eBay Seller Chat with Janet in NC: Stuff from Her Yard, Vintage Clothing, Local Artisan Works, Smalls, a Diverse Mix of Treasures 🌟

Join my online school for eBay sellers here. 

Get my BOLO books (eBook format) here

Get my BOLO books (printed format) here

Contact me for a store review Suzanne@SuzanneAWells.com 

Follow me on Facebook

Join my private Facebook group here.

Find me on YouTube here.

Visit my website here.

Email your comments, feedback, and constructive criticism to me at Suzanne@SuzanneAWells.com

Transcript

Unknown: 0:18

Hey, eBay sellers, you have landed on episode number 246 of eBay the right way. Today's date is December 3, 2025 and how the heck are we into December already my guest today is Janet in North Carolina. Announcements, well, this isn't really an announcement, but sharing some information that will help your business. Yes, I said will help, not might or could help. Sometimes what we don't know really can hurt us. I've done a few store reviews lately and the underlying issues that attribute to slow sales really have nothing to do with what you're selling, but how you're selling, the devil is in the details. I wanted to share with you four issues that continue to pop up simply because sellers just don't know. Side note, a store review is included with your membership to the premium library, and you receive a video that you can refer to and keep forever. Just contact me and let me know if you want this service, and if you aren't a member of my online school, no problem, I can still review and critique your store. Just contact me and say you heard about the store review on my podcast, and I can help you out for $25 if I don't find anything that could be improved, I will refund your money. That is my guarantee, so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Okay, the first issue is not accepting returns. Nobody wants returns or likes returns, but that is an occupational hazard. If you don't have a 30 day return policy on your listings, that is definitely hurting you for two reasons. First, you are pushed down in search. We want to do everything possible to place higher in search, look at your competitors, sellers offering the same types of items. Do they offer returns? If they do accept returns, they might be getting the sale and you aren't. You can even look at completed sold listings for the types of items you sell, and see if those sold listings have a return policy. Yeah, you might find a few sellers that don't accept returns and are selling items, but this is an easy way to place higher in search and gain customer confidence to get more sales. Buyers don't want to buy from sellers who don't accept returns and don't stand by their products. Offering returns is just good business. Second you build customer confidence when you offer a return policy. How do you feel as a customer when you see a retailer or online seller that does not offer returns, especially on mainstream type items, not rare collectibles, especially clothing, you probably don't feel good when you're trying to buy something, and the seller doesn't offer returns. When I'm shopping online, and I see that the seller does not offer returns, I think, Hmm, this seller is not standing by their product. Customer confidence drops, and buyers choose a different seller. Now I'm not talking about scammy returns, where the buyer does a switcheroo or something sketchy, just your basic return policy. We've seen those horror stories, and they're rare, and as I've mentioned many times, often a buyer opens a return and never follows through. So what if it's returned? Of course, in the original condition that you shipped it out in, you just sell it again. This one change can result in more sales. Remember, selling on ebay isn't about you. To the seller. It's about what the buyer wants and competing with other sellers to get the sale. So you have to do everything in your power to be the better seller. Okay. The next issue is listing daily, or at least on most days. This keeps the algorithm happy. EBay likes active stores, and one activity you can control is listing. Some sellers say, I don't have time to list. Every day I get that. We all have busy lives. The way we spend our time is a reflection of our priorities. If something is important to you, you will find a way, or it will find a way to fit into your schedule. We all have 24 hours a day. It's all about what you do with it. Maybe get up 20 minutes earlier in the morning, or trade in that TV show for listing a few items, or get the help of those in your household to take over some daily chores so you can focus on your business, or push yourself to list one more item before you go to bed, whatever it takes. If your schedule is that jam packed, rearrange things or drop things that don't serve you. This is not about sacrificing, but reprioritizing. What we focus on grows. If your sales are slow and you aren't listing, figure out how to list at least one item a day. I'm not talking about tweaking listings or ending and selling similar I really feel like that has wasted time, like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic the ship's going down anyway. List one item a day from your pile that hasn't been there before it could sell the same day. EBay likes new listings also on days that you list, put some listings in your scheduled folder to post on days you know you won't have time to list. Scheduling listings is free. There used to be a 10 Cent fee for when the listings went live automatically, but it's free now, so there's no reason not to use that feature, especially if you are under a time crunch. Okay, handling time, you may not know that one day handling gets you higher in search. If your sales are slow and you don't have one day handling try editing your