Hello, listeners, you have landed on episode number 137 of eBay the right way. Today's date is November first 2023. And my guest is Melissa in Texas announcements. I haven't given you an update since the summer on the new material added to the premium library. Yes, I still add content every single week. So here is a rapid fire list of what has been added over the last few months. And I'm going in some new directions with the content. So listen up, because there might be something that
appeals to you. There is a new section highlighting artists and their work. This is something I am learning, not just signed numbered art, but all sorts of items. And I will be aggressively building this section going forward, because I'm seeing a lot of items posted on the money making Mondays by artists. And I will admit, I don't know a lot about this category, so we're going to
learn it together. Okay, I added a brand spotlight about a vintage clothing item that has resurfaced and is highly sought after I added eight bulletins. That's where I'm on camera talking to you, giving you an update about various things in the eBay community. And also, it includes a newly discovered bolo, an item to be on the lookout for I post two of these a month. And this alone is worth the investment of a membership. You just don't know what you don't know. And I'm in that
group too. And you may not be as plugged in to the eBay community as I am. I research and record new information about bolos every day just by paying attention. So I am your personal researcher. And so you can check those bolos for what I'm out there learning collectibles. Another category I am diligently learning and sharing with you three new lessons there. ephemera or paper stuff. This is just fascinating to learn how much people will pay for what looks like trash. There are two
new lessons there. Another lesson in the golf shirt course, three new key word lessons helping you speak the buyers language so they can find your listings. This is crucial to being found in search. There are a total of 35 keyword lessons now. And these help you up your title writing game on eBay. This is a great resource if you have trouble crafting titles, or knowing the most recent lingo, you've got to speak the buyers language so they can find you another lesson in the plush
course. I continually build on this section, and it has 14 lessons now. And all of my lessons are usually less than 15 minutes long. I create these knowing that your time is valuable. I get to the point I show you what you need to know what you need to look for what things are selling for. So these don't drag on and on. They're short, sweet and to the point by design. Okay, there are two new q&a podcasts. These are audio files so you can listen while
you work. And the premium library is my gold standard of educational materials for eBay sellers. I am passionate about helping other sellers learn and find success on eBay. Because we can all be successful. It's not a competition. There are now a total of 545 lessons, adding up to 131 hours of education, along with materials such as flowcharts and cheat sheets that you can download. You can download anything you want and keep it forever. That's by
design. And you receive the helpdesk service directly with me via email. I do not outsource that, because I want to help you directly and I want to make sure you're getting the right answer. My guarantee is that I answered within 24 hours, usually much less. So there you go. That's what I've been doing in the background, to help everyone learn more and ultimately make
more money on eBay. If you haven't checked out the premium library, or maybe you've been away, I encourage you to try it for a month, so you can see everything for yourself. Okay, commercial over now for the conversation with Melissa. Welcome back listeners. I have a repeat offender on the money making Monday thread with us. Melissa, she's been posting a lot of cool stuff. So it's her turn to be a victim on my podcast. How are you doing this
morning, Melissa? are doing great.
Okay, and where are you located?
I am located in south Texas, right on the border of Mexico.
Oh. So do you take advantage of that location to run over to Mexico for little weekend? getaways and stuff?
Absolutely not. Oh, you don't? Okay. Oh, no, no, no, no, it's a little too dangerous for that. Okay. Unless unless I had family or something like that over there. But yes, it's not a great. Not a great a great place to run. If I want to go to Mexico, I'm gonna fly to someplace with white sandy beaches.
Okay, okay. And you know, what that brings to mind is, I got involved in the show called to catch a smuggler. Have you ever seen that? I don't
think well, have I seen it? I mean, I've seen to catch. But I think
it's older. But you know how you you watch something? And then your streaming service is live. You may also like this, yeah. Give it a try. I do. And sometimes I'm like, Why did you suggest that? But I just
don't know, I may have seen it. But I just I don't know.
So what I was fascinated with, there were several episodes about smuggling stuff across the Mexican border. And it wasn't just drugs, it was all kinds of things, money, and people and weapons. And they show them taking apart the cars at the border line. Or they're suspicious of something they I mean, they can do it so fast. I was just amazed at how they take everything apart. And though they find any little void that could be filled with something. And yeah, that was that was
really interesting. I've never driven across the border, so I don't know anything about it. But I was like,
yeah, they have a lot of technology, cameras and body cams and all kinds of neat stuff. I've actually been in the you know, to see when they go through the checkpoints and stuff. I've I've been shown some different equipment and stuff. So it's pretty cool what they find and pretty scary at the same
time. And they have the dogs and the dogs are never wrong. Oh know, and but it was just fascinating how they do it. And you know, I just don't think like a criminal. I'm like, I never would have thought of that. I never thought to put a human in there. You know, and all that stuff. They do.
Yeah, and it's also very scary. And you know, for the for those that there are some ugly number two, it's absolutely yeah. Very dangerous. Very, very dangerous.
Yes. So anyway, I feel you on that not wanting to drive across now. Or Cancun or something. Okay, so we got that out of the way. So yeah, I picked on you. I saw you on the money making Mondays a few times. And how did you get started with eBay? When did that happen?
