College Student's Success: Launching a Vintage Jewelry Website! - Episode #68

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Jewelry Resellers Podcast, Your Go To Source for all things shiny, sparkly and of course profitable. I'm your host Desiree, and I'll be your guide on this dazzling journey through the world of reselling Jewelry.

[00:00:14] We'll be diving deep into the art and science of reselling, uncovering valuable tips, insider secrets, and sharing stories from successful Jewelry resellers. We'll explore market trends, industry news and even discuss how to find those hidden gems just waiting to be discovered in thrift stores estate sales and beyond.

[00:00:37] So if you're dreaming of turning your hobby into a hustle or if you're a seasoned pro looking to stay at the top of your Jewelry reselling game, Join me each week for insights, stories, and more on the Jewelry Resellers Podcast. Hey Brandon! Hey! Welcome back!

[00:01:00] Thank you for having me. Of course, of course. So Brandon is back for another chat and for those of you who didn't see Brandon the first time he was on, it was probably, and I've said this before that this, that the time when we recorded the first time,

[00:01:21] that was probably the funnest interview I had ever done. And yeah, and it's one of my more popular podcast episodes because people were just so impressed with you. So I'm glad that you're back and you've got some new things that we're going to share.

[00:01:38] We're going to talk about. So of course, I will link the first episode where Brandon came on in case you don't know his background and his story at all that.

[00:01:47] But Brandon, I'm going to hand it off to you and you can just kind of start wherever you want to start and let us know what's going on. Yeah, so let's see, since the last episode a couple things have happened. I'm a couple new different things.

[00:02:04] First of all, for those who are watching on YouTube, I have kind of organized my flowers just a little bit more. And so I've got all of these flowers. I am so bad at pointing. I've got all these flowers that I have and all these little keybical boxes.

[00:02:20] And I basically just arranged them not in any particular order, but mainly, then some of the best ones that I put up on the, I've got these like little tripod stands that I put all those flowers on. So that's why they're staying up right.

[00:02:35] And then also since I've been on, I have opened my own store, my own online store and that is heartlampicard.com. And that's where you can shop all of my good vintage jewelry and a bunch of different just there's sterling.

[00:02:51] There's rhinestone stuff. There's earrings, broches. It's all separated into categories for you on there so you can go and and shop all that jewelry.

[00:03:01] Okay, so let's get into that because I have talked to so many jewelry resellers specifically who say they want to have their own website because you know for whatever reason.

[00:03:13] They don't want to sell on any platform that they'd rather have their own website to sell their jewelry accessories, whatever. And so what made you decide that now is the time for you to go in that direction.

[00:03:29] So there's two factors that came into mind when I was thinking of this number one was I used to do sales on YouTube lives all the time. That was before college and now that I've been in, and now that I'm in college and almost finishing it.

[00:03:43] A lot of my time has been taken away from YouTube and I want to give back to the people that you know still want to buy my stuff on YouTube but I'm not doing any YouTube sales.

[00:03:55] So this is a way for them to you know go on to the website and buy stuff from me and still support me in that way.

[00:04:02] The other reason that I factored into this was because most of the jewelry that I'm listing on there, I'm buying from other sites like what not or eBay or you know,

[00:04:11] I'm not ever I'm sourcing from and I don't want to resell it on those sites because I don't want the person knowing how much I paid for their items when they're show versus how much selling it, you know, on other on the platform.

[00:04:27] So I basically just came up with the idea like okay I have to start my own store because I'm getting way too much inventory from this site.

[00:04:35] And this site once, you know, I don't want this person to know how much I bought it from a how much I'm going to sell from them because the the truth is they might raise their prices.

[00:04:45] The way I think of it is they might just go ahead and say oh I started everything at five dollars but I saw you got that and now you're charging 65 for when I'm going to start charging 15 dollars each for my items, you know, so I try to not like I try to not let that happen.

[00:05:01] Yeah well, you know I've because I have bought and sold jewelry on eBay like I've sourced on eBay and then I've sold that same. Those same jewelry pieces that I sourced on eBay I've sold them on eBay and I've never really thought about that because I figure.

[00:05:18] You know, oh well if they see they see but I know on what not it's a little bit different because the jewelry buyers it's a lot of us it's it's a much smaller pool of people you know eBay's huge but on what not all the it seems like all the jewelry buyers kind of know.

[00:05:36] Each other and they also know the sellers too so I think that's a really really unique strategy for you to kind of protect.

[00:05:45] I guess the integrity of you know buying the pieces there as well as selling them too because yeah nobody wants to feel like oh my gosh, he bought that for me for three dollars and now he's selling it for you know 60.

[00:05:58] I think that's probably an unspoken form of etiquette as well you know as it relates to reselling so so I can definitely respect that now how are you going to I guess decide.

[00:06:15] What what jewelry pieces go where or like do you have a system or plan to how that's going to work.

[00:06:22] So I kind of do the stuff I put on my website it's mainly like I try not to have anything less than like 20 dollars I try to I want to try to keep my site in up scale site.

[00:06:34] However some stuff might sneak in but the cheaper vintage stuff I like to just take to what not started all at $2 and whatever it goes for goes for.

[00:06:44] Because I have so much of it here like I just want to get it you know out because I buy a book and it you know just gets rid of space here that I can free up for other things.