listings and changing it. Even if you just sell one item a day, the time to pack and ship will be minimal. If sales ramp up so much that you're overwhelmed with shipping, you can always switch back to a longer handling time. But wouldn't that be a great problem? To have more sales equals more shipping. The objective is to get your sales moving. Sometimes we have to do what we have to do to get the results we want. Okay? And the last topic is shipping options. Make sure that you are offering at least two for a couple of reasons. First listings with two or more shipping options appear higher in search. Aren't you noticing a theme here? Doing the things to get higher in search. Make sure the lowest price option is the first one. EBay shows the first option to the buyer, but they may not know to click through to see other shipping options. New buyers come to eBay all the time, and they don't know all the nuances of the website or the app, and it's definitely not obvious on the mobile app where 60% of all eBay sales happen. Okay, my exception to this is media, mail. I don't put that one first because it is the stepchild of the USPS. It doesn't come with insurance, and you can purchase insurance through a third party, but then it would cost about the same for ground advantage, which does have insurance. When I first started selling my bolo books in my eBay store, I offered media mail and had many media mail items go into the black hole, and I saw that it took three to four weeks sometimes for media mail to be delivered. So I stopped offering it because it just became a hassle, and people wanted that book ASAP so they could start looking for the items and making money. Your experience with media mail might be different, but don't assume. The buyer's objective is the cheapest shipping they may want it faster or a more dependable rate. Okay, yeah, that was long, but I wanted to share, from a teacher's perspective, the common issues I see, and maybe this information will help you. Okay, on to the chat with Janet. Welcome back, everybody. I have Janet with us today. And how are you doing? I guess it's afternoon. Where you are, it is okay. And where are you located? I am in mebbin, North Carolina, which is right between about 45 minutes from Raleigh and 45 minutes from Greensboro. Okay, okay, good for you. How's your weather today? It is pretty good today. Pretty good today. Little cooler, but it's nice out. Alright? So we have about 67 here in South Carolina. So I'm glad for these nice days, because the dark night of the soul of November is coming when it's rainy and cloudy and you know, yeah. So okay, well, let's start off with when you started selling on eBay, and what, what brought you to the reselling world? Well, it's, it's interesting. I started in 2003 I think that's when you started too. It sure is. Uh huh, yeah, um. My mother and father in law had had had passed, and they had a house in Florida. So we went down and decided we were going to sell the house. And we went down to unload it. Got there. It was three bedroom home. We got there and rented the biggest U haul it known man, and filled it up. And came home, and my mother in law was a antique vintage person, water sort of, and she had a little shop down there as well. And so everything was pretty much antique or vintage. And we got home, it filled up my garage. I'm like, gosh, what am I going to do now? And how am I going to sell all this stuff? What am I going to do with it? Well, my neighbor happened by and said, you know, you should try and sell this on eBay. Like, really, and at that time, I only heard about it just a little bit. Oh, it's just, you know, I'm not going to really go that way, some auction site. He's I said, Well, have you, have you done anything? Have you sold anything on eBay? He said, I sure. Have. I've sold some vintage mason jars and some other things. It went, Well, okay, so that's what got me started. I'm like, You know what? I think I'll look into this. And I did, and I was hooked from that point on. Do you remember the first thing you sold? I do. It was a vintage carnival glass cream and sugar dish with a tray under it, and I kind of wish I'd kept it now, but Yep, that was the very first thing I sold. Did you know anything about the glassware markets? Or do you just jump out there with no, I did a little research, the best that I could, and just popped it on there, and it sold, you know, pretty quick, well, with the auctions back then, it was so strange to me. I had no idea what I was doing. I just, I'm just going to put this on there see what happens. And the lady, you know, that had about, I don't know, maybe five or six bids, and it sold, and she sent me her money order, and then I mailed it, and, oh, that's money order, yeah, remember that time? Sure do. Everything was auction. So after that, I put about maybe three or four more things on and had good results. So I just like, I said I was hooked. I'm like, this is fun. I'm sitting at home. I'm making some money and and this is a lot of fun. So yeah, I'm still at it today and all these later. Just like you, yeah. Now carnival glass has like that multi colored sheen hologram kind of look to sort of the iridescent, right? Yes, okay, yeah. I'm fascinated with the glassware. It's just very overwhelming to me because it. So many different kinds, and a lot of it's not marked. You just have to know what it is, is that a specialty of yours? Well, not, not, not particularly a specialty. All I know is just what I had with her, mainly, and just looking it up, trying to figure out what I had, how much it might be worth. I've sold enough things that I can generally spot something that is definitely vintage or antique, just from what I did with all of the things she had. She had quite a few glass