Welcome back to another episode of the Resellers Mindset Podcast.
My name is Mike, also known as the used book guy on YouTube,
along with my friend and fellow full-time reseller, Johnny B.
We help people start and grow their reselling businesses from the ground up.
We also have a weekly zoom call and private discord for all YouTube members.
Head on over to youtube.com backslash use book guy to join the channel and gain
access to the full length podcast zoom call and private discord today.
Let's get into this week's episode.
What is up everybody?
Welcome into another episode of the Resellers Mindset Podcast.
Mike next to Johnny over here, special guest Desiree and a brand new
world to me and Johnny today.
Selling jewelry.
I know it's crazy, right?
I even thought about coming on here and having a huge like flavor
flavor clock just for this podcast specifically.
Because honestly, everywhere we go thrift stores, they have jewelry.
And I always thought to myself, like, it never really interested me in like
reselling, but I thought like, how did they come to a price on this?
Is there any money to be made?
Because we flipped everything from the thrift storage, right?
But the jewelry is always in the glass case.
We know it was in the glass case.
They probably want an astronomical amount for it.
And how did they really decide like what jewelry is worth?
So we've got Desiree on jewelry specialist.
She's going to introduce herself and we're kind of just going to take it away from there.
So Desiree, thanks for coming on and yeah, tell us what you're about.
All right.
Well, hi guys.
Thank you so much for inviting me on.
I'm so thrilled to be spending this time with you.
Um, but my name is Desiree and I'm also known as good, great, fabulous.
And I've been selling jewelry full time since 2020.
I kind of started, uh, during the pandemic.
And it was because I was basically selling a lot of my stuff too.
And I really kind of fell in love with jewelry, even though I don't wear a ton
because of the practicality of, of selling jewelry as a reseller, just for.
You know, space and size issues and that type of thing.
So I really just kind of dove into it, fell in love with it.
And now it's going on four years.
So I'm not anywhere near an expert, but I want to say that I know a little about a lot.
And so over the years I've learned and it's just been so exciting.
I've met incredible people and, um, I can't wait to, you know, get into it.
I'm not sure exactly what you want to know or how this is going to flow, but I'm,
I'm just so excited to share cause I'm really passionate about jewelry.
We all want to be millionaires by the end of this podcast.
All right.
No, nothing, nothing short of being rich.
Now, uh, it's, um, it's interesting.
You started in 2020.
That's kind of, you know, not reselling.
Oh, so we need the backstory of where you started.
We need the, the Desiree before jewelry, when she was probably doing stuff, she
didn't enjoy as much.
Yeah.
I've been an eBay seller off and on since 2007.
And I started off selling everything and anything that I thought would, would make me
money with, with no real clear, um, plan or structure or system or anything.
And back then it was actually a lot easier, I think, than today to be an everything seller.
It just seemed like it was back then compared to trying to do it now, because it seemed
like no matter kind of what you threw up there, somebody wanted it somewhere.
And, um, over time as I've moved and I've became a mom and, uh, dealing with life, I
realized that I just did not have the space to sell everything and anything.
Uh, at first I was selling a lot of my son's stuff, you know, like baby clothes and toys
and, you know, the stuff that most of us, I think start off selling.
But then I realized I didn't have a whole lot of space.
So I figured I have to sell something small.
And so that's kind of where the jewelry came.
And that's how it started for me.
It was all about the practicality of it, not necessarily because I set out to be a jewelry
seller, but then I really made it work.
And I really, um, tried to educate myself as best as I could and really learned as much
as I could.
And now that's pretty much all I focus on.
I do handbags a little bit, but again, because they take up a lot of space, I don't necessarily
always source handbags, but when I go out, I'm always sourcing jewelry.
Yesterday I went yard sailing with a friend and I found so much stuff.
I was actually surprised.
So, um, I think the more you know about jewelry, the luckier you get as it relates to sourcing
because you start seeing it everywhere.
You start realizing, oh, you know, I can, I can sell this or someone has this and they
don't, they don't realize what they have, or maybe someone just wants to offload something.
So it seems like the more knowledgeable you are, the more opportunities find you.
And, uh, it's, it's just been a journey ever since.
So, right.
It's not only opportunities.
Your, your time gets sped up so much faster.
You don't have to like, Oh, I need to deep dive research this thing in my hand right
here before I buy it.
And that could take up so many minutes.
And sometimes you do, I still have to do this from time to time, even with the books.
So for those who don't know, um, Desiree and I are in the same group with tech and I've
attended the jewelry call from time to time, just out of I'm bored in the shop and need
something to listen to.
And I've listened to your guys's calls and it's hard.
I would not want to touch jewelry with a 10 foot pole.
You guys have, in my opinion, one of the harder niches to do, honestly, because the
identification of what you're looking at is so much harder.
Books, it's easy.
Like, you know, the page is the information is going to be on, at least your stuff can
be all over the place or it could not be there at all.
Um, so can you talk about the research part of jewelry?
Like, what's that like?
It sounds very, very hard to me from an observer standpoint.
Yeah.
And it's, it's still hard for me too, in, in some regards, over time, you start to recognize
certain pieces and certain styles and certain brands and certain designs.
Once you kind of have that base knowledge, then everything kind of builds upon that.
So now I can go into any thrift store or yard sale and I can immediately pick out,
you know, how they have fast fashion.
They have the same thing with jewelry, the fast jewelry, like the cheap, you know, pieces
that look pretty, but they're not high quality and they probably won't sell for very much
if they sell it all.
So you really start to recognize certain brands, certain markings.
And, um, once you have that, like I said, that base knowledge, it becomes really easy
to filter out certain things.
So I can scan the glass case at Goodwill and I can see what, like, I can see a piece where
I say, okay, I want to see that one more closely, or I can know, I know that that one I'm not
going to take.
You can just tell by looking at it.
Now that's not a piece, but you do get to that point to where you kind of have a more,
I guess, trained eye.
And the nice thing about jewelry, well, it's getting harder, but the nice thing about jewelry
is usually when people are selling it, like at thrift stores or yard sales, they don't
really want very much.
They just want to get rid of it.
So sometimes it's worth taking a chance just to buy something so you could research it
later.
I don't recommend doing that all the time, but I've done that many times along my journey.
And, uh, you know, sometimes I waste money.
