eBay Chat in the Kitchen with Diana: Vintage Plastic Utensils and Other Treasures

videos on my YouTube channel. So let's talk to Diana Okay, we have Diana with us and she is a repeat guest on my I guess social media we talked three years ago on YouTube that was in 2018 but a lot has changed and you are appearing on the $100 supersize thread more and more often. So we want to hear about how your business has evolved. So say hi to everybody. Hey

everybody. And just if you want to give us a little background on where you are and when you started and why you started and you know that kind of thing. Oh sure. Well I started in July of 2016 I had left a corporate job because my job was going to be moved and I did not want to move to California so imagine if you had and you were there now no Wow.

Oh and I always wanted to sell on eBay but I don't know I just never really had that push to get started and I just decided one day I said I want to try this and my husband said all right, he said I see you're serious about it. Go try it so I did and I got hooked and started watching your videos and I kept learning more and kind of spiraled into a huge ordeal. Yeah so um that's kind of how I got started and I live just outside

of Lafayette Louisiana. So not like a really huge bustling area but you'd be amazed at the things you could find anywhere. I always seem to find stuff so well we have Lafayette here in Georgia except for they say Lafayette Really? I have no idea yes really that's how they pronounce it. And it's totally and this is what we have Cairo ca r o with they pronounce it k ro like

syrup. Yay, Georgia. I love the southern accent because most things in Louisiana when I first moved here I couldn't pronounce you you moved to Louisiana from where I am originally from just outside of Rochester, New York. I met my husband there and his job was coming to an end because this company was bought out and he had a lot of business connections still in Louisiana since this is where he's from. So we decided that we would move down here and I was okay with that because I don't like the

snow. I'm not a cold weather person. So I said sure I'll give it a whirl. And here we are 13 years later still here and no plans on moving so so Rochester, New York, the home of George Eastman who founded Kodak correct yes nothing on that a couple of days ago and I'm like you know a lot happened in that area but yeah, that stuck in my brain. But Wow, what a culture shock. Actually, in house was just a few minutes from where I used to work in upstate New York.

Oh really? Okay, good for you. I just I've loved stories about entrepreneurs. Yeah, and it took him a long time to get it right but he had that idea and he just stuck with it for years and years and years and look what happened. Perseverance baby That's right. So um, you've been selling on ebay now just over five years. And so you quit your corporate job to do this? Correct. Did you have Did you have eBay going? Before you quit, I had sold on and off just as a

hobby because I liked it. Um, right up to even selling a used vehicle to get more money out of it. Oh, wow. big ticket item I actually did, I sold my own SUV and I went to West Virginia and a car carrier, it was the craziest thing I ever did. But then I don't know if that happened maybe a year before I left my job. And I was just like, Well, I mean, if I could do that, yeah. Right, awesome. Other things. So, you know, it

kind of just became my sister. I always loved eBay, like we would sell some of our stuff, you know, long time ago, just for a few extra bucks. And I always loved it. So it was a little bit of a slippery slope. For me, I think I think it's kind of like you say it's a calling. Felt like, you know, I could have probably scrapped colleges, if you know, either, it was more of a thing than and I probably could have just dove right into it. I'm kind of jealous of Melanie actually, because I

prefer that route all along. I could have saved myself 1000s of loans. Oh, that's true. But you know, you always look at your peers and what they're doing. And if you're not, if you're not, especially when you're young like that, if you're not doing what everyone else is doing. You feel like there's nothing wrong with you.

Right? Yeah, I that's just you know what I mean, college was fun, but I think, I mean, I didn't ever have a hard time in school or anything, it's just, you know, I would rather be doing this, it's just a life preference, you know, business, that is a blessing that she doesn't have any student loans. So some of her friends like they're going to be paying on

those for a while. But, um, so it was kind of like, you know, maybe she was just an early adopter of this type of lifestyle and it is a lifestyle. I mean, it's Oh, absolutely.

It's not just like, you know, a thing you do it's, you know, it's a lifestyle you kind of get a little OCD about it, you know, like, Oh, yeah, you find yourself in the thrift stores and like you're looking through the junk, and then you see something and then you see 10 minutes later, you see another one like it, you're like, Oh, I gotta go put this with the other one. Yeah, I do that all the time. You know, the matching game like, Oh, I just saw one like this over there. I better

put this one with. It's like, I'm helping them organize their stuff as I'm shopping. That's how OCD I am about thrift stores. I get OCD when things are falling off the hangers. I don't like that. So I'll sit there and I'll pop them back on the hangers because I don't like sorting through a mess. I just like it always looks better after I've been through it because I've organized it as I'm looking. Oh yes, I actually had somebody asked me Oh, do you work here?

And I said, No. I just I said I can't go through the rack like this. What kinds of things do you sell? Oh, mostly women's clothing takes up. I'm gonna estimate at 75 to 80% of my store which I'm actually trying to get out of some of it and into other things. Which has been a challenge because unfortunately you post these amazing pictures of your Goodwill's with bins upon bins of stuffed animals and we literally have two aisles of non clothing items at our store.

