Welcome back to another episode of the Resellers Mindset Podcast.
My name is Mike, also known as the used book guy on YouTube,
along with my friend and fellow full-time reseller, Johnny B.
We help people start and grow their reselling businesses from the ground up.
We also have a weekly zoom call and private discord for all YouTube members.
Head on over to youtube.com backslash use book guy to join the channel and gain
access to the full length podcast zoom call and private discord today.
Let's get into this week's episode.
What is up everybody?
Welcome in another episode, Resellers Mindset Podcast.
Myself, Johnny, special guest Seth, checkmate flips.
You find them out on all YouTube social media platforms.
We figured you were tired of hearing us to ramble on.
So we brought on Seth here to kind of, you know, give you a little bit of an
inside look at a debt-free online arbitrage business.
So he's going to introduce himself, kind of tell you how he started, where he's at.
And then me and Johnny, I'll just kind of ask him questions about his business
and pick on him a little bit.
So what's going on Seth?
What's up guys?
Good to be on the podcast.
Thanks for having me.
Um, so I think I, I started with selling on Depop and eBay.
Um, so like Depop is basically an app for like teens who like want to be fashionable.
Basically, I don't know why my brother started with that, but he did, uh, sold
used clothing and shoes for a long time.
Transition to Amazon FBA used books.
So much easier to find inventory that actually sells for a good amount that way.
Um, and then restock let that's happened a couple of years ago, transition to
online arbitrage and then eBay to Amazon as well.
So that's kind of how I got into it.
Uh, it was kind of like a video game in real life instead of, you know, playing
video games and making no money.
Like let's actually get really good at something in real life.
And you know, game that.
You're, uh, you said your brother got you into it.
Does your brother still resell today?
A little bit.
Okay.
So he, he basically just, you know, said, Hey, I'm going to give you the path here.
And he's like, I'll still make a little bit of, but does he like, does he ever
think about like getting back into it, like full-time like you do, or like does
he not, is he not that interested in it?
Um, we, we like, he started an Amazon account and unfortunately it was in the
time where I was selling used items straight to prep center.
And so he was doing that, but at smaller margin and smaller margin.
And just was not working out for him.
And he was like, yeah, I don't think this is for me.
Um, so he kind of quit doing that.
And now he like builds out bands.
He's like good at carpentry and stuff like that.
So like, yeah, that's, I mean, that market's super hot right now.
The like, uh, camper vans that you live in and everything you're talking about.
Yeah.
And so like he lived in a van for two years and so like he, he's perfect for that.
He enjoys it.
I do think like, uh, hold up, hold up, Johnny.
I got one for him.
Like how many people do we come across that started on D pop?
Like I think they think you did.
Yeah.
Okay.
I was going to say like nobody, right?
Dude, there's no, he might've been the first seller on D pop ever
besides your brother.
Did D pop is a weird place?
Like, uh, it's just even less.
Like you think of like Poshmark or like, uh, like, like, like,
Poshmark or like Macari, like they don't have enough customers.
D pop is even less.
It was just like, you have to literally sit there on the phone and like refresh
your listing so that people see them kind of like Poshmark.
It's just, if you can make some money on D pop, I guess you can make it on
eBay and Amazon.
So when you decided to transition from books to other things, was it a hard
stop or you weren't clearing enough margin or was the eBay fees?
You just weren't liking what that was doing to the book market or tell
us about that transition phase.
Yeah.
I feel like for me, um, we were talking behind the scenes, Johnny, and you're
kind of like transitioning slightly to Amazon, like very slightly kind of, but
like eBay seems to be like your, your still main thing.
Um, like I think it's the same thing.
Like eBay, eBay works like eBay works for you.
eBay worked for me, but like, I was just like, you know, I'm going to dip my
toe in the water with Amazon FBA books.
So like I was doing my use clothing and shoes and stuff.
And like, I had a potential profit goal of like, I need to find and list, like
let's say $800 a week in potential profit.
I don't know what the number was, but I was like, I'll see if I can do 200 of
that this week with Amazon FBA books.
When I go to a garage sale or something.
Yeah.
And so like, I do that and be like, okay, like this was like easy to find money.
Like, and I didn't have to spend so much time listing because I wasn't good at
listening, I'm just not the best at listing.
Um, and books is great for that.
Cause it's like, you just put it in a box and send it to FBA.
It's like a minute or two per book, depending on how you do it.
But yeah, super, super transition slowly.
Yeah.
That's very interesting.
Cause a lot of people that, uh, start with Amazon for the most part, they just
start in books, probably because it's the easiest one to tap into because the
abundance, see there's books everywhere.
The only other thing that's an abundance like that, that I found is clothes,
honestly, and all the clothing people are on eBay.
Um, so yeah.
And then with the Amazon, um, it's like invoice wise, if you just like sell a
new clothes as new without an invoice on Amazon, that just feels like sketchier
and like hard to do and you feel like you're going to get a counterfeit claim
or something, and they're probably slightly right.
Um, but like with books, like used books, you don't have too much of a problem
with that most of the time, unless you're selling textbooks in my experience.
Anyways, I don't know about you guys, but.
No, that's about the same.
And, uh, last question before I give Mike the mic, uh, do you miss books?
I sometimes like we'll go to the thrift store.
I love going to an estate sale.
I went a couple months ago, I went to this hoarder house, estate sale,
like complete basement, like can't walk without walking on stuff, like books
everywhere, stuff everywhere, uh, stuff was definitely dirty.
