eBay Seller Chat with Josh The Rattlesnake Guy in Washington 🐍

Hey there, eBay friends. Welcome to episode number 170 of eBay the right way. Today's date is June 19 2024, also known as June teen, which is a new postal holiday. Well, this is the second year, in case you are listening to this today on June 19. And wonder why you didn't get any mail. That's what happened to me last year. I totally forgot it was a new holiday, and couldn't figure out why my mail didn't come. Okay, my guest today is Josh, who I have nicknamed the rattlesnake

Doing great, thanks.

Yeah, good. Okay, and tell us where you're located.

I'm from a small town called Lyle Washington.

What's closest town to it that people might know?

Probably Portland, Portland. Okay.

Okay, good. All right. And so we generally start off with you telling the listeners how you came to eBay. What were the circumstances of that.

So, my uncle is, has been reselling for 30 years, and he kind of inspired me to start reselling. And he, he's kind of my mentor. When it comes to reselling online, I come to him with questions whenever I need anything, and I wouldn't be able to have gone as far as I have without him. And that was back in 2018. I kind of started out as a more of like a hobby, reselling. And now within the last year, it's turned more of into an actual business.

Right? So you're younger than most of my guests. It looks like what year were you born?

Next? 95.

Okay, so you're 3128 Wait, oh, see, I can't even do math. Okay, so 95 Okay. Yeah, my daughter was born in 94. My son was born in 96. Now here between them. Okay. 28. Now, do you have like a regular full time job? Or do you transition to doing reselling full time?

It's still part time.

Yeah. And what do you do there?

The other job? Yeah. I work on a ranch as a ranch. And yeah, we're out in the country. Okay.

So what's a normal day for you at that job?

feeding chickens feeding goats. We used to have cows, but they kept breaking fences. And then they quit doing that.

Yeah, I can relate. I'm in a rural area now. And a couple times a week, a calf gets out of the electric fence. And I have to go chase them down and get them out on the road. And yeah, it's it's a next level babysitting kind of thing.

Okay, well, great. So

where do you get your items to sell? You're in a rural area. So do you go to the closest town or how do you do that?

Yeah, the closest town. I think they're about four different towns that they're all actually about the same distance for me. It's a 45 minute drive. Yeah. Usually I go to yard sales. If I'm already, like heading that way. And there's a yard sale happening. I pick up most of my items from yard sales. Okay. It's harder to find things at the stores for me that are reasonable, reasonably priced.

It's getting that way everywhere. Yeah, yeah. We have to zig when they zag kind of thing just. It's just getting harder and harder at thrift stores.

But I have found some items, though, at thrift stores that I've sold for over $100 that were priced fairly low. But there seems to be they're harder to spot. Right.

Well, why don't we transition into talking about some of the items that you've sold?

Sure. My, my biggest sale ever made was a book from the 1800s 818 65. I believe I got it for free. And it sold the next day for $1,200.

Yeah. Okay, so where did you get it for free.

It was a Facebook marketplace ad. They it was kind of like an estate sale sort of. Someone had passed away, they bought the property. And they just had these bookshelves full of books and the new owners just wanted them gone. And they said take as many books as you want. I came in and just kind of grabbed a handful of books. And that was one of the books I grabbed. And then after that sale, I went back and I filled up my SUV full of all their

guys. Yeah. So was that early in your eBay career?

Um, no, it was couple years ago. Okay.

Yeah, good. Yeah. Never turned down free I guess. Yeah.

actually free items, for some reason for me, I make more profit on those than items I pay for. I don't know why that is.

Right, even though I don't pay very much for anything. You do pay for it. Right? Yeah. Okay. And so what was the book about the $1,200 books?

It was a rare mining record of California, there were only three that I could find. And I had to search really hard to find them. And they weren't on eBay. They were on other websites. One was on auction for 25,000. And other one was on auction for 6000. But nobody had bid on them. So I wasn't sure. It was worth that. But it sold overnight for 1200. Well,

I'd call that a win. That's great. So you're in Korea, where you would find old mining stuff, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Excellent. I

started picking up silver items. A long time ago, it used to be intimidating for me, not knowing what was actually silver or fake or silver plate. And I just kept going to my jeweler, and he kept he kept looking at me like, Oh, he's back. But he explained to me how to find actual silver. And now I know what I go to yard sale to look for Sterling, nine to five 900. And those can sell for a lot of money, and people will give them away for like 25

Do you recall a specific one? That was high dollar or interesting?

