's fine. A lot of them are irrelevant. Why are they even asking that theme and stuff like that that's just doesn't even apply. But that's what it's all about, is they're trying to match search results with buyers looking for very specific items. So I feel you on how time consuming it can be to list when you've got all those item specifics, you went through your own home and you downsized some things. And so what made you pick? Okay, Poshmark, you said, Mercari, do you do Facebook marketplace too?

Unknown:

If I have a large item, I will do a Facebook marketplace, but that's just kind of, that's just, yeah, if I just think it's way too big to ship or something. And now, at the beginning, I was it was all Facebook groups. I don't even think we had marketplace then. I don't think it was called marketplace. I just did

Suzanne Wells:

it right. It was just buy and sell groups, right?

Unknown:

And I would have repeat customers. That's, you know, you hear about repeat customers on eBay and everything's like, I have repeat customers on Facebook because everything, yeah, the,

Suzanne Wells:

if it's local, they get to know you, right? Okay, so I think that was during the time when Poshmark was really taken off.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah. I wasn't as familiar with Poshmark until way later on in the game. But yeah, I know Poshmark is, is older than Mercari is as far as in the United States.

Suzanne Wells:

So were you selling clothing there? No,

Unknown:

no, I'm not a clothing seller on Poshmark. No, I sell there. Well, my favorite I do a lot of Ra so now my favorite things to sell are baby blankets, sheet sets and shower curtains. Those are my favorite things to sell. So I don't do as much vintage. That's not to say I don't have anything vintage, but, you know, because I'll pick up whatever. But mostly what I do is the retail and those are my favorite things to sell.

Suzanne Wells:

The listeners, Ra stands for retail arbitrage. So explain that business model. In case the listeners aren't familiar,

Unknown:

basically, I'm just going into different retail stores and picking up, you know, just, just like what they're doing at a maybe a garage sale or thrift store, and then it's, it's just all brand new items, so I don't have to worry about checking for stains or now, that's not to say every now and then one might slip through. I did send a brand new blanket to somebody once, and there was absolutely no way for me to know that there was a hole in it. Just happened during production, but it was very smooth. She sent that was on Mercari, she sent it back, and then she actually ordered another one that I had, and that one was fine. So that's another nice thing you can you can do multiples. So if I sell something, then I just copy and paste. Once I sell it, I can just copy and paste my next listing, if you know, if I have several of the same item, now, on Poshmark, you can, you can actually mark it as multiples. But on Mercari, you can't. And I'm just more used to Mercari, you know, I've been doing Mercari longer, so on Poshmark, I just do one at a time. Okay,

Suzanne Wells:

so, yeah, there are benefits to the retail arbitrage. So do you do like TJ Maxx and Marshalls and what, what stores do you hit?

Unknown:

PJ, Max and Ross are like, Ross is my favorite. And then, and I do TJ Maxx, and then Burlington and Ross, but, but, you know? And then I've done some online. I mean, I've done some online at Hallmark, you know, I've done some homework. Yeah, Hallmark. Hallmark is, it's a that's a little bit tougher, you know, if you get clearance and something maybe that somebody else didn't have in their area as much of so, you know, I'm open to anywhere, but my regular places are, yeah, like Ross and I'm old enough that I get the senior discount on Tuesday. Is it rot? There you go. Tuesday is right work

Suzanne Wells:

the system? Well, do you ever do grocery stores for, you know, like non grocery items, just non perishables.

Unknown:

I saw on on at least one of your lessons where you had done really well with that. And I have looked, I don't think I've ever actually found anything at the at the grocery store, because, just like you were alluding to Poshmark and Mercari, you can't sell food on those like you can on eBay, although I did when I was still selling on eBay. I did sell a box of or boxes of the monster cereals.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, okay, wells, we're referring to clearance items like health and beauty, hair color, those types of items, because at the grocery stores I go to you still get the senior discount if you get the clearance items. That might be, but sometimes it's, it's like vitamins and protein powders and expiration is just too, too close. So you got to be careful with stuff with expirations. And sometimes that's why they're clearing them, is because they're about to expire. So great if you want to use it yourself, but if you're, you know, spending money on a big container of protein powder that expires in two weeks, that's a little bit risky for

