Unknown:
Hello, hello hello resellers. Thank you for tuning in to Episode 165 of eBay the right way. Today's date is May 15 2024. My guest today is Abigail, who has so much going on. I don't know how she gets it all done. quick announcement, some of you have reached out to ask when the next homestead happenings video is coming on YouTube, it is in progress and will be the next video I post. There is so much to report and show you from around the homestead. As always, I want to create a high quality video. So it takes some time to put it all together. So stay tuned. homestead happenings is on the way. Okay, now into the conversation with Abigail.
Suzanne Wells:
Welcome back, listeners. We have Abby with us this morning. And how are you doing on this was a Thursday? Sure. Yeah, good.
Unknown:
It's good to be here.
Suzanne Wells:
Today's the day is just kind of all blend together into one long day don't lose track. And where are you located?
Unknown:
So I'm in South Shore Massachusetts, about 25 minutes south of Boston, right on the coast. Oh, so
Suzanne Wells:
probably some good picking there.
Unknown:
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of good stuff around here. Okay, good.
Suzanne Wells:
Well, we're gonna get into that. Let's start off with what brought you to eBay and when.
Unknown:
So, I have had an eBay account, since 2002, which was my senior year in high school, and I was just looking back and I had bought a few things, nothing crazy, I wasn't that active. And then I do remember, I sold one thing in 2002. Just I don't, I don't even know why or how this happened. But I had this random spice rack and I put it up for auction and it sold for like $42 or something back in the day. And, and I just remember being really excited by that. And then life getting in the way completely forgetting about eBay. And then in May of 2021, I ended up having to go on medical leave for a brief time from my job. And during this time is when I started. I was just a little bit bored. To be honest, I had young kids, but I needed something else while I was taking some time off of work. And so I ended up getting into some online auctions and then purchasing with the intent to sell on eBay and having some success with that. And it was fun.
Suzanne Wells:
Great. Well, you know that reason, medical leave or recovering from surgery or that type of situation is a common theme with what brought people to eBay because it is boring when you have to stay at home and recover. And it's like, your whole, your whole worlds like turned upside down. Nothing's normal. So it gives you some kind of fun to focus on and good for you for finding things online. Do you still do that? Or do you go out into the world?
Unknown:
Yeah, so mostly, I've done some thrift stores. But to be honest, I find most of my stuff. There's a lot of local online auctions in this area. I don't know if you heard a Mac sold. They're pretty popular around here. And so up until about mid 2023. And I can kind of talk about what I do now. But that was where I would source most of my things was on these online auctions. What I liked about them is they would post all of the pictures and everything about a week in advance. And so you could look through the pictures and what I would do is like zoom in and you know Google lens and try and see what was in the background that other people might not have noticed and get a lot of stuff that way and then I would inevitably underestimate how many car trips it would take but I would go and pick up all the items. But that was fine. I'm not really a good in person. Hagler I find it really awkward. So I like the online auction. Because you did what you bid, you set the price, and you don't have to go back and forth with anyone. So that that kind of attracted me to the online auctions. It was something that I could do comfortably without feeling bad about trying to lowball someone or anything like that. And
Suzanne Wells:
so that was back in what when he first started? Yeah,
Unknown:
May 2021 was my first auction. The very first one I did, I don't tend to do things halfway, I kind of went all in. It was this. The owner of the auction or the the person who was selling the items, it was somebody who had formerly owned a tennis club or a gym or something, they had a lot of new old stock, gym equipment and tennis rackets and, you know, old tennis bags and things like that. So I ended up just buying a ton of it, I have an injured I play tennis, so I knew about that stuff. And so I ended up buying several of the lots in it. And I spent about $1,800, which was kind of a risk for my first time going in. But I figured out eBay, I cringe now to think of all the pictures I took of like a tennis racket on my couch. And you know, I didn't know what I was doing. But yeah, I ended up selling all that stuff and sold it all for over$7,000 It was just like, you know, it was a lot of work. But it was a good learning curve. I sold a ton of stuff in a short time. And even including, we had to my husband helped me ship this giant tennis ball machine that, you know, like automatically feeds tennis balls. And that thing weighed probably 70 pounds. And I think we had to ship it to California. So that was something to learn about the first time through. Yeah, and
Suzanne Wells:
yeah, that's, um, that's very ingenious. And just to say, it's not a coincidence, but I've started doing that a little bit. We're where I'm living now, because it's so rural. And there are thrift stores around but they're so far. Yeah. And it's like, what can I do when I'm just, you know, have an hour here or there to find stuff to sell. And so I'm kind of playing around with that right now. And I do love the convenience of it. And you can have one window open with the auctions you're looking at, and the other window on your computer on Terapeak, you know, looking at looking stuff up. And I'm also learning a lot about what sells because you're seeing things that you would not see at thrift stores or garage sales. It's it's different. And what I've noticed here is you know, it looks like an estate sale, but like they don't have the in person estate sale. It's only the online and you can just tell they've gone around that person's house. And it's like, you know, lot 14 Everything on this shelf. Yeah, a lot 16 All these tools, and you can really zoom in on the pictures. And you might see one or two things, that's a win. But you got to buy the whole lot. And, you know, drop by the dumpster on the way home and just throw away what you don't want. But so you are a mom, and how do you kids?