Uh, I mean, that's how a hoarder house goes.
Like I love like getting in there and like finding some stuff.
Um, I do, I do that every once in a while.
Uh, so I, I do miss it sometimes.
It's, it's just so fun.
Like buying like a book for like a dollar or like in that case, like they,
they were wanting to flip the house.
So they're like, we don't care.
Just like give us like, yeah, 20 bucks for those hundred books.
Awesome.
Great.
Um, I think it's like a nap, like natural transition, right?
So we go from eBay to Amazon books and you're like, wow, this is so much easier
than eBay, and then you get to the point where you're like, okay, well, I can
order stuff online, have it sent to me.
I don't got to drive to the thrift stores, hope that I find stuff.
So that makes it almost even easier.
So it's like a natural, you know, transition from your life, trying to
make your life easier, easier to easier.
So now you're, you're solely online.
Do you do like any RA now or are you mainly just online arbitrage?
Um, I mean, besides the thrifting every once in a while, no RA, um, I'm so, I
guess like when you talk about like making your life easier and easier,
and easier and easier, like I'm not optimized for RA.
I don't know what I'm doing.
I don't know where to start.
Like, like I just completely don't know what I'm doing, but with OAA, I
know exactly what to do and like thrifting is a bunch of fun.
I know what to do with thrifting.
Uh, I do need to stop selling blue ray players without remotes though,
cause I get so many returns on those.
Uh, I need to stop that honestly.
I, I've sold a few VCRs and I won't, if they ain't got a remote, I'm not even
sending it in because I know, uh, how, uh, how picky the Amazon sellers are with
that stuff, but I do think like, cause I, I, you've actually made me money
from your thrifting videos.
I enjoy your thrifting videos because you do like, you like a lot of electronics
and, uh, you put me onto those stupid calculators I always see in the stores.
And I've actually sold a few of those since, uh, watching the video where you
were flipping them, like those Casio calculators you see in every thrift store.
Right.
Are you engaged in Casio?
I'm great, dude.
I'm ungated in everything.
All right.
I've been around forever.
They let me sell any brands basically.
Yeah.
So, uh, just, uh, just a thing for a lot of people I've talked to, people don't
even have the, uh, the click to ungate on Casio.
So like, that's like a harder ungate to get.
So opportunity there.
Um, but like, uh, back to like what Johnny was saying, like, I don't think
it's necessarily like, uh, like here's level one, here's level two.
Like you can do level, quote unquote level two, like better than someone at level
three, like if you guys are making money with like selling books on eBay, like
you're probably better off than these people who are doing OA and all their
stuff tanks and their 70 K in debt.
Um, and they're making like a grand or two a month because they're doing it
poorly or they don't know what they're doing.
So it's like, yeah, maybe that's level four or whatever, quote unquote.
But like if you don't, if you're not doing it right, like it doesn't matter.
Yeah.
It's like, that is a good point to bring up.
You kind of like, you just summed up basically the shiny object syndrome.
It's like, I think about this too.
Like, do you always have to be trying to do something different or like growing?
I I'm a firm believer that once you find an equilibrium where you're making the
money you need to make, and you start getting your time back, I don't, I don't
need to have a warehouse.
I don't want to have a warehouse.
I don't need to, I don't want to have a forklift and a truckload of books.
But I do think like what you just said, a lot of people are just like,
Oh, I got to spend more.
Right.
Cause the big thing with OA is like, well, you go in with the only way you
make more is you got to spend more.
And it's just like, it becomes a habit to where, you know, you can get
yourself easily in trouble.
And have you ever been like in a situation like when you started OA,
uh, like where you felt like, Oh man, like this is risky.
Like I'm maxed out and if something goes sideways, like with this one
product, like I'm screwed.
Uh, yeah.
I mean the whole of 2022, I was leveraged to a point where if I were
going to get suspended, I would probably have to go bankrupt.
Like probably the whole of 2022.
Um, yeah.
So, I mean, um, and then there were a couple of times I had counterfeit
claims on items where I was like two, three KD and I just lost like Amazon
didn't send me those items.
Yeah.
So I was like, Oh, I'm screwed.
Yeah.
So, yep, that happens.
Yeah.
I think for me personally, I mean, things always may change, right?
For me personally is more of how can I monetize the books more is
adding an additional platform.
Opening a brick and mortar had no plans to do so, but I found a way I
could monetize that as well as liquidate that I find more profitable
than, uh, your buyback programs, honestly, cause it's out there.
On occasion where you scan it like once a quarter or something to send back
into Amazon or see what the eBay market is doing for some of our older items out there.
And maybe, maybe next year I try Walmart or something or Shopify or whatever,
just expanding within the book thing.
That's not to say I won't do CDs and DVDs though, at the thought of
cleaning them with the bad memories.
But I may tap back into that just to have more Amazon inventory, or maybe
I can offset some books with, uh, that.
But I think books for me, for this point in time, I'm just going to see
how much more I can grow the bubble I'm already in.
That's me.
I'm an odd duck, apparently.
What do you think?
Yeah, go ahead.
Uh, what do you think?
Like a lot of people that do OA they're like, uh, a lot of it's like newer items.
I know you like flipping a lot of used items.
Uh, like what, what's like your focus?
Are you doing like Amazon to Amazon eBay to Amazon?
Like, give me a little bit of insight of what you're doing today.
Yeah.