things. But I'm not, I wouldn't call myself a specialist, per se, well, and that's how we all learn, is you gotta learn by doing, because really well i i think for anything in life, you learn better if you just do it. You do, and it, it was a definite learning curve. I just stuck my toe in that water and said, I'm gonna just give it a whirl and and I've learned a lot through the years, still learning. I don't think you can ever stop learning. No, really, there's always more to learn. Now, are you retired? I am okay, and is it just you and your household? It's my husband and my older Well, my youngest daughter, she's still with us. She's waiting for her knight in shining armor to propose, and so she decided just to stay here. She works not too far from the house, so it was, you know, pretty convenient for her, and she's saving money, so Right, yes, do either of them help you? Or are you on your own with this? Um, well, I'm pretty much on my own. My husband does the running to the post office. I Yes, that's his main job for me. It helps me a little bit if I have a big package that's hard for you know me to tape up, or I'm making a box, or he'll help me with that, but I'm pretty much so low. He doesn't go treasure hunting with you. You know, he did once and all these years, he did once said, you know, this is kind of fun, but I don't think he's really interested in pursuing that. He'd rather stay home and ask me, what'd you sell today? And then can I take it to the post office? That works too. Yeah. Well, where do you get your items to sell? I'm guessing you've gone through all that came from your parents. I have well, that particular haul from Florida, it was from Florida that's been gone. It took me about a year to go through that. So now I, I have about four or five thrift shops and little nooks that I, I, visit between Hillsborough and Burlington at the moment. That I visit frequently, and I go to occasional yard sales. They're really not my favorite around here. It just, you know, sometimes you can find a good one. Probably the best one I ever found was last year, right around the corner from me. But I just don't really find much in that. I do go to estate sales, okay, so that's, that's what I've done. I haven't ventured into auctions, online auctions, yet. I'm thinking about maybe trying out replacements. I've got to look more into that. I've sold to them quite a bit. Oh, good, because you're right up there where they are, and I am. I'm only like, 20 minutes from replacement. That's wonderful. Okay, so Maggie, who is in the Asheville area, we had her on episode, and she saw that she was she's pretty close, well, not terribly far. And then Steve Gettler up in New Jersey, he showed a picture of a van load of stuff he took a few months ago. Now, I don't know if there's another one up near him, or if they drove all the way down to North Carolina. I read his post, and he drives down, okay, when they're in the mood for a road trip, he drives down and and people said, Well, why? Why would you do that? I mean, you know the gas. And he said, well, the cost of shipping everything is about as much as the gas. So he. Locks down. But I haven't looked into it yet, but I'm really thinking about it some, you know, some special seller program, and you have to, yeah, well, reach out to those two, because they seem to have mastered it. And I'm sure plenty of others too. I just those two come to mind. But yeah, I'm with Steve on the logistics of driving, because, well, first of all, you know, it's not going to get broken or hopefully won't, if you're driving and he's retired, and so, yeah, do a road trip, and then you can hit some stores on the way down and on the way back. And, you know, make a business trip out of it exactly. I'm sure many listeners are going to envy you for living so close. Yes, I know I need, I need to take advantage of that. Well, I have with selling my own things, but I think I'm going to really look into that. That would be another option for me, yeah, too close. I'm just too close not to and I definitely use their site for finding comps, yes, and it's always a win, as you're looking up items on their site and it's out of stock because they don't have it and it's not anywhere else online, you've got a good chance of naming your price Exactly. Well, good for you. Now, how many items do you have listed? Well, currently I have, well, I just sold one before you we got online, but, oh yeah, I normally do about 100 I'm pretty, you know, I just can't handle more than 100 where I'm at. So that's normally 100 150 is my normal amount, because I can, you know, process it well. I can handle that well. I am just single person well, with my business, right? So that that's about what I do. Okay, good. Well, you've posted some great sales on the group. So would you like to talk about some of those? Well, the one that you had mentioned was the, and I don't normally sell things like that, was the Duncan, the Dunkin Donuts, native deodorant that, oh, right, yeah, that was the craziest find. And actually, my daughter helped with that. We were, we were at a store. She said, Mom, let's look at the clearance aisle. Okay, I never, never do that. Really. I just don't even go in that store often. And she said, look, and she knew all about it, uh huh. And they had them marked way down. It was crazy. So I got my phone out and looked at the comps. Okay, so I got the two and put them online, and lo and behold, they sold for way more than I it was crazy. It was just crazy. Do you remember what they sold for?