Lawton eBay seller heads to Norman for Seller Event

Moving from Washington D.C. to Lawton to care for her ailing grandparents, Katelyn Huffine never expected she would make a living being an eBay seller.

After six years, she’s not only successful, but will be one of 35 hosts for one of eBay’s annual Seller Events September 24 in Norman. This event will be the first eBay Open Conference held in Oklahoma.

The event is part of an eBay-funded initiative to kick off the annual Open Conference, according to an email sent by Huffine. The conference itself is virtual, but eBay has selected Top Sellers to host in-person events to launch it.

She became a Top Rated seller, was selected for an eBay business grant out of thousands and was named 1 out of 3 eBay Female Entrepreneurs to Watch globally and was the only American that year to do so, another email said.

Huffine worked in Washington D.C. as a nanny before moving all the way to Lawton.

“I was born in Oklahoma, but was mostly raised overseas,” Huffine said. “My grandmother had a pretty big health issue and I had three grandparents living here and they all started declining in health. It kind of made sense for my family to move back here. I moved here with my sisters and my parents so, as a family, we could all be together with my grandparents.”

Once she moved, she realized she needed a new income.

“Eventually, I was realizing I need to start making more money than what I was able to do, especially as a full time caretaker,” Huffine said. “That’s when I started doing some research about how to make money from home. I started selling on eBay just over six years ago and I was able to turn that into a pretty successful business. Within one year, I was able to pay for my family’s mortgage, all our car payments, car insurance and phone bills, which is a really proud moment for me.”

Huffine sells makeup, handbags, shoes, apparel and is working on potentially selling skincare. She started by selling unused or unwanted items in her house.

“I had some items that were brand new, never used, that I was never going to open,” Huffine said. “I ended up making about $50 doing that. I ended up doing some research about other items that might sell. If you’re able to get the right products, you can even get 10 times the amount back, depending on what it is you’re selling.”

She also sells on other websites such as Poshmark, Mercari and Facebook Marketplace.

“In my spare time, I’m learning more about esthetics to eventually develop my own skincare line,” Huffine said. “But right now, I’m beginning to do some consulting for people to build up their own eBay stores. I’ve been making more TikTok videos and YouTube videos, but I also do have a consulting website too.”

Huffine’s success comes not just from research, but her family.

“It was a lot of research at the very beginning, but the only way that I got to where I am now is in getting some help from my family to make this a larger business,” Huffine said. “Everybody’s pitching in so we could start providing for ourselves. It was just consistency, doing a lot of research putting in a lot of practice for listings to see what doesn’t work for sales and what does work, a lot of trial and error.”

To Huffine, family is everything, if not inspirational.

“My grandparents were very inspiring because not only could I take care of their house needs, but I also got to just spend more time with them instead of spending time outside,” Huffine said. “My family encouraged me and they taught me how to believe more in myself and continue on.”

Because of her success, eBay reached out to her to be a guest speaker at the conference.

“They have a group of sellers and they sent me an email asking if I wanted to host that,” Huffine said. “For hosting, it’s going to be me and one other seller who’s from Pauls Valley. She’s also a top seller, so we’re coming together to host that event.”

One of Huffine’s most memorable moments was when she was selected for the eBay Up and Running Grant.

“That’s something that they give to 50 businesses every year out of thousands that apply,” Huffine said. “It gives you a larger platform and it shows that eBay believes in your business and wants to invest in you. It gives you access to a lot of different things that eBay provides as well.”