Unknown:
Yep, I have three kids. They're seven, five and three. Two boys. No, sorry, two girls, and my youngest is a boy. And yeah, and my job is I'm a veterinarian. Okay,
Suzanne Wells:
yeah, you have a very busy life. So you figured out how to fit eBay into that. So that's really, really admirable. So your kids are really at the age where they need a mom all the time.
Unknown:
My work schedule is interesting. So I just do. I went on and studied after veterinary school, I did a residency in surgery. So I just do emergency and trauma surgery. So my hours are off hours, I work nights like I'll be on call for 14 nights a month. So I just basically sleep with my phone under my pillow. And if I get called in and grade I go in, do surgery come home and that way I'm able to be with the kids during the day is more tired than others but my husband works from home and he's got a flexible schedule. So a lot of times I'll just come home and nap if I need to if I don't get home till 5am
Suzanne Wells:
I love that good for you. So is your husband on board with all of this eBay stuff does he help? So
Unknown:
he is to an extent he he's very supportive. There's minimal complaints when I clutter up the house with a big ol auction lot or something like that. He helps me ship any of the heavy stuff he'll drop off. And he's certainly gone and done a few of the pickups for me when it's been a lot of heavy stuff for my schedule doesn't allow it. But from a eBay selling perspective, he's not that he's sold a couple of things himself. He has an account, but he is not super involved in the day to day selling.
Suzanne Wells:
Well, that's great. He's your support person. And yeah, he's very supportive for us, so that you can do that work. And you've got, you know, a dependable person to, I was a single mom, so I had to just kind of fit it all in around when the kids were at school, and why didn't start till my kids were six and eight. So they were in school. But that makes all the difference in the world to have a supportive partner. You know, you're generating income for the household. So, you know, hey, watch the kids, you know, take the kids to get ice cream while I do this. through you. Okay. So let's talk about some things you've sold, because you are a super prepared guest, and you have a list of things. So let's just start going through them. Sure.
Unknown:
I can start with some of my earlier stuff from 2021 and 2022. And I was still kind of figuring things out. I, most of these came from those online auctions. The second online auction I did, I was all excited after the tennis win. And so I ran across this auction lot that was this aura tone photo, have you ever heard of that? It's these. It's this way that they could develop photography, I think it was back in like the 1940s or something. There was this artist, Edward Curtis, this photographer and they he took these pictures, a lot of them were use eMoney. And it's called Gold or tone was the style that they developed it in. Basically, it's like a gold tint photo. But that was something that I came across. And from my research, it appeared to be pretty valuable. So I ended up buying that. And then getting in touch with a collector of Ortona out in Washington State. And so I was able to sell that to him and actually bypass eBay in that case, which was nice. Sometimes it's nice if you can go directly to someone that you know, is a potential buyer. Yeah, these. So that was a good one. I think I paid 160 for it. You know, I again, I didn't really know what I was doing. I got lucky. And then he bought it for I think just over $900
Suzanne Wells:
Wow, excellent site. I
Unknown:
was really catching the bug at this point. Yeah.
Suzanne Wells:
Okay. And we're again, did you find that photo? It was on one of those Max old auctions. Okay, and you remember what you paid? Yeah, it was 160. Okay. Excellent. Good for you. Yeah. And that's, you know, some people are a little nervous to pay that much for something but you have to look at what's the possible profit and once you do it a few times, you know, if you're used to paying $1 For everything or go into the goodwill outlet and not paying very much for things and then something big comes up. Yeah, that's that's a big leap if you're not used to paying that much hitters. Yeah.
Unknown:
Yeah. It was the cheaper things that I bought. And I understand after I bought it why no one else had been on this was one of these chairlifts, you know, that go up the stairs for people who aren't able, like low mobility to try and get up the stairs. There was one of these in an auction lot and I was like, Oh, why not? I'll just bid on it. So I've been to dollars, no one else. So I had to drive over and load this thing in the car and it weighed a ton. Luckily, the guy had disassembled it for me. But But when that sold, which it sold for a great profit it was it was worth it. But it was a nightmare to ship because it has the long pieces that go up the stairs, plus the mower which weighed a ton. And the chair and I do remember spending about a whole evening with my husband trying to Frankenstein some boxes and ship that and that was just you know, it wasn't maybe the I don't know 30th thing I've ever shipped in my life. And it was a that was a challenge.