Yeah, so, uh, regular online arbitrage is buying from like retail sites
and selling it back on Amazon.
Uh, hopefully the prices are different in the right way.
Uh, me, most of what I do is, uh, I particularly buy new items from
eBay and I sell them on Amazon.
Um, most of last year I was selling used, uh, mostly completely used
because I was scared of IP issues.
Uh, now I'm selling mostly new, um, that's helped my return rate.
Um, honestly, claims have been decent, uh, if you know what to avoid.
So yeah, I'm mostly buying from eBay selling on Amazon.
Do you think like, uh, eBay to Amazon is like a fad that's going to pass.
Do you feel like right now is like there, you have the most competition
you're ever going to have currently.
Do you think like eBay to Amazon is going to be on a downswing here?
Because it did kind of come along and take everybody, you know, like it's
the next big thing to do, like eBay to Amazon, everybody's got to do it.
Everybody's got to get it.
Everybody's got to start it.
I do think like there is some validity to like stay focused on what you do.
And even after it downswings, right?
Like, Oh, why you still sell books?
Well, it's because you focus on what you're doing and you stick with it,
regardless of all the noise around you.
Like, what do you see the future of eBay to Amazon being less
competition, more competition?
Yeah.
I mean, to that point, it's like, if you have a business model that
works and like you feel like you have room to grow with it, like there's
no need to change business models, like just get better at the business model.
Um, like with books, for example, like it does make sense to add on like CDs
and DVDs in my opinion, cause it's like, I tend to find that type of
stuff like in the same area.
Um, but, uh, as far as eBay to Amazon, uh, I kind of feel like it still is like
there's a, I don't think it's really going to be a fad.
I think people are going to keep doing it for a long time and it probably
will get more competitive, um, as people get better at it.
Um, yeah, I think it'll, I think it'll get more competitive, but I don't
think it's ever going to be like so, so saturated because like the barriers
to entry of it are pretty high.
Cause it's like, people are very scared about account health, which makes
sense, they probably should be.
Um, and then also it's, it's not like regular online arbitrage where like the
regular view of online arbitrage is like, you buy like 10 pairs of these shoes
for like a grand and you sell them on Amazon for whatever you sell them for.
Like it's not as easy to just like, go drop a grand on eBay.
Like a lot of my purchases are like, I spend 50 bucks, like I'm
going to make 30 bucks profit.
Um, and it's like one-off and then like, I'll find like eight units.
That's what this here and I'll make like 300 bucks, but it's like, it's, it's
harder to just go spend like five grands like today, um, and that's your Josiah.
Then you can spend five grand today.
So I think it's, I think it's going to continue to be a good opportunity, but
it's going to get more competitive.
Most good opportunities to do, I think.
So I have a question, um, for how you see OA in general and OA for yourself.
Do you see it getting to the point where it's not just eBay to Amazon flips
or X to Amazon flips anymore.
It's place a to place B kind of flipping.
Like you can go from Amazon to eBay, monetize it that way.
Or like you mentioned, depop earlier, what products can you shift
from this platform to that platform?
Basically platform manipulation or not manipulation, just transitioning.
You see that going in the future for OA at some point.
Like that's not going to be an opportunity.
No, no, no.
That, that it will be like the more or less the status quo.
You're just moving this product here.
It doesn't, it's a low performing in this market, but it's a high performer
in this market for marginability sake.
Yeah.
I mean, I think that I honestly think that's just going to continue to be the
case, but the way that it happens, I think it's going to keep changing.
Like I talked to a guy the other day.
Um, I, I was in a group call and I met a guy who literally he buys from the
United States, Amazon marketplace and he sells on the, yeah, you've heard about
this.
Yeah.
He sells on the UK marketplace.
Uh, that's something I've actually considered getting into, but it's like.
Noise, like let's just focus on what's working, honestly, but, um, that seems
like a great, I mean, there's, you, you could do that like so many different ways.
Like, and when you think of like nation marketplace inefficiencies and then
platform marketplace inefficiencies, and when there's so much that's there, it's
like, how do you not find something that wins?
Right.
Exactly.
Cause even I've thought about this on the eBay front, cause I have a lot of UK
buyers that like my American books.
And then I've talked to some book sellers in the UK.
Uh, they had this exact same issue just the other way around.
So if you had two storefronts in two locations, while you pretty much just
capitalized the two biggest book markets.
Yeah.
On eBay, at least.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
That's double the headaches dudes.
I'm out.
All right.
You two can have fun.
One of yous can live over in the UK.
What I do is take a slide over to the UK, find a street fellow, say this is your
new apartment.
This is how it works.
Sell my books, please.
Uh, I do think it is crazy, right?
Because I guarantee you right now there's people buying from, you know,
Depop to sell on Etsy and Etsy to sell on eBay, right?
Like this is going on and these are the people that are crushing it, right?
Like these are the people that are.
They're not on social media or nothing.
They got this little business doing stuff that nobody's doing.
I think it'll always be there.
I think that the challenge will be, uh, when the next thing comes along, right?
Cause there's always another business model.
Uh, the thing I've been hearing dude is, uh, at least in, uh, at least in my
discord and a few other places is like, go to Rite Aid, Rite Aid's going bankrupt.
Go to Rite Aid and buy all their stuff.
It's going to be clearance out and you can sell it on Amazon.
And I'm just like, yeah, okay, you might get lucky.
You might get something, but that's not sustainable.