So our Goodwill's are very different that we don't even have the color tags or anything to switch every week it's one flat price and you have to rely on them to maybe put up a sale at some point like they'll do like either all clothing under a certain amount or like the shirts will be on sale or the

pants are on sale. So it's really different for us here it's why it's so interesting for me to listen to you know other people and what their Goodwill's do because apparently they're all not the same so right and you know it's it's run by each state is different and even within each state because we have goodwill of North Georgia which is different than goodwill of Georgia like the rest of it and you know all the you know, I'll hit one in Macon on the way to the beach or something and it's like

completely different than what we have up here in North of Atlanta so and then people post on the money making Monday things they get all Facebook groups and marketplace and I

never see that stuff. I mean I look and look and I revisited after a few months I'm like I'm gonna try it again maybe it's different they just post furniture I just don't see these fine collectible Christmas things and all the craft supplies so it is you have to work with what's available to you yes cuz See that's basically how our stuff is to if I try to go on Facebook marketplace or something like that or you know our local stuff on Facebook it's mostly furniture vehicles, you

know, everything that I would never want to resell. Yeah, and or you'll join multiple groups and then it's just the same people posting the same things like on us, you know, I did that About a month ago, I joined Facebook, buy and sell groups in all the areas around me. It's just the same people just posting, posting, posting, I hit that on my feet, I'm still in the group. So I go look at this. This is just it doesn't work for me. So you got

to try new things. And so do we want to talk about your email that you sent earlier this week? Oh, Lord, yeah, my store kind of crashed and burned for a minute, I always hit the panic button. So for the listeners, Diana, it has been a loyal member of my premium library ever since I started it. One of the features is unlimited email support. So anytime you have a problem

question, I'm there for you. So poor Diana sent this very sad email about I haven't had any sales and what's happening, and it's down overall for the year, and what can I do and just sounded really desperate, before I could even answer. Everything picked up for you. I don't know, it's almost like your magic. Anytime I go to you for help. It's just like, I'm gonna call this Suzanne a wells effect. Because the minute I do that, things will start to look up. And I don't know why. But

that's just the way it works. I find everything that I want to resell when I go out thrifting you know, just for new stuff. It's just well, and you know, one of your pain points Was that your stores were empty, you just didn't have anything. And we have been experiencing that here. I've talked about this in some previous podcasts, August, September this month. And you know, just like the clothing racks are, there's like five things on a 12 foot rack.

There's like, Where's all the stuff, and you can see it in the back piled up. And we don't have, we don't have the people power to get it out on the floor. And so it's very frustrating, because it's like, well, can I just go shop in the back? Can you even imagine the most fun treasure hunt ever going through all these plastic bags like what's in here, I've been having that problem, too. And so Friday, let's see, we're recording this on Sunday, October 10. Friday, I went to a store that I kind of

consider a little crappy. It's not, it's not a great, it's not a clean store. It's not a modern store. But I know we have those. I haven't been there in a while. And those are kind of good for vintage things. Because the residents around that area. They're older, it's an older part of town. So they have these older things that we're looking

for. So I went in, and the racks were jammed full things in the back were you could hear them falling off the shelves because they were piled so high, somebody would touch something and like an avalanche would happen. And I was in there for four hours. And I have not seen a store like that pack that full since before March of 2020. I was just the thrifting gods are smiling on me that day, I found all kinds of great stuff. And I'm like, okay, maybe maybe all these stores are going to turn

around. And the cashier was checking me out. I think I bought about 30 things, which is a lot for me. And he was like, so did you find everything you need, and I said, Oh, more and more your store gets the prize for the most stuff in it. The county I'm in it could just turn around like that immediately. Like you just don't know. You just have to keep going and persevere and keep trying some of my suggestions for you are just going to be to to look at other places, not thrift stores.

And so in our pre recorded chat, you mentioned estate sales. So yeah, I got the motherlode from one of them I went and I actually the reason why I went I had to kind of prioritize because there's a couple things going on. So when I saw this picture, and I saw a bunch of vintage plush. One of them was on page I think 131 of your bolo book. And what does he sell for? Um, I think like, anywhere from 30 to $50. Yo, yeah, I mean, I'm forever looking for tons of stuff. And I love vintage

plastics. I love like the old vintage utensils and like I just sold a plastic mixing bowl I picked up for $3 Wow, that like looks like it was so plain looking. But Diana just said that she wasn't selling anything. So if here's this bowl for $35 or $30, something like that. Yeah. Good for you. Yeah, that was kind of like my one good thing. It was just slower. But I think it was a combination of things because I

was sick over the summer. I did have to close down for a couple of days because we weren't sure if the hurricane was going to hit us which it didn't write us and then I went on vacation. So I think maybe that kind of all

factored into everything. So but everything seems to be on the upswing at the moment so it's crazy how that works but and I think to my stores kind of in a transitional period I have been really focused on getting rid of some things I just don't want to sell anymore that aren't worth my time that I'm not interested

in anymore. slimming it down I used to have I think about 1700 items and as of today I have maybe about 1100 so I don't actually have a specific number of items I'm trying to have I'm just focusing on quality and what I like to sell I'm kind of you know what you're saying how you don't want to store bulky items and I've been fighting a bad shoulder so I certainly don't want to be doing a lot of