Suzanne Wells:
But yeah, but she did it and it
Unknown:
made it there safely. Oh, yeah,
Suzanne Wells:
good for you. Okay. What else is on your list?
Unknown:
So some of the other things. I've heard people talk about recipes, you've done some Yes, yes, your guests have talked about recipes before. So I kind of had been on the lookout for those not actively looking. But if I bumped into someone selling recipes, and so I did, actually someone reached out. They had posted on Facebook marketplace, just, you know, free recipes moving can't take these with me. And so I met her at a Target parking lot. She turns out, she was selling them, or she was giving them away because she lives in Alaska. And she was moving her mom out of where her mom was living and they were had belonged to her mom. And she was like, you know, I just I've already taken as many as I could. And I don't need these, you know, here have them. They're gonna go in a dumpster otherwise. So that was pretty cool. There were I didn't know how many I was getting until she opened her car. And they were just probably, I don't know, 6000 index cards. Like, how someone in their lifetime could even write that many index card recipes.
Suzanne Wells:
You said, you said oh, she's moving. She can't take them with you. And I'm envisioning, like this little recipe box like, wow, she must really be downsizing everything but no, that's, that's a lot hole cried.
Unknown:
It was crazy. And so it turned out, I got the story from her. Her mom had a local TV show cooking show called mom. That was just on the local channels in my area. And so she was a little bit of a local celebrity. Back Back when the show aired, which was a while ago. And so as a result, she had just so many recipes, this was her life's work. And so I'm not much of a cook, I wish I was but I'm not. So I just figured the best I could do would be to find good homes for them with somebody who would walk them. So I started listing them in lots on eBay. And to be honest, I was very overwhelmed. Because there were so many of them, you know, I would lock them up, as you know, 200, chicken entrees, or whatever, she had them pretty well organized. Okay. And they were slowly selling off bit by bit. And then I had this one buyer who, as soon as I post them, she'd start buying them up and she'd buy all the locks. And I would discount the shipping and everything. And I was just, you know, I finally reached out to her and I said, Oh, it looks like you are really interested in these. I have a ton more like literally a ton of them. You know, how are you looking for anything in particular, I can make you a custom lot. And she was like, Oh, how many do you have? I'll take them off. And I said, Okay, so I ended up making her a custom listing. And she bought all of the recipe cards that I had, which was like over 6000 recipe cards from this local celebrity chef and it was just, it was such a surprising sale to me. This woman was so excited to get them. She said she bought them for herself for her birthday. And yeah, it's amazing.
Suzanne Wells:
Did you keep track of how much you made on that sale? Or of all arrests? Yes.
Unknown:
So I did I just look back. The lot that she bought, she paid $1,200 for. And before that the ones that I had been selling not just to her but to other people. I think it came out to me see, like $882 so all sudden done. It was something that would have ended up in the dumpster from the celebrity chef. I
Suzanne Wells:
love that and yeah, probably took a long time to get them listed. Well, at first because you ended up bonding together but pretty easy. Pretty easy to ship.
Unknown:
Yeah, pretty easy to ship and not gonna
Suzanne Wells:
break. It's very unique. Like, probably didn't have any competition on those. Yeah, yeah.
Unknown:
Yeah. And I think that's one thing that I've now learned is when you do have a collection of things and you're piecing them out, if you see the same buyers that are grabbing them, just send them a message and say offer him a custom listing because then it saves a lot. I can't imagine I would still be sorting through recipe cards that was you know, two years ago and I would still be going through them no doubt. So I was happy
Suzanne Wells:
that did that take up when you brought them home like how How much space?
Unknown:
It was, I mean, their index cards. So although there were about 6000 or more, it was, you know, those little filing cabinets that are index card size like the white ones. I think there was 13 of those. So it was more than I had expected, but it's still fairly compact. It didn't take up too much room left,
Suzanne Wells:
right. Didn't take up a whole room. Yeah. Okay. Well, I love that. That's a great story. One more time, where How did you come upon that? share
Unknown:
them on Facebook marketplace, just free, you know, save these from the dumpster. And you didn't even pay for him? Didn't even pay for them. I know. I tried to offer her money in the parking lot when she was giving them to me. You know, I said, Can I give you something for these? And she said, No, I can't take them. I've already taken a couple boxes of them. So.