Well, do you want me to start recently or like originally?
Oh, let's hear the whole story. Okay.
Oh, yeah. That's fine. Okay, awesome. Well, I first got started, I had looked it up, I joined in 1998. And so it was right at the beginning. And I heard about it through my brother and my sister in law. And she, they got started through her sister. And so they used to come over every year. We lived a few hours apart, but they would come for Thanksgiving. And so they were busy loading up stuff on the computer. And you know, and this was back before we had the
laptops and stuff. So they were on my computer, check it out on things and showing me all the ropes. So that's how I got started. It's the first time I had ever seen a digital camera. I'd never heard of them before. But she had she had one. And hers. I thought it took pretty good pictures, I was pretty impressed. She had purchased it from her sister because her sister got a fancier one. And so that's kind of how I was
introduced to eBay. And I didn't start out by buying and I started I was gonna sell first before I took a chance on buying. And you didn't even have to take pictures. So my first item I sold did not even have a photo. And I sold. I remember what it was it was a pair of my husband's white Levi's jeans because I bought them for him. And he was not into colored jeans. So I I sold them I described them, you had to have really great descriptions. Someone bought it, they sent me
a money order. And I took it down to the post office and send it on its merry way. And that was my very first thing that I sold. I didn't start selling to really make money except maybe a little extra here or there. And after that I started buying for the kids at the time I was into Gymboree and gap and you know, I thought that was really fancy clothes. For my kids at the time that I wasn't about to pay full price when they grab oh
my gosh, I don't know who could afford the Gymboree stuff, right store? Well, I mean, I know people that did, but it was like, I can't even justify spending that much on myself for clothing.
No, no. So I the kids had a great wardrobe and my daughter was all I still look at her pictures and our cute little timrie or even her Oshkosh outfits and stuff. And I'm like, Oh, I got that on eBay guy. Right. So that's kind of how I got started buying and then every once in a while I would go to the store and I would see things on clearance for really cheap and I would think oh, I could sell them on eBay. So I and that was only auctions back then.
Right? And it was like your worlds collide. When you start thinking with your eBay brain and put on your eBay glasses. It's like I could take this thing from over here and sell it on eBay. Right and
yeah, I had never heard the term retail arbitrage that's kind of a newer term.
Yeah, that kind of was introduced around maybe 2010 When people started really doing that for Amazon. Oh, Tickle Me Elmo and all the
toy Yeah, we have we still have the original. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. My mother in law is one of those people she has to be the first to get something so my son got Tickle Me Elmo, the year that chaos erupted.
Yeah, and that was that started to trend like every year was a few hard to find Christmas toys. And people would go to Toys R Us and Walmart and buy them all up. Right? Wait for the prices to go up online and then sell them for three times what you paid. So listeners, that doesn't really work anymore. Because we've got so many people trying to do it. That was a new concept. And you've got the stores limiting what you can buy like how many you can buy, right? Yeah, by 20
and back then they didn't really have a much of a return policy that was just on the individual person and now I think probably after Christmas the parents are gonna go scoop up once they find on sale and and send back the old ones find something wrong with it or something like that.
The Christmas switcheroo where they just get it for at whatever price online so they their kid can unwrap it on Bing and then in January when the market settles out, and the prices go down. They they return one, the one expensive one they bought online and Just go get one locally. And it's called return you're weary for a reason.
Yeah, yeah. So I was, I would find some items. And one thing that I didn't understand was, you know, now with the buy it now we just leave it and kind of forget it for a while. But then, you know, we had the I don't know how we have the seven day auction was the one that I always use, but it didn't have a bid in seven days, I was so disappointed because I had you had to pay fees to relist, they didn't have the store and all
that special prices. So anytime you would see that that green, I remember seeing the green sales that oh, you had a bid. And that was pretty exciting. And then if it didn't, I would think oh, there's something wrong with the product, you know, not not really understanding all the algorithms and all this stuff that that goes into it. So that was kind of my first foray into World of eBay. And that I also found another auction place. I don't know if you do you remember Yahoo auctions back
then? Yes, I do. Did you ever? It was a very similar format. So when eBay started getting big, and you know, there's a lot more competition, I started listing stuff on Yahoo auctions, and I actually, I sold a lot on that one. Because there were maybe didn't sell for as much as it would have on eBay. But there were more, there were less buyers. So there were more potential customers, I guess, like, the pool was smaller. Right? So I started doing that for a while, and then eventually
that just faded out. And then every once in a while, I would sell something like, maybe an old bone or, you know, an old something that I thought was worth something and, but I never did it. Really for profit. It was more just for fun. And to get a little extra change here and there. Okay, so that's,
uh, you weren't like a die hard seller doing it for income. You were just re homing stuff that you didn't need anymore?
