The Sellers Corner

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In this episode, we talk to Matt a library specialist who turns over six figures online annually, and he shared with us his tips, tricks, and motivational words. Learn how he got started and how he can help you on your journey as well.

Topics discussed in the episode:

· [0:51] How Matt got into reselling

· [5:13] The influencers he follows
· [07:36] Are physical books ever going to go out of trend?
· [10:34] His outlook on reselling

· [12:51] Matt's reselling turnover

· [16:16] His long term goal

· [17:42] Advice for anyone starting out re-selling

Seller Tips:

· Get your tech sorted. Ensure that you have a listing and a scanning software, as that can help streamline many processes in re

· Speclialize in something and be an expert in a niche field. This will help you stand out in the market in front of the competition.
· Approach micro/small press as they would have books relating to the history of your area that is not popular yet. Study more about the history in your area to find your niche.

Transcript: Intro: Welcome to the Sellers corner, an e-commerce podcast with real stories from real sellers. Each episode, we sit down with online sellers all across the globe and talk about overcoming challenges, scaling and putting processes around their online businesses. Welcome to the show!

Chandni: Hey, this is Chandni, and I run marketing at AccelerList. Today, we're going to be talking to Matt, a library specialist who's turning six figures online annually. And he's here to tell you more about it. Let's have a chat with Matt, to help you and inspire you on your seller journey.

Chandni: So what's your store about and why did you pick those items that you sell?
Matt: Okay, well, I've been doing this a good minute. Amazon's just a part of my business. I started out in the punk rock scene, I was living in Southern California, and I go to punk rock shows at the Roxy, Chain Reaction, etc., and I'd have a table of (maga)zines and books from AK press. I was president of the social activism club in high school, and I just read books and wanted to change the world. I was young and thought I could. I've always been a collector. 2008 - I went to college in Missouri. And I was working at the academic library. And then they liked what I did. I learned how to do bibliography and catalogue the biggest equestrian collection in the world. And one of the librarians hired me at the public library where I worked the reference desk and in college. Unfortunately, I was selling on Half(.com), which is part of eBay at the time. And I was ecstatic because I was getting paid 12 bucks an hour and I was tripling my salary selling books that were donated or discarded online. And that's kind of how I got started. It's always been kind of on the back burner. I found a book it was called new stories by Charles Dickens. And it was a first edition that was being offered on the marketplace for $500. And at that moment, my life just changed and I opened up an entirely different world for me with books actually having, you know, monetary value and significance. The library I worked at wanted to pay for me to go get my Masters of Science. But I left for Florida and was involved in the equestrian world. I've always sold books on the side, I worked for a nonprofit in Florida called Faith Farms and handled around 3000 ish books donated a week and wasn't until I'd probably say like seven years ago, eight years ago, I started to delve into Amazon. And this is my third year of not having another job or side hustle. I've always been about you know, working for myself and making money and just trying to survive. I was running an illegal taxicab service with a couple of friends because there's no Uber or Lyft at the time and I offered rides. I'm not sure how familiar you are with like miniature books every year they have a conclave. And in 2016 there was a miniature book conclave and I was offering rides in exchange for books. And I met a dealer Kim and she was wonderful. She connected me with this organisation called IOBA and it's for internet selling of books. I traded her a first edition second state of life and on the Mississippi by Mark Twain for a ride to and from Dallas. And right now I'm partners with a bookstore in Ardmore, Oklahoma called Stranger Than Fiction. We have roughly 70,000 books in the store. I'd say about 15 to 20,000 of them are my books. And then I have a rare book section there. I sell on Amazon, eBay, Biblio. Etsy. I consider myself a dealer's dealer, also to establish dealers and just pass books up the food chain.

Chandni: Oh, that's pretty cool. So do you just do like books or magazines, just anything like reading material type of thing?
Matt: My passion is books. I love books as far as Amazon goes and what AccelerList’s focus is, I do everything on Amazon. I stopped doing CDs, I do video games. I'm a renewed seller, which is kind of unusual. There's not too many people that do that. So I restore video game systems, fix them, and then sell them as refurbish. I'll do a little bit of everything.

Chandni: Ah, that's pretty fantastic. And what do you enjoy?
Matt: Books are my passion though. I guess the thrill of the hunt like everyone else. In my area, I live at the site where the Trail of Tears end in Oklahoma it's Choctaw Nation. I like finding stuff that is historically significant in this area.
Chandni: So do you follow any influencers? Or do you read up any books to help you with your reselling journey?

Matt: Yeah, so I thought about like how to answer that question that would benefit people and I'm just gonna name drop a few people that I really respect that a lot of Amazon sellers, they're not really aware of. There's a lot of ways to sell books dealer I really, really like is Driftlist books, Eddie Nix, Yesterday's Muse by Jonathan Smalter, Heather O'Donnell, who does Honey & Wax, like, I respect people in the trade that have done it for a long time. In the Amazon spectrum, I guess the dealer that I really like his content, and what he does would be Murph books. I think he's a really honest with the videos he shared. And I like how he's phasing in Amazon out, he's doing a lot of interesting things, and anytime a business is for teachers, and helping their local community, I think that's pretty radical. So I guess he would be one of the Amazon sellers, and he's a mega seller. But I like more dealers. I think bibliographic descriptions are really important. And so that's an area myself I struggle with, and I like learning from other rare bookies on how to do it.

Chandni: Okay, great. And is there anything an influencer in particular that you really follow said that you know, had inspired, or you know, impacted your business positively?

Matt: Everything, I get inspiration from everything. Books, I read a, I'd say Umberto Eco, is probably one of the biggest influencers in my life. I love his books and literature. And I'm just like, in awe of his mind, and what he talks about with books, you know, books has only been around since 400. BC, it's, you know, it's every moment in history, you know, like, is been with the history of books, I definitely think we are blessed living in 2021. Having Amazon as a sales channel where people can, you know, make a living selling books, and not working for anyone, you know, that's we're all blessed. And I think we should all be thankful for that.
Chandni: Absolutely. And do you think physical books would ever be phased out? Do you think there is a world that we're heading to? That's just going to be ebooks?

Matt: Absolutely not. And all the signs say the complete opposite. You know, if you look at auctions, books are reaching astronomical levels, and people prefer books. And you know, the studies that have come out in academia say that people learn better with reading books, rather than you know, on a screen, but it is at the same time. eBooks have their own purpose, the transformative nature, getting knowledge into people across cultures and barriers. That's just simply astounding. If you think back 100 years ago, books were for the upper classes, and publishers such as modern library, and, you know, 1930s changed that, where they gave it to the common folks, and reading and, you know, you see a resurgence in arts, and literature, the Renaissance, if you look at the Renaissance, it's from the history of books, when Christianity became the state religion, and philosophy was, you know, pagan and destroyed. If you trace the history of Plato, it went to the Middle East, and they translated into Arabic and used those principles to for, you know, like a sacred geometry for algebra. And then it went from, you know, the Middle East, to Europe, and they retranslated that those works and sparked a renaissance. So the more people read, and the more books come out, it just spreads knowledge, and it's a benefit for humanity. And personally, I'm very impressed with Generation Z. They love books. They're the biggest customers in the bookstore. I think books are gonna be around forever.
Chandni: Fantastic! Well, you heard it from the expert. I'm glad because I love books myself, too. And I prefer that over like a Kindle or reading on the screen really.

Matt: You know, I heard you like fantasy. Do you? Do you collect any fantasy books?
Chandni: No, I tend to read a lot of self-improvement books, like atomic habits and things like that. And the book version, the physical books much better in learning things as opposed to say if I'm reading motivational stuff on the screen doesn't feel as good. So can you tell me about any communities online? Or you're like on the reselling Facebook group or like a discord group, for example?

Matt: I'm on a few discord groups with book dealers. I'm in all the Facebook groups for Amazon. I follow them. You know, knowledge is power. I'm open to joining other groups. That's all I really have to say about that. I’m always interested in learning.
Chandni: Yeah, yeah, that's all good. And then in terms of how your typical day is, can you walk us through that?

Matt: Oh, well, today was a long day. I'm in charge of the library sale for a city near me. And so I moved a ton of books, setting it up, sale starts tomorrow, there's think around 15,000, and I sell for them. One thing that I would mention that would help Amazon sellers is to think outside yourself. When I stopped analysing Keepa and just thinking about the money, and change my premise to what good I could do in the world, what impact I can make a lot more doors opened, you know, this library went from, you know, making $1,000, and my business has generated almost $7000 for their library sale, which creates programmes for children to read, people to get a GED class. And we put good out into the world rather than just me, me, me, money, money, money, it makes life a lot better. I know, a lot of people are very into sales data and looking at books as a stock portfolio; more power to them. However, I've found personally more doors open when you do good. So that's my outlook.
Chandni: Absolutely. And in the past year, ever since the pandemic has started, has your business faced any specific challenges?

Matt: Well, yes, when the pandemic started, I was living in like a where I had a lot of people around me and I moved into the bookstore. And I lived in the bookstore for two months, it was devastating for the bookstore, retail environment. And my partner is 76 years old. So I set her up with eBay. And it's thriving and growing. And I'm about to teach her, how to use your software AccelerList, you know. It's simple enough for a 76-year-old woman to use, and it has some utility for mass listing of books in a fast manner. So, it changed everything. I think COVID changed it better. It benefited online sellers, more than anything, like significant increases because of COVID. And that was great for me, but it destroyed a lot of mom-and-pop businesses.
Chandni: Yeah, so how much do you make months now you can give us an approximate range?

Matt: Well, I'm striving to sell a quarter-million this year.
Chandni: Wow

Matt: That's kind of the area I'm at. That's sounds good. But the simple reality is, and this is the thing of a lot of people do they say they sell so much. However, that's not reality. That's not what you nett. There's Amazon's fees. I think that if you're going to ask someone that they need to tell you their average sales price of books, because that's more of a valid metric. I personally trying to phase Amazon out and develop other avenues for selling. I can't do it yet, because you know, Amazon's a good honeypot. But eventually I'd like to focus more on $200-plus books and not the I guess, hustle and bustle of scanning books and all that.
Chandni: Yep, and do you feel that the seller community online on Amazon has grown, in the past months, because of the pandemic?

Matt: Oh, of course, it has grown a lot. I think that a lot of things that are accepted as canon necessarily aren't true. And I think that there's multiple ways of doing it. And I think that the madness of crowds works a lot with the Amazon selling community that is just not solid advice. One case in point would be collectible books with the crazy price changing things. A lot of people listen to sellers that just said, oh, yeah, put them under collectible books. And that's how you list them. And it's just collectible books are there for a reason. I know it's common that a lot of people say that, you know, listing under collectible books is where books go to die. And that's not true at all. Learning why a book is collectible is fantastic. It's a big part of my business model. And this is something that I'll share that would help out a lot of people. I call it reverse fishing. You know use scanning software right? And it'll tell you okay, this book sells for three bucks. Great, I'm gonna buy it for 10 cents 25 cents to the thrift store makes $3. However, you know, if that book has case points where it's a first edition, you know that $3 profit you're making, you could change it into, in some cases, you know, $50 $200 profit. So, I'll look at sellers on listings, I have roughly 500 books I keep track of and buy when they're listed by Amazon sellers to resell myself. So it's kind of like reverse of, you know, the software for, you know, book arbitration. There's tonnes of ways to make money. And you know, that's learning about the books and the material and how books value can increase is very important.

Chandni: And just so you have an understanding from last year, compared to this year, how much has your sales increased?

Matt: Well, they just changed with storage limits. So, last year was with the start of COVID was much better. I hover around 15 to 25 a month in gross on Amazon. That's why I consider myself a smaller seller compared to many in the Amazon community that are killing it.

Chandni: 15 to 25 thousands yeah? Not sales yeah?

Matt: Yeah.
Chandni: Okay, great. So what are your, I guess, hopes and dreams for the long term?
Matt: My long term dream is to own a bookstore. I want to build a studio apartment above it, and become a curmudgeon and just read books. Something that is influential to me is this book by Larry McMurtry, who is a rare books man, he wrote Lonesome Dove, he wrote this book called Cadillac Jack, and the main character is essentially a scouter. He criss-crosses the country, you know, flipping stuff. And I guess that's what I want to do. And that's what I do. But my long term goal is to do this the rest of my life, and that involves owning a bookstore. That's the only way to really make it a lifetime of selling. And I think that bookstores are fundamentally important for communities. Right now I have a bookstore, I have like three places with antique booths that I sell some stuff. That's what I want to do continue to build my client list to sell to individuals, rather than you know, having amazon or eBay get a cut, I'd rather sell directly to them and make friends and learn. That's what I'm about.

Chandni: That's great. Do you have any bits of advice for anyone that's starting out?

Matt: I guess the standard is okay. A listing software, get scanning software, that's A-to-Z basic stuff, and it can change your life and it will help you and your family and that's great. However, you could get the next level and continue to grow and do better. Specialise in something. Become an expert on something no one knows about. I think that's an untapped market. Wherever you live, find out about the local history, poets, historical events, whatever. There's tons of books that are micro press, or small press that explain really significant historical events that are unknown, that don't have a sales history. For example, I live about 30 miles from Bonham, Texas, and Sam Rayburn. He was the longest speaker of the house in the country. He was an avid book man, they have library of his books, and learning Prohibition Party and to buy alcohol because of their political influence in the 1940s and 50s, which still resonate, and that is important. And that's where history, if you look at academia, history is going. I opened up a bookstore in Kansas City, or I helped open up a bookstore called Crossroads Info Shop. It’s a radical bookstore. In 2016, University of Kansas acquired the (maga)zines, you know, late 90s, early 2000s (maga)zines about music and politics, for their collections. There's all sorts of things like and it could be anything that are collected for historical reasons, and you're able to monetize that if your eyes are opened to opportunities, and you can explain the significance of something. And you could take any class or just read forums and learn the basics. But if you want to grow, it's just learning more, and I try to do that daily myself.
Chandni: Well, we've come to the end of the questions, but I really appreciate, you know all the candid knowledge that you've shared with us.
Outro: Thanks for listening to another episode of the Sellers corner. If you would like to be a guest on the show, please send an email to podcast@accelerlist.com. Accelerlist also offers a generous 21-day free trial when you enter coupon code podcast on the registration page. Now is the time to start with Amazon and break into freedom with your own business.

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In this episode, we talk to Jon aka A Man with a Mission, who has been in the reselling business for the past 3 years, and he shared with us his tips, tricks, and motivational words. Learn how he got started and how he can help you on your journey as well.

Topics discussed in the episode:

· [3:48] What he enjoys doing for the business

· [5:39] The influencers he follows
· [07:35] How he got started
· [11:23] Insights on his daily routine

· [15:31] Greatest challenge in the recent years

· [21:26] Jon's short-term goals

· [25:25] Advice for anyone starting out re-selling

Seller Tips:

· Always check and double-check your selling information and get familiar with the software and tools you use.

· Take the leap and go for it! You can start your business anytime. Waiting for the right time is a myth. All you got to do is act.

Chandni: Hey, this is Chandni, and I run marketing at AccelerList. Today, we're going to be talking to Jon, a man with a mission. And he's here to inspire you and help you on your seller journey.

Chandni: So, what do you sell? And how did you get into it?

Jon: Okay, we're in a weird transition right now in the business. I started selling books on Amazon, kind of as a part time thing and getting started into it, what I was doing about 99% of on Amazon specifically, and then I was selling little whatnots on eBay. But now we are heavily transitioning into like collectibles and toys and video games and that kind of things now. And I would say we're probably doing 90% of that, and probably just 10% of books now. So we're kind of a weird transitioning phase, in my opinion, because I'm not used to it because I'm so familiar with books. But that's kind of what we sell. We do pretty much tonnes of toys and video games. But I got started into it. It's kind of a funny story. I was pretty much doing a route, I was driving on a job full time. And I would just watch and put on when I was driving, I would just put on like a YouTube video and sit it in the passenger seat and just listen to people talk and just explain what they do. And I was I thought it was cool. So I went ahead and just started doing it part time on eBay. And then soon after, maybe less than a year after I was able to go full time just watching them do that. And I've pretty much learned from YouTube on how to do it. So yeah

Chandni: That's pretty cool. And what's your favourite collectible that you sell on eBay?

Jon: Oh, man. I would probably say I'm a real big video game guy, but I'm not gonna lie. I'm pretty. I really like the old nostalgia toys. I've had a old 1980s Ninja Turtle lot for probably six months, because I'm having a hard time just playing with them. You know, when I was a kid, and I just like my wife is always like, when you're gonna list that and get that, you know, out of the work room? And I'm like, Well, I'm not I'm not done, you know, not done with it yet.

Chandni: Yeah. And how much would something like that fetch in 2021?

Jon: Oh, man, I have probably 80 figures with all their guns and accessories and everything. And I'm not sure how I want to list it. Yeah, there's multiple avenues to go a lot of people usually do auctions on that kind of stuff. But I regularly see loose figures of lots of 10s sell for 50, 60, 70 bucks, without accessories. I would say the lot's worth close to at least $1,000 or more so.

Chandni: Oh, that's great. But yeah, they're so precious hey, so. So what part do you enjoy the most and reselling? Do you like, you know sourcing the items? Or do you enjoy the marketing bit where you get on the platforms and create stuff?

Jon: Man, there has to be hands down. For me, it's just finding the stuff. Always been into. And I like to say like this, I always like to go and look at what another person's junk is and find value in it. It's just I guess the right words to say that I use commonly is just the thrill of the hunt. Just getting out there at a yard sale or in a thrift store or something and just digging through a bunch of mess and pulling out something valuable. And you know, I'm a big person on a lot of the stuff that I sell to so it's just finding neat stuff and just awesome thing. So I would probably say sourcing pretty good.

Chandni: Okay, yeah, that's common with many resellers. They do enjoy the sourcing bit and you know, seeing the value it brings to the customer at the end.

Jon: It's just I really like just knowledge in general of random obscure things. So when I was able to do reselling, it was just kind of like one of those things that I got to do a job where I could just find random things that I knew nothing about and spend an hour researching it. You know, and just learning about it. And it's just that, to me that that's just awesome because I like history. I like a bunch of random stuff and expectedly like, I got to explaining nostalgia toys and stuff, and video games. It's like when I find something that I've never seen before, and then I get to sit down and read about it. And then it's just, it's just kind of like, taking a luxury and making it a job, you know. So, doing so being able to do it as a job just, it's just great.

Chandni: And that's good fun, isn't it?

Jon: Yeah, yeah. Well.

Chandni: So, do you follow any influencers are do you read up any books to help you with your reselling journey?

Jon: Oh, a lot. Actually. I do. A lot of both. Influencers, one of the main people that got me into it was Raiken Profit. He was a big bookseller. And I pretty much just watched his videos on repeat, learning how to use Amazon. And it's kind of funny the podcast I listened to before this was Caleb from Phoenix Resales, and I'm only actually about 45 minutes from him. So I watch Phoenix Resales quite a bit with Caleb, and then Rally Roots, Hairy Tornado all those guys just just the pretty much Chad Flip Cincinnati picker all those guys from you know, the resale community on YouTube. There's there's a lot of them Retro Rick, all those guys. So I just, while I'm working, I used to have a TV in my work room. So typically, while I'm listening or, you know, prepping, cleaning, whatever I need to be doing, I have a YouTube video on in the background. One of those guys. So there's always got something on. But my morning routine. What I do every morning, I have this morning routine that I do. And I read at least a chapter a day of a book. So books, Rich Dad Poor Dad.

Chandni: Yep, yep. I love that one.

Jon: Yeah, so that stuff I read a lot of I'm a student pastor of a church. So I read a lot of like, spiritual health, mental health, self-help kind of stuff. So, but right now I'm reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. Man, difference maker. I mean, I don't know. It's just, I just read a lot of stuff like that.

Chandni: So what's something that an influencer, I guess said or something you read that has really impacted your business positively?
Jon: Oh, wow. I would say not to be a general statement question. But like a lot of resellers say this, especially when you're watching like How To videos. They just say just take the leap and get started, you know, and then don't worry about trying to make it a full time job. Just get started. And I was always one of those ones. Like I had a job. I was working six days a week, we were providing for my family, we were doing good. And then I just put it off and put it off and put it off. And then I took I was like alright, so I'm gonna go ahead and get started. And I was actually watching it last night watching but I was listening to the video of Raiken Profit. And he literally just said, the next yard sales you see pull over take five bucks, see if you can find something. I was like, All right. So me and my wife was just kind of driving around, I had the video playing, and I seen a yard sale sign on a Thursday. And then I pulled over to the yard sale. And this lady had a giant tub of martial art DVDs, and they were all sealed brand new. Then there's like 100 and something I can't remember this was when I first started is the first purchase I ever made. And I walked up I didn't have a clue. Like I didn't know anything about them. Or nothing, I was like, oh, what's on your DVDs? What do you got on um, she was like I tell you what, you give me five bucks. You can have every single one of them. And I said wow, I said are so I'll take it so I ended up buying that for five bucks. It's kind of funny because he literally said just take five bucks. And I bought that whole tub and I ended up selling every single one of them on eBay within like the first three months for 20, 30, 40 dollars a piece. So and there was over 100 DVDs. So that's pretty much how I kickstarted my thing. Just off of like just pull over. Take five bucks, see what you can find.

Chandni: That's great. And what were you doing before that, like in terms of like your full-time work?

Jon: Well, I was kinda in my own business at the time. But I was with working with my father-in-law and we delivered medical supplies throughout the state of Kentucky in the city of Ohio, West Virginia that kind of stuff. But I was still self employed to a cent, but we were just delivering medical supplies through contract incoming.

Chandni: Okay, this is slightly different. And I'm sure you'd like the variety of how things have changed, hey?

Jon: Absolutely, I was driving 350 miles a day, six days a week, and I had to drive an hour and 20 minutes to the war house from my house. So it was about 14 hour days, six days a week, and then it for a little over three years, and I'm not gonna lie, it was kind of miserable, you know?

Chandni: Yeah. And do you engage with any type of reselling communities online, like on Facebook, or Discord?

Jon: I do to an extent, I've not really kind of branched out into all of that yet, I comment and converse back and forth a lot on YouTube videos. But as far as Facebook, I'm not a real big Facebook guy. I had an Instagram at one point, but then I kind of let it fall to the wayside. My wife is more of that than I am. But I as I say, I do a lot on YouTube, because I engage in a lot of their videos and lives and stuff like that. So.

Chandni: Okay, that's good. That's YouTube, then. And so can you walk us through, you mentioned that you read some books in the morning, or you make it a habit to do that in the morning. What's your typical day like? Or it's typical routine?

Jon: Like, okay, like, my typical workday, like routine? So usually, I'm a, you know, like I stated before, I'm a student, pastor of a church. And I've always believed that if you have poor physical health, or mental health, or spiritual health, those poor things, right, you know, if you're, if you're always in a bad state, then it's hard to produce good things out of a bad state. So I always like to do like, mental, physical, spiritual improvement everyday, just so you can kind of get out of that bog or stay positive, right?

