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Welcome back to another episode of the Resellers Mindset Podcast.

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My name is Mike, also known as the used book guy on YouTube,

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along with my friend and fellow full-time reseller, Johnny B.

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We help people start and grow their reselling businesses

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from the ground up.

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We also have a weekly Zoom call and private Discord

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for all YouTube members.

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Head on over to youtube.com backslash used book guy

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to join the channel and gain access

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to the full-length podcast, Zoom call, and private Discord today.

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Let's get into this week's episode.

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What is up, everybody?

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Welcome to another episode of Resellers Mindset Podcast,

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Mike alongside Johnny.

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And we figured you guys are tired of just hearing both of us.

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So we have a special guest on here, the number one

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used CD seller in Australia, Tom.

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Welcome to the podcast.

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How's it going down there on the other side of the world?

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Good, good.

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Thanks for having me.

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Yeah, it's good.

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We're busy.

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It's unusually cold for summer here at the minute.

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And yeah, that's the story.

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I'm curious.

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I mean, you've risen from you weren't even on eBay

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to being number one.

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The insight of you starting reselling,

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and what does reselling look like in Australia?

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Because over here, it's almost a secondary thought people have.

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Like if I tell a family or friend member, like, hey,

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I resell, it's almost like, eh, so you almost

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get a condescending, snark look.

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I'm curious if it's different down there.

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And just give me a little bit of insight

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of how you got into reselling.

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Yeah, no, look, it's the same here for us,

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especially if you say to people that you still

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predominantly use music CDs full time.

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They just look at you and they're confused.

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But the way I got into it was when I was 15 in 1998,

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I went to a music shop in Sydney, which is a couple hours

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from where I live.

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Bought some stock really cheap, took it back to my hometown,

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and then sold it on consignment through a music store there.

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Made a tidy profit, realized there

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was a bit of a future in this.

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And that was how I got started.

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And then it snowballed from that.

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Fast forward 25 years, and I've got two full time staff,

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one pine time staff, about 11 warehouses,

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130,000 active listings on eBay, and more death

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bowl than you can poke a stick at.

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So it's turned into a quite large scale operation.

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That is insane.

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So you started with music and stayed with music the whole time.

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You never got distracted and decided, hey,

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I want to try clothing or shoes or electronics.

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You just said, I'm the music guy beginning to end.

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Actually, it's funny.

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What we started with, what I started with,

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was some graffiti magazines.

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And the main interest there was I

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was a collector of these magazines,

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and I wanted to buy more, but they were quite expensive.

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And being 15, I didn't have much money.

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So I used to buy in bulk, kept a few myself,

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and then on sell the rest.

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And so originally, we were known as an art supply store.

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And we sold all sorts of art supply stuff.

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And then we changed and tried a bunch of different things.

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One of the main reasons we got into CDs

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was because we were selling boxes of paint.

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And the same amount of space a box of, say, 12 cans of paint

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would take up would equal about 80 CDs.

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And for each CD, the same amount of profit margin

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we're getting off each CD, we were getting off

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the 12 cans of paint.

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So we got into CDs pretty early on mainly

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because of storage issues.

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From a logistics point of view, they're good to store.

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You can store a lot of them in a very small space.

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And they're fairly lightweight and easy to deal with.

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So we got into CDs, vinyl records, DVDs.

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The main emphasis, and if I could only

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pick one thing to deal in, it would just be CDs.

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But in buying CDs, we also would get offered

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a truckload of books.

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So we'd take the truckload of books,

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mainly to have a good relationship with our suppliers

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so we could open the door to more future wholesale CD lots.

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And then we ran into this problem with, well,

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what do we do with all these books?

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So at the time, I knew a book reseller, Mel, back

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from Burnout.

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And I said to her, look, we've got a truckload of books.

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Are you interested in buying them?

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She came out and saw them and then

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started referring to me as her book guy.

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Never actually bought any books from me.

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And then in the end, we're like, well, what are we going to do?

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We're going to have to start selling books.

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So we started selling books.

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She's the number three used book seller in the country,

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and we're number four.

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And she's also my girlfriend now.

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So it's interesting the way it's all snowballed.

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But we'll buy and sell anything.

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Our main emphasis is on media, CDs, DVDs, books, records,

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that sort of thing.

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But at the same time, if I get offered

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a truckload of ambulance stretchers or pallet racking

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or forklifts, if there's money to be made,

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we'll most certainly buy and sell and deal in them.

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So we're good.

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That's a true reseller right there.

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Tractor trailer full of stretchers.

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He's like, if the price is right, back at it.

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I mean, you said you have 11 warehouses,

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so the space is no big deal.

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You just take it over there and drop it off.

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Go ahead, Johnny, take it away.

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So how long since you started at 15

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did you hire your first staff member?

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Like how soon did you start that whole employee to warehouse

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or were you working out of your home

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for like the first year or two?

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Yeah, so I was working out of my parents' place

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for a fair while.

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And I started living with my parents for a fair while

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because I had a lot of space there and it was free.

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And I liked my mom's cooking.

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And I moved out and I moved about an hour away.

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And then I was still operating out of my house.

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And then I would have been, I'd say probably about,

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that's a really good question, probably about 33.

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So I would have been into it for about 18 years

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before I got my first staff member.

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And what I originally did was I had

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say stay at home moms or stay at home grandmas.

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And what I'd do is I'd take stock to them

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and they'd take the photos.

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So they then supply me the photos and I'd upload them.

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So I started off by doing that.

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Then I started off, I went one step further

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and gave them access to the eBay account

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and got them to upload the photos.

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And I went one step further than that,

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got them to actually do the listings.

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And then what I was doing was I was paying them per month

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and what I was doing was I was paying them per listing.

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So all they were doing is putting them up

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as quickly as they could.

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The quality control was terrible, endless mistakes.

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And it was just, it was, the whole thing was horrible.

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And then what I did was I went through probably

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about five people like that,

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that were good for a little while

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and then they just got lazy and were no good.

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When I got my first full-time employee

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and she was fantastic.

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And she was with me for about three years.

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And during that time, her son came to work for me

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and he's now my right-hand man.

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And he's been so valuable to the organization.

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I sent him on a all expenses trip to Japan recently

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to get trained up in another area of the business.

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But thinking back, I mean, the ratio of getting good stuff

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to bad stuff would be 20 to one.

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We would have gone through 20 bad stuff

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to find one good one.

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Just, and it was a case of work ethic and being trustworthy

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and just being competent and smart at the job.

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You've got to be able to think for yourself.

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It's not just data entry, this job.

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No, absolutely.

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I mean, I went through, I think I was fortunate

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to only go through six people

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before I found my one decent employee

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and only employee at this present time.

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So 11 warehouses, is the thought process,

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11 is gonna be it or we wait, we fill,

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how do you do the fill up before you decide

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to build another warehouse?

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Or do you try to sell off to keep the amount of warehouses

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you have the same or is it always expand and grow,

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expand and grow?

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Well, it's always expanded, bro.

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So what we've got is we're at this one complex

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and we are the biggest tenant.

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There's probably about 30 different people

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that rent space at this complex.

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And we rent at least a quarter of it.

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And literally it started off as sort of a four car garage

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and then it went to a essentially a 20 car garage

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and then it just snowballed from there.

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But every single bit of space we've got

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is absolutely chock-a-block full at the minute.

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And it's just, we're just absolutely inundated with stock.

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And the problem is we get,

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we bought a whole bunch of brand new sealed DVDs

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from the supplier.

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It was equivalent to five 18 wheeler truckloads.

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And the problem with it is a lot of it was good

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and a lot of it was sellable.

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But when you've got 300 copies of the same title,

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it's gonna take a long time to sell them,

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especially with the way the DVD market's gone.

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So we've got a lot of stock that is listed,

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but we've got 30 copies of it in a pick box.

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And then we've got a pallet of it

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somewhere else in another warehouse.

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On top of that, we've got a bunch of death pile stuff

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that we haven't even looked at.

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We've got boxes from four years ago

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we haven't even opened yet.

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And it's just a case of,

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sometimes you'll spend five minutes

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on each individual item.

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And you need that time to go through

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and check everything and do it correctly.

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And it's just a slow process.

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But what we do now is any new stock we have that comes in,

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we deal with that first,

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and then we try and tackle as much of the death pile

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as we can, but it's certainly a process.

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I already know the answer to this,

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but I'm gonna ask it anyway,

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because we have a fairly large Amazon audience.

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Can you tell us how Amazon works in Australia?

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And if it's a big thing over there, is it in the US?

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I think you guys are really lucky in the US

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because you've got multiple different ways

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of selling items.

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In Australia, the monopoly is with eBay.

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There are some secondhand items on Amazon here.

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I haven't really looked into it.

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And I don't know too many people that are successful

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with selling secondhand items on Amazon in Australia.

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I know the new market on there is pretty competitive.

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And I know to the point where people are,

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there's one eBay store I know

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that's got about 8,000 listings on eBay.

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And literally all they've done is they've gone to Amazon

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and they've taken all the information,

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the photos and the description,

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and they've put it on eBay at I think 25 or 30% higher price

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and they just drop shipping straight from Amazon.

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So the prices on Amazon are competitive for the new stuff.

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The second hand, I've heard stories

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where people have got 30,000 items listed

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and they sell maybe one a day.

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So it's not, I don't think it's,

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it's certainly not where it should be.

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No, not at all.

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Not with the name brand Amazon.

258
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I'm curious, 130,000-ish listings on eBay.

259
00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:10,080
You said, you like quality listings.

260
00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:11,840
Are you using like a listing software

261
00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:13,400
or are you just knocking these out?

262
00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:15,320
You're taking your own photos, everything like that.

263
00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:17,640
Because I can't even begin to imagine that many listings

264
00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:19,240
if you're taking photos yourself.

265
00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:20,640
Yeah, you have employees, but that's still a lot.

266
00:12:20,640 --> 00:12:23,400
I'm curious, like the process of getting to that point

267
00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:26,120
with listings and what your listings look like,

268
00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:28,160
maybe compared to other people that just,

269
00:12:28,160 --> 00:12:30,240
maybe use a listing software and a stock photo,

270
00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:31,640
or do you use stock photos?

271
00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:38,360
What we originally did was we wanted to set ourselves

272
00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:42,160
out from the crowd and we didn't want to use stock photos.

273
00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:45,600
So what we did was for every item that came in,

274
00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:47,480
we'd individually take photos of it.

275
00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:49,720
So for a CD, it'd be the front cover,

276
00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:52,680
the label side of the disc, and then the back cover,

277
00:12:52,680 --> 00:12:55,240
and then get it listed up for sale.

278
00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:59,240
Our item descriptions are basically non-existent.

279
00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:01,200
It's just a copied and pasted,

280
00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:02,840
essentially terms and conditions.

281
00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:05,240
This is what we'll do, this is what we won't do.

282
00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:10,240
So the actual descriptions don't really come into it.

283
00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:12,240
Our selling point really is the photos.

284
00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:15,240
Our photos generally are pretty good.

285
00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:19,240
We might have 30 different listings for the same release,

286
00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:22,440
but you might have a different sticker,

287
00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:25,240
the condition might be slightly different,

288
00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:27,240
and we've got an individual listing for it.

289
00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:29,440
If we condensed all our listings,

290
00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:31,400
I think we'd have a lot less.

291
00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:33,800
And we are condensing a little bit

292
00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:37,160
on the proviso, everything matches 100%,

293
00:13:37,160 --> 00:13:41,400
and you end up with a listing where secondhand item,

294
00:13:41,400 --> 00:13:44,960
but it's almost like a replenishable item,

295
00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:48,160
because you've got sort of stock photo,

296
00:13:48,160 --> 00:13:52,400
it's an actual photo, but each item is secondhand,

297
00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:54,400
but it's got to match that photo perfectly,

298
00:13:54,400 --> 00:13:56,920
it's got to match that condition perfectly.

299
00:13:56,920 --> 00:13:59,960
And then we'll have listings where we've got one in stock

300
00:13:59,960 --> 00:14:01,800
and we've sold 20 copies of it.

301
00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:04,800
We like the idea of going to that model,

302
00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:09,040
and it's sort of the same as a lot of the bigger players

303
00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:12,360
that they've sold 300, they've got one in stock,

304
00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:13,840
but they've got a stock image,

305
00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:16,040
they've only got the one photo you can't really see

306
00:14:16,040 --> 00:14:18,240
or get a good feeling for what's going on.

307
00:14:19,640 --> 00:14:24,160
Obviously we differentiate between the slightest difference.

