eBay the Right Way

eBay Seller Chat with Donna in Ohio: Rehoming Nostalgic Treasures, 2,000 Item Inventory 😃

• Suzanne A. Wells • Episode 272

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Suzanne Wells:

Hi, resellers. This is episode 272 of eBay the right way. Today's date is june 3, 2026 My guest today is Donna in Ohio. Before we get started, I wanted to share a quick life update. As this episode goes live, I'll be heading to an appointment with an orthopedic spine specialist for epidural injections in my back. For the past three years, I've been dealing with significant foot and leg pain that was originally misdiagnosed as neuropathy. After seeing eight different kinds of doctors and searching for answers, I've finally been diagnosed with spinal stenosis, which is compressing the nerves that lead to my legs and feet. The injections are the first step in treatment, and I'd never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually looking forward to having needles stuck in my back if it means getting some relief. Over the past two months, my symptoms have worsened dramatically. The pain and weakness have progressed to the point where I can no longer walk unassisted. I've been using a walker around my home, and my sister, daughter, and Uber have become my transportation team, because operating the pedals in my car is no longer possible. It has been a humbling adjustment, to say the least. Through all of this, I've been incredibly grateful to work from home and have the flexibility to arrange my day around what my body needs. Sitting in a chair with heat on my back happens to be the least painful position, which is fortunate when your job involves a computer. I've been able to continue producing content, running my business, shopping for inventory online, creating lessons, designing happy mail, recording podcasts, and helping the eBay community while dealing with chronic pain, and all those things have been a welcome distraction, especially the Zoom calls with resellers talking with other eBayers about our passion is the highlight of my week. I won't bore you with all the details, but I will say how relieved I am to finally have some answers. How thankful I am for the doctors who are detectives and kept searching for the cause, and how blessed I am to have a supportive family nearby. There's something powerful about finally being able to connect all the dots and understand why my body has been behaving the way it has, I rarely ask for anything personal, but if you're the praying type, I'd appreciate your prayers. If not, I'll gladly accept good thoughts and positive vibes as I navigate this next chapter. Thank you for being a part of this community, and for all the kindness you have shown me over the years. Now let's move on to something lighter and chat with Donna, Donna. Donna, who was on last in May of 23 can you believe it was three years ago?

Unknown:

It's been crazy.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, and you're still out there and all, yeah, you're quick. Okay, so let's go over where you are.

Unknown:

I am in Harrison, Ohio, near Cincinnati.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay,

Unknown:

good. About probably 15 to 20 minutes away from Cincinnati.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay,

Unknown:

so pretty close.

Suzanne Wells:

Good. Alright, and when did you start. Selling,

Unknown:

you know, I was looking back, and I cannot remember. I know it's been probably around seven or eight years, but at least five. I can't.. I don't know. I don't know what the actual date was, so I'll have to go back

Suzanne Wells:

in. You don't remember that

Unknown:

well? It went so quick. I mean, we lost three years. It just seemed like yesterday since I talked.

Suzanne Wells:

I know, right? Yeah, some people remember. I remember because of what was going on in my life at the time. It was March 20, no, it was March of oh three, and I was going through a divorce and all kinds of stuff were happening, so I just remember that because it was tied to other things that I remember the dates of, but

Unknown:

right

Suzanne Wells:

when it becomes like, wow, I don't know, I just been doing it a long time, that's a good thing, because it's just, it's part of your life now,

Unknown:

yeah, I feel like I've been in a little the last couple of years trying to find my footing again, so I'm getting back to it, but I've been trying to work it every day, and I'm seeing my sales go up, so that's encouraging.

Suzanne Wells:

So, you were away for a while,

Unknown:

I wasn't really away, just kind of doing it part time, of course. You know, I have a nice big wealth pile that I need to tackle,

Suzanne Wells:

so I need to come over with a U-Haul and help you out, right?

Unknown:

Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Suzanne Wells:

I'm serious when I say that to people, like,'Hey, I'll come shop your pile if you want. I did it when I was in Atlanta, people's houses and shop their pile and pay 'em a little bit more than they paid for it, and everybody was happy.

Unknown:

That's a good idea. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

so that's just me being rude and inviting myself over.

Unknown:

I'll let you know if I get to that point.

Suzanne Wells:

Kidding, but not kidding. Okay, so you have a pretty big pile, which you know, the more I do this business, the more I accept that, and that's not a bad idea, because if,

Unknown:

well,

Suzanne Wells:

you have a health issue, or you break your leg, or something, you've got to work on, yeah,

Unknown:

right, right, I started this to help pay for my daughter's gymnastics many years ago,

Suzanne Wells:

really,

Unknown:

yeah, and a friend came to me and offered to, she said, you know, I know gymnastics is expensive, and your daughter keeps moving up the levels, and I thought maybe you'd want to hear about this, so that's why I started, but then when she got out of gymnastics, I kept going, mostly, I mean, I had bills to pay, but we have two daughters that are missionaries, and I wanted to be able to give them some kind of donations every week, so, and, and it's a huge deal, like they really appreciate it, so that kind of keeps me going, so that's that's where I've done like the bare minimum, and now I'm getting to a point where I'm trying to like really push myself to make a business where I'm helping them and me and whoever else I want to help, even is never like so, like you'll have great sales for a while, and then you may not have anything for a week, and and then sometimes you've got, you know, you're on top of the world, it just, it's so random, and there's no rhyme or reason to it. So, I haven't figured

Suzanne Wells:

the way out

Unknown:

yet. If there is, you can tell me.