I just do it for spot price. So that's what the weight of the Silversides weigh the silver and I charge the actual silver value for it. Okay.

Yeah. And you've heard of that test you can do if it's not marks where you, you have a silver item, and then a non silver item, you put an ice cube on both of them. And the one that melts faster is going to be your silver.

I've heard that but that was a nice. Yeah, it was like, I don't know what I'm doing with? Well,

sometimes, especially if it's older, it's not marked. And you know, it feels heavy. And you think, how can I find out if this is silver, you know, because it's not marked. So that's just one of the like, there's different chemical tests too. But that's just one of the at home tests you can do to figure it out, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It's always better marked for sure.

Okay, my jeweler also was bending them. Apparently, if they bend easily, they're real. Uh huh. That was another thing. I'm like, I can't tell. It's bending.

Yeah, cuz true silver, like nine to five is soft, like, rare. I don't know if it's rare or never, but like 100% Silver, it has to have something mixed with it, because it's so soft, that it won't hold its shape. So that's what the nine to five is. It's 92.5% Silver and then the rest is other mix metals they put in there to so they can form it

No, I haven't found gold yet. My dad comes with me and for some reason. He's he always finds the gold before me. Well, there was a there was a jar, it looked like a jar of junk. And he just said I'll give you $5 for that and there was a gold necklace inside that he brought to the jeweler and it was appraised at $700. Really, that was jealous, but

so you have a local jeweler that helps you does he charge you to assess the value.

He didn't charge but there was something that needed to be fixed and then we paid them to fix whatever was wrong. Um, so it was worth it for him to appraise it for that.

Yeah, it's worth it for him to be your connection. Right. Okay, so you're looking at like flatware and jewelry and just any silver looking items.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. I also just go in with my phone and look up each item and try to find things with at least 20% sell through rates. Most of my items are probably $20 items just so quickly. I can't really think of an example of one. Or just, they're all different.

So you have like a specialty. You just like a slot?

Well, that's good. Maybe the books I do a lot of the books? Uh huh.

Do you have certain ones that you look for? Are you just trying to look at everything right now.

Um, I try to find books that are popular. It's hard to know when a book is popular, but the sell through rates will kind of tell you if it's popular. And then if there are enough paperback books, by a popular author, those are always worth picking up. I sold a lot of 68 books for $175. Wow. Yeah. And it was a popular author. So it sold pretty quickly. Was it? Agatha Christie? Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah. Okay, I used to pass up the paperback books because I thought they

buy them and continually put together sets as you see them?

No, I just find them. I'm usually the person who have in the yard. So we'll we'll have collected them themselves. Okay.

Yeah, I don't have the patience for that either. Book lady. She does that and others do it. Just you know, they'll just keep looking. And eventually they'll have enough to make a complete set. Or maybe one is missing. Something like that. But I just don't have the patience to do that. Yeah, me too. Okay, and you sell all kinds of things. So what other sorts of items have you sold?

Hmm. Board games. There was one board game I sold it was was from the 1950s. Apparently I had the best version that was I think the original. And it wasn't even complete. And it sold for $100. And it was it fell apart when you touched it. Oh, gosh. But apparently was still collectible and worth money. So it was kind of like Legos, sort of it was like you build but you can't couldn't use it anymore. So I don't really know what they would do with it. But yeah, $100.

Exactly. Yeah. How many items have do you have an eBay store?

It's technically not a store. But I have a place where yeah, it's just the basic,

free version. Okay, like the starter? Yeah. Okay. So how many items do you have for sale? About

500 500 items? Oh, that's great. Yeah, my goal is 7000.

Okay. Do you see a, like, average certain number of items that you sell a day?

No, actually, for some reason for me. I make most of my sales around the first of the month and the middle of the month. So yeah, someone told me that because that's payday when people get paid. So I'll do really well then. And then it'll be slow. And then pick up the middle of the month and then slow. I think the most amount of sales that I've made in a day, I think was close to 20. Really? Yeah.

