Top eBay seller makes $25M a year

Kim Commando
Hey, it's Kim Commando today, your daily podcast to keep you up to date with all things digital and beyond. And I'd love to have you be a part of our podcast. You can make an appointment to speak with me. Just head over to commando.com. And on the top right, there's a button that says email. Kim, fill that out, and that's it. Do you have a support animal?

Allie Selgman
Well, yes. My dog Nova.

Kim Commando
Okay, so when you're, like, tense and stressed, do you find yourself, like, wanting to, like, pet Nova?

Allie Selgman
Absolutely.

Kim Commando
Take her on a walk. Yeah. You know, I feel that way about Abby. Yeah. You know, it's like. Cause, you know, you can just, like. I don't know, something about a dog.

Allie Selgman
Oh, they bring so much comfort.

Kim Commando
They do? Yeah. Okay, well, there's this guy in Pennsylvania by the name of Joey Henny. Joey Henny has a support animal too.

Allie Selgman
I have a feeling.

Kim Commando
It's not a dog. It's not a dog. It's an alligator. Okay. It's an alligator. He has a support alligator. Okay, so the guy is from Pennsylvania. He goes on vacation. Okay. I don't take my dog with me on vacation, but. Okay. He goes on vacation with his support alligator to Georgia. Okay.

Allie Selgman
Do they drive? How does he transport the guy?

Kim Commando
Driver. Okay.

Allie Selgman
You probably can't take an alligator on a plane.

Kim Commando
Okay. And the only reason why it's in the news is because Joey lost the support alligator. Oh, no.

Allie Selgman
How?

Kim Commando
I don't know. Okay. And it's. Apparently it's a female alligator. And so he's out, like, saying, you know, please help me find my support alligator. The alligator has a pink leash on it.

Allie Selgman
Oh, my gosh, that's cute.

Kim Commando
And the alligator's name is Wally. So it's like, where's Wally?

Allie Selgman
I love this.

Kim Commando
It takes him to. Takes her to restaurants, takes her on walks. Okay.

Allie Selgman
I mean, imagine seeing Wally and this guy walking down the street. I would love to see this.

Kim Commando
Okay. Alligators live up to 100 years.

Allie Selgman
Wally's gonna outlive him.

Kim Commando
Yes, that's right. So that's why there's a chance that, you know, we'll be seeing him later. Get it? I know that's a long way to go. Okay. It's a long way to go. And on that happy note, welcome. It's Kim Commando. Today it's your fun podcast about all things digital. I'm, of course, Kim Commando. And joining me today is Allie Selgman. Hello there, Al.

Allie Selgman
Hi, Kim.

Kim Commando
Because Andrew said he's sick.

Allie Selgman
It's. Did you know it's national callout. Sick.

Kim Commando
I did not know that.

Allie Selgman
Listen, I'm not accusing Andrew of anything. I'm just saying, funny coincidence.

Kim Commando
Yeah. All of a sudden, he just calls out sick.

Allie Selgman
Weird.

Kim Commando
All right, we have an amazing interview. This woman, I just. I love success stories. Yeah. Okay. This woman started a business 20 years ago, and now she's doing like $25 million a year on eBay.

Allie Selgman
Whoa.

Kim Commando
I know. It's like, who knew, right? Okay, so she's gonna be joining us.

Allie Selgman
So she's gonna teach us all her secrets.

Kim Commando
I hope so. I mean, imagine if we could start. Well, you know, we could sell that dress you're wearing, but only once. That's the problem.

Allie Selgman
If we sell it, it's gone.

Kim Commando
Keep my shoes.

Allie Selgman
Sure, yeah.

Kim Commando
These pants.

Allie Selgman
We could probably get top dollar for your shoes.

Kim Commando
Oh, I know. You know, but it's always like those crazy guys that send notes and it's like, you know, Kim, I really want your shoes. Red pumps, size eleven.

Allie Selgman
I love that. They assume you will have their size.

Kim Commando
Yes, exactly. It's like, no, well, you know, there's that whole thing going on that, you know, I'm trans, you know.

Allie Selgman
Sure. Maybe you have size. She does not have size eleven.

Kim Commando
No, I don't. No, not at all. So what are you talking about?

Allie Selgman
AI. We just decided I'm the AI queen. Content queen. AI queen.

Kim Commando
Yeah.

Allie Selgman
I've got some good uses for you if you're like AI. Is it useful for me? Yes, it is. And I have some easy entries into it for you.

Kim Commando
And we are giving away an iPhone, $15, 799 value. So you should enter to win right now. Right now, this very moment. Go to winfromkim.com dot. Once again, that's winfromkim.com dot. Not anything else. Just win from kim.com. Winfromkim.com. All right, so let's get this party started with five things you need to know that's happening in the tech world right now. And we're going to start with what tech company has remained relatively quiet about artificial intelligence? Oh, when you think about it, I mean, you know, we have all these companies saying, like, AI, AI, AI, and all these. All these startups with AI. Okay. But there's one company that has been relatively quiet about AI.

Allie Selgman
Who is it?

Kim Commando
Think about it. Apple.

Allie Selgman
Oh, I mean, no kidding?

Kim Commando
Yeah. They really haven't been talking about AI. No, I mean, you know, so, I mean, Google's all in, Microsoft's all in, Amazon's all in.

Allie Selgman
Yeah, but Apple's kind of sitting there.

Kim Commando
On the sidelines you know, they do this.

Allie Selgman
I have a theory, and I don't know if this is right, but they. I don't think they like to jump on the bandwagon until they know they have a winner.