Unknown:

me. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, you, you, you might, it might have to throw it away. I mean, that would have to be something with very high sell through rate for you to get now. Now, all these, all these, I don't know if you have an Ollie's where, yeah, I did do stuff like that there. I did buy some hair coloring there. And so I mean that that's that's probably similar to Ross and stuff, but at all ease that I did buy hair color there and some other things there, where they they wouldn't have that stuff at Ross. Well, they might. They might. I don't really hang out in the HBA section too much at Ross, so yeah, they might at Ross. But anyway, I didn't, I haven't bought any of that there. I bought it

Suzanne Wells:

all. What are you allowed to sell on Poshmark,

Unknown:

pretty much, everything else, um, now you can't sell fragrance. Now, I don't know if that's going to change, because they just moved from priority packaging to ground advantage. And ground advantage is ground, so you should be able to sell perfume there, but with priority, since it all went air, we could not sell perfume. You know, the the

Suzanne Wells:

flammable. Right? Hazmat stuff, right? Yes,

Unknown:

yes, we could not sell that where I can on Mercari and food, you can't sell food on but pretty much, pretty much everything else I haven't, I really haven't run into anything else you know. Of course, your RX stuff, you can't sell that stuff on eBay either, right? But, yeah, yeah, pretty much everything else you know now the electronic items on Poshmark even, even when it was priority, they would set send you a ground advantage label so that the electronic but otherwise you sold it the same way. You just couldn't use your priority packaging.

Suzanne Wells:

And okay, and so on Poshmark is the shipping already figured out for you.

Unknown:

Yes, it's very easy, anything up to five pounds, they send you the label, and as long as it weighs less than five pounds. Now if, if somebody bundles something and it weighs more than five pounds, then you are responsible for upgrading your label and paying the additional so if it's six pounds, you have to pay an additional 450 now, they've already paid the wells. Now it's six something. I can't remember exactly how much it is, but now, but, but beyond that, like I'd pay 450 and then now, I don't know if those charts will change a little bit now that it's a ground advantage instead of priority, but for now, up to 10 pounds, but you can't ship in it. You can't ship over 10 pounds, then you have to break up the bundle. Okay, I have to have your buyer break up the bundle. Well,

Suzanne Wells:

I wanted to have you on because you said, Well, I don't really sell on eBay anymore, but there's a lot of resellers out there that want to explore other platforms, and just haven't pulled the trigger on it yet.

Unknown:

Yes, yes, it, it's scary to try something new, yeah.

Suzanne Wells:

But I keep hearing how easy the shipping is on Poshmark, you don't really have to do all the, you know, calculated shipping and, you know, figure all that out. So it's just, it's just a set amount. So that makes life easier,

Unknown:

and you never actually see the money. Whereas eBay, they pay you, and then you have to pay for the label, right? You never even see that Poshmark, just they keep that part. The buyer pays shipping. I don't do free shipping, but if you do, then you know, then obviously. They would take that out of what you charge. You know, you charge the buyer, but I don't do free shipping on there. So yeah, they just send you the label. So it's not like I have to deduct that shipping like you do on eBay. And same with Mercari. It's all flat rate, unless, again, you decide to do free shipping, which I don't, it's all flat rate, but you choose which rate you want to go with on on Mercari. So whether it's going to California or Ohio, you know, and they've actually made theirs a little easier now to you know, of two and three pounds is I go ups, and then anything under a pound, a pound or under I go, USPS, okay, but you, you pick that when you do the listing.

Suzanne Wells:

And, okay, well, where do you sell the most stuff? Which site

Unknown:

it? It actually goes back and forth. It's really there are times when Mercari is not hopping and Poshmark is. Then there's times when Poshmark isn't Mercari is. So I'm glad that's interesting.

Suzanne Wells:

So how long have you been on Mercari?