Suzanne Wells:

So, the other day I had something weird happen. I hadn't had sales in two days, which, you know, that happens, and then you get lunch, and so in the middle of the night I got two sales from two

different people at 3:

07am it was exactly the same time.

Unknown:

Oh, wow,

Suzanne Wells:

I just think it's something with the algorithm, it just gives you some for a period of time, and yeah, because I

Unknown:

tried to figure that out, but I don't know what it

Suzanne Wells:

is. I don't, I don't think we can figure it out. It's just you have to accept that if, when you have a dry spell, eventually it's going to pass, and you're going to get sales again. You just have to have faith in the system, and these days there's so many sellers and so many products with a lot of competition, and yeah, factor all those things in, but yeah, yeah, I was like, what the heck, both of them at the same two different people, two different parts of the country, and it was kind of almost as if the eBay gods were like, here's here's a couple of sales for you to keep you, keep you up.

Unknown:

That's funny.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, so you started this to help pay for some things for your daughters, and is the gymnastics daughter still doing

Unknown:

it? No, she's not. She hasn't done it for a while.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah. Hey, you know what, she's

Unknown:

moved on to other things. So, how old is she? Is she the one turning 16? She's going to be 18 this year.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, 18. So,

Unknown:

yeah, so I'm really close to the empty nest thing, and I've got more time now to work on it than I ever have. So, that's where I'm kind of trying to figure out how to get my sales to go up, but I, I posted on your page a few, well, probably a month ago, about doing an inventory. It was probably around the time I was doing my taxes, but I started taking one box and just going through every single box and making sure the items were listed, and I could not believe how many were not listed?

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, so

Unknown:

I, it made me mad, and I thought, daggone it, you know what? How, how does this work? How, what did I do wrong? So today I actually sold something that I had pulled from a box that when I originally typed in that customer label number, it didn't come up, so now all of a sudden it actually sold. I mean, thankfully I had had a bin that I had put everything in, and when it wasn't in the box, I went to that bin, but it just frustrated me, and I thought, gosh, something's going on, but what I noticed is when I'm actually typing in those numbers in my actives, and that listing comes up, there's been quite a few things that have sold since I've done that, so I'm not really sure if it's if it's something with the algorithm people actually seeing it or clicking it or or what, but it just seemed really strange that that was something that you know just randomly happens, so you're

Suzanne Wells:

just going into the listing and editing it, revising it, and putting something in that custom label field,

Unknown:

right? Well, it had something in the custom label field, I always type a number in there.

Suzanne Wells:

You're changing.

Unknown:

No, no, I haven't changed it at all. I just, I go into my active listings and I type in the number in the active listing search, and it brings up that listing, and sometimes I don't even click on the listing just to make sure that it's still actively on there, and then within a couple days it sells, so

Suzanne Wells:

you're not

Unknown:

bazone

Suzanne Wells:

into the listing, you're just looking at it as the seller.

Unknown:

Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

that's an interesting little magic trick,

Unknown:

isn't that wild? Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

okay,

Unknown:

and actually that's happened quite a few times here in the last month, so I don't know what I don't know, like I said, I, I haven't figured it out, how to get those sales, but I know those little quirky things every once in a while do the trick, so

Suzanne Wells:

well, I know eBay says that going in and revising it, jiggling the price, changing the picture, just doing a little something to it, but you're not even doing that.

Unknown:

Nope, nope. So, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

that's something to try and see if it works.

Unknown:

Yeah, so and then I started doing.. I, somebody posted something on one of the comments about Nifty. Have you heard about that,

Suzanne Wells:

Nifty N I F T Y,

Unknown:

yeah? yeah.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, it

Unknown:

cross posts like on different platforms, so you can actually pick which platforms you want to sell on, and then it connects them all, and it's supposed to like delete once something sells, it deletes them on all the platform for, okay, which I'm enjoying that too, because my sales are going up. I've, I've never.. well, I tried Poshmark a while back, and it just didn't.. I didn't like it, but I thought I'll just give it another try. I really want to increase my sales, so it.. I did Poshmark and Makari, and the only thing is finding there are tricks with that too, because I had something listed twice somehow, and when it, it deleted it from, I sold it on one platform, but it didn't delete the second listing, so I hit a little mishap with that, but everything in in reselling is like trial and error, you just gotta go until you figure it out. So that's why your podcasts are good, because people talk about different things, and you can learn from other people,

Suzanne Wells:

right? And then you can try, and it doesn't work, then you can mark that off your list. Well, that nice thing, what's the next thing,

Unknown:

right?