Kim Commando
Exactly. Exactly. I mean, they just kind of sit on the sidelines, they see what everybody else does, and then all of a sudden they come out and everybody's, like, going like, whoa, didn't see that happening.

Allie Selgman
I mean, except the VR headset. Cause that didn't go great, but.

Kim Commando
And a lot of the stuff that they steal from Samsung.

Allie Selgman
Sure.

Kim Commando
Okay. Yeah, just a little bit. Five years later. Yeah, exactly. So here's the deal. So we have next week, brand new iPad's coming out, and they're going to be AI equipped. They say.

Allie Selgman
What does that mean?

Kim Commando
We don't really know yet. Okay. We don't really know yet.

Allie Selgman
We'll find out next week.

Kim Commando
And then, because in June, we have the Worldwide Developers conference for Apple.

Allie Selgman
That's going to beat the big one off.

Kim Commando
Okay. And so that's when they're going to really roll out all the AI red carpet.

Allie Selgman
Yeah.

Kim Commando
And so it's going to be regenerative AI, which means it's going to learn more about you and start maybe taking care of things even before you need to have them taken care of. So, like, if I'm always walking into the studio, my phone always goes on do not disturb. It'll automatically go on do not disturb.

Allie Selgman
See, isn't this what we want AI to do on our phones? Like, we want it to make our life more useful? Not another thing to play with.

Kim Commando
Right? Yeah, I don't want it irritating. So the bottom line here is that you do not want to buy an iPhone right now. Okay. But you could win one. Okay. But you don't want to actually go buy one because really, what's going to be happening in June with the announcement of the new iPhone? I really predict that it's going to be such a big, monumental move for Apple. As if it were, like, a brand new iPhone that hit in 2007.

Allie Selgman
Cool.

Kim Commando
All right, moving on to AI chat bots. Girlfriends, big.

Allie Selgman
Oh, my gosh.

Kim Commando
Why?

Allie Selgman
Loneliness, of course. Lack of social skills.

Kim Commando
Okay. Meta says that they have, that they are, like, taking down AI girlfriend as left and right. All the fake ones, I think they've taken down, like, 29,000 so far. And they're like, okay, we're trying to keep up, but we can't.

Allie Selgman
Well, you know, and the thing about these is they're pretty gross in some cases. Like, they're pretty explicit. Like, this is a fake babe trying to get your attention. So you can imagine the things that these ads might say or show or do.

Kim Commando
Yes, yes. And so you really don't want to go online and get an AI girlfriend from a fake ad?

Allie Selgman
No.

Kim Commando
You don't know what you're going to get on your phone.

Allie Selgman
I can see a correlation here.

Kim Commando
No pun intended. Moving on. We're just going to pretend that they browse safely, people. This did not really happen. Hey, listen, if you're going to be buying an EV, you get that $7,500 tax credit. Well, now it's like, no, we're not going to make you wait for the tax credit anymore. You can just get it taken right off the bottom line. Why? Because nobody's going to buying EV's. Sure. So there's just that little problem. And we have a great story coming in our newsletter tomorrow about how some car makers, you know, these batteries only last a certain amount of time. And so if you need to replace the battery like in your Nissan Leaf, it's like $25,000, right.

Allie Selgman
It's more than buying a new one. It's insane.

Kim Commando
So you don't want to miss. And speaking of our newsletters, if you are watching or listening to the podcast and you work for Yahoo. America online, we would really like to hear from you because your company just sucks. Okay, you are blocking about. We're just gonna say like 125,000 people who want to get my newsletter. Our newsletter. Yeah. Okay. Just blocking.

Allie Selgman
All of our inboxes are blowing up with people saying, oh, my gosh, why am I not getting your newsletter? Also shout out to our lovely readers who after one and two days realized, wait, my newsletter's not. I love that.

Kim Commando
You know what I mean? Think about how often that happens. Like, oh, I didn't get my morning Brew newsletter. Oh, all right, well, whatever.

Allie Selgman
No, I have literally never reached out to a newsletter like that because I miss it so much.

Kim Commando
So I have people, like, leaving me voicemails.

Allie Selgman
Oh, my God. Oh, Kim, where's my newsletter? Yeah, but really, this is a big deal. It's a big problem if you have a Yahoo or an AOL account and you're not getting our emails. It's not just you. This is a problem.

Kim Commando
Okay? They have, Yahoo has just unilaterally decided that we are spamming. They had just called us a spammer, unilateral, even though everybody has to opt in to get our email. Okay. So I am so annoyed. So thoroughly pissed off. I mean, and look at the power that they have. I mean, this is big tech deciding you don't get my newsletter. Yeah, that's it. Just, well, we're not going to let it through. Okay? So anyway, if you are, if you want to get our newsletter, you have to go to Gmail. That's it. Just get a Gmail address.

Allie Selgman
It does deliver to you.

Kim Commando
It's time for you to get off of AOL. Anyway, if you have an AOL email address, you know what that tells the whole world? You are an old, old person, okay? And you don't have any tech skills.

Allie Selgman
She's right. And that's not true because you get our email address or you get our email.

Kim Commando
And I'm sorry. I mean, Joe is a great friend of mine. And I keep telling her, Jo, you have to get off AOL. She's like, oh, I know, but everybody has my address. Okay? I know that. Okay, it's time for you to move on.

Allie Selgman
You know what we should do soon in the newsletter, and we should put this on the website, a guide if you want to switch from your old, old email account. Everyone has your contact info. It's pretty easy these days to switch and give people your new stuff.

