Resale shop changes hands

Jim Wehrly’s mother Beth had been a dealer of Boyd’s Bears collectables for years. And when she passed away Aug. 7, 2010, Jim and his father Randy were left with her inventory.
So Jim turned to what he already knew in eBay, and the rest is, as they say, history.
“When she passed away, Dad was trying to get rid of the inventory,” Jim said. “We did a test market to see how they’d do (on eBay) and they were flying off the shelves.”
He didn’t start his eBay business with the bears, but rather a “Star Wars” action figure.
“When the ‘Phantom Menace’ came out people were looking for a 3-1/2 inch doll,” Jim said. “I think they were looking for Darth Maul. No one could find them at their local Walmart.
“I could go pick up a couple at a time, buy them for $6 and sell them for $30.”
So for the last 12 years, Jim has been selling a wide array of items on eBay.
In addition to selling bears and other collectables online, Jim’s wife Amy has been attending flea markets and garages sales for years to sell other products.
“I’ll sell anything,” he said. “As they say, ‘If you can make a dollar, you’re going to make a dollar.’
“And that’s what we’ve done.”
As inventory started to pile up within their home, the couple began looking for ways to store their products.
“When you’re running it out of your home you start shrinking your home,” said Jim, a 1992 Jay County High School graduate. “We were exploding from our house and it was time to start looking for something.
“You feel overwhelmed with all the stuff you’ve got, but you want to feel comfortable at home too,”
Jim said he and his wife, a 1990 JCHS graduate, were looking for a storage unit or  a warehouse to store their product, but they felt that having everything in multiple locations would make running their business more difficult.
Through happenstance, the couple purchased Yesterday’s Treasures, 973 S. Meridian St., Portland, from the Bricker and Jonas families
“It was one of those things where we were looking for an air conditioner on Craigslist and saw the business was for sale,” Jim said. “We found it by accident.”
Upon completing the sale of the business, which Jim said took only a few days, Jim came in about every day for a week to get an idea how Jenny had run the business.
“It was very smooth,” he said. “You couldn’t ask for anything better.”
The Wehrlys officially took over the business Monday.
The product at the store is mainly modern furniture, and Jim said product moves rather fast.
“Things go pretty quick,” Jim said. “You just never know what’s going to go each week.
“Product is always coming in and going out.”
Items currently in the store are left over from before the Wehrlys purchased the business, and Jim says he will allow customers to sell things in the store on consignment as well.
The store will also provide the service to sell things through eBay and the Wehrlys seller account that has a 100 percent customer satisfaction rating, which is something Jim said is very important to him.
“eBay is a tough market now because there are so many people out there,” he said. “You need to be at the top of your game and to do that you need to have 100 percent customer satisfaction.
“If a customer isn’t happy we’re going to fix it some way or another.”
The same customer satisfaction is something Jim and Amy hope to continue now that they have a store.
“We’ve been selling more modern stuff at this point, but our eyes are always open for what everybody else wants too,” Jim said.
“We’re listening to what other people want so we’re looking for things to help the people around Jay County.”
Where exactly they get their product, however, Amy would not answer.
“We won’t reveal that,” she said, cracking a smile.
Jim elaborated slightly on how they obtain items.
“We do a lot of shopping,” he said. “You just never know what you’re going to find where.”
Running a business through eBay – and now with a storefront to boot – gives the couple the feeling they are constantly working.
“eBay is a lot of work,” he said.
“You’re cleaning, taking photos, listing the item and doing research. And when it sells you have to get a box, package the item and go to the post office.”
But the couple said they wouldn’t have it any other way.
“She loves the shopping, I love the computer stuff,” Jim said. “Just sitting on the computer, typing in the (item) descriptions, taking the photos …
“What better can you ask?”[[In-content Ad]]