Like, are you building a business to be sustainable?
Are you just always trying to chase like the next little thing that's
going to be coming up?
And there will be other things that come along besides eBay to Amazon
and Amazon to Amazon.
And here's the thing too, like that in and of itself is a business model, but
are you optimized for chasing the, the bankrupts Bed Bath and Beyonds and
Rite Aid and Toys R Us and seasonal products and like Halloween, like
costumes and then like Thanksgiving stuff and then Christmas stuff.
Like, I mean, I guess those are two different business models, but like
you could be optimized for like always finding the opportunities of like.
This business is going out of business.
This is a crazy clearance deal.
But like for you, like the used book guy or like Johnny, like selling
books on eBay or like me, like doing online arbitrage, eBay to Amazon, like
going to Rite Aid and like scanning stuff is like not the best use of our time.
It's a, I got a funny, I got a funny story.
Uh, uh, our dentist is right by the dower tree.
Right.
So I, uh, Deb had to get her teeth cleaned.
I dropped her.
I'm gonna go on a dollar tree.
I'll scan some stuff.
Right.
And, uh, I found some condoms to flip and, uh, like ever since I made that
like public like news that I was in a dollar tree and I found, you know, boxes
of condoms to flip, like everyone's always like, you've been in a dollar tree lately.
I'm like, no, this is like once a year thing where I got nothing else to do.
Right.
It's like, but that's like the mentality of it's like, Whoa, man, you can, yeah.
There's money to be made off that.
If that's your business model, right.
If you got a dollar tree route and we have people that have backroom
access to dollar trees, but like that's their business model.
They're not trying to be the used book guy.
And the dollar tree guy, they're not trying to do online arbitrage and thrift.
And like, you got to focus on what's working.
So like this year for you, uh, your results and everything, you
don't got to give exact numbers.
I'm just curious, like, uh, have your results been better this year than last
year and also like, how much time do you spend in your business on
like a weekly basis on average?
Yeah.
So last year, um, the profits this year are much better than last year.
Um, it's been around like 10 K a month average in profit.
Um, the beginning of the year was a lot worse.
Uh, the last part of this, like last few months have been better.
Um, so I'm super stoked.
Like this year's going amazing.
Um, I did decide to put a lot more time back into the business
because I wanted to FBM.
So before, when I was just doing FBA, I was like sending out a
prep center, um, and I wasn't having to list, which was awesome.
Um, but I was ready to like, have some more control of my inventory.
Cause like FBA, like you'll get like removal orders and it'll be like,
oh, I sent that in like nine months ago.
Like, like, yeah, it's just craziness.
So, um, yeah.
So I put like 40 hours a week in now.
Yeah.
No, I want to, I want to touch on something you just said about the
what we send into Amazon, I had some expensive books I sent in that
I decided to recall back.
This was one of my first stint in Amazon.
And I noticed what they sent me back.
Wasn't the books I gave them.
There was somebody else's same books is the same book.
Just wasn't what I sent in.
I think that's common practice.
They just grab it off the shelf of whatever, whatever the item is.
And butch may or may not be yours, which I can't prove this, but I'm
pretty sure that's how it works.
And if that's the case, I think that's the way it works.
And if that's the case, the guys marketing is good or very good when
it's very much an acceptable book and it gets sent out on my behalf.
Yeah.
I got a, I got a secret I'm going to tell.
And I never told the secret to anybody until right now.
What secret?
I sent in, it's like a $320 canning book.
I sent it one copy and I sold two.
No inventory errors, some poor soul.
You took $300 from somebody, Mike.
You took $300.
I'm innocent.
All right.
I'm confessing now so I can sleep easy tonight.
It's finally out there.
I do think they're like with away.
What like give us a little bit of insight on like return rates and
expected like ROI percentage rate.
Cause a lot of people start with books and you're like, Oh, I'm not
buying a book unless it's 500% ROI, but that's not the real world, real
situation of having a business.
So like give us a little bit of an insider scoop on what to expect when
it comes to margin and just, just, just that kind of stuff.
Yeah.
Um, well to tell a story about that, like the first time I tried online
arbitrage, I was like, okay, I sold a sweater on eBay for 60 bucks.
I'm interested in these sweaters.
I'm going to try to get a better deal on this sweater and sell it back on eBay.
Um, I did not negotiate deep enough.
Um, and I thought I was going to sell it for a higher price than I actually did.
And I ended up losing like $32 on the sale.
Uh, and it took like nine months to sell.
So that was my first experience doing away.
Um, and so like starting away for the first time is like pretty daunting
and difficult and you kind of don't know what you don't know.
Um, so like, first of all, like starting it is, is kind of difficult, but like
what I'm trying to do now, um, I think the standard for OA is like, we try to
look for like 30% ROI products.
So like buy an item for $10, get 13 back $3 profit or, uh, or go higher
ASP and buy for a hundred and sell for 130.
I like that better.
Um, but, um, yeah, for me, I'm, I'm looking for higher ROI, um, because like,
if I can just be pickier and like make my money work better for me, uh, I'd
rather do that.
I'll spend more time sourcing.
So like, I'm looking for like a hundred percent.
Are there any categories you won't touch?
Uh, I haven't flipped condoms, even Amazon, and it will probably stay that way.
Honestly, uh, I haven't done, um, much automotive.
I don't do much beauty because like, honestly, like beauty is oftentimes
it's like $20 items.