Kim Commando
But we can't put it in the newsletter because the people at Yahoo. And AOL don't get it. Okay. Because, you know, they're just, they have just unilaterally again decided. Yeah. And we comply to every, every protocol we do. I mean, up to and including, which is just irritating to me. Okay. We have one click unsubscribe in our emails. Yeah. Okay. I don't like that. Cause I think it makes it too easy for people to unsubscribe. So today I unsubscribe to that tech newsletter. It's like, oh, that. I'm like, this is piece of stinks. Yes. So I'm like, so I'm hitting like, unsubscribe and it's like, are you sure you want to unsubscribe? I'm like, yes. Are you sure? I'm like, yeah. Then I'm thinking like, how come I have to have a one click on anyway? So if you are on Yahoo. And AOL, just, just go get a gmail address. Really? Just enough of them. Enough of them. This is a disturbing stat. And I have to look down because it's a lot of numbers. 30% of children between the ages of five and seven are using TikTok.

Allie Selgman
30.

Kim Commando
30%. Okay, parents, you need to parent.

Allie Selgman
Stop.

Kim Commando
Okay. You need to get your five year old off of TikTok.

Allie Selgman
That's insane.

Kim Commando
Okay. Your five year old should not be on TikTok. No.

Allie Selgman
This makes me think about all these little kids you've seen these beauty videos.

Kim Commando
With the little cars. I don't know. You know, that's not, you know, that's dysfunctional.

Allie Selgman
I agree with you.

Kim Commando
Yeah, it is.

Allie Selgman
But they see these videos because they're watching this stuff.

Kim Commando
Right, right. Okay. But having your five year old or seven year old doing makeup videos, I mean, we have. I showed one here on Kim commando today, and because I was just disgusted by it that the mom's sitting there going, oh, how pretty you are.

Allie Selgman
And she's like, okay, blend, blend, blend.

Kim Commando
Contour, contour, contour. I'm like, okay, this kid needs to be outside. She used to go run around, wash.

Allie Selgman
Your face, go play.

Kim Commando
Yes, we don't need this. And finally, this coming to Google phone users, which is you.

Allie Selgman
That's me.

Kim Commando
Yes. Listen to this, my pixel. When you are having a. A phone call, you are now able to have sound effects. Great. So you can. It's in the overflow menu. You can have clapping. So when you're talking. So, like, if you're talking to me and I say something as so brilliant as I do all the time, you could just throw the clapping sound effect.

Allie Selgman
Does this require me? So presumably, I'm on speakerphone, right?

Kim Commando
Yes.

Allie Selgman
Okay.

Kim Commando
Laughing. A party sound. Crying drum. Or you could do a fart sound.

Allie Selgman
That's the only one that seems reasonable. Imagine if instead of laughing, I just hit the laugh sound effect. That's so rude.

Kim Commando
Or the fart sound.

Allie Selgman
Yeah, I'm probably going to do the fart sound to you, because you told.

Kim Commando
Me, what is the deal with farts and tech products? I mean, you're like a Tesla farts. I mean, what is that?

Allie Selgman
Because men work at tech companies, too, and every man thinks fart jokes are funny.

Kim Commando
Yeah.

Allie Selgman
Although, as a woman, I think fart jokes are funny, too.

Kim Commando
You know what? I think they are, too.

Allie Selgman
We all fart. It's fine.

Kim Commando
I remember when I used to be able to get up, get out of bed, wake up in the morning without having any sound effects. Oh, God, here I am. Here I am. All right, let me tell you. Coming up, really in just a few seconds, Linda Lightman, you know, when I watched a video about her and I read all about her. I just love success stories.

Allie Selgman
Yeah.

Kim Commando
Hey, it's Kim Commando today. Now, if you are listening to the podcast, most people are listening to the audio version of the podcast. You're just missing out I mean, because especially, like, today, today's podcast, let me tell you. Okay? Allie looks stunning. Looks just so beautiful. And you know what? I'm having a good hair day.

Allie Selgman
Kim's having a great hair day. Also, before the show, I told you this. Your eyes look extra blue today.

Kim Commando
Yes. And see.

Allie Selgman
And it's a good day to tune in.

Kim Commando
It really is. Yeah. You know, we don't have Andrew here.

Allie Selgman
It's a good day to tune in.

Kim Commando
Exactly. So if you are listening to the audio version, you're like, hey, I wonder what, you know, Ally looks like. I wonder what Kim's hair looks like today. Or if you just want to see, really get the full experience, is that you want to go to YouTube.com Kim Commando. And just a reminder that this is not the Kim Commando show, okay? This is the Kim Commando Today podcast. The show is available as commercial free podcast on Apple, as well as Spotify. You can also enjoy it as part of your commando community membership. And the Kim Commando show is on over 425 radio stations near you.

Allie Selgman
It's kind of a big deal.

Kim Commando
It's kind of a big deal. You can hear us anywhere from, you know, WABC in New York.

Allie Selgman
Love it.

Kim Commando
Okay. Wls in Chicago. You know, I mean, just all across the country. All across the country. And also, we're on the American Forces radio network. And I always think that's so cool because, like, 200 ships at sea get the Kim commando.

Allie Selgman
That's awesome.

Kim Commando
Isn't that amazing?

Allie Selgman
Ahoy. All right.

Kim Commando
And, you know, and, you know, I started from nothing. You know, I started this show because basically, you know, nobody else would have me. ABC turned me down.

Allie Selgman
Well, tech was a fad.