Sometimes I, I hit the jackpot.
So, I mean, it's similar to like a old book.
I can tell an old book from, they try to make it look like an old book.
But in your category, you got to worry about, is this real gold or not real gold?
Is this costume jewelry or not?
Is this cubic, circunium or not?
I mean, there's all these, it seems very more intricate.
Yeah.
But, um, well, see, like the gold, I'm not saying I'm a gold expert, but usually you
can kind of tell, um, just by the, the, the shade of the gold, sometimes it's really yellow.
And sometimes, uh, you know, you can feel it too.
Like if, if you can touch the piece and, you know, if you're sourcing online or something
like that, you can't, but, um, for the most part, you can kind of tell.
And then of course we have tools that help us along the way.
You know, you can test it with the magnet.
They have little testing kits that you can use, you know, to, they're called like little
scratch tests that you can use to see what, what type of metal, if it's silver, if it's gold,
I think they even let you, or they come where you can test like other types of metal, like,
I don't know, platinum or something like that.
But I don't really deal in the fine jewelry per se.
I'm more into the vintage and antique jewelry.
Although that's not to say it's not real gold.
Some of those pieces are, but I prefer like the older vintage styles of jewelry, more
costume jewelry and not the fine jewelry.
So there's different subcategories within jewelry.
I'm sure just like with books where we're, you know, you kind of, you, you have a niche
within a niche within a niche.
And so what's the, what's the magnet test?
I'm curious.
I, I know, I listen, when it comes to jewelry, I'm basically kindergarten level here.
Right?
So you said you tested with a magnet.
I'm like thinking to myself, like, is the gold going to stick to the magnet?
Is it going to repel from the magnet?
It won't.
No, it won't.
Yeah.
So they sell these, they're like really strong magnets, not the kind of magnets you use on
your refrigerator, although you could use that in a pinch, but they sell like these
jewelry tester magnets and I don't have mine.
It's somewhere floating around, but it's a really
strong, strong magnet.
So if the piece sticks to it, then it's not, it's not real gold or silver.
So you want to have a magnet and then hopefully the necklace doesn't stick to it.
And then, you know, it's real gold or it has some, some real precious metal in it.
Is it valid to say that thrift stores, what's your experience in like going into a goodwill?
Have you ever bought any valuable jewelry that Goodwill had underpriced or every time,
or 90% of the time you're like, okay, so you're saying there is some value because like Johnny
was saying, it's, it's hard to know this stuff, right?
With books, they can scan the books and see it's, it's value, right?
But if, if me or Johnny are working at the Goodwill in the back room and they're like,
Hey, is any of this jewelry worth it?
We're just going to be like, just put $5 on it, put it out there, right?
But I do think like it's one of those things where, but like I said, I really never look,
but I feel like everything that the Goodwill has in the glass case is usually overpriced,
but maybe this is different with jewelry.
If you know what you're looking for, because the barrier of entry and the knowledge it takes to
kind of be able to identify a piece that's actually worth something with identification,
like is there brands or anything?
So I feel like most jewelry is just, it's just a jewelry, right?
It doesn't have like a Nike logo on the, on the, on the, you know, bracelet or something.
You have to actually understand what you're looking at.
Well, actually, yeah, quite a few jewelry brands do have stamps, markings, tags.
So that is one way to really identify higher end pieces.
Now, not every piece of jewelry with a tag on it is going to be higher end because you
can go to Walmart and buy some time and true necklaces.
They have a tag, but they're not necessarily pieces I would pick up.
I would pick up, but some of the vintage brands do have stamps and markings on them.
And that is really, really helpful.
That's always the first thing you want to look for to see if it does have any kind of branding on it.
And as, as, you know, so many of us are doing this and resellers are growing by the dozens,
it seems every minute, you know, goodwill has also gotten a little bit more educated
in this game as well.
So the days of finding something just by happenstance are getting less and less,
but it can still happen.
Like I've, you know, you can watch those videos on YouTube of ladies doing these unboxings
or these, you know, jewelry jars and they find amazing stuff.
So it can still happen.
Although if you're going to do this as a full time thing or even a part time thing,
I wouldn't rely on, on goodwill randomly just throwing 14 karat gold necklaces in a jewelry jar.
It does happen, but I don't, it's getting less and less.
I'll say it that way.
So Mike and I spend pennies on our items for cost of goods.
What's the cost of getting the jewelry game?
Like when you go out and source.
When I first started, it was anywhere from a dollar to $2 a piece.
Really?
Now, man, I mean, it could be anywhere from $5 on up to 30, 40, $50.
If you know, you can flip that for a few hundred.
Right.
So it just depends on, on your own personal budgeting as it relates to what your budget
is for sourcing and what type of business model you're set up.
As a matter of fact, I had someone on my podcast not too long ago and she only focuses on
high end vintage jewelry and she only focuses on certain brands.
So she will spend anywhere from 40 to $75 a piece, but she knows she's going to make
300 to 600 to $700 flipping that piece.
So it just depends.
Some people are volume sellers like me.
I prefer to buy, you know, spend three, $4 a piece and then hopefully flip those pieces
for 35, 40, 50, $60.
But that's because that's what I can find.
That's what I can get.
Now, if I had a way to get pieces that I could flip for $600, I would totally focus on that.
But it's not as easy for me to get that without, you know, spending all day on an online auction
and then kind of really positioning yourself to do bulk buys because that's how a lot of
us are doing it now.
You know, it's, it's, it's not just buying it piece by piece, but really buying it like
in bulk lots, like at an estate sale where someone's selling their whole collection of
something.
Or sometimes you can find things like that on, on Facebook, even sometimes you'll,
you'll find it on eBay because I do that a lot too.
I source on eBay and I sell on eBay.
So it just depends on how you're going to make it work.
But I mean, it really can fit whatever you're comfortable with.
You don't have to buy expensive, you know, 30, 40, $50 pieces in the hopes of flipping
them for $600.
You don't have to do that because I started, like I said, with a dollar, $2 a piece.
Right.
Absolutely.
I mean, everybody's budget's going to be different.
So you may start at one version of jewelry until you build up enough capital.
If you want to do those higher end purchases.
One of the more impressive things is it's the jewelry sellers and the card sellers.
I'm always blown away by like when you guys show off your inventory and how little space
it takes up compared to books.
