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I started selling on Ebay in 2002. I didn’t have any particular financial goals for Ebay as I was just looking for a platform to sell off some of my vintage clothing stock that remained from my bricks-and-mortar vintage clothing store. At the time, most of my targeted customers were in Japan, or were involved in the high-end of vintage/heritage American clothing brands such as Pendleton, Champion, Filson, LL Bean, Red Wing, Levi Strauss etc.
I started buying vintage clothing in the early 90’s. It was like stealing candy from a baby. You could walk into most any American thrift store and load up on amazing one-of-a-kind garments. It was not unusual for me to load a cart with 1950’s party dresses, 1960’s hippie/Woodstock era bell-bottoms, 1970’s disco fashions, etc. Nobody–at least not in my part of the mid-west– wanted any of this stuff. It was just considered “old-clothes”.
I rented a storage unit and amassed enough inventory to open a vintage clothing store in a liberal arts college town just 13 miles south of my home. I had approx 1,200 sq feet of retail space to give you some idea. I made a profit from the start as I was very conservative with my cash and paid myself a bare-bones salary while I grew the business. Also…the students in town were starved for a place to shop as nobody had ever really catered to their tastes…liberal arts students tend to be bohemian and very unique in their fashion tastes.
For anyone reading this who has a dream to open a bricks-and-mortar store…it was exciting for about 4 years. After that? A trusted employee moved out of town and I hired 2 employees who ended up robbing me blind. My business model depended on a constant round of buying trips to source my inventory. That meant I was gone a lot and needed help to run & operate during my hours of 10-am – 6-pm, six days a week.
Then 9/11 came and the town, literally, went into hibernation. After that, my business was never the same. I sold the fixtures & 90% of my inventory–not the name–and took a position managing a retail-specialty store for a growing, national company.
I was laid off in 2009. By then, I was in my late 50’s…scary times. Fortunately, Ebay was still a thing in my life. I had been a sporadic, part-time seller, now I needed an income so I threw myself into it full time. Ebay saved my bacon, and the money I earned kept me afloat until I could officially retire.
The moral of my story is that Ebay can be anything you want it to be. Full-time, part-time, whatever. But once you have it going…don’t ever abandon it entirely as you never know when life circumstances will change. These days, I supplement my retirement income with my (now) part time Ebay sales. It provides me with the “extras”. I am grateful for Ebay and for my little business.
Hopefully, I will be able to make a contribution here on the forums.
I have enjoyed listening to all of Jay & Ryanne’s podcasts. I truly feel you have the best content anywhere for Ebay sellers…wonderful conversations that are engaging, motivational and educational! The best!
Thanks for adding me to your group!! -
Hi Miss Maggie!! Welcome to the forum. Your story was interesting condsidering your brick and mortar was probably 10 years ahead of its time. I can’t find hardly any vintage clothing in the resell shops these days since most are sold at a much higher price than I’d pay to resell.
I went with my dad back in the late 70’s on a lay led revival to Elyria OH. It was a very pretty area and I spent a week there with him.
Hope you enjoy and will get to contribute to the forum. It’s helped me a lot in my journey.
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Thanks for your well-wishes, megahaus. My store was probably ahead of the times in the Midwest, but vintage clothing stores were and had been a “thing” on the east & west coasts for some time before I even knew there was such a thing! Especially in NYC and Los Angeles. In fact, I met a husband & wife team from California who took yearly trips to Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania etc., just to pick thrift stores for vintage clothing which they sold to the Japanese, or at the Rose Bowl.
I am in the town next to Elyria–Small world!
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Hi Miss Maggie, and welcome! Looking forward to your contributions here. I wish I had bought more vintage clothing back when I started buying old stuff….I’ve been buying stuff, off and on, since the early 70s….back then it wasn’t terribly unusual to run into stuff like straw boaters and derbies, and other stuff dating back to the 20s and 30s. I wasn’t focused on clothing, but I did buy some….wish I had bought a lot more LOL
You are right, keeping ebay in your back pocket is smart….we never know when it could go from very part time to full time due to life changes etc.
Looking forward to seeing more of your insights here!
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Hello MyCottage… Yes, everything you say is true about back in the day when vintage clothing was highly available in thrift stores. I found many unusual top hats, derbies and bowlers most made from felted beaver fur. The old-school hat makers did not mess around, everything was quality!
Thanks! Glad to be here, everyone seems so nice!
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Yes, welcome and glad you found us. I like that you stress the need to find reliable, honest help. In the rush to go out and buy buy buy, I’ve seen several sellers put the important work of running their daily business in the hands of unqualified people.
Would love to hear more about how you scavenge now and what you think about the items you find. Are you still focused on clothes?
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Thanks Jay, glad I finally figured out that my emails and requests to reset password were going into my spam folder!
I live in a ranch-style house with a basement. The upper living area of my house looks like a “normal” person lives here. Living, dining, kitchen, bedrooms etc., do not show any signs of scavenger-type lifestyle. My basement, however, is another story. I saw pictures– I think, somewhere here on your site–of Ryannes moms house and basement and instantly thought–OMG, a sister from another mother-LOL! Her basement looks exactly like mine! And that is to say my basement looks like a store with many retail fixtures and racks all holding vintage clothing, shoes, coats, bags/purses etc.
So to answer your question re: how I scavenge now? These days, I rarely (on purpose) go scavenging in search of vintage. If I want to list vintage –I just shop my basement! I allow myself about one trip a month to one or two thrift stores that I favor (no Goodwills!) and I am looking for anything and everything that I could flip for good $$. I still find vintage items that the average person does not know about or overlooks, but it is getting harder to find the mega-big-deal items like old military flight jackets or 2-pocket Levis jackets or red-line jeans. Everybody knows about them.
I have all this vintage but the truth is that selling vintage…since 1995, started to feel boring to me so now on Ebay I sell anything that I think will sell for top dollar. While scavenging, I go through clothing (methodically, in fact) and still do find good vintage, but I keep my eye out for New-With-Tags garments as they are easy to sell. I only buy top brands and stay far away from fast-fashion. I tend to focus on high-end mens clothing, small appliances, kitchen & cookware. I hate shipping/packing glass and try to avoid it-lol!
I tell my two (adult) children: if I die before I sell-off all this vintage you can have the mother-of-all-estate sales. I am serious about that. My basement is dry, I keep a dehumidifier running and everything is protected from dust. A sort of savings-account in my basement that I can draw upon as my motivation & energy allows. I am in my 60’s and enjoy good health, but these days money is not my main motivator. I garden, cook all my own food, do some volunteer work and love to read books. I’m sure many reading this would chuckle at my dinky Ebay store. I dropped down from the “Basic” store to the “Starter” store which allows me 100 listings.
I keep Ebay in my life because it keeps my mind occupied, provides me with “extras” and because it’s still satisfying and most of all, I still have fun doing it!
Thank you, Ryanne and Jay for the time and energy that you put into your podcasts and the community that you nurture, here. It is very motivating and I look forward to acquainting myself with your members!
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