Yeah, just rehoming stuff or stuff that I would find really great deals on to flip. Well, and I
commend you real quick. I always look at the background. And you're, you're in your eBay office. It looks like and yeah. Is that cube storage
back there? Yes. And that's just
so neat. It's like, I don't see any stuff. Everything is tucked away. Your shipping supplies are neatly stacked. It looks like your white background is Oh, those are extra. Yeah, those are extra. And it's just like, wow, that is you get a prize, gold star, neatest office
I'm very I love organizing. So you got to shoot you want to see like
she has an entire wall maybe like I don't know, 10 feet long of cube storage
and the closet. Look, I have another closet back there with larger slits
in your shoe organizer hanging over the doors that shoes
are just so actually that was just my this was my daughter's room before she moved out. So that that was her shoe rack. And now it holds small stuff like small Christmas ornaments and things like that. It I found that it's safer for me there than it is in a box. Because I I have to admit I have a couple of times broke things as I pulled it up to sell it. So oh yeah, we've all done that. very disheartening.
I commend you on how neat your office is. And good for you.
Yes. Thank you.
Back to whatever
Did you from? Oh, no. So I was just telling my eBay story. And in the meantime, I have my brother and my sister in law, who are they were it was not their business, but they sold a lot of stuff on eBay. They were always just through the years. You know, they have their eBay credit card. And they were just they they did a lot of eBay. In fact, they bought at the whole bridal shop whence I think the dresses had kind of gone out of style. So they had a little bit of a tough time with
that. But so I always had them in the back of my ear and then my brother eventually he actually started selling full time on eBay. And he still does to this day. So he started several years ago and he still does it full time. So I guess kinda runs in the field.
Yeah, I guess you have it in your DNA and it's genetic.
Yeah. Yeah. And he switched a lot over to Amazon, not so much because he wanted to, but because that was kind of where the market was going. And he does both now. So that's, that's how I started with eBay. And then I kind of let it go for a long time. You know, other than just selling things here. Were there. One thing I did find out was that when you try to sell your own phones, all the scammers come out of the woodwork. I don't think I've I mean, and they were just my old
bouts. And I don't think I had a single phone that I've listed that didn't have some scams running.
Yeah, that's a magnet for scammers. And yes, so I am why they're so attracted to him. I mean, not all phones a lot. But yeah. And so what kind of what kind of questions would you get? Like, what tipped you off that this is a scammer?
Well, like one of them was well, for when people would bid because at the time, I was still doing bids, even though like I want to say in the mid, I don't know. 2012 2050, somewhere in that area. Era. And I know there was buy it now. But I was still old, old school. I didn't really I purchased buy it now. But I really wasn't comfortable with selling but not because I never had done it. So I would have it on auction. And I would
always get bids. But it would be the winning bid would be the person that didn't have any feedback. And they'd be from a different country, like coming back to somewhere. And they wouldn't purchase it. And I kind I found no, I believe what was happening. Some of them were running it up because they were competitors. And so they didn't want mine selling. They were stringing me along. And I had
several like that. And so that's when I thought you know what, I definitely am not really interested in electronics, maybe small ones here and there. But the phones, no, because it happened more than once. So I now have a bunch of phones that you know, are in my collection, my old phones. So that's kind of I and it was every single one.
Every single one was from a different country with zero feedback, which I have buyers with zero feedback and from different countries, but then they wouldn't pay it just the questions that would come. Were just strange. They would message strange things. So no more. Okay,
yeah, that's kind of how we decide what we want to sell and what we don't want to mess with. Yes. You know, electronics unless you know what you're doing. And you know, all the parts are there. And it works, right? Because what happened to me was, I did try that on a few different things. And I didn't really know a lot about what I was selling live in lard. And I would get, you know, I would sell it and then the buyer would say, Oh, this is missing or this isn't working
right. Or I have to replace this piece. And I didn't know if they were being truthful or not. So I kind of just gave her money back and moved on. Because how do you prove they're lying, if you don't even know that much about the product?
Right. And I know some people do like the disciplinary, meek, and they write in the, you know, inside the battery compartments and all kinds of things to see, because I guess there's a lot of switching going on. But for me, I just don't want to deal with that. I'd rather just refund somebody that or many and move on. So yeah, it can be tricky as it's irritating. But
yeah, that's true. But sometimes you have to go through that to figure out where the danger zone is like, okay, doing that anymore.
Right. I'll leave that to the expert.
Okay. Well, do you want to talk about some things that you've sold over the years? Yeah, well,
so I never got back to the recent when I decided to start reselling on a more on a continual basis because now I do it. Like every day. I do it part time because I do work full time. I do it very part time. But I was just I don't even know how but again, that algorithm on YouTube sent me one day that I have no idea why I suggested this video, but somebody was doing an unboxing of A
liquidation box. And I thought, Oh, that looks interesting. So I clicked it on it, and I got from there, I went down the rabbit hole. And this lady, I still watch it to this day. But I was thinking some of the things and they're like, people are gonna buy that. And then she'd come back with, like your prices. And this sold for this and this sold for this. I'm like, what? Why would somebody buy that they could just go down a Walmart
price, or whatever. So I started thinking, you know, then that sent me to other people that were doing the those unboxing. So I started watching more people, and then I thought, You know what that looks like one. That's something that's totally up my alley. So at first my thought was I'm gonna get all these liquidation boxes, and I'm gonna do Amazon. Well, right about that time. Number one, I don't do things. I'm not somebody who jumps into
something right away. I have to think about it and think about it. And I overthink things. So I overthought. You know, I spent, it took me two years to start selling. But by that time, Amazon is pretty much oversaturated. And their policy started changing. And not for the benefit of fellas.