I'm like, in my warehouse, I don't know how many pieces of jewelry could fit in here.
I could have the Fort Knox jewelry set up here with a bajillion dollars in inventory value
versus not with books.
So how do you guys store jewelry?
I've seen it, but people listening may have not ever had a concept of what this actually
looks like.
How do you inventory jewelry for reselling?
Well, the nice thing, like you said, it is really, really small.
So it doesn't take up a lot of space.
Like I could have when I had like 3000 jewelry listings.
I mean, it only took up about five feet of space in a spare bedroom.
You know, it was not an issue at all, but I use those bins and I don't think I have one.
Well, you know, those plastic shoe bins that you buy from like Walmart or whatever.
So I have the jewelry in there and then each jewelry is in its own little bag.
And then it has a number on it.
So I can store maybe like 50 pieces of jewelry and one of those plastic shoe box bins.
And then I just stack them up and it's really easy.
And I mean, like I said, thousands and thousands of jewelry pieces I can store in a spare
bedroom, in a closet, in a Ziploc bag, you know, whatever works.
It's so nice.
That's the main thing that I love about being a jewelry seller is you can have a ton of
inventory and it doesn't take up a lot of space.
For to give some people some perspective for actually watching the YouTube.
See those books on my second shelf there.
There we go.
They're double road.
What she's talking about.
All of that could fit into a shoe box.
It's ridiculous.
I love it.
I think the only people to have you beat honestly are the card sellers.
As far as how much inventory you can condense into a small space.
It's amazing and beautiful.
Yeah.
And the nice thing is too is because you know how sometimes if you lose a piece or something
gets misfiled, it's easy to kind of search it because you kind of know, you know, it's
not like you have to pull out tons and tons of bins or you're like digging and digging
and digging.
You kind of know and then you can just kind of move stuff around.
And another thing that I've come to realize too is like a lot of people who sell jewelry.
Well, I shouldn't say a lot, but there's quite a few people who do sell jewelry who have
limited mobility issues.
So handling jewelry is easier for them because they don't have to lift heavy boxes or they
don't have to shuffle around big bins and stuff.
So there's also that.
Like, so if you can't lift something heavy, you can be a jewelry seller and not worry
about worrying about lifting something heavy.
Mike, I think you should switch over to jewelry for those three flights of stairs, man.
Listen, I'm going to talk about how I don't want to lift heavy boxes and I'm 70 years
old and everybody's going to be in the comments saying I'm 70 and I lift these boxes.
You can do it too.
I'm going to get a little bit more into your backstory.
Like is jewelry your main source of income?
Like reselling jewelry?
Do you have like, is this kind of just a side hustle for extra, you know, money to kind
of do what you want with?
Like what's a little bit more of the backstory of your reselling?
Is it your main gig?
Did you work before?
Did you transition to reselling?
What did that look like?
I'm open.
Okay.
Oh, you want that story.
Okay.
I want that story.
So for a good portion of my professional life, because I did have a real job.
I was a news and traffic reporter here in Las Vegas and I did that for 13 years.
And so I was doing news, I was doing traffic and then I kind of advanced within the broadcast
company I was working for, and then I became a digital content manager.
So I was managing social media for various brands.
So I got burnt out on that.
Now I had always done eBay on the side, you know, here and there I'd find something and
I throw it up, but it wasn't my main thing.
So I got burnt out with the job.
And I've said this before, I burned some bridges because when I quit, it was a very toxic situation.
So, I didn't know what I was going to do, but I knew that I couldn't stay at that job.
So I basically just kind of walked out.
Like I said, I burned some bridges.
And so eBay kind of became the thing.
And at the time when I decided to make it full time, it was kind of the pandemic
time and you know how all of us were doing it and it was working and I was making money.
I said, oh, this is good.
I could totally make this work.
It's not the same like it was during the pandemic time, but back then I was like, oh yeah, see,
I don't need to go back to work.
So that was kind of like my plan at that time.
And so I've been kind of doing it full time since then, since pandemic time.
So yes, it is my full time thing, but it's not the only thing I do to make money.
Oh yeah, you got to have multiple streams.
And I'm glad I finally found somebody that actually just walked out of their job to resell like I did.
So don't feel like you burn bridges.
I walked out in the middle of my shift.
My supervisor came in.
I said, here's the keys.
I'm out of here.
Have a great life.
But I mean, I was friends with, I'm still friends with some of the people, but I didn't really
know have a huge team around me.
It wasn't, yeah, CVS is a large company that I work for, but like after your store level
employees, like it's not like anybody else cared about you.
So I don't blame you for doing it.
And I always say like your mental health and situations like that, it's hard for people
to understand on the outside that, you know, we can sit here and say, hey, we quit, right?
And people like, well, you should never just quit a job.
Well, you know what?
You ain't never worked at, you know, CVS or the situation you were in.
So I'm glad I finally found somebody else just said, suckers, see you later.
Bye.
Yeah.
And someone had asked me the other day, you know, do you, do I think I'll ever go back
into doing news?
And I said, well, I probably won't be able to in this town.
I said, I think I might be blacklisted because of the way I left my last job.
And it wasn't, it wasn't like,
Table flip.
Just tell me there's a table flip.
No, it wasn't like that.
It was just, you know, I had gotten called in, you know how to do the meeting.
I'm out.
Called in.
They said, oh, Desiree, we're going to write you up.
We're going to put you on probation, all this stuff, which I believe was unwarranted.
So that was, I think a Tuesday.
Tuesday night, I sent an email to the CEO, the general manager, you know, quitting or
saying I was going to quit, came in Wednesday, had a meeting.
And then the HR lady came in and she said, well, you know, we'll just pay you until the
day that you gave your notice so you don't have to come back.
I said, that works for me.
Packed up my stuff and I left.
There was no discussion.
There was no anything, but you know, cause I, I was ready to go, you know, cause I'm
not going to stay there and be on probation.
You know, I just wasn't going to, going to do that.
So, and I didn't have a plan.
I didn't have a plan.
Luckily at that time, I was also doing YouTube
and I had just started to make enough money on YouTube to cover my rent.
So I knew my rent was covered, but I didn't know how I was going to pay for anything else.
And so that's where eBay really kicked in.
And that was at the end of 2019.