Unknown:

I don't think I was on Mercari yet. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say around 2020, so five years, and then Poshmark is probably it's three or four. So just a little bit less, because I tried it once and I didn't love it, and but then when I tried it again, it I was able to pull it off, because there's a little more interaction with the closet sharing. And you know, you have to, you have to keep your things boosted in their algorithm.

Suzanne Wells:

So what about Amazon?

Unknown:

No, I know, and I saw your video about Amazon too well.

Suzanne Wells:

And there was a time where, like, oh, it's opened up a third party sellers, and a lot of people jumped on that, and it went well for several years, and then it just got so complicated. And, you know, they were gating the categories. Even if you've been selling in a category for years, you had to reapply to be a seller. And it was a lot of people lost quite a bit of money on inventory that was in the FBA warehouses because, Oh, can't sell that anymore, or Amazon would get it in stock and just you were out priced and couldn't sell it, and then you had to pay to get your stuff back, or just have them destroy it. And you know you're you're going to be out, you're going to have to pay to get it back, or have that inventory destroyed. And I hear from people all the time, just 1000s of dollars, 10s of 1000s of dollars, of inventory, because Amazon kept changing the system and just it became very difficult for the third party seller. So I'm just going to say you didn't really miss anything.

Unknown:

Didn't sound like it.

Suzanne Wells:

While it was lucrative for several years, you know, a lot of us got bit at the

Unknown:

end. I remember your coffee story,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, yeah. I was all kinds of things like that. And I was selling a lot of groceries. And you know, with with groceries, you have maybe a six month expiration so it was really hard to find that hot item. A lot of them were local products. And if you lived in a test market city, that's great. It still is, because you may have products the rest of the country is not seeing because look up test market cities listeners, see if you're in one, and look for things that aren't nationwide. And you know that's that's the way you can leverage your location if you want to get into something like that, but yeah, just it, it was quite disappointing that it ended that way.

Unknown:

Yeah, that's well, especially after you were successful with it and and you grow accustomed to to counting on that being a part of your quote, unquote paycheck, you know?

Suzanne Wells:

Well, I think with reselling, we just have to understand things are going to change. The rules are going to change, and it's how quickly can you adapt to the new way, or do you want to or, you know, like you go to a different site, you know, more than more than one way to sell a thing online, right?

Unknown:

That's, right, there are so many options now, and I people kill it on Amazon, but yeah, that's, that's just me. Me not just not wanting to go there. I just, I see the returns, and I see it's, you know, it's just seems like a little bit more hassle. It's better with the gating and.

Suzanne Wells:

Everything. Yeah, and as far as people kill it on Amazon, Amazon takes a lot more financial investment upfront. You know, pickers that listen to this podcast, that you know go around and pay $1 for things, or like you doing the retail arbitrage, that really watch your investment. Amazon takes a lot more money up front and it's, it's riskier. So I mean, I feel like, if you're doing retail arbitrage, there's, there's probably some products that you might use. If this doesn't sell, I'll just use it or give it as a gift, or donate it to women's shelter or something like that. That's why they put all those soaps. I bought all these little hotel soaps, and oh my gosh, I got them on an online estate sale that I went and picked up. I didn't have them shipped to me, but it was like 200 of them. I could not give those away on Ebay. I tried different ways of packaging them, like in different lots and different types, and they were all vintage from all over the world. So I was like, when I moved I was like, I am not moving these again. So they got donated. Someone will love them. They'll be, they'll be worth something to somebody that is in a business, like a a women's shelter, a homeless shelter, whatever. But deployed troops.

Unknown:

They use those too. But where deployed

Suzanne Wells:

troops? Oh, yes, absolutely. I've I used to sell them all the time, and I don't know what. Maybe the lots were too big and too heavy, and I repackaged them. And did you know flat rate shipping, and they use them at the festivals like Burning Man and Coachella. It's like currency they trade the soaps and mission trips. And, yeah, a lot of mission trips to different countries. And there's a lot of uses for those little soaps, but and they're becoming a thing of the past because hotels are using the dispensers now, yes, so I don't know, I couldn't make that work, but I'm free of them now. I'm not gonna buy those again.