Chandni: Yep, yep!

Jon: Typically, it was hard, but I will usually get up about 530 every morning. And then I'll go through my morning routine of getting ready. It usually takes me about 30 minutes to kind of get ready for the day. And then I'm only about five minutes from my church so that I drive over to my church. Usually, there about six. And then I just do my normal, I guess, spiritual part of the day where I pray my Bible, study that kind of stuff. And usually get back to my house about seven o'clock, and around seven o'clock, that's when I read like my mental thing, business books, self help books, whatever, usually read a chapter of that. And then I go through just after that's done, I usually go ahead and prep all of my eBay packages that need to go out that day. And then usually, I'm done with at about 830. You know, I eat breakfast, and I go to the gym at 9. And then I usually do 9 to 10, 10:30-ish, depends on the day with the gym, and then I get back around, like I said, 10:30 because, I live right in the middle of town of my little community here. So I'm literally five minutes from everything. So don't take me long to get back and forth. But then I'm usually home about 1030 that I start work, and I'll work probably 10:30, 11 o'clock to 330, 4, 5 o'clock, depending on what the day brings. If it's a sourcing day, and I have to drive a little bit, then it's typical. But yeah, I usually just do work at that time. And then, you know, one of the big parts of the job is, you know, having the flexibility. So, if I got something with the family or got something with church, then the days cut short, but on the days, but I don't, I usually work a little bit later. But that's typically my day.

Chandni: So, how long have you been selling again? Since which year?

Jon: I started eBay back in the end of oh no, it was kind of like November, December of 2017. But very lightly, I mean, not much at all. And then I've picked up a lot. And at the end of 2018 on really getting into it. And then September of 2020 I started Amazon, and then that was that's how long I've been doing that. So.

Chandni: Yep. And in that time, how have you felt the reselling community has been in both platforms. Do you think it's grown especially with the pandemic in the past year?

Jon: Absolutely. I think it's grown quite a bit. I remember back when I first started going to like thrift stores and yard sales you never really seen hardly anybody. Yeah, and then now very rare for me to go sourcing especially for like Amazon or something and not run into somebody else. You know. So this picked I have quite a bit in my in my area, so to speak, you know, like I said, I'm only 45 minutes from Caleb in Lexington there. So it's just one of those things that I've just noticed an increase.

Chandni: Yep. And do you think it's because people are trying to find like another means or another stream of income?

Jon: Yeah, I would say because like, the pandemic was pretty rough on my little community and in this area, like the surrounding areas.

Chandni: Yeah. And so what's the biggest challenge you've faced in this past year? Or has the business face for example?

Jon: The biggest challenge, I would say, personally, that I've faced over this past year, I guess, business-wise is just the aspect of scaling. One of the things that I've just it's just me doing it, my wife helps when she can. But I've got two kids. So they're both young, I got a two year old little boy and a four year old little girl, so they kind of consume her whole time. And we were actually able to grow the resale to the point where she was able to quit her job too. So she just stays home and takes care of the kids. And then I do this, but she's pretty much consumed with them all day. So just being by myself, and trying to, you know, just get enough inventory and get past I've kind of reached a plateau. And I'm actually right before we called, I actually got my first manufacturer wholesale wholesaler order into.

Chandni: Oh, that's great! Feels good, doesn't it?

Jon: Yeah, yeah. So I should be getting on gated in some brands that I've been trying to get on gated in for a while. So hopefully, that works out pretty good. But just scaling because like, kind of being just me and just trying to make enough to sustain the company. And then you know, take care of the family at the same time. Plus, get more to scale. Just finding a balance on how to pay, you need to make sure you're sourcing this, the items, you make sure you're listing this many items. And then on top of that, you're like, What do I need to do extra to take it past the point that I'm at? So it's just been it's just been a little bit of a struggle. I say in the past year, I've really been trying to focus on growing the business. But for some reason, it's been a little slow.

Chandni: Yeah, I think when there's so many things to juggle, yeah, can be a challenge. So has there been any point of event or any failure or any specific challenge in the business and ever since you started that, you know, you've overcome any lessons you've learned from it?

Jon: My wife always says this is a very sensitive topic for me. Because there's there's always one thing that just sticks out that every time I think about, I just want to close my laptop and just go sit on the couch and think about what I did. Okay. Yeah, so it's one of those things.

Chandni: Yeah, no, you don't have to share it. If you're not comfortable, we can move on.

Jon: No, I'll go ahead. It's not that it was to me, it was very dumb. It might not be that crazy to somebody else. Like, sort of caught it, but learning to generalise. The answer is learning to use all the softwares just like I was stating, before being just me. I was always looking at softwares, programmes, things to use to help me more manage my time and make things faster. So once this is reasonable, otherwise I get intor AccerlerList, but I also have a repricing tool that I use, and I researched it watched videos, read the frequently asked questions. I did all of that. To make a long story short, I missed something. And I was using a repricing tool and I come across a lot I was doing retail arbitrage. And I came across a bunch of Delta faucets and they were heavily heavily discounted because apparently they just been sitting there forever and I got like a $1,300 faucet. Okay, brand new sealed and I only paid like 200 bucks for it. And like I was gonna make you know well over $1,000 profit on it. Well I listed it on Amazon put it on my repricer to painted it with the prices. Apparently by the time I sent it in, everybody that was on that listing had sold out so I was the only listing which is good. Well you know, being the only one on the listing was good. Becase it was a decent sales rank. So I was on that listing but my repriceer had it set up when there was no competitive offers for some reason when nobody else was on the listing it repriced it to $12.99 and it sold immediately. So I had a you know, super valuable faucet sell for 13 bucks. It hurt a little bit because I was I was very new. I'd only been doing Amazon. It was probably three months I was in Amazon. So I was like, man, this is this is give me a good chunk of money once it sales to flip, right? And just saying that because as soon as it sold my phone went off and I was working, so I checked it. And I was like, no way. And then I went and looked at it, and then it was the expensive faucet, so for 13 bucks, and then I took a loss on because I spent 200 on it, but then I took a major loss because it should have sold for, you know, 1000 plus dollars. So yeah, my wife tried to console me over it and tell me not to worry about it that you know, somebody might have really needed that. And they got a really good deal. And I'm like, Yeah, but it still don't hurt us, so.

Chandni: Yeah, it's a write-off, hey, so.

Jon: Yeah, yeah, so learning, learning the software was a big thing. And then, I've just double checked and double checked and double checked on everything I use now to make sure I fully understand what I'm doing. So things like that don't happen again. So.

Chandni: Okay, that's a lesson learned. And thanks for sharing that with us.

Jon: Not, not a problem.

Chandni: So, what are your some hopes for the near future? Do you have any short-term goals and, you know, progressively any kind of big dream or any long-term goals you're trying to achieve?

Jon: Short-term goals is pretty much get I'm working from home right now. And we fortunately, were able, in the past three months able to move into a new home, to give us a little bit more space. But it's kind of tight still. So my short-term go is to hopefully I say short-term in the next year, be able to get a space specifically for my work. So that's that's what I'm working towards now to be able to get from one room in my house to a storefront not for brick-and-mortar purposes, but just a store that I can get in or a warehouse that I can get in that can just specifically be my workspace, and then for the second year, to maybe hire a couple people to help. So that's a short-term goal, that's that's something I'm really looking into short-term, just because it's a lot right now in this little room. But long-term is to pretty much have it self-sustained, to the point to where that if my company name is driven missions, and we named it that because we're really heavy into missions and community work and different things like that. And, I would love to be able to just say, you know, I'm gonna take it two months, three months missions trip to wherever, and just go. And then my employees be able to sustain the business while I'm gone. So I don't have to shut my business down for two months, and then come back and kind of restart. Because if you if you go two months without listing or two months without working, then everything you've worked up to that point is dwindled away, you know? So, and I don't want that to happen. Because, you know, I don't want to think the business, but then just a long-term goal to be able to sustain the business to the point that if I wanted to take a two month trip to Jordan or to Haiti or whatever, I can just go, you know, long time.

Chandni: Tell me more about your missions. That sounds quite interesting and impactful, really. So, what's it about?

Jon: Oh, we, our church does a lot of locally, our church has a lot of community work. We have a soup kitchen, we do what we call Matthew 25 Ministries, where we bring people clothe people, do all that kind of stuff. So we have a lot of that going on in our community. We have Celebrate Recovery, where we help folks with addictions and stuff like that. Our church has partnered with a company called Unite, that kind of deals with the addiction-based stuff, and it's helping, people who don't necessarily have a way out, helping them find a way out and helping them get to a rehab or helping them get a job or helping them whatever. So we got a lot of that going on locally, but globally, our church is with a organisation called The United Pentecostal Church International, and they have a missions programme that me and my wife are involved in, and actually in October of this year, we had planned to go to Jordan for a short time and help some missionaries that are in Jordan. But because of all the craziness happening over there right now, it ended up having to be cancelled because of just some restrictions and stuff that they had placed on the country there. So we wasn't able to go there. But that's kind of what it is we go and just kind of help in that community help that church, channel whatever they got going on, we had learned a little bit about a Bible school, we were going to go help at a Bible school there, orphanage that they had. So yeah, it's just kind of like, goes with that kind of thing. So it's kind of in general statement, I guess.

Chandni: Do you have any last bits of advice for anyone starting out in reselling?

Jon: Oh, yeah, one thing that, that I learned really quick, that is not as hard as it seems. But you got to put the research in. So just make sure you're researching your items thoroughly. Going, if you're on eBay, looking at your sold listings, if nothing is selling, if that like, I fell into a trap of when I first started, like, I'm standing, I'm really big into certain items. And I would buy stuff because I thought they were awesome. I thought they were cool, but they would never sell. So just trusting the sold listings, if there's no sold listings on that item, no matter how neat it is, just pass. So just researching your items, and and learning that and if you're on Amazon trust the sales rank. None of that stuff ever lies. If there's no solds it's never on sale. If the sales ranks super high, it's never gonna sell. So you just need to research your items, I would say that's the biggest thing is just making sure that you're buying quality items and not just random stuff. So.

Chandni: Do you want to add anything else?

Jon: Um, I guess I'll just say it was a pleasure. Definitely appreciate the opportunity. I know it kind of sped through some of those questions. I guess for that I just talk a little fast. But.

Chandni: Yeah, no, it was great having a chat with you and you know, the work that you do, it's just great, the missions and all of that! So keep doing that, you know.

Jon: Yeah, well appreciate it. Thank you.

Outro: Thanks for listening to another episode of the Sellers corner. If you would like to be a guest on the show, please send an email to podcast@accelerlist.com. Accelerlist also offers a generous 21-day free trial when you enter coupon code podcast on the registration page. Now is the time to start with Amazon and break into freedom with your own business.

View Details

In this episode, we talk to Bob, a creative entrepreneur who pivoted from the popcorn-making business into online resales and he shared with us his tips, tricks, and motivational words. Learn how he got started on his journey and more!

Topics discussed in the episode:

· [0:45] Why he started selling online

· [5:49] Pivoting from popcorn selling into Amazon
· [07:33] On why he chose re-selling books
· [10:27] The power of online resources in re-selling

· [12:15] Bob's typical day

· [16:10] Greatest challenge in the past 18 months

· [25:32] Advice to anyone who’s starting out in re-selling

Seller Tips:

· Be patient! Starting out reselling takes time to scale, so does any other online business.

· Start early and make the most of online resources like YouTube

Transcript: Intro: Welcome to the seller's corner an e-commerce podcast, where the real stories from real sellers, each episode, we sit down with online sellers all across the globe and talk about overcoming challenges, scaling and putting processes around their online businesses. Welcome to the show.

Chandni: Hey, this is Chandni. And I run marketing at AccelerList. Today, we're going to be talking to Bob, a creative entrepreneur who pivoted from the popcorn-making business into online resales and he's here to inspire you and help you on your seller journey.

Chandni: Can you tell me what's your store about and why did you pick those items?

Bob: Well, we made a purchase some time ago with a product called Magnaloc, magnetic shower curtain fillers. And we tested them and I noticed a guy was trying to sell about 20,000 of them. And I noticed that he was in my area he was in Henderson, Nevada, which is only about 10 minutes away from me so made an offer and bought those and I didn't realise how many 20,000 was. So we ended up having to throw away a bunch of them because I didn't have storage for them. And but they've been doing good for us. I have had diabetes for like 33 years type one and between my health and my oldest son has Down Syndrome, and he's 40 and he starting to have some discipline challenges with us. So, I decided to close a business that I had, we used to make the best popcorn in the country. And we had a lot of fun with and we did a lot of customised labels and things like that. So people's pictures on it, and it was just a lot of fun but there's a lot of work so I've been looking for different things which be a lot less physical and doable from home, and that way you can spend time with Jason and get some stuff going in. Might say I'm a little on the older side. So, in diabetics, they generally don't live quite as long as their partners and so I got to make sure I've got something in place within the next five years make sure that if by chance hopefully I don't but if by chance I end up leaving the world got my wife pretty well set so my goal is to accumulate about 500,000 in this next five years. So what we've been doing is we take the money that profits and I've been trying to invest in stocks we purchased the book from a gentleman named Charles Payne man this guy is sharp he's got a very good track record and long term is what we're looking at so so basically we're investing in stocks that they recommend and in his programme that gives a text they feel it's a good idea to purchase a certain stock or sell certain stock so that's kind of where we're at in that. In the books and stuff we found that a thrift store where I just buy all the books they have and it comes out to like six cents apiece. So that seems to be working out pretty profitable because there will be there's a lot that we can't sell on Amazon but I'm trying to learn the eBay stuff and it seems like you should be able to bundle these books and still make a profit out of them. So basically that's our game plan and we've come across some pretty cool stuff and we are known as Angeles popcorn on Amazon we're not going to change that even though we're not doing popcorn I did keep some of my equipment to do popcorn for family events and stuff like that our eBay our store is called take a look folks because what we're trying to do is film it, they can get pictures and again that's just started so there's not a lot on there I think I got eight items but this week we're going to start working and getting bundles and stuff they sometimes they take too long to kind of learn the stuff but but again with drop V and diabetes makes it a little tougher and as quickly as I'd like to all stop. But, I'm still getting it done even being in bad health so tell people not to give up.

Chandni: Yeah, no that's the spirit and just curious what kind of flavours of popcorn Do you sell all types?

Bob: Well we normally sell or did have, we had used to have over 30 flavors

Chandni: Over 30 flavours?

Bob: Yes, and that's a store that was feasible. Do you like coffee?

Chandni: No, I don't drink coffee. I drink tea.

Bob: Yeah, my wife drinks the tea. I love coffee. So I made a coffee popcorn. And so I took her basic Carmel and I put coffee flavouring in it and she absolutely loved it. She hates coffee and I was just so shocked. It was just unbelievable. But, we do different stuff. Christmas time you do cherry and green apple. One which was absolutely phenomenal was black cherry. Problem is it turn your tongue black. So it was fun to play jokes on people with that. Well but Halloween you can do orange and black cherry. There's so many different things. It was just mainly more of a hobby we didn't we didn't do as much money positive because we were building up to that but equipment stuff like that you you can have $20,000 - $30,000 invested in equipment and that just takes a long time to turn things around and to have a break even so yeah, but again, it was fun and people love to have their pictures on things so kids see their picture on their their birthday popcorn or someone graduating. We just enjoyed it.

Chandni: Wow okay and did you find your skills transferable from from what you were doing previously to pivoting online and selling on Amazon?

Bob: Well there, Amazon was fairly easy because we just did the FBA which ship these things and to Amazon and then they've take care of everything I'm not a big fan of Amazon they just don't really seem to give the seller a lot of protection and they make it very easy for the buyer to destroy your product and it will keep your product and so I don't really like that aspect of it. But the weight of the magnets that we shipped to Amazon it's just not feasible for us to take an order and pay the shipping and stuff to a client just because of the weight of it. Overall we're doing okay with Amazon, but again they seem to lose like the books we just recently started the books and actually sold like 27 of them so far so it's not real bad. It could be done. But a problem is they keep losing or misplacing them or saying missing SKU and then there's documentation that shows right on the shipping queue or whatever it's called showing they received them but they make it very very difficult for you to get help when you're trying to locate some of these expensive books that they have are anxiously saying don't exist but overall we're doing well with them but I think once I learned the eBay again My problem is I'm not the sharpest with the computers on stuff so it's a little difficult for me figuring out all the stuff we're supposed to look at usually something real simple I just do not know where to look but I think we'll be okay with the the eBay just doing the bundles so that's the game plan in that aspect.

Chandni: Awesome. So are you selling on other platforms other than Amazon and eBay?

Bob: Um No I just recently started the the eBay and we're going to kind of go against what is suggested because I want the product to be packaged reasonable and stuff, the worst shrink wrapping and making sure and not sending or under if something's very very good, we're classifying them as good and I might not do acceptable anymore probably pretty good we don't send garbage but the problem is when someone buys it buys something even though you specify there's a flaw or whatever the case may be they're still expecting new it seems like. So, we might not do any more acceptable even though our acceptable is probably better than good. One of the reasons I decided on books is I had ordered some books just to kind of test and see what people were selling and eBay a lot of them that we purchased that said very good man those suckers were in horrible shape some of them were like in one book came in two pieces but they were classified as very good. A lot of them were water damage and stuff and I thought well shoot we can offer the same type of product but go take a little extra time again I know everybody says not to but again we're going to make sure the books are in good shape before we ship anything out and protect them because you're shipping to Amazon seems like they can get damaged pretty easily in their stores so we're gonna go above and beyond which again I know the whole idea is to get stuff out quick and then I say my help isn't the best and I'm a old guy so I have no problem taking my time and then like say we're generating between two and 3000 profit each month now doing the stuff we are doing magnets and the other products we've sold so

Chandni: Yeah, amazing and what's the part you enjoy the most you enjoy the marketing part like you know, typing things up digitally creating the listing so do you enjoy the sourcing part of things such as finding the books, finding the magnets and all sorts of things to sell?

Bob: Finding the books is kind of fun, but again with I use the scout IQ, but the problem is it is difficult for me to do a lot of bending down and getting the lower ones and stuff like that. And like say we found a thrift store where just buy all the books and comes out to be about six pence a unit which is pretty darn good. And a few of the books we found like 20 $30 profit. So for as many books as we're getting, and they're basically in pretty darn good shape. We've checked out favours in place like that. But a lot of those books end up being $3 a piece and stuff like that. And I was kind of surprised from because I've been watching a lot of YouTube and stuff like that. And everybody makes it sound like you can buy the real cheap at a lot of the thrift stores. But that doesn't seem to be the case. And a lot of them that I've looked at other than this one that I found, but I can't complain this they get some good stuff. And they got a little bit more than just books. So that makes it kind of interesting.

Chandni: Great! You mentioned YouTube just now. So can you let us know? Do you follow any influences or any books that you read to inspire you in your reseller journey? Or any communities that you join, like Facebook groups and stuff?

Bob: Yeah, I actually wasn't a big fan of Facebook, I'm not really don't like to get into listen, everybody complain about different things. So we had cancelled our Facebook. Then once I started doing YouTube, we look in YouTube and listen to AccelerList and IQ. I mean Scout IQ, I joined those groups. But I'm also taking some classes, which I paid for, through the Charles Payne, to learn about the stocks and stuff. So it's it's I've got a lot going on. And like say, the Facebook groups I was able to get back on. But it was a little bit of confusion, I signed up for the groups, then when I tried to save it, they told me I needed to clear my cache on the computer. So I did that. So I lost all this information on how to get into these Facebook places. And then when I tried to it kept indicating that I had the wrong email the wrong phone number and stuff like that. So that was getting a little frustrating. About a week or so ago, we were able to get back on, re-sign up for the Facebook. And so we joined AccelerList and that, well rejoined, and a couple other. And there's a few people on I don't remember the names, I'm horrible with names, but they're few people very interested in listening to on YouTube. And a lot of them talk specifically about books. And some of them talked about the other stuff. So it's kind of a learning experience. It's kind of fun.

Chandni: Oh, that's nice. So can you walk us through a typical day? Is it the same every day or different?

Bob: Well, we with my son, everything that's quite demanding a sporty. And actually, when he was born, I was 21. So chance of a Down Syndrome child being born to someone 21, my wife was 20. And actually, we've been married for 41 years! The lady is very, very patient. He'll tolerate to live with us throughout his whole life. And that's created some challenges and stuff. So we got to make sure he's taken care of and looked out after even though he's quite self-sufficient in a lot of manners. And again, since I'm able to buy all the books from the thrift store at one shot, I go down there that doesn't take long. And then we'll go through here and I use the AccelerList with the computer with the scanner and all that. So it will give me a better idea of what should sell for certain prices and stuff. So we list them at that. And scout IQ we just kind of double check them we're doing both. I was considering doing the shoot selling merchant fulfilled. That's what I was called. And it's that seem to be quite confusing as far as matching the prices with what I thought that would be able to generate a fair amount of sales. But that didn't seem to work out too well. But I think we had our settings incorrect. So we're going back to a bunch of the books we've got and some information that they suggested on the YouTube, like scout IQ, for example, they show where your number in the books and stuff and that one gentleman has suggested doing a little ticket to-buy that raffle ticket or we did we took the stickies and every time we put it on our shelf, we've got like 001, 002 and stuff like that. So when the books do sell on the eBay and stuff, we'll know which ones they are without having to dig through a tonne of them. So that that stuff we're working on then and again, learning through the YouTube again, they're just amazing all the stuff you can find on YouTube. That's basically how we got started with our popcorn business. I learned more from YouTube than I did before starting the business. YouTube is pretty cool.

Chandni: Oh, that's great. So do you have any kind of like routines in your day that you know helps you get started or, or you know, prepares you for your reselling?

Bob: Well, you know, I get up at 630 and I check, see how my stocks are doing and which haven't haven't been the best here lately, but again, we're looking at long-term. That's what we are interested in. Unfortunately, people panic and sell everything and then they have stocks go back up. So let's get those out. And they're generally what we've got is like say they have a zoom thing too so that they are pretty easy to get into you just put your email in there and you can listen to their answers and some of the fast-start classes that they have. So generally there's one at 10am our time and 11am and sometimes two, so sometimes depend on what day it is, I'll listen to those. And recently, we've been purchasing stuff to make a little bit easier to prepare our books. And one of the items we bought off eBay some time ago is one of these lazy Susans. So if you ever shrink wrap something, just whip that thing around and run the heatgun over and sell them up pretty quick, that works out pretty good. And again, while stuff I'm doing is gonna take a lot more time, and most people are going to be willing to do, I don't want people to see what they're buying. Because after I bought those books off eBay, and then being in such horrible shape, I don't want someone to be guessing on the vinyl, I want them to see what what it is. So we are going to institute YouTube videos on when we do that. And the turntable makes that doable too. Because you can move that around while you're filming it. And like I said, we've had a handful and we just bought something for shrink wrapping it's like a wand where you can make it a lot easier to cut the plastic and put it together and different pieces compared to what we were doing. So..