Kim Commando
No, that was the guy at CB's. Oh, no. He said tech was gonna be like, the Internet was just a fad.

Allie Selgman
Sure.

Kim Commando
And it was kind of like the pet rock. It just kind of go away. I wonder where he is now. So, I started from nothing. Okay. I mean, basically, there were times, I'll tell you that. I mean, it wasn't pretty. I mean, we ran this thing for about three years in the red before it actually was like, okay, like, how.

Allie Selgman
Are we going to pay the bills? Kind of thing.

Kim Commando
Yeah. And, you know, and our first studio was truly a closet. It really was. It was a closet. Yeah. And I think the rent was, like, $50 a month. And now we're, you know, in a 27,000 square foot building.

Allie Selgman
Yeah.

Kim Commando
You know, it's a. And, you know, knock on wood. You know, it's. It's been successful, continue to be successful and thanks to all the support of, of good team members and listeners and advertisers. And that's why when I was reading about Linda Lightman, that I thought, you know, I betcha. I bet you we'd be BFF's.

Allie Selgman
Oh, I love this.

Kim Commando
I think we really would be, because Linda is a self starter. I mean, you know, she. I think the first thing she sold on eBay was a video game of her sons, you know, and then she, and then she just kind of, she kind of, like, just kept going and kept pushing and kept pushing. And, you know, you know, you see us, we do this every day. We keep pushing to the next level. And that's why I thought, you know, everybody should know about Linda Lightman's story. Okay? Her eBay store, Linda stuff. Listen to this. I just love her. Sold over 4.2 million items. Okay? She runs her eBay store from a 100,000 square foot warehouse.

Allie Selgman
Oh, my gosh.

Kim Commando
Okay. Okay. As I mentioned, she started this with her son's video game in 2001 in her house.

Allie Selgman
Linda.

Kim Commando
Okay. And she also says she can find something worth $3,000 in anyone's house. Oh, and so joining us right now is Linda herself from Linda's stuff. Linda, I love you, Kim.

Linda Lightman
I am sitting here, like I was about to say to you, number one, we should be best friends because you're Kim commando and I'm Linda Lightman. Like, the alliteration is just like, that's it.

Kim Commando
This is beautiful. You know what? It would be. It would be. Absolutely.

Linda Lightman
So I'm sitting, listening to you, and I'm thinking, you're talking about AOL, man. My kids made me get rid of that AOL address years ago.

Allie Selgman
Oh, good.

Linda Lightman
And I agree with you. If you have an AOL address, you're just saying I'm old.

Kim Commando
Yes, you do. You need to get, you need to get rid of the AOL address.

Linda Lightman
And not only do I make sound effects when I get up, I make sound effects when I sit down. I just want to say, sometimes at work, I sit down and I go, oh, I do.

Kim Commando
You know what? I do that too. I just sit down. It's like, oh, are you like. Or something, or somebody. When somebody does something stupid, there it is. You know, and you're just sitting there and you're thinking, like, what were you thinking? You know? You know, it's just, just a nightmare. So bring us back. We're going to go back to 2001, and you wanted to sell your son's video game, and you figured, you know, what? Ebay's good, right?

Linda Lightman
Yeah. So for me, my life started as a lawyer. I was an attorney. I hated it. Fashion was my passion. I worked at a large law firm as a labor and employment lawyer. And I remember back in the day in 2001 when we, as women were wearing suits to work, and I might on my chair, and I wrote in the library doing research, but I was shopping a sale down the street. That was what mattered to me. And so after I had my children and my law firm at that point, would not let me go back as a part time attorney. That wasn't a thing then, which, thankfully, now it is for women, and remote work is a thing for women. It wasn't then. So I had to explore what I should do and just. I kind of feel like the accidental entrepreneur. My kids wanted to sell their video games. As a mom, I was like, no, I'm not buying. There's no more. The bank is closed.

Kim Commando
No money.

Linda Lightman
And we sold their games. And when the supply of games that they were willing to sell ended, I decided to start selling my own clothing, shoes, and accessories that I never wear. And a fun fact, people wear 20% of their clothing 80% of the time.

Kim Commando
Is that right?

Linda Lightman
Is that crazy?

Allie Selgman
That checks out.

Kim Commando
Yeah, I.

Allie Selgman
You know, I think that I wear the same stuff.

Kim Commando
Do you?

Allie Selgman
Yeah.

Kim Commando
Yeah. You know what? These pants, I haven't. These pants. I haven't worn these pants for about three years.

Allie Selgman
Well, here's the thing, though. You're on camera all the time, and so you need different outfits, right? Most of us, if you're just sitting at your desk or at your house, like, you're going to wear your same stuff you love.

Kim Commando
Yeah, that's true. You're right about that. Yes.

Linda Lightman
Yeah. So I started selling my own clothing, shoes and accessories. And word of mouth is a powerful tool. Friends started to tell friends, and a business was born. I remember one mother's day, my kids got me, like, a little tupperware filing cabinet. And my husband, also a lawyer, said to me, you have a great business. I'm going to quit my job. And let's go with this. And so you talk about yourself. Scary. You start from nothing. You build it with sweat equity. And he quit his job. And I'll be honest, you know, I was scared. I was embarrassed. Like, my husband is quitting his job so that we could build this business together. That's like a hobby for me.

Kim Commando
You know what? That's a good man, though. That's a good man. Cause, you know. Cause, you know, a lot of guys would be like, cause, no, now he's gotta go with the guy factor. So what are you doing now? Well, you know, I quit being a lawyer so I can work with my wife.

