SO WE'LL START WITH THE COACH PURSE

A new customer walks into our store last week and says that she has a Coach purse she wants to consign. She shows me her receipt, proving its authenticity, then pulls out this GORGEOUS brown Coach purse, matching wallet, and dust bag. She says her husband buys her a new one every two months, and she finally decided she had too many and wouldn't mind a little extra spending money. Must be rough, lol.

Of course, it's all I can do to contain myself - fifty percent of a Coach purse sale is nothing to sneeze at - but I smile and calmly say, "Sure, we'd be happy to sell it for you. I'll set it aside for eBay, as that's the best way to sell a higher-dollar item such as this."

Who knew that it would take an act of Congress to sell a Coach purse on eBay? Even if you have all the paperwork verifying that it's really a Coach (and not, say, a Cooch), eBay will pull your listings before you have the chance to say "Bid Now!"

Six flagged attempts later, I gave up in frustration. I can't tell you how annoyed I was - here I was, sitting on a real authentic moneymaker, and I couldn't sell it!

The next day, one of our regular customers comes in. I'll call her Leeza. She's been with us for well over a year, and when she drops off her things for consignment, the items are almost always in garbage bags. It used to frustrate me, as store policy states ALL dropoffs must be in boxes with lids, but I've gotten over that. It's not unusual for one of Leeza's bags to contain the following:

• 6 empty DVD cases
  
• 2 issues of Yachting magazine (her husband's subscription)
  
• 4 pairs of brand new Hollister jeans
• 2 tubes of used lipstick
• 1 Coach purse
• 1 $3000 diamond tennis bracelet
  

Buried treasures, I call 'em. Obviously Leeza's family has money, so it's always fun to process her items.

Anyway, the day after the eBay fiasco, Leeza comes in with her teenage daughter to drop off two boxes (yes, BOXES! Woohoo!). I figure she knows a thing or three about designer handbags, so I asked her if she had any idea what the purse might be worth. Since eBay wasn't going to work out, I was thinking of putting it on Craigslist, but I had no idea at what value to list it.

The purse was in my car at the time, as I didn't know where to keep it safely in the store (that's another story), so she was guessing its value sight-unseen. From my description, she and her daughter talked about it for a bit, then Leeza said, "Probably about $300-350 new, and you typically price items at about half their original value, right? So I'd say about $150-175 would be a safe bet."

I thanked her profusely, and she left the store. She and her daughter sat in their car and talked for a minute, then Leeza walked back in and said, "If the purse has any leather on it, it's probably worth more than that." I told her that yes, it did have leather handles and accents, then I told her it was in my car and asked if she'd like to see it. She nodded, and we walked outside.

Once I got the purse from the backseat, she held it up and said, "Yes, this is a very nice one." Then she walked it over to her car and showed it to her daughter, who said, "That's easily $400." Pleased to finally have a definitive price range, I thanked them again and took the purse inside, intending to immediately put it on Craigslist with this newfound information.

About two minutes later, Leeza walked into the store and said, "I want to buy it. Ring it up at $200 and I'll take it." Then she handed me her credit card. I rang up the sale, then as I hand her the credit card receipt to sign, she says, "And I want you to have it."

I thought I misunderstood her, and started to protest. She said, "No. You deserve it. You work really hard here, and you always take care of me. I want you to have it."

Again I tried to protest, but she smiled and said, "Listen, I happen to have an extra $200, and I want to do this for you." By this time her daughter had re-entered the store. She also smiled at me and said, "Just take it."

I started to cry. That was definitely the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me at work, and I feel very, very blessed. I certainly never thought I'd have a real Coach purse, but ... wow. How rare is it that something so wonderful happens to a regular Joe like me?