308
00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:27,680
So with a CD, you might have a British version of a CD

309
00:14:27,680 --> 00:14:29,440
that might be worth $20,

310
00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:31,920
then you might have the Australian version,

311
00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:33,000
which is exactly the same,

312
00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:34,720
the only difference is it was made in Australia

313
00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:36,760
and it says it was made in Australia,

314
00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:39,320
and there might be a $500 price difference.

315
00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:42,560
So obviously we want to differentiate between those two.

316
00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:48,080
With our listings, I mean, I think our oldest listings

317
00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:50,840
are probably seven and eight years old,

318
00:14:50,840 --> 00:14:53,680
and that stuff that as we've evolved

319
00:14:53,680 --> 00:14:55,840
and we've had different staff list them

320
00:14:54,880 --> 00:14:56,880
and different price points and different

321
00:14:56,880 --> 00:15:01,880
and different price points and different quality metrics,

322
00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:04,680
I think our listing and our price points

323
00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:06,640
and everything is getting a lot better.

324
00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:09,000
And if we went back and looked at a lot of these old listings,

325
00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:11,200
a lot of them just need to be deleted.

326
00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:13,480
And that's something we're working on.

327
00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:17,360
The goal for this year is to get our listings up to 250,000

328
00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:18,960
to fill a lot of our,

329
00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:25,080
essentially our boxes we pick from on shelving,

330
00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:26,360
like designated shelves,

331
00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:27,360
we've already got set up.

332
00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:28,440
So we want to fill that up

333
00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:30,840
and get rid of as much death pile as possible.

334
00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:33,960
Then we want to go back and pick our first box of CDs,

335
00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:37,640
our first box of books, our first box of DVDs,

336
00:15:37,640 --> 00:15:40,760
and go back through them and go, right, well,

337
00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:42,360
do we need to just change the title?

338
00:15:42,360 --> 00:15:43,720
Do we need to lower the price?

339
00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:46,400
Do we need just to liquidate this all together?

340
00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:48,520
What do we need to do with these listings?

341
00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:50,840
Because our sell through rate is terrible.

342
00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:52,960
It's less than 3%.

343
00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:56,960
And we'd love to have a much better sell through rate,

344
00:15:56,960 --> 00:16:00,040
but it's one of these things where with books, for example,

345
00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:01,720
we had no expertise about books,

346
00:16:01,720 --> 00:16:03,440
had no idea what we were doing,

347
00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:06,000
didn't know what would sell, didn't know what wouldn't sell.

348
00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:07,880
So instead of sort of looking at the market

349
00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:08,800
and researching it,

350
00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:11,400
we just started listing everything we had.

351
00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:15,840
I think it's a hard way to learn what'll sell and what won't,

352
00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:19,840
but at the same time, it gives you a good in-depth picture

353
00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:23,360
as to what's worth listing and what's not worth listing.

354
00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:26,160
So yeah, so we've got a fair bit of work to do,

355
00:16:26,160 --> 00:16:28,160
go back and essentially do a stock take

356
00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:31,640
and work out what's what with all these old listings.

357
00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:32,920
I'm curious here,

358
00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:34,760
because I know a lot of people that kind of have jumped

359
00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:38,080
into CDs and DVDs, we get to a point

360
00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:42,520
where we buy a resurfacer to clean up scratch disc.

361
00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:44,680
Now I can't even get in a fathom if I had to clean

362
00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:46,600
as many discs that you probably have to deal with.

363
00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:49,480
Is this something where you have a resurfacer?

364
00:16:49,480 --> 00:16:51,880
Do you resurface disc or do you just eye test it,

365
00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:54,520
maybe test it into some kind of software and throw it out?

366
00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:58,360
Like what's your process for scratched CDs and DVDs?

367
00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:02,040
I'm personally really passionate about taking items

368
00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:05,840
that otherwise might get discarded, might go to landfill

369
00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:08,640
and getting them to a point where someone

370
00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:11,280
will be happy to own it and they want to own it.

371
00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:14,600
And then our job is to get that item to that person.

372
00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:17,880
So fairly early on in the piece,

373
00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:21,400
I went in and I bought resurfacing machines.

374
00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:24,960
And I started with the JFJ, the American JFJ machine.

375
00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:29,280
And that was fairly messy and time consuming

376
00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:31,520
and somewhat expensive to use.

377
00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:34,120
And then what I did was I looked around

378
00:17:34,120 --> 00:17:37,280
and I hunted about for a long time and read reviews

379
00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:38,600
and looked at different machines.

380
00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:43,600
And we ended up going with the Elm Eco Pro 2 machine.

381
00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:46,280
And so what we did then was,

382
00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:50,240
well, what we do is we look for holes in our business

383
00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:51,600
and we try and plug those.

384
00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:53,920
So an example is, okay, we know there's demand

385
00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:57,720
for a certain CD, we seek to get that and to unsell it.

386
00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:00,160
With the cleaning machines,

387
00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:02,120
because the machines are expensive

388
00:18:02,120 --> 00:18:03,960
and the supplies are expensive,

389
00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:07,120
what we did was we went 10 steps further

390
00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:11,400
and we became a Elm distributor in Australia.

391
00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:14,240
And that's why me and my girlfriend

392
00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:16,560
and my right-hand man went over to Japan.

393
00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:20,840
So we're able to get the machines cheaper.

394
00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:23,040
We're able to get the supplies cheaper.

395
00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:24,760
Because we've got our finger on the pulse

396
00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:26,520
and we use the machines daily,

397
00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:31,120
we're a good agent to sell these machines to other people.

398
00:18:31,120 --> 00:18:32,840
And the interesting thing is,

399
00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:36,000
we're able to see who our competition is.

400
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:39,080
We're able to see what sort of volume

401
00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:40,640
our competitors are doing.

402
00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:41,640
But at the same time,

403
00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:44,800
we're able to give them our knowledge

404
00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:48,000
with using the machines and pass that on.

405
00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:52,080
So it's quite beneficial to us to be in this position

406
00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:54,120
where we are a distributor,

407
00:18:54,120 --> 00:18:57,160
we're able to get the best wholesale prices,

408
00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:58,360
we're able to have a really good,

409
00:18:58,360 --> 00:19:00,840
strong relationship with Elm in Japan.

410
00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:04,480
And it's been quite beneficial.

411
00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:07,280
We've only brought in a small amount of supplies

412
00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:09,440
and spare parts of machines so far,

413
00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:14,440
but we've negotiated to get 150 of the Eco Pro 2 machines.

414
00:19:16,120 --> 00:19:17,800
And I think in America last year,

415
00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:21,440
they only sold 130 or 170 of those machines

416
00:19:21,440 --> 00:19:23,440
brand new in America.

417
00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:25,840
So it's not a huge market for them,

418
00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:28,680
but the people that know and the people that need them,

419
00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:31,000
it's what they're after.

420
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:34,040
But I think if you're selling CDs, DVDs,

421
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:36,480
any kind of disc media games as well,

422
00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:38,000
I think you have to have these machines.

423
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:43,000
Otherwise, fingerprints are time consuming to get off,

424
00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:45,080
light scratches can be removed,

425
00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:47,640
disc can be brought up like brand new,

426
00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:50,920
even deep scratches on some stuff,

427
00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:53,560
the disc can be brought back to life.

428
00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:56,200
And I think it's really beneficial to have those machines,

429
00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:57,840
even if you don't go with an Elm machine,

430
00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:00,320
if you go with one of the competitors.

431
00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:02,440
But I think it's just up to the individual

432
00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:04,480
to have a look around and see what's available.

433
00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:08,360
But at the minute we've got three Eco Pro 2s,

434
00:20:08,360 --> 00:20:10,600
we've got one Eco Master.

435
00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:14,320
So the Eco Master, you light up with 50 discs at a time,

436
00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:17,680
and that does different levels of sanding,

437
00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:20,600
and that really takes really deep scratches out.

438
00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:22,160
Whereas Eco Pro 2 machines,

439
00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:23,840
they just work on heat friction

440
00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:26,960
and basically just buffs out light scratches.

441
00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:30,440
But we wanna expand the amount of machines

442
00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:32,640
we've got for ourselves,

443
00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:34,760
because what we do is one day handling.

444
00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:37,280
And so if we've got 50 discs we need to clean,

445
00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:40,760
they've got deep scratches, that could take seven hours.

446
00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:42,200
So we need to get our orders packed

447
00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:44,480
and out the door as quickly as possible.

448
00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:48,360
So that's why you need multiple machines, I feel anyway.

449
00:20:48,360 --> 00:20:51,120
That's, I was not expecting that answer at all.

450
00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:53,480
That's like next level business thinking here,

451
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:54,840
becoming a wholesaler for them.

452
00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:57,640
I mean, go ahead, Johnny, take it away.

453
00:20:57,640 --> 00:20:59,160
So do you do front-low cleaning

454
00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:00,560
or do you clean as they sell?

455
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:01,840
Or both?

456
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:05,400
We do a little bit of both, it depends what it is.

457
00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:07,880
So what we started doing is,

458
00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:10,640
the business model we want to go to is this.

459
00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:14,920
We cast a really wide net, we buy as much as possible.

460
00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:17,320
We then go and cherry pick what we want.

461
00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:20,480
We might take top 10%.

462
00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:23,840
And then what we wanna do is we wanna wholesale the rest.

463
00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:27,640
As long as it's the decent titles in decent condition,

464
00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:29,800
we don't wanna alienate anyone.

465
00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:33,960
So we wanna put those in bulk lots and sell them out.

466
00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:37,320
So then what we're doing is we're selling planes,

467
00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:41,000
highly collectible, expensive items individually.

468
00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:42,720
Then we're selling lots.

469
00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:45,720
So it might be where you've got a music series

470
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:48,160
where they've done volume one to volume 20.

471
00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:51,920
We might lot that together and sell volume one to 20.

472
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:55,400
And we wanna sell that again and again and again.

473
00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:58,920
And then what we wanna do is sell replenishables.

474
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:02,440
So as far as the cleaning machines and the supplies go.

475
00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:05,480
And it's a three-pronged effect.

476
00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:10,480
So the same amount of work for us goes into selling one CD

477
00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:15,720
for a 50 cent profit margin or a $50 profit margin.

478
00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:17,080
We've paid our dues.

479
00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:20,680
We've dealt with enough of the cheap,

480
00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:23,120
cheaper, lower profit margin stuff.

481
00:22:23,120 --> 00:22:25,800
We know there are people crying after that stuff.

482
00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:28,880
So we might as well wholesale that to them

483
00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:32,320
and also sell them a cleaning machine and the supplies

484
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:37,120
and be essentially a one-stop shop for our competitors.

485
00:22:37,120 --> 00:22:40,080
At the same time, we're pulling out exactly what we want

486
00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:42,640
in the genres we know about,

487
00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:45,280
in the collections and sets we want.

488
00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:51,200
And just to me, it just makes more sense to go that route.

489
00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:52,760
I don't think there's much of a future

490
00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:56,400
in really low profit margins on huge volume,

491
00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:59,000
unless you've got a huge amount of staff,

492
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:02,080
a huge amount of space, a whole bunch of systems

493
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:03,880
and setups like these guys in America

494
00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:06,280
that use these Nito sort machines,

495
00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:09,960
where they're able to process 3000 books an hour.

496
00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:11,000
We're not set up like that.

497
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:14,520
We're still doing a lot of stuff manually at this point.

498
00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:17,600
So yeah.

499
00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:22,000
So let's talk about shipping.

500
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,120
How long does it, on a typical day, does it take you?

501
00:23:25,120 --> 00:23:28,040
There's four plus you makes five, right?

502
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:29,720
No, there's four in total.

503
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:30,880
There's four in total.

504
00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:33,360
Now is everybody all hands on deck during shipping

505
00:23:33,360 --> 00:23:35,160
or is it like one guy's job to do that

506
00:23:35,160 --> 00:23:36,960
for the majority of their shift?

507
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:39,040
No, so it's all hands on deck.

508
00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:40,440
And what we wanna do,

509
00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:45,680
many hands make light work.

510
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:49,520
And what it is is if we can get the pick in the pack done

511
00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:52,200
as quickly and efficiently as possible

512
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:54,000
and get that stuff to the post office,

513
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,600
at that point, a whole bunch of stress is gone

514
00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:59,720
and we can concentrate on what we need to concentrate on.

515
00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:03,000
So what we do is we've got one person that goes

516
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,880
and picks all the DVDs from the DVD room.

517
00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:08,200
And that's the same person that lists the majority of them.