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, right. alright. Well, you are a committed poster on the Facebook group.

Unknown:

Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

lots of great sales. Sure,

Unknown:

every week I kind of think, oh, this is not a big deal, it's not a big sale, nobody wants. See it, because it's not like a bolo kind of thing, but the reason I keep posting is because I think we need encouragement, especially because eBay is a hit and miss kind of thing sometimes, and other times you know it's great, but those little sales add up, so you know I might sell a levy for, you know, 10 bucks and it's not a huge profit, but if I only paid 23 cents for it, you know, that's it. Just shows you what you can do

Suzanne Wells:

well, and that's that's a point of contention for many sellers. There's, yeah, I'm in other groups too, and I mostly just read, right? Say, I lurk, but I'm just.. what? What are people talking about? And I was on this one group, and somebody posted that very concept of, you know, do you think it's worth selling these lower-cost items, you know, when you get them so cheap, and

Unknown:

yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

it was completely divided, one side or the other, and the, the, no people were just like, you know, I have time for that, and they were kind of snarky, actually, like, I don't know why anybody would waste their time on that, and you know, they were just poo-pooing the whole concept, right, so I did say something, but it was like I keep records, and usually I have about $600 in profit every month from sales like that, and because I want to know if it's worth my time to do them and track, right, some days that's all you get are the little ones,

Unknown:

right?

Suzanne Wells:

So, over a year, that's $7,200

Unknown:

right?

Suzanne Wells:

You know, over 10 years, that's $72,000

Unknown:

right?

Suzanne Wells:

So, yes, it does add any, any brick you can add to the pile is going to help, but no, I get it, if, if these people are part-time. They don't have time for all the little stuff. They want to focus on the higher dollar items. They're very busy. I understand why, but don't begrudge another seller because they're doing it different. And you know, I really thought about this. And bottom line is, I just love reselling. Yeah, I love the process of finding something and selling it and packaging it nicely and shipping it, and the person is happy. That's what I'm loving, and right, sometimes it's lower dollar items, but yeah, it's making me happy, right? Because I love the business.

Unknown:

I don't know if you get feedback on it, but lately I've gotten little things like this was my daughter's toy that she played with when she was little, and she's graduating, and I just want to give it to her for a memory, and I had a couple of those, like in one month, a couple different sales that people reached out and said, you know, I thank you so much for reselling, and to me it makes it worth it, you know, it may be something that I didn't make a ton of money on, but it rehomed to somebody that mattered, you know,

Suzanne Wells:

so

Unknown:

I kind of like that feeling too.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, and we all want to make as much money as possible, right? Still, I was out yesterday, and I picked up a few items for 50 cents that will sell for $25 I have no shame doing that.

Unknown:

Yeah, and

Suzanne Wells:

you know it's right there in front of me. I know I can flip it until I get it, and

Unknown:

yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

obviously you want to pick items that are not so labor intensive to photograph or don't need to be cleaned, or you know, you want to pick what you can do quickly, right? That's the bottom line, is you don't want to sell anything, you want to think about it first, but yeah, I came to the realization that you know not every sale is going to be $100 and you know if you enjoy doing it, you know, I've got my music on, I'm doing my listings, I'm enjoying my day with my fun coffee, and that's what I love, is the lifestyle,

Unknown:

right?

Suzanne Wells:

I'm a little passionate there, so

Unknown:

I agree with you.

Suzanne Wells:

So, okay, you never got into what, what things you sold, other than a lovey.

Unknown:

Some of my.. well, this just today I actually had a repeat. This kind of surprised me, but today I had a repeat buyer who bought two in two separate orders, so it wasn't shipped together, but little golf visors. My friend had a yard sale a while back and gave me all of her leftovers, and at first I kind of thought, oh, you know, these are no big deal. Well, then I started looking them up, and I thought, "Oh, well, I could get about 20 bucks for this, and it was free, so I had - I had sold one about a month ago to the same lady, and then she just bought two more today. So I've got that to go out this afternoon after we do this. I'll drop it off at the post office, but that kind of, you know, I've learned not to dismiss those things, things that I don't think will sell, actually do sell. So I sold those. I'm still, I think I told you on on the last podcast we did, I still look for mr. Potato Head and the Play-Doh. I'll light those up, and even the little kitchen dishes, and I've sold them anywhere from 30 to, well, my most recent, I think, was potato heads, it was a huge lot, but I sold it for 60 to 90, which, you know, you just garage sales, or you get those bags of toys in the different thrift stores and I just grab them for$1 or less and then just put them all together for a big lot, so I still do, still sell those. I had a $18 plush Disney store, Kermit the Frog, that I sold, I one time I was at a.. it was a thrift store. They do 50% off once or on the holidays, and they had all of the Disney store characters, and I can't remember what I paid for it. It was super cheap, but I grabbed them. There were probably like I don't know, maybe six of them, eight, but I sold them for $55 so and it wasn't like a long time period that I had them, so that was nice too, storage wise. A recent sale that I just had, we had gone to a church rummage sale, which I love, rummage sales, but I sent my daughter in one room, and I went in the other room. She went for the toys, her and my granddaughter was with us, and my daughter knows, because I've taken her so much, what to look for. And there was a La La Lupsy doll, it was brand new in the box, and it was Little Red Riding Hood, and they had $2 on it, and my daughter said to my granddaughter, "Grab that, and she goes, "Why would she want this? And she said, "I'm telling you, grab it. Well, they came in the other room, and Amelia said,"Mom, look what I found, and she said it was, it's only $2 Well, it ended up selling for $90 Oh, limited edition, I don't know if it was a limited edition, but I, when I looked it up, they actually, there are quite a few La La Lupsy. If you get them in the original boxes, they'll sell. I'm thinking maybe it was themed because it was Riding Hood, so maybe that had something to do with it, but that was a $90 purchase or a sale for $2 so things like that,