$39 for two of them, and I paid$3 okay, that's a great flip. Yeah, it was a great flip. It was a really great flip. But I don't normally do personal care products. I just happened to be there, and, man, there it was. And I decided to do that. I normally sell vintage, more vintage things, some clothes, and it's changed through the years. When I got started, it was all vintage, antique. And then I got, got rid of all that, and then I decided to go with clothes. So I sold a lot of men's clothing. I found that easier, and did that for a while. And and then I decided, well, I think I want to get back into more, some more vintage things. I enjoyed that. And I procured some things from my mother's home, and more stuff came in. So that started the vintage selling again, which I really like that. I really enjoyed the hunt for that vintage item. It's just there's a stark difference between what's out there now and what there used to be, even even back in, you know, years ago, what you would consider something that was not expensive particularly, is better than you know what there is now. I find Right, right? Yeah. And then another aspect was not to get political, but with the tariffs, we've got all this clothing already in this country, and I just feel like that's going to work in our favor as resellers, because we're not going to have as much coming in. Buyers are going. Going to look for kind of like during covid, when all the doors were closed and my eBay blew up during that time because I had athletic wear and all the things, you know, casual wear and pajama pants for people would wear a nice a top or jacket for their zoom calls and whatever on the bottom, because it doesn't show it just that blew up. What's your take on that situation? Mine did too. I did much better with clothing and things that people needed during during covid. And I think too that this whole minimalistic lifestyle now has also made a difference. You see so much more out there to pick from. I mean, there's plenty, there's plenty, plenty of items now. So that's sort of in our favor. So you mean from people downsizing and donating people downsizing and this whole trend with, you know, minimalistic, not having as much, and so people are bringing it into thrift shops and in the truck loads, at least around here. So that's been a that's been a positive, positive thing for me, too. Yeah, I definitely agree with with that, and maybe more of a consciousness of keeping things out of the landfill. Just exactly donate it, have a garage sale, sell it. It all goes into the life cycle of of reselling. We're just passing stuff around, really, but just for the fact that there is, I hope in in our lifetime, we see this really take off with the minimalistic living because people just don't need as much as they think they do. Right? I agree with that. I mean, I have been doing that myself because I we're, we're planning on downsizing, and my house is, it's just like a warehouse to me. Now, I see, after my mother, I downsized her home, and my mother and father in law, I'm like, oh gosh, I don't want to do this to my kids. So that's exactly how I feel. Yeah, and so I've been slowly trying to do that. And also I shop at thrift shops all the time for myself, because I I just feel like it's sustainable. I don't want to leave, you know, leave a better footprint instead of going out and buying something new or Amazon or not, that that's a bad thing, but no, but we're in there anyway, exactly. I come across things that I buy for myself, and then when I get tired of it, it goes in my eBay store. Yeah, right, exactly. And like, I'm always careful, you know, what I'm eating, you know, so that I don't get any spills on clothing that well, this is going to my store, or I wear my inventory on purpose anyway, like, oh, you know, I don't have a coat. I just wear one of the ones I have for sale. Matter of fact, most of my, well, not me, I wouldn't say that, but some things in my inventory are nicer than what I have so, and that's why they go in your inventory. Like, that's right, that's right, 50 bucks and wear it to Walmart and the grocery store. Like, where do I go? Nowhere. I'm scared. I'm scared to wear my inventory. I just, you know, I just don't want to do that, so I wear my old stuff and keep my nice things to sell. Well, trust me, if it's something really nice, I'm not going to wear it, right? It's, you know, 20, $25 item. And, hey, I need this black sweater to wear with this outfit to this one thing. Yeah, borrow it and put it back. Well, let's talk about some other things, either that you have found that are in your inventory, or that you've sold. Well, I was thinking about one, one thing that, and it's a it's a funny it's a funny story, but it led to me finding something else I was at a thrift store. It's been a few months back and there, and I've been up there maybe a few times, and there was a lot of ladies in the store, and I was looking at, I don't know, some clothes or something. All of a sudden I hear this, this little voice, I can't find my glasses. Where are my glasses? Get over here and help me. So I looked up and and this little lady that I hadn't paid any attention to in the store, she was talking to her daughter. Well, apparently there was a big tray, this giant tray, of glasses. They were readers sunglasses in there, and she had taken. Her glasses off, set them in the basket with the other glasses. Oh no, it got her glasses mixed up with all the other glasses. Her daughter was laughing at her, and everybody in there was chuckling it. Poor, poor little thing, little lady. But so after that debacle happened, I'm going to just check this basket out. And she drew me over there from all the all the ruckus, and I found the most wonderful pair of vintage crown Japan sunglasses in there. So that was a great find. And had it not been for the the joke going on with the ladies glasses. I probably wouldn't have even bothered to look in there. So you never know. You know another person, an elderly person at