Tom from Texas, Trunk Full of Junk

[TrunkFullOfJunk]

Hi, I’m Tom and live in deep South Texas. I’ve been selling on eBay since 2001 and on Amazon since 2010. I dabble in etsy and am building up a Shopify store. I also sell quite a bit locally using Facebook and Craigslist.

I grew up spending summers with my two aunts who owned an antique shop. Between those two, a grandmother who had a giant collection of Hull pottery and a mother who was always hunting for McCoy pottery, I learned to spot certain types of items. Before eBay I would pick up unique items and re-sell them to local antique stores since I didn’t have another outlet. Once eBay became popular that became my outlet of choice. Over the years I’ve expanded from antiques and collectibles to books, from there to salvage items and now I do majority clothes but still sell a little of everything.

My advice to sellers would be don’t be afraid to expand or to buy in bulk. With that said, always do your research before purchasing. It’s great when you go with that gut feeling and it pays off, but it really stings when the gut feeling leads you astray. My motto is “Never stop learning”.

[Ryanne]

what are you putting in your shopify store? any success with that? i heard you can get buyable pins for pinterest through your shopify store, i almost started one just for that reason alone.

[Jay]

I have many fond memories of camping out at Big Bend (it’s a great national park down at the tip of South Texas).

[TrunkFullOfJunk]

I’ve only got maybe 120 items in my Shopify store currently and haven’t started advertising it yet. I’ve only sold one item, but I eventually hope to duplicate everything on there for a few reasons.

1. I hope to put coupons in my eBay & etsy packages to be used for purchases on my website. This will drive traffic and save sellers fees. It will also allow me to diversify my income streams in case anything happens with eBay.

2. I can duplicate my Shopify inventory in my Facebook shop, which I can then promote to local buyers or Facebook interest groups. For instance I have about 300 leather jackets, with cold weather on the way I plan to promote my “Leather Jacket” category in local Facebook groups. I’ll offer local buyers a discount, as I wont have to pay fees or ship the items. Meanwhile I may target my “Vintage Wedding Dress” category to certain reddit groups or Facebook groups.

3. I have 26,000 of a brand new in package item that has been selling maybe 30 units a week between eBay, Amazon and locally. I plan to set up a product page with varying quantity bundles available for it on my Shopify store and promote it heavily via Google Shopping and Adwords.

4. Lastly I plan to hand out business cards with my domain to locals. It may not result in many sales, but every little bit helps.

ps: Love the podcast you guys. One episode a week isn’t enough.

[Amatino]

Hi Tom, from another Texan.

I’ve just heard about the wholesale clothes sales in the Valley, where you can buy clothes in huge bales, sort of “by the ton.” Have you heard of this? Tried it?

[TrunkFullOfJunk]

I assume you’re talking about the Ropes Usadas places? I have friends that have tried ii and I’ve looked through their clothes. It’s good if you’re doing flea market sales or maybe if you have a owned a small clothing/thrift store. From what I’ve seen the clothes appear to have been picked through somewhat. Lots of low-end brands and quite a bit of clothing with issues (stains, missing buttons).

[Amatino]

Tbh, I don’t know the place. I only found out about it recently and wondered if it was worth investigating. I was told you can phone in and order a “bale”, which is a huge square of wrapped clothes that is tossed into the back of your pickup for you to sort through later.

[Author]

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