[00:06:56] But the stuff that I mainly buy on different platforms I try to take it to other platforms pretty much for that reason is to for the seller to not see how much I'm buying it for versus how much I'm selling it for.

[00:07:09] So but as an as an organizational I don't really have an organization strategy I mean the the shelving thing right here going all the way down to the ground that's where I keep all my story inventory on.

[00:07:25] Or that's where I you know have all the story inventory for the heartland pickers site and then the like anything I put on my car or eBay or whatever it's just going down the hall into a cart down in the big room.

[00:07:39] Okay, okay so what did you use to set up your website did you you Shopify or something else or. I did you Shopify.

[00:07:47] I figured that was the best platform to use considering the quality of the website I really like lay out and how you can create at your own. I did try a free website builder this was so long ago.

[00:08:03] But I did not like the layout although it was free to use completely free and I could do sales on it I just did not like the layout you really didn't have much of a choice with their free platform so.

[00:08:14] I just decided to go a Shopify and I think it'll be I think it'll be really good. Yeah, well and you you can now integrate your Shopify store on YouTube so once you get your channel.

[00:08:26] Back up and running if I don't know if you are uploading videos but they do have an option now where you can link your Shopify store on your yeah on your YouTube.

[00:08:40] Yeah on your YouTube page profile and that was one of the reasons why I was thinking about doing a Shopify store too just for the solely for the fact that you can link it to YouTube and you can have a shop tab.

[00:08:55] On your YouTube home page so you know that's a great way to get more traffic to your store and then I think you can also link products from Shopify like in in your videos.

[00:09:09] Like when you link once you link your Shopify store to your YouTube page you'll be able to link whatever products that are in your store like let's say you're showing oh look this bracelets in my shop now you'll be able to have a link so people can click on it and go right to right to buy it.

[00:09:25] Yeah yeah so that's one of the things I think YouTube just started doing that earlier this year. Okay. So yeah that's fantastic that's fantastic but now you doing the Shopify store that's not going to. Like you're not gonna cut back on like your whatnot shows or anything.

[00:09:46] No no the the Shopify I'm gonna do when I'm not on what not and then when I'm on what not that's pure what not time to you know get on sell and ship packages out for that site.

[00:10:00] Okay so about how many items do you have listed in your store or what is the goal as it relates to how many pieces of jewelry. Yeah so right now I think I have around 90 or so. Oh wow that's a lot.

[00:10:13] Yeah I know I just started it like two weeks ago so. I want to get by the end of this year. I want to get at least around 700 800 listed. Oh wow that's my goal. That's gonna be great that's going to be great now you've got me all.

[00:10:34] Thinking like I want to do I want to do a shop I don't know if I'll do Shopify but. But I've had people ask me the same thing like people have asked me you know would you consider doing a YouTube live show to sell.

[00:10:47] And then I've also had people as oh have you thought about doing your own websites so you don't have to sell on any other platform. So talking to you now I'm getting I'm thinking well maybe I might want to try it too.

[00:11:01] The only thing is you just got to do a lot of advertising for it. Yeah. Not going to have a lot of sales if you don't get the word out about it.

[00:11:11] There are features on Shopify where you can pay them to have like snapchat ads and Facebook ads and things like that but. I the way I don't want to do that is just because I want to get the right audience I don't want to get the wrong audience.

[00:11:27] You know I want these pieces to go to a vintage jewelry collector not necessarily an average person who will just scroll through and just see my ad randomly.

[00:11:38] So I want to try to target this website to vintage jewelry lovers and collectors and resellers rather than just the average Joe who will just you know swipe through snapchat stories and then all of a sudden see the web or see the website ad.

[00:11:54] So has it been I know you said you've only been doing this for a couple weeks but so far. Does it feel like it's just as much work or more work been selling on what not or eBay or wherever.

[00:12:11] I don't know I think it's just slightly a little more work just because you have to take the photos put in the descriptions all that stuff because what not what not is just there's no work into it at all really you really just going live you're talking about your items you don't have to like type out paragraph descriptions right.

[00:12:30] You just talking about your pieces you're showing the pieces and then all you got to do is pack immediately and add the packing slip in and ship them out. Yeah, and the thing too is you really have to.

[00:12:45] Because you do have to do the work on all the pieces individually because I would assume you don't have a quantity like you wouldn't have five of the same bracelet or necklace or whatever so it's just that one item that one listing and when it sold that's it you you have to put something else up something totally different.

[00:13:05] Yep, okay. All right so for someone who is thinking about maybe you know starting their own website. What tips or advice would you would you give them.

[00:13:20] Have a following first of all I would say because that a G that will be your biggest thing is you want to make sure you have a following and get enough orders to make it you happy for the first couple weeks. I would also say.

[00:13:35] Take good photos list high quality items because if you just have like a cheap a bunch of cheap two three four dollar items on your website then our people going to take you seriously.

[00:13:47] You know are they is it just going to be like a posh mark where you're just like cleaning at your closet and you don't really see the item goes for.

[00:13:56] But that and then know what know what you're selling put it in the title or put it in the description of what the item is and so you can basically I guess kind of look professional in that sense.

[00:14:09] Yeah and do you think people should have a certain amount of inventory before they even consider opening up their own website.