Suzanne Wells:
Oh, all right. I love that. Well, what's next on the list? Ah,
Unknown:
let's see. Some of the other I guess this sort of is a little bit similar. It's another free item that turned out to be a lot of work but very profitable was I and I love to sell this type of stuff. It was this doll house. Amazing doll house with the lights that were somebody put in just incredible craftsmanship. So somebody had listed this on on Facebook, it was an older gentleman, he was moving down to Florida. It was his wife's who had passed. And she was an avid dollhouse person. She really decked out this dollhouse with really nice furniture and dolls and all these expensive items. Not a child's dollhouse. And so initially, he had it listed for several $100. And I was just interested in it in general, but the pictures that he had posted, I couldn't really even tell what what the dollhouse looked like I knew it was probably nice because he had listed for so much but I couldn't the pictures weren't great. So I just messaged him asking him for a little more information and some more pictures. And he never really got back to me and I forgot about it. And then a couple months later, you know when you've like messaged someone on a listing, when there's a change to the listing, it kind of pops up in your feed, like refreshes it for you. I don't know if you know what I mean. And so all sudden, I noticed that he had changed the price to zero. And so I just, I was like, Oh, I messaged him again. So I messaged him. And I said I was just wondering if this is still available, I saw that, you know you change the price. I'm interested if you still have this. And he said yeah, if you can come pick it up right now. I'm moving it needs to be gone. I said okay, so I still didn't have any more pictures didn't really know what I was getting at that point. And it was a bit of a drive. I drove about 45 minutes to get it. And it was large and he was literally walking out the door of his house. The realtor helped me load it into the car like it was one of the I don't know what he would have done if I hadn't just gotten driven over and gotten and I probably would have ended up on the side of the road. So I got this beautiful dollhouse with this huge collection of items that go with it. And then I ended up coming home and I listed the dollhouse separately. I can't remember the artisans name, but it was like signed on a plaque there. And I listed it for $450 Just because it was such a beautiful dollhouse and looking looking them up. It looked like this guy had made some really nice ones that sold for, you know, lots of like, 1000s of dollars. And then I had some interest and then this guy with the same last name as the artisan reached out to me, and he said, Oh, my dad made this. I would love to buy this for my granddaughter or for the his dad's granddaughter, his daughter. I was like don't just take it like, you know, I got it for free. It belongs to you. And so the guy came and he remembered everything about that doll house he had helped build it when he was a child. He remembered the thing was huge. He said that he remembered having to take out a window in their house after it was built to get the dollhouse out of the house because it didn't fit or something through their door. They had a weird angle in the hallway. So it was really neat that that dollhouse ended up going back to this person and he he didn't take any accessories so I ended up then selling off the accessories which was a little bit tedious because there weren't a lot of them but anytime it would get to be too much. I would just put them in a lot Put them as an auction. But that was that was really neat. It was nice to see that dollhouse go back to the family that made it.
Suzanne Wells:
Yeah. Re homing at its best more like, like the boomerang item. Oil right back. Yeah, that's a fun sale or multiple sales. Yeah, you
Unknown:
know, I still have dollhouse stuff. I'm constantly putting sales on my eBay store for like, just the dollhouse items. Get it out. I get kind of sick of having one thing in the house for too long. Try and give it a term limit. But yeah, but I
Suzanne Wells:
mean, that little stuff like, well, American Girl doll stuff. People pretty much know about that. But you know, just the clothing and the accessories. And there's a market for all that LGBT stuff. Yeah,
Unknown:
there's it. So I learned a lot about dollhouse items. If they're assigned pieces, there's artisans that are well known, and they'll sign their pieces. And this woman had a lot of that. I mean, even just the accessories alone, I think sold for still selling but I can't even tell you how many there were there so many. It's like, blew my mind. But yeah, there was pieces would sell for$200 for this doll and $100 for this couch. And it really it added up. And so that was another free to you know, several $1,000 in in sales, which was really nice. Saving
Suzanne Wells:
it from the landfill. Good.
Unknown:
Yeah. Good. I love to be willing to go at the drop of a hat.
Suzanne Wells:
That's true. You're so industrious, though. But you you do have to grab on before it's too late. Because a lot of times people will just put stuff up, Facebook marketplace, whatever are these buy and sell groups. And like, if it's not gone in two days, they just get rid of it. It's like they're moving or they're just ready to clean out or whatever the situation is. And it's like, you snooze, you lose. You better get it? Yeah. Okay, what's the next item?
Unknown:
Um, see. So, the next one is probably the strangest thing I've ever sold. It's bizarre. So it's an incinerator toilet, if you've ever okay, for people who live off the grid? I don't know. Yeah,
Suzanne Wells:
there's all these channels on YouTube like Van life and, you know, living in any kind of vehicle that's been converted to something you can live in and they go on about what kind of toilet they have. That's a big thing. Oh,
Unknown:
yeah. So it was I wouldn't have bought it had it not been new in the box. So it was still in its back end. And it was one of those maximal doctrines Sure enough. And I was researching it beforehand. And I was fairly certain that these are something that would sell pretty quickly. There weren't many listed. They were sold out on the website. So are backordered I think for several months, so I figured it would probably be a safe bet since it was new in package. And sure enough, it sold almost right away within 24 hours. It sold to someone in Tennessee, I shipped it often I guess they're living off their grid with their incinerator toilet.