So like, how am I going to flip this even Amazon when like the seller has
to pay shipping most of the time?
Um, I do a lot of categories.
So for a new person thinking about, let's say they're selling on eBay and Amazon
and they're looking to try away, what would you say would be the gateway
capital to get your foot in the door into a gateway, like amount of capital,
right?
Should they have like 500 bucks saved up to reinvest a start away
experience or more or less?
Yeah.
I mean, I probably the easiest way, like, especially if you've been selling stuff,
um, already, like, if you just look at your catalog of like, especially if you
do books, um, or like media or DVDs, like take a look at like all the stuff that
sold for the most, so like that painting book, like there's probably some dude
selling it on eBay for like one 20 at some point.
Um, you'll, you'll have to look through like 10, 20 products like that in order
to find something profitable probably.
But like, I think that's the easiest way to get started because like,
I think the confidence of like, is this item actually going to sell for three 20
is kind of the hardest part of a way when you're putting like a hundred dollars
down on something, right?
But like, if you've sold it before, you're like, okay, well this thing sold
for three 20, it took three months.
Um, but like it'll sell so I can put a hundred dollars down on this or I can
put 150 down on this.
Like it's so much more like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like
it's so much more like easy to get started with something, with something
that you've already sold, in my opinion.
No, I agree with that 100%.
Absolutely.
I do think like you gotta have like all your ducks in a row.
Like if you, when, once you transition, if you start Amazon with like media,
uh, you can make, you can afford to make mistakes, right?
You get burned for five bucks, 10 bucks.
Like you really don't care.
Uh, I do think when it comes to like getting into a way you have to, I mean,
you, everything has to work in unison, right?
You're ROI that you're buying at and then having like your repricer set up correctly.
So, you know, you have it set up so you don't lose money or if you do, it's not
much because you're not going to win on every single product, but I do think it
is like important if you get into something like, oh, a is kind of understand
and like lean on people like Seth, like the content is out there and all you
got to do is like, I say all the time and people still don't like just message
somebody that does it like.
Message, message that and give you a straight up answer of exactly what he
did and what you should do.
Right.
So like, that kind of gets me into like, why did you get into YouTube?
Like, what was the thought process behind like starting YouTube?
Yeah.
Uh, yeah.
I mean, all of our DMS are open.
I'm sure I can't speak for everyone, but like message me on Instagram.
Like I literally have like a daily routine of like, I'm going to message
everybody back every single day.
So, um, unless you get into my like spam filter and then it'll be like,
I'll be at once a week.
I don't know if you have that mic, but
I don't even know how Instagram works.
Still.
I'm still like, I'm only three months into this thing.
I'm still trying to figure it out.
Deb's like, you just like something.
I'm like, I don't know what's going on.
I got hidden requests.
I got, I got, and then I got a proven message and it's like, do you want
the message to go here or there?
I don't know, dude.
So like, uh, yeah, YouTube it's like, you didn't need to start YouTube.
Nobody has to start YouTube.
So like, what was your process behind like document and everything and
trying to help other people?
Yeah.
Uh, it was like a year and a half, two years ago or so.
Um, I was finding that like, I was able to do my reselling at the
time in 25 hours a week.
I was encountering a lot of content talking about like the benefits of
making a social media page with reselling, like a lot of miles of stuff.
And like talking about like how important it is and how helpful it is.
And like, if you just post for a certain amount of time, like you'll get some
traction.
So I'm like, I'm going to reinvest 15 hours a week into this, at least at
the start and see how this goes.
And like, um, I think the thought was like, Oh, I'm going to make money off
this or like a lot of money off this at some point.
Um, but I think the biggest, at least benefit to me has been like the
networking and like, I learned so much from like just random people who asked
me a question and like a, a different point of view that I'm like, Oh, I
never thought of that.
Like there's been so many of those moments.
Oh, wait, people like they're all kind of like, Oh yeah.
You know, like, uh, share, I got a few, I got like an inside group, right.
That I share like leads with like, is this a real thing?
Like, do you have like, I don't, I don't need details.
I just need to know if it's a true thing.
Like, do you have maybe two close friends or however many friends that
if you say you come across this great deal on a website for this product
that, you know, you're willing to be like, Hey, yo Johnny, I got this great deal.
Here's the website.
Here's what it is.
Like, do you have a small tight knit of like, maybe people that you just give
each other leads that are actually quality stuff?
Yeah.
So I think this is, this is the perspective on that.
I think with regular OA that works, it actually works super well.
Um, and I think people like are a hundred percent doing that.
Cause like, especially if you're selling something with like a ton of
velocity, it's like, nobody cares if one other sellers on there.
It really doesn't matter.
Um, with eBay to Amazon, like I do do some of that, but it usually ends up being
the, like, let's say an eBay seller has like 12 units of this, but like, for
what I think I could sell in a month, it's only going to be six.
So I'm like, just I like, there's six units of this, like go buy it if you want it.
So like, we do do that.
Yeah.
Can you like, um, thinking about this, right?
Because like you're saying, we all sell things for crazy ROI at some
point in our reselling career.
Like, is there an easy way?
Like, can you automate like, uh, what do you use?
You use Flipmine?
I use Flipmine some, yeah.
Okay.
So like, could you automate it to a way where, um, maybe whenever you decide
to get in and look for eBay to Amazon deals, like it'll just automatically
filter all your UPCs that you're looking for, or is this something where you got
to, you know, drag and drop every UPC or, uh, item title to search?