Unknown:

I remember when you were selling those a lot, and it's funny because I have a lot listed right now, and it's not moving. I've sent offers so So, yeah, I'm now. I don't have as many as you have. It

Suzanne Wells:

might have been they were too old. I i picked a few for myself, like Jergens and cashmere bouquet, just because my grandmother used it and I love I just saved one so I could smell it, you know. But the the ones that did move in the past were Neutrogena or Paul Mitchell, the little shampoos and soaps. So maybe it had to do with the brand name, I don't know, but just didn't work for me anymore, so I gave up on that, but we really got a topic there. So you went to a reseller meetup a couple of weeks ago. Do you want to talk

Unknown:

about that? Yes, I am. I'm part of a meetup YouTube channel called Mike Metco meetups, my friend, my friend Mike and I met a year ago at a reseller meetup, and I met a bunch of people there. And so he decided to do a YouTube channel about meetups. I'm in Ohio, and he's in New York, and but, but, yeah, we all met in Tennessee. And so he he just I saw his video. And I'm like, wow, that would be really fun to help with. So I emailed him, and I said, Hey, let me know if you ever need any help. Next thing I know, I'm part of the channel. I'm running the Instagram and the Facebook page. Oh, I mean, it's great. So, so, so he goes to all the meetups. I've gone to a few, but I don't, I don't go to all of them. Well, some of the guys who actually run the resellers, locker room podcast on YouTube, they wanted to put together a meetup, and so they reached out to Mike and me. We got on kind of a three way phone call, and asked if we wanted to be part of it. And I'm like, Well, sure. You know now, I mean, Mike can speak for himself and I can speak for myself, but we both wanted to. They knew we'd want to be a part of it. So yeah, we planned this meetup in East Tennessee, and it was two weeks ago, and we had a blast. And we saw people that we had met at other meetups, but then also people that you're starting to see it at all of them. And so because the only meetups I've ever been to have been in Tennessee. This is my third one.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, where abouts was it like Gatlinburg Pigeon Forge?

Unknown:

This one was in Greenville, which I think that's an hour from Pigeon Forge. Don't quote me, but it's, it's still out that way. It's, it's okay, East Tennessee. See. And then I went to one in Crossville, and I went to one in Nashville, and I met all these guys in Crossville, but then they were also in Nashville. So now we've seen each other, you know, and got to be friends. And but we, yeah, but we put the goodie bags together. Um, Ben is one of the members of the locker room. He, he got the the venue together, the Moose Lodge, and it's, it's a lot of work, you know, but it was a lot of fun, too. It was definitely, definitely a different vantage point, planning it, as opposed to just going and hanging out and partying, you

Suzanne Wells:

know, right, right. How many? How many people attended?

Unknown:

We're estimating about 80, which was good. Yeah.

Suzanne Wells:

So did you have specific sessions or speakers and like, what'd you talk about, and what could people gain from attending that

Unknown:

real well, what I would say is mostly just networking and meeting people that actually care about that thing you sold. You know, where, where? If you tell a random person, they just whatever. I mean, they might be happy the first 12 times you tell them about it, but then you realize they just, they just don't care. Oh, God, here

Suzanne Wells:

comes Suzanne. She's gonna tell us all the stuff she sold.

Unknown:

Now, exactly. I mean, yeah, you've been reselling way longer than

Suzanne Wells:

everybody picks up their phone and pretends to be on a call.

Unknown:

But all these people, they're excited, you know, like I had, I had 17 things to ship this morning, which is an absolute ton for me. And so, yeah, I went to these guys in the message,

Suzanne Wells:

and we are recording on the day after Columbus Day. So you had an extra day of no mail there, which I love those piles, because, like, oh, I sold all this stuff. Well, yeah, it was over three days,

Unknown:

right, right? It was counting, right, right. It's a lot for me.

Suzanne Wells:

That's when you take a picture and put it on your Facebook. Oh, I have a great, great sales, but you don't put the part about it was over three days.