Yeah. So I I, that's why I left. Yeah. And then
also people started getting in trouble with some of these companies for selling on Amazon and not having the proper. And it's not that you had to have like a whole seller. I don't know, permit or permission, I guess. But, you know, they're just protecting their product, some of them so then. But then Amazon started coming after people for no reason. And I know, eBay does to an extent, but I just thought, you know what, I don't think I want to deal with this. So
that's what happened to me, I got into the retail arbitrage. And I use this example of coffee. I bought a whole bunch of some kind of coffee. I think it might have been Dunkin Donuts, pumpkin spice or something. Like at the end of the season. And I was like, oh, yeah, it was marked down, bought it cheap. Put it on Amazon and, you know, maybe had like, I don't know, 50 bags of it. And then they would email this is not allowed. This is not
allowed. You know that the company whatever it was when they stopped allowing their products to be sold by third party sellers on Amazon. And so you had all this inventory, then sell and so I mean, the coffee had, I think a two year expiration so guess what everybody got for Christmas the next year. baskets with that coffee gave it to everybody like gotta do something with it. But and then especially with FBA, which is Fulfillment by Amazon, if you shipped it in and stuff
was in a warehouse. And then something like this happened, it kept happening over and over again, this is not allowed and you had. And so then you had to pay to get it back. Or you had to be painted. Yeah. And tell the will tell them to throw it away. And it was just a lot of people lost their bleep in doing FBA because of that, and it was, it was very scary, because you would spend all this money on inventory, and then sell it there and figure something else
out. So that's why I went back to eBay and became like a cherry picker. It's like, I'm never doing that again. Because I just Yeah,
I just decided I would, I decided I would dodge that bullet because then they started closing that you had to be gated in this and you had to be gated and he did yeah, then it just got stricter and stricter and what you could and couldn't sell and then a lot of people were getting things returned, because Well, number one, if you have liquidations sometimes things like new and it's not. So you can get into trouble for that then Amazon has. They get first
dibs basically. And then also, I understood that sometimes, like when you send stuff in it, that's not necessarily your product that gets sent to somebody, it's, you know, you send it in as a new gadget. And somebody buys that gadget and it's at another warehouse. It might be and you might get paid for it, but they're gonna grab they're just, I guess they just have
areas like a big pool of Serbian, and maybe yours
is perfect. Yeah, somebody else says something and that's not so. Yeah. It's like no, I don't need that.
For the listeners. You said they started gating categories, which in case people don't know what that means. You had to have special approval to sell in a category like groceries or toys or what Whatever it was, you couldn't just go on Amazon and start selling anymore, you had to have all this special approval. And some of us that were there a long time selling these products were approved to sell in those categories. Whatever reason, and again, you have all this inventory, what are you gonna do
with it? So, and then what you're saying about selling a product, let's say you, you have a Barbie brand new in the package, and it's, it's pristine, it's perfect. It sells but they pull, you know, Joe Smith's Barbie, to ship to the person because it's a warehouse that's closer to that person to the buyer. And you know, his packaging is not pristine, it's
not perfect. And so the buyer gets it and complains, return is the bad feedback, you get the bad feedback, because mmm, the other item that was not identical to yours. And so it was too many hands in the business. You know, you're basically turning your business over to the Amazon warehouse people. And I didn't like that at all. You know, you got too many hands in your business that have no skin in the game. They don't care. Their hourly employees are just pulling stuff
and shipping it. And so that's what ruined my Amazon business. I just didn't like that.
Yeah, you almost have to have a one off one of a kind item. Right? That's so different. And I just, I just decided because I had already decided when I wanted to do this, that I would also like, well, anything that can't that can't be put on Amazon. I'll just do eBay. So this was in 2017. I didn't start purchasing anything till 2019. It took me a couple years. Like I said, I overthink things. And I remember, I remember. I really overthink. So I remember telling
my husband like that. I'm like I have I want to talk to you about some things. And he was like, Oh, no. He thought I sounded serious. And really all I wanted to tell him was I want to do this reselling thing, and spend more time and I wanted to do some remodeling on that. But so we did the remodeling on the house. But the reselling, I just kept just not waiting, but just researching and researching. And so this is a lesson you know what you can research too much. Sometimes you just have to
research Yeah,
being a data number researcher, I have a researcher and I just do it, that's the hardest thing is starting. For me, the hardest thing is starting I'm a procrastinator. So I finally. And I was only working part time at this time. And then I wound up getting promoted. And now and then I'm not only working full time, but over time and all kinds of stuff by the time I started this. So I started just mostly selling on eBay. But then I did eventually
branch out. So I do cross list to other platforms to me base my main jam. But I do sell quite a bit on some other platforms once in a while. But again, I'm it's I'm very part time. Well, so that's what brought me to the present.