518
00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:10,640
So they know the DVDs quite well.

519
00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:13,000
So that speeds up and makes that process easier.

520
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:16,480
So he starts at seven o'clock in the morning.

521
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:20,640
The next loss, the two next guys start at 7.30

522
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:24,280
in the morning and generally one of them will pick CDs

523
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:27,200
and the other one will start printing out labels.

524
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:29,480
The process we use to print labels,

525
00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:31,880
it takes about 10 minutes a day to muck around

526
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:34,720
with the software we use to print the labels.

527
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:38,960
So he does that whilst one guy's picking CDs.

528
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:40,920
I generally genuinely,

529
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:45,320
I also help picking CDs.

530
00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:49,040
And then what I do is I jump on the machines

531
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:52,840
and while the CDs are still getting picked by two people

532
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:55,080
and the DVDs are still getting picked.

533
00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:56,720
The reason for that is, you know,

534
00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:59,800
it takes a bit of time to run the disk through the machines

535
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:02,760
and you've got to look at each one, double check everything

536
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:04,360
and make sure everything's good to go.

537
00:25:04,360 --> 00:25:07,520
You've got to pick which method it's getting posted.

538
00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:11,040
So you've got me on the machines and designating

539
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:13,120
how things are gonna get dispatched.

540
00:25:13,120 --> 00:25:15,200
Then we've got one person packing,

541
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:18,120
then we've got one person entering tracking numbers

542
00:25:18,120 --> 00:25:20,440
and ticking things off.

543
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:22,880
And generally we have another person

544
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:24,720
that's still picking a few orders.

545
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:26,000
So we pick in three lots.

546
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,720
We've got the DVDs get started on first,

547
00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:32,160
the CDs normally two people do.

548
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:37,160
And then we normally have probably 20% of our orders of books

549
00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:40,120
and we have one person that goes and picks all the books

550
00:25:40,120 --> 00:25:41,120
in the book room.

551
00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:46,800
So how long does this whole process take on a daily basis?

552
00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:48,920
So on a Monday morning,

553
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:52,920
normally we'll have about 250, 300 orders going out.

554
00:25:54,120 --> 00:25:57,400
We're normally done in about four or five hours.

555
00:25:57,400 --> 00:25:58,320
That's not bad at all.

556
00:25:58,320 --> 00:25:59,160
Yeah.

557
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:00,840
Yeah, so look, it is fairly quick,

558
00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:05,840
but I know guys that they clean as they list everything.

559
00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:08,440
So we want to get to that point,

560
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:11,320
but we wanna take to another step.

561
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:15,000
What we wanna do is check everything meticulously,

562
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,600
clean it, have it 100% ready to go

563
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:21,280
and then run it through a sealing machine and reseal it.

564
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:24,240
And what we wanna do is we wanna sell it as secondhand,

565
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:25,080
but sealed.

566
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:26,760
So we're not selling it as brand new.

567
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:28,560
It is a secondhand order.

568
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:31,320
The reason we wanna seal it is so we know 100%

569
00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:32,440
it's been checked.

570
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:35,200
We don't have to open up and double check it.

571
00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:37,160
Because that's time consuming.

572
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:40,920
And it helps protect it, keeps dust off it

573
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:42,520
and all that sort of thing.

574
00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:43,680
So we wanna get to that point

575
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:46,440
where we know what we're dealing with so well.

576
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:51,440
We know 100% this will sell at this price point.

577
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:53,760
So we can be confident we can run it through the machine,

578
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:56,360
which is expensive and then seal it

579
00:26:56,360 --> 00:26:57,920
and then put it in a box.

580
00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:00,600
Because when you pick and pack a brand new sealed item

581
00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:02,680
or a secondhand sealed item,

582
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:04,880
it's so much quicker and easier.

583
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:07,880
You can get the pick and pack done a lot quicker

584
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:09,480
because you don't have to double check everything.

585
00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:11,280
You don't have to change a case.

586
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:12,560
You don't have to double check artwork.

587
00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:13,880
You don't have to come across,

588
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:16,160
oh, this booklet is actually stuck together.

589
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:17,800
We need to find a replacement.

590
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:20,280
Or we got to communicate with the buyer to say,

591
00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:21,120
this is damaged.

592
00:27:21,120 --> 00:27:21,960
What do you wanna do?

593
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:22,800
Do you wanna refund?

594
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:23,640
Do you want something else?

595
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:24,480
What do you wanna do?

596
00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:26,320
So, yeah.

597
00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:27,800
So I got a fun question.

598
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:31,320
You may or may not know the answer to this multipartner.

599
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:33,720
The answer to this multipart question.

600
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:37,680
Do you know what your most expensive CD, book and DVD were

601
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:39,040
and what the amounts were?

602
00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:43,720
The most expensive CD we ever sold was

603
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:47,080
it was around the $1,400 mark.

604
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:50,520
And when that sold in the 90 days on the side,

605
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:52,560
there were two other copies of that that sold.

606
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,360
And I went for about $1,500 and $1,600

607
00:27:55,360 --> 00:27:57,600
for that individual CD.

608
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,200
Now it almost brought tears to my eyes

609
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:02,280
because the other day I saw someone that sold

610
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:05,080
not only that CD, but a whole bunch of other CDs

611
00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:09,600
by the same person from the same era for about $350.

612
00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:11,080
That would be a dream score.

613
00:28:12,360 --> 00:28:15,640
The current market on that particular CD has dropped a bit.

614
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:18,040
The cheapest I've seen it individually sell for

615
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:20,480
is about $500.

616
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:23,200
It does fluctuate a little bit.

617
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:26,280
And that was Richard Clapton's, Prussian Blue.

618
00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:30,280
And that's an Aussie rock singer from the 70s.

619
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:33,920
So that's certainly a good one.

620
00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:37,320
Apart from that, there was a CD single we had once,

621
00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:42,320
which was from a, it was from a Seag of Mega World in Sydney.

622
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:46,080
So it's sort of like a smaller version of, I suppose,

623
00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:50,680
Disneyland or something like that, like a theme park.

624
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:51,680
And it was a single.

625
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:54,200
And it was only four or five tracks

626
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:55,560
and we couldn't find it anywhere.

627
00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:57,760
So I said to my staff member, I said,

628
00:28:57,760 --> 00:28:59,560
look, put it up for $500.

629
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:01,400
We don't know what it's worth.

630
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:04,520
I think that ended up selling for about $400.

631
00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:06,800
And I think since then we've sold about five copies.

632
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:07,960
And each time we've sold,

633
00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:10,120
the price has gone up a little bit.

634
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:13,280
And it's just highly collectible because it ticks boxes.

635
00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:17,080
It's rare and it's Seager.

636
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:19,920
And it's just, it's something that was sought after

637
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:21,720
by collectors.

638
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:25,080
As far as DVDs go,

639
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:26,800
there's a few that come to mind.

640
00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:33,400
Recently box sets that were for sale for about $500

641
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:38,200
in retail shops here in Australia three years ago.

642
00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:40,400
We sold a couple of those for about 1,100.

643
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,760
There's been a couple of sets, full sets of DVDs

644
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:48,280
we've sold for 2,500.

645
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:53,680
There's certain types of shows we're looking for.

646
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:56,520
And that's more so TV series

647
00:29:56,520 --> 00:30:00,280
and sort of older Australian classic TV series

648
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:01,720
that we're looking for.

649
00:30:01,720 --> 00:30:03,680
Sometimes it'll be an oddball thing

650
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:06,080
like some weird horror movie from America

651
00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:08,360
or something like that, that commands,

652
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:11,000
all right, this is going for $300,

653
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,640
but you don't come across those every day.

654
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:18,240
What we are finding is there's a lot of TV series

655
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:21,120
like an example is there's a show called Grand Designs,

656
00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:23,320
which is about architecture.

657
00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:26,880
And individually, some of those sell for a decent price,

658
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:29,560
but a lot of them are selling for sort of 10 and $20.

659
00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:31,720
But if you put them in a set,

660
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:34,200
you can suddenly sell it for $280.

661
00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:37,200
Just because there's a few hard to find ones

662
00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:38,080
in amongst there.

663
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:40,560
So what we're doing is we're jumping on eBay

664
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:43,080
and looking around and actually buying quite a few

665
00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:45,880
of these individually in sets,

666
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:48,640
getting them back, doing quality control on them,

667
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:49,760
putting them into a set,

668
00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:52,440
making sure everything's 100%

669
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:55,240
and then selling it at a premium price.

670
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:57,200
And I think there's actually a bit of a future

671
00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,280
with DVDs in particular in doing that.

672
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:01,400
Instead of trying to sell them individually

673
00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:04,600
is locking them together in a logical set.

674
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:08,480
As far as the most expensive book,

675
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:17,320
we had, there's some military books we had,

676
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:20,920
Jane, they're called Jane's, Jane's Books.

677
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,760
And they're big, thick, heavy,

678
00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:27,080
almost like a military catalog

679
00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:29,920
of all the military toys you can get.

680
00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:30,920
And a whole bunch of those,

681
00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:34,440
we just automatically listed about a thousand dollars each.

682
00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:38,240
And we were getting offers for $300 each for a few of them.

683
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:40,320
And we sold three in one go to one guy,

684
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:45,320
I think in Canada or in the States for about a thousand bucks.

685
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:48,080
So they've been good.

686
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:53,080
But I mean, the most expensive books I've heard of selling,

687
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:56,320
before we were selling books,

688
00:31:56,320 --> 00:32:00,400
my dad had a neighbor across the road from his house

689
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:02,400
and the husband had died.

690
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:04,560
And the wife was left with all these books

691
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:06,240
that she didn't know what to do with.

692
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:08,560
And he was some sort of professor at a university

693
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,920
and they were pretty specialized books.

694
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:14,480
So anyway, he had a garage full of these books

695
00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:17,720
because he likes books and didn't want to throw them out.

696
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:19,840
He asked me if I wanted them and I said no.

697
00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:23,320
And I taught him how to sell them on eBay

698
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:26,560
and he sold three of them for $500 each.

699
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:29,520
And he also had, that was after he had a university

700
00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:32,320
come look at the collection, take a whole bunch of them.

701
00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:35,360
So I hate to think what sort of value was there.

702
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:38,360
But I'm glad I was able to teach my father

703
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:39,960
how to use eBay and sell books

704
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:41,760
for more than I can sell books for.

705
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:44,880
Never happened, that event never happened.

706
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:45,720
There you go.

707
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:46,560
I'm curious.

708
00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:49,680
But I remember when I got into books,

709
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:50,840
my father actually said to me,

710
00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:53,600
don't get into books, there's no money.

711
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:55,400
And we turned around and said,

712
00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:57,360
at one point I was sending him screenshots

713
00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:00,360
every time we sold a book over $100.

714
00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:03,200
We're into this for $4, we just sold for 100.

715
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:05,160
It sold within a week.

716
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:07,040
There's no money in books.

717
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:10,920
And he certainly had to eat his words.

718
00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:12,200
But just look, it's pretty assuring

719
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:13,520
there are a lot of people out there

720
00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:15,240
that are still after books.

721
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,480
And they're prepared to pay the money for those good books.

722
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:19,880
And it's fantastic.

723
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:24,440
The only other expensive thing I could think of was,

724
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:27,080
I had one record we sold for $1,100.

725
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:30,080
And that was a David Bowie record.

726
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:33,360
Was that before or after he died?

727
00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:35,760
That would have been,

728
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:38,560
that is a good question.

729
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:41,920
I don't remember, I don't know.

730
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:44,240
I remember it was a Hunky Dory album.

731
00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:47,640
And it was a special one for some reason.

732
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:50,000
Yeah, I remember that went for 1,100,

733
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,200
which was pretty good for us at the time.

734
00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:56,640
All right, I got a few rapid fire, silly questions here.

735
00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:58,640
First off, Grand Designs is a good show.

736
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:00,720
I watch this from time to time.

737
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:04,040
People make these super efficient, crazy houses

738
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:05,560
that they put a lot of money into.

739
00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:08,320
So yeah, it's a good show, definitely worth watching.

740
00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:11,280
Is Taylor Swift a big thing down there?

741
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:12,120
Yeah.

742
00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:14,560
Okay, so Taylor Swift sells anywhere in the world.

743
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:15,800
That's good to know pretty much.

744
00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:18,360
We got the US, Australia crossed off the list.

745
00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:20,560
So when it comes to music,

746
00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:22,640
is there a media mail equivalent?

747
00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:25,080
In the US, we kind of get a cheaper shipping rate

748
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:29,520
for media mail, which is education, materials, CDs, DVDs.

