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I spoke with another vintage clothing dealer in person over the weekend and she said you can sell your vintage clothing on Instagram, but she hasn’t tried it. Has anyone here tried it and how was your experience? I’ve done some googling and besides buying ads on Instagram, it’s not super clear on how to transact the business or connect links. Thanks!
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I know someone locally who is absolutely killing it on Instagram. She sells farmhouse-style antiques. Everything in her feed is styled like a magazine photo shoot and looks perfect. As far as I can tell people just DM her or comment “SOLD” on the item, first-come-first-served, and then pay her outside of Instagram. Everything she posts sells.
I would try it if I had the patience to get better at photography and product styling. My sense is that it’s all about having a compelling feed that tons of people follow. This woman has over 8,000 followers – most resellers I follow have a couple hundred to a couple thousand.
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I do know quite a few people use Instagram to promote their ebay listings. And I know some are using Instagram (and Facebook) to make sales directly. Instagram definitely requires building up a following, and I would guess it really helps to stay within a niche (in order to develop the following).
On a related note, is anyone else noticing the rise of what I’m calling Facebook Auctions? Or is this just a local thing? In my local area we have at least two guys who buy stuff for resale and then auction it off on Facebook , similar to a live auction. Again, I’m pretty sure you’ve got to develop a following for this to work, but I’m curious whether anyone else has seen it? I’m guessing their inspiration was not so much ebay as the vendors of stuff like Paparazzi jewelry, who do something similar with the stuff they get through their supplier.
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I don’t sell vintage clothing on Instagram (yet), but I follow some sellers that do. They sell items via both their feeds and stories. A lot of them model their clothes themselves. If you can do that, you’re halfway there to having a good Instagram store for your vintage.
It takes a lot of work to build yourself up on Instagram, but it could be worth it as an additional form of advertising. I feel to do well on Instagram, you have to be passionate about what you do. It is not so much a list it & forget it venue as Ebay.
Like any other venue, there is a lot of research to do to see what people are actively looking for. There may be trends that are popular only on Instagram that you can start thinking about when you’re out sourcing.
I do use Instagram to sell books. For me, I find it easiest to have an Etsy store I advise buyers to go to if they see an item they’re interested in purchasing. Sometimes, items sell within hours. Other times, it takes months and I have the benefit of people searching for those items through Etsy directly. Last year, I used to make more direct sales to customers on Instagram. This year, I am Instagram/Etsy only. I don’t feel comfortable with the spread of the marketplace facilitator tax around the country, so if someone needs to be taxed, I don’t want to figure out how to do it for them via Paypal or have them not pay a tax they needed to because they bought the item directly from me via Instagram. That’s just me, at least.
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Jay, What’s interesting to me about the Facebook “auctions” is that , it appears once you have a decent following, you can sell a lot of stuff in a few hours. Now, whether these guys are really making much is hard to say, and how long does it take to build an audience is also a question. The ones I’m familiar with are all pretty localized. But I admit I’m sometimes amazed at how much stuff they unload…
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What’s their facebook page so we can all better understand?
Like I said, if you put enough consistent time and passion into any platform, you can sell. People create their own brands and sell on their own website. That’s cool.
My point is just pick a platform and put all your time into it. I believe burnout comes when sellers spread themselves out too thin. It probably works for a while, but they either stop selling or realize which platform they enjoy.
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I personally feel it’s better to balance at least 2 venues for f/t. More than 2? If possible, sure. “Don’t put your eggs in one basket.”
If you’re p/t or just beginning, stick to 1 venue because it is unneeded complexity when you already have a lot going on in your life.
Burnout comes from the constant grind of having to constantly source, list, pack, ship, repeat in a seemingly endless loop. That’s why I love having large death piles. 😀
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Jay, Here’s one. These guys converted an old building into an indoor flea market of sorts, with some stuff from vendors, and some stuff they get at auctions, wholesale lots or what have you. So, they have a B&M location for pick ups and of course people can just come in a and shop. They also shoot the auctions in the location. Not sure just when they go live but you can go to the Facebook page and scroll down, the old auctions can be replayed to give you a sense of how they do this. People “bid” via the chat. I think as long as they are selling stuff they own, they don’t need an auctioneer’s license.
They seem to be having fun, but it’s definitely a lot of work. I don’t plan on trying it, I just find it interesting to see the many ways in which people use the Interwebs to make money. And maybe ebay should be watching, because if this becomes a trend, that’s a lot of stuff that won’t be sold on ebay. Well, except for the stuff people are buying from these guys in order to resell it on ebay LOL -
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almasty, I’m basically ebay, but I agree….no harm in selling multi channel IF it doesn’t cut into your time too much.
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I know its the Reseller guru mantra to sell on multiple platforms to protect yourself, but I think its better to also make money from a completely different business once you get eBay working (or whatever your favored platform is).
Use eBay profits to fund the other thing you love doing.