[00:14:17] I don't that don't think so I think if you have like five ten pieces even I think it would be fine you know because once you start a website it's everyone's expecting it just not have as much because you're just starting but as your website furtherly progresses then.

[00:14:35] You'll be able to add more items and then people can shop a whole different variety of items on your site. All right so now to Shopify off I don't think you can do live selling with Shopify correct not yet. Okay okay. So how do you plan to.

[00:14:58] Advertise and market and promote your website like do you have any ideas for that or what do you think you're you're going to do.

[00:15:07] Yeah there's a couple of things I'm doing number one I'm going to share it on the YouTube a lot because that's main reason why I made the website but also when people order with me on what not on the.

[00:15:20] On the packing slip I write a thank you little thank you know and then I'll write go shop heartland figure dot com on the packing slip because you know you can't say it on the live stream but there's no you know there's no rule that you can't send your business card or you can't write it on the packing slip in the mail so.

[00:15:38] Right that's one of the places I do it and then of course just locally you know going to all the antique shows in. I've been at sales around my area and just getting the word out locally for all the locals to take a look at.

[00:15:52] Okay yeah yeah maybe you might even be able to run some ads like on Instagram or Facebook or something or even tick talk. Yeah. Okay okay so I'm thinking about it because but I'm just thinking because I do so many things.

[00:16:09] But do I really want to add another thing to my list of things that I'm already doing because I'm doing a lot you know. And that's something that definitely will take a lot of time and you have to be consistent for assistant with it.

[00:16:23] You know and then managing it every day or however often you know you make sales or you're shipping stuff out.

[00:16:32] But it just sounds so exciting you know it just sounds so much like you have a lot more freedom I guess as opposed to selling on specific platforms you know like only eBay or only whatnot.

[00:16:46] And not only that too but I think you just give the buyer a better experience you know because they're not like one of you know thousands or hundreds of thousands of people on the website it's a very it's a very unique experience.

[00:17:05] When someone comes to your website you know you kind of control the whole transaction from start to finish where you don't really have that on what not or anywhere else. Yeah exactly.

[00:17:16] Okay, all right well you know I think that's so exciting and I'm so proud of you and I'm so glad that you decided to share it here. So go shop on picker.com.

[00:17:27] Yeah I'll make sure I put a link in the description of this video and of course I will put a link in the show notes if you are only listening to the audio version of this because I want to do whatever I can to support you and.

[00:17:41] Help you know be successful and help you grow this because like I said so many jewelry resellers want to do exactly what you're doing they want to start their own website and for whatever reason they don't or maybe they don't know how or.

[00:17:56] Yeah, maybe they're too overwhelmed because that's another thing I hear a lot is like people say why don't know where to start it and I don't know you know how to how to how to go about it so but you're saying the process is pretty simple.

[00:18:11] Yeah for the most part it is it depends how tech involved you are because there's a lot of technology that's involved with doing you know making your own website from creating the templates to listing the items to doing all that all the transactions.

[00:18:27] It's just you got to be techy because there's a lot of. There's a lot of tech things involved in the background of it and you just want to make sure that you're on top of it and know what you're doing.

[00:18:39] Yeah, well I know Shopify does have like there's a lot of tutorials to on YouTube so like if there's something you couldn't figure out on your own.

[00:18:49] I'm sure you could probably look something up you know how to upload a photo or whatever so I think that's really good to and Shopify has has a huge community of people not just jewelry sellers but all kinds of sellers so.

[00:19:04] I think there's even a Facebook group if I remember correctly. Oh, did none of that.

[00:19:11] So you can go in there and ask questions and you know other people will you know can help you or chime in if you're having an issue or whatever so I think that's really good that's awesome. So should get into the next one.

[00:19:27] Yeah, yeah so the other thing that you wanted to share with us today is. So it was about a week and a half after we can have two weeks after that episode we did.

[00:19:42] And my mom actually got tickets to go to antique's roadshow because they were filming here in Iowa and they know you're excited. I'm not exciting because that's like one of my dream things I want to go like I would love to go. Well, we got this year.

[00:20:00] And we got there and you know we went through all the check-in lines and all that stuff and then they give you these little passport things and you're supposed to like don't mark it down where you're supposed to go and so.

[00:20:15] One of the items I took was this watch right here and it's a JLC watch an automatic it's called the Yagerly culture that's the. French or German brand I forget which one it is.

[00:20:30] But it's a reverse so watch because not only can you keep track of time, but you can flip it into a bracelet. Oh, are you serious? Sir, I love this watch it's so bad is so cool. And that one I got out of a good will box.

[00:20:48] Oh gosh, you always have the best luck Brandon. I'm so jealous because you all get some good stuff.

[00:20:56] One out of a good will box and that I kind of knew the value of it going into it, but I just wanted to make sure it was a legit one because a lot of fake's out there and this one was real.

[00:21:09] And they valued this one around 3000 so I was really happy about that is kind of where I thought it would be somewhere between two and four.

[00:21:22] So that's one of the pieces I took the other piece I took I can see you're not planning to sell that you're not planning to sell the watch as a very now I'm keeping it because it fits perfectly. I'm not interested in I love it.

[00:21:33] But I'd like to get a bit of authenticity for it before I sell it just to prove that it's right. Just because I took it to antique structure and they said it was real, you know, just because someone said something doesn't mean that it's real but.