Linda Lightman
Yeah.

Kim Commando
I mean, he had to put all that aside. But he believed in you, and he believed, and he probably saw what was going on, right.

Linda Lightman
And we never looked back. I mean, we had two children. We had a mortgage. And so I'm saying, my message to people is, go for it. If not then, if not now, when, right.

Kim Commando
Do it for sure.

Linda Lightman
Like, think about it. If you didn't do what you did, where would you be? What would you be doing?

Kim Commando
So, all right, so you went from the video game, started selling your clothes, and then when did it really, how long was it between the fact that you did the video game and then when you guys were sitting there saying, we have to really hold on for the ride?

Linda Lightman
Yeah. So it was, everything was in my house. Everything. And I started to hire people. And so, Kim, like, I wasn't trained as a photographer or even, like, understanding the Internet. This was back in 2001, you know, when I was a lawyer, there were word processing departments. It was, you know, I don't want to date myself, but tell me how old you are without telling me how old you are.

Kim Commando
For sure.

Linda Lightman
There were word processing departments. So I taught myself how to take pictures. And to me, pictures had to be taken outside for natural light. And I hired photographers that worked at local art colleges. And they came, and I was like, oh, you only have to do it outside. I live in Philadelphia. It gets cold, it gets rainy. We started, people were taking pictures outside, and the pictures were good, and people, I was engaging the eBay community all over the world. EBay is an incredible, credible marketplace. I mean, I have so much to tell you. I don't even know where to begin. And so we started selling for other people, friends, friends of mine from law school. I grew up in New York. Even though I live in Philadelphia, friends were telling friends what I was doing, and people were intrigued, and people, there was no real, real. There was no thread up. I was building this. I was kind of like the thought leader you are in this 100%, any of this.

Kim Commando
You know what? And when I was looking at some videos about you talking about your. How you got successful and the stories and, you know, and showing the warehouse and things, I thought, you know what? You were the pioneer in this. Reselling clothing and poshmarks and the real, real and anything else that's coming along, you know, it's an interesting throwback if you will, that while you were doing this, the people at the real world were in diapers. Where are you at today? So you have 100,000 square foot warehouse. That's huge. How many employees do you have?

Linda Lightman
So I want to back up a step, like, for us, we moved it out of our house, and I remember feeling really scared. I had children. I was nervous, like, hey, we're taking this business and we're going to get space. We took 5000 sqft. We outgrew it in two years. We moved to 12,002 years later, outgrew it.

Kim Commando
Love that.

Linda Lightman
Moved 5000. Outgrew it, moved to 58. Outgrew it, expanded it to what we are now. It's 93,000, but we'll up.

Kim Commando
It's 100. Okay. And so how are you sourcing everything that you're selling right now?

Linda Lightman
So we source. It's just word of mouth. People all over the country are sending us their stuff. And it's not just as the business has grown. It's not just individuals like the three of us. Allie, Kim, me, and people all over. It's businesses, it's brands send us their stuff. It's big retailers or it's a small retailer. It could be rental companies, it could be huge online retailers and then little stores that don't, you know, just don't have an online presence and need to get rid of last year's stuff or returns. People get returns and, you know, they don't want to get rid of it. They want to make money on it. So we're getting those returns. So it's grown to so many different facets, which is amazing. But eBay has been an incredible partner for me. I hitched my wagon to them early on. And now, in September of 23, eBay partnered with us and has said to the world, consign your luxury handbags with Linda stuff.

Allie Selgman
Wow, that's great.

Linda Lightman
Pinch me. Yeah, it's a pinch me moment. Like, I never stop. And I'm guessing you probably feel the same way, listening to the way you speak, I never think of myself as successful, which is unfortunate in a way, as a woman that I'm not. You know, that's a whole nother conversation. I think as women, we don't take the time to say, wow, look what you've, like Pam, look what you've done.

Kim Commando
You know what? It's. You don't. I don't.

Linda Lightman
I don't.

Kim Commando
You know, in some ways, it's like, well, this is my job. Well, yeah, it's my job. But I started from nothing. And had so many people tell me that it was never going to work. I picked the two hardest industries. Tech, okay, being a woman and broadcasting. Being a woman, okay. I mean, that's why I admire the hell out of you, because I see what you have done. I think you're right. I mean, you know, it's. And sometimes I think it's just because I'm so busy. I keep going, keep going, and, you know, and every day there's like another thing that I want to do. And I imagine that you're probably similar in that, but, and it's nice that, that eBay has pretty, has, has acknowledged, has endorsed, has appreciated you, because a lot of companies, tech companies, they don't have that attitude, quite frankly.

Linda Lightman
No. I have to say, eBay's been, well, number one, I admire you, and what you have built is really incredible. So I say congrats. And I think as women, I wish that we all could step back. And whatever it is that you're doing, bringing up children, building a business, stop and say, like, wow, you work hard. That's just my TED talk. That's what I love.

Kim Commando
I like that, too.

Linda Lightman
EBay has been an incredible partner. And when they partnered with us in September for this luxury handbag, they knew that we as a company, and eBay as a company, we know how to authenticate handbags. We know how to list them and photograph them, key things to creating a successful sale. Then eBay has created this authenticity guarantee program, which handbags go so buyers have such trust in eBay, and sellers get that satisfaction because eBay is bringing those buyers. So eBay came to us and said, partner with us on handbag consignment. And now in March, just last month, month and a half ago, we partnered with them for the consignment of luxury apparel as well.