And you know, a lot of sellers are part time I reached out to people all the time to come on this podcast and like, well, I don't really sell enough. And I really only do it part time. But you know, they've been doing it 10 years or five years. And it's like, that means you're a seller, you're keeping up with it. And this podcast isn't about the biggest sellers
and who sells the most. And it's about the average every day eBay seller that's working this into their life because life changes you know, sometimes you start off as a parent, you've got small kids and then 10 years later they're grown and gone and your life is completely different. Yes, it is something you can come and go from it every station of life just based on what kind of time you have.
So for the listeners if you are approached to come on this podcast don't feel like you have to be the biggest most powerful seller out there because so many people from all walks of life do this and they they fit it in and they do it because they love it. You know you love it. I love it. You love selling that thing and shipping it and your customers happy and it's not about the biggest out there.
And that's what I was kind of nervous about coming on because I'm definitely not like I said it might make text I'm not a high roller seller by any means, you know and my prof bid, you know, don't average I'm not 100 plus dollar seller, because that's not what I find. But also when I like research, because I found you in that, but I don't know 2017 2018 Somewhere in that
before I started reselling. And I'm interested in those kinds of podcasts and YouTube channels and information, I want to see people who are just finding everyday average what they call bread and butter items. Because that, that speaks to me. That's, that's what I find that's, you know, what I can sell. And there's
more of you than the ones that are like, Oh, I sell 100 items a day, and I have a warehouse. And that's not the average seller. And that's not a six
figure seller. They're out there,
like you make enough money to pay for a vacation, you make enough money to buy a new car, send your pay for your child's college, so they don't have to take on student debt, or remodel your house or take a break from your full time regular job to be a caregiver. There's all kinds of reasons and you know,
to write and my reason, my reason is because I am. So at this point, my husband's just a few years away from retirement, he's taking early retirement, and I'm going with them. And I, I won't be ready for retirement from my job yet. But I'm sticking around. So I knew we had to start planning and yes, we have, you know, our retirement funds in place and stuff. But that only goes so far. And we don't know, you know
what the future holds. So I wanted to start this and get it going is something that I could have, you know, for extra money when I retire because we do like to travel and not you know, all that extra stuff that we just aren't sure what's going to happen. So and in the meantime, I fell in love with it. So that's a plus plus. So that's, that's how I got started.
And I hear that a lot from my audience is people planning for retirement? And you don't, especially with early retirement, you don't want to start dipping into your retirement funds. Oh, no. Early, you know, if you don't have to, because yes, we are in an uncertain economy, we don't know what's happening. So a lot of people are getting this set up
learning the business. And they don't really have time to jump into it yet, because they've got three more years until they get their retirement package or whatever it is. And so you you're in good company with, you know, getting it set up. So you can do it as much as you want to or need to, in addition to your retirement money, and if your husband is retiring early, he's not going to be eligible for Social Security for a while, maybe Oh, no, not for a long,
long. Yeah, so we can't count on that, either.
They've been telling me that since I was a kid, at least it's still here. Yeah, now.
I'm gonna learn how to sell junk and make money on the side because nobody can take that away from you. Right? And that's gonna be yours forever. That's not great. So
and at this point, also, I can, I can leave it. So sometimes I'll go, you know, gung ho and just start listing and doing all the things and then I can stop it, I can put it on hold while I take a vacation. Because that's, I love to travel. So and then I can bring it back up. And yes, it kind of takes a while and stuff, but I'm doing it part time. So I can do that. Or if i i work super early in the morning, I get up at 245. So I get super tired when I get
home. And at work, I'll be like, thinking about oh, I'm gonna do this when I get home. And then and I can list this and I can take these photos when I get home and I'm just like, Ah, I wind up taking a nap or sleeping and sometimes I'll leave it for, you know, I can leave it on weeks on end. And just so as as the sales come in, and then I can pick it up again. So that's what's really nice about it.
Can I ask you what kind of job you have the you have to get up so early?
It's a government job. Okay. All right. Well, I I don't even know. I couldn't imagine having
to have those hours. And yes, no, I don't have
to but then it at the time I started working. I was like, Well, what else am I gonna do? Kids were getting older and don't want to just sit around. Of course, I wasn't reselling then but that it's been good to me. So
good. Okay, well, let's talk about some things you've sold.
I started purchasing items in 2019 but I wasn't selling it. And then I started listing I'm like, I want to say around October of that year and I'm I'm looking at on my other computer because I want to see how much I sold this item for. But there was this one item and to date I think it's my highest eBay sell at other higher sells on other platforms. I think this is my highest eBay sale. But I so I started out I was just going to do liquidation because
I think it's fun. I love to open the boxes like Christmas morning opening up packages and stuff. But then I started going to thrift stores and that like, Well, that was fun, too. That's like Christmas morning too, I guess. And I had seen this. It was a coffee pot. It was a North Toki coffee pot. I was looking at it and the original price. Oh, here it is. Okay. The original price on it was I want to say $7. But it was half off day. And so it was half off. Nobody had picked it up people.