Yeah.
So, I mean, you're in Steve's group.
That's what he's working on right now.
The replant catcher thing.
So he's in the process of making that.
I think he has a beta out right now, but yeah, he's working on that right now.
So, so, I mean, that makes it a little bit more easier for me, for more
people to kind of get into it too.
So I guess it's a blessing and a curse how you, how you kind of look at it.
Uh, like in comparison to like, uh, a work inside, like thrifted model,
online arbitrage, retail arbitrage, like the, the amount of work you put in.
Do you feel like, uh, it was the right step getting out of thrifted
and doing this business?
Like, do you rather, I know you said you enjoy thrifting, but like, you get more
enjoyment about, about like being at home and kind of creating your own schedule,
right?
You don't care what time the thrift store opens or closes.
You don't care when a half off day is, you're just getting on and knocking
it out when you can, like you prefer that lifestyle versus kind of the thrift and
lifestyle.
Um, well, like, I think I like the thrifting model quite a bit.
Uh, just the thing is, is I hate, like, I really don't like listing.
And so like, it was super manual listing wise and like, I wasn't optimized.
Like, like Johnny, you're in daily refinements group, like I suck at all
that, like efficiency stuff.
Like I'm trying to like optimize my FBM listing right now as well.
Cause like, I do do a lot of like new inbox items and you have to like make
sure that it's actually new and like, like customers actually going to be happy.
And I end up like, I took like 20 minutes to list two new VCRs.
Cause I had to like make sure that they were all like new and, uh, et cetera,
et cetera, um, make sure it's the right person actually get them listed.
Um, cause like, I'm not just going to like receive them, send them out.
And like, the customer is going to be like, why is there a thank you note in
my, in my package?
It's like those, those eBay sellers, Johnny, like, why do they do it?
I know they want to, it's funny you mentioned that because, um, when she has
to do emergent fulfilled order, I'm like, they get nothing and she feels so bad
for them.
They're going to thank you note.
They don't get the special eBay tape or anything.
They just get a blank package.
Yeah.
And people like that as a weird, but they do.
Yeah, I don't get it.
Um, so here's, here's a fun question for you.
Um, is OA completely solo game or do you see a point where you can have, uh, an
employee staff or a fairly large employee team staff kind of deal, or is that a
choice?
It's a hundred percent a choice for sure.
Um, for me, the way I run my operation is it's a super lean operation.
I have one VA.
Um, she does a lot of sourcing.
We're at the point where she's buying a good amount of stuff, not everything, but.
Yeah, she does that.
Um, another way you could go is to use a prep center for your prep.
Um, that's not employees, but it's like another system that you can use to help
you.
Right.
Um, or you could like take it in house and do all the prep yourself or hire it.
Um, but I didn't want to do that.
So, yeah, I mean, I'm not a big fan of that.
Yeah.
I mean, um, you could also have us buyers if you wanted to, um, there's so many
different ways you can take it, but I like, I'm like, Mike, I don't want a
warehouse.
I don't want employees.
I don't want unnecessary overhead.
Um, I want to keep things as clean as possible, honestly.
Oh yeah.
With employees, they could eat up your entire bankroll.
If you hire too many of them over hire and don't use them efficiently, your
money's just all gone in them.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
I need to talk about, uh, your decision to just using basically cash on hand to
buy all your stuff.
Like, did you like get to a point in your, you know, you kind of talked about
where you were at risk and, you know, if something went south, you basically
would have had a file bankruptcy to get rid of all the debt because, you know,
maybe you got a hundred K and inventory sitting in Amazon and they take it all
and destroy it.
Like, was that kind of like the point where you decided, okay, I'm going to
make this more cash flowable.
And like, what was, was there like a difference from the point when you, was
it something you gradually did over time or where you just, did you just wake up
one day and said, all right, whatever I make is going to be put back in the
business and that's it.
I'm not going to continue to leverage, you know, debt.
Uh, yeah.
So like last year, what happened is I was, uh, leveraging and scaling pretty
hard at the beginning of the year.
Um, come around early summer.
Um, I was making some like pretty decent profits and, um, but like the whole time
I was a leverage and it was scary and uncomfortable.
I mean, to a degree that's good, but like, you also got to know yourself and be
like, is this healthy or not?
Um, so pros and cons and like, can you stretch yourself into this or is this
too far of a stretch?
Um, and then at that point I got a couple of counterfeit claims and my account went
into the, uh, the dreaded yellow, uh, where you're at risk of deactivation.
And, uh, I was in that yellow for like five months.
Um, so that was a very scary time.
Cause I kind of didn't know, like, is that just going to stay forever?
Am I going to get suspended tomorrow?
Like, how am I going to deal with this?
So like, I was like, all right.
Foot on the gas, like we're going to like sell through.
We're still going to try to send in like really quality stuff.
But like not spend as much and try to cashflow out of the debt, basically.
Reinvest profits back in.
And then after it was a gradual, like five, six, seven months of
getting out of credit card.
Um, we were paying off our balances every month.
Um, so like, it wasn't like we were paying interest on stuff, but, um, like
we were leveraged pretty hard.
Do you see yourself doing this business model?
10 years from now, five years from now, three years from now, hell, even next year.
W like what's your outlook for where you're at today and like where you want
to be maybe next year or in a few years.
Um, yeah, we were talking about this earlier a little bit, how like, uh, we're
all just going to go to Pennsylvania and buy a house out and, uh, just live the
dream.
