Hey, frens. I was talking to a relative I hadn't seen in a very long time. She is now retired but having worked mostly in sales doesn't have a good retirement scheme. She wants to continue working, but needs to do so from home and asked if I knew of anything she could do. I really don't. Do any of you have any suggestions for something a nice, reliable lady could do? She didn't finish college so she doesn't have a degree, but she's sharp and gets things done. With so many employers needing dependable help, surely there must be something for her. Please post any ideas you have. Thanks!
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If you sell used, where do you find stuff, if you don't mind me asking? Garage and estate sales? Do you sell anything and everything or do you have a niche? Does stuff stay around for a long time? I'm asking because when I used ebay as a buyer, I remember putting stuff on my watch list and coming back a year later and the stuff was still available!
I have sold literally everything except real estate on eBay. I’ve shipped items all over the world. Japanese folks LOVE anything American from Civil War era carpet bags, to jadeite dishes to old Levi’s. And they’ll pay almost anything for saphiret pieces.
I guess if I had to pick one niche Item that I sell the most of it would be sterling silver charms. You can buy sterling jewelry at pawn shops and thrift stores at the spot price for scrap silver. But the charms are highly collectible and are worth FAR MORE than sterling scrap. For instance I buy a charm bracelet at a pawn shop and then I take it all apart with needle nose pliers and sell each individual charm and the bracelet separately. Super easy to ship in a padded bubble envelope mailer. I did spend time learning which charms were the most valued.
Vintage costume jewelry in general is insanely collectible. There are many books on the subject.
That's interesting about the Japanese! Who woulda thunk it? Not me, lol. I had to look up saphiret. I am not familiar with that at all. Interesting.
Your idea about the charm bracelets makes a lot of sense! When you buy something like that at a pawn shop, do you pay the asking price or do you bargain with them? As an example, if you paid $50 for the entire bracelet, what would you expect to sell all the pieces for, total? $100, or double what you paid, or would you expect to sell it all for even more?
This is really interesting, lol. Thanks for answering and all your help. You're kind of making ME interested in selling a little on the side, and I'm supposed to be helping my relative, lol!
Saphiret is breathtaking to behold in person, absolutely glorious and very difficult to part with 😂 I always feel fortunate to find and own a piece even though it’s just for for a little while.
Charms are wildly collectible, especially the enameled and mechanical ones if they’re in good shape. As with any field, there are books and websites devoted to the subject. eBay has a charm collectors group with tons of information. As a general rule I don’t like to pay more than $2 for a “run-of-the-mill charm which I’ll sell for $12 or $15, but many times a loaded bracelet will have rare treasures tucked among the commoners that are worth much MUCH more, like hundreds.
When out shopping I usually try to haggle for a better price, but sometimes it’s not necessary cuz it’s already a great deal. Every item is different, but generally speaking I try to triple or quadruple my money at the very minimum because I have to pay fees/shipping/gas etc...more often than not that I make a lot more than 3 or 4 times, it just depends. And there have been plenty of times that I gambled. Like I bought a Hohner squeezebox at a garage sale and the guy would not budge on his $50 price tag. It was so cool looking, but I had NO IDEA what that contraption was worth, so I bought it and took it to Hugo Helmer Music. They offered me $400 on the spot. I was thrilled and I’m pretty sure they tripled their money. Win/Win 🥳
Wow! That's exciting about the squeezebox. Stuff like that would be so fun. Sort of like a treasure hunt. I could see getting into it. I can see why people do. Thanks for all the good info. If you wouldn't mind, maybe I'll keep you in mind if I do have any further questions. I might try selling a few items from around the house, just to see what it's like to be on the selling side and get a feel for it. Oh, btw, did you see what Paypal just did? How if they think you've put out misinfo, they can TAKE $2,500 from you account?!! Unbelievable that anybody would think that's acceptable. It's just plain theft. I mentioned that because I know a lot of ebay people use paypal, but if I do it, I sure won't be using it.