[00:21:47] So the other item I took I can't really speak of it because as we're recording this episode. I signed in NDA because I got it to film and so my item that the second item I took got filmed.

[00:22:05] So hopefully it'll be on they said the episode will be airing in January. That's a ways away. So it's hard it's so hard to keep quiet about it. But yeah, that episode will be sometime in January.

[00:22:22] I think they said they were going to do two or three episodes on the Des Moines. Antiques road shows so you'll have to watch I think it's every Monday is when they come out with those episodes so.

[00:22:34] So I'm going to make sure that whenever when we get closer, I'll make sure that I remind everybody because now I'm going to be on the edge of my seat. Next six months. I know him. Yeah, that is so cool.

[00:22:52] So tell me what that whole experience was like. I mean not just you getting something appraised of course but what was it like to be there and seeing you know seeing all this stuff and the people. Yeah, it was it was a really fun experience.

[00:23:07] One of the things that I found interesting about it though is there are many many many signs listed along the walkways and wherever you went saying no soliciting. So like you could not say oh I have an antique business.

[00:23:21] Would you want to sell your item to me, you know or I would like to sell this I sell it to you like you couldn't do business they they specifically say you cannot do any business within side antiques roadshow. Well that makes sense.

[00:23:38] Yeah, yeah, it was fun going up and talking to all the different appraisers and some really popular ones were there. Like especially the one who appraised my item and filmed it was really popular. Oh cool. No right.

[00:23:55] They was they had a living history farm so for people who haven't been here to Iowa living history farms is like this historical town site near Des Moines where it's basically taking you back to like the 17 and 1800s and it's showing you like this is how life was back then.

[00:24:14] This is how we farm this is how you know stuff like that I took like six field trips there when I was a kid.

[00:24:21] But they had it all and these big white tents and then you just go to these white tents whether you are in group A for you know sports memorabilia group B for jewelry and access. Accessories or stuff like that.

[00:24:38] It was interesting when you got picked to film them because they brought you into a green room and in the screen room.

[00:24:45] You know you sit down at a table and then you just have to wait your turn but I think the best part about the green room is they had snacks they had.

[00:24:54] They had snacks they had coffee and tea and water and just all these different drinks that you could have and we just sat back for a while and it did take a while. To get all the people to go through but no it was a lot of fun.

[00:25:09] It was a lot of fun. So did you meet like any other resellers there? I mean I'm sure a lot of collectors and dealers and stuff. I met a couple ones that I already knew who got it's.

[00:25:24] There was I will say there was I definitely brought the median age down though because. I was probably one of the youngest people there other than like a family with their kids but.

[00:25:37] No, I saw a few people that I knew but most most of the people had their stuff and that's the other thing about antique structure when you go to it.

[00:25:47] A lot of people like to haul their stuff around in wagons and have their stuff covered up because they don't want you to see what it is. They don't want they brought so everyone has their stuff and like blankets and wrapping paper and things like that.

[00:26:01] I'm like, I just want to know what you brought you know.

[00:26:04] Yeah well I mean and I think to probably just for safety reasons like you know they don't want it to get stolen or broken or damaged or something because I would be nervous about that like if I was carrying around something.

[00:26:16] That could potentially be worth thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'd be so nervous just carrying it around I'd be like, oh you know.

[00:26:26] Because you know accidents happen you know and if you're out in and some people just don't pay attention you know when they're walking or whatever. I would be so nervous about that.

[00:26:37] I clearly didn't bring any glassware so no glass was shattered you know but oh that's good that's good.

[00:26:44] Wow so all right now are you still doing the um because I know you were doing your own little like kind of like pop up shop kind of things kind of like where you were selling at vendor fairs or something. Are you still doing that?

[00:27:00] Yeah I am there's a couple that are coming up I think in August and September that I'll be doing here locally. If you're going to area then you should go check them out. Oh yeah you know send me the info and I'll share it.

[00:27:18] Hopefully hopefully I'll be getting to do a little bit more now that now that it's summer so. Yeah and you said that next year is going to be your last year school. Yep I'll be a senior and that'll be it for me I'm super excited.

[00:27:36] Wow so what are you going to do I mean you've got the website you've got what not you've got. Whatever fairs or shows you've got antique rocho I mean.

[00:27:46] I got into booths I mean yeah yeah what what are you going to do when you graduate or after you graduate I should say.

[00:27:52] That is unsure yet I'm not 100% sure I know I'll keep probably carrying this doing this business part time anyway and then having something full time I still know what the full time thing will be it.

[00:28:04] Well you know I am a couple weeks ago well it's probably like three weeks ago now I went to the antique jewelry watch show here in the. I saw the photos and the videos.

[00:28:18] And I was just oh there's so much good stuff there what I but a lot of this stuff and a lot of the people there reminded me of you because there were people there that were your age.

[00:28:29] But they they are like it was like a family business so it's like their parents their grandparents and their great grandparents. Or antique dealers or antique jewelry dealers and so there were a lot of people around your age that.

[00:28:48] Were there to learn because eventually I guess they will be taking over the business.

[00:28:54] So I could totally see you doing something like that maybe not you know maybe not to that upscale but yeah but I could see you doing something like that because there's still so much stuff out there.