I go straight for the breakables. I don't know why I love I love breakable things. I've tried a start. Yes, well, I don't know, there's just, of course you think and at first I thought, Oh, this is gonna be worth something. And people are gonna want this. And I know a lot of stuff people don't want. But this was so I thought the same for that. So this was a nor Toki coffee pot. And it had the Lynn it's a porcelain coffee
pot. And I know to look for North hockey, because I have I have China, that's north Toki. But this particular design I thought was meant. So I would not have paid $7 for it. However, it was half opt in if that well, 350. Court, you know, for 350 I'll take it and I was thinking that maybe it'll bring 20 You know, maybe 25 Somebody's looking to add to their collection or whatever. So I purchased it and then they're sat in my closet. Now I have broken things before by letting
them sit too long. And keep in mind most of my items here I have not listed I have so much. So they're sat for I want to say a couple couple months maybe. And then I thought you know what, I need to get it off the floor. Let me go ahead and do it. I use the Google lens, I use my Google lens to see what it was selling for. And I saw over $100 pop up and I was like what? Really? off the floor. Coffee Pot came I was like, Oh yeah, no, this place is going somewhere safe until I had more
time to research. And so I I researched it. And there was none listed. Some had sold for actually someone sold for even higher. But I realized that the lid that went to it actually was the lid that went not to the coffee pot to like sugar or cream or something like that. But it's it was still the same design. So I wound I put it up and it sold in four days. For $169. And that was a coffee pot. I would not have picked up for seven.
No, I had nor Toki. China when I got married back in 1988. What was the pattern name?
It's Colburn. Okay. And it's just it was It wasn't one of the, to me that like I have no tucking in. And it's really pretty in a fruit powder. This was just a kind of a old lady lace and flower pattern. But I mean, you could tell it's quality, you could tell it's quality. But I just didn't think because I'd seen others that were similar styles that only sold for maybe 20 or $30. So, for 350 it was worth it. But apparently for $7 That was my
Yeah, I could you never know when you're going to have the only one of something right.
And then I wasn't treating it very nicely because I thought well, you know, not that I, I didn't want to I just wasn't being super careful. So then after that, I was like, Oh no, this is getting listed. And
there might be two or three out there. And then those sell and then yours is the only one. So Right. Yeah. You have to realize, Okay, I'm gonna price it accordingly. And at some point, mine might be the only one and there's your sale.
Yeah, well it sold in four days and then the lady who purchased it sent me a really, really sweet message. After she got it. She was so so thankful. Apparently, it was her mother's sent and she was at adding to the set. So Oh, okay. I her mother had passed away. And so she had inherited her mother's set. And she had been looking for this for quite a while. So it was, it was a win win. I made good money and and, you know, she got something that she cherished. So that was, that's a
great exciting for me. Yeah. And it was right, you know, just, oh no, maybe it was about a year, a little over a year after I started reselling on a more consistent basis. So,
yeah. And so he's withdrawn to that item. And it it. It worked out. You know,
it worked down. Yeah. And I'm not when I don't shy away from shipping. I don't mind so far. Oh, knock on wood. I haven't had anything break. But I'm probably an over packer, maybe,
hey, I don't think you can be when it's something delicate, like,
right? Well, to see the way that the post office and not just the post office, but any postal carriers treat some of the packages you have to be and I know there's a thing out there with people saying that they feel like when they put fragile stickers on the boxes, that it those items tend to be roughed up. Well, that's true. I used to work with a guy who can't he wasn't a great co worker. He told me a story that he thought
it was funny. He used to work for a postal carrier, not not the post office, but a different one. And he said, Oh, every time a box came in, that's how fragile we went. We would shove it and we would throw it and we would like I was I was mortified. I was like, Oh my gosh, how could you do that? Cuz he thought I was gonna laugh with him. And like, that's terrible. And he was like, Oh, well, it wasn't me. It was Mike. told me it was you. So that's a
true sign. I'm not saying most of them are all of them are like that. But you know, that's the mindset of some.
Yeah, I've heard that my entire debate
that I don't put gradual on anything fragile on
your package is an invitation to exactly have it treated like a football, you know, and kicked and thrown. And I've heard this enough. And
all it takes is that one person. So and most of them I think treat treat them you know, as well as they can, but they're still you know, they're still tossing and they're in a hurry to meet deadlines and all that. So I do pack a lot.
Okay, so that was a happy ending.
What was
on your list?