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Jay, Yeah, I think people will always find ways to do this….I sometimes worry about too many people doing this, too much competition, but I remind myself it’s like anything else with a low entry requirement, eventually a lot of the competition fades away. This sort of thing isn’t for everyone.
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Jay, Very good point. Multiple streams of income don’t all have to be from the same type of work. I understand multi channel selling IF a seller can make it really work, but I agree—there’s a real risk of becoming stretched too thin, and of losing focus on what matters.
I tend to think the “eggs in one basket” argument is overblown. I’ve been on ebay 20 years : ebay still exists, it’s still profitable, and , while not everything ebay does makes me happy, ebay has never done anything that made me even come close to saying: That’s it! I’m out of here!
And as the Facebook example shows, if ebay (or my ebay business) collapses, there are other ways to make selling online work. Probably always will be.
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The “eggs in one basket” is not about the sites continuing to exist, but about policy changes and competition that might build up on them. The low entry requirement you refer to above exists really hard on Amazon. The forums over there are more and more full of long-timers posting about how they are going to quit after selling for the past 10+ years due to increased competition, low sales volume and low sales dollars.
What’s funny about the Amazon forums is that people will occasionally post about their EBay sales being up, but their Amazon ones are not being at the levels they used to be at. Hence, using multiple websites to sell on.
I have seen this out in the wild while sourcing. Places I go to primarily for Amazon inventory are full of dealers practically getting into fisticuffs over the paltry amount of items coming out that is suitable for them. Places I go to for EBay type items may be full of dealers, but they don’t trip over each other for any new item coming out. Well, Amazon sellers have always acted like that over new inventory coming out at places. In the past, it was over maximum greed. Now, I can tell they are getting desperate.
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I can see how smaller sellers could get discouraged by Amazon. We experienced it. Amazon’s focus is on new commoditized items, so everyone is just selling the same item from the same factory. Race to the bottom. The bigger seller will always win because he/she can handle the lowest margins and make it up in volume.
It’s actually comforting to me that we sell “unique” items on eBay.
–It means everyone has to make a new listing for each and every item.
–No automation.
–Things usually sell slow no matter how low you price it since it’s long tail.
–Storage is a real challenge.
–You cant just order wholesale endlessly, you have to be endlessly scavengingSince 2013, we’ve given away our “secrets” each week. I still feel 99% of people that hear us realize it’s too much work (if they even try).
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Since we started selling seriously in 2010, I’ve been hearing eBay was going to fail:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-eBay-Chat/Ebay-is-going-to-fail-soon/td-p/21659918
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almasty, “The “eggs in one basket” is not about the sites continuing to exist, but about policy changes and competition that might build up on them.” And that’s my point about ebay….20 years, and not only is ebay still there, but neither the policies nor the competition has rendered it unprofitable for me. Of course, every sellers different. Policies I can live with, others can’t. Sellers in some categories might feel the competition has become too much…etc. But for me, as long as it is working, I don’t feel a strong need to look elsewhere. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea to sell multi channel, just that it isn’t always necessary, and there is some risk in it. Just as there is some risk in sticking to primarily one channel. We each have to weigh the pros and cons, and make our choices based on our individual businesses.
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Jay,
As I can attest, the “ebay will be gone by the end of this year, mark my words!” sort of thing has been going on for far longer….it’s a constant refrain on the ebay Boards and on the Comments section of ecommercebytes. Of course, some day, they’ll be right, since nothing lasts forever. Even Jeff Bezos has said Amazon won’t be around forever. (Although I’m not sure he really believes that LOL) -
Another trend I’ve noticed very recently is people on youtube turning their haul videos into the their own ‘home shopping network’. these are people with large followings that go through their haul and show each piece, talk it up and then tell their followers where they can buy it. I know one person who is running ebay auctions on items that would normally go for 15 dollars but she is getting more for these items by ‘selling’ them during her youtube video. I’ve been following her for a while and it took her a while to develop this model but now it seems to be working for her. I see others doing the same thing with a youtube haul and then telling people to message them to buy what they like through paypal bypassing all platforms that take a cut.
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Below is her youtube channel. She links her stores below her videos and she also sells t-shirts with her brand on them
check out her ebay store solds to see how much she is getting auctioning off easy to find knick knacks. She also films her shopping trips.
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Cool. Here is her solds:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/crazylamplady/m.html?_nkw&_armrs=1&_ipg&_from&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2046732.m1684Her store is very new. It’s great she sells little ceramics things for $20-$40.
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Nancy, Interesting. Would you be OK sharing the YouTuber’s ID….I’d like to see how she does it.
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I just discovered the Crazy Lamp Lady too. I especially like the videos where she is alone and discussing what she won’t buy and why, or showing great examples in antique stores of desirable items that are priced too high to resell so you can recognize them. She’s been doing it long enough to talk about items trending down in price (eg. carnival glass). I also like how she still makes mistakes and is honest about buying repaired items.