[00:29:05] That never even makes it like a lot of these antique dealers they don't do any business online. Everything is done in person or in their little brick and mortar store.

[00:29:18] They don't have websites they don't have they don't do eBay you know they they literally only do their business. In person through their shop and so I was talking to them when you have like four or five generations running the business. Or didn't you're like 50 plus years.

[00:29:38] Exactly you just have your regular customers keep coming in to you then there's no need for online. But but the thing is as they want to be online you know a lot of them but they don't know how to start where to start you know what to do.

[00:29:53] And so I just said wow that's so crazy because then there's people like me who only do stuff online right and then there's people who don't do anything online like there's so much.

[00:30:06] You know across the spectrum as it relates to doing what we do and there's so many ways you can do it you know you don't have to do it one way or another you can do it this way that way or combination of five different ways like whatever whatever work.

[00:30:22] You know that's what's so nice about the flexibility of this so the next antique show is in Miami and that's going to be in January and I'm going to that so maybe you might want to consider checking that out too. That might be a little closer for you.

[00:30:38] Yeah my think about it we'll see. Yeah yeah alright so what else is going on in the world of Brandon how has what not been treating you.

[00:30:47] What not spend pretty good I'm super happy. Yes yes. The amount of raids that I've been getting lately just awesome you know because you build all these connections with the people on what not and then when they see you on at one a m when they're just ending because they want to go to sleep and.

[00:31:06] Right. Yeah every time I send somebody to your show they're always like oh my gosh thank you for telling me about Brandon he's got such beautiful stuff I said I know.

[00:31:21] I said so many people to you know to follow you or to check out your shows and they're like oh my gosh I love his stuff.

[00:31:28] I said yeah he has really good stuff and he usually does his shows at night so you don't have to fight through like you know hundreds of people when you're bidding on something you know you you have a good chance of getting it at a good price.

[00:31:42] Exactly and and like I said I start most of my stuff on at what not it two or three bucks just because I buy and bulk and I have a lot of stuff here and I just want to mostly get rid of it so.

[00:31:56] It's good stuff I'm not saying it's not it's just that there's an over abundant something. Yeah you have a lot of it you have a lot of. So get given that gives other people good deals so.

[00:32:10] All right, so the other thing that people really enjoyed from the first time that you were on the podcast was your organization your displays your collections.

[00:32:22] So what updates have you made to all of that stuff do you still have the same stuff has your collection grown what's going on. Yeah, so I pretty much have the same I'm not going around I think I pretty much have the same stuff.

[00:32:39] Yeah, because I've been to so many options and garage sales lately that I haven't had too much time to work down here and like move stuff around or you know create more storage.

[00:32:52] boxes or whatever but no everything's pretty much the same since the first time I think other than you know other than outing some flowers in the back there. Yeah, that's that's what I was that's what I was hinting towards has have you picked up any more metal.

[00:33:09] Metal, Enamel flower broaches. Yeah, oh yeah since since the last time hold on let me let me see since the last time. Um actually I can take you over here or we're not on for a little ride since the last year.

[00:33:27] Oh my gosh that's that whole flat since the last time I talked to you. Brand new where do you find all these amazing things that's so that's so lovely.

[00:33:39] I find them everywhere you know everywhere that I possibly can yeah that's what I tell people to I say wherever you can find it that's where you find it. I found a couple of metal flower broaches at good will be other day and I thought of you move.

[00:33:59] If I have if I have it easily accessible I might not I might have it in a box but I was thinking about you I said. I'm surprised I found one I mean it's not anything spectacular oh here it is okay I can show you.

[00:34:15] This bag rustling around is not too much. It's not as beautiful as the ones you got but look at this isn't that cute. Oh the blue and yellow one yeah I have that one. Yeah and look how much it was a good will. I don't know.

[00:34:34] My goodness, thanks I would have picked that up. Yeah and I said oh my gosh this totally reminds me of it totally reminds me of Brandon but yeah to get it for 99 cents.

[00:34:45] I don't understand the good wills over where you live they just put out pretty amazing jewelry and they don't really do anything with it online.

[00:34:55] The good wills over here they will snatch every single piece of jewelry and put it online the only jewelry they have an art good wills over here is like all of the.

[00:35:06] The different with the companies called but they go through a third party seller and they bring in like two racks of jewelry all brand new with the cards and I forget what kind of jewelry it is but.

[00:35:20] They go through a third party person to bring in jewelry and they all their donated jewelry just goes straight to shop good will. Yeah well you know.

[00:35:28] The good wills here used to be that way and I don't know what happened if people complained or if management changed over like I don't know but lately when I've been going. To good will to look for jewelry.

[00:35:43] I've been finding some amazing stuff and it's been reasonably priced because I'm surprised this wasn't like five dollars exactly you know at least. Yeah.

[00:35:55] Now I just don't I don't understand some good wills why they can have like really amazing pieces in their stores and then here in the Midwest nothing that's all online so.

[00:36:07] Yeah well salvation army is like that too like now the salvation army's none of the stores carry jewelry everything goes online like you don't have jewelry in the stores at all and then some people tell me.

[00:36:19] They're good wills don't carry jewelry at all either you know like like they don't have any any jewelry in in good will all of it goes to.

[00:36:31] What's a shop good will yeah and so they don't get any in the stores so I think it just depends on where you are because.