And then boom, the pandemic happened right early 2020.
So like I said, it, things just kind of fell into place for me.
And, and so that's how it's been.
And I haven't, I haven't been employed since then.
I mean, I work obviously, but I haven't gone back to being an employee since that time.
Nice. So with sourcing online and here and there where you can in your location,
how competitive is the jewelry market amongst other resellers?
Is it, is it intense?
Is it cutthroat like we see in clothing or is it more laid back and everybody's all nice,
friendly and rainbows and puppies and stuff?
Well, I think it's kind of a, it's kind of in the middle between that, you know,
there's some of us who are, who are really into this.
And we know there's plenty of stuff out there for everybody or anybody who wants to do it.
And then there are people who are really competitive,
but not everybody has the same knowledge and not everybody has this,
like we're not all selling the same thing.
Yes. We're all selling jewelry, but not everybody is selling like,
or looking for what I'm looking for.
Right. So, so like I do really well selling like gemstone,
jewelry, you know, like quartz and stuff like that.
And, you know, just gemstones, because that's really kind of my jam,
because I already had knowledge about that.
So I do really well selling that, but a lot of people don't know crystals.
A lot of people don't know gemstones.
So if we both went to goodwill and saw that,
I don't know if we both would say, oh, can I see that piece?
You know what I mean?
So depending on what your knowledge and your experience is,
but yeah, it's very competitive, especially online.
If you're sourcing online, you know, like with online auctions,
online estate sales, that kind of thing.
And I also noticed that when I'm out at yard sales and stuff like that,
it's very competitive too.
It's usually whoever gets there first gets the jewelry.
So it's about, because a lot of people are trying to buy jewelry from yard sales as well.
But now the other thing is what I've noticed is a lot of the,
a lot of people are just looking for the precious metals.
And then there's a lot of people like me who want the vintage pieces.
So we're both looking for jewelry, but we're targeting different things.
Like they just want the metals.
They don't care if it's something that could be rare and vintage, a costume jewelry piece.
They just want to get the gold and the silver for scrap.
I was about to mention that because in my auction house,
we have a couple of resellers that buy jewelry,
but for the exact reason you mentioned for scrap value,
they don't care about flipping the piece for a piece sake.
They want to melt it down and make bars or coins out of it.
Didn't sell that or hold onto it for its scrap value,
hoping that the value will go up on the metal itself.
Exactly.
So we're both going for the jewelry pile, but we're both-
They just want to destroy it.
Yes.
And it's unfortunate, but I understand it.
Hey, that's their jam.
That's their jam. But like I said, we both could be at the same yard sale or whatever,
and we're both going to go for the jewelry pile,
but it's going to be for different reasons.
They're looking for, like I said, the precious metals,
and I'm looking for the unique vintage pieces that you just can't find anymore.
Maybe somebody had in their collection for 40, 50, 60 years or something like that.
And those are the pieces I want.
I mean, yes, it would be nice to find 14 karat gold.
I'm not going to throw it away,
but that's not what I'm necessarily looking for when I'm sourcing.
To make this relatable to the book people,
it's like you're competing with a book recycler.
They're wanting to destroy your Gutenberg Bible and sell it for recycling paper.
And it's like, no, no, why would you do this?
Exactly.
Why?
I feel like with jewelry, and you kind of already debunked it just from
what you've been talking about so far, but I feel like if I roll up to a garage sale,
grandma doesn't want to give up her necklace because of sentimental value.
I feel like the sentimental value play a huge factor in some of these negotiations you have,
because I might have, I'm not giving up my ring scanner, Johnny, because I had this for 10 years.
You can't give me no amount of money.
And I feel like with jewelry, that's something you would run into all the time.
But from what you said, you're catching deals out there,
but do you run into any crazy situations where somebody's got a piece,
a quarter machine ring and they want like $100 for it because it's been in the family for 30 years,
50 years?
Yeah, sometimes that will happen.
They're called heirloom pieces, which may not necessarily be expensive when you look at just
the dollar value, but because it's been in the family for so long,
some people will think that it's worth more than what it actually is.
But I don't really deal with people one-on-one in that type of situation,
because most people don't really just say, oh, I want to sell this heirloom piece.
The things I've seen is usually someone passes away and then someone inherits their grandma,
great grandma, great aunt's jewelry, and they're just not jewelry people.
They don't want it or they need the money.
So they will try and liquidate those pieces either themselves or through an estate sale
or sometimes online.
Sometimes you'll see people selling it on Facebook.
So those are the types of deals you want to find because if someone needs to offload their jewelry
quickly, then usually they're a little bit more flexible on the price.
And some people don't know what they have.
And so I'm not saying to be dishonest, but I'm also saying if you have a piece,
if you have an advantage, you may as well use it.
For sure.
That's what I do.
When it comes to jewelry, I feel like you have to keep up with trends and what's going on,
because I feel like if Taylor Swift wears some sort of necklace or she's seen with some kind
of ring or some kind of style that she's wearing as trends always change, is this basically an
ongoing knowledge base for you where you have to see what's going on, what's hot right now,
season to season, is it even seasonality, right?
Do people wear different jewelry in the winter than they do in the summer?
Is that a thing?
Like just kind of give me a deep dive on how it's always changing with jewelry.
Well, for what I do with vintage jewelry, there's going to be certain things that are always going
to be popular and always in demand no matter what, because a lot of that too is nostalgia.
A lot of women will buy pieces that they remember their mom wearing when they were growing up or
their grandmother wearing when they were growing up.
So as it relates to vintage, I don't think there's necessarily trends that kind of come
into play with that.
It's kind of like there's certain brands everybody loves and everybody looks for.
And it's been that way for as long as I've been doing this.
And from what I can see, it will continue to be like there's certain brands that will always do
well. But with the trendy stuff, now it depends on your buyer too, right?
Because there's also young girls who buy jewelry because they do want to wear the same thing that
Taylor Swift had on. And so those are going to be more of the fast fashion jewelry pieces.
There are some that are higher end, but very rarely will you find those when you're outsourcing
like a Goodwill or something like that.
But that's not to say you can't.
And I know people who do this too, they will source off of
Alibaba or Tmoo or something like that.
And you can buy those copies of the popular jewelry pieces and you can sell those too,
you know, and make it work because I know people who only source on AliExpress or
Alibaba or Tmoo, whatever.