Suzanne Wells:

gotta love that,

Unknown:

yeah, and then I sell a lot of yarn, and usually I just grab them if they're $1 or less. Sometimes you can get them in big bags, or somebody will sell, you know, whole box at a garage sale for a certain amount. I actually learned that by making my own crochet blankets, and like needing extra running out in the store, not having it, so actually having to look online for a certain color or brand or whatever, I don't know. Mostly I sell adult clothing, and that's kind of.. I look for new with tags a lot. That's like a big, big seller is a lot of new stuff.

Suzanne Wells:

Let me go back to your, your clothing. Do you focus on certain brands, certain sizes, or just

Unknown:

no, I mean, I look for the good brands, I look for quality, mostly because you can go down a row of clothes and just without even touching, you can tell quality,

Suzanne Wells:

absolutely, yep,

Unknown:

so that's when I'm thrifting, I look for quality, now I do have family members that know that we or I resell for my missionary kids, so a lot of times they'll donate stuff to me, so a lot of times I'll get clothes that are brands that I wouldn't buy in the thrift store, but I'll throw them up just because they're free and they sell, so I've learned not to judge that kind of, you know, have to get if it's free, I'll sell it, but you know, if I'm in the thrift store, I actually look for quality things, and then Saint Vincent's has a, I don't know how often they do it, but they have like all of their dresses, either half. Price, I think it's half price, 50% off. So, I'll go in on those days and$2.50 for a dress, and a lot of times it's not - it's not always fancy name brands. Occasionally, you'll get, you know, some, but I found quite a few Lily Pulitzer that way, which are good. They, they sell pretty good.

Suzanne Wells:

Yes, they do.

Unknown:

So, yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

I saw an ad the other day on Facebook for Lily Pulitzer Summer 26 line, or whatever. Like, how different can this look after all these years

Unknown:

and all

Suzanne Wells:

these patterns? Like, you know,

Unknown:

colors, you

Suzanne Wells:

know, Lily. When you see it, sometimes that that crown and ivy will fool you. You'll think that's lily. No, that's not it.

Unknown:

Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

or it'll be another. There's another brand that looks a lot like that. I can't think of it, but it's not. It's not

Unknown:

expensive,

Suzanne Wells:

but

Unknown:

right,

Suzanne Wells:

you can just, yeah, you can just walk down the rack there, and, and spot them right away. They're all the same colors. Some of the patterns are going to be different there. There are some older ones that are glow in the dark. Did you know that?

Unknown:

Oh, really? I did not know. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

one has fireflies on it. I found that once, and I didn't realize it till I took it in my laundry room to do something, and didn't turn the light on, and I was like, "Oh my gosh, the other one is like fireworks,

Unknown:

that's fun.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, that's fun. Those, those could go for a little bit more, because they didn't make a whole lot of them. But yeah, you learn something every day in this business, don't you?

Unknown:

Yeah, for sure. I did have a friend of mine donated totes rain jackets, and those sold for pretty good money, which that surprised me, because I didn't think anybody really bought those anymore.

Suzanne Wells:

Kind of price did you get on those?

Unknown:

Oh, I didn't write it down.

Suzanne Wells:

More than 25

Unknown:

more than 30.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay,

Unknown:

yeah, yeah, they were. That's

Suzanne Wells:

kind of a lower-end brand. I wonder,

Unknown:

yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

what the feel is. Were they new

Unknown:

attacks? I know they weren't, but they were kind of vintagey, so I don't know. Maybe that was it. I don't know. I was.. was it?

Suzanne Wells:

Let me ask if it was around Halloween.

Unknown:

Oh, I don't remember,

Suzanne Wells:

because people will buy, like, trench coats, yeah, a costume out of,

Unknown:

yeah, that could be

Suzanne Wells:

there's certain, there's certain clothing things I look for all year, because, yeah, in my experience, people are going to make a costume, like any of the Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz type clothing, the pinafore or the ruby slipper, you know, the sequiny shoes for kids, for grown-ups, stuff like that. I'm always looking for, for the, or even the cosplay. It doesn't even have to be Halloween, so,

Unknown:

right? Right,

Suzanne Wells:

knows you just don't know unless you ask somebody,

Unknown:

right?