749
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:30,960
Is there something down in Australia

750
00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:33,560
that it's cheaper than your normal postal rate?

751
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:36,240
Not really.

752
00:34:36,240 --> 00:34:38,000
So the way our postage works,

753
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:41,280
realistically, it's just based on weight.

754
00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:46,280
And so for us to send a CD that's under 125 grams,

755
00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:48,600
pretty much anywhere in the country,

756
00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:52,240
it costs us about $2.40, super, super cheap.

757
00:34:52,240 --> 00:34:54,240
When you think about how vast the country is,

758
00:34:54,240 --> 00:34:56,080
how spread out it is,

759
00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:58,320
where it takes four days to drive

760
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:00,360
from one side of the country to the other,

761
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:03,720
it's a cheap ride.

762
00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:05,560
That's untracked.

763
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:06,680
If you want to send a track,

764
00:35:06,680 --> 00:35:09,520
the price jumps up to about $5.

765
00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:12,440
If you want to send it in a sort of thicker padded mailer,

766
00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,160
it costs, it sort of starts about $8 or $9

767
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:17,720
and goes up from there.

768
00:35:17,720 --> 00:35:22,600
But our postage here realistically is fairly cheap

769
00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:23,600
within Australia.

770
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:30,200
Now, I guess this is a good question.

771
00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:32,560
Do you know how much of your business

772
00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:35,160
is made up of international orders?

773
00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:37,560
Because for ours, it's very small in comparison,

774
00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:39,640
but yours might be much larger.

775
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:42,400
Before COVID, it was 23%.

776
00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:44,040
It was much larger, okay.

777
00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:46,040
Yeah, so right now, I think it's,

778
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:47,440
it's slowed down a little bit,

779
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:49,080
mainly because we put our prices up,

780
00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:51,480
because when COVID came about,

781
00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:54,680
all of a sudden we had all these crazy emergency surcharges

782
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:57,360
and all sorts of things and all sorts of problems.

783
00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:00,120
And we charge a blanket amount.

784
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:03,040
We'll charge $33, that's our starting price

785
00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:04,960
for anything anywhere in the world.

786
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:07,600
And sometimes it might only cost $8 to send it,

787
00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:10,280
sometimes it might cost $40 to send it.

788
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:12,080
But we like to keep it simple.

789
00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:14,480
And if people ask for a discount,

790
00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:15,520
or if they wanna combine,

791
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:17,120
yes, certainly we'll muck around,

792
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:19,440
change things and lower the cost for them.

793
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:20,800
Sometimes we'll raise the cost,

794
00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:23,200
depending on where it's going, what's happening.

795
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:26,000
But international from Australia

796
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,240
generally is quite expensive.

797
00:36:28,240 --> 00:36:31,200
America's cheap for us to send from Australia to America,

798
00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:32,560
that's cheap, and Canada.

799
00:36:32,560 --> 00:36:34,360
Send to places like New Zealand

800
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:37,200
and some Asian countries, very cheap.

801
00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:39,760
Then we get into say Europe, very expensive.

802
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:43,840
So for us to send a CD, just a normal CD to say Germany,

803
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:46,160
$23 just to post it there.

804
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:49,040
So we'll charge the 33 for that.

805
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:54,040
You take eBay fees out of that $33 taxes,

806
00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:59,520
packing, handling, all that sort of stuff, all the costs.

807
00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:02,800
You're not really making a profit off the postage.

808
00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:04,880
Essentially it's just paying for itself.

809
00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:09,520
So do you have any, or go ahead, Mike.

810
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,920
I'm curious here with the international shipping

811
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:14,720
and everything, you say you kind of bake,

812
00:37:14,720 --> 00:37:16,200
it's kind of an average game for you.

813
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:18,520
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

814
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:21,800
Do you have certain shipping supplies?

815
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:25,000
Okay, for me, I swear by these little nine by six

816
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:27,480
padded mailers, and people yell at me all the time,

817
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:29,680
oh, don't put a disc in a padded mailer

818
00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:32,000
because it might crack or whatever, but I still do it.

819
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:33,720
Do you have like a go-to, like, okay,

820
00:37:33,720 --> 00:37:35,280
if somebody orders one CD,

821
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:38,800
it goes in this specific packing every single time.

822
00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:41,280
Yeah, yeah, we sure do.

823
00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:43,720
We've only got minimal packing supplies.

824
00:37:43,720 --> 00:37:47,200
And what we do is we custom a lot of things.

825
00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:49,200
But generally if it's one CD,

826
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:51,680
what we'll do is we'll put in a small padded mailer,

827
00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:53,480
we'll fold it over, and then we'll put that

828
00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:54,680
in another padded mailer.

829
00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:56,920
So it's got that double protection.

830
00:37:56,920 --> 00:37:58,480
And look, to be honest,

831
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:01,800
unless a lot of people are really kind of not telling us

832
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:03,840
when cases arrive cracked,

833
00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:07,520
keeping in mind dual cases on CD is quite fragile,

834
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:10,400
it's pretty successful.

835
00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:13,920
We got that idea from Music Magpie.

836
00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:16,400
That's how we, when we bought a few items from them,

837
00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:18,760
that's how they were sending them to us.

838
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:20,680
And it works for us.

839
00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:22,560
But what we do is we've got,

840
00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:25,400
the reason I've got one person that's packing items is

841
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:28,000
a lot of our items just go straight into a padded mailer

842
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:29,440
and it's quick and easy.

843
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:31,160
When it comes to an international order,

844
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:33,600
if it's something that's fragile or more expensive,

845
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:37,200
he's custom making boxes, he's cutting bits of cardboard,

846
00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:39,640
he's wrapping stuff up with bubble wrap,

847
00:38:39,640 --> 00:38:43,600
and certainly making it so it'll arrive hopefully in one piece.

848
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:46,160
You know, it doesn't always go to plan,

849
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:48,680
but you know, we've got pretty good success rates

850
00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:51,160
and our feedback, comments, feedback,

851
00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:53,880
comments a lot about how well items were packed.

852
00:38:55,240 --> 00:38:58,640
I think we just bought a new machine yesterday that

853
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:01,680
essentially you put cardboard through

854
00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:03,400
and it sort of cuts it up.

855
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:06,360
It sort of half shreds it into this honeycomb,

856
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:11,360
stretchy honeycomb sort of padding.

857
00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:13,440
And the reason we got one of those was,

858
00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:14,280
we've got a problem with,

859
00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:16,040
we've got a lot of leftover cardboard.

860
00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:17,240
We don't know what to do with it.

861
00:39:17,240 --> 00:39:19,400
We don't want to throw it in the bin.

862
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,000
We do want to reuse it somehow.

863
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:25,040
But also we spent a lot of money on bubble wrap,

864
00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:27,760
foam wrapping, packing peanuts,

865
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:30,160
and we want to reduce those overheads.

866
00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:31,800
So we're reducing overheads,

867
00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:33,560
getting rid of some of our waste

868
00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:36,160
and recycling all at the same time.

869
00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:38,320
And I think that's really beneficial.

870
00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:41,040
But I think it certainly pays to

871
00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:43,240
have a good packing station set up

872
00:39:43,240 --> 00:39:46,040
with all your supplies ready to go within arm's reach.

873
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:48,640
So it doesn't matter what you have to pack,

874
00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:50,880
everything's there at your fingertips.

875
00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:53,720
And one of the good things about the way we pick orders,

876
00:39:53,720 --> 00:39:58,720
when we print out a packing, a picking list,

877
00:39:58,720 --> 00:40:03,720
it's books first and any really large, weird items,

878
00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:06,440
whether it's a gun holster or a DVD set,

879
00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:08,200
they all come from one room.

880
00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:09,960
So they get packed first.

881
00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:13,240
Then we've got CDs, then we've got DVDs.

882
00:40:13,240 --> 00:40:15,520
So the way we pack all that first stuff generally

883
00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:17,600
is the same, all the books,

884
00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:20,920
same sort of packing materials, all the CDs,

885
00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:23,640
again, same sort of packing process and materials.

886
00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:25,960
And then again, with the same with the DVDs.

887
00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:27,760
So we're able to batch process it.

888
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:30,000
So we're not jumping from one process

889
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:31,600
to another and back and forth.

890
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:32,640
And just by doing that,

891
00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:34,560
you actually save a lot of time and energy.

892
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:39,360
So I'm gonna ask a question to the 3% of our audience

893
00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:40,200
that it applies to you.

894
00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:43,680
For those that wanting to pursue the warehouse life,

895
00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:45,120
multiple employee life,

896
00:40:45,120 --> 00:40:47,920
what are some lessons if they're still solo

897
00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:49,240
and they're about to make that jump?

898
00:40:49,240 --> 00:40:50,640
Do they go with the employee first?

899
00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:52,000
They go with the warehouse,

900
00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:56,160
huge sum of stock coming in.

901
00:40:56,160 --> 00:40:58,640
What would be your advice on the direction they'd have

902
00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:00,880
and any other tips and tricks you can involve

903
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:04,800
making the transition into large reseller?

904
00:41:06,720 --> 00:41:10,160
I'd stop and I'll think about it long and hard first.

905
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:11,560
And I think,

906
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:13,160
you need to plan ahead

907
00:41:13,160 --> 00:41:16,120
and you need to look at what can go wrong

908
00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:17,640
and what the possibilities are,

909
00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:19,560
both positive and negative.

910
00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:21,160
And I think you need to,

911
00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:23,480
one of the best things I ever did was

912
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:26,120
I actually drew blueprints

913
00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:29,160
of how I want my warehouse laid out.

914
00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:31,720
And that helped a lot

915
00:41:31,720 --> 00:41:33,320
because I think one of the things you need to do

916
00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:35,960
is you need to maximize your space you're in.

917
00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:37,960
And I think you need to start off small

918
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:40,120
and then you need to start off small.

919
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:44,120
You need to start off small and then gradually expand.

920
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:45,640
And I think that's the best way of doing it.

921
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:47,240
I don't think you want to buy off

922
00:41:47,240 --> 00:41:49,320
more than you can chew to start with.

923
00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:50,840
And I think it seems like, okay, well,

924
00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:54,120
if you get employees and you get a warehouse space

925
00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:55,920
and everything's hunky-dory,

926
00:41:55,920 --> 00:42:00,560
but then you don't have a good supply of new stock coming in,

927
00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:01,800
that's a big problem.

928
00:42:01,800 --> 00:42:05,120
The biggest problem we face now is getting good stock in.

929
00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:08,840
So we built a website based on buying stock from people,

930
00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:13,640
same as Declutter in America or Music Magpie in the UK.

931
00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:17,520
The biggest problem I see is getting good stock.

932
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:19,000
We can always get bad stock,

933
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:21,440
but getting good stock that is sought after,

934
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:23,200
that's in good condition that people want

935
00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:26,080
that we can buy at a low price and sell at a high price,

936
00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:27,280
that's hard.

937
00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:29,560
I think you need to think about all this sort of stuff.

938
00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:32,840
And then, there's a whole bunch of things that came up.

939
00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:36,040
Having employees is almost a full-time job in itself

940
00:42:36,040 --> 00:42:38,080
because you've got to manage them.

941
00:42:38,080 --> 00:42:40,800
They get sick, you've got to make sure they're comfortable,

942
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:41,880
they're happy at work.

943
00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:43,680
You've got to look after their needs.

944
00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:45,080
You've got to worry about that.

945
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:46,440
And you've got to worry about the business

946
00:42:46,440 --> 00:42:49,080
and you've got to worry about your own needs.

947
00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:51,600
But I think if you can start off small and build it up,

948
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:52,840
I think that's the best way.

949
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:55,480
So a lot of people say they started off

950
00:42:55,480 --> 00:42:57,880
with getting employees to help pack orders

951
00:42:57,880 --> 00:42:59,640
because they couldn't keep up with that.

952
00:42:59,640 --> 00:43:02,640
In my case, it was, I got someone to help with photos

953
00:43:02,640 --> 00:43:05,760
because I was sick of doing photos and we needed a lot of them.

954
00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:09,720
And what I like to do is I like to train my guys up

955
00:43:09,720 --> 00:43:12,520
so they've got a good overall understanding of the business

956
00:43:12,520 --> 00:43:14,640
and they're able to jump in and do multiple things

957
00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:16,040
in different areas.

958
00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:19,120
And so if I'm not here, they can look after it.