Um, yeah, I mean, I, I'm totally on the same board of like, let's, um, let's
not just like live paycheck to paycheck with reselling.
That's kind of a little bit, uh, volatile is probably the right word.
Like we can continue to like adapt and grow.
And I think we should, but like, I think it's also smart to like work your way
out of it, uh, potentially if you want to.
So like, yeah, I don't know what the next investment is, but like for now
S and P 500 that's putting some money into that.
So that eventually like, I could retire off that.
Um, that's funny.
You bring that up.
I had a poll yesterday on the YouTube.
Are you currently investing into a retirement fund as a reseller?
Uh, Johnny, any guess what percentage said?
Yes.
Zero.
And that's so broad that that could be $10 a month.
28% said yes.
72% of people that answered that poll are not putting a single penny away
into any kind of retirement fund or savings.
It's crazy to think about.
Um, and like you said, even if it's 10 bucks a month, I mean, you can even,
you know, get a SEP IRA being self-employed, it'll reduce your taxable
income at the end of the year.
So you're really, you know, you can play the, play the system the way they do it.
But I do think it is important to like see the end of the, of the journey.
And I think that's kind of what happened to you.
It wasn't only the debt, it was.
Well, what do I want this to look like?
What do I want this to look like in five years, 10 years?
It's not about right now.
It's about, okay, well, do I want to keep every month having to pay off the cards
that are like barely, you know, paying off everything, or some people are even
behind on their payments and that's what happens in the resale world is you get
to this, oh, I buy this one product and I need this to sell, if this don't sell,
I'm screwed.
And then that's how you get in the whole world, you know, trouble and hurt.
And just like, it's a shame to see.
And I do think there is so much justification to, you know, cashflow in
the business, the way you do it.
And it's really, I don't think it's talked about enough.
And every time I bring it up, I try not to like, you know, push my thoughts on
people, right, especially on YouTube, right?
All of a sudden I've, I've become the Dave Ramsey book guy, right?
Like no debt, no debt, right?
And like that's the new rebranding, the Dave Ramsey book.
That, that rubs people the wrong way, but I do think there is a being in debt
myself and, you know, growing up basically dead broke, there is a lot of possibilities
and it does open your eyes to like a different way to look at reselling when
you don't have to worry about, you know, making that credit card payment at the
end of the month or needing that one item to sell so you can pay your bill.
So I think it is a pretty incredible what you're doing cashflow in eBay to
Amazon and however else you want to flip things with, and just moving away from
the credit card, especially being, you know, how deep you were in it.
That's like a deep dark hole.
And you're all of a sudden you're like, I give me six months.
I won't be worrying about this no more.
I appreciate that.
Thanks, man.
Yeah, go ahead, Johnny.
No, it's very interesting.
I mean, people think of debt and risk management by doing debt,
that they can go a tad faster, but reselling year over year, you're going so fast
already, do you really need to dig yourself into that hole?
And I agree, you can go a little faster if you can just charge it.
Sure.
But I don't think a lot of people have the risk management down and they get
themselves into a whole world of hurt.
Honestly.
I think there's good ways to use debt and leverage debt and, and propel your
business faster, 100%.
That's, that's the whole point of it.
Right.
But is it necessary?
That's, that's the fundamental question.
I don't think people stop to think about before they just, just focus on that over
there.
I can go faster.
Maybe you don't need to go faster.
It's a risky game.
And like, yeah, that's a, it's a good point.
It's like, do you need to like, and.
Kind of like as your capital grows, like if you, if you go the no debt route, like
as your capital grows, like hopefully your skill is growing too.
So like, you're not like making these like super solid mistakes at scale.
Like you're going to make super solid mistakes at scale if you're like leveraged.
Uh, like me sending used items to a prep center, like at the, that was just
ridiculous return rate.
Um, like I wouldn't have done that as much if I wasn't so, so I would have
I wasn't scaled, I think, because I was just like, Oh, on paper, this is 110%
ROI, like it'll be fine.
But yeah, yeah.
So we all make bad buys that we make bad decisions in our business.
And I think with the, the, the debt way is some of those catastrophic.
They can be.
Oh yeah, for sure.
I mean, one, one wrong thing.
I mean, think about it.
Like if you got a 10 K credit card and you max it out, you know, and you
know, it's only on a few items.
And like Seth was saying, you get counterfeit claimed your SOL, like
you've got to come up with that money to pay on those credit cards.
Or if you don't make it by the end of the month, then you got interest.
And then you're definitely losing and you're probably not going to get those
products.
So it is, it is right.
Like one kind of hiccup.
I mean, that's not the end of the world.
There's hundreds, there's millions of people that can leverage debt, paid off
every single month, get the benefits of cash back points, all that nonsense.
But I just think you're, if we just take your average reseller, I don't think.
The average reseller is capable of handling and monitoring
maybe five credit cards.
I'm curious.
See if you don't mind telling us, I don't even know if this is too personal or not.
Like what's the most credit cards you had at a single time?
Yeah.
And I mean, like to go back to the statement, the devil's advocate to that
is like, or even a, even a business, like a business, like uses money, like a lot
of money.
And so like a regular business, like leverages debt.
Yeah.
Like that's the devil's advocate to that.
But like, kind of like you said, like you need to make sure that your business
model works before you use some leverage.
