I’ve been selling “stuff” on eBay off and on for the last couple of decades and ran across this CD a couple years ago. It was a little worse for wear, but I noticed that the artist had signed it. Her name didn’t ring a bell, and when I did an online search, I found that she had passed away suddenly in 2018.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/190944790/lori-lee-sechrest
As I recall, it was on the clearance table and priced at a dollar. I had this weird feeling that a family member might see the listing and want to have it. Kinda like finding a photo album packed with pictures of kids, vacations, and birthday parties.
I made the listing, packed it carefully, put it into my storage/inventory, and had forgotten about it.
Contact!
A few days ago, nearly two years after I listed it, I got a message through eBay from her niece:
NIECE: Is this still available? Lori is actually (was) my aunt. She passed a few years ago but I lost my copy of her cd and I would love to get a replacement
ME: Yes it is. I was hoping someone related would see this. 🙂
eBay’s messaging SUCKS – and I was afraid my reply had gotten lost, so I messaged her again the next day.
ME: Did you get my previous message? I do still have the CD and would love for you to have it. I sent you an offer to sell it to you for $5 and hope that works. Ebay charges about 15% of the total selling price and I think the shipping on it will be about $5…so close to breaking even on it for me. Let me know! Thanks for reaching out!
I would have been happy to send it to her for nothing – I had it listed for $9.99 but I really just wanted someone that would appreciate it to have it. eBay REALLY frowns on selling anything, no matter how small, outside the platform. Happily, the money wasn’t a factor – it cost her niece about $11 total, and I profited about $3…and stayed in eBay’s good graces.
NIECE: I just saw your messages! That is so incredibly sweet of you. Brought tears to my eyes. All I have of her voice is a short voicemail that I can’t bring myself to delete. Thank you so much 😭
ME: I found that CD in a thrift store here in Hendersonville, TN. So glad you ran across the listing – I had a “feeling” when I found it, and learned about her untimely passing.
NIECE: Yes. It was so unexpected and sudden. She was a beautiful, wonderful person with a heavenly voice and full of light!Thank you for listening to that “still, small voice” . I believe everything happens for a reason and God can align these types of things perfectly!
ME: That’s awesome! I just knew that she had family out there somewhere. 🙂
NIECE: My mom (Lori’s sister) is so thrilled . She told me to have you keep an eye out for any older cassettes or cds from her older band “Rebel Heart” . Never know what you’ll find in thrifting adventures! But let me know if by chance you come across it one day!
As much as I would LOVE to find some of these other items, the odds against it are astronomical…both for finding them or remembering how to get in touch with the niece. So, I penned the following:
ME: About the “Rebel Heart” band – you might want to do a search on ebay for it, then “SAVE” that search – when one gets listed, it will send you an email or text! I do that with some of the hard-to-find things that I’m looking for and almost everything will eventually pop up.
I’m still visiting the thrift where I got this one almost daily and will definitely keep an eye out for “Rebel Heart.”
Thanks again! You’ve made my day! 🙂
PS
One of the cool things about eBay is that they kinda “cross-post” for you – I’ve found many of my listings online when looking at similar items. I grabbed a screenshot of the listing after I’d sold it. Folks can click right through from the Google results and it’ll take them to that item.
So there’s another little story for me.
I’ve had some great interactions with folks selling online. Probably because I like old stuff that’s managed to survive and hits a memory for someone. A couple of years ago, I sold a video game to a young man who wrote me a little note thanking me for listing it – he had played it with his brother who had passed a few years earlier.
It’s funny how “stuff” triggers memories.