Chandni: Yeah, that's quite innovative from on your part, I'd say. So when did you start selling again, which year,

Bob: We've probably been doing it maybe two years, maybe three, I'm not I'm not the best at keeping track all this stuff. We were fortunate with the COVID. When we had our popcorn business open, we closed it in May, May 31. And COVID pretty much killed us because we would do the customised people's birthday stuff. And we actually provided Grad gear comedy club with their popcorn. And then when COVID came, it just kind of killed us. And so the magnets, enter, and our Amazon sells basically kept our doors open and if not for that we would have to close long time ago. And so that allowed us time to make a decision to close shop and not furnace. So the decision I mean I love doing the popcorn love doing the custom stuff. But it's kind of a blessing in some aspects. I mean, learning how much we could make from the Amazon sells at that we should not continue the popcorn because we could take that money invest in and buying other stuff to sell and to invest in the stocks

Chandni: Touching on COVID. What do you think was the greatest challenge in the COVID period for you? Was it this?

Bob: Well, I'm at very high risk. And my son is on oxygen 24/7 and has heart and lung issues. So we just basically super cautious, we were cautious anyhow. And with a Down Syndrome child, what he's not child, he's 40. But he's still still child does. So the routine is tough when you change the routine, because we'd go out like a father son every Friday and get something to eat at horrible places like the hamburger joints, and stuff like that. But that was a routine he loved to do. So that was probably the biggest challenge with us and also being extra cautious with him. I mean, we even stopped when our kids come over we because we didn't want to take a chance on something happened mainly to Jason but again, I'm pretty high risk also. So that was a tough part not being able to get our family and stuff in to the house. But we would get together with masks and stuff a little bit keeping distance outside the house or in the backyard or whatever the case may be. So the toughest part is not being able to have people in the home and seeing and overall hearing some of the stories about some of the difficulty other people's had I mean people don't really realise how lucky they are. Until they see what circumstances happen to other people. So, we've been very fortunate he was my diabetes mate 53 years having type one diabetes, really didn't think I'd still be alive today. But we I've been very fortunate and taking care of myself so so again, the world is what one makes it!

Chandni: So, do you think that ever since COVID and in the past few years, do you think the seller community has grown?

Bob: I would imagine for one when I had a business, okay, we we originally we were looking for storefront and the cost. I'm not sure how it is in other states. But here in Vegas, the fees and stuff the rent plus they have some called Camp fees, which would cost you almost as much as rent a lot of brick-and-mortar places. I just don't see how they stay open high percentage of them don't. COVID probably didn't help those places either. But even without the COVID. You see a lot of businesses go under in a short period of time because it's just your upkeep and stuff and your expenses, your insurance, your workman's comp insurance, you pay. There's a lot of expenses to have in a business, people don't really realise that. So something where people can do online, especially from home. That just seems to be the way the way to go. And yeah, and unfortunately having like a website, that's not exactly easy also because you don't always get the traffic and stuff and by the time you pay shipping and stuff, if your customer pays shipping, like that was a big problem we had the popcorn shipping was so expensive, just made it hard for people to buy and have it ship to them at a long distance. So Amazon, that's one thing a plus about Amazon, if you can do the FBA and ship the stuff to them, eliminate all that people have prime I mean, they pay more money for an item, because they're getting free shipping.

Chandni: Yep. No, that's that's right. Yeah, I guess that's the perks of Amazon. Tell me what's the biggest failure that you've had so far in the business and the lesson you've learned from it?

Bob: Well, I'm not sure if I've had a major failure. We've been pretty lucky. I've had again, the big problem is amazon for they're not very helpful to the seller. I mean, you call and you ask a question, man. For example, my magnet, we've got totally for some reason, they changed our description. So they're describing a shower curtain, and our item is specifically says Magnaloc, magnetic shower curtain, and we had the description, everything, for some reason, it got changed, and they just absolutely refused to change it. They say why you need to do a new list, a new product and all that. So we tried that. And our sales went from two to 3000, down to zero. And the reviews and stuff we've gotten on the magnets with the incorrect listing has done well. So it's got like four point something, reviews and stuff. And I say we sold 1000s of them. And we've never had a negative review. Posted we've never had, unfortunately with Amazon, too. They don't really stress or let people suggest to people that they'd leave feedback. So we've been 1000s of cells got positive 100% positive, but there's only 63. But the good news is we have zero negative. So so definitely the biggest difficulty is dealing with customer service in Amazon, they're not I don't think they always know what they are looking at. They gave you kind of a generic response every time you have a question. And then you got to look it up and try to figure out what the heck they're talking about. So I think that is the biggest difficulty. But as far as biggest failures, I don't know, we've just been kind of a learning experience. And again, I'm learning now and I should know how to use the computer much better. But I'm just lousy at that. That's why I've got people like you guys to answer those questions when you get stuck.

Chandni: Yeah, absolutely. So can you tell us what are some hopes for a near future? Do you have any other, I guess, goals you want to enrol out online?

Bob: Well, we are actually learning for the eBay. And again, it seemed like thrift stores seemed to be an interesting place for the books are fairly easy, because for one year shipping is medium mail. So that's a big plus, I'm not sure how many other products we're going to try it. A lot of lovely YouTube people indicate how much money they're making, how easy it is, and stuff like that, that doesn't always seem to be the case. So again, ours is we're going to go into stuff slowly. And since we did close for popcorn business, we lost a pretty fair amount of money in that, but I've got a handful items, which we will list on eBay also. So we'll be testing we'll be looking at products and stuff like that. But my goal, as I mentioned earlier, is accumulating about 500,000 and within the next three to five years. So I believe that should be because my wife would like to move back to Indiana from Vegas. And because my son and his kids just moved to Indiana due to due to job and everything. So we are going to move that coal freezing state and but our house, our house should be enough to buy a house in Indiana. And so we'll have no house payment. So the goal is to accumulate at least 500,000 between dwelling of the eBay and the Amazon and get them placed into the stock market. So that's pretty much my my goal. Again, I don't want to leave this world and leave my wife and son not well taken care of. I mean she's a sharp lady and stuff. But again, we are getting older so so that's basically my main goal.

Chandni: Yep. And what's a big dream that you you know, you wish to achieve, or or a legacy would it be this

Bob: I'm not really too concerned about any type of legacy, I just want my family taken care of. And again, we set a milestone compared to most people, just one and my kids they have they're doing well because they're sharp, and again, way my wife and I brought them up so it was very beneficial. So I can't complain about I wish I would have been smart enough to start saving earlier. So if you get a young people trying to accumulate wealth over there, they need to start at a young age because you have a compounding effect if you do have your money invested and stuff like that and people got to be patient and buy wants everything done immediately just life just doesn't always work that way you just got to be patient and learn as you go and, and Alexei myself, I I know very little about a lot of stuff, but we've been doing okay. And again, taking advantage of the help like AccelerList and Scout IQ and YouTube. There's a lot of beneficial information in that aspect.

Chandni: Yep, and do you have any final words of advice for anyone starting out reselling or anyone in life?

Bob: Well take advantage of the YouTube Be patient. And one thing I didn't notice on Acwas reading that somebody was complaining, well, they did this and did that man. They weren't getting any feedback, and they're having difficulty. They only sold so much. But everybody thinks everything's going to happen like tomorrow. It's like doesn't work that way. You got to be patient, you can't get mad at other people, because you're not succeeding. Most of the time. If people look in America, though, figure out what the problem is usually themselves. So people learn to do the stuff and listen to other people and ask the right questions. And be patient people should do well, yeah.

Outro: Thanks for listening to another episode of the sellers corner. If you would like to be a guest on the show, please send an email to podcast at seller lists calm, Excel or list also offers a generous 21 day free trial when you enter coupon code podcast on the registration page. Now is the time to start with Amazon and break into freedom with your own business.

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In this episode, we talk to Terry aka Supermother of 9 is a top-rated seller on eBay, and she shared with us her tips, tricks, and motivational words. Learn how she got started and why she wants to help you on your journey as well.

Topics discussed in the episode:

· [0:45] Why she started selling online

· [5:19] Which part of selling on eBay she enjoys the most

· [7:10] Her morning miracle routine

· [10:03] The Facebook communities she’s joined for re-selling

· [14:16] The Effect of the pandemic on the seller community

· [17:10] Biggest setback in her reselling business

· [14:33] Advice to anyone who’s starting out in re-selling

Resources Mentioned:

· https://miraclemorning.com

Seller Tips:

· Look for items to resell from thrift stores and yard sales

· Join online communities like Facebook groups as there’s plenty of help on there

Chandni: Hey, this is Chandni. And I run marketing at AccelerList. Today, we're going to be talking to Terry, aka Mother of nine entrepreneur. And she's here to inspire you and help you on your seller journey. So, what's your story about what you sell? And you know, how did you get into it?

Terry: I've been selling on ebay since 2013. Why? It basically came around because I was homeschooling our children, we have nine children. Yeah, so a big family and, and I needed a place to be able to buy and sell curriculum, because I didn't really want to buy new so. So every year, I would sell my curriculum on eBay and turn around and use that money to buy my new curriculum for the next year. Yeah, so that's kind of where I started with stuff. But I also really enjoyed thrifting, and yard sales and anything, buying something and to be able to turn around and make profit on it. So that was pretty much what I was doing till I got to the point where I had probably about 1200 physical items in my house that I was selling list had listed on eBay. And it finally got to the point where it was like, I'm running out of room of where I can get my physical inventory. And I said, There's got to be a different way to be able to sell online. And that's when I kind of have been falling a lot of people on I mean, I don't know, okay, well. So I followed a lot of people for eBay selling like Suzanne A. Wells has got a big group. She's got a Facebook group. And then I joined her premium library for a while to try to get some education to try to make what I was doing more efficient and more profitable. And then I found some local friends that also sell so we'd go sourcing together and they were really one person in particular was very helpful with helping me up my ante because I was buying low, but I was also selling too low. So I wasn't making enough of a profit on it. But then we're still in this problem of having a physical inventory. So I feel like I got a pretty good eye. And now I know how to use you know, the eBay app, the Amazon, yes, smoothly.

Chandni: So you've started scaling up to physical items you say, after you did curriculum?

Terry: Yeah, so I was selling shoes. Oh my gosh, just about a little bit of everything. Um, clothing. I got into hard goods really. And that was like a really a lot of challenge because having to ship it. I get like whole sets of dishes at a state sale. And then I would break them up and sell them by piece. So I got really good at packing breakables. But that also meant that my kids were jokingly calling me the box lady because I had a whole room in our house. That was just boxes that I had, ever people were giving me their boxes. I took over all their boxes from them, until I finally started buying eBay label, you know, with. I'm trying to remember when I've been selling physically since 2013. But I started a store a couple years ago. So then eBay gives you the, you know, like credit towards shipping supplies every order. So then I started stocking up on that and started, you know, those come flats, take up this much room is like, I wasn't breaking everything down. Let's just say I had a lot of real estate in my house with the business.

Chandni: And that's what reselling is really.

Terry: It is. And one of the things that got me was my husband had lost his job, they had decided to outsource, he's a nurse. And they had decided to outsource his whole department to the Philippines. It was like they didn't even give him any warning. So all of a sudden it was like I had already started upping my inventory and my stuff I was buying. And then all of a sudden I just kind of went into overdrive and this was right before about a year two years before COVID hit. So in the last, you know, three years or so I've probably tripled my business from what it was. I actually did really well I sold I was around $30,000 in physical products on eBay. And since I just started Amazon in November of last year, I still that still has yet to see but I've been doing pretty well every month.

Chandni: That's fantastic!

Terry: Finding AccelerList and learning how this all works has been really great and then also to be able to cross-list back to eBay. So my whole goal is to try to get to a point where I'm doing wholesale or just the books FBA so that I can get rid of the physical inventory or have just a very small physical inventory. We're planning on moving to the south sometime next year, and I don't want to have to take it all with me.

Chandni: Yeah, that would be hard to pack. So tell me what do you like more? Do you like the marketing side? Or, you know, developing the listings? Or do you like sourcing What? Which part do you enjoy the most?

Terry: Sourcing by far, that's kind of the problem is that I have, I could take probably two or three months off, because I this is not my primary money stream of income. This is still kind of like my auxiliary stuff. And so I still have a part-time job. And I do have one kid still in school. So most of the other time I'm spending running her around. So I have way more inventory. I don't know people call about death piles. I have death piles that, that fill up a few bookcases full. I mean, I have not bookcases, storage shelves with boxes of books and different things that I still need to list. They can all go to Amazon. So it that's where the tedious part because with Excel or list listing on an Amazon, putting a sticker on it, packing it up, I like that. I like the process of doing that. Because that gets it all out of my house. The eBay is a little bit more tedious, because it takes me a minimum of 15 minutes to do a listing. So if I have something so I'm trying to be more picky about what I'm actually listing, it's making at least three times what I paid for it.

Chandni: Is it the web interface of eBay that makes it a bit more complex?

Terry: Well, they're asking for more products. I mean, more I did not products more input. Because it's like, I'm not using AccelerList for listing on eBay straight directly, because I already had that existing. So I have my system down, I started on my phone, I do all the specifics that I can on there. I take my photos, and then I go on to my desk, my laptop and I finish up the listing because there's a couple fields that you can't do on the app.

Chandni: Yeah, absolutely. So tell me through what's your typical day, like walk us through that.

Terry: I work mostly in the mornings and at my job. And so I get up about 530 in the morning, and I have I spent I don't know if you've ever heard of how Elrod he does the Miracle Morning. It's kind of like a morning routine type of thing.

Chandni: Wow. Okay to tell me all about it. That sounds quite interesting. I haven't heard it before.

Terry: Yeah, so he's, he's a motivational speaker. And he's had it kind of epiphany A number of years ago that he really needed to establish some routines in his life, in order to achieve his goals. And one of the things he needed to do was to spend some time every day and he calls it, you know, his Miracle Morning, so I'm doing some devotional time meditation kind of type stuff, prayer, and then I'm doing affirmations and and then I do visualisations of like what my day and what my goals are some time exercising, and then I spend some time reading. So I've probably got like five books that I'm reading currently. And you know, this is kind of like my me time. Now we're trying justice because my daughter just went back to school this week. So trying to adjust because she's now in the middle of all that, because before she wouldn't even up at 530 in the morning, so she is up now. So I feel like it's a good start to my day, I usually head off to my job, and get home in the early afternoon. If I don't have to pick her up from school then I'm working on books. I have another homeschooling mom, that sources books for me on a regular basis. feel, you know, like right now, I've probably got 500 books sitting at her house that we need to go through. So and But then I also just went through my friend is moving and she wanted me to go through all her books. So I spent the last couple afternoons with my scanner in her house. And I've got like 15 boxes of books to process. So I'm spending as much time doing that. I'm trying not to work, work, work work all the time. So I go to bed by 10 o'clock is the goal. You know, because sleep is really important to me too. I want to make sure that I'm and then I'm throwing in I had one new thing too is I just decided to hire a personal trainer because I really want to get myself in shape. And yeah,

Chandni: I think in the past two years, a lot of us have just been on our desk, you know, so important to get back in shape.

Terry: Well, my part time job is a very physical job. I can almost get I mean, I'm a Fitbit on my arm. So I'm getting 7 to 10,000 steps.

Chandni: Hitting those goals every day. That's nice!

Terry: Yeah, so that's helpful to me. So I'm cuz I'm a lot older than everybody else I've worked with so it's a challenge to keep up with the, you know, high schoolers and college age kids but

Chandni: yeah, okay, well that's that's interesting, giving time to yourself and you know, having all that organised as well. So have you engaged with any type of reselling communities online or any platforms like Facebook groups or anything that's helped?

Terry: I have I, in fact, I just wrote down on my Facebook groups that I'm in. So I was trying to think there was one, there was one that Suzanne A. Wells group is moms’ selling. I don't remember the title. For some reason it didn't pop up in my, my list of them. But I'm on like the thrifters and reseller world, the thrifting board, boss, which is business for online success, accounting for online sellers, TWF alumni, which is the wholesale formula, I just took that course, in February, and then the AcclerList, I'm on that community and then the eBay selling basics. The basic one, I started out like really heavy into eBay. And once I started moving, I've been I've been trying to just really, you know, make sure I'm getting books in loads in every week, when they started restricting the inventory that kind of like stopped me for a little bit. But I'm sitting, I think I'm sitting around 1400 books in Amazon right now. And I'm selling about 250 a month. I mean, I would like to do a lot better. If I could do more full time I probably would be able to do but it's a little scary, you know, like just totally relying on my own work to get to where I need to get

Chandni: and so are you looking to grow your own social media, kind of following or and be an influencer in the space for a, you know, books re-saling?

Terry: I have always had kind of a vision of starting a YouTube channel. But I'm seeing some of the people that are doing that, and how much work that is. And I'm thinking, Okay, it's kind of like, for the full time sellers that I know, on eBay, for instance, that have panels, they're getting, you know, like one of them broke down, like how much made on eBay, I mean, on eBay and Amazon, and she does, I think does poshmark too, and then how much she made on YouTube. And the YouTube earnings were almost more than some of the other stuff. So it kind of made me feel like you kind of have to have multiple streams of income in order to be able to really like with the ebb and flow of this whole business to be able to do that. Like right now I'm trying to work on trying to hire some virtual assistants to do some of my back office stuff. But the problem is, is that I just recently had a lot of life changes. So I'm working on trying to just organise myself, you know, like trying to get to my inventory, trying to figure out what's really essential. And that's the other thing too, is like, I want to learn all this stuff. I you know, in some senses, like some of my kids know how to do this, or they're learning how like my one daughter is doing TikTok, and I'm thinking man, I need to learn from her how to do that. I don't really know how to do that. Or even like the YouTube. It's like, you know, I can sit in front of a camera, and I could talk but I don't know how to do the editing, I don't know. You know, how the over overlays all that other kind of stuff they do. And so it's almost like, I keep thinking of like, oh, somebody should do you know, like an instructional video on how to do this, or how to do that. For me, there's just got to be a point where I I was actually thinking of taking a leave of absence from my regular job. And then just kind of like knocking out a bunch of this stuff like learning Amazon business. There's still some things I don't quite understand, because I'd already done eBay a long time. I've kind of like they're they run differently. But there is a lot of similarities. So I'm able to understand some things that I think I wouldn't have been able to if I hadn't done eBay first, but that I'm disappointed in is that I was a top rated seller on eBay for a long time when I did started going did the the cross-listing back to eBay. Because Amazon's not consistent with shipping their stuff out on time. I had like one-day handling. And I've lost that because of and I thought, Okay, well, I am making money on both platforms. It's sometimes it was just kind of like my badge of you know, like, I'm a top rated seller kind of thing. But.

Chandni: I know you work so hard for it, you want it there forever

Terry: You know, but am I going to lose my top rated sellers happened and that ended up happening anyway. So I mean, I'm in a grace period, but it's almost like I'm a little too far gone did come back to but then also it did relieve the pressure of having to send everything out within 24 hours. So, you know, for my physical inventory.

Chandni: Okay, so do you think let's talk about 2020 in the past, you know, 18 months, do you think the seller community has grown and any challenges that you've faced during this time?

Terry: Yeah, I definitely feel like it's grown a lot because a lot of the seminars and things that I did like the book business and also the wholesale formula, there were a lot of people in at those in those programmes because they're all looking for alternative means of income. Yeah, and I mean, for me my job, I never lost a day of work, because we never are our store never shut down. We were there and in the public the whole time. So I was kind of rare in that sense. So I never had to apply for unemployment or any anything like that. I think the intensity kind of turned up, because like, now, if I go to an estate sale or something, there's probably gonna be competition for like going through their books or doing or even finding like those, you know the great flips where you can get it for pennies and then flip it for hundreds of dollars. So you know, but I mean, it was great when things started opening back up again when things were not. I was trying to think I started in books after things started opening up just a little bit, because it was like November of last year is when I started doing it. So by that time, but see, we were also you know, my my friend that does the sourcing for me, we were advertising on Facebook marketplace and people were giving us books, and so Avery and Steve had put out kind of like one of the things they had done is like a letter, you could put it or not a letter, what do you call it a post that you could put out on social media. And that came over their Facebook group that you could put on social media like buy nothing groups, or next door. And so I started doing that and I started getting calls, people want me to come and pick up their stuff. Now there were some times it was kind of like not really worth it. But I saw it as a way to serve people too, that had been stuck inside for a long time like this one lady wanted me to come and pick up all her books. When I got there, they were all really ancient books. And you know, sometimes those books can be worth a lot of money, but they were also really not in good shape. So I took, I must have taken 20 boxes of books out of her house. But I ended up just going and dropping them at the thrift store because somebody might find value in them. But I didn't. Because those kinds of books are really tedious to go through when you're trying to find prices and different things like that on those are, you know, some kind of comp, I kind of feel like the community has been helping each other, you know, like, how are we going to get through this obstacle. And you know, that kind of stuff I really appreciate because these guys, I mean, even though they're making money on some of these programmes that like I purchased, the programmes that they did and stuff, I still feel like they're available to help out. And the bottom dollar is they're helping us get ahead in business and not all for personal profit.

Chandni: So can you tell me what the biggest failure was? You know, so far in the reselling business for you and what you've learned from it.

Terry: I think the biggest failure has been sending in books that were not worth enough to take up space in my inventory, having to just I don't know to recycle or, or dump just a bunch of inventory that I had spent time on, you know, and packed up and sent in there. One thing in particular was that I had watched a whole video about dealing with encyclopaedias and this one particular set of encyclopaedias was was worth about a thousand dollars. So I went I packed it like meticulously, I made sure it was really tight. And I got the double-walled boxes to put it in, I shipped it and they had me ship it from I live on the East Coast, they had me ship it to California. And then it was sitting in like a pending state for about two months.

Chandni: That’s long!

Terry: Yeah, and I didn't know what to do with it, though. And then it finally showed back up on my doorstep. And the box was totally destroyed. They don't even unpacked it. So that was like $60 in shipping just out the window. And I that was one thing that my friend had sourced for me somebody had given her those and my friend's husband had lost his job during COVID. And so she's using this to like, you know, help make ends meet so I'm trying to help her by I purchased things at a portion of what my profit is. So that was the most disappointing thing was like, there was never any communication from from Amazon about that at all. It just said that it was like pending, like it was moving from one like, you know, when they go in route from one warehouse to another.

Chandni: So but what happened to the box? Was it like, you know, torn apart or was it down?

Terry: It was Yeah, it was totally damaged. There was like holes in it. It was like just really, I mean, you could barely even it was a moving box. So it was like a really heavy duty moving box. And yeah, it was it was bad. I mean, luckily, the encyclopaedias inside were really not in bad shape. We took them out and a couple of the corners were bumped. But all in all the box, the books did not get destroyed. The box was totally destroyed. So in that case, it was kind of like okay, I'm not dealing with encyclopaedias again, because it took us like a month before we finally found a box that would fit all of them. And because it was like 32 volumes, the box weighed 80 pounds. So we did all they said to do team lift and you know I had the the guy at UPS Store. He picked it up out of my car by himself and put it in his truck. So I know those guys are used to carrying big so it must have been thrown around a little bit or it had to have been dropped somewhere.