another shop, was looking in the skirt round around her, and she said, Oh, this isn't a skirt. I don't know why this is here. And I looked up and I said, that's a that's a vintage kilt. Oh, my goodness, I hope she puts it so she said, I just this isn't gonna fit me. I'm like, I don't think she realized what it was. And I said, you know, that looks interesting. I'd like to to look at that. And she handed it to me and said, Well, I hope it fits you. It doesn't fit me. So anyhow, that ended up being a great find. It was, it was an original kilt from Ireland. And it was a great find. It great price that day, and it I made quite a profit on that, on that kill, remember what you sold it for? I sold it well. I paid $1.75 for it, and I sold it for about$65 Oh, good, yeah. Oh, good. And I'm guessing it was wool. It was wool. Yes, it has escaped the moths. And it was, there was no damage. It was, it was in great shape, good. So that was another fun, fun find that can be a real bummer when you find those vintage. Well, I look at Vintage like Ralph Lauren plaid skirt. Back in the day, we wore them to school with a sweater and boots. And even in Georgia, you know, we It wasn't really that cold, but that was the style. And I'll come across those they had, like the little leatherette straps, yes, and lo and behold, there's always some moth damage somewhere. And, you know, maybe I should just get it anyway and and see if, if people buy them, if they want to repair it, right, do something else, repurpose it into something else, because that was such a popular look, those plaid wool skirts everybody wore them. And I'm not talking like private school outfit. I'm talking like, you know, knee length, we dressed up in high school. You probably did. I did too. I did too. Yeah, yep, I know exactly what you're talking about. What year were you born? I was born in Durham, North. What year? Oh, 1960 Okay, okay. So, yeah, you were, you were in high school in mid 70s, I guess. Yes. Okay, so, yeah, that was the style then. But yeah, we dressed up. We did and, you know, yeah, we did that. And, and the true bell bottoms and hip huggers, that was a thing, too. And my Yeah, oh, I bet. Okay. So I was born in 66 that was kind of phasing out when I was in high school, and it was the chinos and, you know, the Alvin KLEIN JEANS, because Brooke Shields wore them. So we all had to get those, wow, bell bottoms. I hadn't thought about those in years. You ever find any of those out in the wild? Not, not vintage ones, it's a rarity. It's a rarity. Mm, hmm. And we had the big, wide leather belts and your candies, the, you know, the candy shoes, right, the slip ons that they were so uncomfortable. Oh, they were, but they were cool, though, but, and there was other sandals that had sort of the cross straps on the front and the big, thick cork heel. I'll have to look up if there's a name for those, but everybody had to have those. And then it kind of goes on to the preppy the penny loafers with the chinos and all that kind of stuff. So this is where our age really is a benefit, because the younger generation, they didn't live this. We lived it. We saw it every day. We remember the commercials and the magazine ads and all of that. And. The younger crowd. I was in a goodwill one time. This was years and years ago, and it was close to Halloween, and these teenagers were in there trying to find things to make an 80s outfit. And they were just picking out, like really crazy, wild patterns on shirts and pants. And I had to say something. I said, Okay, y'all, no, no, the 80s wasn't just a decade of where nothing matched. Okay, think of the Breakfast Club. You've got the sporto and the the preppy and then the, you know, they didn't have goth yet, but they sort of had, like, the ones that would wear the army jackets. You know, Vietnam wasn't, wasn't too far behind there, but you have these different groups and how they dressed. And, of course, the concert T shirts and all that stuff. That style with the army jacket, was like burnouts, is what they call them. Okay, yeah, they would always be congregated in the smoking Hall. I had to set these kids right, because they had no clue what they were doing. No that they have no idea. They have no idea. And I wish I had my my bell bottoms. I wish I'd kept those. And yeah, I could, I could. I could probably do pretty good with that now, but it's a shame we just didn't know. No all of those we could have kept are Jessica McClintock prairie dresses, exactly. Oh gosh, those go for 300 or more now, depending on condition and all that. But that's, that's your cottage core, your grandma core. They have words for that now, yes, but you know, speaking of you that you might repair or find that might need repair, I've actually sold two things that from way back? Okay? And they were, both of them were robes, okay? One was a robe that had been overlooked three times. I went to this thrift shop, you know what? I'm just going to give it a try. I got it, did some repairs. I had some stains on it. It was a vintage man's wool robe. It had a rope sash, original rope sash. And I mended it, because I do a little sewing on the side, mended it and posted it, you know, showed everything, the the stains, all my mended areas. It sold in like two or three days, like 50 some dollars. It's crazy, excellent, yeah, and the other one actually was from my sister. She given me this. It's called Canyon group, yes, okay, I had worth a lot of money. Okay, well, at the time, that's about big bolo, and I'm still looking. I've never seen one since, but she had one, and then she gave me one. It was this crayon, and all of them have themes. And mine was bright yellow. It was four length, and it had these giant, kind of really thick tulips on them. And they were, like, six