There's a lot of people who do sell that fast fashion because you can buy it for a couple
dollars a piece.
And then if you sell it for $10 a piece, you're selling it for $10 a piece.
You're still making money, right?
So that's a whole other way or business model of doing jewelry.
You can do it that way too.
And I know several people who do that and they do pretty good from what I see.
I mean, I don't know the numbers of their business, obviously, but people are buying it.
You know, so and some people, if it is trendy, they don't care that it's not a high quality
piece because they're only going to wear it for however long it's trendy, right?
So it's not like a piece they're going to keep in their collection forever and then
pass on to their children.
It's just, oh, I want to wear what Taylor Swift is wearing or whoever.
So that does happen a lot, but there are trends that kind of dictate, I think, certain styles.
Like right now, I did a podcast episode talking about what's trendy and vintage and antique
jewelry as it relates to 2024 and then how vintage and antique jewelry is influencing
jewelry design today.
So a lot of the styles and the motifs and the colors and the materials that were used
in vintage jewelry, we're starting to see a resurgence of that in new jewelry designs today.
So it's almost it's like the past is influencing right now, the present.
And certain things like brooches are really popular.
And now you're seeing not only women wear certain things, but you see the men also wearing
brooches.
I also talked about that men are wearing pearls.
You know, they'll wear a pearl earring.
Last year, some a baseball player was wearing a pearl necklace.
I don't remember his name, but we talked about stuff like that and how these things are
they're from the past, but they're influencing new designs today.
But that's not anything I think you really have to worry about or keep up with.
Well, again, it depends on who your customer is.
It depends on who your customer is.
Right.
So I'm more of the older woman who let's say 30, 40 plus who wants the vintage pieces
because that's what she is looking for.
I'm not targeting someone who wants the Taylor Swift necklace.
But if I found one, sure, I'd pick it up and I'd list it.
But that's not going to be the main thing that I'm looking for.
So let's talk about junk for a minute because we all get it no matter what
category of reselling you're in.
I'm curious, what do you do with the undesirable jewelry you get when buying
lots or a big bulk buy kind of thing?
How do you deal with your junk and jewelry land?
And I bet it's way different than us in book land.
Yeah, well, you can actually sell that.
You can sell it.
You can sell.
She can sell her junk.
We can't sell ours, Mike.
Yeah, we call them craft lots or we call them junk jewelry lots or we call them mystery lots.
So the nice thing about jewelry is you can sell it, obviously, for people to wear it.
But then there's also a whole market of crafters who like to upcycle, recycle jewelry,
and they make it into either new jewelry or the craft projects or whatever the case may be.
So you can always sell craft lots, you know, because someone's always going to want that.
You know, so that's what I do with my junk pieces.
I just put them in a bag and listed as a craft lot, four pounds jewelry, broken pieces,
mismatched pieces, whatever, because people will.
And the other thing, too, is a lot of people who do make crafts or do crafts, they will
because it's cheaper to buy a craft jewelry lot than it is to buy those same supplies from like
Hobby Lobby or something like that, because, you know, Hobby Lobby, they'll give you a little bag
of beads for like ten dollars.
Well, for ten dollars, you can probably buy a pound of craft lot jewelry, you know, and take it apart
or whatever you're going to do.
And so it's a lot of fun.
So, yeah, that's what we do.
So I'm hearing is you're cheaper and more valuable than the retail stores if you're selling junk
jewelry.
That's what I heard.
Absolutely, absolutely.
And I've had people, you know, they will tell me because I sell in an antique mall as well.
And I was offloading my jewelry bags there.
And those ladies love it because they make stuff with it.
They make jewelry trees.
They make picture frames.
They make ornaments or they take or some kind of new world.
Mike, I'm sorry.
Good.
Oh, no, but, you know, people are so creative, you know, or they some people like to repair jewelry,
too.
That's a whole nother, you know, angle where some people they like to take broken watches
and fix them.
They like to take broken necklaces and fix them like that's their thing.
So, yeah, I mean, it.
Yeah, nothing goes to waste, at least as it relates to jewelry.
There's there's going to be somebody wanting it for something somewhere.
All right, I got some eBay questions.
First one I got is we bring up to all the eBay sellers.
Do you have to use promoted listings if you're selling jewelry?
Depending on what it is.
Yes.
But I would say that's not a general thing, but I would say it's like a item by item or listing
by listing kind of thing.
I wouldn't just.
Well, see, it depends because I've tried both and I didn't really notice,
notice that it helped necessarily.
But I don't know.
OK, let me let me rephrase this.
It's your skirt in our question here.
Do you promote more than 50 percent of your listings on eBay right now?
No.
I'll say we got we got a promote denier out here.
It's good to find one finally, but I think it doesn't tell, you know, what you're selling
when it comes to like listing on eBay.
I think about it.
If I just find like a like I got a cheap, you know, little bracelet on here, right?
It's like if there's no brand and it's like a gold bracelet, we'll just take a gold bracelet.
I find a gold bracelet.
I see that it's real gold.
I buy it for a dollar.
Like, do I just list on eBay is like 14 inch gold bracelet?
Like, is that all the title is?
Because like it's hard to you're saying, yeah, there are some brands, but a lot of the stuff,
it's just the piece of jewelry there.
This is Google Lens.
Google Lens, is that work for jewelry?
Is that something you could utilize or is this all just, you know, you've got to be in the trenches
and understand, you know, the different styles, the different, you know, makers and stamps
and things like that.
Because for me, I'd be like, I'm just going to put bracelet gold bracelet, 18 karat gold
bracelet.
That's all my titles are going to be.
Absolutely.
It's a combination of both.
And I think like, let's say you had that bracelet, you would put, like you said, 18 karat gold
bracelet, and then if it's a certain style of chain, you know, like if it's a herringbone
or link, you know, you would put that in there.
You would put the right keywords just like you would for any anything else.
And then in your item specifics, you would kind of get even more specific on what type of gold
or what type of design, what type of clasp even, you know, if it was something a little
bit different.
And then if it is stamped, you want to make sure that you have that on there as well.
So if it's stamped 18 karat, I would definitely put 18 karat stamped gold chain link, eight
inches men's bracelet, you know, whatever, all of those things.
And if that's the nice thing about like gold, it doesn't necessarily have to be branded.