959
00:43:20,720 --> 00:43:24,920
But at the same time, if it's a job I can do

960
00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:27,720
and I can show them how to do it and they can do it

961
00:43:27,720 --> 00:43:29,320
and I don't need to do it,

962
00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:31,920
there's other stuff in the business, smarter stuff,

963
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:35,640
where I need my experience, my insights, my expertise.

964
00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:37,120
I need to focus on that.

965
00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:39,520
So I'm not saying go after the fun stuff.

966
00:43:39,520 --> 00:43:40,840
I'm saying go after the stuff

967
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:43,840
that you can't get your staff to replicate.

968
00:43:43,840 --> 00:43:46,280
So I make pricing decisions.

969
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:49,040
I make strategic decisions.

970
00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:50,560
And I think that's what you've got to sit back

971
00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:51,840
and look at and go, okay,

972
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:56,000
I want a warehouse because I don't want to have

973
00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:59,080
all this stock at my house anymore

974
00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:01,720
because I feel like I never escape work.

975
00:44:01,720 --> 00:44:03,800
Now I've got a light switch in my brain there.

976
00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:05,960
When I'm at work, I'm at work.

977
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:07,560
When I'm at home, I'm at home.

978
00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:11,640
Keeping in mind, I go home to sleep and shower

979
00:44:11,640 --> 00:44:14,200
and do washing and then I'm back at work and that's it.

980
00:44:14,200 --> 00:44:15,800
I essentially don't have a life.

981
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:19,520
I'm just work focused because I'm trying to build an empire.

982
00:44:19,520 --> 00:44:22,960
And I think you've got to look at your motivation,

983
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:25,640
what you're trying to achieve, what you want.

984
00:44:25,640 --> 00:44:29,680
And when you can answer those questions, your why,

985
00:44:29,680 --> 00:44:33,200
I think that's when you can go, right, do I need staff?

986
00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:34,840
Do I need a warehouse?

987
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:37,200
What's the justification for that?

988
00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:39,800
Budget it and do a business plan.

989
00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:41,560
Now no one likes doing business plans.

990
00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:45,760
It's super unsexy, but it gives you a good understanding

991
00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:48,760
of your financial position, where you're at,

992
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:51,880
where you want to go, you can plan it out.

993
00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:54,400
The more meticulous you are with your planning,

994
00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:55,640
the better off you are.

995
00:44:55,640 --> 00:44:57,920
I mean, I know guys that jump in head first,

996
00:44:57,920 --> 00:45:01,280
grab a warehouse, grab staff, hope for the best,

997
00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:02,840
throw a bit of money at it.

998
00:45:02,840 --> 00:45:04,560
And then they wonder why it's turned to crap

999
00:45:04,560 --> 00:45:06,560
after 12 months.

1000
00:45:06,560 --> 00:45:10,320
Their staff steal from them, their vehicles break down,

1001
00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:12,800
the warehouse leaks, whatever it might be.

1002
00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:14,320
So I think you've got to think about all that.

1003
00:45:14,320 --> 00:45:16,360
I think you've got to think long and hard.

1004
00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:19,400
But before I got my first warehouse,

1005
00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:24,400
I certainly, I couldn't fit anything else at my house.

1006
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:27,400
The whole thing was chock-a-block.

1007
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:30,080
And it was bringing me down because you walk out

1008
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:32,080
of your bedroom and you've got stock everywhere.

1009
00:45:32,080 --> 00:45:36,080
And it's just a horrible, horrible position to be in.

1010
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:38,840
So I think if you want to escape that,

1011
00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:41,480
even starting off small and getting a small storage unit

1012
00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:44,200
is beneficial and then increasing it from there.

1013
00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:50,680
I got a few controversial, but hot topics for eBay sellers

1014
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:53,200
that I see as a YouTuber out there all the time.

1015
00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:56,160
And it's always something going on with eBay.

1016
00:45:56,160 --> 00:46:00,360
First thing, is promoted listings necessary in Australia?

1017
00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:01,760
And do you do it?

1018
00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:03,560
I know this is like some people that I don't promote.

1019
00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:04,800
They're basically stealing my money.

1020
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:07,160
Well, these are things we have to ask,

1021
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:08,920
especially somebody like you where we can't find you

1022
00:46:08,920 --> 00:46:10,080
on the internet, you hide away.

1023
00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:12,720
So this is kind of your chance to voice your opinion

1024
00:46:12,720 --> 00:46:13,960
on the hot topics of eBay.

1025
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:15,640
So the first one is promoted listings.

1026
00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:16,480
Is it required?

1027
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:18,080
Do you do it?

1028
00:46:18,080 --> 00:46:19,000
Yeah.

1029
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:22,560
So I resisted it for a very long time

1030
00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:27,000
and our visibility went down by 80%.

1031
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:31,560
So what I think happened was they just kept turning

1032
00:46:31,560 --> 00:46:34,640
down our visibility and forced us to promote.

1033
00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:40,120
Bit of a conspiracy theory, but I don't really trust eBay.

1034
00:46:40,120 --> 00:46:41,960
And I think it's a smart business move

1035
00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:43,480
for them to do things like that.

1036
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:45,640
I think that's what happened.

1037
00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:48,080
So as soon as we started promoting,

1038
00:46:48,080 --> 00:46:50,040
all of a sudden our visibility is back

1039
00:46:50,040 --> 00:46:51,960
and we started getting sales again.

1040
00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:53,680
So I think we got forced into it.

1041
00:46:56,120 --> 00:46:59,200
Currently we do promote, we promote all over the place,

1042
00:46:59,200 --> 00:47:02,320
essentially our selling fees average out at,

1043
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:07,320
I think it's 20%, but I think it's goes as high as 23, 25%.

1044
00:47:08,080 --> 00:47:10,840
And what I sort of allow for is about,

1045
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:13,760
our eBay selling fees are gonna be about 25%.

1046
00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:17,360
So it's hit us really hard, but without doing that,

1047
00:47:17,360 --> 00:47:19,960
we wouldn't have sales to sustain us.

1048
00:47:19,960 --> 00:47:21,600
So I think it's a necessary evil.

1049
00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:26,200
Yeah, I know a few people that don't do it

1050
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:29,120
and that refuse to do it and they still get sales.

1051
00:47:31,520 --> 00:47:32,880
Great, that's great for them,

1052
00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:35,360
but they've only got a few hundred listings.

1053
00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:37,520
They don't have as many as we do.

1054
00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:41,120
We sell it quite a high price

1055
00:47:41,120 --> 00:47:43,320
and we're in a saturated market.

1056
00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:47,160
So I think it's a necessary evil definitely.

1057
00:47:47,160 --> 00:47:49,320
So the next one I have for you is,

1058
00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:53,280
I always hear a lot that eBay is like the website

1059
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:55,240
doesn't work correctly or people feel like

1060
00:47:55,240 --> 00:47:56,360
they're not getting the sales

1061
00:47:56,360 --> 00:47:58,680
they should be getting on eBay.

1062
00:47:58,680 --> 00:48:03,040
I'm curious, do you throw like huge hissy fits basically

1063
00:48:03,040 --> 00:48:05,560
if eBay is not working one way or another?

1064
00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:07,920
Or is this something when you get to a certain level

1065
00:48:07,920 --> 00:48:09,400
in the business that it doesn't even,

1066
00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:10,760
you're not really worried about,

1067
00:48:10,760 --> 00:48:13,000
are you checking is eBay down.net

1068
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:15,080
to see if eBay is actually working?

1069
00:48:15,080 --> 00:48:17,200
Do you even care about any of that stuff?

1070
00:48:17,200 --> 00:48:20,480
Are you just business as usual, day in, day out,

1071
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:22,840
you don't care what's going on on the platform?

1072
00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:25,560
I've certainly got a love-hate relationship with eBay.

1073
00:48:25,560 --> 00:48:28,440
I do love it, but I also hate it with a passion.

1074
00:48:28,440 --> 00:48:29,960
I really, really do.

1075
00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:34,240
And the reason is I don't see them as being a innovate.

1076
00:48:34,240 --> 00:48:36,560
It's not a company that innovates anymore.

1077
00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:39,160
They replicate and they copy.

1078
00:48:39,160 --> 00:48:41,640
So an example is Amazon came into Australia,

1079
00:48:41,640 --> 00:48:44,440
eBay felt threatened by that.

1080
00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:46,480
So they started to compete with Amazon.

1081
00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:48,120
There is no competing with Amazon.

1082
00:48:48,120 --> 00:48:50,200
They're a logistics company.

1083
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:54,880
The difference is if you want the weird, obscure,

1084
00:48:54,880 --> 00:48:57,960
hard to find, legitimately rare item,

1085
00:48:57,960 --> 00:48:59,560
eBay is the place to go.

1086
00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:04,280
If you want the brand new mass-produced Chinese junk,

1087
00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:06,840
Amazon is perfect for that.

1088
00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:09,640
Why eBay felt the need to compete with Amazon,

1089
00:49:09,640 --> 00:49:11,120
I don't know.

1090
00:49:11,120 --> 00:49:13,800
They should have stuck with what they were good at

1091
00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:15,880
and stopped with the,

1092
00:49:15,880 --> 00:49:18,520
they introduced a lot of Chinese sellers

1093
00:49:18,520 --> 00:49:20,160
on eBay in Australia.

1094
00:49:20,160 --> 00:49:24,680
And the problem that was people thought they were buying

1095
00:49:24,680 --> 00:49:25,640
from within Australia.

1096
00:49:25,640 --> 00:49:28,200
So they'd assumed that they'd get it within three days.

1097
00:49:28,200 --> 00:49:29,960
Little did they know it was getting dropped ship

1098
00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:32,240
from China and took three weeks to arrive.

1099
00:49:32,240 --> 00:49:36,520
So it's a bad customer experience and it put people off.

1100
00:49:36,520 --> 00:49:39,280
And that was detrimental to eBay in Australia.

1101
00:49:41,080 --> 00:49:43,320
We know there's a bunch of glitches on eBay.

1102
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:45,800
We know there's an old clunky system.

1103
00:49:45,800 --> 00:49:48,320
We keep an eye on,

1104
00:49:48,320 --> 00:49:50,120
we know when there's a problem on eBay

1105
00:49:50,120 --> 00:49:52,040
because our sales drop a lot.

1106
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:54,240
We know, okay, obviously,

1107
00:49:54,240 --> 00:49:56,960
Boxing Day, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve,

1108
00:49:56,960 --> 00:49:59,200
they're gonna be lower sales dates.

1109
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:02,400
But apart from, you know, days like that,

1110
00:50:03,720 --> 00:50:06,240
if you, you know,

1111
00:50:06,240 --> 00:50:09,240
all your sales days are quite average

1112
00:50:09,240 --> 00:50:11,680
and then all of a sudden you get a huge drop.

1113
00:50:11,680 --> 00:50:14,160
You know, it's not a conspiracy theory to think

1114
00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:16,360
that there's something might be going on

1115
00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:19,400
with visibility or with a website or with a server

1116
00:50:19,400 --> 00:50:20,240
or whatever it may be.

1117
00:50:20,240 --> 00:50:21,480
So we're aware of that.

1118
00:50:21,480 --> 00:50:23,160
I don't really look into it too much

1119
00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:25,400
because it takes up time and takes up energy.

1120
00:50:25,400 --> 00:50:29,000
We just know sometimes it's gonna be really good

1121
00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:30,000
and just hum along.

1122
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:32,600
And other times something's gonna happen

1123
00:50:32,600 --> 00:50:34,200
and things are gonna drop off.

1124
00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:37,040
However, it's in eBay's best interest

1125
00:50:37,040 --> 00:50:38,320
to keep the sales down.

1126
00:50:38,320 --> 00:50:39,160
So we're aware of that.

1127
00:50:39,160 --> 00:50:41,720
However, it's in eBay's best interest

1128
00:50:41,720 --> 00:50:43,680
to keep everything humming along nicely

1129
00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:46,240
and get those sales rolling through for us.

1130
00:50:46,240 --> 00:50:49,840
So we're confident that if something does go wrong,

1131
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:52,040
they will fix it pretty quickly.

1132
00:50:52,040 --> 00:50:53,560
And the good thing about eBay

1133
00:50:53,560 --> 00:50:56,720
is it's such a ginormous organization.

1134
00:50:56,720 --> 00:50:58,320
You've got all these different arms,

1135
00:50:58,320 --> 00:51:00,920
this company all over the world

1136
00:51:00,920 --> 00:51:03,720
and they're all operating essentially 24 seven.

1137
00:51:03,720 --> 00:51:06,440
And so it might be midnight here and there's a glitch,

1138
00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:09,960
but you know, okay, the IT team that's in Israel

1139
00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:12,160
are probably working on it right now.