or seven tulips randomly scattered on this robe. Well, I wore it and wore it and wore it, and I ended up out we have had an above ground pool, and I would take it out there and put it on so it was getting coring, okay? It was tattered. It was, you just kind of worn out. And darn if I didn't get an ink spot. I put an ink pen in the pocket. Leaked, alright. So in my clearing out some things, I decided, well, you know, I'm just going to put this in my bag to repurpose it, or whatever chunk it like. No, you know what? I'm just gonna look up that canyon group. Oh my gosh. I was shocked, absolutely shocked. So I thought, well, you know what? I'm gonna put it on there. I put it on there, showed all the flaws I actually had to stitch up in a little place, and it also sold within a week. Now, it did sell for a little less. It was maybe 49 $50 but I was amazed, because it was not in very good condition, but okay, that that is one to keep an eye out. Yes. Now let me fill in the listeners about what these are. So it's a thick terry cloth robe. It almost looks like chenille. It's Chanel, yes, okay, so and it's it's raised patterns like it might. Be, you know, a moon and some stars or flowers or different things. And you guys can look this up, just Google Canyon robe, C, A n, y o n. Now, these got popular on the show the nanny because she had, she wore one Fran Drescher, and it was called the birthday cake, and it was all it looked like a birthday cake with the raised, whatever that work is called, but it almost looks like a terry cloth bath mat. It's so thick, yes, it does. And so those became collectible because she made them popular. And they're older, too, and they're very thick, and they just have unusual designs on them. That's in one of my books. When I found out about that, I'm like, I bet people don't know this, or they're not looking at the sleepwear anyway, because the average person on the street thinks has no clue this kind of stuff will sell, you know, along with the lands night gowns and the the Nick and Nora pajamas and all the the different sleepwear things, but I found one of those robes once, and I think I got 75 for it, just it wasn't an outstanding, strikingly beautiful one, but they're out there, and it's just a very plain label that says Canyon. And I think they're 100% cotton. They all my my label said Canyon group, okay, Canyon group, yeah, and I have never found one since I always look, but when I, when I did, when I looked on eBay, and I was so surprised, and I looked into it a little farther, and apparently there was a, I think it was Brad Pitt wore one in one of his movies, yes, and anything about A boxer, that up and put, well, it was Brad Pitt, but I looked it up, and he, it was a short version, and it had, like, poker, okay, poker card, you know, that was the theme of it, uh huh, so. And then I, you know, looking on eBay further. I mean, some of those robes were up in the 200 mark, yes, depending on the theme of it and the length and the, you know, condition of it, okay, here it is. I just googled it because I wanted to know it was called the Fight Club robe. The character was Tyler Durden, and it's a white robe with coffee mugs on it. Okay, okay, maybe it's a different one that you're thinking of, but I have seen this, and I'm just on Google looking that up, and let me see like the ones I'm seeing are priced at $100 or higher. And of course, there's going to be knock offs and fakes and all that stuff. So if you find one, do the research and make sure that it's not a copy, as anything that has any value is going to have copies. So yeah, I'd forgotten about that one good point. Okay, do you have any other items you want to talk about? Well, another thing I enjoy selling and finding are North Carolina artisan pieces I've sold. I sold a sand it's a sand art, and it came from the mountains, from the it was some Indian, but it was a mountain. It was marked with from the mountains, and the Indians make them. And it's, it's had a, it's like, oh gosh, I can't think of the name of it right now, but it's like a warrior, kind of like a hieroglyphic looking warrior, and then it's covered in sand. I found that in one of my local thrift shops, and while I was in there, a lady said, Oh, if you don't want that, I do. I have the big one in that or or one similar. She said, Yeah, they're really sort of telling me a little bit about it. So I found that it was written on the back with the with the artist, if you will, kind of, kind of, you can't really read it out very well, because it's just, I guess they may be mass produced them, but yet they don't. I'm not sure exactly how that worked, but sold that that was kind of neat. And then I found a beautiful glass tiled mirror at that same shop from a North Carolina artisan that lives right. Relatively close to me, and just absolutely beautiful. And so I sold that I found several pieces of pottery from North Carolina. So the pottery does quite well. Pottery is still very popular. Mm, hmm. Found that I actually found one that wasn't from North Carolina. It was from France. Oh, it was this beautiful, large heart, and it had all kinds of intricate designs on it, and it was just a wall hanging. And looked it up, and it was a little tiny village in France. How it got over here? I guess somebody traveled. Didn't want it anymore and turned it in. So I do enjoy that finding things that are from my local area. Yeah, that can be fun, and I've got to learn what's in my local area now, because it's new to me, I find that that's popular on eBay, and I also sell on Etsy as well. Oh, do you okay, I find that that's popular when, when it's a, you know, at least. I mean, people like the stuff from North Carolina. I've always, if you can make out the artisans name exactly, their family