If it's 14 karat, 18 karat, whatever, that is enough because there's people who search
specifically for that.
Yeah, I guess I picked a bad example, but I'm curious here because every I know I'm going
to have people that are like, well, I'm a reseller and people that shop, they're going
to scam you for your gold jewelry.
So I need insight here.
What do returns look like in the jewelry world?
And are people swapping out your gold chains for dollar store chains?
That's basically the question.
Are people are there scammers out there in the jewelry?
Because you think about it, right?
You sell something, maybe it's a thousand dollar necklace, right?
We all we get worried.
We're worried about someone scamming us for 20 bucks on the jewelry world.
We're talking, it could be tens of thousands of dollars, depending on what the item is.
What's your point of view on that?
And have you experienced kind of like, I don't know, being scammed selling jewelry on eBay?
Luckily, I've never been like scammed as it relates to jewelry.
Now I have.
Well, I take that back because I don't know because I sold a pair of earrings to a lady.
She said they arrived broken.
I don't see how that was possible, but that's what she said.
Right.
So, you know, I told her to return it.
She didn't want to return it.
So I ended up giving her a partial refund only because I wanted to be done with her.
But now was that probably the right thing to do?
I don't know.
Did she scam me or lie about it?
Who knows?
But for the most part, for me, this is me I'm speaking about.
I don't sell 14 karat gold stuff on eBay.
I would sell that.
I have a gold guy locally that I kind of do my my medals with.
That's me because I don't want to deal with it on eBay.
I just don't.
But I have sold gold in the past and I've made money on it and it's gone well.
Nobody has sent a return or complained or said it wasn't what I said it was.
So, you know, what I do is I have a scale and I put the jewelry on the scale so they
can see exactly how many grams it is.
And I say, you know, 14 karat scrap gold jewelry, 80 grams, however much it is.
And they look at it and they can see I try to do really good pictures and people buy it.
People I didn't I didn't have any issue.
Nobody complained.
I didn't get any returns or anything like that.
So again, it just depends on what you're comfortable with because I know a lot of
a lot of jewelry resellers that I know we don't deal with like precious metals like that.
Now, you may have a necklace that is 14 karat gold and you would just put, you know,
gold necklace chain, whatever it is.
If it's a brand stamped 14 K or marked 14 K, whatever.
So that's how I do it.
And I would prefer to sell my my gold and silver.
I go to, you know, a gold buying place here in Las Vegas.
Guy I've been seeing for years, you know, and he's, you know, he tests it right in front of me.
So we both know exactly what I have.
And then he tells me whatever the market price is or whatever the price is for that day.
Now, sticking on the subject of eBay, there's certain things eBay won't allow you guys to sell.
I believe ivory is one of those things.
Are there other types of metals and stuff that or gemstones that eBay does not allow
beyond ivory in the jewelry category?
Well, it's funny, I was just talking about this on the antique call.
We talk about this almost every few weeks and that is uranium glass jewelry.
So some people say you cannot sell uranium glass jewelry.
Yeah.
Right.
But that's not true.
You can sell uranium glass jewelry as long as you don't say that it's radioactive.
So the key word there is radioactive.
And I think that's where people were getting their listings taken down because
according to eBay policy, radioactive materials are not allowed to be sold.
However, uranium glass is not a radioactive, you know, item or material that you have to worry about.
So you can sell uranium glass jewelry as long as you don't market radioactive.
But yes, ivory is one.
I'm trying to think if there's anything else, but those are the only two that I know that has been
kind of debatable over the years.
Gotcha.
And I'm just curious.
So I'm assuming radioactive or not radioactive.
The other one, how is that made, honestly?
You mean like the uranium glass?
Uranium glass.
Is it what I'm thinking of test sites and it's the glass material from the sand or?
Honestly, I don't know.
But if you're familiar with vintage glass, that's a whole category in and of itself where
uranium glass dishes is very popular.
So it's a vintage glass, uranium glass, and it's that glowy glass.
When you shine the black light on it, it glows in the dark.
So there's uranium glass and they also make uranium glass beads, which are,
they make uranium glass jewelry.
Well, I don't know if they still do, but it was really popular.
I want to see in the 50s.
I can go down this rabbit hole all day about uranium glass, but now I will shut my mouth
about it and let Mike have a turn.
I'm curious when it comes to since we're in the eBay world here,
do you have to, is it like, I don't know.
I feel like if I started selling jewelry, do you have like photos?
Like, do you have it actually like on your hand?
Do you buy like the fake mannequin hands, the mannequins like to rest the jewelry on?
Or do you, yeah, maybe, I don't know, maybe a hire a model, maybe you wear it yourself.
Because I've been seeing a little bit more of this where, you know, somebody's got selling
like a vintage t-shirt or something and they'll have a picture of themselves wearing it.
Is it, is that kind of like required in jewelry because you're going to be wearing it at the end
of the day or does like, you know, the mannequins work just as good or maybe you don't even need
that stuff.
Maybe you can just flat lay it, you know, on something that's, you know, a good background
for that piece.
Yeah, well, I've kind of, you know, right now I've kind of shifted from eBay as being my main
squeeze where it comes to selling my jewelry.
I am really into doing live sales right now.
So as it relates to live selling, I don't really use, well, I do use the props for necklaces.
Like I have, you know, that neck thing and then you just hang the necklace on it.
I do have that, but when I'm doing a live sale, I just kind of show the item.
Very rarely do I put it on.
Sometimes they'll ask you, oh, can you model the ring or can you model the bracelet?
And I do.
But when I was selling only on eBay, I just did flat lays for the most part because it was faster
for me for the, for photographing.
Cause when I was doing 30 listings a day, you know, I'm just trying to run through them
and to put it on the neck and then make sure it's straight, like that just took too much time.
So I just did it flat lay style and I still made sales.
Now that's not to say maybe if I did put it on the neck, maybe,
maybe I could have made more sales.
Who knows?
But, but as you know, when we're trying to get so many listings done,
you don't have time to be fooling around with that neck and then making sure the light is on it.
And then I would just take the Mr. T approach and have all my necklaces on it once and just
it's just the same photo for every single one.
Oh, so live sales.
Now you got us forget eBay.
We moved away from eBay, eBay's old news.
I'm going to assume you're talking about whatnot.