1140
00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:15,840
So they're pretty quick at rectifying those sort of issues.

1141
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:18,520
We used to have issues with if someone opened up a case

1142
00:51:18,520 --> 00:51:20,120
like an item not received case

1143
00:51:20,120 --> 00:51:21,960
or item not as described case,

1144
00:51:21,960 --> 00:51:25,280
all of a sudden their sales would drop off for four days.

1145
00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:27,240
And that was not a coincidence.

1146
00:51:27,240 --> 00:51:29,600
They don't seem to do that anymore.

1147
00:51:29,600 --> 00:51:31,840
We offer 60 day returns.

1148
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:34,240
We've got five open returns at the minute.

1149
00:51:34,240 --> 00:51:36,800
It's very easy for a seller to open a return.

1150
00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:38,640
It's harder for them to close it.

1151
00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:40,800
A lot of the time they don't know how

1152
00:51:40,800 --> 00:51:42,200
and that's eBay's fault.

1153
00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:44,360
They make it very easy for someone to open a case,

1154
00:51:44,360 --> 00:51:46,120
but hard to close.

1155
00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:49,320
And these are cases where someone wants to return it,

1156
00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:50,760
but then they never return it.

1157
00:51:50,760 --> 00:51:53,080
And the case just stays there open for a month.

1158
00:51:53,080 --> 00:51:55,800
There's not much you can do about it.

1159
00:51:55,800 --> 00:52:00,720
So that doesn't hurt our sales as much as what it used to.

1160
00:52:00,720 --> 00:52:03,400
So I think they've made some changes there.

1161
00:52:03,400 --> 00:52:06,120
But to be perfectly frank,

1162
00:52:07,400 --> 00:52:08,840
I look at holes in the market

1163
00:52:08,840 --> 00:52:12,120
and I try and find a solution and I work towards it.

1164
00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:15,880
And at the minute we've built two websites

1165
00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:18,960
and we're looking at building a competitor to eBay

1166
00:52:18,960 --> 00:52:21,960
at some point for the Australian market

1167
00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:26,040
and different to eBay with interesting used items,

1168
00:52:26,040 --> 00:52:29,680
hard to find, sort of like what eBay was 15 years ago.

1169
00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:32,720
But that's, you're talking about a million dollar project,

1170
00:52:32,720 --> 00:52:35,640
huge amounts of staff, huge project

1171
00:52:35,640 --> 00:52:37,160
that won't kick off for a while.

1172
00:52:37,160 --> 00:52:39,920
But the point is I look at eBay

1173
00:52:39,920 --> 00:52:41,600
and I see a lot of problems with it

1174
00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:43,840
and problems that a lot of problems

1175
00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:45,760
would be simple to overcome.

1176
00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:48,160
So I certainly, like I said,

1177
00:52:48,160 --> 00:52:50,560
I've got a lot of hate relationship with them,

1178
00:52:51,600 --> 00:52:53,080
but I think it could be improved.

1179
00:52:53,080 --> 00:52:55,400
And I think the problem is they're popping too much

1180
00:52:55,400 --> 00:52:59,280
and not being innovating enough.

1181
00:52:59,280 --> 00:53:02,600
So from when you started to where you are now,

1182
00:53:02,600 --> 00:53:05,080
do you think, two part question,

1183
00:53:05,080 --> 00:53:06,800
how many hours did you put in back then

1184
00:53:06,800 --> 00:53:09,080
versus how many you put in now?

1185
00:53:09,080 --> 00:53:11,520
And do you think you will need more or less hours

1186
00:53:11,520 --> 00:53:12,520
as time goes on?

1187
00:53:14,920 --> 00:53:16,040
When I first started,

1188
00:53:16,040 --> 00:53:17,920
I remember spending about three hours a day

1189
00:53:17,920 --> 00:53:20,520
hand addressing each package.

1190
00:53:22,080 --> 00:53:25,440
And so obviously as we've improved what we've done,

1191
00:53:25,440 --> 00:53:28,080
we've got software that helps us with certain things.

1192
00:53:28,080 --> 00:53:31,920
You know, label printers that speed up a lot of the processes.

1193
00:53:31,920 --> 00:53:34,920
So we're able to do a lot more with a lot less time

1194
00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:38,480
and a lot less effort with having better equipment

1195
00:53:38,480 --> 00:53:41,760
and better systems in place.

1196
00:53:41,760 --> 00:53:44,400
And I think that will continue.

1197
00:53:44,400 --> 00:53:47,320
I think I'll have to do a similar amount of hours,

1198
00:53:47,320 --> 00:53:50,400
but it will become a lot easier to do a lot more

1199
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:53,280
because we'll have better systems, more staff,

1200
00:53:53,280 --> 00:53:54,680
et cetera, et cetera.

1201
00:53:54,680 --> 00:53:57,760
When I first started, I mean, I've been doing full-time hours

1202
00:53:57,760 --> 00:54:01,040
on eBay for more than 10 years,

1203
00:54:01,040 --> 00:54:04,080
but at the same time, I had a full-time job

1204
00:54:04,080 --> 00:54:06,320
up until about three years ago.

1205
00:54:06,320 --> 00:54:10,320
So I was working 12 hour shifts, an hour drive there,

1206
00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:13,000
an hour drive back, so 14 hours gone.

1207
00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:14,800
And I was coming back to a warehouse,

1208
00:54:14,800 --> 00:54:17,800
picking and packing orders by myself for three hours,

1209
00:54:17,800 --> 00:54:20,040
going home, getting five hours sleep,

1210
00:54:20,040 --> 00:54:22,040
and then doing it all over again.

1211
00:54:22,040 --> 00:54:24,760
And it was not sustainable.

1212
00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:27,120
And it probably cost me years of my life.

1213
00:54:30,040 --> 00:54:34,040
In the last three years, I've increased my hours

1214
00:54:34,040 --> 00:54:36,480
in the business, but I've also,

1215
00:54:36,480 --> 00:54:39,640
I'm trying to work smarter, not harder.

1216
00:54:39,640 --> 00:54:42,440
So at one point I was consistently doing

1217
00:54:42,440 --> 00:54:44,720
a hundred hours a week in work.

1218
00:54:46,440 --> 00:54:48,440
And I'll probably still do similar to that,

1219
00:54:48,440 --> 00:54:50,560
but what I do is I'll break it up a little bit

1220
00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:54,480
so I'll go and do a sourcing trip,

1221
00:54:54,480 --> 00:54:59,480
but I'll also combine it with a road trip,

1222
00:55:00,600 --> 00:55:02,760
and make a mini holiday out of it.

1223
00:55:02,760 --> 00:55:04,360
So I get to have a bit of fun

1224
00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:06,600
and do something I enjoy doing,

1225
00:55:06,600 --> 00:55:08,760
at the same time I'm doing a bit of work.

1226
00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:12,440
And I mean, look, that's what I enjoy doing.

1227
00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:16,120
So to me, that's where you're doing something you enjoy,

1228
00:55:16,120 --> 00:55:17,880
therefore it's not really work.

1229
00:55:17,880 --> 00:55:21,200
But obviously, being in the office, doing tax

1230
00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:24,680
or dealing with negative feedback or whatever it may be,

1231
00:55:24,680 --> 00:55:26,960
the boring stuff, the stuff you don't enjoy doing,

1232
00:55:26,960 --> 00:55:28,840
that's what I consider work.

1233
00:55:28,840 --> 00:55:33,080
So in my mind, my work-life balance, it's not perfect,

1234
00:55:33,080 --> 00:55:35,920
but I feel like it's okay because I'm doing stuff

1235
00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:38,360
I enjoy doing, and I wouldn't be doing it

1236
00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:39,680
unless I was passionate about it,

1237
00:55:39,680 --> 00:55:41,600
unless I enjoyed doing it.

1238
00:55:41,600 --> 00:55:43,960
But going forward, I certainly, there's other stuff

1239
00:55:43,960 --> 00:55:45,800
I wanna do in my life than just selling stuff

1240
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:50,800
online, I wanna build, essentially I wanna build an empire,

1241
00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:53,200
give a whole bunch of people good jobs

1242
00:55:53,200 --> 00:55:57,240
and give people an outlet for getting rid of stuff

1243
00:55:57,240 --> 00:55:59,320
they don't want, and also a place where they can go

1244
00:55:59,320 --> 00:56:01,080
to buy items they're looking for

1245
00:56:01,080 --> 00:56:03,840
and give them good quality items at a fair price.

1246
00:56:06,920 --> 00:56:08,400
You are a man of the people.

1247
00:56:08,400 --> 00:56:12,400
So, yeah, this is, this just wants to help everybody.

1248
00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:14,080
So you kind of think about it,

1249
00:56:14,080 --> 00:56:15,960
you kind of talk about it a little bit here,

1250
00:56:15,960 --> 00:56:18,000
before I, sorry to interrupt you there, Johnny,

1251
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:20,640
but you're kind of at this point where you're saying,

1252
00:56:20,640 --> 00:56:23,680
you don't wanna resell on eBay the rest of your life.

1253
00:56:23,680 --> 00:56:26,120
Do you have an exit plan and what's your thoughts?

1254
00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:28,520
Because personally myself, I say it all the time,

1255
00:56:28,520 --> 00:56:32,320
I can't lift heavy boxes of books when I'm 70 years old,

1256
00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:34,480
and I'll get all the comments saying I'm 70 years old

1257
00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:35,840
and I'm lifting heavy boxes of books,

1258
00:56:35,840 --> 00:56:39,600
but I feel like this is, if I put in the work now,

1259
00:56:39,600 --> 00:56:43,160
I might be able to get out of the grind and hustle sooner,

1260
00:56:43,160 --> 00:56:45,240
so like, what is your future plan?

1261
00:56:45,240 --> 00:56:48,360
Do you have like a, I'm sure you definitely do

1262
00:56:48,360 --> 00:56:50,680
because your business thinking is just next level

1263
00:56:50,680 --> 00:56:52,000
just from listening to you here.

1264
00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:54,960
So do you have like an exit plan when it comes to

1265
00:56:54,960 --> 00:56:57,360
where you're at today and how long, how far out,

1266
00:56:57,360 --> 00:57:01,200
and what do you think about resellers having a exit plan

1267
00:57:01,200 --> 00:57:04,240
to get out of reselling in the form of it being a business?

1268
00:57:04,240 --> 00:57:06,120
Because we enjoy hunting, right?

1269
00:57:06,120 --> 00:57:08,160
Hunting's fun, going thrifting's fun.

1270
00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:09,480
We're always gonna stop in a thrift store

1271
00:57:09,480 --> 00:57:11,880
probably the rest of our lives as resellers,

1272
00:57:11,880 --> 00:57:14,960
but as a business, what's your take on an exit plan

1273
00:57:14,960 --> 00:57:17,160
for yourself and reselling and in general?

1274
00:57:18,560 --> 00:57:21,400
I struggled with it a lot because the way I started out

1275
00:57:21,400 --> 00:57:24,720
through a long time, it was a hobby business for me,

1276
00:57:24,720 --> 00:57:27,520
and I did it because I was trying to build up

1277
00:57:27,520 --> 00:57:30,520
my own collection, and it's just sort of evolved

1278
00:57:30,520 --> 00:57:31,680
as I've evolved.

1279
00:57:33,960 --> 00:57:36,080
At this point, it's a pretty risky move

1280
00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:38,280
because pretty much all our eggs are in the one basket

1281
00:57:38,280 --> 00:57:39,120
with eBay.

1282
00:57:39,120 --> 00:57:41,600
There are a couple of backup plans if all of a sudden

1283
00:57:41,600 --> 00:57:43,880
we got kicked off eBay, what we could do

1284
00:57:45,560 --> 00:57:46,960
and how we could do it.

1285
00:57:48,920 --> 00:57:53,920
As far as an overall exit strategy, not exactly,

1286
00:57:54,080 --> 00:57:57,440
I'm looking at more of an expansion strategy

1287
00:57:57,440 --> 00:57:59,280
as opposed to an exit strategy,

1288
00:57:59,280 --> 00:58:01,560
and I'm constantly working on that.

1289
00:58:01,560 --> 00:58:06,560
So it's things like holes in the market

1290
00:58:06,560 --> 00:58:07,840
and filling those holes.

1291
00:58:07,840 --> 00:58:12,840
So right now, I'm yet to see anyone that has got a business

1292
00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:16,320
that is solely designed to support resellers.