Unknown:

That's right. So, but, but, yeah, just No, and, and learning. I mean, we did have a panel of people to answer questions, and, you know, all, all of these people were full time, I can't remember one that isn't full time, and some very large YouTube channels. And so people were really able. They men been doing it for a long time. So that was a way to learn. Now, we didn't have sessions, per se, other than that, Q and A session where everybody just, you know, everybody asked the panel. Originally I was on the panel, he's going to talk about Poshmark and Mercari, but then one of the, one of the guys, bearded picker, who is very knowledgeable with eBay and Amazon, he won't, he had gotten delayed, so he hadn't gotten there right in time. But when I saw him walk in. I'm like, you're, you're, you can, you can take my spot. I'm gonna go sit down. So I went and sat down next to his wife.

Suzanne Wells:

And you can name drop. Who are these folks with the big YouTube channel that came

Unknown:

well, a bearded picker was one of them. And then let's see who else was on the panel? That's of course, consignment chats was on the panel. Franklin Hill ventures was on the panel.

Suzanne Wells:

Send me those people and I'll put it in at the end. Maybe that would help get more people to your meetups. Yes, yes. And for my selfish purposes. I would love to have any of them on the podcast. Sometimes I reach out to people and I don't get an answer, and I don't know if my inquiries go into their spam or they're just too busy. I mean, take an hour from a big eBay business is a lot, so I respect that had some big names there. Yes,

Unknown:

yes, yes. And bearded picker would probably be the biggest, so that as far as well, I'd say biggest, but he's, I mean, he's just probably got a barely bigger channel than you. I mean, you're, you're a big, you have a big channel,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, but I don't get the views, like the ones that do the shopping and all that. So it's a little different. I appreciate every single subscriber, but you look at some of these channels, and they'll do a shopping video, and they'll get 20,000 views in one day, I'm just like, wow, that is I'm just not cut out to do that when I'm shopping. I'm just thinking about me, what I want to buy to flip I'm not thinking about making it into a video.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah. And the teaching channels. I think those, those are tougher See, that's what I watch, the teaching and the the kind of the talking channels I don't, I don't actually watch. To the picker channels because I'm working my day job, and that's just not a good look if I'm staying sitting there. Oh

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, you're right, exactly. So I there. There is so much on YouTube that is reselling focused. I personally love doing the $100 sales from the people in my Facebook group, because I just focus on what's sold rather than what I think will sell. That's history. That's it happened. The proof is in the pudding, you know? And it's just like every, every day I learned something new and I see something, oh, I got this for $2 at a garage sale, and it sold for 300 and I just, you know, that's what keeps us addicted, is knowing something like that already sold.

Unknown:

It's not just a haul. I mean, those have their place, but those have and

Suzanne Wells:

I think you have to enjoy the content you're making. So putting together the$100 videos. And like my sales update, I try to include teachable moments and say, Okay, look for this item. Look for who knew this would sell. And here's what people are doing with it and all that kind of stuff. We had Trisha talking about vintage Christmas and the the big fat bulbs that we used to have on the bushes outside and stuff. And it doesn't even matter if they work. People use them for crafts and decor and all that kind of stuff. And I didn't know that, you know, I'm always thinking, Oh, it has to work and be, be perfect. And I'm still trying to get over that, sell it for parts. Doesn't matter.

Unknown:

Yes, yes, because somebody could be really creative. Yeah, yeah. Well, same as probably, like jewelry, lots with, you know, single earrings and, like, what would I do with a single earring? Well, not much, but somebody that's crafty, could, you know, could do stump something with those so, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

and as soon as you learn what a specific item is being used for, then you remember it out there. So you don't do any kind of garage sales or estate sales or anything like that.

Unknown:

I well, I I'll go to garage sale every now and then. I used to go to garage sales all the time. Before I got into Ra, I would go, and I have gone to a few estate sales, but I've, I've never gone to too many of those. I used to go to thrift stores all the time. So it's just, you know, just like all of us, it's just kind of evolved into the more the RA. Because now if I go to a thrift store, I find I don't enjoy it as much as the RA so I'm doing now, you know, now ask me if, if, if I ever don't have a work for someone else job all day, right? I may think a little bit more out out of the box, but for right now, if I'm going to go on my lunch break, I want to do the thing that I'm going to enjoy the most, that that does still makes me money. You know,

Suzanne Wells:

what is your regular job? Well, I'm a

Unknown:

legal admin for a chemical company. Oh,

Suzanne Wells:

that's serious work legal, yeah.