heavy things. So actually you inspired me because my furniture was old and I was running out of room and so I talked to my husband and we decided to buy new furniture that has a bunch of storage in it so I was able to store a bunch of my stuff so it doesn't look like it opened up a whole nother spare bedroom in our house right and hidden in the closets. I do have one spare bedroom that has shelves in it for my inventory because I have so much that may change someday I don't know but we actually

pared it down quite a bit. So maybe you know what our the point I was gonna make was I was storing sweaters which I'll always sell sweaters because they're a good seller for me you can fit like a six sweaters in a fabric cube with bras I could fit 40 in there and I have them organized by brand because I had them by color but then it's like I got like 50 black broads and I don't want to pick the wrong thing when I'm you know, I try to prevent myself from making mistakes so all the soma are

together the way Cole are together the Victoria's Secret so it's it's it's compacting itself. What are some examples of things that you never thought you would find that you've defined? Oh, Donny Sachs dress, I just found one of those. Right? And I have that erroring out right now because it was stored. I mean the states that have been going on for an hour by the time I made it to the back bedroom because I was looking at a bunch

of other vintage things. I get back into this walk in closet and there's this white dress and I'm like, Oh, I wonder what that is. It's lace. It looks kind of cute. I almost passed out because there's a Jessica McClintock Gunny sacks, and I said, and then I look at the tag and I'm like, how much are they gonna want for this? This I said $6 and I was like that could not go in my bag fast enough. You're like the IKEA lady running to her car. Quick before they figure out what it is.

Well, for those listeners who don't know, Jessica McClintock made these frilly lace prairie spotted core style dresses in the 80s and 70s. Some were printed like in a Little House on the Prairie dresses. Some were solid color. I remember like my babysitter's had them and you know that was their prom dress was a Gunny sacks and she she passed away. Was it this year or last year? I'm not sure if it's recently either 2020 or 2021. And so now they're even

more valuable. So some of those can go for over $500 Yeah, what how are you gonna price yours? Oh, I've been looking at that and I'm not sure mine is a white lace one It almost looks like it could be a prom dress wedding dress just like a cottage core dress so Hmm. Probably going to ask you know, I my inclination was always to price high. It really wants it they're gonna

make you an offer. So I mean, because the thing is, I've been looking at comps while this thing's been airing out and I honestly don't know just yet. I said hi and see what happens. Well, yeah, that's the one thing I have learned from this. For a while Melanie was doing my listings. I now list for myself but um, I think one of the best things that I learned was to not underestimate the value of what

you find. Mm hmm. So I think people just think oh, that nobody's gonna pay more than you know, 10 or $20 for this and there's a lot of people if it's something cool they will want or need. So you said it was white. How did you wash it? It looks pretty pristine. I have not washed it yet. I'm debating if I want to touch it because it

looks so delicate. I've been airing it out and I've been thinking about if I want to try hand washing it or if I should just leave it alone or you see on the group, someone. It might have been dawn McMaster that sells a lot of vintage. If it's not I'm sorry, I can't remember who it was but she had like a wedding dress. Yes, I saw that after they lost it in the bathtub with oxy clean and just let it soak. It really made a difference. It was it was kind

of yellowed. And she just very delicately, you know, hand washed it, laid it out in the bathtub with however much oxiclean you would need, and just was very patient and kept working with it, it really turned out nice. So I don't know if you saw that, and we're going to try and I did and that I've actually been thinking about trying that.

So because actually it doesn't look yellowed or anything, it's surprisingly, it looks very crisp, and white smell, you know, a little stale, maybe vintage items do it has the, you know, where it needs to be aired out, because actually, I've been airing out my plush too out in the sun, which you have a lot of down there in Louisiana. Finally, it's actually been kind of a rainy summer here. Finally, we're getting some sunshine in the fall. So finally able to do

that. So I've been airing out a lot of my stuff, but uh, been listening a lot to, I've been doing that in the evenings trying to catch up, because I found so much stuff. Like so is estate sales a thing for you now? Or was that like your first time? Or is it an occasional thing? Um, for a while I've been going and then became kind of an occasional thing. And now I'm kind of more hardcore, like I tried to seek them out and go. I usually find my best flips

there. I mean, I mean, not that I don't find nice things at Goodwill. I mean, you could really find it anywhere. But if I had to say, say statistically, where I find most of my really awesome stuff is estate sales has to be my sweet spot. And there are certain ones that I know how they run and how their pricing is and to show up early to make sure that you get in. So you're not waiting for Yeah, and really, their mission is to get rid of stuff. If they

don't get rid of it. They're going to have to deal with it at the end. Well yeah, because yesterday I decided to go I don't normally go to state sales on the last day because usually I always think oh my god is gonna be crowded. They're gonna you know, people taking hormones to stop. I don't want to deal with that. Yesterday, I decided, you know, I'm going to try this. So I went, and actually there was hardly anybody there. I ended up getting a Ralph Lauren blanket