Am I correct? Am I wrong?
Using, you know, I don't know you a QVC partner or something.
What you got going on over there?
Uh, Poshmark Live, Poshmark Live is my main squeeze right now.
Yeah. She's, she's my main squeeze right now.
And I have done whatnot.
You know, it's not, it, I have a hard time getting,
getting, getting momentum on whatnot, you know, I mean, I've had some really successful shows,
but it's very inconsistent and it's harder for me to get people in my shows on whatnot.
Poshmark, it's totally different.
I schedule a show.
I turn the camera on and there's already six or seven people waiting.
So that's kind of what I've been doing.
I think it just works with my personality.
It's really working with my lifestyle right now.
I'm enjoying it.
It's fun.
It's fast paced.
Uh, the trade-off though is I don't get as much per piece as if I were to list it on eBay,
but I'm sure you've heard this term.
It's that slow nickel versus the fast dime.
And for me right now, the slow nickel or wait, did I say it right?
Yeah.
The slow nickel is working, is working, uh, because I I'm able to do volume, right?
So I can move 75, a hundred pieces a show.
That's awesome.
I didn't even know.
Listen, this is how antiquated I am.
I didn't even know Poshmark had a live side to it.
So we'll have the link down below to her Poshmark.
If you guys want to go check her out over there on the live, it is cool to see like
different things work for different people.
Right.
And it's kind of been the whole, we kind of hit on this a lot throughout this episode is,
you know, we're jewelry sellers, not all looking for the same thing.
No matter what you are as a reseller, you're really not going to be looking for the same
exact thing as the next person up.
So the fact you're over there looking for different stuff, you're doing it completely
different with Poshmark live because you're the first person reseller I've ever even heard
talk about Poshmark live and you had success with it.
So, I mean, it's, uh, it's pretty cool to see things.
You don't have to be the cookie cutter, plain Jane copy paste reseller that everybody kind
of starts with.
And it just, those days are gone.
I mean, like you said, it's, it's harder than it ever has been to, to be a reseller.
So that's cool to see Poshmark live and, you know, success over there.
And who can, I always tell everybody if it works for you, who cares what anybody else
is doing?
Who cares about whatnot?
Who cares about eBay?
If it's working, just stick with it.
Yeah.
And that's from my experience again, what I'm learning is if I can do something that not
all the other resellers are doing, that's where I seem to kind of find my sweet spot.
Right?
So everybody's on eBay.
Everybody is on whatnot, especially in jewelry.
I mean, the jewelry sellers on whatnot.
Like it's so saturated over there, but there's hardly any on Poshmark live.
There's hardly any.
I mean, I'm not saying there's none, but, you know, I've been on Poshmark a long time
and I just, I just love doing it.
The energy of a live show.
Like I said, I really enjoy just sharing my enthusiasm for the jewelry pieces that I show
and that I sell.
I love talking jewelry.
See, and that's the other thing too.
Sometimes we just have these juicy jewelry conversations, you know, while I'm doing a
live show and people really get into it.
They teach me things.
I teach them things and it's just, it's amazing.
You know, it's, it's, um, it just really works with how I want to serve people right now,
you know, cause I believe that that's what we're all in this to do.
I want to give you what you want.
I want to send you some happy mail.
I want to make your day.
And in a live show, I really can express that in a way that I feel gets received because
I can't do that on, on eBay.
You know, people don't know my intention.
People don't know who I am or what I'm about.
And in a live sale, I really can showcase that this is what I love.
I'm not just doing this only to make money, but I'm doing this because I truly enjoy it.
And I truly want to help you find pieces that you love and that you will wear and that you
will cherish.
So that's kind of my perspective on it.
And I know that's not everybody's jam.
I know not everybody has the personality or even wants to do it, but for me it's working
because there's not a lot of people doing it the way I do.
You just hit one of the key secrets to reselling, do what others are not doing and make that
your jam.
I mean, I did that.
Max did that and you've done that.
We've had some other people on here that.
I've done that and they all seem very successful, including yourself.
And it's I think a hard concept because I do see a lot of resellers just trying to.
How are you doing?
Well, this is how I do it.
I don't know why you're wanting to copy me or this, that and the other.
People look at my store.
I'm like, you can look at my store, but you don't know what you're in for.
But good luck.
And I hope you find your own thing.
And I think that's what makes you special.
What's that separator that makes you stand out?
Once you figure that out, you're just going to make it.
Yeah, but say the problem is you either listen.
All right, I'm gonna go off a little tie right here.
Oh, you either got it or you don't as a reseller.
You're either cut out for it or you're not.
Unfortunately, the days are just being wishy washy, basically half ass in it.
It don't work no more.
So yeah, Desiree has success on Poshmark Live, but how many of her first live streams was
she talking to herself?
I could say the same thing about the YouTube channel.
You're kidding.
Yeah, yeah, the podcast.
How many, 10 people watch the podcast when we first started this and it's like most people,
that's it, they're done, they quit.
Maybe they'll give it one more shot.
Maybe they'll do it three times.
But if they don't see instant results or success, they just throw in the tail.
That's kind of just boils down to what reselling is.
If people don't see instant gratification with something, they're done.
They really never even give an opportunity, a chance to kind of develop into what it can
be.
And here we are, Poshmark Live.
And I'm sure, right, you've had, when you first started, it was like crickets.
You're just talking to yourself.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And the other thing too, where I think people kind of, they do themselves a disservice as
resellers is they don't really capitalize on their advantages.
Right?
Like everybody has their own secret sauce.
Everybody has their own kind of gift that makes them the outlier.
So for me, like I'm a really good communicator.
I'm comfortable on camera.
I don't mind talking to people.
And so I use that.
I leverage that in a live show.
Now, selling on eBay doesn't give me the opportunity to really capitalize on my unique advantage
as a reseller.
And I think what happens is, is a lot of people say, oh, I want to sell like, I don't know,
Harry Tornado or whoever.
They try to be like that person instead of what do I bring?
Where do I outshine everybody else?
And how can I use that in making more sales or running this business?
And I think people are, like you said, they're trying to copy or cookie cutter and copy and
paste others instead of what is my thing.
And sometimes it takes a while for you to figure that out.
Like I didn't just wake up knowing, oh, this is how it's going to work.