Suzanne Wells:
Or maybe they do trips or vacations. And you never know sometimes that's just an additional thing to have an irregular home somewhere. But that's a huge industry right now. He's Yeah. And they, they re do the insides and it looks like a home in there. You know, they have all these cool things that convert to different you know, the table then it flips over into bed and all these cute little string lights and but now there's, there's like an industry for that, that makes products for you know, off off grid or living in a camper vehicle, whatever
Unknown:
it is. So it's like
Suzanne Wells:
yeah, I watch those on reels and I'm like, Oh my God, look at they made this into that. And I would totally live in that. Or at least traveling it
Unknown:
might get a little claustrophobic after a while but
Suzanne Wells:
yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty cool. Okay. How many items do you have listed? Or do you have a store?
Unknown:
I do have a store. I think I'm about 350. Around there. Yeah.
Suzanne Wells:
So do you sell things every day?
Unknown:
Yes, I do. I usually have anywhere between You know, three to nine items a day going out the door. Hopefully I try and price things kind of low. And I like to get them turned over as fast as possible. I, um, it's it's kind of funny because I really don't like clutter. But I feel like I ended up with a lot of clutter. Other people's clutter.
Suzanne Wells:
Yes, yes. I think a lot of us are in that boat. Like I, personally am more of a minimalist. I just, I just don't like a lot of stuff. But then there's an eBay room. And I still have a hesitation of like having 1000s of items. I just that makes me feel uncomfortable.
Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah, I know. It stresses me out to look around, especially when, when it's not even listed yet. That really gets me need to get going.
Suzanne Wells:
Yeah, okay. Okay. So do you have any other items you want to talk about?
Unknown:
Um, yeah, I could talk about sort of what I've been doing a little bit differently in the past, like 12 months. So mid 2023 started to notice that the online auctions that were kind of my main source, were drying up. Not that there weren't auctions anymore. But for some reason, I just wasn't. I don't know if there's just more people bidding on them or what, but things were getting bid up. And the things that I used to see in the background that no one else would see everybody now was seeing. So I just wasn't having as much luck finding things in these auctions. So I decided to try and pivot try new things. I started getting into more furniture type stuff, which is cool, but large. What I like about it is a lot of times you can get things pretty cheap. And then one sale could be a lot of profit versus you know, selling a lot of $20 items, you could sell these nicer items for a lot more money. So I was trying with that I'm lucky in that my parents live not too far down the street, and they've got a large empty basem*nt, that they've been generous enough to let me store some things in so. So one of the items that I found, the this woman was selling these chairs for a church, and she put up this listing of just some pictures of the front of these chairs. And I don't even know why I clicked on the listing because I wasn't she had, I don't know, 44 chairs or something. I was like, What am I going to do with that. But she had knowledge the chair. And I was like I want to know, I'll just Google lenses. And so I googled lenses it and they turned out to be these chairs called McGuire target back chairs, which I didn't know anything about at the time. But I was looking them up and and they sell for a lot of money on these websites like cherish. They sell for, you know, $500 a chair. So I contacted her and I said I'm interested in in taking all your chair, she was only selling them as a group. I was like, Well, alright, let's get the U haul. So this is my husband jumped in with a U haul. And we drove about an hour and filled the the U haul up with these chairs. They weren't in the best condition. There were some stains and some damage, mostly to the upholstery. They were sturdy. And I brought them back loaded at my parents were away at the time. So I loaded them right into their basem*nt. And figured I'd ask for forgiveness later. Right. And yeah, so then. And I had these I was doing more research on them. And I was like yeah, I think these are the real deal. Like these should, you know attend all your chair like it's still a fairly big commitment plus that u haul but I think that they'll sell and then the next day she actually messaged me and said I have 28 More in an attic you can take them for free. Can you come get them? I was like, are you in for a penny and for PAM i as well. Right? Right. We got another U haul and went out and got those so we ended up with I think 72 of these McGuire chairs. And it took me a while to figure out how to sell them being that they're not in the best condition but they're there's a big market for them. There's a lot of people that are really know this brand and are loyal to it or wants these chairs. So the first person that came and bought 10 of them was another reseller and so I was just happy to get rid of them and and make some money. I didn't pay a lot for them. And so he bought 10 chairs for $90 A chair so I already made the money back and I basically was taking his brain like so what are you gonna do with these you know, where are you selling He is. And he was telling me how he sells on cherish. Have you heard of that website?