But yeah, I mean, I literally, I haven't closed my credit cards, but I have, I
have like a stack like this big of credit cards because I was doing the, the signup
bonuses for a while too.
Oh yeah.
And it, I was just like, at a point a couple months ago, I'm like, like, I, I, I
don't care.
I don't care enough to like open more credit cards.
Like this is an off.
It is, it is pretty crazy to think about.
I'm curious, like what's your plan for the YouTube channels?
Is this something you're going to continue to do?
You upload pretty often.
So like, do you have more plans to do more YouTube as you scale your business
and maybe get more time back?
Like what's the future of that look like for you?
Future of that right now is I, well, okay.
So I'm, I'm very far ahead on a series that I'm putting out right now.
The series is the a hundred K at a hundred percent ROI in a hundred days.
Yeah.
I've filmed all of it at this point and we're like several weeks ahead.
So we're releasing those.
I filmed another video today, but like, we're, we're just going to be posting
stuff that's like helpful to people to help them get to the next level and
their reselling business.
I don't think I'm going to like take it like, be like, okay, I need to do three
videos a week and like post like six reels a week and like really ramp that up.
I'm, I think I'm going to like continue posting like once a week, something
that's helpful, try to like keep helping people.
Yeah.
I mean, it's kind of like what we were talking about with business, right?
Everything doesn't have to be a turn and burn, right?
You can slowly grow a YouTube channel up over time and years.
And then, you know, when the time comes and you know, you're, you're not
reselling as much as you used to, and you got your mansion paid off in the
middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania.
You can just, you know, have a little homestead channel of you, you know,
living out on the farm somewhere and you know, doing what you do.
Like that's, that's the reality of it.
And it is kind of like a good way to look at it.
It's like, everything doesn't have to be like, you know, you don't
got to spend 10 K this month.
You don't got to make 10 K this month.
And I think that's like a false reality.
Like everything is built over time.
Nothing is going to happen overnight.
And whether that's eBay to Amazon, Thrifton, everything takes time in
this world of reselling that we live in.
Yeah.
And it's like, I, the way that I see it is like, if I say yes to like putting
another two videos out a week or like really trying to like dial in to get
my social media better, I'm saying no to other parts of my reselling business,
at least at this point.
So it's like, what is kind of our wide like best for me, honestly?
All right.
Hold up, I got a bone to pick here because you commented on one of my posts
and I responded because I seen it and I, it was my, no, it was my video saying
how bulk buys are a waste of my time.
And his response was, yeah, well, he basically said, yeah, you're an idiot.
I could have told you that when I was doing bulk buys many, many years ago.
Thanks for letting me know.
You know, how many hours of my life I wasted.
You could have helped me.
You could have saved my business.
I didn't know you did bulk pickups.
I mean, dude, I didn't know.
I thought your take on it was cool.
Like, oh, I'm just going to like do the best ones.
And I didn't even think of that when I was doing it myself.
Yeah.
But like you said though, right?
It's one of those things where you got to prioritize, right?
We're not YouTubers, you know, like we don't make, we make a lot more in reselling
than we do in YouTube world, right?
So we can't just sit here and make videos all day long for YouTube because the
bills ain't going to get paid at the end of the day.
So it is kind of, it all coincides with each other.
Like your life, kind of the way you take things in life, you put into your business
and that's how you get ahead and win.
Honestly, I can't comment on this one because I still do bulk.
Well, listen, dude, I would do bulk if I just had a store right there that I could
just throw them out on the shelf, right?
That's completely different, but it is, it is weird to look at different
aspects of your life and business and like, what can you get back?
Like, uh, you know, going from like a thrift into like a work from home kind of thing.
Like you get, you get, you win some, you lose some, right?
I got to deal with my four catch jumping around me all day.
If I'm sitting here editing YouTube videos for the day, but it's like, Hey,
it beats going out to the thrift store or something like that.
So I think we're going to wrap it up here.
Um, so the last thing we always kind of do is like somebody that's interested
in getting into what you do, like eBay to Amazon, like what's the best piece
of advice you could give them.
Yeah.
I kind of a common theme throughout probably this whole thing is like jumping
into something like 110%, like maybe you should like give a lot of effort, but
like, and actually learning the thing, but like, you don't need to like stop
doing the thing that's making you money and go full force into a completely
different business model.
Like it's probably a lot more sustainable to just be like, okay, like I'm going to,
I'm going to do 5% this and then maybe the next month, like 15% this and like,
give yourself some patience and time over time to like actually get to the,
get to your level two and then level three and then level four, step four,
five, six, seven.
So yeah, I mean, just learn, take your time.
Um, yeah, that's probably my piece of advice.
Um, and if you need credit cards, he's got a whole stack that he's not even
using, right?
All you gotta do is hit them up on Instagram.
Hey, I heard you got a stack of credit cards.
What can you do for me?
Uh, we appreciate you.
I should, I should open, I maybe I'll dip my 5% of my business model into that.
Be like, lend some people some credit card limits.
Oh my God, dude.
I mean, there you go.
The reselling loan shark, right?
You know, he just had got a little black book.
You keep names in, you got guys with suits that go around and go,
40% APR.
Hey, it's, uh, it's the Seth card, right?
Uh, we appreciate you hanging out today as always.
And you can find them anywhere, social media, YouTube, checkmate flips.
And, uh, we appreciate you coming on today, man.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thanks for having me guys.
Thanks for listening to another episode of the resellers mindset podcast.
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