All different kinds of items.

Yeah, they're all unique.

Yeah, GM has been slow for me. I've just been spied what's going on? And then it picked up yesterday and I saw like six things and I don't know if it's the they call it rolling blackouts where you your store gets hidden and then it comes back to give everybody a turn. I don't know if I believe in that or not. But that's the theory. And then like government checks like Social Security or disability and all that comes

Right? Yeah, I

don't know, I feel like eBay is kind of recession proof, because people might go back to used items if they can't afford the brand new ones. But you know, some people just have money all the time. And recession doesn't affect them. And they're buying their collectibles and their $1,200 books whenever they want to, you know, it's just so many different people out there are stuff they'll be like, Oh, it's the economy. And it just depends on you, the buyer and their

I'm doing better now with the economy worse than I was when the economy was better. Really? Yeah. And I think it's all about the the algorithm. You have to list consistently. Preferably, at least, my uncle says at least five a day, that's the minimum to keep up with the algorithm in order to make consistent sales. Okay, I used to do one a day, and it didn't really work. And then the Five a Day started working.

Okay, well, that's good information. I also wonder if it's, like, you have 500 items, if it's a percentage of your listed items, you know, if you have if you have more items like 1000, should you be listing 10 a day? Or you know, is does that have anything to do with? I'm always trying to be a detective and like, figure out, what could the variable be that we can actually control? Right? And

also, the more you have up the more chant more items people can choose from to purchase from you.

Right? Exactly. Do you do any clothes or shoes?

For some reason, I really don't like listing clothes, I will list them if they're valuable.

I know the reason is tedious. That's why thank you. Yeah, there's definitely a reason.

I haven't some reason. I don't know what it is, but I haven't really found valuable clothes. I know they're out there. I have found a couple that, you know, were worth listing like maybe 20 $50, something like that, but nothing like crazy. Yeah, I do. Sorry, those

shoes are a different animal because you have to look through all of them. You know, when you're just around a garage sale and their stuff on tables, it's right there in front of you. You can just grab it, but the closers there's like a bunch of them in a Rubbermaid tote or they're all hanging you got to look through them. And that's that's tedious. And then the list part is tedious. You have to make sure that your picture and take several pictures and measurements and then it's a

For some reason, I'm okay with doing coats and shoes tend to be more expensive and little easier.

Any sales come to mind there?

Yeah, I sold a something actually bought at Goodwill. It was one of those goodwill items that were worth buying for $15. It was a Nike Air Force One snowboarding booth. And apparently at Nike Air Force One is valuable. I sold for I sold for $120 plus shipping. Great. Yeah. I learned that from talking to somebody that was really into Nikes.

Well, I will say a snowboarding boot is less chance of being fake than just your average sneaker. You know, because that's a big problem with those high and while those popular brands that everybody wants is there's a lot of fakes. And I got burned on that one time I had a pair of Nike something they were like lime green, and they were worth over $100 and I put it up there and somebody reached out to me and

talking about fakes. I went to a yard sale just a couple days ago, and I picked up a Louis Vuitton handbag that I thought was worth $500 and paid money for it, and then went to get authenticated, and then it was fake. That was kind of sad.

Yeah, but that's $20 through education. That's true. You're smarter picker now, because maybe you won't pick them up. Now you won't spend any more money on those? Or did they tell you why it was fake? Like what were the hallmarks of like, you know, the stitching is wrong, or the the metal didn't have the inference in it? Or you know, what was wrong with it?

No, they didn't give me any information, I'm guessing because they, they don't want to give away their secrets of figuring it out. But it posted on a Facebook group, specifically for purses. And they did they did tell me what was wrong. They said something about the direction of the logo was wrong, which is something I could try to remember. And something about the print was messy, the stamp of logo. And I did notice that and I was questionable to me when I purchased it. So

yeah, it takes practice to learn all that because there are certain characteristics of a fake, like the pattern doesn't match up on the seams, or the stitching is crooked. Because you know, they're making them as fast as they can, you know, China, New York, wherever they're making them. And the all the metal should be imprinted with the logo. And the inside pattern is there are certain characteristics depending on the brand, you know, what the inside should be? And just stuff like

it was actually a 60 because the oh okay, 20 for the person and 40 to authenticate. Oh, I

see. Okay. But yeah,

I heard it was worth gambling to potentially make $500. But

yeah, that's the way it is. I mean, every reseller gets home with stuff and then they kind of get into listing it and it's like, you find a defect or you find something wrong with it or realize it's fake and that's just just chalk it up to education. You know? Yeah, like that. Yeah. You get your You'll get your money back on the next $1,200 book.