Suzanne Wells:
I have not. So
Unknown:
it's it's like ebay but more high end furniture specific. It's a lot of interior designers will shop on there to fill their clients homes and things like that. So he said that he sells a ton of set, like his whole model is buying and selling these high end items. And then he sells them on cherish. And so I kind of stalked his cherished store a little bit to see if my chairs were selling for him on there. And sure enough, he was selling them for, you know, $500 for a pair of them. I was like, alright, well, if he can do it, I, I can do it too. So I've been listing him on cherish and. And yeah, and like I said, they're not in the best condition. So I wasn't super strict with the price, but they sell between 102 $100 a chair. And I'm down to five chairs out of 72. So I was like, I'm clearing out the basem*nt. But it was a process. It took months and months. And then since I was already on chairish, I started saying oh, I'll see what other types of items I can find that I could list there. And I came across this woman moving out of her house, who had all these items from the Fairmont Copley hotel in Boston. Oh, very nice hotel in Boston. And the story was that her ex husband worked there during the renovation. They had like a centennial renovation. And I don't know 2012 Maybe. And they auctioned off a lot of their stuff while they were renovating. And so the people that work there got first dibs on things. And so her house was completely furnished with Copley Plaza stuff, which was beautiful. And they had a messy divorce. And he was hidden, he laughed and she was moving didn't want any of the stuffed animals. So she was selling everything very cheaply and just wanted it gone. So again, I got my husband in the U haul. And we went out there and loaded up on lots of stuff. It was tables and lamps. And if you look at some of the famous Copley Plaza pictures, there's this beautiful gold medallion, rug. And that was I think there are multiple multiple of them around the lobby. But so I ended up with one of the smaller ones that she sold me for $100 The thing was so heavy, heavy, but we figured it out, got it in the U haul. Took it all home. And that stuff, you know, it was art off the walls and just amazing stuff. And that sold quite well for me on cherish some I sold locally. So yeah, it was just, it was interesting to branch out into that type of stuff. If I didn't have a place to keep it, my parents basem*nt, I don't know that I could do a lot of that furniture stuff because it does take up a lot of room. But it is nice when you have just you know, one sale and it's several $100 versus selling a lot of smaller things. So in that way, it's a little bit easier, but but the work that goes into moving it and cleaning it and some of it I had to deliver and you know, I think it all balances out there's no, there's no easy way to do this.
Suzanne Wells:
Well, and you seem to be willing to do anything. So I, I kind of look at my business sometimes and you know, I'll be washing stuffed animals or, you know, that kind of thing. And I'm like, Yep, this is why I went to college. So I could, I could do this, but it's really no, you're running a business. And you're, you're using your ingenuity to figure out ways to make money. So how, how long does it take to get through veterinarian school?
Unknown:
So it's four years of that school after college. And then if you want to specialize like I did, you'd go on and I did a one year internship and then a three year residency. And what do you specialize in? In surgery?
Suzanne Wells:
Oh, surgery. Okay. So, eight years of college, basically. Yeah. Yeah. So you really have invested a lot in that. Does that ever cross your mind when you're like, taking pictures of dollhouse furniture? Yeah, that's why I would dodge for eight years so I can take pictures of this dollhouse furniture. Yeah.
Unknown:
It's really fun for me in a different way. My job is is very stressful. It's a lot of life or death situations middle of the night. You know, blood transfusion. As in all different departments coming in to the O R while I'm doing surgery, and it's, it's stressful, it's extremely rewarding, and I love it, and I love animals. But this is just some totally other part of my life that is fun and also profitable. Like, it's nice to have this kind of unexpected money come in to do trips and whatever. And it's honestly, I just I liked the learning about different things, just the number of weird areas, you know, 1970s GI Joes, I like, when would I have ever known anything about that? And now, I can tell you a lot about it's just I think, right? That's one of the fun parts about this is it's just this whole other aspect to my life that, you know, they don't really mix, but they each fill me up in different ways.
Suzanne Wells:
And yeah, it seems like your vet job would be very stressful, because not only you're, you care about the animal, but you also have to deal with the owner of the animal. And they're upset and emotional. And it's a hard thing for them. So you've got, you know, two situations to deal with. And, you know, animals can't talk, they can't tell you what's wrong. It's like a toddler, like, why are you crying? You know, they can't tell you. So I had a vet on here a few years ago, in West Virginia, and he was, he was ready to get out of it, just because I think he was a large animal vet. But it was just, it was so stressful.