Kim Commando
Oh, that's fabulous. So, Linda, so if somebody wants to buy a Hermes bag, how do you authenticate that? How do you make sure that that $15,000 handbag is truly a $15,000 handbag and not a crazy knockoff or more? Right? Yeah.

Linda Lightman
So unfortunately, in this world, there are super fakes. I think at Linda stuff, we do an incredible job. So first we get the bag in, and if I tell you one little trick of the trade, smell the bag. Take a whiff. If it smells like heavy leather, smell like, oh, it's fake. I always. I do that smell. I pick it up. It's just a little sniff test. Nothing. And if it has that, oh, my God, you just smell that leather it's fake. So we get in the handout, we look at brand identifiers, we look at stitching, we look at the way we look for serial numbers. We look for all these different things. We photograph it. Now, we do an internal test here, but we also work with very, I would say probably twelve professional authenticators all over the country. And we send them pictures, and we do not list an item until it gets that second stamp of approval. So we do it in house and then we send those pictures out and everything is authenticated. But then, even then, it goes, you buy that Hermes handbag, it goes from Linda's stuff, right, to the authenticity guarantee program at eBay. They turn it around within 24 hours. And once it's stamped as, yes, this is authentic, then it gets shipped to Kim commando.

Kim Commando
That's awesome. That's awesome.

Linda Lightman
It's great to really build buyer trust.

Kim Commando
Yeah. And you gotta be careful. There's so many rackets online.

Allie Selgman
Yeah.

Kim Commando
And it seems like every time you turn around, there's another scammer that's trying to pull one over, you know, for the folks that are. That are listening and watching right now. Linda, if they have stuff that they want you to sell, how does that work?

Linda Lightman
So, you know, I just want to say one thing. When I named the company Linda stuff.

Allie Selgman
It was my stuff.

Kim Commando
Right?

Linda Lightman
I would never in a million years have named this company Linda stuff had I thought that it would become. It just shows you that I never thought. I guess, like Angie's list, Linda's stuff. I don't know. I would never have named it this had I thought that it would become what it has become. You know what?

Kim Commando
It works.

Allie Selgman
I think it's great.

Kim Commando
Yeah. I think, you know, because you could throw anything under stuff. Right. It doesn't matter what it is. Totally stuff.

Linda Lightman
Yeah. Actually, you talked about this. ABC came to us and said to me in 2016, hey, we want to do a show called I can find $3,000 in your home. With inflation, I have to believe it's more than that now, but. Right. But we went around to different people's homes and we identified things could be from, like, a fancy remote control to, you know, baccarat figurine you got as a wedding gift that you're never going to use anything. The sky was the limit. And we identified things that we could sell in people's homes that would get them $3,000 if we sold them. And the show was a success. But then ABC ditched their digital market, which I wish they didn't, because it was really one of the best experiences of my life, and that was it.

Allie Selgman
So, well, then, how do we find our treasures?

Kim Commando
I know. I think eBay should do the show. I think eBay should do a show with you and you know about Linda's stuff and then put it on Netflix or Max or anywhere else. And you know what? Come over to my house. I guarantee you you'll find at least, because I had a move from a.

Linda Lightman
That would be fun.

Kim Commando
I think you should. I think you should come over to my house.

Allie Selgman
I smell a collaboration.

Linda Lightman
And then listing it on eBay, promoting it, like, let's shop in commando's closet.

Kim Commando
I think you should. You've seen my closet.

Allie Selgman
It's big. You can find good stuff. Linda, we should do this. I think we should.

Kim Commando
I think we should do this. I think we should do this.

Allie Selgman
This is a good idea. All right, Linda, you're going to have to come see us.

Kim Commando
Yeah.

Linda Lightman
The story of Linda Lightman and Kim Commando, part two.

Kim Commando
But before you leave, I want just so, everybody, okay, so I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying. This is where it is. This is a. Because we're going to put this on the show, too. This is for the podcast, but we're going to play this interview on the show, too. And I want to get in on the show that how anybody who's listening, how does it work? If they want for you to sell.

Linda Lightman
Their stuff so they can go to shop. Lindastuff.com dot make sure they put the two s's in the middle. Lindustuff. Shop lindustuff.com and sign up to be a consignor. We pay for your stuff to come to us. We send you a UPS label for free, or we send ups to pick up your stuff once you box it up, and then we get it. And within two to three business days, it will be up on our site. We will authenticate any designer item. We authenticate, we photograph, we list, we answer questions from potential buyers. And that's another key component. You know, if you see something on eBay that you like and you want to ask the seller a question, you want them to answer that question. And that's what we do. To me, customer service is the key component to success. And so we answer questions and then we ship out the item once it sells. It's a lot.

Kim Commando
I think we should do the show.

Allie Selgman
I think we should, too, Lynn.

Kim Commando
I really do. I think we ought to do this show, because here's my problem. I've been basically a size four my whole life.

Allie Selgman
Here's her problem.

Linda Lightman
That's a problem.

Kim Commando
But here's the. No, the problem is that when you look in the closet, I've got a lot of clothes because it's like, oh, I might wear that again. I might wear that again. And then I have a friend of mine, Nicole, she comes over and she's like, this is disgusting. This needs to go. Okay. This needs to go. And I'm like, no. And then she puts them on a pile, and then after she leaves, I hang them all back up and I throw them in.

Linda Lightman
Oh, Kim.

Kim Commando
Yes. So I think we ought to do the show.

Allie Selgman
Well, it sounds like there's a lot to sell.