There you go.

For that money coming, right. Do you do many breakables?

Yeah, actually do but nothing valuable.

That's okay. But you've learned how to ship home so that's it? Yeah.

Apparently, I was good at shipping them from day one. I don't know why. I was just so paranoid about it breaking. Uh huh. That I just really put a lot of bubble wrap on everything. Definitely had to purchase bubble wrap. Eventually. Yeah. Yeah. For awhile, I was saving it up and then ran out. So yeah, there was one yard sale they went to where they they did a fill a box for $1. I was the last day in this estate. It was actually a state sale, not a yard sale. So I

how are you calculating that sell through rate. So,

okay, so you either either on a browser or an app on your phone, you just searched an item. So for the pottery, you could either just search handmade pottery. And then there's somewhere in the search has a little number where it says how many are listed. And then if you're on a computer, you'll hit advanced and toggle sold. And then it'll come up with a new number. And if you're on your phone, you'll filter sold. And so you take the sold

Yeah, we'll see. I never looked at that. Because first of all, it's the timeframe. Are you looking at 30 days? Are you looking at three years? You know, what, what is that? And there is so much possibility for human error on the listing that oh, yeah, no wonder his didn't sell his pictures are crappy. No wonder there's didn't sell they got it spelled wrong. It's like, what? What is factored in to that so great. I just don't think I think eBay just did that to come

I agree with that. And I do also do that. I tried to look at other factors that could I call it skewing the results.

Yes, exactly. Yes, yeah. There's some of these people that buy out estate sales and auctions. Their goal is to flip it in a week, they'll put it on auction for 99 cents, you get something back, because guess what, next week, they're going to pick up another 200 items. So that's, that's their business model. And that definitely skews the sell through rate. And then you got the longtail people that have that $1,200 book. And they just, they're gonna hold on to it for two years. So they get that

Yes, that's another thing. If an item is valuable, and it has a terrible South rate, I would purchase it anyway. And wait those two years? Yeah.

Okay, I didn't want to like bust your chops on that. I just, there's a lot more thinking. And I know a lot of the YouTube people are like all about sell through rates. And that's all they look at. And it's like, there's so much human human factors involved in this that I just don't think you can put a number on it. And but you're smart. If it's a longtail item, and we all have them. Like, wait, you know, I sell $100 items all the time that

If an item is worth over $50 I I will ignore the sell through rate usually.

Okay, good rule. Yeah, I like that.

Item. It's not worth waiting two years for

Yeah, that's just the that's the teacher in me coming out, especially for younger people. I'm like, Wait, let's think about it a little bit more. Because you want to, you want to find the the balance or the sweet spot between how long you've had it and how much you can Sell out for, and you know what you're willing to do there? And everybody's different. Right? Yeah. Okay, so you say you mostly do yard sales and estate sales?

Yes, that's correct.

Do you have any? Do you negotiate? Or do you just pay what they ask?

I always negotiate.

Good. Good. Do you have any strategies to share?

Um, I just figure out what it is the most I can pay for an item. And it's probably better to go a little lower than that. Because the the want to raise it up a little bit. An example was a backpack I picked up that's worth $100. And I decided I didn't want to pay more than 20. So I offered 10. And then they countered at 15. And I accept it. So it was actually less than I was willing to pay. And there you go.

Did you sell the

backpack? Oh, no, not yet. I just listed it yesterday, actually.

So what is it? What brand?

Ah, it was, I think it was Alps outdoors. Some kind of it was actually selling on auction for 60. So when I see that, I, I know that it's an item that sells pretty quickly. Yeah.