for five bucks. And then they had like, I'm gonna say, like seven Laker say mugs sitting up in the kitchen. And so I asked the lady running and I said, you know, how much are you selling those for? And she said, Well, what ones do you want? I said, How much for all of them. And I like the way you think she's like, then I don't have to try to get rid of these later. She's like, all right, for all of them. And they originally wanted like $10 a piece. So you said you said how

much for all of them. $15 for Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah, I was taking those wrapping them up in the blanket. And I always have a box in the back of my car because they say well, if you can get them out of here, I'll sell them to you for 15 because they had no boxes, nothing to wrap them with. I'm like well wrap them in the blank. And I'll get the box from

my car. Oh, perfect. It worked out and then I found another vintage plastic item that was a strainer by the same company that needs that may be a little mixer bowl that I had bought and sold for $45 and then I found a vintage towels. So I mean, I ended up with like a whole box and stuff for like $25 it was you pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. You know, that definitely pushed me a little bit out because I don't know, I'm kind of wired. I

don't like to ask. I don't know, I see people try to haggle with some of these Day Sale people. And I think it just depends on how you approach them. You know, I don't ever say oh, well I'll only pay this you know, I'll just say hey, you know, how much do you want for this? Like I'm trying to push myself? Mm hmm. I had one woman tell me she said Oh, she's like I'm giving you a deal. That is the nicest anybody's ever asked me for a

discount. like okay, call it negotiating, not haggling because negotiating. You know, that's like a more professional thing to negotiate.

So if you are afraid of no, there's a guy you can google this and it's something like 100 days of no and and he was always afraid of asking questions because he didn't want the answer to be no. So he pushed himself for 100 days and he just ask people the craziest stuff like he grew up to a stranger and say Can I borrow $100 or he go over to his neighbor's house and say can I plant some flowers

around your mailbox? And first of all he was surprised at how many people said yes to things but it was like you know conditioning himself to hear no over and over so it finally didn't bother him. But for the most part, when people would say no he would say well why not? And and then it was just overcoming there. Why not? Because you're a stranger and I don't know you and I'm not gonna let you borrow $100 because I'll ever see you get and you won't

pay it back. When we are used to thrift stores and everything has a price on it, you just pay it. But then you do Facebook marketplace or state sales or flea markets and and you can't negotiate you know you have that option so if you just practice and just just ask would you take this and that's not a defensive comment like I'll only pay this it's you know would you take 15

for that? Or what would you take you know ask them and then and then you just hear no a bunch of times and then it just it's nothing you don't care anymore it doesn't bother you. Yeah, I guess I just I never want to be viewed in that light just because I go like you know especially now I've been going every time they have a sale and you get to know these people because you see them all the time you know, and I just find that you you know you can get more by being nice obviously.

Yes, I think a smile and a good morning Hey, it's nice to see you again. Then they start remembering you and I actually had an experience where I went to an estate sale and the person running it is really really nice too. And she said she pulled me aside and she said hey, I gotta ask you something and I said sure. She's like, are you a reseller? And then my insides just kind of bottomed out I thought oh no. And I said

honestly I said yes I am. I said occasionally I buy a couple things for myself but I am mostly resale she's like oh, well hey, I have this st. JOHN dress and I see you buy a lot of clothes. Would you be interested in looking at it? I was like, absolutely. So she brings out this three piece st john evening set and I said well how much would you like or she's just like, how about $15 you take it

right now? I was like, absolutely and then she says okay, now that I've sold it to say how much are you going to sell it for? And I said probably at least $200 and good for you and she was all happy about it? Yeah because they they don't want the hassle of listing it and having to wait that's the problem with people some people that don't are interested in eBay it's like they know it might take six months to sell and like flea market sell or what's your money right then?

Right and I was shocked but she doesn't she doesn't want to deal

with it so good for you. But the moral of that story is that Yeah, they recognize you and they're like oh, there's that lady that she buys a lot of stuff and she'll buy stuff at the end and and she'll negotiate so they'll start seeking you out after a while and so it'll just get more comfortable Yeah, she actually took my name and number down and she said if she gets anything else like that then she'll let me know which I was totally blown away I was like that's awesome but she said

if she sees something like that again she'd be sure to let me know so I mean I just think that that's awesome that somebody would even go out of their way to do that.

So if she was with the estate sale company, she runs it she it is her estate sale company oh okay that's her business then yeah, she probably makes a percentage of what they sell that's her business so try doesn't have time to evei in addition so because she's one of us that does like a huge like whole house clean out is not just like fancy stuff she'll take anybody's house and just every little thing and that's what I love because that's usually where I find my stuff because

it's always the basic overlooked

items. You know, I love looking for certain things you know, that actually come out of fancy places not you know, I think that some people underrate certain estate sales thinking oh that house doesn't look like much and I mean they could have a wealth of stuff in them so those are the best places and I've stopped at some you know, along the back country roads and I found the black granny square Afghan I sold for $100 and they only wanted $7 for it the vintage stuff is going to be in there I

found some clothes pins one time they were the kind that don't that don't have a spring and on there just the stiff kind and I've sold those before I found them in in this day so that looked like nothing and it had the bag the canvas bag you hang on the clothesline my mom had one of those it's like got some blueprint and a lady on it and I remember that in our laundry room growing up