Suzanne Wells:

Why'd you buy this?

Unknown:

Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah. Okay, so totes rain jackets,

Unknown:

yeah.

Suzanne Wells:

Put that one on my list.

Unknown:

Yeah, I don't know if it could have been just a fluke kind of thing, but I know I had it surprised me. And then vintage lingerie, that's. I actually cleaned out my drawers, and I had something that I wore back when I first got married in the 80s, and I can't remember what brand it is. I didn't write it down, but I still sold it for$70 so I'll take

Suzanne Wells:

it as everyone rushes to their bedroom to go through their drawers,

Unknown:

right? Right. Well, I think a lot of the 80 styles are coming back. I don't know where lingerie fits into that, but I know if you can get a good vintage little 90, you've got some money in your hands.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, and I don't think the brand even matters,

Unknown:

yeah, as long

Suzanne Wells:

as it's the style and the look, and I've started shopping that way now, is is the look for brands too, and high quality materials, but I think there's so many people that just want to dress in an eclectic way, or they're doing the boho thing,

Unknown:

yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

or you know, there's some reason, and they don't care about the brand, they're looking for the style, and is this a vintage look?

Unknown:

Yeah, we were at a rummage sale, I was waiting in line, and this girl came up dressed in a poodle skirt and saddle shoes, and I was like, oh, that's different. I haven't seen that in a while, but she was.. I would say she was probably like maybe 1718, somewhere in that age, but it kind of surprised me. So, you just don't know what people are going to buy,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah. And that's that's one of those things, if you ever see it, get it, because right play, or Halloween, or book character day at school, there's all kinds of reasons kids and adults dress up, right, it goes on all year, or it's a wardrobe for a drama club, either at a high school, or like the city theater, whatever it might be, all these little towns that have little, little theaters. Yeah, just people are always looking for that stuff.

Unknown:

Now, I will tell you, my biggest sale was $180 for a size 4t Clifford overalls, Clifford the big red dog.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, I've heard of these. Wait, did you put that on the group?

Unknown:

I probably did. It's

Suzanne Wells:

been.. that's where I heard of it then.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah, I found it at a yard sale, and I think I bought it in just a lot of clothes for my grandson, and he wore it, and his little brother wore it, and then it got sent back to me, and when I looked it up, I bought fellow, I would have never thought about that, but yeah, $180 and I think that was the best offer too, I think it was probably listed over 200 so, oh, another thing I want to mention,

Suzanne Wells:

there were just not very many of those made,

Unknown:

I don't know.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay,

Unknown:

that I couldn't tell you, but if you see Clifford the big red dog overalls, pick them up. Best Made Toys has a baby rattle, and it's about that big, I think, very small, squishy. I think it was a rabbit, but I sold it for $70 Oh yeah, and I had somebody - it was in one of those big bags of plush with baby toys and stuffed animals, all of it, and I just grabbed it for something else that was in there. Well, when I looked it up. I think I Google imaged it, and I couldn't believe that it had any value to it. So, I had it listed. I don't know, it may have been listed for like 89 or $90 and I had somebody messaging me for a long time, and we finally agreed on 70, so I sold it for 70, but when I went back to look that up, in the, it's been a while since I sold that, I could not believe how many of that exact rattle, the lowest that it was sold was 1646 and the average was about $20 so I don't think people really knew, like, what the value of it is, but I don't think there are a lot of them out there. If you see a pink little bunny rabbit, look it up. So, and be like, I don't know, I just was floored when I looked and saw that the majority were selling for $20 and I got $70 out of it. So, it's like sometimes people, I think, just mark things low to get rid of

Suzanne Wells:

them

Unknown:

without doing the research. So, I just want to give a little plug there for, make sure you do your research, or you could be missing out on money,

Suzanne Wells:

right? And even if the ones for sale are lower are gone, then there's yours,

Unknown:

right? Right?

Suzanne Wells:

Did you, did that go international?

Unknown:

Um, you know what, I don't remember. I didn't write that down either. I just put a note down to mention that. Another thing, instructional DVDs, I found, I think they were$1 a piece, at, they were set, some of them weren't opened, but it was just like a science DVD thing, and I sold the whole set for 8999 so now I, when I go to sales like that, I'll look for things that have, like, the entire series, or you know, whatever, like that. So, if you can get them for under $10 you know, you're going to make a good amount of money on them. And this week I sold some china two plates for $60 it was Royal Worcester for those. yes, it was listed for a long time, but it was just two, they were smaller plates, so I shipped those out this week. I, my sales are just like, I'll sell anything, so I don't have like one specific area that I focus on, I just look around, and like I said, if people donate stuff to me, I had some home interior little statues, a little mice, Christmas mice, and there were a lot of them online, and I just was like, I'm not gonna wait for a sale for this. I put them up right at Christmas time. Yeah, and I put like three sets together and sold them for $40

Suzanne Wells:

so

Unknown:

yeah, and like six little mice, you know, it wasn't like a big deal, but you kind of learn to adjust your thinking because I done them individually, but just lotting them up, they sold pretty quick, and it was $40 So, anyway,

Suzanne Wells:

now, How many items do you have up for sale?