Chandni: Yep, So after that you've stopped reselling encyclopaedias?

Terry: Yeah. I mean, somebody had a set the other day and I'm like, yeah, I'm not gonna even bought and it was worth you know, $300 but it was not worth the trouble to do this, unless I knew it was going to New Jersey and then I could almost like drive it to their you know, let's see. That's the whole thing though. Because like then they were selling there were a few sets selling every quarter. So it wasn't like it was going to sit in there forever, if you had a price right.

Chandni: Okay, oh, that's interesting to note, because you know, encyclopaedias are great books. But to know that so hard to ship them. That's another story.

Terry: Yeah, they're they're very heavy.

Chandni: Yeah. So to someone who's starting out on eBay, or Amazon, what are some tips and tricks you tell them

Terry: You need to know what the item has sold for, it's not even how much it lists for. But what is the sold so on Amazon, it's not as easy to do as it is on eBay, eBay, you could there's a filter for sold and completed listings. And so if I'm looking at something, and I think this might be profitable, I'm going to look up the listings. And then because I have a store, I also have access to what they call terapeak, which is a research tool that you can go back and look at what items have sold for the last year. So that's really good when you think that something might be worth something. Oh also, though, on Amazon, if you look at I have keeper that pops up when I open up my Amazon pages, and the keeper. Chrome Extension has a couple different functions on it. So first of all, it has little tiny squares on there that shows what the actual solds are. So you can go back for like three months, you can go back through the history of how long this book has been selling on Amazon and see what the where it's sold. And then also on the bottom of it, it has a little thing that shows like what the use prices have been like the history for the last basically the whole life of what the item has been listed for. So I use those to like, if I'm listing on accelerace. And I see I think something's like overpriced. I'm like question whether or not this is really good. It's like I just posted a book, or I mean, I got a book ready to go today that was coming up like is like 30 $40 for this little paperback book. And I'm like, it just seems a little over. So you don't need a little on the AccerlerList. It's got like the little eBay and the Amazon icons. So I'll hit the Amazon to to go over to Amazon page, and then the keeper pops up and I check. And so like one price, the suggested price on AccelerList, you know, like I said was like $30-$40 would be the profit. But after looking at the keeper chart, I saw that it actually physically had been selling for around $15-$16, which would have brought the profit down to like seven or $8. And so I chose to list it at that instead of the suggested price, because I've also been hit with those, like the price gouging, you know, like you've overpriced this item and then they they suspend your listing for a little bit. And so I kind of tried to avoid that. I mean, they don't ever get you for underpricing it. But for some reason, you know, they'll get you if you overprice it, which some of them I don't quite understand how they do that when there's a history of the thing selling for that price. There's a kind of the things that I wish there was some way to talk to somebody at Amazon, that somebody is not like, you know, out someplace in in some some other country that knows what like that really knows what's going on. Because most the time when I call in, the people I'm reaching are not able to help me with my questions.

Chandni: Okay, yeah, fair enough. So new sellers need to have some kind of, I guess, mentor some place where they can ask these questions, that would be your advice.

Terry: Yeah. And that's kind of my vision, too, is kind of, I like, like, I have a lot of people that like I'm still hooked in. Even though I'm not homeschooling anymore, I still have a lot of contacts in the homeschooling community. Yeah, there's a lot of these moms that want to sell their own products. And if they don't have time, they just give it to me. And then I just split the profit with them. But the but then that's also it gets tedious to but I'm trying to help them like I'll show them how to use the app and how to sell some of them get it some of them don't. But I also did my daughter's at a Girl Scout troop and they were going to do an entrepreneur badge. So I put together a sheet of like how to do a listing. So I taught the five girls that were in her level the troop and how to do listings, and then we walk through and did listings with each of them. So I see that in the future to have being able to be coaching somebody or you know, helping people with their business.

Chandni: Yeah. Okay, so so that actually ties into what I was gonna ask you next. So in what's the long term, you know, goal from all of this, it would be to develop a mentoring business, you say?

Terry: I think so coaching mentoring, but I also am looking to more something a little bit more sustainable too like the wholesale part of it where you were on a deal where I'm not handling physical inventory, but I'm buying it directly from manufacturers and having it shipped directly to Amazon, or going to a packing centre where they put where they label it and then they send it in. That's kind of the goal where I My hands are coming and I have more time to do You coaching and teaching? Because right now this is kind of exhausting the what I'm doing right now.

Chandni: Well, you mean the wholesaling part? Is it from manufacturers and then to the warehouse?

Terry: Well, no, I mean, in the physical inventory part, like having to deal with the books, and I mean, those boxes get really heavy. So, you know, primarily doing the books right now. It's Yeah, so that move in the physical inventory can get kind of tiring. So that's why the end goal for me is to move to more of the wholesale model. So it's kind of like the vision would be to be able to still list that kind of product through AccelerList. Even though I you know, I get the product, I'm still trying to figure it out, like how this would actually work. Yeah. And then, so that I could still have him listed on two platforms, because I think that does really increase the sales to be able to have more than one platform to sell on.

Chandni: Okay, now that that makes sense. And do you have any last bits of advice?

Terry: I think that one of the best things to do is to really plug into those Facebook communities. And there are a lot of people that are on there more often than I am that are available to answer questions. But having somebody kind of walk you through it is definitely easier than trying to learn all of it. Because it's all been done. It's just like, we just need to find the right people to teach us how to do some of these steps. And that's where I think those Facebook communities have been really helpful.

Chandni: Yeah, absolutely. I think a community that you can just, you know, turn to whenever about any topic that really helps.

Terry: Yeah, definitely. This I mean, this has been quite a journey. I've really enjoyed learning about the, all this information. And it's kind of funny, because now I have people out of the blue call me and say, What do you think about this? Or what do you think about that? They can? Oh, well, I guess I never really consider myself an expert on these things. But since then, I do like being able to help people. So there's two sides to this, this business, you know, there's the part where I'm making money, and then there's a part where it's satisfying on both sides. Yeah, help people to get you know, because I feel like the marketplace is changing, and we need to be able to adapt with it. So there's a lot of opportunities, and there's a place for people to find their own space in it, too. It's because there's millions of items, billions of items on Amazon, and other platforms. You know, it doesn't seem like we've run out of room for other people to be able to do it.

Chandni: Yeah. Wow. I think giving back is also a good way and you know, since you've had some skin in the game, you know, you can definitely give back through that means.

Terry: It’s on one of my goals here.

Outro: Thanks for listening to another episode of the sellers corner. If you would like to be a guest on the show, please send an email to podcast@accelerlist.com. Accelerlist also offers a generous 21 day free trial. When you enter coupon code podcast on the registration page. Now is the time to start with Amazon and break into freedom with your own business.

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In this episode, we talk to William aka The Money Badger who has been selling online for a few years and garnered a large following on TikTok with his tips, tricks, and motivational words. Learn how he got started and why he wants to help you on your journey as well.

Topics discussed in the episode:

[1:03] Why he started selling online
[4:22] Why he gives tips & info about selling for free
[6:15] Motivates everyone not just the seller community through TikTok
[7:37] His Facebook community
[9:40] The Effect of the pandemic on the seller community
[12:23] Typical workday
[14:33] Pivot your business
[18:26] A failure he learned from
[21:32] Imposter Syndrome
[24:40] Bought a one-way ticket to the Netherlands
[29:32] Tips & Tricks to start selling online

Resources Mentioned:

https://iamthemoneybadger.com

Seller Tips:

Pivot your business to sell outside of just used books
Look through your house to find some things to start selling online

Transcript: Intro: Welcome to the seller's corner as e-commerce podcast, where the real stories from real sellers, each episode, we sit down with online sellers all across the globe and talk about overcoming challenges, scaling and putting processes around their online businesses. Welcome to the show.

Joana: Hey, this is Joana. I run marketing at acceler list today. We're talking to William AKA, the money Badger, and he's here to inspire you and help you on your seller journey. So, William, Are you, is that what you want me to call you William? Or do you want me to call you the money Badger?

William: Yeah, you can call me William. You can call me bill. You can call me the money Badger. I've been married for almost 20 years. So there's probably not many things I haven't been called.

Joana: Well, I think I'll stick to Will. Maybe that might be easier for the podcast. The seller's corner is all about people sharing their stories and how they got started selling online.

William: So the why is probably more important in my opinion, you know, I probably worked countless jobs that didn't seem to really invest in their people, you know, glass ceilings, you know, misrepresentations, that sort of thing. So you just, you kind of get tired of the rat race and you try to look for an exit and reselling became just my exit.

But it's funny because I met somebody just at a happenstance and we were actually looking to move to the Netherlands and I took a temporary job in Tennessee with a best friend. And, you know, that turned out to not be the opportunity that was explained to me. But I ended up meeting somebody at a different job, introduced me to Gary V's content. And Gary V has the have Reezy resells on his podcast. And when he was like, yeah, so I did $500,000 yet last year, selling used books and kind of like made me perk my eyebrows up. Interesting, gotta look into this. I watched a ton of content and you know, the rest is kind of history from there, but the why was just necessity. And I think necessity is just what drives a lot of us resellers. And the more of us that I talk to, the more I realize we come from very similar backgrounds, you know, more impoverished, not a lot of opportunities, poor education, maybe a broken home government assistance, that sort of thing.

So you develop skills that you don't really realize or skills or strengths until you have to lean on them. And when your back's against the wall, it gives you that ability to do so to how would be grit, man, just grit. I started with a couple of books that we picked up at a Goodwill just to test the waters. My wife had some choice words for me saying, you know, Hey, you know, we're not selling these books. No one's buying these books. So I got news for you. There was the only time that I had ever been like, you know what, now we're going to take a chance on this because I've done the same thing that I've always done forever. And the rest is history. We sold a couple of books, reinvested every dime back into the business for the first six months and just snowballed from there last year, we fell just short of 250,000 in sales.

Joana: That's amazing.

William: Definitely life changing for sure.

Joana: I find the reseller community really resourceful. I mean, you kind of have to be, I think, to get into this.

William: Yeah, for sure.

Joana: Yeah. Like I kind of wished that when I was living in Jersey, that I knew about all this stuff, cause I probably would have gotten into that for a while. I would, I had nothing going for me. So I feel like when I hear these stories, I'm like, damn, I should have done this.

William: Yeah. And that's kind of what I'm talking about, where we all come from very similar backgrounds where, you know, I'm college educated. I have a degree in finance and it just, I could blow my nose in it. That's how valuable the degree is like right after the 2008 recession, no one's hiring in finance. No one's going to trust somebody right out of college with their nest egg, after they lost 60% of their portfolio. And for the next 10 years, I couldn't find a position in my field of expertise. So, you know, you take these jobs just to make ends meet, and then you realize the job after job, after job, there's just not a lot of opportunity and really start questioning what your skills are and what your strengths are. And you know, you can just kind of stumble into it and realize that you're really good at it. And you go from there,

Joana: I've been like looking at your stuff on TikTok and Instagram and stuff. And I noticed that you give a lot of information for free, which I think a lot of people in your position probably wouldn't do that. They would try to make a buck out of that. I'm interested or I'm intrigued to know why you don't charge for the information.

William: Uh, so for me, it's about paying it forward and legacy. So it's not necessarily making the money because I believe money is a by-product of doing the right thing. And I think that the universe always finds a way to find balance. And the more that you can skew it to a positive outlook with the imbalance, then the universe is going to try to over-correct and reward you. So I try to give as much as I possibly can away for free. And you know, a little piece of that too, is the Gary V approach where you play the long game and it's not necessarily the short-term and how to make a quick buck. It's about not monetizing your audience right off the bat. And you know, sometime in the future, I may so sell an ebook or a course or on something completely unrelated to books. And because it provided so much value upfront, people will feel compelled to want to help me out. So it's about that jab, jab, jab, right hook that Gary V always preaches about. I can't help, but think that there's a huge part of his philosophy. That's kind of still floating around, but for me it's money. It's just a, by-product of doing the right thing. So doing the right things, always the right thing.

Joana: I find that really like inspiring even in other aspects of my life, like I was watching your videos and it just felt like really inspiring. There's like one part where you're like talking about like right now, there are people out there who have waited their entire life to watch you fail. Don't let it happen. If I were a betting man, I'd bet on you. And I was like, Oh yes. Okay. You know, stuff like that. Like I think you also hit other people, not just like the seller community. I think you've gone beyond that border.

William: I would say to the, especially the last six months, my contents kind of evolved too as well. I don't really have to focus on just the reseller community. I think the message that I get out is just that no, one's going to be there to care about you. So you have to care about you. And if we can all care about each other, then we can at least have that community. And that's kind of what I've tried to build both on my discord and my Facebook community rather than just have a group of people all seeking the same nickel they can. They're, they're willing and excited to really help one another out and say, look, we're all bridge builders. We crossed that river. So our job is to just make that bridge easier to cross for those people coming on after us. And I think that that's snowball effect over the next year, two years, 10 years is going to have a compound effect because what you'll find is you'll have a group of people that are professionals within their own fields and their own rights. Then now can create this larger, you know, community of people willing to help as a lawyer or a notary or a realtor or whatever their field is outside of the reselling community. But because they all had that comradery within that one community, now that they're able to actually help each other outside of that and go into other aspects of their lives.

Joana: And you mentioned like the Facebook group, do you want to tell us a little bit more about that? Like why you started it?

William: I mean, I guess it's also to help others, but The Facebook community, I call the hive mind. That's really kind of what it is, is just a collective. And I was kind of a scifi nerd growing up. So huge influence there with like the Borg from star Trek or, you know, any of those other, you know, single minded, unity like civilizations, if you will, that we can kind of come together with a single purpose of survival and see where it goes. And it's just, it's starting to grow now and larger rates per day and it's taking a mind of its own, but it's not like something that you have to really police. So when you go in there, you can really ask a question and get a genuine answer. It is really an amazing thing to see. And it's kind of like raising a child. Like you see it grow up from a very small infant to now like adolescents and eventually into adulthood and see a blossom and everybody comes along with it. And then like they share their successes, their failures, uh, struggles will answer questions, ask questions, tell stories. It's it's really, really nice. And it's, it's fun to watch. It's fun to be a part of

Joana: I'm part of like the online book communities. So a little bit of how that feels to just find a group of people or like-minded people where you can in my case geek out on books. But yeah, it's always nice to find a group that you can join is the word.

William: Yeah, for sure. Like I think the thing that we've all been missing and, and on clubhouse, the new social media, that's been like taking everybody by storm that's invite only the one thing that I've found there is the resellers that have come together. It's like we found our tribe, you know, and it's like, it's nice to be a part of a tribe. It's nice to feel like you're at home with something or a group of people because you share the same struggles. You share the same interest. You can geek out about certain things and they get it. Like they get the lingo, they get the message, they get the struggle. Like they understand completely

Joana: Last year kind of helped create this group or like helped grow the tribe as you say.

William: Yeah, no, absolutely. Because I think that not only is everybody fed up with what happened and I mean, it feels like we had all of 2020, it feels like every single day we had a major historical event happened and it's like, the only thing we left out was an alien invasion, you know, but it feels like even the beginning of 20, 21 is just 20, 22 point, Oh, you know, I feel like it's just continuing. And I think that it's just nice to see everybody that, and they're from all walks of life, you know? So it's, it's, it's construction workers and policemen and you know, and everybody, and it's like, everyone's just fed up with the status quo and, you know, working two thirds of their life to live maybe five years out of 80, you know, free, truly free. So, I mean, I think we're all put here for a bigger purpose. And I don't think that working 10 to eight, six days a week or four days a week or five days a week, whatever, whatever your schedule is is, is really what we're supposed to do. I think we were meant to have fun and interact with each other and travel and, you know, just kind of like expand our minds and expand our horizons and just live, you know, live life to the fullest because you don't know what tomorrow brings.

Joana: Very true. I agree with you like 2021 definitely feels like the sequel. And like we all know sequels sometimes are terrible. And for me, I lost a friend recently and he passed away and that was just enough's enough.

William: Exactly. Like how many people lost somebody in 2020? I think 2020 leaves a scar for all of us. And for some people it's a scar where they don't know what to do with it and they feel ashamed or embarrassed to carry it. But for some of us it's like, look, I survived, I survived 2020. I came out stronger. I came out knowing things I didn't think I could do about myself, you know, and in my situation and I'm taking control. And I think that's really empowering for a lot of people.

Joana: I think that maybe the seller community has also grown out of, I think a lot of people lost their jobs maybe out of necessity joined.

William: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I know in speaking with, you know, several, I guess you call them OGs, you know, in the community their communities have grown. I know my community has grown. I know that like Amazon experienced something like 10 years of growth in the first like eight months of 2020 that I would say for sure that the reselling community has grown because the majority of Amazon's revenue comes from third-party sellers.

Joana: So you kinda like get a little bit into your space and how you do things. Like what does a typical Workday look like for you? Or is it different every day?

William: It's kind of different every day. But for the most part, I guess on average throughout the entire year, it would be Monday through Friday. We try to do as much sourcing as possible so we can list on the weekend, but here lately we've changed things and we kind of go, you know, four or five days in a row sick. If the getting as good, you know, you got to get as much as you can while you can. Then we try to spend two or three days solid, just listing them and getting, you know, items for sale. Cause if you're not making money, unless it's actively for sale, there's a small portion of my day where I'm trying to expand into new marketplaces. Like right now I'm about 95% used books and have about 5% retail arbitrage or online arbitrage. And I think by the end of 2021, I'd like to make a transition to about 70% wholesale and 30% books and retail arbitrage. And then hopefully by the end of 2021 or sorry, 20, 22, I'll be a hundred percent wholesale or maybe 90% wholesale. And then maybe 10% private label where we're trying to develop a product or service that we can market across, you know, Shopify, Amazon, eBay, that sort of thing.

Joana: What are some of the challenges that you faced in 2020 with all this? I mean, I know that e-commerce boomed, but I'm sure there must have been some challenges with the pandemic and everything.

William: Huge challenge for us was March and April where Amazon wasn't accepting books. And that was our real first test. Because up until that point, reselling used books on Amazon was almost autopilot. It was like, you send books in, they disappear, you get money, you know, but when Amazon turned that faucet off, it makes you have to pivot and it really tests your ability to do so and tests how strong your mind is and how invested you are emotionally into the project. So we had to start selling other things and that's where thankfully, we had a really good reputation with Amazon at the time we were on ungated in grocery and topicals and health and beauty automatically and video games. So we started to look to some of our liquidation stores around here, or like the clearance sections of supermarkets. I can't tell you how much money I made off of ramen in April.

But I mean, we, we three XR, aren't normal sales volume in April and they weren't accepting books. So it was a true Testament to if you can pivot, there's plenty of stuff out there. So when that really opened our eyes to just how much Amazon sells and how many people and how many eyeballs are the platform. So you don't have to sell used books. If you can sell a product that's profitable on Amazon, sell it, like sell anything you possibly can because to make a book it's there. Like you don't have to settle. You don't have to say, Oh, well I only know clothes, or I only know shoes, or I only know sports cards. So all of it, because if it's profitable, you gotta make the money while you can. So you can save that cash. So you can experiment with your business. At least 20% of your income should be experimenting in new fields because you never know what's going to happen. You're really game changing for us.

Joana: Definitely don't know what's going to happen. My husband is a sound tech for musicians and touring bands. And he's been out of work for almost a year. So this is something that we never expected. You know, he always had consistent amount of work. So yeah, you always have to plan ahead, have something to fall back on. Cause you never know.

William: You just never know. Yeah. W what's he doing? Um, has he gotten creative with his skillset to see if there's a way he could monetize his skills? Otherwise

Joana: I think for him, it's just been really difficult, like mentally like mental health wise. So

William: Yeah. Currently I lose your identity almost. Yeah.

Joana: Yeah. Because you're used to traveling the world and being on stages and all of a sudden it's gone

William: And everything you worked for is gone.

Joana: Yeah. So that's been difficult and you know, he just tries to be creative on his own hobby stuff and we're able to like do that and let him have that time. Yeah. It's, I'm not going to pressure him to work or do anything at the moment. Cause it's, it's difficult.

William: Yeah, absolutely. It's just, it's crazy because you could work your butt off and you have everything down. And I think if you've got a very conservative strategy, you're not really taking a ton of risk, but what you don't realize is that no matter what you're doing, you're, you're working capital for somebody else. And the second you stop being profitable for them, they're going to let you know,

Joana: The MusicIndustry is one of the industries, just governments seem to have forgotten about, I think we're getting through it. And that's, I think the most important thing, because there's a lot of people that are struggling. So I'm, I'm grateful and that's yeah,

William: I think there's, there's a whole other aspect of that too. And that's outside of the work that's outside of the money. That's just the strain that it puts on a relationship and you really get to like figure out, you know, how close you are to that individual and whose fight or flight mechanism is aimed in a specific direction. And I think that there's a lot of people that have struggled with their relationship during the pandemic. And it's, I'm sure you've had your own struggles, but you, you mentioned your husband, not your ex-husband's my, my hats off to you for surviving that one, you know? Cause it's definitely a test.

Joana: We've seen our friends like left and right. Kind of like break up and then relationships and marriages and I'm just sitting back like, uh, no, we're riding this out.

William: Yeah. My wife and I, we bicker, we fight, you know, like any couple of the do at the end of the day. We're like, I'm sorry, but I'm too competitive for this. So I'm not going to quit before you quit. So

Joana: That's a great way to look at it.

William: I'm in this for the long haul. I'm sorry, but there's no way you're getting rid of me.

Joana: It's like achievement unlocked.

William: Exactly. But I'm a professional button pusher. So at this point I just aimed to have fun with the arguments and a plan to win, but just, I plan on having fun with them.

Joana: What do you think is like your biggest failure so far and what did you learn from that experience?

William: Well, the biggest failure I have professionally is just not, not seeing a college education for really what it was, because I think that if I could go back in time, I think that like there's tons of missed opportunities, right? So the college education is really, it's great for certain things. And if you, if you live on campus, you go to a top tier school it's really great for networking. Right. But at the end of the day, the education really isn't something that's going to be a life-changing moment for you. So be prepared that if you're going to spend $50,000 on an education that you're going to get that return on your investment that you're looking for. I would say that like personally, my biggest failure, just consistency. There's so many things that I just look back on. And it's just like, if I was more consistent with these things, could I have avoided situations that came up during the pandemic?