Unknown:
There's a lot of burnout in our profession, like a lot a lot. That's actually have one of the highest suicide rates of any profession. I've lost classmates to suicide, it's, it's a very real thing. And a lot of it does come down to the people that tend to become veterinarians, love, animals are very compassionate type of people. And then you put them in this situation where they have tools to help some of these animals, but the finances aren't there on the other end. And at the end of the day, like it is a business and we have to pay our staff, we have to buy the supplies. And, you know, we use the same CAT scan machine that human medicine uses. We do a lot of the same training. Things are very expensive. And with inflation and the economy. It's it's a tough time to be a vet, and a medical professional in general. There's a lot of burnout for sure. In the profession. It can be it can be hard. So that's another reason why I just really like having this side, but it's just a lot. Yeah, it's
Suzanne Wells:
something a little easier and fun. More like a hobby that makes money. Yes. Yeah. Good for you. Now, do you, do you earmark your eBay money for certain things? Or does it just go into the general household to find? Ah,
Unknown:
I don't strictly do it. But it definitely, you know, it'll kind of tip the scales when we're thinking and we took just took the kids to Disney and Florida in February. And it was just it just as a little bit easier to do things like that when you know that this money is, you know, kind of extra money. It's working for it, but it's not part of my normal job money. And you know, it helps when we we just got a newish car, a new used car, and it is a total lemon. And we've been dealing with so many issues with this. It helps with the stress of that just all those unexpected things. It's nice to have this extra income.
Suzanne Wells:
Yeah, good for you. Okay, you have a couple more items to talk about.
Unknown:
Um, yeah, let me see. Oh, so So one of the new things that I've started doing. One of my goals for 2024 was to try a storage locker auction. Oh, okay. I hadn't I hadn't really done any of those before. And like I said, I'm always trying to find new ways to source the online auctions. Just haven't haven't been great for me lately. I don't have great thrift stores right near me. So anyway, I figured I'd try it. And so the first one I did, I got a little carried away. I got into a bidding war. And what I saw in there was this vintage Louis Vuitton trunk. That's about 100 and something years old. 120 years old. Is this beautiful steamer trunk, the kind that they used to put on trains when people would travel. And so I was bidding against someone else who clearly wanted this also. And I ended up winning it but I immediately was like, Oh my God, what did I do? I paid over $5,000 for this in my very first storage locker. And so I go, and I didn't know what to expect I go and it is hard and very dirty work, you know, you're kind of dealing with like mouse droppings and dusty. And it's, you know, this was this storage locker, it looked like it had been packed up in the 70s and never touched sense. So I ended up getting the Louis Vuitton trunk out of there, I got everything out of there. There was a lot of old wedding presents from the 70s that had never even been opened, like they still have the cards in them and everything so. So I did sell the Louis Vuitton trunk. And I sold it to someone locally who had reached out on eBay, but I noticed that they had a local address and their thrift store name as part of their address. So I was like, why don't I just go out on a limb and see if there's a lot of details with when you're selling like a really expensive old item that I didn't want to necessarily end up with some a return or something like that. So I was like, let me just see if I can get in touch with them in a different way. And so I ended up getting in touch with them outside of eBay, which, you know, I'm not condoning that. But it just happened that they were local. And their name made it very obvious where they were. So we worked out a deal. I delivered it to them. They were buying it. They were the middleman. They were buying it for somebody who they're shipping it to Italy to completely refurbish it. And I guess once it's refurbished, they sell for like, coffee tables is like $36,000 or something in slosh. Yeah, insane. So, yeah, I got my piece, and they're gonna get theirs and everybody's happy. So it was good to nice, because the eBay fees on that would have been, you know, a couple $1,000. So,
Suzanne Wells:
yeah, that would have been? Well, I think they max out it at a certain point. Yeah,
Unknown:
up to 7500. They take a specific amount. And then after that, I think it's only an additional like, 2.6% or something. I did look into it when I was trying to negotiate prices with this person. Okay. Yeah.
Suzanne Wells:
Well, so you, you have no fear of the larger items. I
Unknown:
think that you have to kind of trust your gut was if you know something's profitable, it might be worth paying off on it. Because, you know, I don't know it. Yeah.
Suzanne Wells:
I guess you always go back to Can I sell it for what I paid for it? Yes. So that, yeah, if you put time into listing it, that's time you can ever get back. You might not be paid for. But if you can, if you can get at least what you paid for it, then you haven't lost anything and you learn something? Yeah. You're like, Oh, I'm never gonna do that again. Yeah.