Unknown:

I have over two, 2000

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, you have a lot. So, yeah.

Unknown:

Are you the listed and forget it seller, other than when you're taking inventory and finding that's an area I'm working on right now. I have been a listed and forget it for a while. I would end them and revamp them and relist them, and then when I started doing the nifty thing, that's it's when you end things and relist them, it doubles it on nifty, so you got

Suzanne Wells:

to be careful

Unknown:

there. So I'm just, I'm all in a learning curve right now with all of it, yeah. Like I said, if sometimes if you just put in the information and it brings up just that listing, it gets it sold within a week or so. So, yeah, I don't, I don't know what that's about, but it has happened. So,

Suzanne Wells:

so tell me about your household, and do you have helpers, and do you have support?

Unknown:

I don't. I did. My daughter-in-law was working for me for a while, and then she's doing other things now. I recruit my girls every once in a while, but mostly I get help when we're shopping. They know what to look for, so that's probably the only time, but otherwise, since my other daughter went to work full time, and I'm home alone now, I've got time to do more myself. So,

Suzanne Wells:

is eBay your full time job? Do you work outside the home too, or no?

Unknown:

No, it's my full time, and I would say just recently full time, because, like I said, I've worked it mostly part time, but mostly when, like, I have time, so family always comes first. So, if I've got, you know, they need me to watch the grandkids or whatever, I'll set everything aside and take care of of the family, but yeah, I would say I'm kind of crossing into that full time mode now, so I just want to get a lot of it gone, so

Suzanne Wells:

right,

Unknown:

I do have things that have been listed like five years and I know a lot of people go through it and donate it or get rid of it or whatever, but I have the storage space, so I'm just like, as long as the listings up, I just let it go.

Suzanne Wells:

Yeah, that's why I feel like I've already done the work, taking the pictures, I've done the listing, it's out there, people might be looking at it, I mean, I was things all the time that have zero views in 30 days, and then it eventually sells. It just takes one person,

Unknown:

right? Well, I had some lady message me, and she said I have been looking for this shirt for years. She said I wore it when I was a teenager, and I just got back, it was my favorite shirt. I just got back down to that size again, and I am thrilled that you had it for sale. And I don't even remember what it was, but I just remember thinking, oh, wow, that you know, I wouldn't have ever even thought that somebody would go looking for something like that, but they did, so I'll take the money. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

I see that on the group all the time, about, oh, I've had this for three years. This was listed for four years, and

Unknown:

yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

if you've already done the work and you have the space for

Unknown:

it, right,

Suzanne Wells:

what's the harm in just leaving it there,

Unknown:

right? Right.

Suzanne Wells:

Other, I don't know. I think people get rid of stuff. I think Rachel, a couple weeks ago on the podcast, was talking about, you know, she gets rid of stuff because she just doesn't have storage space for it.

Unknown:

Yeah.

Suzanne Wells:

So,

Unknown:

and I understand that.

Suzanne Wells:

Oh, yeah, absolutely. That's

Unknown:

less space, I'd probably clean out more often, but if it's sitting there and it's listed, I've already done the work, I'm just gonna let it ride. So,

Suzanne Wells:

well, and this is the part of no rules eBay. It's just it's all individualized based on what you like to sell, what kind of storage space you have, where you're getting your items, you know, all those factors that that go into it, and some people just have basements full of stuff. Yeah, again, I'd love to shop there because it's already pre-picked, like the. Little snafu I got into with that person on the Facebook group. It's like, hey, I finally wrapped up the conversation with her by saying, fantastic, you do you and I'll do me, right? And that's the way this is, is there's no right or wrong, it's whatever works for you, but we're all looking for ways to sell more, so right, right, I feel well,

Unknown:

and I think to like I've picked up odd things, I found a, it was like a puppet, I think, I think it had like a hand, the hand puppet, but it had a pole that you could move the arms and stuff with. Okay, it was a grandpa, and it was so odd that I thought this is going to sell for a lot of money, and I don't know if I Google imaged it at that point in time or just bought it, but it was less than$10 and I think it was probably like five or $6 and I thought, this is, I'm gonna make some money on this, so I brought it home, and it sat here longer than I'd like it to sit here, but when it sold, I sold it for$75 so I'm like, you know, you, you kind of, I don't know, I think the unusual type things where you look at something and say, oh, this is really cool, somebody's going to want this at some point in time, but it's just,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, that's what I love when I'm out treasure hunting is just that inspiration, or you know, it just hits you like, oh, somebody's going to love this, yeah, the other day it was a was a Walmart brand sweatshirt, Christmas with the Peanuts gang on it. Oh yeah, it was great. It was brand new, like nobody ever wore it, and it was red, and it was, you know, it was all the things. I was like, I'm going to get this, I'm going to buy this at Christmas time. So I get home, and I'm listing it, and I thought there were sequins on the front, but I was like,"Wait, these are little tiny light bulbs.