Kim Commando
There's a lot to sell. And you know what? And then here's the deal, Linda. Any money we make, we just will figure out a nice charity.

Linda Lightman
I love that. And it's not just clothing, shoes and accessories. It's jewelry. It's a gift that somebody gave you. Like, send us j strong water picture frames.

Kim Commando
I got that. I got that, too.

Linda Lightman
Like a designer towel. It could be.

Kim Commando
I have those. I have those. I do. You name it, she's got it. Okay.

Linda Lightman
Because here.

Kim Commando
So here's what happened. Okay? We lived in the same house for 17 years. Okay? You know what that's like. You have junk everywhere. Every nook and cranny. Okay.

Linda Lightman
Yeah.

Kim Commando
So. And that house was. We'll say a. How would you describe that house? It was a mediterranean type looking house. Yeah, that's good word. All right. Okay. So then I'm, like, tired of the Mediterranean. So we're gonna go modern. We're going contemporary. Okay. So now I've got this contemporary house on the hill. All glass. Sleek, sleek glass. 270 degree view of the city. It's gorgeous. All this other stuff. But because it's all modern and glass, guess what? You don't have wall space. Wall space.

Allie Selgman
Okay, so you got to get rid.

Kim Commando
Of all your junk. And you can't have junk out. You can't have junk out in a modern house. And so, like, so on my list today is to look at my yadros, where you can't have yadros out in the modern house.

Linda Lightman
Yeah.

Kim Commando
I mean, so anyway, so we've got. We'd have a lot to do.

Allie Selgman
Sounds like a whole season of television.

Kim Commando
13. And then you got my whole husband. Okay. Who's a hoarder?

Allie Selgman
Big stuff guy.

Kim Commando
A lot of stuff.

Allie Selgman
A lot of stuff.

Kim Commando
A lot of stuff. Yes.

Linda Lightman
It's so true. I remember back in the day, I was very Ralph Lauren. In country was my hat, my look. And then we, too, moved to a very modern. Like, you want to model it after a hotel room. You don't want stuff out.

Kim Commando
Exactly.

Linda Lightman
Very clean and neat. So all the Ralph Lauren country stuff. And that looks. Bye bye.

Kim Commando
Yeah, that's. That's kind of where it's at. It is. Well, Linda, you're lovely. Thank you.

Linda Lightman
Oh, this was also. I have more to say, if that's okay. We do these eBay live sales. We go live, and we have a huge audience. And they. I was sharing with them that I was going to be on your show. Well, the people on the live, the love that you were getting, Kim. Oh, my goodness. People were like, I love Kim commando. Tell us when it's on. We want. We love her. It was in. The outpouring was really incredible. So we, on eBay, they do these sales, and we're just really selling stuff. So you could tune in, go to eBay.com, go to the lives, and look at those live selling events. They're really fun. Maybe we could do with your closet.

Kim Commando
We could do that. I'm telling you, there's something here, Linda. I'm not sure what it is, but there's something here.

Allie Selgman
Yeah.

Linda Lightman
For us.

Kim Commando
And. Because the other thing, too, is, I'm from New Jersey, so we kind of have this.

Linda Lightman
Yeah.

Kim Commando
Same east coast thing going on there, you know, even though people in New York are like, oh, you're from Jersey. You're from Jersey.

Linda Lightman
Yeah.

Kim Commando
Like, I'm sorry, you know? Well, Linda, thanks for. Thanks for being here. I'm sure we'll be in touch.

Linda Lightman
Pam loved, loved it, and I would love to be in touch. Allie loves talking to you, too.

Allie Selgman
You, too.

Linda Lightman
Thanks, guys.

Kim Commando
Isn't she just nice?

Allie Selgman
I love Linda.

Kim Commando
I do. I love Linda, too.

Allie Selgman
Yeah.

Kim Commando
All right.

Allie Selgman
That was great.

Kim Commando
Hey, it's Kim Commando today. If you are listening to the audio version of the podcast, just a reminder is that you can always get the video version@YouTube.com. Kimcommando. Once again, that's YouTube.com kimcommando. And anywhere you are, whether you're listening or you're watching, make sure that you hit that big old, like, button and you share us out. Just one person. That's all. Just one person. That's all we're asking. Just share with one person. All right. So, Allie, you are our amazing content queen, knower of all things.

Allie Selgman
Thank you, Kim. Thing on YouTube. So we don't do it because we're above this, but YouTube is like the land of clickbait. Titles, right? Like, the one thing about digital marking.

Kim Commando
You need to know that we should try that.

Allie Selgman
I mean, fine, but. So these videos, you click it, you get in there, you're ten minutes in and you're like, what's the one thing I need to know? I still don't know. I don't have time for this crap. Right? But the headlines or the names, they're so good. I have a little trick for you. You can use AI for this.

Kim Commando
No.

Allie Selgman
So you don't have to watch the video. You can just skim and see what the heck it's about and what the tip actually is, I'm going to tell you right now that I guess I'll say 50% of the time they don't pan out. And it's like, this is total crap. And you just saved ten minutes because you didn't have to watch it.

Kim Commando
Yeah, you know what? I hate that.

Allie Selgman
I hate that too. When you don't get the payoff. If we do the clickbait titles, we have to pay off.

Kim Commando
Of course, of course.

Allie Selgman
Okay. You can do this in a few ways if you do it in Gemini. So they're talking about how like, oh, we're so good at doing this with YouTube videos. You have to go in and change a setting for it to happen. Because if you don't, what happened to me happens. You put in a video, I put in some marketing video and it said, this appears to be never gonna give you up. It rickrolled me.