we didn't have any one time. We didn't do a clothes line but she had that bag I know people make crafts with those clothes pins that don't bend you know don't move but it's just it was just a vintage thing that looked cool. And it was $2 for this huge bag of those clothes pins and I think I sold them for $50 Yeah, I think that's I think I paid around the same I don't recall what I sold them for so I think I'm putting mine in lots because there were different

styles of them. Uh huh. amounted to almost somewhere in that neighborhood. But yeah $2 for this big bag of vintage clothespins I mean I've sold some stuff where I would have never thought no yeah and it's like when I do these chats with other sellers I remember things come back like oh yeah, oh yeah, I remember I

found this at an estate sale. So it's it is the the things you know, hiding in plain sight that you would you wouldn't think are worth anything in these little you know, Are these houses that it's not a mansion in an expensive neighborhood it's just somebody who's lived there forever and they just have accumulated all these things and now people want them again and some of these vintage items I'm

like you know what? That could go on the wall at Cracker Barrel you know it's just one of those no see when I start to pre judge I usually chastise myself and I tell myself Suzanne would tell you to get in there and stop judging that's usually what goes through my mind look me it's not gonna hurt you to look I mean if there's nothing there you know what goes through my mind just get in there and look you just don't know what's gonna pop up in front of you they could have

like found some more stuff that they just put out because you know other people haven't seen it. And you might be the first person to see it. Yeah, so what was with the the baseball gloves? Oh, the baseball gloves? Well, I swore up and down I would never ever sell anything on consignment. Yeah, go ahead and laugh because it just didn't happen and you're like I need stuff to sell. Well, what happened was is I wasn't finding as many high quality items as I might like.

And my husband comes home for lunch one day and says hey, my boss has been cleaning out his mancave and he has he said he has some baseball gloves that he needs to sell and they're collectible and he's wondering if you would sell them and I said well let me take a look at them first make sure you know that it really is something that's gonna you know I don't want him to think that there were something whether or not I said tell him I'd be happy to take a look at him so he says my

husband home with this giant box like I thought he meant like three or four he probably had like 15 of them and this big old so I started researching and sure enough these ones are worth like a couple $100 a pop. So I emailed him and I said okay you know I looked over the gloves I said absolutely You know what? You know what is your expectation you know, what would you like me to do? Do you want

me to buy them off? Do you want me to sell them on consignment he said oh, I would love like you just sell them on consignment he's like I would offer you 5050 after fees and I was just like that works for me. I ended up having to one night study up on baseball gloves because I am not a sports person. I have no idea technical stuff. So I figured out how they

needed to be listed. I started photographing them and they started selling immediately and I had all 15 of them sold in just over two months and we made a nice chunk of change on that and he said he was extremely impressed and he was very impressed with the consignment agreement to that I sent him he told my husband he said Wow, he's like she really takes her business seriously. Good for

you. So um, but he was happy to you know, go along with those terms and and he emailed me and he said well, he's just like,

you're amazing. He said I thought you'd have to return a couple of the gloves because we'd agreed I would keep them for up to one year because I felt that I could probably sell them way faster, but I didn't want to oversell myself so right so I said yeah, I said I have the space for them I said you know I would give this a shot for up to a year I said you know and he's like no rush is just like you know, whatever happens happens you know, I know that you have a really great eBay

store and he said, You know, I just I'd really like you to do this for me. So like, all right, and honestly, it'd be a great experience. I now know way more about baseball gloves and I ever hope to no idea how valuable some of them could be. And actually when I got stuck a couple of times, this is what I love about your stay at home moms group which isn't just stay at home moms. Like I messaged Brian Rapoport. He's helped me before with a jersey I had some questions about baseball gloves,

he answered. You know, I mean, I just love that there's a community where you can say hey, I'm stuck. Like what? What is this? Or what would you know, I just said makes it so much nicer. So yeah, yeah, cuz this business is pretty isolating for a lot of people, especially if you have kids at home or you're a caregiver which right some of that with the caregiver thing. That was one of your reasons to want to do eBay was the flexibility. Yes, yeah. We had a lot on our

plate for a while. Yeah, you did. So anyway, back then the baseball gloves. I sold one for 50 bucks last week, and that was the first one I'd ever sold. So it's like when there's less stuff in the thrift store, you are forced to look at things that you wouldn't look at because you don't have a lot of options. I can't just do only sweaters because there weren't

any hanging on the rack. I know I'm walking by stuff just because I'm getting in my own way with feeling inadequate about like, I don't know this, this category. So time to learn. That you know, those I find is the times I push myself up, I push myself outside of that comfort zone. That's usually when I do my best. Mm hmm. Because I guess because you become so invested in it. That's kind of happened. That's what happened with the baseball Gloves. I just said, No, I have to nail this. This is my

husband's boss. I just I have to make this work and make sure he's happy. And he actually was very impressed. And I was just glad it all worked out. Honestly, I wish he had another box of them. Well, maybe that will maybe he'll tell his baseball friends about you, and you'll get some more. But who knows? Maybe you have something else is cool. Well, you are famous from being on YouTube three years ago, so maybe someone will recognize you and say, Hey, I heard you're the baseball glove lady in