You know? Cause I think that like, again, it just comes back to like those missed opportunities and it's like, where would you be if you were 1% better, even 1% more organized, 1% would that have put you in a position that when something happens and that's the problem with like self reflection is just like, you look back and you're like, man, there's so much I could have done if I just did X, Y, and Z like exercise and weight loss. Right? So if somebody wants to lose weight, it's really it's, you can lose a ton of weight in the course of a year just by losing one pound a week. So somebody that wants to lose a ton of weight, one pound a week doesn't sound like much, but you have to break that down even further than those consistent efforts to meet that goal.

And I think that like for me not breaking down my goals into what specific things have to be done to hit those small goals that will add into those larger goals. That's my biggest failure because I'm starting to do that now and it's showing results and that's even more of a dig at my own self. Like my own ego is just like, man, this is just proof to the pudding and it works. Why didn't I do that in the past, we all get wrapped up in our day to day activities and we think, Oh, well, we'll get to this. We'll get to that. And you don't realize just how much those little things add up in the big things and everyone overestimates what they can do in a year. And they underestimate what they can do in 10 years. And that's the problem. That's where the disc is. We realize just how much we could do a one year span just by doing X amount of things in a two week span, then it would add up and it would be even more infinitely, like impressed with ourselves and happy and contentment, happiness and contentment is the whole damn that's the whole goal. You can be happy and you can be content that you succeeded.

Joana: I wrote a book in 2016. It's like 70,000 words that I wrote down. And the only thing I really need to do is edit it and maybe send it out to like an agent or self publish. It. I've talked myself out of it for the past, like five years.

William: So why, what, what's the disconnect there? Like if you've already got it done for the most part, like what's holding you back, is it a fear? Is it like imposter syndrome? I'll tell you right now. Imposter syndrome is a real thing. It is a real thing that everyone struggles with. I'm telling you right now.

Joana: Oh yeah. It's definitely imposter syndrome. Like I'm not this isn't for me like this I can't, right?

William: Yeah. I'm I'm not a published author. I'm not, I'm not thinking of to have a best-selling book, like do it, you know, and if you fail, you still won because you learned what you did wrong. Right. Or you will live, you don't take a look at it. I know you will.

Joana: I mean, you have over 300,000 followers on Tik TOK. So there's plenty of people that I think feel the same. It factor.

William: I hope so people seem to enjoy the content, but there's always people out there that keep you humble. For sure. Like, there's definitely an entire subset of my following that wants to keep me into a box. We really enjoy your content, but you should stick to X, Y, and Z. And I was like, no, I don't think so. And I have a problem with authority. So now I'm going to do the opposite where a week I was probably a very bad employee to be, if I'm being completely honest,

Joana: I can't say that. I've always tried to be like a really good employee, but that's just like my anxiety kicks in and I'm like, no, I can't get fired.

William: Exactly. Like that's the only thing that really kept me in line for, you know, 20 years or whatever is, you know, okay, well, what happens if I get fired? What happens if I lose my job now I got to go find another job. I don't want to have to do that. So I'd rather just stay in my current situation. Hate it just a little bit less and I'll be okay. And it just, you get to a point where it's like, you know what enough is enough? This is me. This is what I want. I'm not taking no for an answer. I'm going to do it. And I'm going to damn well, try to do it until I die. And if I can't figure it out, then that's on me. But at least I can't say when I'm 75, I didn't try.

Joana: That's a great point. Like I personally currently love what I do, but I also am very creative. Obviously. I like to write. And I like doing that. I like to do that stuff as a hobby or like on the side, I enjoy what I do now. There's no reason for me to end that to become a writer. I can write on the side, you know, if I get over this imposter syndrome,

William: But you see what it is there though is like, again, money's not the motivation. It's a by-product of what you love and doing the right thing. So if, if you have a thought or a message that you need to get out, then write it. You know, because even if you change the life of one person that reads something, you write, then you did your job. You did what you were supposed to do because the universe told you that you had to get this message out. You don't know why, and you won't know for six years, a year, 10 years, whatever. But at some point you're going to be able to look back and be like, you know what, that's why I was supposed to do that. Like for example, we lived in Florida in 2016, we went to the Netherlands, we went to Italy, we're there for almost a month.

And we came back and we were just like blown away by the culture, the people, the environment of food, like just the entire experience was amazing. So we studied Dutch for about a year and a half. We bought one way tickets. We were ready to go. And I came up to Tennessee, just out of happenstance to take a temporary job, to save some extra cash. Would that best friend, it didn't work out. The best friend turned out to be not so best of a friend burn the bridge, but because that happened and because all of those events took place. And because I was frustrated with my current situation to go to Europe, all of those events fell into place. And we moved here. Add that bad experience, found a different job in Alabama, which is the next state over. And a week later, somebody got hired named Ashton, who I still to this day credit with everything that's happened since then, because I have no idea who Gary V was.

And I would not be on this path right now. If I had not met him, I would not have met him. If I had not gone to take a temporary job on the way to Europe. And because he introduced me to Gary V's content, I watched like a thousand hours or 1500 hours of content learned how to sell books, learn how to do retail. Arbitrage learned how to like be self-sufficient and say, you know what enough is enough, but I didn't know. At the time I looked back a year later and I said, you know what? This is why we are friends. This is why I met you. And I'm eternally grateful because I met him because all of these other things, these other opportunities have come up. So the only thing I can possibly do is pay it forward and hopefully change the life of one person.

I get messages on the daily that I'd given them hope when they hit none, uh, change their life. They're forever grateful, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The thing is don't pay me back, pay it forward, you know, give it to somebody else that needs it. The next time you encounter somebody that seems like they need help, just do it, do it selflessly. Don't do it with the anticipation of getting a payback or making money and just help somebody else out. And if you do that consistently, the universe will pay you back, guarantee it. You talk about these billionaires and millionaires that are big philanthropists that actually try to do good. And they all have the same kind of message. Those are the ones that do that. They have the same message give you may not have money to give, but if you give time, you give authenticity, you give Tom like emotion and investment to that person. They may not pay you back or the universally thrown a skew. And when it finds balance, it's going to come back to give you them.

Joana: Yeah. I'm like almost speechless. Cause the hitting me a little bit, I'm not going to cry. Don't worry. I think like for the past year, just seeing like the person I love struggle a little bit. And then I wholeheartedly believe as you say, like the universe is going to eventually come back and show me that I was doing the right thing.

William: Yeah. I was raised to like, I was Roman Catholic, you know, like big religious family and it just, it hit me the wrong way. It always felt wrong. It felt like organized religion for me and not to mock anybody else's beliefs for me. So it felt like it was strange. I felt like I was being forced fed religion. And so when I say universe, I don't necessarily mean like a higher being, but I think like the energy, like one of the roles of dynamics, like thermodynamics as the energy can't be created or destroyed, just transferred. So when you talk about that with like physician like physics, like physics scientists, they always talk about like the positive and the negative and like how it's gotta to like find equilibrium. And even like you talk about economics, the market find equilibrium. There's so many common like thought processes across all these different fields of study.

It only makes sense to the universe as a whole. We'll find that equilibrium. And all I can do is try to throw it a skew and throw it off balance so that it's throwing off balance the right way. It'll definitely come back to me, but it'll come back to somebody and somebody that really needs it because I'm sure you've seen this too, where like you were down and out and you're in a bad situation. Isn't it funny that you always find just the right amount of money to get you out of that situation when you actually need it. Like it's not more than you need. You don't have a huge come up and make like $20,000. But if you need $318, damn, if I'm not wrong, if you'll find $320, man, if you could just do that on a larger scale, it just happens. But yeah, that's my whole thing is just, you know, how am I going to be remembered when I'm not around? Is anybody going to show up to my funeral? And when my kids look back or their kids or their grandkids, because everything I do on the internet is going to be there forever. So when they look back in 60 years and we look it up and say, you know, what a great grandpa was onto something or would they say, you know, he's off his rocker. He's just a crazy, you know, so it's like, hopefully it's the first.

Joana: Um, so since you like to help, what are some tips and tricks you would share with someone starting out and trying to sell online on Amazon?

William: Yeah. So most people don't realize this, but they probably have anywhere from a thousand to $5,000 worth of stuff in their house, they don't touch. They don't use. So shop house, if you think you don't have money to get started or to start your own business or to do what you're really passionate about, shop your house, go through and take an inventory of stuff you haven't touched. And then look up the comps on eBay. That's what we did. So like when we really wanted to jump in, we bought a couple of books, but when we saw success, we were like, okay, we need more capital because more capital is going to give us leverage. So what we did was we went to the garage in the back room, the utility closet, we found old Pyrex dishes. We found yard signs for ADT. We found tools.

We found stuffed animals. Then we sold that on eBay. So you can go through your closet garage, your addict, your kid's room, maybe toys they don't play with. And instead of donating it for a tax write off, which is a whole other tangent, then sell it on eBay. You know, because we found vintage stuffed animals that sold for like $50. We were selling used yard signs for ADT on eBay for $20 a piece. And there's a whole market of people that will buy these yard signs that you get for free from ADT and these other like home security system places. And they'll, they'll sell them and they'll buy them on eBay and they'll put them in their yard and it's a deterrent. It's a, Hey, I bet ADT. Do you want to take a chance that I don't while I don't advocate that as a security measure, like there's an entire marketplace out there mutual fund, our vintage Teddy bear that sells for 50 bucks or vintage Pyrex there.

So we can sell for 50, 75, a hundred dollars. I'm guaranteeing the majority of people out there that want to get started, have no idea that there's used or a brand new VHS cassette tapes that sell for $20 a piece, you know, old technology like you name it. You'd be surprised if you just spend an afternoon searching on eBay for the weirdest things. I found somebody selling a box of acorns that they picked up out of their yard. Probably like you can sell anything. That's my biggest thing. You could probably get a thousand to $5,000 doing that,

Joana: Say that I'm looking around, I'm an avid reader. So I'm surrounded by books and not books that I plan to sell, but I'm looking around and I'm like, I probably am sitting on a bunch of cash. Knock on wood.

William: People, look at books like two different ways. It's either garbage or like, Oh, well I'm going to get around to reading it. And then most people don't read them books or maybe they've read them. And they're like, well, maybe I'll read it again. And then they never do it.

Joana: What's the nerdiest thing you own. And you pop out a 50th anniversary edition of the Hobbit. I like my soul left my body.

William: It's funny too, because the person that did the video prior that I do edit, had the same thing and he's a book. He was an old book seller. And now he does like retail arbitrators. So just, it lends more credence to like I'm in the right tribe because I'm finding people that have the same things in common, just out of happenstance. So it's like, yeah, I'm at home. I found the right drive.

Joana: I ask this question. What's like a big dream that you're trying to achieve with all of this.

William: My big dream I first started was being debt-free debt-free is the new millionaire, but nowadays we're pretty close to that. So the next goal we have is to sell the house, buy an RV, take the show on the road, because then it's true freedom. You're not tied to one place because most people that own a house they're tied to that house. If you drive your house or you tow your house, your house is wherever you are. And if I want to spend a month abroad, I can spend a month abroad and park the house in airport parking. So that that's the next short-term goal. Aside from that, I don't necessarily want to retire because I love what I do. I don't, I don't want to cash out. You know, like everyone says to have an exit plan, man, this is my idea plan. This is amazing.

I get to spend every waking moment with my kids. And I mean, you're talking about somebody that used to work 60, 70 hours a week in a kitchen. And there were days where I would leave for work before they got up. And I would come home after they went to bed. So he's talking about weeks at a time where I wouldn't see my kids or interact with them. And I get to spend every time, every minute I can with them now, you know, we thrift together. We homeschool, we go on vacations together. I could just spend every waking moment with my wife. Like I'm living my dream. This is my dream. I'm loving it. I'm so content so happy right now. I don't stress about money because I know how to make it teaching my kids. They don't have to be dependent on somebody else to give them a job. They know how to make their own money. So if they went into a job where they don't like it, they don't like their boss and they want to do their own thing. They know how to do that. Looking for value where there's like normally, normally nobody looking at that as valuable. It's an amazing feeling to know you have that in your back pocket.

Joana: It'd be mentored by anyone in history, who would it be?

William: Alexander? The great went way back. And the reason I say that is because he took over so much like space, like before it really became unsustainable. You have to have the ability to network. You have to have the ability to build the systems and put them in place. You have to have certain levels of competence and you have to have a certain level of swag. Like I think at least to hang out with him for a week or a month would be amazing. You know, like just to see, just to be a fly on the wall for some of those conversations. I think that would be an amazing thing to see

Joana: Final nugget of information that you can share to the people listening. Cause I'm pretty sure a lot of people who will listen to this will get really inspired by a lot of what you've said. But one last nugget

William: Don't stop. Who's going to be tough days, document your journey because even if you don't document it and publish it for all the public to see, do it for yourself, go on, take talk, record those videos, make them private because there's going to be days where you have tough days where you have a struggle where you're like, man, am I really doing the right thing? You start to question, you know, should you be doing this? Or should you be doing something else? And if you go back and you look at that in six months or a year, this is going to be like, wow, I can't believe I've come so far in such a short amount of time. And then it'll reinvigorate your focus and your determination and keep you going. So if with anything else, document your journey, if it's just for you, that's perfectly fine.

Make it public. But what I'm saying is you're going to want to go back. You're going to want to watch it. You're going to have a tough day. And when you have those tough days, it's going to be really nice to see yourself in such a positive mindset, successful, killing it, making progress, hitting your goals, having those amazing days. And then you're going to look back and you're like, you know what? I'm definitely doing the right thing because I was that person. I was happy. I love doing this. And then it'll, it'll recharge your batteries because there's going to be time for your batteries to get depleted.

Joana: Thank you so much for coming on the seller's corner and sharing all that information.

William: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

View Details

In this episode, we talk to Caleb Ashton who lost his job and made the choice to sell video games online while his wife goes to law school. He shares tips and tricks and how you can get started with selling video games on Amazon or eBay.

Topics discussed in the episode:

[0:38] When Caleb started selling online
[2:11] A typical workday
[5:18] Shifting gears when sources dried up
[7:30] What he wishes he had known before starting
[12:10] Lost his job while selling on the side
[17:22] Trends in video game reselling
[20:03] Great places to find games
[27:04] A failure he learned from
[36:10] Top Five Favorite games
[39:11] Some final advice

Resources Mentioned:

His YouTube Channel Phoenix Resale

Seller Tips:

Go to pawn shops where you might find that a lot of games are underpriced.
Don't compare your seller journey to someone else's carefully curated Instagram feed

Transcript:
Intro: Welcome to the seller's corner and e-commerce podcast where the real stories from real sellers, each episode, we sit down with online sellers all across the globe and talk about overcoming challenges, scaling and putting processes around their online businesses. Welcome to the show.

Joana: Hey, this is Joana and I run marketing at acceler list. Today. We are talking to Caleb, Ashton about his journey into the world of reselling video games and how you can get started too.

When did you actually get started with selling?

Caleb: I think I started back in September of 2018. My wife had just entered law school and I was working a regular nine to five job with some friends and was just looking for like a side hustle to put some time into and, you know, earn a little bit of extra money on the side and sort of stumbled into the YouTube, like resale community and actually started out flipping books onto Amazon from like thrift stores and book sales and stuff like that. So I started more on the Amazon side. Then at that point it was kind of later fall. Once it warmed up again, I started going to yard sales and amping up eBay side a little bit more and yeah, it sort of just evolved from there, I guess. Cause you said you started with selling books.

Joana: Do you mainly sell video games now or do you still sell books?

Caleb: Yeah, I would say I'm probably maybe 90% video games and then 10% miscellaneous. I sometimes will still do books. My wife is still in law school and sometimes I'll buy her friends old textbooks and things like that. Or if I know someone who's getting rid of a bunch, but I'm focused primarily on video games at this point.

Joana: Are you like a video game geek or I ask because I'm one, so it's totally fine if you are too.

Caleb: I would say probably less so than most video games sellers. I definitely played my fair share as a kid right now I'm working on a Switch collection, but I'm not like a hardcore collector or game or anything. I don't get to play quite as much as I'd like

Joana: talk us a little bit through like a typical work day. Cause you do this full-time at the moment, right?

Caleb: I sure do. Yeah, day-to-day it varies a good bit because like some days I might be focusing more on source things. Some days might be heavier on the listing, but I would say on an average day, I'll start the day off normally by packing up and shipping out any eBay orders that have sold on the Amazon side. Almost all of my inventory is fulfilled by Amazon. So luckily I don't really have to worry about those orders.

Then later on in the day, maybe I would go out and hit up a few pawn shops in town to buy some video games or systems that I find that maybe are under priced. That's a way that I get a decent amount of my inventory. I might spend some time looking online for video games, sales, like on gamestop.com or other websites to find underpriced games on like a clearance sale or things like that. I would say, especially this last year, I've gotten a lot more into the online arbitrage aspect of that. And then on, you know, maybe I'll finish out the day by filming or editing a video because the YouTube side of the business is something that I really developed this last year as well.

Joana: What's like the part that you enjoy the most, is it finding the games or do you prefer doing like the YouTube stuff and kind of inspiring others to get into it?

Caleb: That's a hard question. I don't know if anything really compares. There's like a really deep satisfaction when like you get a nice comment on a video or like VM from someone who's been like genuinely helped by something that you've created. So I'd probably ultimately have to say that. Although the thing that really like got me hooked into the resale community was like the thrill of the hunt, the thrill of the find, like going to a yard sale and having somebody like dig out a N64 collection from some dusty closet and being able to make a good amount of money on something that you know, was previously basically junk to someone else. That element of it is really addicting as well.

Joana: Yeah. I hear that a lot actually. Like the thrill of the hunt is, is like the key factor in all of this. Everyone really enjoys that.

Caleb: I think it's a really common trend, especially for resellers. I think because if you don't get enjoyed that, I think most people won't gravitate towards resale. Cause most people don't like get much of a high from like listing 20 items on eBay. You know,

Joana: You mentioned your wife's in law school. So do you do this all on your own or does she like step in a little bit when she has some time?

Caleb: As little as she possibly can, doesn't have the same resale bug that I did, which I think is a good thing. We kind of compliment each other in that way. I think I'm much more of a generalist. So resale is a really good path for me I think because there's so much stuff that you can potentially learn about like not only are there multiple facets of the business, like you have to learn sourcing and like listing stuff really well and scaling and like business efficiencies and things like that. But there are also tons of niches that like you're having less success in one, like after I did books for awhile, I started to realize that the niche would becoming a little bit more competitive and also that some of my sources were kind of drying up. And so that's when I shifted gears a little bit and started experimenting store, sourcing more at pawn shop and sort of how I started to get into the video game niche, but yeah, sort of the, the generalist nature of resale and just the fact that there's so much to learn and so many ways to expand really throughout need to it.

And meanwhile, my wife is the kind of person who like will set her mind to something and we'll be like the best in the world, that one thing. So we're kind of a, I guess, opposites attract for us in that way.

Joana: I know we're all trying to leave 2020 behind us, but how did the pandemic affect your business?

Caleb: That's a good question. I think actually from what I've heard from other members of the community, because of the increase in shopping and the demand for new and used goods online, a lot of resellers had really good business years, at least in 2020. I certainly was no exception to that. Normally April, may, June are pretty slow months, but because that was sort of when the peak of lockdown was happening, people were looking a lot more for activities. They could do doors. It was a really good time to be a video game reseller. And I basically, I mean, for resellers of all sorts, normally Q4 is like the big, like hot time of year where everything is selling and you're getting a bunch of new sales, but like this year, late spring, early summer was almost like a second Q4 because there was such a surge in the demand or the kind of goods that I sell. So a good year to at least be in this line of work for me.

Joana: Yeah. Cause I know people like some of my friends that were never gamers never picked up a console in their lives, were out there picking up Nintendo switches and just finding video games to play. So I imagine, I mean, even I ended up buying quite a few video games because I just couldn't help myself kind of sitting, sitting at home. Couldn't go anywhere. What else am I going to do? But play Video games.

Caleb: Yeah, exactly. You're like, thank you.

Joana: You're welcome. What are some of the things you wish you had known before starting selling online?

Caleb: I would say one trap that I fell into, especially early on is the trap of comparison. I think that one of the biggest assets for beginning and veteran resellers, alike is the social media presence of other resellers popping onto Instagram or YouTube and getting inspired from other resellers in the same or different niches and getting tips and like items to be on the lookout for is just invaluable. I mean the amount that you're able to learn online is incredible, but it's sort of the flip side. The more insidious side to that is a trap that at least was really easy for me to fall into is comparing like my young, like just starting out infant business to some of these people who have been at it for years. I'm thinking, man, I'm like not putting up nearly those numbers or like I'm not selling through nearly that number of goods. And like, of course I shouldn't be. So I think early on the less you can sort of have your head on a swivel of like, okay, what, how much like sales or how much business are the person to the right and left of me doing? And the more you can just focus on where you are and where you're headed and where that is proportionate to where you were yesterday. I think the more you're able to have that perspective, the healthier your business and your mindset is going to be,

Joana: Yeah, I think that's important just these days to, to focus on what you're doing. No matter the business you're in, because it's easy to see someone's Instagram feed and just kind of think, or get kind of jealous or envious of what you see. Cause you see like big sales or big houses and expensive cars and you start thinking, well, how do I get there? Like, yeah. And yeah, I think it's important to focus on what you need to get done to get to where you personally want to go. Like don't get sucked into that Instagram void as I like to call it.

Caleb: Yeah. And there are a lot of people, a lot of creators out there then don't focus a whole lot on like the flashy, like sexy side, like, Ooh, here are all these glamorous things that I'm able to buy with all of my resale money, but even so sometimes even just seeing like, wow, this person's coming back from the garage sales today with a huge trunk full of inventory. I wish that was me. Can sometimes distract you from the things that you can immediately change about your business and the way that you can be setting yourself up for success.

Joana: What are some of the things that you used as resources? Cause you said you watched like videos and stuff. So was like YouTube, your main inspiration to get into this or like what did you find helpful?

Caleb: Yeah, I would definitely say so. And would definitely say that was a primary inspiration for why I decided to get into that myself as well, early on the biggest thing that caused me to, I guess it wasn't really making the leap because it was pretty low risk, but just to commit to trying out the resale thing in general was just being able to watch from start to finish people going through this process of, I found this item at a garage sale at a thrift store books sale, wherever it was priced for this much. I knew by looking at eBay or Amazon that I could sell it for this much. So I bought it, it took this long to sell. I made this much profit and being able to see all the steps of the process and the people that are doing it and just think, huh, I don't think they're all that much smarter than me.

You know, like I could probably go out and do this. It's it's really empowering. And I was very grateful to some of the creators early on that really inspired me to try it out for myself, the infamous Gary V's trash talk series, where he goes out, it's probably the most highly produced yard sale of logs in history, but just seeing the kind of deals that he was able to find just from a solid day of yard saling. I was like, man, this is good. If I do this right. If I like really sharpen this craft and learn this game, I could really make a difference in our bottom line month to month and it might not take disproportionate effort. So it had a huge role in inspiring me to actually get my butt off the couch and start.

Joana: Did you work in like a office job before or like any like a full-time job before you did all of this?