Kim Commando
Oh, no.

Allie Selgman
Another URL I put in. It said, this appears to be baby shark. No. No, it wasn't. But you have to enable something. That's a pain. I think you should go to perplexity AI, because it works really well for this. I do too. So you go to perplexity. You don't even have to type anything in. You just take the URL of the video, copy it in, hit enter, and it gives you a whole write up. Here's what this video is about.

Kim Commando
Nice.

Allie Selgman
I just saved everyone 15 minutes.

Kim Commando
Have you tried Poe?

Allie Selgman
I haven't. Should I put it on my list?

Kim Commando
I don't know. It was reading about it because somebody was hyping it up online and I tried it and I was like, I know. After a while, it's like looking at all different dictionaries, it's all the same. It is. It's like all the same. Yeah. It is so perplexity. Yeah, perplexity AI. It's free.

Allie Selgman
You don't have to make an account. You just put in that video URL. Hit enter and it'll tell you what the video is about.

Kim Commando
And don't be paying dollar 20 for every single AI out there. No, you don't need to do that. We have to pay because we have, like, a enterprise license.

Allie Selgman
Well, it's just like everything, right? You don't need multiple of the same service if you're not getting something different from it. So, yeah, maybe you pay for one because you love it. Don't pay for the others.

Kim Commando
Okay, so stacking emojis is a thing.

Linda Lightman
What now?

Kim Commando
Stacking emojis?

Allie Selgman
No, I heard the words. What does that mean?

Kim Commando
You just have to hang on. Hey, it's Kim Commando. Today it's your fun podcast about all things digital. Just a reminder, it's not the show. Not the show because we have people in the comments saying, where's the show? Okay, the show is on over 425 stations, but we are, you know, of course, always expanding because if you don't innovate, you evaporate. Okay, so that's why we have Kim Commando today as a podcast. And the Kim commando show is the three hour show. You're gonna love it all. Love it all. All right, so the top ten most used emojis right now. Number ten is the smiley face with hearts.

Allie Selgman
Love that one.

Kim Commando
Smiley face with smiling eyes. Nine. Number eight. This surprised me. Fire.

Allie Selgman
I thought that was passe at this point.

Kim Commando
It's what I thought too. Yeah, it's kind of like the thumbs up.

Allie Selgman
Old.

Kim Commando
Yes, AOL. Speaking of AOL and Yahoo, I don't know if I've told you, I don't know if you heard, but they are a bunch of jerk faces and they are blocking about 125,000 of my emails going out to you people. 125,000 people on Yahoo. And AOL because they say that I'm spammer. I'm a spammer. Me, Kim Commando.

Allie Selgman
We're not spamming.

Kim Commando
Not spamming. So if you have an AOL address and a yahoo address, I just want you to get rid of it and get a Gmail address. Okay? Just do it. Because again, everybody thinks. Thinks you're like an old fart, okay? So get rid of the Yahoo address. Get rid of the AOL address. I digress. Number seven, sparkles.

Allie Selgman
Oh, I love sparkles.

Kim Commando
I do. I love sparkles. We should use that more often.

Allie Selgman
Okay.

Kim Commando
Smiling face with hard eyes. Crying face, folded hands, red heart. Number two is the rolling on the floor laughing. And number one is the face with tears of joy.

Allie Selgman
Okay. Yeah, I think that one's getting to be passe now too. I think the young un's think that that's an old people emoji.

Kim Commando
Yeah, I think so too. The young un's.

Allie Selgman
Well, so how do we stack?

Kim Commando
I'm not sure, but here we go. Let's watch. You could just put, I didn't know that you could do this. You just take one emoji and then put it on top of another emoji. To put on top of another emoji. I know. Mind blown.

Allie Selgman
So you hold down with your finger and then drag. Oh, my gosh.

Kim Commando
Yes.

Allie Selgman
Well, and this is better than just reacting to something with an emoji because you can put them anywhere and you can make a little surfer boot.

Kim Commando
Okay. Okay. Think about the people in your life. If you sent that to, they'd be like, what do you mean? What is that?

Allie Selgman
You should start communicating to Barry only in emoji stacks and see what happens.

Kim Commando
Okay, but you know what? But this is the man Christmas time. That was sending out Christmas trees and bells and salads.

Allie Selgman
Sure. It's a wreath, Kim.

Kim Commando
Like, what are you sending out a salad for? Cause, you know, I'm so diplomatic.

Allie Selgman
Do you think you could convince him that the eggplant emoji is something else and get him to start using it? I'm just saying. Good long term prank.

Kim Commando
I could tell him. Oh, that's a good one. I'll have to tell him. Like, like, that means something, like, car related.

Allie Selgman
Oh, yeah.

Kim Commando
And so he could send it, like, to, like, a really powerful car. Yes.

Allie Selgman
Amazing.

Kim Commando
I'll have Ian do it too. I'll have Ian send on the eggplant.

Allie Selgman
Sorry, Barry.

Kim Commando
And then Ian. Then Barry's gonna start sending out the eggplant to everybody. Oh, I can't wait for this is gonna be. This program is a copyrighted production of Westar multimedia entertainment and protected by the copyright laws. Any rebroadcast or use of this program for commercial, business, economic, or financial purposes without the written permission of Westar multimedia Entertainment is strictly prohibited.

Top eBay seller makes $25M a year - here's how

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1: Introduction

2: Business Growth and Strategies

3: The Importance of Authenticity

4: Future of Online Selling

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