Do you do the cash in hand technique? You know, they weren't 20 they want 20 For something and you've got a 10 in your pocket. And like, all I have is 10 you take 10 and you pull out the cash so they can see it. And a lot of times they'll be like, okay, you know, cash is king, you got to keep you keep your money like separated, so that you can do that trick you don't pull out 100 You pull out a 10 kinda kind of get them to reconsider once they something about when you see that cash in somebody's

I remember there was a time I only had $100 Bill and I talked somebody down to like $10 or something and I pulled it out and they looked at me like oh man yeah

exactly. You're you're playing backfire. It's the small bills and and you know look for you know, where, where your worst clothing you know, like the back Cosby episode where they went to buy the car and feel went with him. And he's like, No, you can't dress up. You got to you got to wear your worst clothes. So you look poor when you're negotiating. Yeah, that works for us, too. What's the plans? Do you have you say you want to get to 1000 items?

Um, yeah, actually, I am.

Do you have a plan for that? Or are you just working on it as hard as you can? As much as you can?

So my, my grandma left a inheritance for me that I just am receiving in a couple weeks. So Oh, yeah. So that's gonna give me a jumpstart where I can transition into full time. Yeah.

You know, you are the third person in a week that has told me that they're coming into some money one, one guy yesterday, he's in a middle of a lawsuit with that round up. Is it like a farm guy and he's, he's in that lawsuit, he's gonna get a big settlement, and then another person. Their girlfriend's mom died and left them millions of dollars. And you know, their life has

Yep, does. Yeah.

So you're smart to figure out something else. That's, well, I mean, reselling is not guaranteed. You know, it's up and down, as you know, so. I hate I don't want to encourage anybody to rely on that. 100% But it's good that you get a head start.

Yeah,

Do you have anybody helps you other than your your dad that goes with you and finds the gold?

Actually, no, it's just me. Uh huh. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. solopreneur What's that? It's,

it's called a solopreneur, solo entrepreneur solopreneur. One of those made up words.

I think it'd be nice to get married to a reseller and do it together. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. I just got married about a month ago. And

my husband is very into it. He's loves to go to the bins and just look for stuff. And that's good for me. Because it's, it's a little physical. It's more physical than like a regular thrift store. Have you ever been in goodwill outlets?

Not the bins? We don't we don't actually have the bins where we are. Uh huh. You have to I think we have to go to Portland.

Okay, yeah, I had never been around them in the South. There was one in Georgia, but it was three hours away. But. So it's, it's interesting to see the different kinds of stuff. And I came across some other resellers there. And you know, hey, they were looking for different things. And I was but the guy comes up to me, and he's got this nine to five silver ring. It was like a class ring. Thick. Right? He goes, Hey, are you a reseller? And I was like, yeah, and he says, Well, I found

didn't want things.

I was like, I didn't want that go head Pentagon thing on my person anywhere near me. So Right. Yeah. So I'm sorry. What were you gonna say?

Oh, I was gonna say, their items I passed up that were valuable that, that we're like, we're like that like Masonic. or stuff like that. Yeah. It's just, I would not feel comfortable. reselling, I suppose.

Yeah, I guess you know, everybody's different. It's just what you're comfortable with. But I just, I just didn't want that in my eBay store. And I didn't want to have it in my on my person. Like, around me weird. But yeah, all kinds of stuff. So what is the weirdest thing you've ever sold since we're on that topic?

Um, rattlesnake rattles? Really? What's the story behind that? Well, we live out in the country. So we get rattlesnakes, and we let the Rattlesnakes live that that are far away. But when they come here to us and attack us, we have to kill him. Right. And I don't know how I figured it out. But I found out that the rattles are valuable. The more the more buttons they have on them, the more valuable they are. I sold a 10 button rattle for $30. And I think I have another one that

And so that's not one of those prohibited items on eBay. Obviously, if you're able to list it, you know, like real ivory is prohibited some of the, you know, items from animals that like that's not kosher to sell it that's not allowed, but rattlesnake rattles that's really creative. Yes. What was the connection between seeing that and thinking I? I wonder if I can sell it?