Caleb: Yeah, I did. I worked at, uh, a small collectible coin wholesaling company that was owned by one of my friends from school. Actually a couple of my friends graduated, same time I did and started business. They needed some extra help. So I signed on with them and was sort of building the resale business as a side hustle, mostly as I was working for them. And I could talk for an entire podcast about everything that didn't work out about that job, but long story short, I ended up getting fired from that job by my friends, not once, but twice. And the second time I was finally ready to, well, I wasn't really ready. I was almost ready to make the leap whole time to just doing resale. I really would have rather had a couple more solid months that I could look back and say, okay, I made this much.

I could have paid myself this much and still growing the business. So that's why I said, I wasn't really ready, but I did it anyway. And you know, the rest is kind of history. I actually, after the second time of getting fired, I was like, okay, I want to do this. I went out and got a license to be a substitute teacher just in case. Like there was kind of a gap there in what I had made and what we needed at the end of the month that I would have something I could fall back on and pretty much always have some, you know, work that I could go do. But you know, glory to God, we never ended up needing it. I think I slept twice in the first month. And then since then have not done it. So we're separately.

Joana: Do you think, like, was it nerve wrecking actually to just get fired and all of a sudden I'd be like, okay, I guess I'm doing this full time. Like, did you freak out a little bit?

Caleb: Yeah, it was. I mean that whole process was, I think it would be a tough situation for most people's hearts. So having to deal sort of simultaneously with like some hard identity questions that sorta came into the picture, like, what am I doing? You know, Erica is in school and I'm supposed to be like providing and paying the bills. And I like, can't even hold a job down like responsible adult, like what's going on. And then also having to figure out, okay, now I'm, I'm taking this thing that up until now has been just like a steady side income. And how do I actually push this into something that can fully support us? I was lucky that I had been doing it for around a year part-time at that point. So I definitely had some of the systems, some of the rhythms in place, but yeah, those, those first two months were definitely full uncertainty. Yeah.

Joana: I understand that. I lived in Germany for a few years and I worked with the company for awhile and then all like out of the blue, they let me go. And I was like, it was at first I was nervous, but I knew I had some connections to do like freelance writing, but yeah, you're right. It's like at first you're kind of like, I need to do something.

Caleb: Yeah. Well, I'm glad you can empathize with me on that one. Yeah.

Joana: It's not, you have like that split second of complete terror, but you know, it worked out in the end. So I know you have your YouTube channel, Phoenix resale. How did you get started with that? And how long ago did you get started with a YouTube channel?

Caleb: Yeah, I think it was late February of last year. So been around 10 months at this point, it was one of my goals for 2020 to start a YouTube channel because I knew that it was something that just based on how much I had been helped by other channels early out. I kind of talked about that already. And also I just saw some opportunity there to provide something to the resale community that I thought was like, I wasn't necessarily finding. And I love, I have a lot of load or a lot of like the larger channels that have really established the knit. But I also felt like resale content is kind of like in this box and I would love to have the opportunity if I was able to grow, you know, something of a following to kind of push the boundaries of what a resale channel really can be.

So that's definitely something that I'm on the front end of that process, but I'm excited where the channel has come so far. And I'm proud of, I think a lot of resale YouTube owners tend to play it fairly safe. Like you see a lot of like yard sale logs and then like corresponding what sold videos. And I think a lot of my videos have been somewhat unique in terms of resale content. I'll do like, you know, trying to trade stuff on Facebook marketplace, or I had a video that did pretty well about experience of pre-ordering a PlayStation five and you know, those kinds of videos have been a lot of fun to make and to just kind of see people's reactions to. So, uh, that was part of my motivation for it going in as well as I wanted to be able to create content for resellers. That was a little bit more out of the box.

Joana: I mean, now I have an important question. Did you get the PlayStation five?

Caleb: I did. Yeah, it was, it was a crazy experience, but yeah, after six hours or so waiting in line for the store to open, I did end up getting, I didn't think I'd be able to, but somehow it happened. And then, and then in a later review I gave it away and that video did really well too.

Joana: Yeah, I assume so. I couldn't find one and they're completely sold out here for, I don't know how long I have no idea when they'll be back in stock. So I'm just always like refreshing and like give me notifications please. Yeah.

Caleb: Yeah. You've probably figured out all the tips

Joana: You see any trends at the moment. Cause I know like with certain things it's like the nostalgia factor kicking in at the moment. So like what are some trends you're seeing in like your sales of video games?

Caleb: Yeah, that's a great question. One thing is that the prices for certain games through this whole year have fluctuated a lot more than normal. So I think that's partly due to supply being completely out of whack. So for a perfect example is in late spring, the prices of switch consoles went through the roof because production was faulted at a of their factories and people just couldn't get their hands on them. The normal way that's also happened, not just because of production shortages this year, but also the rise of streaming sometimes creates disproportionate demand for a game and we'll really Jack up the price. So we saw that happen with like Minecraft earlier this year and it's happened with a couple of football games as well. So that's been something that's really interesting to watch and I think is always beneficial for resellers to keep their eye on is like, how are pop culture trends going to be affecting the demand for goods, particularly like in your niche?

That's always a good thing to sort of have your finger on the pulse of, and then another thing would be as our generation or as my generation ages up, you see the prices or different generations of games go up as well. So I think when I just started reselling like a few years ago, the prices of GameCube games were much lower, but as people who are really nostalgic for that system age up and have more disposable income, the prices for those games are really starting to climb older systems like Atari. You can get a target games for super cheap right now, except for like the really rare ones and even original Nintendo games are seeing declines in prices as well because a lot of the collectors of those systems pretty much have their collections full. There aren't as many people who are coming into the video game market who are super jazzed up about collecting original Nintendo games, but there are a lot on the side of like gain queue or like PlayStation two. So hopefully that answers your question. Those are a couple of trends that I've been seeing.

Joana: I mean, I love Nintendo. I think I've had every single Nintendo console and now with the switch, I end up using like the virtual consoles to play some of my favorite older games. So I'm sure if I really wanted to, I'd probably collect like the old games, but for me, I don't see a need for it at the moment. It's just like it's right in my hands.

Caleb: Yeah. A lot of it's kind of like a collector and like nostalgia thing, the people who like to have like the original version and the original controller and all that. But yeah, it is very nice that almost all of those games are available digitally as well.

Joana: I don't know if this is like a secret or if you can share like some tips and tricks of like, what's like the best places to find video games to read.

Caleb: Yeah. That's a great question. So I mentioned earlier that I do a lot of sourcing and pawn shop and I like to talk about that because I think a lot of people are a little bit spooked by concepts. It's almost like walking onto like a used car lot, you know, you know, there are going to be people there who are trying to sell you stuff. Most of the stuff is going to be used. So there's a little bit of like a condition hesitation. There's negotiating involved. I'm a big span personally of pawn shops for a few reasons. One is a lot of them, at least in my area. And I've, I've been to pawn shops in a lot of different areas, looked specifically for the ones that don't price all of their games individually. Like they have really general pricing because oftentimes they'll be getting their games for free, like just bundled with systems.

And especially if you're the kind of person that can offer to buy things in bulk, like, Hey, if I bought five or 10 of these games, what kind of a discount can you work for me? And you're comfortable with that negotiation side. There's a lot of opportunity at pawn. Cause a lot of people just aren't really willing to do that. There also there's a lot of opportunity at pawn shops because in general, by costs for their goods tends to be a little bit higher per item. So there are all kinds of resellers out there who are willing to go to a thrift store and pay a dollar for a book that they can flip for 10, right? There are less people who are willing to pay $10 for a game that they can flip for like 25. So even though the dollar amount per item is better, a lot of folks don't want to front all that much money.

Caleb: So if you're in a position where you can, you'll have to deal with less competition, which is a big factor, especially if you are operating in a realm like video games that everybody loves to resell, you want to set yourself up to have every advantage that you possibly can. Also pawn shops are a great place to expand your knowledge. If you want to get into reselling more video games, because you can just go to a shell, you know, sometimes they'll have to unlock it for you and you can just like scan through each game and know, okay, they're going to charge $10 for every game. If I can find one that I can get like 24 after fees, then like that'll be a good deal for me. And so it's a great opportunity for self education. Some of the other places that I do like to source for video games are one is online.

So I'll wait for, for example, gamestop.com to have a really good sale. That's maybe like buy two, get two, three, or like buy five and get your whole cart 50% off. And then I'll buy a good amount of inventory all at once through those sales and then sell it on Amazon for whatever the regular price would be place is actually somewhat un-intuitive and that's video games stores. So I think most people would assume that there's going to be very little, if any opportunity at video game stores, because they're going to be very knowledgeable about those products, um, and are likely going to price them very close to what the market actually is. And in general, that's very true. But if you one are very familiar with what certain games or accessories or console go for on your platforms, sometimes you can spot and consistencies. And also if you're familiar with what I was saying earlier, which is like market trends that are maybe disproportionately valuing certain items, there can also be a lot of opportunity there.

Like right when the lockdown started to happen, a lot of sports games and I found wrestling games in particular were just like storing in price. I don't know what it was about sitting at home. Maybe people wanted to vicariously get exercise through wrestling games. I'm not sure, but I would like go to my local video game stores, pick out like 10 copies of WWE 2017 for six bucks, which normally nobody really wants. So they're super cheap and then sell them for like 15 or so after fees. Um, so there was definitely some arbitrage that was able to go on there as well. That does take a little bit more knowledge of the market though. That's not necessarily where I'd recommend people starting out. I mean

Joana: The wrestling game thing, I think it's more just everyone was locked in and probably angry and frustrated.

Caleb: Exactly. It'd be a good way of getting out some aggression

Joana: Body slam this virtual character

Caleb: Rather than my spouse.

Joana: Well, I mean, yeah, that's the better choice.

Caleb: Yeah. I think that's probably more astute,

Joana: As A video game nerd, speaking of myself, are Pokemon games still like a thing that everyone searches for or is it just dying out

Caleb: Now? They are no it's Pokemon is alive and well, it's a incredibly profitable franchise. That's one of the categories that I always encourage beginners to look out where I think most people kind of know, but yeah, hooking on games tend to hold their value very well. And some of them have actually appreciate it quite a bit. So one example is art gold and soul silver version originally retail for maybe like 40 bucks. And now even just the cartridge will sell for over a hundred normally. So definitely some really solid value in a lot of Pokemon titles.

Joana: Oh, I used to have the gold one. Oh yeah. Yeah. I played Pokemon for hours as a kid, so

Caleb: Yeah. Well, Hey, if you end up finding them in some dusty, old box, they may be worth living

Joana: Well, that's the thing, like I've mentioned this before in a previous episode, I had a bunch of stuff like Pokemon cards, like I had the original 150 Pokemon cards. I had like a whole set of goosebumps books and like the GameBoy advance. It was like clear purple and all these game cartridges. And then my parents had a massive flood in their house and everything, everything got destroyed.

Caleb: Oh, no that's heartbreaking.

Joana: Like I've mentioned it, like I don't look to see how much that stuff is worth because it's probably just, it's going to make me cry. So your biggest failure so far and like, what did you learn from it?

Caleb: I don't know if this counts, but this was actually very recent. Just a couple of weeks ago. We got back from Christmas break and our house had been broken into, so I actually ended up losing a good amount of inventory that I had gotten. You know, I was sort of storing up that had gotten here over the break and also my computer, which I use for like reselling stuff and YouTube videos and all that was taken as well. So that it was a failure on our part in that we probably didn't secure the building as well as we should have we've since rectified that. But it definitely this last couple of weeks been a big process and a learning curve of, okay, how do you deal with insurance claims? And like what all is like taken and how do we get it replaced and you know, what do we need to do to protect ourselves going forward? So that was definitely a jarring experience and one that I would not recommend

Joana: Well, yeah. I'm sorry that happened. That's terrible. Yeah.

Caleb: Yeah. It wasn't fun. I think ultimately we'll be better for it. Early on in my resale career, I had found this deal on Facebook marketplace, somebody who was getting rid of a whole bunch of shoes, looked like solid profitable brands. So, uh, I went over to check them out. We agreed on a price. And I think ahead of time I had asked, Oh, by the way, are these like from a smoke-free home? They said, yes. I was like, cool. So I went, picked them up. It was clear as I was sort of starting to bring them back to my car as I kind of gotten closer to them that it was not smoke-free like they had just grade applied and I could have gone back and said, Hey, I don't think this is from a smoke-free home. Or like these just, you know, I'm not really interested in these at that point.

I was kinda scared of the conflict and didn't really want to, I think the deal was maybe like 90 or a hundred bucks or so. I was like, well, you know, maybe I'll let them air out, be able to sell them anyway. I don't think I ended up selling almost any of those shoes. Cause I had to say, this is from a smoking household. Maybe I sold a couple and got like 20 bucks of my money back. But lesson was definitely learned there, like fully inspect your goods. If you're buying a lot of stuff before you actually hand the money over,

Joana: That's actually a great tip on anything that you're trying to find or buy definitely inspect it. So with the process that you have, like, do you, because you also sell on eBay and stuff?

Caleb: Yes, I sure do. I would say I'm about probably 90% or so maybe like 85% on Amazon and then maybe 10% on eBay and 5% local. I don't do a whole lot of local stuff. Like I mentioned earlier, it's mostly like trades.

Joana: I think AccelerList has helped you in listing things online.

Caleb: Yeah. So before I got AccelerList, I was just listing things directly through Amazon. And for some I to this day have not been able to figure out why their listing process isn't more intuitive. I mean, they're one of the largest companies in the world. You would think that they would be able to develop like a super easy user interface and make the listing process really smooth, but they just haven't. So when I download Excel or list for the first time, I was a little bit hesitant at first because I didn't know if it was really worth adding another monthly subscription. Once I tested it out and realized how much easier the process was. And then you could load in pre-written condition notes and um, you know, just scan barcodes in easily and go through the process and a much quicker, I was like, wow, this is totally worth it. And since then haven't looked back. Cause it just, it saves me so time in the listing process. And especially when you are like a one person business, your time is by far your most valuable resource. So I'm very willing to invest in pretty much anything that I know will save me time. Yeah.

Joana: I think that's the main thing that AccelerList helps with is saving time. You don't have to spend hours and hours now listing individual things. You can do it rather quickly through the surface. So yeah,

Caleb: Exactly. And that's part of what I think makes me believe so much in the service is that it provides such an obvious value to its clients, which is time savings. And that's, it's hard to put a dollar value on that, but it's definitely more than whenever the subscription costs. Yeah.

Joana: With the time you save listing, you can be sourcing and then you'll have more inventory. So

Caleb: Absolutely. And your business grows exponentially.

Joana: What are some of your hopes for like the future near future?

Caleb: Yeah. So on the longer term horizon, eventually we'd love to move into a location that has maybe like a large detached garage or has enough land that we could build a warehouse. So I'd love to have, I would say the biggest hindrance on the business at the moment is just space. Like I've constantly got packages piled up where they shouldn't be. And we've got a couple of sheds that somewhat fall. I need to do some reorganization soon, but it'd be really nice to have like a designated area for shipping and for supplies and for like filming YouTube videos and for store inventory kind of all in a centrally located place. That's definitely one thing that I've been dreaming about for the future more immediately this year. I'd definitely like to expand the channel. I'm going to continue trying to make videos that I think will reach somewhat broader audience and bring more people to the channel.

I think that YouTube is a business model. That's more easily scalable for a single person. And, and so we do have some sort of other external space that is separate from our home. I don't really see much of a possibility of hiring someone on to help with the resale business side. So this coming year, that's a good part of, I would say where my focus is going to be last year. The only goal that I didn't achieve was going to a reseller conference because there really weren't any, but I'm still optimistic that in 2021, that opportunity will be there and I'll be able to connect with some other folks in the field, just, uh, you know, shake some hands, exchange, some numbers and this business can get kind of lonely sometime. And I think having those kinds of connections is just really healthy.

Joana: Then having more space cause I've seen some of your videos and yeah, I could tell that you have like stacks and stacks of inventory surrounding you, so understand. Um, so do you have any other dreams?

Caleb: I really like what I do, so I don't necessarily like dream of one day being able to stop. Um, so I think it definitely would be nice in terms of scale to maybe have a couple of part-time employees that help me out with like shipping or listing, like maybe I one who is tasked with going out and finding all the inventory and then I can basically feed it into my system and then like, not really think about it anymore. You know, I know that it'll go off to Amazon and be fulfilled or it'll be listed on eBay and then store the right way and all that. I could see that being in my future. But again, that's probably in the four to 10 year term rather than the immediate future.

Joana: Do you Have any books that you've read?

Caleb: Yeah. Well I read the Bible every morning. I love Jesus. So that's definitely a part of my rhythm than really eating up Proverbs recently, which is like, I just love easily digestible axioms that you can kind of get in your mind and live by. So that's why I love that. Also on the business side, I would say I'm kind of a personal finance nerd. Some of the books that I recommend most readily to people books about simple financial principles. So either like a Dave Ramsey or rich dad or dad, or like the richest man in Babylon books that help people understand that personal finance doesn't have to be this like big intimidating East. And that in reality, what in the longterm separates people who succeed financially from the ones who spend a lot of their lives, living paycheck to paycheck is not necessarily how much you earn.

It's more about how much you don't spend. There are professional athletes who go broke, go bankrupt all the time, despite multi-million dollar a year incomes. And at the same time, there are barbers who over time and up building wealth and retiring well, because like your financial mindset determines your financial outcomes so much more than, you know, the actual dollar amount income that you're bringing in because you're squandering all of that. It's not actually going to help you. So that's kind of like maybe that's something that I'll end up talking more about on the channel too. It's a little bit of a side passion of mine that I really liked to help people out with.

Joana: I have to like, not be careful, but I think talking money and finances is still kind of like a sensitive topic for a lot of people. But I think what you said is actually true. It's important to know what you're doing with your finances and take care of that. So you don't lose it all.

Caleb: Yeah, very true. And I think in a way that's being able to talk about that kind of stuff is kind of a strength of mine. I'm a kind of an open book when it comes to a lot of subjects that some people find more uncomfortable. Sometimes that ends up working to my, because you know, I'll bring something up and maybe it makes someone else uncomfortable. But I think a lot of times it can be an advantage because I'm willing to talk candidly about subjects that oftentimes people might find it hard to get a response from other people on, in a way that hopefully is helpful sometimes. So maybe that will be a topic that I'll try to discuss a little bit more, but it's definitely one that I'm passionate about.

Joana: So since you sell video games and I know you started this conversation and you said you're not that much of a gamer, but you still must have like at least a top five favorite

Caleb: Games by all say my favorite game of all time is probably Zelda breath of the wild on this page. Have you played that one? Yes. Good. And the sad thing is I've actually never played another Zelda game. I didn't grow up playing Zelda at all, but I, that was one of the first games that I played on the switch and it just blew my mind. I was like, wow, I've never played anything like this. Some other favorites that maybe less obvious, there's a PlayStation two game called shadow of the Colossus. It's another like kind of open world adventure game where it's just like a boss battling game, fairly sequential, but it, I don't know what it was about it. I watched that ending of that game and it just like wrecked me for like two days. I could not stop thinking about it. What else? The game that I've probably put more hours in than any other game would be super smash bros melee on the gamecube in high school. I grinded out that game with my friends for like hours and hours. So put a lot of time into that one. And I also have some Pokemon favorites as well. I'd say probably crystal version. That was the first one that I ever played and, uh, would definitely be on my list as well.

Joana: Is there any Final advice for anyone that's really trying to get into like the video game reset?

Caleb: Well, I might have to steal the advice of Chris Hogan who uses it in the context of saving for retirement. But I would say to resellers of all kinds, actually that uncommon goals require uncommon effort. So I think one of the biggest unifying factors of people who end up being successful resellers is just good old fashioned work ethic. There really is no substitute for hard work when it comes to gaining proficiency at something like, sure. There's definitely something to be said for working smarter, not harder and like the analysis side and like, how am I doing what I'm doing? What's the best way to go about it. It's just hard to achieve a high level of success. And I think what a lot of people look for when they go to resale is like the independence side of it. Like, wow, this provides me a level of lifestyle, freedom that I can have with you, other things.

And that level of freedom is something that not a lot of people get to have. So if that is something that you aspire to, if that's a goal of yours, I would just say, it's going to uncommon effort. It's not going to be like a drag. If it's something that you love to do, that's why I'm doing. But I would just encourage people to consider whether they're willing to have their effort match their aspiration. Like how bad do you want it? Easy to see the results of it. Like it's easy for little kids to say, man, I really want to be a basketball player because they see the game winning side and think that looks really fun, but they don't see the two a day, 5:00 AM workouts every day of the week for years. Right. And I think there can be a similar effect that happens in the resale world.

Like I said, you're hopping on Instagram. You're seeing the stacks of packages. You're seeing the eBay sales snapshots and thinking like I could definitely do that. I definitely want to take a mini vacation to Cabo and you know, on a Wednesday because I can do whatever I want. Like that seems really nice, but what you're not going to see is the disproportionate effort that all of those people who have achieved, those things are going to need to put in. That's not a message that I preach a ton because I do like to stay on the optimistic side. I think on the flip side of that, there's more opportunity in resale than people even realize, like you can pick almost any niche and like make a full-time income by getting really good at sourcing and reselling that thing. So like I'm incredibly bullish on getting into resale. I think there's so much untapped opportunity. It's not passive income. You know, it's not easy money. It's not just the game winning shot. You also have to be willing to get up at 4:00 AM and about those reps.

Outro: Thanks for listening to another episode of the sellers corner. If you would like to be a guest on the show, please send an email to podcast@accelerlist.com. Accelerlist also offers a generous 21 day free trial. When you enter coupon code podcast on the registration page. Now is the time to start with Amazon and break into freedom with your own business.

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In this episode we talk to John Muscarello of Pennsylvania who quit his full time job to sell books on Amazon. He shares how he originally started selling furniture locally and then decided to switch to selling on Amazon and eBay. He tells us how his business is growing, and actionable steps you can take to do the same!

Topics discussed in the episode:

[0:58] How John got started selling online
[2:06] How did he feel about quitting his full time job
[3:06] Moment of Panic about leaving his job
[4:22] What a typical work day looks like now as an Amazon seller
[6:08] Scaling his business quickly
[6:55] How the pandemic affected his business
[11:06] What he wishes he'd known before jumping to selling on Amazon
[14:40] Why he started his blog sidehustleexperiment.com
[18:40] All the work that happens behind the scenes
[23:50] Library Sales
[25:25] Bulk Model
[26:00]What Book genres sell the most
[29:00]Hardest part about being a seller
[33:03]How AccelerList has helped his business

Resources Mentioned:

Book: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
Book: Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday

Seller Tips:

Bulk model might be best if you don't have thrift stores nearby or you don't enjoy going to library sales.
Build sets of books, especially of children's books before putting them up for sale as individual books

Transcript:
Intro: Welcome to the sellers corner and e-commerce podcast where the real stories from real sellers, each episode, we sit down with online sellers all across the globe and talk about overcoming challenges, scaling and putting processes around their online businesses. Welcome to the show.