Lafayette, Louisiana. I got some for you. So tell that story about the post office? Oh my goodness. So yeah, I went to ship something one day. And it's really funny because I am actually friends with one of the postal workers. So he was at the counter and we're talking and I he's scanning my packages and and all of a sudden this woman walks in. And she said, Oh my god, are you Diana, Julia? And I looked at her and I said, Yes, in my, in my mind. It was like racing, you know, 100 miles an

hour. I'm thinking okay, is this a bender from when I used to work in human resources? Did I interview this person? They're mad because they didn't get a job. All these things, you know, is this the cashier at the grocery store? Like, how do I know this person? She said, Oh my gosh, she said, I watched your video was Suzanne. Oh, and she introduced herself as jenelle. So big shout out to jenelle. And I asked her all the time of goodwill now she's very, very sweet. We enjoy

talking about eBay. And we're friends on Facebook. And she made me feel like a rock star for like five minutes. And yeah, it was my five minutes of fame and the post office. And no, it's really cool to know other people in the area that do eBay. And I had another woman who wrote to me, her name is gay. And she said that she didn't see my video and that she lives near me. And she said, Oh, I like to sell some of the same things. And one day, we made a point of

being the same good. Well at the same time, so that she could meet me. Oh, that's fun. Yeah, so I actually it was really neat because I got to meet two amazing women doing eBay and you know, now I have a couple more Facebook friends, you know, we all remind each other the goodwill sales and see you know, we're doing so it's been kind of me, it was very unexpected. The Unexpected celebrity. Yeah, so I remind my husband occasionally that he is married to superstar.

Right, you know, I'm a diva you know, you got to treat me right. And now we have a podcast to put on top of that. It's just it's fun to be recognized. But it's definitely happened like a handful of times. Was that your phone just going off? Yeah, that was a good shake. Oh, why did you so I just sold a vintage spatula batula it was a vintage over made spatula. Is that was that another sale? Um, actually I just accepted their offer. Oh,

okay. Okay. It was like it was the best offer so I hey, on this podcast because that's good luck for you. I just paid $1 for it and I took an offer of $30 plus free shipping. I don't normally do that. But it was a solid offer. So and I just last night. Grand Rubbermaid. Rubbermaid. Okay, yeah, was stamped on the back. This is 1972 it is a hard plastic, kind of like a Turner flipper spatula. And it doesn't have any slots. It's a solid wide scoop

type thing. So and mine was the only one and I saw a black one had been listed. They got the same amount. So I'm gonna know what color was yours, white. I remember that we had that but it had one slot in the middle. And we definitely had that growing up as the, you know, egg flipper, pancake flipper. thingamajig and so like that's the thing that people would be like, What? You paid $1 for it, and it's sold for $30 and it's a piece of plastic. And that's why I love vintage plastics.

I mean they're not just jewelry that people say go it's just the the jewelry fashion related. It's like no, it's practical. So I look for that stuff. That's easy to see in those bins of kitchen things. I I've studied up on that because it's it's just something I love selling because they don't break. They are not heavy to ship. Um, they're easy. I

mean they store well. I mean what's not to like, I mean if I spend $1 and I'm even with free shipping, I mean $30 for a kitchen utensil, I mean come on. No, I mean I love selling the vintage utensils. I mean they're it's kind of one of those hidden gems. I sold one earlier this

year from log cabin syrup. It was a specialty thing and I sold that for I think around $25 and it was another thing where I spent like maybe 50 cents on So I'll take that stuff all day long it's easy to list easy to ship they usually flip pretty quick too. So yeah, well and you know I was I got into that trying to learn about knives because our goodwill just puts all the knives in a band together like they put tape on the end so that you don't cut yourself. I just

was not having any success. I don't want to say luck I want to say success. Right finding the higher end goal Tang handle the Cutco, the ones that are expensive, I found a couple it didn't justify the amount of time I was going looking through every single knife. And so I'm like, Well, I'm just gonna look for this colorful vintage plastic stuff because it's easier to see. It sells it sells great, huh? Yeah, I love all the old vintage plastic stuff. I mean, I can't

get enough of it. I mean, there's so much I'm surprised how much of a demand there is for it. I guess it's nostalgia people just want it your customer writes new ones, um, that told me it was a vintage spatula. I don't remember what brand it was. But she said it was her favorite one to flip eggs with and she felt so lost without after her broke and she just was so thrilled to find the exact one. So amazing what people are emotionally attached to.

And your first I laughed, and then I realized when I make eggs, I have a favorite special too. And then I felt kind of all their mom had one and they just like they like using it. Um, you know, last year, there was a death and I lost someone very close to me that he was a chef, he did buy me some things for my kitchen, and I used them now. I hadn't been using them. And then I got him back out again. And I'm like, you know, this reminds me of him. I like these things.