might be looking for it. That's true. That's true. I've never thought about, I found one piece when I was up in the Midwest, and it was like a wood block art or something. No, it was a drawing of like a log cabin. And it was in an online auction, and I paid $10 for it, and I could, I could see it had a name, and in the pictures, I tried to zoom in on the name and do some research before I bought it, and I couldn't find anything, but it was also dated, and it was like late 1800s maybe. And so I took a chance, and it sold for around $250 in about a week. Wow. And I don't know if it went to the family or not, or if it just went to, it went local where I was, so it probably, you know, was just, was in somebody's house forever, and then they died, and the estate sale, and somebody who knew that artist must have bought, or maybe they just collected local art, very old local art, but what gets me on that sometimes is the shipping. So if it's a big piece of pottery, oh, they can be so heavy, it's like, that's true. I know the buyer will pay, but I still have to deal with it and pack it up and all that stuff. So I like the little ones, and this was maybe seven by five, something like that. It was a smaller piece, and I was a little surprised that it sold for so much so. Good things can come in small packages. That's true. I like to do smaller items now really rap versus those huge things is it's just easier for me to to handle, right? Yeah, being a little bit older, we have our limitations, you know, with well, and it becomes all about time. The older you get, the more you realize how fast the days go by and you have this list of all these things you want to do, and there's just not enough time you have to refine what you're doing so that you enjoy it, but you're also getting things done. You do you really do another kind of odd thing that I sell. We sell for. Well, I sell from our property. We have some acreage, and have a beautiful stand of just natural hardwoods and variety of trees. But I started selling on eBay and Etsy. I haven't Well, I do have some things on there, some smaller things, the wood from the trees, really, of years and years ago, I thought, you know, we should maybe start selling somehow, off of this property. So a few years back, a big tree fell, and we had a big windstorm and it fell. It was this beautiful oak tree. I said, you know, I talked to my husband, said, we're going to sell that tree. He said, I don't want to deal with all that firewood business anymore. I said, No, we're going to sell it on eBay. Okay, so what I sold? And at the time, it was popular with the weddings. Everybody had to have the big slices of wood to put their cake on. And I don't know if you remember that, yeah, it's like a like a tray slab. It's a big slab, right? Mm, hmm. I sold so many slabs off of that tree. Now they were heavy. I would never do that again, because it is a lot of work. And they were. Really heavy. I sold the slabs, and then I started selling the branches. We would cut them and make devoted tea lights out of them. I got into carving some of them for a time. And people that had weddings, they would, you know, put the date on there and their names, that sort of thing. Well, now I'm down to selling sticks. And believe it or not, people, people buy sticks. I know it's hilarious when I tell people I sell sticks on Etsy. They buy them for their aviaries. They buy them for all sorts of things, just artwork, vase fillers, you just be surprised, what people buy stuff like that for. And I don't have quite as many sales on eBay for that yet. I have had a few, though, but it's like a craft supply. It is. It is a craft supply. And so in the early 2000s my brother and his family lived near Hilton, head over there on the coast, and he used to walk on the beach, and he would pick up pieces of driftwood, and he got to collecting this stuff, and it didn't have ever dawn on him to sell it. And he had a couple pieces mounted on his wall, you know, as decor, like everybody at the beach has that So, but yeah, he started selling those pieces of driftwood, maybe 18 inches long, you know. So it was shippable, yeah, he would just pick him up off the ground and off the beach, and they're weathered, and they're perfect. And you know, that's the way to do it. You know, acorns will sell and Exactly. And you know what, if you're somebody living in Arizona and you want to make a pine cone wreath, like you can go to Michael's or Hobby Lobby and pay a whole bunch for that, but if you just buy it as a craft supply on Etsy or eBay. You make anything you want. You can get anything you want. What do you call those stones that are so smooth? River rocks? River Rock? Yeah, maybe that's something I should pick up and start selling. I got a bunch of those around me because I'm on a lake now, so yeah, and people paint them and make all kind of cool things. And I think the average person on the street isn't thinking, like, what do I have access to that other people don't, and they will pay for Exactly. That's exactly what you did with your tree. Yes, and I've done, I've sold acorns. I'm actually now collecting my husband's like, please stop picking up acorns. And I'm sure my neighbors think this lady is crazy. She's always out there, because we had a huge bumper crop of beautiful acorns this year, but they came a little late, so I'm I'm going to save those probably for next year, but I'll put some on because people use them for fairy gardens, caps and just all sorts of things. And those horrible sweet gum balls, those prickly Oh nos are oh my gosh. And when they fall, they're everywhere, you know they are. And people buy that to make crafts with. They do and yes, now I don't have any of those trees in the area of my property that I can reach, but