[00:36:39] You know and we still get jewelry jars in our good wills too I know some good wills don't do jewelry jars anymore but we still get them I don't buy them anymore because.

[00:36:51] Gone but yeah it's just it's not worth the risk I mean there's been a few times I found something.

[00:36:58] Good in there but for the amount of ones that I bought were it's just been pure junk it's not worth it and I just said no I don't buy them you know it's. I just don't want to waste money because that's what I felt like I was doing.

[00:37:15] Yeah so but yeah so that's pretty much you know all that's all I found I think on my last trip but now ever since I found that one I'm always excited when I go in because I'm like oh maybe. Maybe there'll be some more in there you know.

[00:37:35] That's that's kind of the way I feel about these local thrift stores like um. There's one that I have made thousands of dollars off of because they don't know how to mark their gold and.

[00:37:52] There and I check at least once a week I go in I up their gold because they just put it in the glass case they mark it. Way under scrap value and I just go okay I'll take that and be on my way so.

[00:38:08] But then you also your stores that are just like especially on the east side of the moon. There's it's not good. It's junkets you know it's not stuff or reseller would buy.

[00:38:24] Yeah you know and then sometimes some of these thrift stores they think everything is valuable and they price it ridiculously high.

[00:38:34] And you're just like who's price in this stuff because obviously it's somebody that doesn't know they either have it way overpriced or hopefully way under price so we can scoop it up. The one third there's one third store here I really don't like what they do.

[00:38:52] What they'll do is the people who are in the back pricing stuff they'll search it on eBay and they won't search sold price they'll just search listing price.

[00:39:01] Yeah and they will print out a screenshot of the item on eBay and slap it right next to the item and then put their sticker on the item so apparently you can get a comp of oh it's going for this so we marked it this.

[00:39:17] I've seen people do that yard sales too. Exactly. People don't understand that there's a difference between listed and sold you know all this one's by a four and what it has sold for and listed is what some Dumbo is asking for it.

[00:39:37] Yeah exactly oh now you just you just remind me of another question I wanted to ask you because since you're doing your website.

[00:39:47] Are you only going to be selling like pieces to people who like you said want to be collectors or have you thought about maybe selling some bulk lots to other resellers. So I was going to talk about this too but I was going to say for another episode.

[00:40:04] Oh good I'm going to mention it now. Okay yeah people get through this whole 40 minutes so far.

[00:40:12] I plan on every first of the month with my website I want to do a mystery box drop and basically I want to like you're going to there's going to be a contemporary jewelry mystery lot and there's going to be a vintage jewelry mystery lot and in each of those what my plan is is you're going to get two necklace or no necklace abrasive two pairs of earrings and a piece of story.

[00:40:36] So I'm going to be a very good one. For a set price and then those are going to just be lasting until the quantity ends so once they're all gone then I'll refresh them the next first of the month.

[00:40:48] So it'll just be like these little mystery lots they're going to be really good stuff trust me on that they're going to be really good stuff.

[00:40:56] I might do a craft lot maybe where it's just all broken pieces and you know for the crafters whoever wants to do some crafting projects and I do that too.

[00:41:07] But I will be ruling out mystery lots on my website every first of the month and then you can get them all the gone because once they're gone then I'll refill them the next month.

[00:41:17] Okay, all right well maybe I might have to buy some are you going to start that this coming July. I think so I think I will I'll have at least all beta them I might have a couple of them out so we'll see what happens with that.

[00:41:35] Yeah, because that's one of the questions I get asked all the time is like do I know anybody who sells. Boke lots for resellers because I think that's where a lot of people you know they just can't find stuff in their area. ним.

[00:41:53] So people asked me that a lot they say oh do you know anybody that sells in bulk for other resellers? And I always say I don't because.

[00:42:02] I mean, I don't know anybody who sells bulk I know people who sell individual you know piece by piece, but I don't know anybody who sells bulk to other jewelry resellers. other jewelry resellers. So that could be something where you might be, you know, do

[00:42:16] surprisingly well with because I know there's a demand for it because I know at least several did like three different people who have asked me for that. Oh yeah and I'd like to sell

[00:42:27] in bulk to different resellers. The only problem I run into is when I ask them what are they looking for? And they just give me a bland response saying, well just whatever, whatever, it's not available. I don't want any broken stuff just whatever, it's available and I'm like,

[00:42:43] well you gotta give me an idea because like I have Cheekos, Leah Sophia, 1928 jewelry company then I've got Avon, Trafaria, like I have all these pieces. I just want to know specifically are you in the bracelets? Necklace's earrings, rings? Are you in the certain companies? Do you

[00:43:00] need a certain ring size, bracelet size? Like I want, you know, specifics of what people are looking for. I just don't want to throw random stuff in a bag and send it to someone, you know?

[00:43:11] I just want, because I want them to be happy and I don't want them to come back with me and said you threw me a broken necklace in here and I thought you said it was all wearable.