Joana: Hey, this is Joana and I run marketing at AccelerList. In this episode, we talked to John Muscarello from Pennsylvania. He tells us how he quit his nine to five to sell full time and how you can do the same.

Today. We're talking to John Muscarello just about his seller journey that allowed him to quit his full-time job. How are you, John?

John: Good. How are you?

Joana: Pretty good. Can't complain.

John: That’s always good. I mean, it's Friday.

Joana: do you want to tell us how you got started with selling online?

John: I started back in 2017. I actually wasn't selling online. I was actually selling locally. I was selling furniture, Facebook marketplace, and Craigslist, and offer up those kinds of apps or I just pick up a table and chairs for like $50 and sell it for like $200 on another app. And after a year, like it went pretty well and I was like, wow, this is great. But then when the holidays rolled around I’m originally from New York, so I travel, I don't know the last, probably two weeks of the year, like the business dried up because like I physically had to be there.

So I was looking for something I could do online. And I started just looking and watching YouTube videos and came across that you could sell books on Amazon. And I just started going to thrift stores. I got all the software and just start going. Wow. I quit my full-time job. I hadn't been full-time for about a year now. It's been a crazy journey but I love.

Joana: pretty cool. So how did it feel to quit the full-time job?

John: It felt amazing. It was like a tough decision. It was and it wasn’t like, I didn't know if I was fully ready, but there is a lot going on at work and like, I wasn't happy. So I was just like, you know what? I have like a good runway, like saved up in the bank and like, you know, what, if it doesn't work out, I guess I can always get another job, but deep down, like I knew it could work.

Like I've been doing it probably a year and a half before I quit maybe two years. So I had a pretty good, like, sales are very consistent. It wasn't just like I was doing like a thousand dollars and like, Oh, if I quit, I could do like $8,000. Like it was very consistent. So I felt like very comfortable making a little leap, but like, yeah, it just felt like amazing. And when they sent the email that like, I was leaving to do my own thing, like, it just felt like so surreal that like working all these like nights and weekends, like it finally all paid off.

Joana: Did you have like a moment of panic right after like, Oh no, I just quit my job!

John: I did probably the first four to six weeks. I was like, Oh my God, did I make the right decision? Like, it's just weird. Like now all of a sudden, like you're used to doing this thing on the side and now it's like, you could do it all the time. And like, things just change. Like you're used to going to the same thrift stores in your neighborhood after work. But now like you have to do a lot more and like, that's just not going to cut it. So I quickly was like, Oh, like I have all these routes in different States I was doing. So I was doing that. And then I was like, wow, like, this is a lot of traveling. Like, I don't know, like if this is like sustainable and then like, I basically started doing bulk books. I found a supplier and I liked that much better. It's easier to control your time. Like, you're not really competing with anyone else. Like you could kind of scan on your own time. And I mean, it comes with its problems, but like once you have everything kind of solved, I like it.

Joana: Do you mainly sell books or do you still do like furniture stuff?

John: Pretty much all books. I do DVDs and CDs as well, but for the most part, it's all books amazon, and some stuff on eBay.

Joana: So what does a typical Workday look like for you? Like now that you're doing this full time?

John: A typical Workday? I like to get up early, um, try to get up by at least 5:30/6:00. So basically I'll get up. I kind of check my seller central and make sure everything's okay. There's no issues. Then I go to where the books are stored usually. And then I'll start scanning for the day and I'll go through everything. Yeah. I just started scanning for most of the day. So take a little break for lunch and then I'll drop off any packages for eBay or any merchant fulfilled orders, but I'll probably go back and scan to like, I don't know, maybe like five, six o'clock and then I'll go home and then kind of relax a little bit then kind of just check orders, maybe post stuff on eBay, get stuff shipped for the next day. It kind of start all over again The next day. I recently just hired a Lister. So that's going to be super helpful. I would usually like sort the books that I like got that day at night, but now every Thursday I drop them off at her house.

Joana: I know that quite a few people work from home when they're doing this, do you have like a separate location that you actually work from?

John: I Do I have an office at my home and I have two storage units and we're about to get a warehouse. So we're looking at like two or three spaces, like we're kind of close. So for the most part, I'll go to the storage unit and eventually I get the warehouse, everything will be moved to the warehouse and I'll do everything there.

Joana: Do you feel like you've scaled your business really quickly or has it been like a steady progression to this point?

John: Yea I think I have scaled this pretty quickly. It's just me right now while I did hire a Lister. So like, I'm very excited for like, you know, getting a warehouse and like actually hiring someone to help out. I think I could scale much faster, but I basically, since I've been full time, I'd probably like three X my sales from when I was just doing it on the side. I've really been doing a lot of eBay lately as well. So, I mean, that's been a huge game changer as well.

Joana: How do you think this year has changed your business? Like with the pandemic and stuff? Has it actually changed or has it boosted sales?

John: So it's a mix. So for me, I was super grateful that I have a bulk model. So like when all the thrift stores closed and everything, it really didn't affect me because my suppliers were still working. One of my suppliers. He wasn't able to like bring books to me because like our state was shut down. But the person who is in state that I use was able to bring books to me. So, I mean, that was pretty beneficial. I think sales were definitely higher cause a lot of people are at home, so that was a boost, but it's very different. I think now I think having the bulk model and also what I did really learn is also having another place to sell because forget when it was. I think it was in April, but Amazon stopped taking books and media for about two weeks so that I really started to learn how to sell on eBay.

And I started like taking like things. I usually like send to like the person who picks up my duds. I like sell those on eBay. So I really learned how to sell on eBay. And now it's like a nice chunk of my business. Like I've continued to sell on eBay. So I think like you just have to be diversified. And I think like it's also important. Like a lot of people will ask me, Oh, when did you quit your job? Like, you know, how much money did you have? And I think that's like a huge key is like, you have to have like money set aside. Like when I quit my job, I don't know, eight months in savings if I made no money in the business and I'd be totally fine. And like when COVID hit, like I was super calm because like I knew, like it was only going to be like, well obviously COVID has, is still going. Um, but in terms of Amazon, I was like, it's just a short period. Like you have plenty of money saved in the bank. Like just keep doing what you can. And like eventually like, yeah, my supplier started working again. I started getting books. Um, I think it will also help down the line. I know a lot of people who probably haven't shopped on Amazon and it was out of necessity because they couldn't get goods and I think they'll continue to shop on there. So it could be good for the future.

Joana: Yeah. E-commerce definitely saw a boom this year.

John: Oh yeah. It's just crazy to see even just see Amazon struggle to like handle the demand that they had to like shut down, no shipments. And then I just saw an article the other day. I think they're hiring almost like 2000 people a day. it’s either 1000 or 2000 people per day.

Joana: Yeah. To keep up with demand and shipping and all that. I mean, we all sat at home and we wanted to order things either out of stress or necessity.

John: Yeah, pretty much. I mean like when you have like a lot of people, it really bodes to like what's happening in society. So I feel like a lot more people went to social media as well. And I think like when you're on social media, like, you know, people run ads and you start seeing stuff and like you're on Amazon. And then all of a sudden you see in your Facebook feed, I think like, it just really encourages a lot of shopping.

Joana: what state are you actually based in?

John: Pennsylvania.

Joana: Okay. Is there like a big selling community around you or?

John: I do know like a handful of sellers that are in Pennsylvania, but I don't know a lot. I mean, I know maybe one or two other booksellers, but for the most part, I really don't know too many other people. But do you know what I mean? I think like a lot of people come and go as well, so it's kind of hard to keep track of everyone. But for the most part, I think some people with the pandemic stopped, but for the most part, I mean, I think there's probably not a ton, but there could be a ton. I just don't know about it.

Joana: Yeah. I don't expect you to know everybody in Pennsylvania.

John: Yeah. I mean, yeah, if I did, I'd probably, Oh my God. There's so many people.

Joana: So what are some of the things that you wish you had known before you started selling?

John: I think what I wish I've known is to really like invest in the business within like a month or two I was using AccelerList and Scout IQ. I got like a Bluetooth scanner. It just makes everything so much faster. Looking back at it now, like when newer sellers reach out to me, Oh, I'm having trouble listing in seller central. I'm like, I don't even know how to do it anymore. Like, it's been so long since I've done that. And I mean, the more you can, I would say like, if you can, don't take anything out of the business. So what I was working my full-time job, you know, everything that like I made on Amazon just stayed in the business. I didn't take money out. Like I basically just saved it all up because I knew one day I want to do it full time. So I think that's important. I'm actually really like mad at myself for probably not hiring a lister because I've only been working with the person for two weeks and it made my life so much easier. So I think maybe take the leap and like kind of look at, you know,what’s the worst that could happen. Like that's what kind of occurred to me. Like, Oh, it doesn't work out. I have to list the book. Like I have to list them anyway. So like why not just give it a try?

Joana: Yeah. So the last episode we had someone mention that they actually got inspired by Tik Tok to get into selling. Was there like a resource that, or something you saw that really like inspired you to get started?

John: I've always been very entrepreneurial. My dad's always owned his own businesses and when I was younger, I've always worked for him and just loved the idea of business. And like I was the kid like working on the weekends instead of hanging out with my friends, I just loved it. And like the idea of like being able to make money and like not have to count on anyone has always been really appealing to me. And I've had like blogs in the past. Like I've always been like in like the space or like trying to do something. I would say there's a lot of like probably YouTube videos that I've watched and kind of been inspired by or like, Oh, like you could do that. I feel like a lot of people on Instagram, I've been to a couple of turn the page conferences, which is just crazy to see like what everyone's up to. Like we're all doing the same thing and it would seem like everyone would do it the same way, but everyone has their little different tweaks or spin on the business. I'm like applying what they're doing. Like could definitely impact your business. Or like sometimes you're just so in the business that like, you don't see the most obvious thing that you could do.

Joana: Do you find that those were helpful in the past though to just like gain insight into other people's workflows and processes and stuff?

John: Oh yeah. Without a doubt. I think like anytime you could like even just hear how someone else does it, even if you don't do it exactly how they do it. Maybe there's like a little tweak to it that works for you. I mean, I think at the conferences too, like it's kind of wild because like, if you're on Instagram, the people you talk to all the time, like they go to the conferences too, so you actually get to meet them in person. So that kind of develops that relationship. I think the resell community is just like an awesome community. They're always super helpful, always willing to help. So it's great to like be able to go to the conferences and even share like what I'm doing and like, hopefully that helps them.

Joana: Yeah. I know that you have your own website. Do you want to share some information about that? Like why did you start it? Was it to help others basically?

John: Yeah. So sidehustleexperiment.com is a blog. I started to kind of document my process. I haven't really had the chance to update it that much, basically this crazy year, but basically in 2021, I really plan do a lot more content and yeah, it's basically to help people get started for me. One of the reasons this whole thing started is what I had my full time job. We agreed on like a certain salary. And within the six months, if I like get good, like they'd bump it up to a certain amount. So like I did the thing and everything happened. And when it came to the end of the year, like when they usually give out raises, they're like, we already gave you a raise. Like, no, like that was like, you, if you hit this, like, we'll give you this. Like that's not the raise or like, no, like that's how it is. Right then and there, I'm like, there's no way in hell that like, I can let someone else be like in charge of like what, how much money I can make. And that's when I really started to think, I'm like, I gotta do something. And then I basically started like flipping furniture and it just all like worked out.

Joana: So you've mentioned the community before. So did you find the community, like the seller community helpful at all times? Did you run into some things that were less helpful?

John: Yeah, I think so. It is like a weird, so sometimes I think about it, it is a weird concept and basically like you're asking a bunch of strangers you've never met. Like, you have no idea what their business looks like, but like you asked for advice, but I would say like, there's a lot of good advice out there. And again, like with advice, like you don't have to take it necessarily. I do think there is, you know, with anything, some negative people who like, you know, don't like when people ask like, I guess newbie questions or whatnot, but I feel are the most part. Like it's a nice community. Yeah. Everyone seems to be super helpful. And I think what I would give advice to people, if you are going to go into Facebook group and ask for help, or even like message people on Instagram, like almost ask a question that like you can't Google.

Like, I'm always happy to say like, like when you say, Oh, like what software are you using to list? There's only like a couple out there, like ask me something that like, you can't find on the internet or something like, Oh, like I have too many books. Like how do you list the fastest? Like, that's a good question. Like ask very specific questions, like say, Hey, this is what I tried. This is what I'm thinking. Like, what is that wrong thing? Don't just be like, how do I get started? Like, there's plenty of content you could learn on your own. And then be like, Hey, I threw this video about how to get started, but I'm not, should I get this or that? Or should I go this way? Or that way, like, that's much more helpful and you'll get a much better answer and like a direction. I think one of the best benefits of the group is like a lot of people have been there. So like, there are questions that I've asked like, cause I don't want to have this happen. And everyone's like, Oh yeah, you just do this and that. And then it lets me help someone else if that questions to tell them what to do. So I think it's really great.

Joana: I find with different communities that I've been a part of. And when someone's an entrepreneur, there's a lot of people that see that see the success and they kind of want the lazy easy way to get information. So like, please tell me all your secrets and you know, that's not the way to do it.

John: Yeah. I definitely see that too. And I think one of the hardest parts I think of the business is it's almost like glorified in a way, like, you don't see that much bad stuff happen. Like you don't see how long everyone really works or how much work is actually put into it. Or like, Hey, like I'm sending a thousand books to Amazon or was it, Oh my God, how'd you do that? But like, if you told them like, well it took like 20 hours to scan through all the books and another like five hours to list. As I, like, I had a problem printing the labels. So it took an hour. It was just like, Oh, I sent all these books to Amazon. That's amazing. It's hard to like actually say, Hey, like, this is a lot of work. It's not easy. Like there's always problems.

Amazon's always changing. It's more just like, you know, you really have to like it. And I think like when you do see questions like that in the group, like, what are all your secrets I'm going to just this, person's not going to make it because like, it's not about secret. It's like very hard. Cause everything's like situational. There are some people like I'm in a very like good place where they're kind of thrift stores. So when I was just going to thrift stores, like it was great, but there are other people that like don't have that many thrift stores only works for some people. So like, I think you almost have to like, just make your own way. And when you get stuck and say like, this is what I've been doing. Or like a lot of people's like how many books do I have to sell to do like $10,000 a month? I was like, just start selling books. Like you'll find out very quickly, like how long it might take.

Joana: I think people get trapped in seeing someone's I guess like Instagram stories or like what they're posting on social media. And they think, Oh, this is easy. I can do it too, but they don't put the work into it. And I think that's something that's pretty key in book selling on Amazon is consistency and putting in a lot of work into it. So yeah,

John: Without a doubt and like, yeah, I mean, I get envious too like, I see other people posting and I would say that's a big piece of advice. Like, just because you like big sales numbers, it doesn't exactly mean like, like it's all profit. And I think that's like part of a good thing to do is like meet the people in the community and like build relationships because they've been a couple of times where I'm like, Oh my God, like, how do they do that? They have like a book store. They have this, they have that. Well, it turns out like they have like a partner, they invested like a lot of money. So like, it's all like relevant when people start small, some people start big and like, it really just works for you. Like what works for you? Like, I don't know if I want like a big, giant operation at this point, but like what I'm doing now works for me. Like I'm happy to work like a nine to five. Yeah. And I still want to grow and stuff like that. But like, I would say just make it like work for you. Don't really worry about what everyone else is doing.

Joana: Was it tiring at first when you were still working your nine to five? Like, did you work weekends trying to get this running?

John: Yeah, so basically, so I'll go at lunch to the thrift store. That was right by where and after work I would go to like three or four thrift stores around my house. I'd do that every night. And then on the weekend I would usually plan like a big trip either like to somewhere like an hour away or even sometimes like in another state, like two or three hours away and yeah, just go all weekend get everything like listed and shipped out and yeah, it was exhausting. I mean, it's tough. Like I didn't really see, I didn't really hang out with my friends, my family's from New York, so I didn't really get to go there that much. And it was just like one of those things, like I want to go full time and like, I just got to put in the time, put in the time and now like, yeah, it's a little easier. I mean, I'm in like a, almost like a painful growth stage right now where like I have, you know, and getting a warehouse, just make the leap and make some other decisions. But yeah. I mean, it is exhausting. And I think about, you know, what, some people don't realize, like it is a lot of work. Like it is tiring. And like when you don't want to do you just have to like, remember why you like are doing it in the first place.

Joana: Yeah. I know you mentioned that now you have someone that's like listing things for you, but you started this all on your own. Did you ever have any like help from family or was it really just you?

John: I would say mainly me. My girlfriend has been like a big house. Like she's been scanning with me. She's also helped lists or like grade books before, but yeah, that's like one of the harder parts, like all my family's in New York. So like they really just like, kind of like falls on me. A lot of my friends live like 45 minutes away. So yeah. I mean, my girlfriend has definitely been a big help and like great for support, like keep going. But yeah, I would say for the most part, yeah, it all kind of fell on me.

Joana: Okay. Did you ever go to like library sales? Like for me I'm an avid reader, so I go to library sales to get books for myself. So like, did you ever do that? The library thing

John: I have. So I've been to a handful of library sales. I know a lot of sellers like swear by it, but I just don't like, like the atmosphere, how cutthroat it is. It was the last one I went to basically like two or three people are like taken out by like security guards. They were like thrown books that like, it was just so that atmosphere is just not for me. Like I'd rather, you know, getting a thrift store is like mind my own business not wait on like a line. They're just not for me. I know some people who love that atmosphere,

Joana: Are you sure you went to a library sale and not like a wrestling match? Like

John: You, you would think it was like black Friday and everyone who shops got like a 50 inch TV. Like, it was insane. I was like, I'm not doing this anymore.

Joana: I lived in Germany. So there was like an American library I used to go to for library sales. And that was always crowded. And people would shove you aside and stuff, but that's like the extent of the, I guess, violence. So that's kind of crazy to hear.

John: Yeah, no, it was just like, and like a bunch of them work kind of like that. Like you see the same people. I don't know. I feel like it's a very negative atmosphere. You're all like competitors. I feel like there's like a lot of negative talk to like, Oh, there's so many more people at this wall. And like the book in your shoes, like all just like a lot of negative stuff. And like, I just don't want to be around that in general, but yet also, like, I think it worked out too, because I honestly think partly like almost the bulk model could be like almost one of the best models at this point with like the whole thing with coronavirus, a lot of library sales got canceled and also create the opportunity. Like you gotta be smart and like reach out to the sales that like were canceled. Cause maybe you could like cut a deal and like, you know, get the books that they were going to sell or I don't know. Like you have to think outside the box. And like if you're almost model is just going to thrift stores, I mean, it's gonna be tough for a little bit.

Joana: What are some of the book genres that you sell the most or are the highest selling or that you make the most profit out of or is that like a secret?

John: No, that's no a secret. I mean, I'm actually, so obviously textbooks are a big one for most people. I would say religious books, law books, music, books, art books, do well, most nonfiction biographies. And sometimes there's just like weird stuff you never know will sell. And then for I've also done like a lot on eBay with like first edition, those tend to do really well. Like anything like Stephen King or like children's books or popular fiction books or fantasy books. It could just be all the place. But yeah, I would say pretty much what you would assume would be like the hotter sellers are pretty much the hotter sellers.

Joana : Like I used to do book reviews. Like I had a blog at one point, so publishers would send me books. And like one of the biggest things that I noticed was like young adult, you know, like Twilight kind of books were becoming really popular and still are today. Do you like dip into the young adult? Cause if not, maybe I'm giving you a tip check, young adult books.

John: No, young adult books are really good. So one of the things I would say like really good is like to build sets.. So like, you know, like you said, the Twilight books, like Harry Potter, that's all like great stuff. Like as you get those books, like just put them aside and hopefully eventually you'll get a set and then you can send it in. But yeah, I have seen like a lot of kids books sell really well on eBay. Like I sold like a bunch of vintage clue books, I think for like $120. It was only like 10 books, but yeah, definitely a kid's book for like nostalgia type of stuff.

Joana: Yeah. My thing was goosebumps. Is that a thing that sells well,

John: Goosebumps do like, if you can lock them up, they'll sell all, like you can do babysitters club, like magic tree house what else? Those are the types of ones and like, just look them up on eBay. I just type whatever. And then just put lot after and see what's sold and see if you could make it work.

Joana: I always refuse to look because I used to have the complete set of goosebumps books and they were like perfect condition, but we had like a massive flood in my parents' house and they got totally destroyed. So I refuse to look to see how much they go for.

John: Oh God. Yeah. If you had the complete set..

Joana: I mean, for you what's like the best or honestly, what's the worst thing about being a seller. If you have a worst thing

John: I feel it's hard to play in someone else's sandbox at times. So like when you saw an Amazon, like you basically have to follow their rules. As people know, if you don't follow the rules by accident or mistake, they don't really care. They'll come down on you pretty hard. I mean, you see all these people posting in the group, but their account was deactivated. They're trying to like get their money and their is locked out. But on the other hand, like without them, like, you don't have a business. So like you just really have to pivot and adapt to what they are want to do. I mean, it's also like a lot of work and I think a lot of people don't realize that, um, you know, like I said, I hired someone, so that's been like a help, but as I hire more people will be less work. But then like obviously you start to have employees and other problems arise that you just get better at solving them.

Joana: Yeah. I mean, that's with most businesses, you know, you grow and you might get rid of one problem, but you probably gained like three.

John: Yeah. That's basically like when you start doing bulk books, that's exactly what happens. You finally find the stores. This is amazing. And then like, well, how are they going to get through all these books? Who's going to pick up all the bad ones. Is this a good idea? And then like, once you find someone and you're like, okay, like you have the schedule set up and then like the person who's supposed to deliver the books reschedules, and then you have to reschedule that. So it's always a constant juggle, everything going on.

Joana: So what's like the best advice. I mean, you shared some tips and tricks here and there, but what's some advice that you would give to someone that's thinking about starting or just starting out selling.

John: I think if you're just starting out or thinking about getting started, I would say take it serious. So when I say take it serious, I mean maybe cost maybe like $200 ish to get like a scanner or some software professional seller, account and like start the right way. I honestly think a lot of people would probably start and stop based on how complicated it can be without the tool. Like if you manually have to list on seller central, from what I remember, you don't have like a barcode scanner, like you're either typing in the name of the book or the ISBN every time answering like two or three questions, like who wants to do that? And then like, there's other, like have to find the books to like get them in a box. It's just not a good way to get started. I feel like you almost need to do it for a least six months.