1293
00:58:17,120 --> 00:58:22,120
So for someone in my position, I need stock, I need CDs,

1294
00:58:23,160 --> 00:58:25,840
I need replacement cases for CDs,

1295
00:58:25,840 --> 00:58:28,360
I need bubble mailers for CDs,

1296
00:58:28,360 --> 00:58:32,400
I need cleaning machines and supplies for CDs.

1297
00:58:32,400 --> 00:58:34,480
If there was a one-stop shop for me to go to,

1298
00:58:34,480 --> 00:58:36,960
and buy all that stuff, and I could just have

1299
00:58:36,960 --> 00:58:39,600
a weekly subscription with once a week,

1300
00:58:39,600 --> 00:58:41,600
a pallet of stock arrives to me,

1301
00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:43,440
oh, that solves some problems.

1302
00:58:43,440 --> 00:58:45,920
That makes it a lot quicker and a lot easier for me.

1303
00:58:45,920 --> 00:58:47,720
That's one thing I'm interested in doing

1304
00:58:47,720 --> 00:58:51,200
is building a one-stop shop for resellers.

1305
00:58:51,200 --> 00:58:53,400
So it's a lot easier said than done

1306
00:58:53,400 --> 00:58:58,400
because I'm a CD seller, DVD book, record seller,

1307
00:58:58,640 --> 00:59:01,920
you know, that's fine, you can buy that stuff wholesale

1308
00:59:01,920 --> 00:59:04,520
and we could sell that wholesale.

1309
00:59:04,520 --> 00:59:05,960
But what about all these other resellers

1310
00:59:05,960 --> 00:59:07,840
that sell different niches, you know,

1311
00:59:07,840 --> 00:59:09,760
how can you help them out?

1312
00:59:11,640 --> 00:59:15,640
So I'm looking at, all right, can we have a business where

1313
00:59:17,640 --> 00:59:20,240
we sell single-hand CDs, we sell the cleaning machines,

1314
00:59:20,240 --> 00:59:23,840
we sell all these other supplies direct to other resellers,

1315
00:59:23,840 --> 00:59:27,440
and they can deal with that lower profit margin stuff

1316
00:59:27,440 --> 00:59:29,640
and the more volume market.

1317
00:59:29,640 --> 00:59:31,760
So for a long time, we weren't selling anything

1318
00:59:31,760 --> 00:59:32,920
that was untracked.

1319
00:59:32,920 --> 00:59:36,240
So straight away our postage costs were double.

1320
00:59:36,240 --> 00:59:38,240
So we only wanted to sell stuff

1321
00:59:38,240 --> 00:59:41,440
that was a lot more expensive.

1322
00:59:41,440 --> 00:59:43,800
But at the same time, there was a whole bunch of meat

1323
00:59:43,800 --> 00:59:46,560
left on the bone for all this lower end stuff

1324
00:59:46,560 --> 00:59:49,040
that there was a profit margin in,

1325
00:59:49,040 --> 00:59:51,080
but it needed to be sent untracked.

1326
00:59:52,280 --> 00:59:55,360
So we looked at supplying that stuff to essentially

1327
00:59:55,360 --> 00:59:57,560
competitors that were happy to send all the stuff

1328
00:59:57,560 --> 01:00:00,640
untracked, and that worked quite well for a while.

1329
01:00:00,640 --> 01:00:03,720
The people, everyone seems to want to buy the item

1330
01:00:03,720 --> 01:00:06,080
for a dollar and then sell it for 30.

1331
01:00:06,080 --> 01:00:08,520
And in media, that's not realistic.

1332
01:00:08,520 --> 01:00:11,240
You know, yeah, you can do it, but you can't do it,

1333
01:00:11,240 --> 01:00:13,800
you know, a thousand times a day.

1334
01:00:13,800 --> 01:00:16,800
So I think instead of an exit strategy for us,

1335
01:00:16,800 --> 01:00:19,000
I think it's more of an expansion strategy

1336
01:00:19,000 --> 01:00:20,800
and diversification.

1337
01:00:21,680 --> 01:00:23,200
And I think what we want is we're building

1338
01:00:23,200 --> 01:00:25,880
a strong foundation, and then we're going to be able

1339
01:00:25,880 --> 01:00:27,720
to build a strong foundation,

1340
01:00:27,720 --> 01:00:29,480
and then we're building on top of that.

1341
01:00:29,480 --> 01:00:32,960
And essentially in my mind, I've got a pyramid built.

1342
01:00:32,960 --> 01:00:35,080
And at this point, we're on layer one.

1343
01:00:35,080 --> 01:00:39,520
And where I want to go to the pinnacle is a lifetime's work.

1344
01:00:40,680 --> 01:00:42,560
And how I want to get there, you know,

1345
01:00:42,560 --> 01:00:45,720
it's just a grind and it's a hard slog,

1346
01:00:45,720 --> 01:00:47,320
and it's going to take a fair bit of time,

1347
01:00:47,320 --> 01:00:51,080
money and effort, but it's something we're working towards.

1348
01:00:51,080 --> 01:00:55,400
And it sort of comes down to, okay, well, we sell on eBay,

1349
01:00:55,400 --> 01:00:58,040
we're buying stock, we'll build a website

1350
01:00:58,040 --> 01:01:00,280
designed to buy stock off people.

1351
01:01:00,280 --> 01:01:03,240
You go on there on your smartphone, on an app,

1352
01:01:03,240 --> 01:01:06,880
or a barcode scanner, desktop computer, scan a barcode,

1353
01:01:06,880 --> 01:01:10,080
we give you a valuation, you put it in a box,

1354
01:01:10,080 --> 01:01:12,360
we pay for the postage, you send it to us,

1355
01:01:12,360 --> 01:01:15,440
we check it for quality, then list it for sale.

1356
01:01:16,400 --> 01:01:17,920
So that solves the problem.

1357
01:01:18,760 --> 01:01:21,920
And then as I said, with the CD, DVD, cleaning machines,

1358
01:01:21,920 --> 01:01:23,800
that's a whole separate business.

1359
01:01:23,800 --> 01:01:25,880
It's all wrapped into one,

1360
01:01:25,880 --> 01:01:28,440
but that is a different type of business,

1361
01:01:28,440 --> 01:01:31,080
but it supports the main aim.

1362
01:01:31,080 --> 01:01:34,200
So I think it's not an exit strategy,

1363
01:01:34,200 --> 01:01:37,360
it's an expansion strategy.

1364
01:01:37,360 --> 01:01:39,880
I've got a few rapid fire questions here,

1365
01:01:39,880 --> 01:01:42,960
if Johnny has any before we wrap up here.

1366
01:01:42,960 --> 01:01:45,960
First thing I have is if media went away,

1367
01:01:45,960 --> 01:01:47,480
do you have like another category

1368
01:01:47,480 --> 01:01:48,920
you would choose to sell, right?

1369
01:01:48,920 --> 01:01:50,520
For me, it could probably be toys.

1370
01:01:50,520 --> 01:01:52,000
I always say like, toys would be fun.

1371
01:01:52,000 --> 01:01:54,080
Like toys are a fun thing to list and sell.

1372
01:01:54,080 --> 01:01:56,440
If I go and sell media, then I probably do that.

1373
01:01:56,440 --> 01:01:58,320
What would be your next thing to jump into

1374
01:01:58,320 --> 01:02:00,520
if everything media went away from your life

1375
01:02:00,520 --> 01:02:02,240
and you had to choose something else?

1376
01:02:03,160 --> 01:02:06,560
We do a lot of media because it's easy to store

1377
01:02:06,560 --> 01:02:10,520
and it's a similar process with posting and taking photos

1378
01:02:10,520 --> 01:02:12,000
because the items are flat.

1379
01:02:17,840 --> 01:02:19,400
I don't know, I mean, look, at the end of the day,

1380
01:02:19,400 --> 01:02:21,200
it's the same process.

1381
01:02:21,200 --> 01:02:24,680
It doesn't matter if you're selling a tractor or a guitar,

1382
01:02:24,680 --> 01:02:27,040
you've got to clean it up, you've got to make it look good,

1383
01:02:27,040 --> 01:02:28,160
you've got to do your research,

1384
01:02:28,160 --> 01:02:29,880
you've got to take your photos,

1385
01:02:29,880 --> 01:02:31,400
you've got to check the market.

1386
01:02:31,400 --> 01:02:32,920
It's the same process.

1387
01:02:32,920 --> 01:02:34,800
Doesn't matter what the item is.

1388
01:02:34,800 --> 01:02:36,600
So we're versatile, we can do that

1389
01:02:36,600 --> 01:02:39,880
and jump into anything else at any point.

1390
01:02:39,880 --> 01:02:42,440
But to specialize in something else,

1391
01:02:44,120 --> 01:02:46,040
I really don't know.

1392
01:02:46,040 --> 01:02:48,000
I don't like dealing with clothing,

1393
01:02:48,000 --> 01:02:49,840
but that's a huge market.

1394
01:02:52,160 --> 01:02:53,520
Don't do it, Tom, don't do it.

1395
01:02:53,520 --> 01:03:00,520
So what is your biggest mistake that you learned the most from?

1396
01:03:03,400 --> 01:03:05,520
Look, I'm a trial and error guy.

1397
01:03:05,520 --> 01:03:07,720
I constantly make mistakes.

1398
01:03:11,880 --> 01:03:13,640
I don't know, there's been quite a few.

1399
01:03:13,640 --> 01:03:16,240
There was one scenario where we got in trouble

1400
01:03:16,240 --> 01:03:18,320
for selling some stuff we shouldn't have been selling

1401
01:03:18,320 --> 01:03:19,480
through the business.

1402
01:03:22,240 --> 01:03:25,560
I think in business, what you need

1403
01:03:25,560 --> 01:03:30,560
is you need a good accountant and a good lawyer.

1404
01:03:30,560 --> 01:03:34,560
And you need these guys ready to go for good advice.

1405
01:03:34,560 --> 01:03:37,240
So if you're not too sure about the legalities or something,

1406
01:03:37,240 --> 01:03:39,760
or you're not too sure about the legalities,

1407
01:03:39,760 --> 01:03:41,560
you need to be able to do that.

1408
01:03:41,560 --> 01:03:44,320
So if you're not too sure about the legalities or something,

1409
01:03:44,320 --> 01:03:47,400
or you're not too sure about, say, the tax implications,

1410
01:03:47,400 --> 01:03:49,800
you've got people you can go to straight away

1411
01:03:49,800 --> 01:03:51,360
and just ask them the question.

1412
01:03:51,360 --> 01:03:52,840
They're already familiar with you,

1413
01:03:52,840 --> 01:03:54,960
they're already familiar with your business,

1414
01:03:54,960 --> 01:03:57,960
and you can just tap into that resource and ask them.

1415
01:04:00,520 --> 01:04:03,160
Yeah, I don't know, there's a lot of mistakes.

1416
01:04:05,160 --> 01:04:08,840
Yeah, it's pinpoint one, I don't know where to start.

1417
01:04:08,840 --> 01:04:09,680
I think it's...

1418
01:04:09,680 --> 01:04:11,760
I mean, I know you're doing the same thing with your clients

1419
01:04:11,760 --> 01:04:13,600
all the time, but I always learn from them.

1420
01:04:13,600 --> 01:04:15,120
Oh, look, yeah, of course.

1421
01:04:15,120 --> 01:04:16,800
And if you don't, you're crazy.

1422
01:04:16,800 --> 01:04:19,160
But I think it's one of these businesses

1423
01:04:19,160 --> 01:04:21,440
where you've got to learn to cover yourself.

1424
01:04:21,440 --> 01:04:24,040
And the way I look at it is my job

1425
01:04:24,040 --> 01:04:26,080
is to keep my guys employed,

1426
01:04:26,080 --> 01:04:29,600
and their job is to look after my best interests.

1427
01:04:29,600 --> 01:04:32,600
So it's little things like, okay,

1428
01:04:32,600 --> 01:04:36,200
if we know this particular item is on the Vero list

1429
01:04:36,200 --> 01:04:39,400
and we can't sell it, don't list it for sale.

1430
01:04:39,400 --> 01:04:42,800
But I think it's just the whole thing,

1431
01:04:42,800 --> 01:04:46,560
selling on eBay, eBay is not good at educating people

1432
01:04:46,560 --> 01:04:49,680
about how to use the platform, how to do certain things.

1433
01:04:49,680 --> 01:04:51,480
They're terrible at that.