[00:43:19] It's like you weren't specific about being all wearable. Because I've had that happen before and I'm not helping again. Yeah, because when I sell my, because I sell jewelry bags, you know, just

[00:43:31] bags and it's either wearable, a bag of wearable jewelry or craft lot jewelry. Yeah. And so a lot of people do want that like not everybody wants the broken stuff. They just want to get a

[00:43:44] bag of stuff that they can wear or maybe they can turn around and sell themselves, you know? So I've done really well selling, selling those types of bags on Poshmark but I thought about

[00:44:00] kind of like you, maybe doing a website just for those jewelry bags, those mystery bags. Kind of like a kind of like a goodwill blue box. Yeah, kind of like that but, but not as crappy as that.

[00:44:16] You know, I mean, not to say that it's always crappy but you really are, it's like your, your reward in the bag with that. For what you're paying, it is kind of crappy, though. I agree.

[00:44:28] You know, and the thing is, is I will show like I put this stuff in a clear bag or something. I'll show you the bag so you can see what's in it. It's not going to be a complete mystery

[00:44:39] like the like the goodwill blue boxes are. Exactly. Yeah. So people can get an idea like, okay, I see some stuff in there that I kind of like or more than I want or whatever. So um,

[00:44:51] because I thought about doing that too, doing a website just with jewelry bags. Yeah. I'm pretty much not a probably work out for if you wanted to do that too. Well, and that would be

[00:45:02] a lot easier than doing individual pieces, you know, until I have the time, maybe to devote to doing individual pieces or something. The jewelry bags, you know, since I'm, since I'm sourcing

[00:45:19] and like you, I buy in bulk, um, I usually get enough stuff to make at least a couple bags a week. You know, stuff that I don't want to sell because not if there's anything wrong with it, but I know

[00:45:30] like it's probably unbranded or something and I know I won't get a lot. So I'll just throw it in a wearable jewelry bag and people love it. Yeah. Yep. So yeah. So now that's an idea of

[00:45:45] something I could work on. All right, Brandon, so anything else that you want to share or talk about, um, you know, anything exciting anymore plans of anything for the rest of your summer? Well, not too many plans. Um, did you announce your your table talk yet or?

[00:46:08] No, not yet. But since since we are talking about it, why not talk about it? Why not? Yes, but maybe want to join in. Yes. So what Brandon is referring to is that I am going to do a

[00:46:23] kind of like a reseller's rail and table and what my plan is is to get three, four, five, even six other resellers and all of us come on, you know, come on camera and talk about our businesses,

[00:46:38] maybe ask for advice or ideas or feedback about things that we're doing. Maybe things we like, things we dislike as it relates to jewelry reselling. And I'm planning to do that. It's funny you

[00:46:51] brought it up today because one of the girls who she's a reseller too who agreed to do it, I talked to her earlier today. So I think I have like three of you guys who said that you will do it.

[00:47:05] And if I can't get anybody else, maybe I'll just start and it'll just be the four of us. And we can all just kind of hash out whatever it is we want to hash out about whatever

[00:47:16] as it relates to, you know, jewelry reselling in general. So so it's a very broad topic, but I want it to be that way. So that way, nothing is off limits as it relates to that.

[00:47:28] So you can talk about your business, you can talk about jewelry, you can talk about, you know, what other people are doing in the community and what you think is, you know, working

[00:47:39] and not working. So I think we should probably maybe I can figure out a day that we can record that within the next month sometime because I would like to do that like kind of on a regular basis.

[00:47:55] Maybe not monthly that every, every quarter or some part of that. Some like that. You know, because you know, a lot of people are busy and I don't want to intrude on anybody's working time. Yeah. I call it time. Yeah, yeah, you know, because you've got school and

[00:48:13] life and everything that comes along with that. But that is the plan. And so Brandon is going to be in the first resellers roundtable. I have two other ladies and then it'll probably be myself. And so all we

[00:48:27] need to really do is coordinate a time where all of us can get together to record it. But I am excited about it. No, we're not getting already said he has some topics that he wants to discuss.

[00:48:37] Yep. Yeah. Yes, that he has strong opinions about which I, you know, very much welcome and I embrace because, you know, that's the thing too. As I've learned doing this podcast is that a lot of people, it's like they hesitate sharing certain things because I guess they're worried

[00:49:02] about how people are going to react or if they're going to be criticized. And you know, obviously we're not here to do that, but I do want a place where we can feel that we can speak freely

[00:49:14] about anything, you know, as it relates to our work and what we do and how we do it. So no, yeah. So yeah. So look for that. That is coming up. And so you guys will be seeing Brandon

[00:49:28] fourth or third time. Maybe a fourth time who knows, can see he might have some more step going on that we need to talk about and let you know. Oh yeah. I guess going back to the

[00:49:42] antiques roadshow thing. I do plan on live streaming it on what not and having a lot of cool. So all right. I'll be there for my customers on what not who wanted to see

[00:49:57] my little episode on there. They can come over to Heartland Picker on what not and we'll have a little watch party for it. Yeah, you might be able to do it on YouTube too.

[00:50:09] Like the antiques. The only thing about that is I don't know if YouTube would cut it for copy right though. Well, I thought there was a way to do it like let's say anti-roach show has a channel

[00:50:22] and they're streaming it on their channel. I thought there was a way that you could do it too, but I could be wrong. Yeah, I'm how have to look into that. Not sure. Yeah, yeah, because I don't want

[00:50:32] you to get in trouble for a copywriter and example. But oh, that's going to be so fun. I can't wait to see it. Oh yeah. It was such a fun to do. That's so cool. Like I said, I don't know because

[00:50:47] I remember reading like the antiques roadshow is kind of like on tour or something so they're probably going to city to city. I don't know if they're if they're going to stop here in Las Vegas

[00:50:58] or not. They are done right now. Oh, they're done? Okay. The last, so they came here and then we can have later. They went to Baltimore and then after that they were done. Okay, okay. So then they won't start up again until next year. It's next year. Yep.