You're going to get some books. And a lot of people already talking about, Oh, I started in book counterbalances, like negative. It's like, well, Amazon always gets paid first, it takes like a while to like, by the time you start selling like the fees, like it's going to take a while to get going. But I would say focus on getting books or don't worry about like the bounce, obviously. Like if you can, or like, I'm not saying like put all this stuff on a credit card that you can't pay for. I'm saying find ways to get books for free or pay for them. I would say don't focus on like all the negative stuff because everyone's doing and like, it's not helpful. So you can find creative ways to get books, use some software to make your life easier. I think you'll like it. And I would say like, if you don't, you know, you could sell other things on Amazon or like you could start another, like, I wouldn't be like, Oh, you have to stick with it. I think just be flexible and like just try to experiment and do different things. But yeah, I would say like, don't worry about like, just worry about finding books when you get started.

Joana: How does AccelerList help your workflow? Or how has it helped you scale your business actually?

John: So this has been like really great in helping do that. I mean, listing on seller central is brutal. So to be able to just to have everything, you know, be able to scan everything in and have them like take care of all like the background, you know, not have to answer all these checkbox questions for every book. I mean, it just makes it a lot easier. I mean, the research is right in front of you when you're trying to choose a price, it just makes it so much easier.

Joana: So I know that you sell books, but what are some books that you've read recently?

John: I've read, Never Split the Difference. That's a book about negotiating, which I really like no ego by Ryan holiday. It's basically a book about like stoicism and like kind of how like your always in control. And like, I guess sometimes it's hard to, uh, remember in certain cases that like, there's basically always something you could do. You just can't be like, Oh, there's nothing I could do. So there's always something you could do. Those are probably the two that like stick out the most. I listen to a lot of podcasts, a lot of books on tape I've listened to the Emyth this year. That's a really good one. There's are so many that I listened to. It's hard to remember all those.

Joana: Yeah. Do you stick to like non-fiction or like kind of like helpful books?

John: Yeah. Pretty much all non-fiction for me.

Joana: I read fantasy. I have stacks and stacks of fantasy books

John: Wow yea, I don’t know I just never, maybe I should try some.

Joana: What are your hopes for the future? Cause I mean, right now it seems like you're pretty content with where you are, but what do you hope for the future for your business and for yourself?

John: Yeah, no, I definitely want to keep growing the business. Like, it's one of those weird things where like you’re content, but like, are you ever really content? Like, I think things are going like really well for me, but like I definitely want to take it to another level, get a warehouse, maybe get like another one or two people to help out. And really, I think for me, I definitely want to do like more content to help other people get started. I think that's going to be a big focus for me in 2021 is really like, I really do enjoy blogging and podcasting, so I'll probably start a podcast, but yeah, just kind of keep going. I will say like for most people, like, it goes fast, but it's also like a slow climb. Like you can only go so fast, like do so much, like, especially if you're one person and yeah. Just try to like, remember that, you know, just do the best you can. That's all you could do for that day. Like eventually, like it will add up. You'll really get the results, but yeah, I feel the future. I mean, it looks pretty bright in my opinion. Like once I get more space, I feel like it'll make things a lot easier or make things more efficient than they are right now. Yeah. Just see where it goes.

Joana: Yeah. Originally I was going to ask, because I asked this before, like where do you see yourself in five years? But you know, that's like five years ago. Like we totally answered that wrong. So I'm just afraid to jinx it again. Yeah.

John: oh yea corona virus is gonna happen. Uh, would have never crossed my mind,

Joana: Like not jinxing it, never asking that again.

John: It's almost, you have to almost like it might've been like YouTube video, but like, don't wanna say like, you know, like at this point you might have, you could maybe say, Oh, like in the future I'd like this, or I'm going to try to get this within five years. But the almost lamb, like, let me tomorrow, Amazon could kick everyone off the platform. Yeah. No, but like, you know, you can't bank on them being, I mean, there'll be business in five years, but like maybe like a couple of sellers are like selling like counterfeit stuff and like, it kind of ruins it for everyone else. Or like, I almost think like with anything, like when you're relying on someone else's platform, like you just have to be like, careful, like, you know, know that things can change and just be willing to adapt and like try not to be like super focused on just doing it one way.

Joana: Yeah. This year is just a strange one. And a prime example is like, my partner is a tech for musicians, like touring musicians. So this year was no one was expecting, Hey, no more concerts. So, you know, you never know what can happen. So yeah. I'm just like, I'm never asking what do you see in five years ever again

John: Yeah. That's like the thing too, like, yeah. I didn't really see Amazon, like not accepting books anymore. I mean, that's like where they got like started, like, that's a big thing for them, but like I did like dabble and like Aaron to do like online arbitrage. Sell other goods just to like, while they weren't taking books then yeah. It's just like, I wouldn't just get like two sets. I mean, Amazon, I think 66% of this stuff is sold is from third party sellers like us. So I don't see that really hearing away from that any time soon, but be flexible. Yeah.

Joana: Yeah. I doubt Amazon's going to be like all of you out.

John: Yeah. And I don't think that either. I do think like that is, it's almost becoming more apparent and we'll see it probably during Christmas time, but like the whole like price, price, gouging carry, like COVID on sanitizer and stuff like that. And I'm sure there'll be, I don't know, probably like people are in charge, ridiculous prices on Amazon, but in terms of books, I don't really think of that off.

Joana: Where can we find you online? I know you have like the website, the side hustle experiment, and

John: you can find me on the web. You can follow me on Instagram, which is also at side hustle experiment. If you ever have any questions, always happy to help.

Joana: Thank you for your time and sharing your whole story with us. I'm sure this is going to help and inspire others to kind of get started or just feel inspired to move forward.

Outro: Thanks for listening to another episode of the sellers corner. If you would like to be a guest on the show, please send an email to podcast@accelerlist.com. Accelerlist also offers a generous 21 day free trial. When you enter coupon code podcast on the registration page. Now is the time to start with Amazon and break into freedom with your own business.

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

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This episode we talked to Karin Weizel about her decision to become an amazon seller after a terrible accident at work. She goes over some of the resources and tips she used to start her seller journey. Learn how Tik Tok was an inspiration and get some incredible advice to launch your amazon seller business!

Topics discussed in the episode:

[0:50] Accident that changed everything
[1:40] What Karin Sells Online
[2:50] Why Karin Started Selling on Amazon
[6:23] What she wishes she had known before starting
[9:46] Best & Worst aspects on selling online
[12:55] Resources Karin used to launch her business
[15:43] Used Tik Tok as inspiration and a resource
[17:25] Debunk an assumption about selling on Amazon
[19:14] Advice for starting your seller journey
[20:18] Where does she see herself in 5 years?
[22:05] Is the seller community helpful?

Resources Mentioned:

Tik Tok
Book: “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill

Seller Tips:

Consume content and research a lot before launching into selling on Amazon.

Transcript:

Intro Welcome to the sellers corner an e-commerce podcast with real stories from real sellers, each episode, we sit down with online sellers all across the globe and talk about overcoming challenges, scaling and putting processes around their online businesses. Welcome to the show.

Joana: Hey, this is Joana and I run marketing at AccelerList. In this episode, we talk to Karin from Iowa. She has such a great story and shares some amazing tips for those of you starting out on your seller journey.

So Joana here and today, our guest is Karin, and she's going to be telling us a little bit about her seller story.

Karin: My name is Karin and I sell online. That's my only thing that I do now. I was a workaholic for a really long time. And then I, uh, actually was in an accident with a semi, while I was on a test drive with a customer, I worked at a car dealership and I realized that life is short. And although, luckily I wasn't hurt too bad. I'd always been entrepreneurial. And I had sold on eBay for years, but that just wasn't working well enough to do it full time. And so I started doing some research and found some information and then somebody’s Tik Tok just really, you know, spoke to me one day for some reason, selling books on Amazon. And so I kind of started to get into, you know, full-time then internet sales in multiple platforms from there.

Joana: So is that what you mainly sell or only sell books?

Karin: On Amazon I sell books and VHS tapes primarily. I have a few other things that I've dabbled in, but I don't do any, you know, major online arbitrage or anything like that. And then on eBay it's more varied, you know, I branch out and have a little more, you know, some vinyl records that I'm not eligible to sell on Amazon, but mainly media and a few other things that maybe I see at a Goodwill outlet that I know a little bit about, or I think will sell well. Like for some reason, trucker hats that have the mesh that are vintage and eighties feel are hot. So those will sell for way more than I would expect. So I got lucky on a huge score at an outlet mall, you know, one time with like a hundred of them for probably $5. And I think if I made my money back on just one hat in 10 minutes, so it just kind of depends, but books are definitely the bulk of what I do.

Joana: So You kind of went into a little bit into why you started selling. Do you want to like, just elaborate a little?

Karin: Sure. I mean, I guess when it comes to eBay, I first started selling because I needed some extra cash when I left my ex-husband and I was a single parent and I knew that working and paying for daycare just wasn't going to work when you have a three-year-old at home. And so I had worked for an internet company that mainly sold downloadable software cause it was late nineties, but they had branched into some other things. And so I learned about eBay sales from that company. And so I was like, Oh, I should try this. And eBay was not even five years old at that point. So I didn't really go full bore into it, but it was fun to go to garage sales and kind of the thrill of the hunt was there and being, and having an entrepreneurial spirit that was fun and it was good extra money, but it wasn't something that was gonna pay the bills.

Long-term I just didn't really have the time to put into building it into a sustainable business. So I went back to work and kind of didn't understand what was out there. Then when I started doing the Amazon stuff pretty quickly, I found a lot of things to learn from, you know, from whether it was, you know, learning just about scout IQ and scanning books that way, um, you know, and other things to really help do the business by yourself and scale it fast. So, you know, of course, AccelerList helps in that, you know, listing quickly versus seller central and things like that. But, you know, so I just kind of consumed as much information as possible, went to a turn the page conference in Austin in February, and really learned a lot of information from, you know, some sellers that really knew their stuff.

And so just networking in that way to help because it kind of taught me, you know, that whether I wanted to work two hours or 80 hours in a week, that I could find a way to really make what I wanted to make and that I didn't necessarily have to have a huge warehouse or 14 employees to make the big bucks. So, um, Amazon took off pretty fast for me. I only started Amazon just over a year ago and pretty quickly it rammed into, you know, four figures of sales in like a month and a half. And so just kind of snowballed. And I learned that, it's not just about, you know, finding that $200 book, but sometimes it's getting through the penny books faster. That really helps too, just getting to accept more items fast and list them fast, get them into the warehouse. It just lots of different things. I don't know.

Joana: Yeah. I kind of find it amazing in this community, how people just really grab on, I guess the saying would be like grab the bull by the horns and just really just go into it and make whole businesses out of it. I find it incredible. Like I find your story really incredible as well. So like what would be some things that you wish you had known before you started all selling online?

Karin: Well, I think that what I wish I would know not, yes, profit is profit, but sometimes you've got to work smarter, not harder. So I guess that's probably one thing I wish I would've known understanding eBay fees a little bit better. Although I think that I consumed enough content that I was a little better prepared than some people are in terms of that it can take, you know, two to six cycles of, you know, of payouts from Amazon to really start to see a decent chunk of return on your investment, just because they're taking the shipping to Amazon out there holding back fees because they want to make sure that the customer receives the item and those things. And so it can be kind of a sticker shock to spend $200 on items over, you know, a month and a half and see five bucks, you know, but once that snowballs, then all of a sudden you're seeing, you know, triple, quadruple, you know, skyrocket pretty quickly after that, if you just stick with it.

So I think that that's probably those things are basically the biggest thing is that, you know, spending, yes, I'm making $2 profit on this book and it sells pretty quickly, but what's the best return on my investment over time. It's probably better to take, you know, the $10 and more profit books than to take those $2 books because the time that I'm spending on them over time, isn't making me as much money as I could be. But everybody’s business model is different and some people do bulk and some people cherry pick and I do, I don't really do bulk because I don't buy Gaylords, but I do bulk in the sense that I have some people that do estate sale clean outs. So sometimes I'll get 30 boxes of uhaul books at a time. And so I still need a storage unit to kind of go through those.

And so if I'm accepting $2 profit on all of the books that I just went through and then spending the time to list them and label them and all of those things, then am I really getting the return that I want? So it took me a little while to learn that, but other than that, I don't think that there was anything crazy. I consumed a lot of content before I jumped in. So that's my biggest piece of advice is don't just watch one YouTube video or one Instagram video or a tik tok and think that, you know, okay, I'm going to go out and source at Goodwill tomorrow. And I know everything because it's not that way. You need to definitely do your homework and understand what you're getting into because otherwise, you know, the mistakes that you could make then rather than having two things you wish you would've known before you started here at, you know, 20 to 40. So that's my biggest piece of advice would be consume content and, you know, and really do research for, you know, up to a month before you really get your feet wet and get into it.

Joana: I mean, that's probably with like most ventures or most business ventures, you should probably take your time and have some patience and research before jumping into any kind of business. And this shouldn't be any kind of exception to that. What's similarly the best things about being a seller online and maybe throw in some of the worst or like the less favorable aspects of selling online.

Karin: Well, obviously depends on the items that you're selling. You know, what I would say are the best in the worst, but I would say that, uh, you know, the best is that you can set your own hours. You work when you want to work, you're your own boss, those kinds of things, but also the community of people that the friendships that I've made with Travis and all kinds of other people, you know, over the course of my journey that I never would have met otherwise, that's pretty amazing. I love that about what I do and probably the negatives, you know, for me specifically are trying to find the warehouse space or somebody donating a bunch of water log books or things like that. You know, trying to dispose of so many books that aren't necessarily profitable, but you don't want to just send them to a landfill.

So finding a way to dispose of that's not fun and listing can be a pain in the butt, but having AccelerList to help me do that, versus when I was doing it just via seller central and it taking 10 to 20 times as long, it's not as bad as it used to be, but definitely the fun part is going out and sourcing and listing is not as fun. I know people that sell groceries that sell toys that sell you, name it, they sell it. It's crazy. The things that you can sell. But I find that whether it's a Facebook group that I'm asking questions on discord, chat, whatever it is that I don't know, anybody that sits there and says, Oh, I love listing. It's so much fun. That's never something that anyone says it's always the, Oh, it's so much fun to go to a garage sale and Gary via and say, I want to get these, you know, 40 books for $5 and you go home and you find out that just one book was worth 75. That's the fun part. Nobody wants to sit in the basement and scan the book and type in all the information. That's just not the fun part. It's just not, it's not sexy. It's not fun, but it's what pays the bills.

Joana: You do it all on your own?

Karin: My son is out of the house and married. So he and his wife will sometimes scan with scout IQ and, um, help get through some of the estate sale stuff. But other than that, no, it's all me.

Joana: Okay. That's great. Yeah. Would you say that like definitely better than working the nine to five behind the office desk?

Karin: Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure that I am, uh, psychologically unemployable. Like if Amazon tomorrow shut down, I don't know what I would do. I mean, I'd probably just sell on eBay, but if, if the internet went away and I had to go get a job, I'd probably have a mental breakdown because I don't think that I could work for someone else ever again, working for yourself is so much more freeing and I just love it.

Joana: What were some of the resources, cause you said you took in a lot of content, Was it books or YouTube you don't have to give names or anything?

Karin: Sure. I mean, um, it was a lot of different things. There were a couple of different content creators on Tik TOK that I started following and they kind of gave references of like, they sped scout IQ. And so I was like, Oh, what's that? And then it kind of, you know, so then I found out, Oh, the person that made scout IQ, that's the book flipper. So then I went to Facebook and I started finding different groups that once I added the book flipper as a Facebook group, then of course it gives you 14 other things that, you know, these are similar. So I was like, Oh, I want to learn about that. And knowing about that. And then some of the content creators have YouTube channels. So I went there and then they made recommendations of people that they learned from.

So it just kind of snowballed from there. And then, uh, I've always read self-help kind of books. so reading, like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and going back to that and having a love for books in the first place when I understood the money that would be there for me to not just consume books that I enjoy reading in the first place, it really does pay to be passionate about what it is that you're selling. You might not have an interaction with customers because they're not going to really ask a whole bunch of questions, but just knowing even to be able to put in a description, something that the reader goes, Oh yeah, they really know what they're talking about. I'm looking for this specific edition of this item or listing a first edition when it's not necessarily the first edition, it's maybe the first edition of that printer or that publisher that printed the book, knowing that is really important.

Joana: So yeah, I'm an avid reader I read from between like 80 and 120 books per year. So the love for books is there. I've just never sold any.

Karin: Yeah. And that's okay. You know, it's not for everybody. And some people get into it and find that that's not the right thing for them, but there's always something out there that will make you happy. And you just have to find what that is. So if you find your passion and you can do that for a living, then it's a win. Whether it's being Alex Trebeck and hosting jeopardy for 40 years, or, you know, selling books on Amazon or doing makeup videos on Tik TOK or, you know, whatever it is, you will have lived a full life and been really happy to do it.

Joana: I think it's amazing that you found a lot of inspiration and stuff through Tik TOK, but I didn't know that that was a channel for the community to find some resources.

Karin: It's really crazy that that's the one, because I downloaded it and I asked my son, you know, something about it. And he was like, Oh, that's for kids because it was, you know, I mean, it was 18 months ago when most people, my age weren't really had never even heard of it. And I said, well, you know, I read some information from some email blasts that I get for, you know, daily content, you know, and they were interviewing Spencer X, who is one of the biggest creators on there. He's a beatboxer, but he was just explaining that it wasn't just dance and it wasn't just kids anymore. And it was really about to take off. And so I was like, Oh, I should do this. I should download this and learn information. And it just happened that with the algorithm and the way that it is that the people that I was liking, because I looked for Spencer first and who I was kind of starting to consume that that side of Tik Tok kind of jumped out from the algorithm that I wasn't seeing the 12 year olds dancing and like that kind of stuff.

I wasn't seeing that what I was getting out of Tik Tok was immediately people that were sharing their life story and talking about selling on Amazon and eBay, or just random, weird information about their life. But I don't know, I just learned so much, it's crazy how much I've learned from Tik TOK when I downloaded the app at that time, it was literally for people under the age of 20.

Joana: what's like an assumption or a myth about what you do that you would like to debunk a little bit.

Karin: Well, I think that there's kind of like assumptions, both. I don’t want to say positive and negative because that's not what I mean, but there's assumptions either. You say I sell online and they're like, Oh, you make a million dollars, you know? Or because they think that, or people are like, wait, there are people that sell on Amazon. Like I thought Amazon sold their stuff. Like they just, there's just both. Either people think that it's something that's super glamorous and you make a ton of money on, or you take advantage of people in order to get where you're at. That's not what I do at all. If I find a book that I spent a dollar for and it sells for 70, yes. Obviously I'm profiting from that, but I'm not profiting. Like I didn't go out and horde a thousand hand sanitizers and try and sell them for a crazy amount of money to profit off of people's misery.

I'm just doing a service because the dollar book that I found at Goodwill, somebody in Montana couldn't find anywhere else. And there, they would've bought it for double the price, if they could have found it, that they're excited to get it. And that, you know, so I think that that stigma is probably the one thing that I think people should understand is that I'm not trying to make money and profit off of people. It's not illegal to resell items, but people will make you out to be a bad person sometimes. And I think that that's the biggest misperception.

Joana: Okay. So for someone that's starting out say I wanted to start out and sell on Amazon. What would be some of the best advice that you could give me?

Karin: Well, a, I would sign up for a seller account obviously, but in all seriousness, I would probably, uh, search and consume content, but just search on YouTube about selling on Amazon and then just consume content and learn information, understand that there are people out there that are only wanting to sell a course on how to sell online. So be mindful of that when you consume content. But otherwise there's a lot of great information out there and just get started, get an account and find what software works best. Like I found Scout IQ and AccelerList to help me list faster. And after that, it was just consuming multiple streams of content from a bunch of different platforms and learning from there.

Joana: All right. I think this is going to be like the big question. And it's almost like an interview, like a job interview question. Where do you see yourself? Five years?

Karin: Where do I see myself in five years? Five years ago. Nobody answered that question correctly, right?

Joana: Yeah, absolutely not.

Karin:But so in 2025, well, I would say I wanted to kind of try and retire by the time I was about 45 and I'm almost there in January, but I thought that I would be semiretired and, and traveling. I love to travel. So I think that where I see myself is not retired, but using my book income to kind of fuel that traveling. And since you can do online sales from anywhere having, you know, an RV or a van or something where I'm kind of nomadic and living off the grid, so to speak, just, uh, traveling route 66 and checking out thrift store dives to find some little nuggets to kind of take me on the next journey to travel. That's where I see myself.

Joana: Sounds good, but you're right. Five years ago, nobody got this, right? So where are you based out of like an, is there like a community of sellers there, or

Karin: Actually, I don't know anyone that lives here in town. I live in Iowa just on the Iowa, Illinois border. And I know some people that sell that live within the state, whether it's Iowa or Illinois, but I don't know anybody that lives within a hundred miles of me and I live in a pretty metropolitan area. I don't live, there's not cornfields around me. There are actually houses.

Joana: Do you find that the community itself is pretty helpful? Or do you think that some of the bigger people in the community might be a little bit more tight-lipped about their tips and tricks?

Karin: Well, I think it depends on what you're looking for and how long you've been doing anything and what you're asking. It's not likely that somebody just starting and if they say, you know, can you tell me where you bought your Gaylords the, person's probably not going to tell you because that's something that you kind of need to do your homework, you need to network on your own. You need to make those connections and you need to find those sources, but I've found that even, you know, just brand new, starting out, if you're just asking what's the best software to use, or where do you guys go to source? And so learning about savers versus Goodwill versus other thrift stores and how to kind of approach things that way, that they're very open about that, that everyone's been nice. I've never had anybody be rude. I've heard about people being outsourcing, especially at Goodwill outlets where there'll be some people that'll kind of side-eye or be very rude there.

But other than that, you know, as far as an online community, I see nothing but people trying to help other people succeed. There's enough books in the world for everybody. So it's not something that's a tightly guarded secret. If you're going into something that's more of a niche or you're trying to, you know, sell textbooks and things like that, then it might be more closely guarded. But other than like where specifically I go to buy the books that I get the best profit on. I don't see people holding back on secrets like that. I think that the takeaway is that don't just think about it, do it because I thought about selling online for years and years. And I obviously I did on eBay, but if I would have sat down and taken the initiative 15 years ago to say, you know, what else is out there?

What can I make? I might've found more content. Whereas once you have that spark go look for the information and go do it. Don't just sit and wait. That's the biggest thing I think.

Joana:I mean, I think that's anything, if you're thinking about it too much I mean, as you said, do your research first and then jump in. Do you want to share where maybe we can find you online or, you know, like Twitter or anything

Karin: my name is actually spelled K a R I N. So some people might have a hard time finding me that way, but on all social media, I'm Karinaboutstuff. So you can just find me that way.

Joana: All right. So thank you for your time and for sharing your story with all of us. And it was really great talking to you.

Karin: Sure. It was very great meeting you too.

Outro: Thanks for listening to another episode of the sellers corner. If you would like to be a guest on the show, please send an email to podcast@accelerlist.com. Accelerlist also offers a generous 21 day free trial. When you enter a coupon code podcast on the registration page. Now is the time to start with Amazon and break into freedom with your own business.

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