Unknown:
Yeah. So yeah, I think and then even So aside from that, where I was able to double my money just with that one item. And then there was more stuff in there. That was really cool that I had no idea you can't tell them the pictures what's going to be in all these closed boxes. So I got pretty lucky with some of that stuff, too. They had lots of collectibles and China. All kinds of stuff in there. So that was my my first storage locker. And so I went back for more after that. I've done four now. Two of them are kind of duds a lot of work with not a huge amount of gain. But then the third one that I did, it's just it's really interesting story. I think the locker that I purchased, ended up being belong to the stepson of the former Boston Mayor James Curley, who is a notorious figure in the Massachusetts history. He was four time mayor of Boston, one time Massachusetts governor. He actually was put into federal prison while a mayor and the person who put him in prison was my great grandfather. My great. Yeah. So so it was just really funny that I ended up with all this James Curley memorabilia. There's like keys to the city of Boston in there because he was the mayor. And he was definitely a celebrity in the 30s and 40s. So there's people out there who really collect his stuff. And yeah, there's pictures of him with like, FDR and things that are letters between him and JFK. And it's just fascinating the stuff in this locker i i don't even know where to begin with selling half of it, but it's just really interesting, I've had so much fun going through it and learning about the history. Well, it
Suzanne Wells:
sounds like it. I can tell your, your vibe and your energy change when you start talking about that. It's exciting to you. And that's what keeps us going every day is your interest in what you're doing something outside of your normal job and being a mom and being a wife and taking care of the house. And it's just something fun to dig into. And when I'm in that situation, it's like, the time passes. And I don't even realize it. You're just oh my gosh, you've been digging through this stuff for two hours. I better go do something.
Unknown:
Yeah, yeah, I don't have a lot of people to talk about eBay stuff with my family is just, it's just isn't really their thing. But this was the one storage locker that my dad like, came over and wanted to go through all the stuff because it was his grandfather, and who had the history with James curly, and just he's a big history buff. So it was just really fun. We just really got into everything related to James curly. And it's that one was, yeah, that was fascinating. It's just though the learning process of everything is if you're if you're selling stuff that's interesting to you, that's even more exciting.
Suzanne Wells:
Right? Yeah. keeps you focused. Okay. Well, we've been going almost an hour. Did you want to answer one of the questions at the end? Sure.
Unknown:
Yeah, I'm trapped. Most of the reading that I do is audiobooks because I'm in the car a lot. But the book that I'm reading right now, about halfway through, it's called, none of this is true by Lisa jewel. I know. It's kind of like a mystery thriller. It's one of the characters as a podcaster, which is interesting, but that's what I'm reading right now. That's pretty good so far.
Suzanne Wells:
Yeah, I love audiobooks or podcasts, whatever, you know, you can multitask and listen to it while you're cooking or driving or whatever, and keeps you sharp. And who has time to read these days.
Unknown:
I wish I had five minutes to sit down with a book.
Suzanne Wells:
Before the internet I read all the time. Oh, that was my nightly thing to do was read and now I'm just technology's distracting. You got to really make time for it. But a mom of three working a full time job. A husband a house, like you don't have time for that. You're in survival mode right now. So okay, well, thank you so much for making time to come on the podcast and talk about your very interesting business. I've learned a lot I didn't know about these sites, or I, I just love doing these podcasts because I always learn stuff and get to meet resellers. And like you said, most people, they kind of just glaze over when you start talking about eBay because they don't get it. So that's what this podcast is about is like our little community and we get it. What are you up to today? Ah,
Unknown:
that's a good question. My kids are going to one of them gets home from school shortly and then yeah, not not a whole lot going on today. Just hopefully listing some stuff. Okay.
Suzanne Wells:
Okay, well, I'm sure you'll get more done than most people do in an hour. That's what I say in the morning. It's like, I get more done in the first three hours of my day than most people get done all week, so I'm not gonna beat myself up. Well, thanks again and we'll look for your sales on the Facebook group. Alright, thanks
Unknown:
for having me. Bye. Hey, I Okay, and now for today's trivia question. It's more of an educational question. Abigail mentioned selling on cherish which is spelled C H A Irish when did the site start and what can you sell there? Here's a few seconds to think about it. Okay, founded in 2013 Cherish is the leading online Emporium where designers and tastemakers shop for exceptional home furnishings and art. From their website. It says cherish is the design world's ultimate destination for home furnishings. In art, it is beloved by interior designers and tastemakers, who come for the rare vintage antique and contemporary pieces and stay for Well, lots more of that, with 2000 expertly edited items added daily. Every month, millions of shoppers strike gold, or lacquer or marble, or ornately carved wood on cherish a platform where buying and selling is smoother, more sustainable, and unexpectedly intimate, and always always delightful. What can you sell there, furniture, art, lighting, decor, tabletop and barware. bed and bath items, rugs and outdoor. So if this interests you just do a Google search for how to sell on cherish. Again. It's spelled ch AE Iris H and you can find out more. I personally love learning about other sites to sell on since not everything is suitable for eBay. Next week, my guest is Lin, who is a former teacher and has some fun stories to tell. So come on back for that episode. Thank you so much for supporting this podcast. And I hope you have an outstanding week on eBay. Bye everybody.