magnolia leaves as well, yes, and the pods. Odds I was at that Well, I know they think I'm crazy old lady there as well at the post office, because at the post office, they have two of the biggest, beautiful magnolia trees. And I'm like, Look at all these beautiful pods. So after I took my packages in, I got a little, a little bag out of the car, and I'm out there, but I'm like, surely they won't mind if this person picks up pods on the I picked up a bunch of pods there at the post office. They're so pretty. So the wedding industry has become so relaxed with the farmhouse wedding and the outdoor weddings that are just, you know, people are barefoot. It's very relaxed, and they like these natural decor pieces that don't cost an arm and a leg at a craft store, true and you, you know I enjoy that myself. So I love that. I just love the natural things and and I really love shop from home too. That's especially when you're older and you have all this stuff and you just never know what might be worth something, something that you wouldn't think is worth anything, and that's the very thing that is worth something. So I've learned that to shop from home and. And even outside still. And after we're done with this podcast, everybody's going to go running out of their yard, like, what do I have? What do I have? You know, depends on where you live, as what you're going to have. But, yeah, don't overlook that. No, no. And it's a great project for kids, exactly, kids or grandkids. Keep them busy picking up stuff and they sell you give them a few bucks. Yeah, that's right. That's right, yeah, my kids and I used to go walk around the tennis courts the outside were over the fence where all the balls were, and pick up tennis balls, you know, the relatively clean ones. And those can be used for, of course, dog toys. The doggy daycares buy them, you put them on the bottom of chairs, you know, in the assisted living and nursing homes and just, there's all kinds of uses for them, and they don't have to be perfect. That's right, exactly. Yeah, talking about that. That reminds me my mother used to pick up when I was growing up. We lived on a golf course. My mother would always pick up the golf balls that came up in the yard. Well, one day, they were having the the children's classic over there at the golf course, and lo and behold, Michael Jordan, this has been years ago, hit one of the golf balls up into the backyard. And so she she went out there, and here he comes, walking up in the yard, and she asked him to autograph it. I still have the signature's little bit worn off now, so I'm just keeping it. But yeah, that reminded me when you you said you would go out to the tennis courts and pick Yeah. You never know what you can find. Yeah. Now I have to ask, what kind of career did you have before you retired? Well, my husband and I had a business, a water treatment business, for quite some time. So I was the secretary. Did did that. Prior to that, I did a lot of administrative work. Probably the most fun job I ever had, though, was working at the veterinarian I love animals, and for a time, I did that. I did that. I worked the administrative part, and then taught. Was taught in the back. I don't have a you know degree or anything in that field, but they trained me in the back, and so I floated around back there as well. So that was a lot of fun. And and all my supplies for my animals were at a discount. So that was a that was a plug. Very good, yeah. So mostly, mostly administrative type, okay, well, I had you pegged as a teacher, so I was wrong on that. But you just, you speak very well. Your delivery is wonderful. You're very clear, and you like to learn. I thought, I thought she was a teacher, but maybe you were, in other ways, just not in the school system because parent, you're a teacher. Yeah, okay, well, we have made it to the end here. You have any final words before we sign off? I think my biggest tip for the day would be just to stay active on on the side, not to let it go stale. I think it that really hurts you when you at least for me and times, sometimes it happens. Life happens. You have to walk away from it for a little bit, but I think that's the biggest thing for me. Has just to stay active on it and keep your listings current and list as much as you can and shop from home. That's great advice. Well, thank you again for coming on the podcast and sharing your wisdom. And we kind of got to this a little late in the day. What's your plan for the rest of the day? Well, Tomorrow's my birthday, and my sister sent me a a kit that you do you paint, and it's a festive reason I'm planning on painting. Well, good. Well, what a wonderful way to spend your birthday. Is it like a paint by number, something like that? No, no, it's acrylic. You, you. It's, it's painting by go like Van Gogh, okay, yeah, yeah, I never heard of it, but she sent it to me. She was an art teacher, and so okay, you pull up a video and you and you do that. Okay, so hopefully it'll turn out just that's fun, and if it doesn't, it'll, it'll be your creation. And that's right, or what? Yeah, so Well, thanks again, and it was a joy to meet you, and we'll see you posting your sales on the Facebook group. Thank you. Suzanne, it was a pleasure. Thank you. Have a good day, too. Bye. Next week, my guest is Becky, who is a repeat offender. She was last on the podcast. Passed in November of 2022 so we have a bit of catching up to do. She's had some major life events happen that caused her to put her eBay business on the back burner for a while, but she's moving along at full speed ahead. Thank you so much for listening, and feel free to contact me about a story view, if you'd like some insight into improving your eBay business. Talk to you next week. Everybody. Bye for now. You.