Well, we sold it in a in a booth a long time ago and it sold immediately and that kind of stuck. I would think I was a teenager when that happened. And I was thinking about why did somebody buy it? Yeah. I don't know why we even put it in the booth to be honest. Somebody told me they wanted to put it on their guitar for some reason how Okay, I don't know why. I know they make. It's weird. They make earrings out of it. Okay, jewelry. Weird, but I can see that. But it works for them.

I just sold a rattlesnake belt. A couple of weeks ago, I did an online auction and bought a bunch of stuff. And that's the that's the thing I wanted in the lot was you can zoom in on the pictures and see what they have. And it was full rattlesnake all the way around the belt and the buckle was rattlesnake. And yeah, and so like within two days. Nice. And I paid $7 for it. And it sold for 125.

Wow, cool. So

yeah, snakeskin, anything goes pretty well.

I remember we were at a cowboy store, buying cowboy boots and I was trying to talk my mom into buying the rattlesnake boots and she's like, Heck no. Because they were too expensive. No, she just doesn't like rattlesnakes. She doesn't

want that on your legs. Okay. That's a mom thing. Yeah. No, you don't want to track more of them. So don't wear those. Um, so the weirdest item was rattlesnake rattle. That's, and you heard that before? So good to know. Yeah. Yeah.

I guess it's sort of taxidermy. Yeah,

yeah. Sometimes taxidermy fish sell for a lot. Right.

There was another item that was valuable. That was a what was the call? There was some kind of shell? No. And it was a conch shell, but it was, oh, Queen snail. And it sold for $80. And it's one of the ones that you can blow into as a horn. Uh huh. Oh, yeah. And then after that sale, I found more of them. And I paid $2 Each and they're worth 50. But within the last couple of years, they've become endangered. So they're not allowed to sell anymore, which is unfortunate. So eBay

Yeah, yeah, that's what I was trying to say earlier about, like the real ivory, anything that comes from endangered species, like, you know, certain turtle shell or stuff like that. That's protected. eBay follows the rules on that. So I

don't understand that we live and as

long as rattlesnakes aren't protected, you're good. Yeah. I think we have plenty of we have too many of them already. Yeah. Okay. Well, we're getting to the end here. Um, did you want to answer the one of the questions? I think you said you were talking about a book you're reading. Yeah,

I'm reading a book called the gold of Kings by Davis. Barton. And it's kind of like, reminds me of the movie national treasure. Or their treasure hunting? Uh huh. Yeah. It's just kind of a, an action packed book. I like those kinds of books that are rollers, I guess. Yeah. Good. Yeah.

And good that you're reading?

Yeah, I try. I when I was younger, I used to. I was homeschooled. So I used to, I found out that I could get out of doing my homework by reading books. Mm hmm. Okay, so you found the work around good for you. And I was Yeah, I was always reading books. I kind of missed that. I'd like to find more time to read. But the free time I do have a well read. So yeah,

you will do well as an entrepreneur because you like to read like to learn new things. And that is like the core of it. You know, because I've been doing this since 2003. And I've seen a lot of things happen. And it's like, you'll get into a product line that's working great. And it's going well, and then either eBay doesn't allow it anymore. Or, you know, too many competitors are all over it. Or you know, something happens where it doesn't work anymore. And it's totally not that person's fault.

Thanks. Yeah. So good for you. Okay, well, um, what are you going to be up to today? You

Obviously off from your other job. Are you going in later or?

Yeah, I have to work today on the ranch. And I'm not. Yeah, I'm doing eBay to a little bit of eBay today. I'm uploading photos and weighing listings that I, I weigh everything I box and weigh everything before I list it. Yes, I know. I know that I'm charging the right price. So that's something today and then I'm cleaning my house. Wow. Well, kudos to you.

A plan all productive things. So I'll let you go get to it. And we'll look more of your sales on the Facebook group.

All right. Sounds good. Thanks for joining us. Have a good day. All right, you too.

Now for today's trivia question. Josh mentioned selling the rattlesnake rattle to a musician who was going to use it in his guitar. So what is that all about? Why do musicians do that? Here are a few ratalie seconds to think about it. Well, I found a lot of information about Native Americans using rattlesnake rattles as good luck amulets, and they put them in or on their instruments. Also, some guitar forums say that the rattles improve the acoustics and create a more Woody and softer sound.