Unknown:

I mean, it's a little bit different than working for an actual law firm. But, um, yeah, I've been with this company for, uh, 27 years. Yeah, I was a temp the first 12 years. I wanted to raise my kids, and so I wanted to have a more flexible schedule, so I would go to work while they were at school. But then, you know, as they grew older and when they were grown, then I started actually applying for jobs, and then I got hired in legal. So I worked in in tons of different divisions as a temp for the same company. My mom retired from there, my aunt retired from there.

Suzanne Wells:

My Okay, so can I ask what year you were born?

Unknown:

1967 Actually, I'll be 58 actually, in less than two weeks.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, so you're a year younger than me. Yes, is retirement on the horizon for you? Well, I,

Unknown:

I don't I'm not really ready to retire yet. I mean, I would like to have some kind of a date in mind. But now, had I not been a temp for so long, I'd probably be a little closer, but I, you know, so I've only actually been an employee employee for 15 years. Another thing reselling helped me do was get out of debt. And so I got out of debt in 2020 and so I didn't even start looking at retirement until after that. And so I'm probably a little bit behind so well,

Suzanne Wells:

no congratulations on getting out of debt. That's a huge thing. Number one, that you care. And number two, that you tackled that and did it.

Unknown:

I. I really wanted to be on Dave Ramsey, and so I got to go be in on his radio show in his studio in 2020, and

Suzanne Wells:

did you do the debt free scream, oh, okay, you'll have to send me a link to that. If it's if it's out there somewhere, it

Unknown:

is, it's unavailable. But if you have a link, you can send it to somebody, because they, I guess they take things down after a while. But I, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

absolutely, thank you. Is that is a huge accomplishment. I commend you on that.

Unknown:

Well, reselling helped with that. So people listening, I mean, you re, you know, reselling brought me in the extra money to help do that, you know? And it

Suzanne Wells:

probably, it probably helped, having your kids grown and gone too. Yeah, making it expensive,

Unknown:

that does give you, that does give you a little bit more time.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, what do you see as a future for your reselling business? Are there any sites that you haven't tried that you want to delve into?

Unknown:

I actually haven't tried any others. So basically, I've tried Poshmark eBay, Poshmark eBay, Mercari and Facebook marketplace. So yeah, I've never tried Depop. I think, I think they're mostly clothes, and any of the clothes one, oh, and Etsy isn't really conducive to what I'm selling now. So I, yeah, I really don't have plans to try those at this point, just and now, if my selling would evolve, I would, I would be open to it, certainly, because, you know, I'm open to trying other platforms. But right now, I don't have plans to try other platforms other than what I'm on.

Suzanne Wells:

So, okay, we're in the middle of the day on a Tuesday. So do you work from home on your regular job? Okay, okay, why don't you at work? I'm on lunch. Ah, that's right.

Unknown:

Okay. Yeah, I can take my lunch break anytime. So yeah, I worked until we until we logged on, and then, yeah, I'll go back to work.

Suzanne Wells:

So yeah, you're familiar with Zoom, then that's work at home. Person's best friend, right? Well, can you talk about some of your maybe larger or interesting sales that you've had on Poshmark and Mercari

Unknown:

recently, I had one that that was fun. I don't I don't know that I would call it large, but it was kind of cool because it was so fast. So I was getting ready to fill out my Halloween cards. I worked at Hallmark for a long time. So, okay, guy, and, and I put stickers always on the outside of the envelope. Well, I looked at my Halloween stickers and it's like, girl, you are not going to live as long enough to use. I mean, I only got so many Halloweens left, not to be morbid, but I've like and, I mean, I probably had 100 years worth of stickers left, and so I had some vintage peanuts and Scooby Doo that were from Hallmark, probably from when I worked there. And I thought, I've got enough stickers that are not sealed that are going to get me through. You know, it's going to be fine. So I decided to to lot those up together for$25 I got ready for bed, walked in the other room, cha ching. I mean, it took like a half an hour. Oh my gosh, $25 no offer, and these were just three sealed packs of stickers that were sitting in my stickers that I was probably never going to get to anything. So, no, no, that's not, that's not life changing, you know, a life changing sale, but it's

Suzanne Wells:

just something you had and like, oh, we tried this, throw it out there, and it was exactly what somebody wanted.