And it's it's sentimental. And it's like, kitchen utensils. I wanted people to everybody is emotionally attached to things. And I think when you mix emotion with money, people will pay more. Oh, that's why the market for some of these plush stuffed animals lovies all the little things for babies and children. They they had that thing and they want it again. And it's just oh yeah, the emotional.

I understand that because I have the vintage Fisher Price, lovey this the bunny I have a pink gang and one that I've had, right? I was not quite a month old. I think I got it my first Christmas and my birthday isn't quite a month from Christmas. So I refuse to get rid of it. It's one of the few things that kept there's something about it. It's so cute. I remember taking it to bed with me. I remember always being on my bed, just always in my room. And I cannot part with

it. I think I'd be heartbroken if something happened to it. And here I am. 43 almost 44. And I would be sad if something happened to my rabbit. So you were born in 76 777. Okay, that was I was gonna say ask if you were Gen X or after but so yeah, you're right in there with with all that stuff. That's, that's popular again, because people just are emotionally attached, and they want them again. So I'm just gonna say this, because we're on a podcast talking and maybe

people don't know this. But I'm working on that plush course, in the premium library. And I don't know if you had a chance to watch the second one I did that just came out a couple days ago. But it's part of it's about Lisa Frank, because that's a big thing. But different people might not know that there is a like a reboot of her stuff. So the way to tell the vintage is it's a capital L and a capital F on the tag. The non vintage, it's lowercase. Oh, intro, that's the difference in the

pricing. And make sure you know what you have. Because if you have some of the new stuff, and you're trying to price it like the vintage stuff, yeah, it's not the same. It's different, right? And somebody on YouTube, put a comment on there and told me that I didn't know I had no idea. And then I went on Google Images and started looking at things and sure enough, that's exactly the case is lowercase L and F and her name is not vintage. So there's a lot of reproductions as there are with

everything. So you got to really know what you have because collectors will know. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So a couple years ago I found some stationery in a bag. I think I actually stopped at a garage sale randomly. It was next to a house where I had gone to an estate sale because I don't normally do garage sales but I was like well I'm here over and lo and behold I found some stationery and I mean I paid maybe a quarter for it and I couldn't believe the money I

made off of it. I think I sold it for like 20 $25 it's just like little loose sheets of paper. Was it like a certain brand like Hallmark or a frank? Oh, was Lisa Frank? Okay, was Lisa Frank? Oh yeah. There's a couple of different designs of it. And I mean, literally, maybe it was like 12 pieces of paper. The things that people will spend money on, it's just like, I mean, it's great for me, I just I don't know.

Yeah, I need to do a brand spotlight on her because she has a very interesting backstory. Her father was an artist. It's I just like knowing like, how did this person become so successful? What was the pivotal moment what is their history? And it's just interesting to see where they came from. But yeah, her some of her vintage plush is just crazy. Some of them can go for $1,000 Yeah, the pricing on some of that stuff is crazy. And the one thing I love about the Lisa Frank stuff is that

it's very easy to spot. Yes. mistake that for something. Yeah, and there's a lot of reproductions we're all just people copying it so like you'll see a notebook with that colorful theme and it's oh this is Lisa No, it's not target you know? No, it's not it's me. They just copied it. But it is yeah,

it's very visual. So if you're standing on that cluttered office supply aisle, you can just kind of look for the leather planners and the Lisa Frank stuff and anything new in the package Yeah, you just never know i mean you have to keep an open mind when you're outsourcing i think is the biggest takeaway I've probably learned you just don't know. And I think to following your gut instinct if you think something looks interesting to pick it up look at it Don't be afraid to look up a comp I mean

I do it all the time. I don't care what somebody else thinks I see other people doing that you know i mean Oh yeah, yeah, who cares even even if it's not something you want to resell? You've learned something you know, right? You've learned what not to buy. Exactly like the Gibson China it's like none of that is worth anything you know?

dime for every time I saw that, you know or there's another one that's something with an S S A k something it's You mean like it's a it's really cheap to Pottery Barn can look exactly like it so I'm going to ask you what I asked all my eBay friends that I chat with, what is your best sale ever? My best sale ever was a limited edition of tarot cards. Right? That was actually just a few

months ago. Funny backstory on that I had gone out to my car because I I don't normally look in the book area and I I found a few things. I went to start my car, my car wouldn't start. I thought a lot. So I had to call you know, I had to set myself up to get a tow truck. This thing is not moving. It wasn't jumpable there was there's no it turned out to be an electrical problem. Long story short. So I'm going back in the store because it's hot. It's summer.

like okay, I have an hour before this tow truck comes I've got to find something to do with my time. So I went back in the store and I started looking at the books I'm like, because I was like, Okay, what am I going to look at and I just recall for money making Monday, some people made some really good money on books. I'm like, maybe I should just go check out the books. I have all kinds of time on my

hands right now. I look and I'm like, oh, tarot cards, people have sold tarot cards, and I'm like, well, for $1.99 I just quickly grabbed it. And I kept looking and I didn't even look up a comp and I was like, you know, I've seen people sell things for 25 $30. You know, they look or whatever. I think they were called fairy tale tarot cards. And it came with a book and it was like a fairy tale theme. And so I went, I bought them. tow truck still

wasn't there. So I look up the comp, and I couldn't even believe it. Apparently, mine was the original edition, which was out of print. For full price of $350. It took just a couple of weeks before it was sold. I was surprised and that more than paid for my car repair. Okay, and isn't that interesting how the universe just works it out for you? Like, yeah, I've had to reprogram my thinking as