But really, really kind of doing some inner work or self-reflection about, you know, how
do I stand out?
What makes me different?
You know, what is easy for me?
Because sometimes reselling is very, very hard, you know?
But there's certain things about it that could be really easy for you.
If you know what that is for you.
Like some people are amazing with photographs.
Amazing, you know?
And, you know, they don't use that.
They don't tap into that.
Or some people, you know, just have a way with, I don't know, words or listings or whatever,
you know, like I think that people really need to kind of figure out how are they going
to stand out because it's getting harder and harder.
And now we're even competing with AI as it relates to reselling and depending on certain
categories.
So you really have to figure out how you're going to keep this human, how you're going
to keep this interaction and this engagement and the relationship, you know, with your
clients, your buyers and your customers.
No, absolutely.
I mean, even me, I was over complicating it when I first started reselling because I was
doing everything.
And I come from a book publishing background and I figure out later, I should just do books.
I know books.
I didn't know everything about books.
I learned a lot of that.
I still don't know everything about books, but I know a lot more now.
But I had a baseline to jump off from when I said, okay, it's books and then learn more
and I'm still learning more and it just suits me.
So there you go.
Yeah.
See, and that's your secret sauce, right?
That's your secret power.
Like, like I couldn't compete, compete on any level with you on books, right?
So that makes you the outlier that makes you, you know, so that's what everybody has to
do.
They have to figure out what that is for them.
I've realized this with, with selling books on Amazon.
It's not about how much knowledge you have.
It's about how many items you can scan and send into Amazon, right?
It's just how much can you scan with your little scanner?
I always tell everybody the only difference between me and you is that I'm going to scan
more items than you are.
That's how I'm going to make more money than you.
Right.
I it's a secret sauce to just work ethic, I guess, when it comes to it, because it literally
just the more you scan.
That's the secret sauce to Amazon.
How long can you work?
Question mark.
Yeah.
The more, the more you scan, the more you find is that, but people don't seem to realize
that.
And then there's no really cheat code to this.
And we usually ask people like, uh, what would you give advice to somebody that's starting
to resell them?
But I think you kind of covered it, right?
You said do something different.
I mean, me and Johnny talk about this almost every episode.
You have to do something different than everybody else.
And you said Harry tornado.
That's funny.
The guy, Johnny over here, he tried to be Harry tornado.
That's what I'll be an everything seller to it.
Works for Harry.
It'll work.
Yeah.
Look where it got you now.
Uh, but everybody does.
Everybody does, you know, and, and people see tech and they see him doing well with
clothes.
They say, oh, wow, I'm going to do clothes too.
And that might mean there's a lot of people in the group that started as a clothing seller
and I don't or an everything seller to a clothing seller.
And now some of them do something else.
And some of them are still in clothes and having great success with clothes.
But I think the people that are having the big success with clothes really love clothes.
Right.
And I think that is, is key as well.
You know, it has to be something you enjoy looking for something you, you know, don't
mind having stacks of it in your house or your warehouse or whatever, you know?
So, um, and it takes time to figure that out.
I'm not saying you're going to wake up one day and you're going to know, okay, yeah,
this is what I'm selling.
Cause it took me a few years and only within the past few months, did I really find my
groove doing live selling, you know, it, it's not like I've been doing that forever, but
now, I mean, you can't, you can't tell me to stop.
I just, that's, that's my thing.
And that's what I'm going to do for as long as it works.
Um, but I love it, you know, and I think really building that connection, you know,
with your buyers.
Um, and it doesn't have to be something that's like this intimate thing.
It's just really knowing the people who you want to serve and, and knowing what they want
and then just giving it to them, you know, it's, it's, it's simple, but it's not necessarily
easy.
Correct.
Yeah, I agree.
It's, um, it's, it's insightful to see a completely different category on the podcast.
And I think it's refreshing to kind of understand that there's so many different paths you
can take in reselling and being passionate about the category you choose is going to
make your life a whole lot easier.
Um, I mean, don't, you know, don't sell shoes if you hate shoes, right?
You know, I buy one pair of shoes every 10 years.
Why am I ever going to sell shoes?
Right?
I don't care who's selling shoes, tech selling shoes.
I don't care.
Right.
That'd be something to something you're passionate about.
Desiree final thoughts for maybe somebody that wants to jump into jewelry, uh, today
or after listening to this podcast, like a small little final thought breakdown of where
they should begin besides your social media, your YouTube channel, your podcast, all of
that to, I don't know, maybe starting a jewelry reselling business.
Well, I always tell people, start with what you know.
Everybody knows something about jewelry.
Either they have something they love or they know a little bit about, I don't know, say
silver or they know a little bit about turquoise or they know a little bit about whatever,
uh, Pandora jewelry bracelets, like whatever they know.
Cause everybody knows a little about something.
And I would say, start there because then you're, you're already going to know, well,
I know who sells this or I know who makes this, or I know the different brands or the styles
or whatever.
So if you start with what you know, it's a lot less overwhelming, you know, and, and
take your time, take your time.
You know, cause, uh, I've seen people make big mistakes because they're trying to rush
into this or they just say, Oh, I've got to make the money.
Let me just go buy this bulk jewelry lot.
And, and, and then they end up wasting their money.
So, um, take your time and give yourself time to learn because that's, that's really going
to be the key.
The more, you know, the easier everything else is.
Everything else is easy once you're knowledgeable and educated about what it is that you want
to sell and who you want to sell to.
All right.
Desiree, we appreciate you hanging out with us today.
We could have went on forever.
I had so many more questions, but, uh, like, I don't know.
Thank you for having me.
You didn't even get to cleaning and that's probably a whole other thing.
I was ready.
I was ready to get to like movie memorabilia jewelry, right?
Like somebody, something more in a movie, right?
Or like, I don't know.
Like, yeah, and that's, that's a whole nother niche too.
Um, there's a girl who she buys jewelry for like TV shows and movies and, you know, photo
shoots.
Like that's a whole nother, uh, yeah, like the lady that threw the necklace at the end
of Titanic, right?
Like if I found that, how much would that sell for?
Right.
Trillions and trillions of dollars.
We could just go down all these crazy rabbit holes, but that's right.
We appreciate you hanging out.
We appreciate everybody listening and watching and everybody will talk to you next week's
episode.
Thank you.