She’s very careful to warn newbies about Ebay auctions and reveals why they work for her. Her guests are a bit tedious but it’s one of the few people I can learn new things from on Youtube. I’m still not convinced to buy gigantic lamps to ship, but luckily she also picks up other things I like.
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I watch Jocelyn/Crazy Lamp Lady, and I think there are some really interesting things about her profile and her experience. I occasionally learn something (I didn’t know anything about Aladdin lamps or alacite, for example) or see her pick up something of sort of objective interest and value but I feel like to a certain degree the sold prices she realizes for her auction items have less to do with their inherent value and more to do with their connection to *her*. She’s done a brilliant job of creating a fan base both through her thrifting channel and her original channel, which is about metal detecting, and I think — like Jay just said in the podcast — that she’s created a sort of QVC/home shopping experience connected to her personality/brand. People pay more for her items because they saw her pick the pieces up and talk about them, and talk to Sue about how cute they are, and because the buyers have warm feelings about her and feel connected to her personally.
I don’t say any of this as a slight against her — she is warm and friendly and funny and enthusiastic, and it’s great to be thrifting along with her while I’m doing the dishes or engaging in some other mundane task. She’s created a brand and a business that’s working well. My caveats, in terms of her shop versus mine, are these:
1. I don’t think the prices she gets for items reflect what I’m likely to get (unless the piece has strong appeal/value to begin with);
2. She has 60k+ subscribers, so it’s not simply a matter of any of us putting up videos and watching the sales come in. She’s worked hard to build that brand and that subscribership (I think she puts up a video almost every day right now) and I, for one, lack many of the qualities that make her so appealing!
Edited to add: Oh jeez, I just realized I said in many long paragraphs what Nancy already said concisely above!
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I totally agree, hausfrau. I’ve been binging on her videos recently, and from time to time she says something like “I do really well with auctions b/c my ebay store has 15k followers. I don’t recommend auctions to any of my viewers unless you happen to have something that has really high demand.”
I like watching her videos in order to learn things, but I’m worried that eventually I will develop an inflated sense of the value of those ceramic and glass items she buys.
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Hausfrau, Yep, absolutely. Jay’s QVC comment is spot on. I have a couple friends who’ve worked on air at QVC and no question, it is all about the connection the audience feels with the hosts. I’m sure Lamp Lady understands that, and she is building a brand, she’s not just selling stuff (which is what most of us are doing). Like you, I don’t begrudge her that, I think it’s great….but it’s important that we distinguish between what we do and what she does. Basically, it’s a form of “adding value” to the items. Not unlike the seller who is a recognized authority on , say, early stoneware. If I say a jug is authentic and rare, big deal. LOL If a recognized expert says it, price goes up.
I’m not sure I could or would want to do all she does. (Even if I were younger, better looking and as charming LOL). Yes, she does get higher prices, but what she does to get the higher prices IS work, even if she makes it look like fun. Of course, she may parlay it into a TV show or something down the line, like Jason of Thrifthunters. It will be interesting to see where she ends up…
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I’m not sure I could or would want to do all she does. (Even if I were younger, better looking and as charming LOL). Yes, she does get higher prices, but what she does to get the higher prices IS work, even if she makes it look like fun. Of course, she may parlay it into a TV show or something down the line, like Jason of Thrifthunters. It will be interesting to see where she ends up…
There are not enough filters, fillers, and fluoxetine tablets in the world to make me as photogenic and pleasant as she is! Hahahaha! But I agree with you — she could definitely parlay it into TV (if TV is even considered superior to YouTube anymore; I’m not sure it really is.)
And, yes — absolutely. She’s putting in a ton of work to add value to her items. a TON.
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“what she does to get the higher prices IS work, even if she makes it look like fun”
Good point, MyCottage. I’m okay with not getting those higher prices b/c I wouldn’t want to put in all that extra work of making videos. Taking a video while scavenging!?!? Yuck – that would spoil all the fun for me.
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Check out this sale by Crazy Lamp Lady:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Decorative-Ceramic-Fish-Shaped-Trinket-Spoon-Teabag-4-034-Dish-/283484077104?hash=item4200f7bc30%3Ag%3Ax68AAOSwHBVc2ext&nma=true&si=LvPTps9xsBoU0PiVByH1r4dhOm4%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557Is there something special I’m missing about this tiny fish dish or do you think the high price is a result of her QVC-style marketing on youtube? Most of her gewgaws sell for pretty low prices…
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Sonia,
The reason that fish sold for so much is because Joceylyn’s (Crazy Lamp Lady) daughter, who is about 7 years old, wanted to raise money for a lemonade stand for another child (Alex). I’ve been watching her for probably as long as she’s been podcasting, but I don’t remember all the details, but the video is below. Joceleyn’s daughter (her name is Juliette, but she nicknames her Sissy. If you just want to hear about the lemonade stand auction on the fish-it is at about the 45:00 mark. -
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Alex’s Lemonade Stand-Childhood Cancer
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