I have to say like, so where I live. And I know I hear over and over over how wonderful Texas is to source in well, not where I live. We don't my city has over 250,000 residents that are counted and counted, we probably have about 500,000 and we only have maybe four thrift stores. People just aren't that generous here right? So we don't have a lot of places to store so I have to either source here I'll go to San Antonio every once in a while that's a couple hours away. And when I get out
of town, I'll go places. But in the meantime, I also do the liquidation boxes and things like that. I guess right now the boxes are everything's going up like everything's getting popular people are I think overpaying for some stuff but it is what it is but so I have several boxes that I just jumped right into purchased and I don't recommend that if you don't have the money to lose. Yeah, it's a gamble. I Anna gamble I'm
willing to try. But I also have my you know, we're fine financially so I have my other job to fall back on. So it's not many that I'd be very upset if I lost it. However, I did have the leeway to try different things out so I'm not afraid to try different things. So you some of them, you know kind of what you're getting. And some of them you don't know at all. I paid
$216.20 for the box. And it was a box that came all shoes and all the shoes that came were all from Target they're all target returns and they don't tell you like where it's from or anything until you get it. So I know target returns are popular. So the shoes a lot of them were just multiples of the same thing which I know a lot of people love because you can do when listing however I thought several I thought there kind of
ugly. I was like, oh boy, I'm never gonna do once all these shoes, I'm never gonna sell them. And things do take a while, you know, you're not gonna sell everything off. But I have to say that I did sell everything in the entire bucks. Finally, I think this year, I had two shoes left this year. And I made $748.46 on the bus. Great. So that was a profit of about $450. And again, it's not something that you're gonna have
right away. But it's kind of those bread and butter sales, they just, you know, every once in a while they keep coming in. And one thing I've also learned is, when they do those boxes, they go out to a lot of people, a lot of sellers get the same things, right? So you go to list, there's a ton of the same thing on there. And if you just wait it out, eventually the other sellers are gonna be out of their inventory, and then your start selling. So some
things I haven't even listed. So that was all just just choose from Target. Nothing special.
I thought you were going to talk about what happened to me when I bought a liquidation pallet of shoes. This was back when I started like in I don't know, 2010 2012 I tried everything for this business. I was like, I'm gonna try this. And this is what I like,
Yeah, I'll try it.
Um, so I went in with a friend and we bought this. It was a Gaylord of shoes, which is like the big giant cardboard thing they put pumpkins in, you know, it's that big. It's, it's yes. So, us we're in there. And they were, I don't know if they were store returns or what they weren't new. But so we sorted everything out. And there would be like one shoe of something. And there would be you know, two left feet of something. All these odds and ends that didn't match. So a lot
of it was waste. Yeah, you can list one shoe for like an amputee person that only needs one shoe. But when you've got this giant container of shoes, and so many odds and ends that don't match up, it was it was pretty disappointing. And of course you can't return it. Right? Or liquidation is you just pay for it, you get what you get. So that was one thing that didn't go right. And then we lost money on that. And then I did another one that was it was just all kinds of odds and
ends from BJs wholesale. I don't know if you have that there. It's like Costco or Sam's, it's a buying club, you know, where prices are cheaper. So we got all these things in there and one of them was water filters that you screw on to your faucet in the kitchen. Okay, global looking things and so that's going so they were a lot of the packages were open. So I tested one and the thing just exploded I'm surprised it didn't hit me in the face. And I was like, oh God now I've got all these
defect that's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Like I got all these
defective water filters, I can't sell these. I'm gonna someone's gonna be injured and that's gonna be the end of me, you know, and I don't want somebody to be injured and I don't want to sell a crappy product. So I got I was very discouraged with liquidation they probably do it differently now.
Well, it depends on the company too. You have to be really careful. And I had done my research and I made sure I bought ones that were manifested or at least partially, they don't necessarily tell you exactly what you're getting. But you know, like, like they're like brand new shoes and they'll give samples and stuff and some things are gonna like I've had hair ties and stuff too. So it's like that's not gonna make me profit but also sell it you know, because every little bit
coming in helps. I have a I still have some right now I haven't even listed the whole bucks and I've had for a couple years but at this point I like I think I showed when yesterday on the money making Monday, I only got five bucks for it. But I'm already in the profit almost $250 on the book so everything from here on out is profit. I do assign like an average cost of goods to everything but you know, I'll still sell for just a few dollars at most of the time I have buyer pay shipping except
for a few things. Like now this is I have makeup I decided I tried makeup, and the makeup was pristine and stuff but boy If it is not a moneymaker, and I am just struggling just to make my money back at this point. So that's a no no. For me that was a lesson like no, because you can't really sell one lipstick or one lip gloss with the way that the shipping costs, right? You know, you have to kind of lock them up? Well, yes. The profit on that when you lock them up, is, it's just not that great.
You're seeing your situation time is your most valuable asset right now, you don't have time to hit the streets and go to all these estate sales and garage sales. And this is a lot of looking when you're a reseller. And sometimes there's not a lot of finding that you don't have time to waste right now. Because you've got this full time job and everything. So liquidation, you can do that from your computer, you don't have to leave your house.
Right. And it's still fun. Yeah, that's the
that's the attraction for a lot of people with buying stuff online, whether it's box locks on auction sites, or, you know, for whatever reason, you don't have time to get out there and do the cherry picking one by one thing, and I talk about caregivers a lot. And I'm seeing that firsthand with my sister right now. Just she just doesn't have time to do anything. You know, your life changes you, you get to different stations in life where you have more time than
other times in your life. But I think that's the attraction to you know, even going on eBay and buying lots, you know, yeah, and I've done that too. I got into carbs and you know, Big Lots of things that are a state sale leftovers that you can then open that and then sift through it and
bliss with and I love sifting through things. And the one thing with the liquidation boxes, those things, they're very easy, and not very time consuming to take photos of they're very easy to list to get the information off of. So that's a plus in that. I'm not going to sell makeup anymore, though. But I am talking about eBay and stuff. So I've been to different sites and I've purchased several of the estate jewelry that they sell in. Some people just lock them up and
sell them and huge lots. Yes. And I've heard them out. And I've actually done very well with that. I have a lot though. But some of its junk. And so all the junk all put aside. And then I've had a few boxes where I just put it into a small flat rate box, put 15 I mean, most people sell it for more, but I'll just put 15 bucks on it plus shipping. And those have been really popular. I make sure to list that it's junk. You know, and
like we don't know what's in here. Good luck.