[00:51:16] Okay. Okay. All right. Well, that's good to know. Like I said, that's been one of my dream things. I would love to see that in person and also I would love to see Dr. Lori. Do you know who Dr.

[00:51:27] Lori is? Yeah. I would love to see her person. I know it's funny because whenever I ask that, I always get mixed reactions. Just like what you did. I can tell you my mixed reaction because I was on

[00:51:41] her show once. Really? And how was that? What was that like? Well, so who knows if Dr. Lori is listening to this but hi, I went on to her show and the way you do it is she has, she sends out

[00:51:59] a stream yard link into her YouTube chat. You click up and then you just had to keep refreshing like it was a black Friday sale. Like you're just pressing down refresh refresh and trying to

[00:52:10] like get into the stream yard. And once you got in, then she brings you all up into the back room and then you have to hold up your item so she'll like go and scroll through and pick which one she wants

[00:52:21] and then it's a little like you're out. So then she'll bring you up if she likes her item and I guess she liked my item and when did you? It was jewelry. Yeah, it's actually on YouTube. I could probably

[00:52:33] give you the link and you can link it down below. Okay. When I went on there though, I brought a sterling silver set that I thought was worth probably around 800 or 850 bucks. She said it was worth

[00:52:47] around like 7,500. So we were in the same price range. However, I started talking all about it and knowing all about it but then she kind of retaliated back of like well I don't it's kind

[00:53:01] of like a whole antiques roadshow thing where you don't want to still up the razor, you know, be a person or talk to you about your item. You don't want to you know talk too much

[00:53:09] about your item and be a know it all. How about price kind of a know it all when I was on there? And she did not really like that. So yeah, I mean, I want you up staging her. Yeah exactly,

[00:53:23] exactly. So it was kind of a pushy moment when I was on there but she's a great person. It's just when it comes to business. Personally, it gets the best of her, I think. Yeah, you know, I mean,

[00:53:36] I'm not going to bash anybody but you know, I've I've talked to people that definitely have varying opinions as it relates as it relates to her show but because I've learned a lot from her

[00:53:51] YouTube channel and so she is very knowledgeable. You know, I'm not going to take that from her at all. Right. So like, I just I just really appreciate that she knows as much as she does and

[00:54:09] she has like the credentials to back it up. You know what I mean? It's some people know a lot of stuff and not that credentials or everything but I think when it comes to certain things, you know,

[00:54:20] as it relates to antique vintage, whatever jewelry. You know, we want to get an educated opinion and we want to get something that can be verified at least in some way and I think she does

[00:54:32] deliver as it relates to that. Yeah, but in the first time I saw her ever even knew about her was on the show Auction Kings. I don't know if you remember that show. I think that's seen it. Yeah,

[00:54:45] there's a show, I think Paul's his name. I can't remember but it's based out of Missouri. It was only on for a few seasons and she was like one of the appraisers on that show. That's the first time

[00:54:58] I found out about her then when I saw she had her YouTube channel and did live in a live program. People just coming up randomly. I was like, I don't know. I'll give it a shot. Why now?

[00:55:08] Yeah, well you got lucky. A lot of people don't even make it that far. Yeah exactly. So so I've done pretty much what most people are trying to do before they reach 70, you know, get on the show and

[00:55:20] get on Dr. Lorian. Yes, I mean look at I'm more than twice your age and I haven't done either of those things. So you know, yeah, you're living the dream, my friend. You're living the dream over here.

[00:55:36] All right, Brandon. So I don't know if there's anything else we need to talk about before I let you go. I think we covered it. Awesome. So make sure that if you do find the link to that

[00:55:51] Dr. Lorian video, I would love to share it and like I said earlier, I will definitely have the link to Brandon's new store in the description of this video and in the show notes. And I'll also link

[00:56:05] the first podcast episode we did together because that's one of the more popular episodes you know that I've done because I think people are just so impressed that you're, you know, for me. That and do a little marketing myself because I kind of shared it in my

[00:56:22] reseller community on YouTube. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. I do. Yeah, yeah, thank you. I appreciate you sharing because I think plus, I think a lot of people were just so impressed.

[00:56:35] Because your college student doing this. Yeah. I don't know if there's anybody else like you doing that out there. But definitely not over here and I. Well, I don't know anybody. I mean, everybody I know who sells jewelry as a reseller. They're like around my age. I don't

[00:56:55] know anybody like in their 20s at all. I mean, there's some people a little younger and a little older but like I said, lot is young as you. Yeah. So. All right, Brandon, well, I'm sure

[00:57:11] you'll be back again soon. Oh, yeah. Oh, definitely will. Yes, and we'll have some more juicy stuff to discuss as it relates to jewelry. Yeah. Whatever else comes along with that. Yep.

[00:57:23] So, all right, my friend. Well, thank you so much for hanging out and we'll be in touch soon. I'll see you really soon. See you later, definitely.