Unknown:

Oh, wow.

Suzanne Wells:

So I'm like looking for the controller, it's like on the inside, you know, and I was like, probably doesn't work, which is why I donated it. Nope, push the button, and it was, you know, blinking, and I just.. I let out a shriek of joy, because, yeah, it works. You get stuff home, and crap, this doesn't work, but it's my size, so I can wear it a little before if I want, but yeah, it was just inspirational. Like, somebody's gonna love this. I don't care if it's Walmart brand, it's just a sweatshirt, but people love the whole Charlie Brown gang, and the fact that this is a blink, a blink of light, you know. Oh, yeah, perfect for somebody to wear to work or just around at Christmas, so we'll see how that does, and I looked them up, and they sell for around 30 to 35 so I think it was $2 at Goodwill, and yeah, it was in April, and when nobody's buying Christmas stuff, so we'll see what it's the little joys that eBay selling brings

Unknown:

us, right? Right.

Suzanne Wells:

So excited, probably like what she's screaming about, but yeah, yay,

Unknown:

that's funny. I also want to mention that people, if they go to like rummage sales and church sales, things like that, don't pay us up the books, because I don't, I don't sell books, because I don't know how people who sell books make any money, like they always do free shipping on a $3 book, and I'm like, I know you're paying at least $3 on the shipping, but anyway, I, this one particular sale, they have their books in a separate, like, hallway, so I'll always, everybody's in the main room, and I'll always sneak out and go down that hallway, and I found these, I guess they were antiques, but they were like Santa Claus, and there's like Bible stories and things like that, but they were like probably three inches thick. I sold those for some good money. I don't know if I wrote that one down. No, I didn't, but it was, it was up there. It was like 80 or $90 just for one book, so that's something that I always make a point of looking at, too, is the older type books, because you just don't know,

Suzanne Wells:

right? Well, and it does take some patience to look through books.

Unknown:

Absolutely,

Suzanne Wells:

I sold books at one time, and it was volume of books, like on Amazon, when all that first started, and you do. Have to love it, and it's a lot of looking, right? Just like anything else, once you figure it out, it's not so hard. But yeah, that's a good tip. Is the older stuff.. anything?

Unknown:

Yeah, I look for the older stuff. I don't even bother going through all the piles and piles,

Suzanne Wells:

like.. yeah,

Unknown:

something looks old, then I'll, I'll pick it up.

Suzanne Wells:

All those mass-produced books that were 25 high at Costco, like, that's not going to get you anywhere,

Unknown:

right? Right.

Suzanne Wells:

And also, I find when I look through books, I get too many for myself to read this. Oh, I've heard about this, and I like a book. I'm not an electronic reader, I just like holding the book and turning the pages and going back and wait, what did that say? And, and so, and then I get, I get to the checkout, and I'm like, why did I buy all these, and I realized there, I just like having them around. Yeah, I like the energy of a lot of books. It's knowledge, it's

Unknown:

right,

Suzanne Wells:

you know? You can pick it up and read a little bit. You don't have to read the whole thing. It's

Unknown:

almost like a comfort.

Suzanne Wells:

Yes, yes, it's a comfort, right. So, anyway, okay. Well, we are almost getting to the end here. I forgot to ask you, was there a career before being a mom?

Unknown:

I, I worked in a lawyer's office, a doctor's office. I've done it all, but the, the, my main job has been raising my kids. I've got nine kids and 30 years of being a stay, stay-at-home mom. We homeschooled, busy life. Yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

that's the hardest job in the world. But I'll tell you,

Unknown:

in all the things that I've ever done, I love reselling the most. I mean, besides being a mom, but I had, you know, all kinds of little jobs before that, and I just love reselling. There's just nothing like

Suzanne Wells:

it.

Unknown:

So,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah, like we talked about the whole process, from it's not just getting the sale, it's the whole process of you found this item, you figured out it was valuable, you did the work to list it, you shipped it, you've answered any customer questions or solved any customer problem. It's all these different, it's the shipping department, it's the customer service department, it's procurement, it's photography and marketing, and all the things. And

Unknown:

absolutely, and you can do it on your own time, in your own way, and you're your own boss, so it's not like you have to worry about getting yelled at by somebody, if you make a mistake, you've learned, and you know not to do that the next time. So,

Suzanne Wells:

unless you get yelled at by the customer,

Unknown:

that's true. The

Suzanne Wells:

virtual smack down when they figure out something's wrong, or they assume something's wrong. Yeah, and they just completely fly off the handle. You gotta, you gotta talk 'em off the ledge. Hey, it's okay, we can fix,

Unknown:

yeah,

Suzanne Wells:

yeah.

Unknown:

I just take pride in my business, you know. I think that customer service is, is what you have to focus on, and if they're happy, then you're happy. So, hopefully, you don't get too many cranky people.

Suzanne Wells:

You

Unknown:

ordered something the other day, and it came broken, and the man still hasn't messaged me back. And then this morning I went on and looked at his feedback, and there's numerous people have said that it arrived broken, and he never answered them,

Suzanne Wells:

and he said eBay seller.