Yeah, well, I just say that it's junk. This is like the scraps is junk for just craft making or, or whatever, but I don't want anybody to think that they're gonna get anything. That's great, because I've already picked all the good stuff
you've picked through it, but still, so you buy a giant lot. And then you sift through it, and then you make smaller lots from that big one. And then resell that, is that what you're saying?
Yes, yeah, but and then also individually so I've had some really good things. Like I've had a couple of bracelets one sold for I want to say around $75 that came out of one of those boxes and probably I probably paid 30 bucks for everything. Wow, hundreds of pieces. So I don't think I have more than $1 If you were to ask, you know, do an average cost of goods I don't have more than $1
Probably less on every item. So I want to say one bracelet and then another one sold for around 50 or $60 and one thing you do you look up to see like a bit silver in the back and sometimes it's just the designer and so I did listen to your podcasts that had the what people were talking about the different jewelry makers and stuff so that was helpful because I'm just learning I've had this stuff for a while but I still don't know
much. I really have to look everything up so that that is a little more time consuming but it can be really profitable. I've already made made my money back with with those items. Yeah, it's
a state jewelry lots have like 500 pieces in them. You know they're really large. There's a lot of stuff and if you think about okay if you run an estate sale company, some of them I'm sure most of them have a contact for their leftovers but it sometimes there's just so much jewelry if If you ever went to an estate sale, and it was a jewelry person, I went to one recently and just every single room, there was just boxes and boxes of all this costume jewelry, like, did the lady have a
shopping problem? Or did she actually wear all this? Or did she inherited from somewhere? Something?
Yeah, I always wonder those things.
It was so much so. But anyway, well, we are getting to the end here. So you chose the question about what book you're reading.
I do mostly audiobooks now because I can list and I can take pictures and do all that while I'm listening. But it's cool,
right? For keeping you company and time savings.
It's like, yes. And that's why I like my podcast, too. I like them when I'm
driving or just working around, you know, cleaning and stuff, because you're, it's like you're reading but you're accomplishing something else too. Yeah, so
it's called the Thomas Berryman number. Okay. And like I said, I just started it. So I don't know if it's going to be any good, but I tend to like mysteries and murder books and stuff is good. stuff is good. I've read a lot of stuff is good. Yeah, James Patterson. And now he's started teaming up with several other writers now, but I don't really have a lot to say about it, because I just downloaded it. And I just
started the first chapter. So it's really hard, but I think it's a newer book that came out of his.
Okay. Well, this has been very informative. I think you have shared a lot of tips for people who are working full time how to get inventory, or for whatever reason, if you just can't get out, a lot of disabled people sell on eBay, and they can't get out to shop and go places as much as they would like. You got your caregivers, you've got just busy people, or you don't have great thrift stores or sales around you. You can find stuff online
to buy and flip. So yeah, thanks for sharing the pros and cons of that.
Yeah, I mean, it's not all roses. But
yeah, there is a an element of risk. But it's calculated risk. You know, you're not buying things completely sight unseen. You kind of know what you're getting and
no sort of thing. I was just looking at bracelet actually sold for $150. Well, why did I think it sold for 70? Or 75? I don't know. But even better.
Okay, well, we will end on that note. Thanks so much for coming on. And we will look for your sales on the Facebook group. All right.
Well, thank you so much for having me. Hi. All right. Bye bye.
Thanks so much, Melissa, for joining me and sharing so much. Fantastic information. On to today's trivia question. Melissa mentioned retail arbitrage. And I thought, well, maybe some people don't know what that means. What exactly is arbitrage? Here's a few seconds to think it over. The word arbitrage originates from a Latin root arbitrary, which means to give judgment. So the actual definition of arbitrage comes from the
financial world. It means the nearly simultaneous purchase and sale of securities or foreign exchange in different markets in order to profit from price discrepancies. So I'll give you the Suzanne definition. You're basically taking something from one market and selling it in another market where you can sell it for more money. This has been going on since the dawn of time. So retail arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a price difference between two
or more markets. Or in other words, reselling An example would be finding a product at Walmart that sells for $1. Maybe it's on clearance, purchasing that product and then reselling it online, Amazon, eBay wherever you want to resell it for more than you bought it for and making a profit. So now you know what retail arbitrage means. Okay, next week, Shelly is my guest and she specializes in selling Disney items. She lives very close to Disney in Florida. up, and just has a wealth of
information to share. And I didn't even know the conversation was gonna go there. She just started talking about all these things. And so that's what happens on these podcasts. It's just organic conversation. So make sure you tune in for that episode. And thank you listeners for spending your time listening to my podcast. I hope everyone has an amazing week on eBay. Bye for now