I get older. But usually when something like that happens, it's like, Okay, I'm getting put in a certain place for a reason, or I'm going to meet somebody that's important or something's going to happen and I've been redirected to this place instead of being at that place that you know, might catch on fire or there's a car wreck, you know, it's like, get put in the right place for the right reason and something magical like that happens. Yeah, that's a great

story. So was it a certain brand or a certain person? Oh God, I am The following number was called fairy tale came in a pink box I'd have to look back at I don't remember I'm not a tarot card expert by any means I just recall seeing them you know look that up while we're talking because I want to see if I can find it on Google

Images. Oh here it is. fairy tale Tarot by Lisa hunt yes it was Lisa hunt and it's got a little like Little Red Riding Hood on the front yes but yeah, cuz right now they have one listed on poshmark It looks like somebody selling a fairytale Tarot yeah it is on eBay it's priced at $2,175 I wonder if that's new in the package mine was used I don't know let's see if it is even active anymore yeah, it is it's um the fairy tale tarot card Lisa hunt new sailed extremely

rare first edition. They haven't priced at $2,175 Yeah, I think that one was actually listed at the time I listed mine and there was one other used one and I didn't see comps anywhere near that I think somebody is just shooting for the moon on that one. Which is fine. I mean, if that's what they want to do, but hey, you never know. So I'm I'm 350 on a used one. So yeah, this is the the downside of a podcast is I can't

show a picture of it. But I've noticed several people that do well with that Lynne Merritt does well with that she's in that metaphysical world and has a metaphysical store so she knows a lot about those things. But I keep seeing that you know, people finding these and selling them for a lot of money. So yeah, that is an excellent thing to share. Thank you. You're welcome. If we all learn something from this podcast, it's to look for those cards.

Absolutely. And then the last question because we've been talking about an hour is any advice to anybody out there struggling or wanting to get into this um, my best advice and this is gonna seem like a plug but I'm not being paid to do this is to join the premium library even if it's for a month it's only $20 and Suzanne is the best help you're probably going to get out there for real and the videos are super helpful if you're struggling with ideas of what to sell or how she does things you

know, it's and I find you when you do videos, you know not only do I learn about what you've talked about but sometimes then it causes me to think oh well if that's worth money then I should be looking at this if I'm in a

thrift store type of thing. And I guess to I would just say to persevere if it's if eBay is something that you want to do just go for it you know don't let little details stop you you know i mean just try your best i mean you know if you don't make a lot of money the first time I mean the first thing I ever sold I only needed like $4 but I was like wow you can actually make money off this and you just it's something where you're constantly refining your business and you learn new

things and it's very dynamic you know what was selling last year might not be really hot this

year. You know, you just keep trying to stay on course with it and don't get frustrated just have fun with it and if you enjoy selling something then you know even if it's not your best profit item if that's what keeps you motivated then go for it and do you know for a tool I would definitely say the premium library that's why I have been a member for I think since you started it I sure appreciate that and I hope you feel like you're getting your value because there

are now 435 videos and part of my weekly routine is to go back and make sure everything's up to date. Wait I think you've done a great job with updating it and I mean I my favorite part aside from the videos I just like having somebody that I can email when I'm stuck because it doesn't matter how long you've done this there will be things where you're like oh I'll take the phone a friend option Hey

Suzanne How's it going? So this is yeah and sometimes it's just you already know the answer you just want to be like let me run this by you is this is this what you're thinking to and I'm like yeah, that's exactly what I would do. If you're not sure something ask somebody in the group join the premium library there's always a way to dress whatever it is you need you know you just have to be resourceful I think that's a lot of this business is being resourceful I love it.

And so fun talking to you and I guess we should do like a yearly check in to see what what you've learned and how far you've come because I got your email the other day and I'm like she's just feeling discouraged because she's Yeah, I know and, and you just paid for a vacation with your eBay money. I did. I took my husband to Jamaica for his birthday. Oh, that was so nice. So yeah, I mean, my store is

probably doing fine. It's just You know I hold myself to a certain standard I feel like I disappoint myself and I don't like that. Yeah you sometimes you just can't make things happen so you just have to constantly be that little squirrel gathering nuts Okay, I'm not gonna worry about what's happened I'm just gonna work on my stuff here and keep adding things to my store and keep going. And it always turns around always Oh, it absolutely does. You're

right about that. So it's all good now and I've been actually really busy and I've been busy listing and I've got a whole slew of stuff from this day sales I went to so I think I'm headed off in the right direction now good, you fixed it. Well, thanks again for taking the time to chat. I enjoyed this. And we will see you on Facebook. All right, thanks. Okay, that wraps up another eBay seller success story. Thanks

again for listening. And as always have a profitable, productive and fun day on eBay. Happy selling everybody. Bye.