Unknown:

Yeah, so I'm like, that is something you don't want to do. I mean, customer service, you got to answer people, you know, even if you think that they're pulling something over on you, you've got to deal with it. So, well,

Suzanne Wells:

even just questions during the day. I was, I was at an appointment the other day in the waiting room, and you know you're all, everybody's looking at their phone, and somebody asked a question about something on eBay, and I said immediately,"Hey, I'm at an appointment right now, I'll get back to you as soon as I get home in a couple hours, just give them something, because in this day and age, either I don't get an answer or it's something automated, it's not even a human, and they're not answering your question, they're trying to find the automated answer through your keywords, and I just think people like hearing from a human.

Unknown:

Yep, I agree,

Suzanne Wells:

even if it's I can't help you right this second, I'll be with you shortly. Something

Unknown:

right. Absolutely,

Suzanne Wells:

I appreciate that as a human. Yeah,

Unknown:

me too.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay. Well, what do you have lined up for the rest of your day?

Unknown:

Oh, I've got to go to the post office and run some errands. I have a doctor's appointment, so okay. Unfortunately, not thrifting. Today,

Suzanne Wells:

so you're not going to just drop by, or your car is not going to automatically go to a thrift store on your way. Sometimes

Unknown:

it does. I am watching tomorrow's Saturday, so I'm, I'm looking at the garage sale lists and looking for some rummage sales.

Suzanne Wells:

Well, I'm sure you'll do well. And thanks so much for coming on the podcast, and you're doing a fantastic job. I want to give you a round of applause for sticking with this, like you said, you love it, it's your passion, so it's not going to change, you're going to maybe we'll talk again in three years, see where you are then. Okay. Well, thanks again, and enjoy the rest of your day.

Unknown:

Well, thank you for having me.

Suzanne Wells:

Okay, bye, bye, bye. I wanted to add something to the discussion about being a stay at home mom. During my many years of being a full time at home mom, I began to feel unappreciated and undervalued. So one day I typed up a job description, like a resume, outlining all the tasks and responsibilities involved, it wasn't for my husband at the time, just for my own self-confidence and self-worth. I titled it Household Manager Job Description, and I want to read this to you, because it will hit home, and you might get a kick out of it if you want a copy of it. I'm happy to share. Just contact me. Okay. The professional summary: manage day-to-day operations of a home by planning, coordinating, and performing tasks to keep the operations running smoothly, all with a frugal mindset, and I've got different headings. First off, child care responsibilities: get everyone dressed, fed, and off to school, assist with homework, attend teacher conferences and PTA meetings, handle both sick and well doctor visits, care for sick children, taxi children to activities, birthday parties, appointments, entertain neighborhood kids when at our house, supervise daily washing and grooming. Make sure kids' rooms are kept organized and clean. Purchase clothing for children as needed. Basically, keep children clean, fed, and alive. Daily responsibilities: laundry, unload. unload dishes, keep kitchen clean, plan meals, and cook and prepare nutritious foods and snacks. Sweep and mop areas that need attention. Keep a list of grocery household items and supplies needed, so nothing runs out. Take out trash as needed. Weekly responsibilities: clean out refrigerator and freezer, discard expired food, wipe down the inside, clean the bathrooms, sweep and mop floors, dust areas that need it, vacuum water plants, and then we have monthly responsibilities. Change and wash sheets on all beds every two weeks, dust the blinds, keep garage organized, buy gifts for birthday parties, mail holiday and birthday cards to relatives, purchase gifts for upcoming holidays, such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas, plan any travel, such as trips to grandparents or vacations, next finance financial responsibilities run the household with a frugal mindset, minimizing waste, shopping for bargains using coupons and discounts, prioritizing purchases for the best value, monitor grocery spending to prevent over buying and waste, pay bills online, reduce paper statements and junk mail, transition to all digital documents, handle administrative tasks, deal with mail, cancel memberships. And subscriptions, when not being used, evaluate all expenditures periodically to explore lower costs, upgrade technology when necessary, and balance checkbook daily. Yes, I did that daily, working at the bank. I developed that habit, and finally we have personal assistant responsibilities for both children and husband. Create agenda on Sundays for upcoming week plan, daily activities and schedules, make appointments, reminders for appointments or commitments the following day, plan exercise dates and downtime for self and husband. So, yeah, that was a lot, but sometimes we just do what needs to be done every day and don't even realize what a huge job we're doing. If you take the time to make an outline, you will see how valuable you really are, and how much you do. Okay, next week my guest is Terry, who was last on the podcast in January of 23 She'll be joining us to share what's been happening in both her eBay business and her life over the past few years. Terry also has a very unique full-time job, and I think you're really going to enjoy hearing her story. As always, thank you for spending this time with us, and for supporting this podcast and the eBay community. Keep working hard, celebrate your progress, and don't forget to take a little time for yourself along the way. Remember, you don't have to do everything today, just do the next thing that has been my credo lately. Talk to you next week. Bye for now.

Unknown:

Bye.