1434
01:04:51,480 --> 01:04:54,200
And I think you've got to learn by trial and error,

1435
01:04:54,200 --> 01:04:56,520
and you learn by, you learn the hard way,

1436
01:04:56,520 --> 01:04:58,200
or we learn the hard way anyway.

1437
01:04:59,760 --> 01:05:01,120
How many listings per day?

1438
01:05:02,760 --> 01:05:04,680
Yesterday, we did 500.

1439
01:05:04,680 --> 01:05:08,840
Now it's interesting because our aim is about 1,000 a day.

1440
01:05:11,120 --> 01:05:14,280
And if we were ready to go with everything,

1441
01:05:14,280 --> 01:05:15,120
that'd be fine.

1442
01:05:15,120 --> 01:05:18,520
So yesterday, we had three full-time people,

1443
01:05:18,520 --> 01:05:20,520
one part-time person working on that.

1444
01:05:21,400 --> 01:05:23,040
We were able to get that many done

1445
01:05:23,040 --> 01:05:24,560
because we knew straight off the bat,

1446
01:05:24,560 --> 01:05:27,120
a whole bunch of stock, what it was gonna be priced at.

1447
01:05:27,120 --> 01:05:29,600
So that really sped the process up.

1448
01:05:29,600 --> 01:05:32,600
But we're big on batch processing,

1449
01:05:32,600 --> 01:05:34,800
and what I've got the guys working on today

1450
01:05:34,800 --> 01:05:36,800
is doing quality control on a whole bunch of stuff.

1451
01:05:36,800 --> 01:05:39,600
So checking the CD doesn't have any cracks,

1452
01:05:39,600 --> 01:05:43,000
isn't too badly scratched, matches the artwork,

1453
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:47,040
the artwork's all complete, the booklets aren't water damaged.

1454
01:05:47,040 --> 01:05:48,840
So it's 100% ready to go.

1455
01:05:49,680 --> 01:05:51,520
I then come in, price stuff,

1456
01:05:51,520 --> 01:05:54,360
and if I can leave them with 1,000 priced items,

1457
01:05:54,360 --> 01:05:55,280
between the three of them,

1458
01:05:55,280 --> 01:05:58,680
they should be able to get those up and dealt with.

1459
01:05:58,680 --> 01:06:02,280
Our goal this year is to get up to 250,000 listings,

1460
01:06:02,280 --> 01:06:04,200
and that's pretty achievable.

1461
01:06:06,000 --> 01:06:06,840
Yeah.

1462
01:06:07,400 --> 01:06:09,640
Do you use a draft bank or do you live dangerously

1463
01:06:09,640 --> 01:06:12,080
and just let them rip when you get them up?

1464
01:06:12,080 --> 01:06:13,520
No, no draft make.

1465
01:06:13,520 --> 01:06:15,280
I've got a bunch of stuff in draft make,

1466
01:06:15,280 --> 01:06:16,640
and that's just by accident.

1467
01:06:18,360 --> 01:06:21,360
We wanna get those listings up as quick as possible.

1468
01:06:21,360 --> 01:06:25,480
And our motto is, I mean, our motto has changed,

1469
01:06:25,480 --> 01:06:26,320
but it used to be,

1470
01:06:26,320 --> 01:06:28,920
listed and forget it, you can't do that anymore.

1471
01:06:28,920 --> 01:06:30,600
You gotta have your finger on the pulse,

1472
01:06:30,600 --> 01:06:33,440
you gotta update things, you gotta look at price points,

1473
01:06:33,440 --> 01:06:35,520
and you gotta keep an eye on it.

1474
01:06:35,520 --> 01:06:38,200
But what we do now is,

1475
01:06:38,200 --> 01:06:40,840
you can't sell anything that's not listed for sale.

1476
01:06:40,840 --> 01:06:43,600
So even if we've got a bad listing out with a bad title,

1477
01:06:43,600 --> 01:06:46,600
as long as we've got a title, photos, and a price,

1478
01:06:46,600 --> 01:06:49,320
at least we've got a chance of selling it.

1479
01:06:49,320 --> 01:06:51,360
But what we're doing at the minute is,

1480
01:06:51,360 --> 01:06:54,400
our listings go up with no frills,

1481
01:06:54,400 --> 01:06:56,440
so it's got a placeholder photo,

1482
01:06:56,440 --> 01:06:58,320
which is just our business logo.

1483
01:06:58,320 --> 01:07:01,320
And then basically the stock goes to our photographer,

1484
01:07:01,320 --> 01:07:04,000
and he takes those photos and uploads them.

1485
01:07:04,000 --> 01:07:07,160
And basically we know,

1486
01:07:07,160 --> 01:07:09,760
if our photographer is not busy taking photos,

1487
01:07:09,760 --> 01:07:12,200
we know we're not doing our job.

1488
01:07:12,200 --> 01:07:16,480
So it's just a continual process of feeding the beast.

1489
01:07:16,480 --> 01:07:19,160
But at the moment, we've got so much death pile,

1490
01:07:19,160 --> 01:07:21,960
we're just trying to list essentially everything.

1491
01:07:21,960 --> 01:07:24,480
Any new stock we've got coming in,

1492
01:07:24,480 --> 01:07:26,760
we have gotten better and better and better

1493
01:07:26,760 --> 01:07:28,320
knowing what sells and what doesn't,

1494
01:07:28,320 --> 01:07:30,960
what's worth what.

1495
01:07:30,960 --> 01:07:33,720
So the new stuff coming in, we prioritise,

1496
01:07:33,720 --> 01:07:35,960
because generally it's best,

1497
01:07:35,960 --> 01:07:38,680
and it helps kick the store into gear.

1498
01:07:38,680 --> 01:07:40,440
And then to clear out a lot of the older stock,

1499
01:07:40,440 --> 01:07:44,080
we do a lot of things like buy 10, get 10 free,

1500
01:07:44,080 --> 01:07:46,160
buy four, get two free,

1501
01:07:46,160 --> 01:07:49,120
10% off here, 15% off there.

1502
01:07:49,120 --> 01:07:50,560
All these things are coming in,

1503
01:07:50,560 --> 01:07:52,160
we're getting 10% off there.

1504
01:07:52,160 --> 01:07:56,400
All these sort of incentives for customers to buy more.

1505
01:07:56,400 --> 01:07:58,760
And so they're looking at our new stuff,

1506
01:07:58,760 --> 01:08:01,560
but at the same time, they're finding a few of our old items.

1507
01:08:01,560 --> 01:08:05,040
And we still sell, not on a daily basis,

1508
01:08:05,040 --> 01:08:06,400
but on a weekly basis,

1509
01:08:06,400 --> 01:08:09,160
we'd still sell listings to the seven years old.

1510
01:08:09,160 --> 01:08:13,040
And maybe as a funny game, you'll get someone will die,

1511
01:08:13,040 --> 01:08:16,720
or someone will go on tour, a band will break up,

1512
01:08:16,720 --> 01:08:18,440
or someone will release a book,

1513
01:08:18,440 --> 01:08:19,800
something might happen,

1514
01:08:19,800 --> 01:08:21,320
but it's only sales pick up.

1515
01:08:21,320 --> 01:08:25,080
It's like we haven't sold a Kate Bush CD for six months,

1516
01:08:25,080 --> 01:08:27,280
and then Stranger Things came out

1517
01:08:27,280 --> 01:08:30,440
with Kate Bush's running up the hill song

1518
01:08:30,440 --> 01:08:32,880
that was 37 years old,

1519
01:08:32,880 --> 01:08:34,960
and went back to number one in the charts

1520
01:08:34,960 --> 01:08:36,520
because of Stranger Things.

1521
01:08:36,520 --> 01:08:39,280
And this whole new generation discovered Kate Bush,

1522
01:08:39,280 --> 01:08:40,120
and all of a sudden,

1523
01:08:40,120 --> 01:08:43,520
every single Kate Bush CD we had sold.

1524
01:08:43,520 --> 01:08:46,000
And you don't know things like that are gonna happen.

1525
01:08:46,000 --> 01:08:49,760
You know, obviously Goldie Hawn is getting on,

1526
01:08:49,760 --> 01:08:51,440
at some point, she will die.

1527
01:08:51,440 --> 01:08:54,520
Is it worthwhile to stop piling Goldie Hawn DVDs?

1528
01:08:54,520 --> 01:08:58,200
Probably not, but when that fateful day does happen,

1529
01:08:58,200 --> 01:09:00,640
we will sell a lot of her stuff.

1530
01:09:00,640 --> 01:09:03,080
So it's interesting.

1531
01:09:03,080 --> 01:09:06,800
It's still, there's still an element of listed and forget it,

1532
01:09:06,800 --> 01:09:10,240
because you don't know what's gonna sell and when and why.

1533
01:09:10,240 --> 01:09:11,760
All right, well, I think we're gonna wrap it up here.

1534
01:09:11,760 --> 01:09:13,640
Tom, we appreciate you hanging out with us.

1535
01:09:13,640 --> 01:09:16,520
I do have one final fun question here.

1536
01:09:16,520 --> 01:09:18,800
As somebody that sells CD,

1537
01:09:18,800 --> 01:09:22,480
we have to know who is your favorite artist, band, singer,

1538
01:09:22,480 --> 01:09:23,320
whatever you have.

1539
01:09:23,320 --> 01:09:24,560
You have to listen to music

1540
01:09:24,560 --> 01:09:25,960
if that's all you're around all day.

1541
01:09:25,960 --> 01:09:29,000
So we gotta know, like, what's your go-to CD,

1542
01:09:29,000 --> 01:09:30,960
or, you know, music you listen to?

1543
01:09:30,960 --> 01:09:32,520
Remember, Jared listens to this.

1544
01:09:32,520 --> 01:09:33,360
Uh-oh.

1545
01:09:34,720 --> 01:09:36,840
It's quite funny the way it works for me.

1546
01:09:36,840 --> 01:09:38,480
It's got two mindsets.

1547
01:09:38,480 --> 01:09:42,040
To me, a good CD is a CD that sells.

1548
01:09:42,040 --> 01:09:45,000
All right, so I may like it or not like it,

1549
01:09:45,000 --> 01:09:46,840
but in my mind, it's good if it sells.

1550
01:09:46,840 --> 01:09:48,760
If it doesn't sell, it's no good.

1551
01:09:48,760 --> 01:09:50,720
The sort of music I'm interested in,

1552
01:09:50,720 --> 01:09:54,080
diverse range, classical to, you know,

1553
01:09:54,080 --> 01:09:57,280
gangster rap and everything in between.

1554
01:09:57,280 --> 01:09:59,480
But I do like a lot of the old hip hop stuff.

1555
01:09:59,480 --> 01:10:03,360
And I was a nightclub bouncer for many years.

1556
01:10:03,360 --> 01:10:05,080
I used to have really good taste in music,

1557
01:10:05,080 --> 01:10:07,160
and then I worked at all these different sort of venues,

1558
01:10:07,160 --> 01:10:11,280
and my taste in music just went all over the place.

1559
01:10:11,280 --> 01:10:15,240
So I like a lot of cheesy top 40 and weird techno music

1560
01:10:15,240 --> 01:10:17,920
and gangster rap and all sorts of stuff, you know,

1561
01:10:17,920 --> 01:10:19,280
all over the place.

1562
01:10:19,280 --> 01:10:22,240
But I do like to listen to a lot of music, definitely.

1563
01:10:22,240 --> 01:10:23,080
Well, all right, Tom,

1564
01:10:23,080 --> 01:10:24,800
we appreciate you hanging out with us today.

1565
01:10:24,800 --> 01:10:26,680
We look forward, maybe we'll talk to you again,

1566
01:10:26,680 --> 01:10:28,160
probably in a year, see where you're at.

1567
01:10:28,160 --> 01:10:30,440
And yeah, thanks for spending your evening with us

1568
01:10:30,440 --> 01:10:32,840
and sharing all the insights in your business.

1569
01:10:32,840 --> 01:10:33,680
Thank you very much.

1570
01:10:33,680 --> 01:10:34,720
Thanks for having me.

1571
01:10:34,720 --> 01:10:36,320
Thanks for listening to another episode

1572
01:10:36,320 --> 01:10:38,320
of the Resellers Mindset Podcast.

1573
01:10:38,320 --> 01:10:40,680
Today's full episode and all previous episodes

1574
01:10:40,680 --> 01:10:42,800
are available to all YouTube members,

1575
01:10:42,800 --> 01:10:45,600
along with the weekly Zoom call and private Discord.

1576
01:10:45,600 --> 01:10:48,800
Head on over to youtube.com backslash to use book guy

1577
01:10:48,800 --> 01:11:15,800
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