Unknown:

And, and somebody who's lived right, right, somebody who's living paycheck to paycheck, you know, even after fees, it was probably 22 $23 and so if you're, you know that that could be grocery money, you know that could be, you know,

Suzanne Wells:

hey, it's something, yeah, yeah.

Unknown:

One, one thing that I think is cool is when, like, I have my certain things that I really like to sell, if I'm walking around and I find a new brand, something that looks interesting, and then I look it up, and then I realize that's a good seller. And then come home and list it, and within a couple days, it's sold certain, certain sheet sets, or baby blankets. Or I do like to find new brands that I didn't, that I didn't know about. I think that's always fun, because it you, it's, it's not, you know, you can only you only these stores only get so much, right? They only get so much. And some things, you know, are better than others. But when you find one where it's like, okay, they've got a few of these. Let me try them, and then, then, you know, to look for these other things.

Suzanne Wells:

So does Poshmark and Mercari. Have historical data, like we have completed listings on eBay. Can you look up what it's sold for? How are you doing

Unknown:

that? Yes, yes, I can look. And I do use eBay sometimes if I can't find it, because obviously, I mean, eBay is a mammoth, you know, you right? The only thing with eBay, though, is only it only goes back at three months, whereas, isn't that, right? Why

Suzanne Wells:

did? Well, if you go into the eBay research tool that used to be Terapeak, it now goes back three years,

Unknown:

but I wouldn't have access to that, right? Oh, sorry, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, everyone has it for free. It's hatched, you know, you can do it on the app, you can do it on the computer, and they made it free, and it first it was just on, like, the desktop and the laptop, but then it migrated to the app probably a year and a half ago. So that's outstanding for rare items or like, if you can't find it, you just keep increasing the timeframe to go back and see if it's on there. But it can be overwhelming, too. If you've got something that there's 1000s of you don't want to go back three years on that, you know, 30 to 90 days. But yeah, you could, you could be using that to do your research.

Unknown:

Oh, okay, thank you. Okay, because I do look, I do look on Poshmark and Mercari, but if I don't find it, then, you know, then I look a little bit further. Poshmark is big. It's not as big as eBay, but it, but it is bigger than Mercari. So a lot of times you will be able to find at least what I sell, you know, between, especially on Poshmark, but between, but to answer your question, yes, but thank you for the tip about Terapeak.

Suzanne Wells:

But I find when I'm researching brands that name their styles, Athleta is one of them, and anthropology like, they'll have a an item and it has a name, like the Tabitha coat. I don't know it has a name, because I'm not a fashionista, but I'll drop that picture into Google lens and it'll pull up Poshmark before eBay, usually, because I feel like those people are maybe more knowledgeable about clothing, or maybe they've got that detail and not that eBay sellers don't know it, but that just usually comes up first when I'm trying to find, does this specific item have a style name Google lens is, is very helpful on that and getting more information. So I use, I use other sites to get more information. If I don't know, I see some Mercari listings, it's usually Poshmark, and then if it's a vintage item, it might be Etsy. Oh yeah, yeah. So for the listeners, don't just stick with eBay. If you've got something you are trying to price correctly and it's maybe a little unusual or there aren't very many of them on eBay, look at the other sites and see what, what's going for there. I think Etsy now shows sold listings. I think there's a way to see that, because sometimes I'll I'll drop a photo in, and it'll take me to Etsy, and it'll say, this item is no longer available. You can view something like, view the sale, or whatever, and it'll it'll show you what it's sold for. So I did Etsy kind of when it first came out, and I just couldn't get any traction on it. I guess I was not selling the right things. But I can try.

Unknown:

Well, sure. Why not? You know, I do think it, the site kind of got away from what they wanted it to be, and I think they are trying to move back to that because, yeah, because I would see things on there that definitely weren't handmade and definitely weren't

Suzanne Wells:

vintage, yeah, and now they allow craft supplies, and they keep expanding what they allow. But I really liked it when it was pretty much all vintage stuff. I would go on there and buy things, cool home decor pieces or something an artisan would make, you know, they show samples, and they would make it in the color you chose and the font and all that stuff so that that is a very cool site. I just don't think it's cut out for me,

Unknown:

right, right? And you can be a shopper without being a seller, for sure, honestly. Oh,

Suzanne Wells:

absolutely, yeah, I shop the other sites so well, you have been very helpful with eBay alternatives and explaining why you kind of moved away from eBay, and you know, maybe you'll come back to it one day when you when you're retired and you have more time. But I totally understand the time efficiency part, because everybody's roadblock is. Getting their items listed. Why do you think they have death piles? That's everybody's roadblock, and you can only do so much in a day.

Unknown:

Yeah, I kind of, I kind of envy that sometimes, because I never have a death pile, like I go by it, and then I list it, I go by but because I can, yeah, I can list it so fast, right?

Suzanne Wells:

Exactly you can. Okay, well, do you have any final words for the listeners?

Unknown:

I did. I did have a tip for new eBay people. Since I did sell on there for years, my tip would be to weigh and measure your items. You can't just go by with what they recommend as far as your dimensions, because I did get burned with that when I was a new seller. I remember. So that would be my one tip for for eBay sellers, it's a little bit different on the platforms I sell on, but, you know, but I know, you know, a lot of there's, there are a lot of eBay sellers that are just just starting. So yeah, and

Suzanne Wells:

shipping is the hardest thing for new people. A lot of it's just fear that they're going to do it wrong or they don't know how to do it. And you know, once you have it figured out, it's okay, everybody listening. That hasn't started yet, it's going to be okay. Millions of people have figured this out. You can too well. It was great to finally meet you after all this time, I commend what you're doing with the meetup group is so that would be open to anybody who wanted to come.

Unknown:

Oh, absolutely, yeah. And you know, Mike Metco meetups is, is the YouTube channel and the Facebook and Instagram and, yeah, please reach out to me if you have any questions about, well, anything I talked about, but about the meetups we're already playing in the next one for next September, this, you know, the same weekend. So yes, and I want to thank you so much for having me on that was, you know, really nice. I never thought I'd get the opportunity to be on this podcast. So that's that was exciting for me. So thank you very much. I really

Suzanne Wells:

wonderful. Yeah, I'm trying to come at reselling from all angles. And you know, eBay isn't the only game in town. People want to know, what are their alternatives? What can they do in addition to, or maybe like you, instead of for a while, until your life changes and you want to get back to it if you ever do

Unknown:

right? Oh, absolutely, it's there for me.

Suzanne Wells:

Thanks again for coming on, and I wish you the best of luck in everything that you're doing. Thank you. You too. Bye. Okay, and here is a list of some of the YouTubers and podcasters at the meetup. Mary mentioned the reseller locker room podcast is who she did the meetup with Rocky Top picker, beard King picker and Jefferson flips. Others from the meetup are bearded picker, rebel reseller, who has been on the podcast and she specializes in toys and plush and Loveys consignment chats, Franklin Hill treasures, tree cat, old school flips, Jack's treasures, death pile picker and biscuit butt. So check out those youtubers and podcasters next week. My guest is Marla, who runs an eBay store for her employer, as well as her own store when she has time, her employer's specialty is high end items from estates, and she has some excellent information to share. So make sure you tune in next week. Thank you all for supporting this podcast. It is one of my favorite parts of serving the eBay community. So thank you for the pleasure of serving you. I hope everyone has a great week. Keep listing. We are in the throes of fourth quarter, so once Halloween is behind us, things are really going to take off, and you want as many items listed as possible. Happy, selling everybody. Bye for now. You.