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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 a used book guy on youtube along with my friend and fellow full-time reseller johnny b

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We help people start and grow their reselling businesses from the ground up

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We also have a weekly zoom call and private discord for all youtube members head on over to youtube.com

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Backslash a used book guy to join the channel and gain access 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 welcome into another episode of resellers mindset podcast mike alongside johnny

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I figured you were tired of johnny this week. So I found somebody bigger and better than johnny

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I'm just messing with you johnny mel back from burnout as you know her over on the youtube world

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So we're kind of you know, i'm going to pick on mel a little bit

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See where she's at in her business today where she's come from and just jump into things. So mel welcome to the podcast

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You know, we're great that you're here. Give us a little bit introduction of yourself for those that don't know

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Thanks so much for having me. Uh, my name is mel. I'm from australia. I am a full-time

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pre-owned bookseller and

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I you can find me here on social medias sharing my life as a

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bookseller, I guess

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Books books only

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I only do books. Yeah, i've got the occasional

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Little bit of media cds dvds and it's probably a genre

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I'd like to expand on a little bit, but i'm not really set up to do

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Disks yet. I don't have the disk cleaning machine and I kind of feel like if I want to expand into another niche

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I want to do it

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I want to do it properly. So yeah 99 books at the moment

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How long have you been reselling and why did you start reselling?

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Yeah, been reselling now maybe five or six years

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and

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I was a family photographer before I did reselling

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And I was having some healthy shoes. So I kind of went off the photography for a few months and during that few months

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I was looking for something to still bring in a bit a bit of money

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found a sneaker community on

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Instagram

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so started selling brand new nike shoes from the outlet and

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Yeah, after after a few months nike started to hit me up and wanted to

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Know if I was a dealer and they wanted me to sign like a waiver saying that I wasn't reselling their shoes

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Which made me kind of go

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So then I started looking at what else there was

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Found out there was a whole reseller community selling secondhand clothes and shoes. So

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I went down that path

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For a couple of years and then covid hit and when covid hit I couldn't really get any clothes or shoes

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So I started doing some call outs on facebook for books and I did have some books in my store at the time

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Maybe about 500 and I possibly had about 3 000 items store with about 500 books

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But when covid hit yeah

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I just did a call out for more books on facebook and asked people to leave them contact lists at their door

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And I would come and pick them up

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and that's what happened and I ended up with

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just

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An abundance of books by doing that. My whole house was full

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And I just kept listing and kept listing the books and that's obviously what kept selling because I was listing and

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And suddenly before I knew it, I was a full-time bookseller

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From nike's to clothes now books. Do you like yeah, do you see yourself staying with books?

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Are you like are they your passion like for me personally? I always say this like

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Uh, you know, i'm not passionate about books. I'm not a huge reader

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I just enjoy the money you can make from selling books, but i'm curious what like what is that for you?

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Do you would like are you a big reader and that's why you kind of decided to go from clothes to books or you just said

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And wait a minute. There's books everywhere. So this is an opportunity where I can't fail basically

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Yeah, I mean I I like books. I don't have enough time to sit down and read books

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so I listen to a lot of audio books or a lot of

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Um more audio than reading these days and also my eyesight is getting worse and worse these days

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so I find it more draining to actually read but um

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I I don't know. I think i'm one of these resellers who is willing to pivot if like

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If if suddenly I wasn't able to get a whole lot of books, I would

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Definitely pivot into another field like i'm not stuck on books

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So to speak but I do feel like where I live there's an abundance of books

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And it's something that i'm easily able to obtain

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So it works for me at this moment like that. I've got everything

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Into like good systems so that books works well for me, but yeah, i'm not

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I'm not opposed to having to pivot if I had to pivot again like when I did with covet hit

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I I still would like if I could sell another niche I would still go back to shoes. I I love selling shoes

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So yeah, I still occasionally find myself browsing the shoe aisles and occasionally will throw some shoes up into my store randomly

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But yeah, I still I still quite like the shoe process

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Yeah, yeah books are books are a lot of work and I think it's so sad such a saturated category

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And we were talking a little bit before this like you yourself got all the way up to the number three top

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You know bookseller on ebay in australia

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I'm curious like give give people a little bit of insight to what that takes to

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Actually get all the way up to number three. I personally suck at ebay

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I make it known like my ebay store is lame duck

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It's just not for me, but I know there's a lot of work a lot more work on ebay than there is in amazon

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So like give me insight on you know being one person

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Getting all the way up to number three before they did away with the report as you explained before the call

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Like how much work does this take?

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I think people underestimate

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How much work books is I think books often looks like the easy option in reselling like oh, I don't know i'm going to start

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Uh, you know just reselling books. It's easy. I can get books everywhere

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books is a very laborious job and um,

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You know, you're constantly living lifting all these heavy books and so you get surrounded by these big overwhelming

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halls of books

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And I think it's a lot more work than people actually expect

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it's um

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There's definitely aspects of selling books

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That's easier than other like I it's easier to photograph a book than it is to photograph an item of clothing

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And even an eye shoes. Do you know what I mean? There's less cleaning. There's less prep

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It's easier to photograph but it it's takes a lot of storage space

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um

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You know a lot of heavy lifting and it's just like a constant grind

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I think the hardest thing about books is you have to be prepared almost if you want to earn a full-time living doing just books

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You have to be prepared to do volume. It's very hard to run a

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full-time job

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listing 10 items a day

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And bringing in enough income just doing books like it's really you

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There's a lot of books that sell for low end prices and you're competing in a saturated market for a lot of those books

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So when you when you compete in the saturated market, of course

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You know often it's a race to the who's got the lowest price

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So when you're competing against the masses and it and it can be hard to find those

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higher end books, that's a lot of the time. That's why I do a lot of bundling to try and get my

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ASP up higher but also

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By bundling it takes me away from competing with the masses because i'm offering something that's custom made and different

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to what everybody else is selling

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So I think

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It takes a lot of hard work. It takes a lot of hours, you know

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it's not

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to get to a higher

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ranking on on selling used books or to make that full-time income is definitely not a

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A hobby business just doing books. It's definitely not a i'm going to list 10 items a day and i'll

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I'll be rich

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It doesn't happen like that

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So tell us about

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Living in australia. Is it very competitive like it is in the united states as far as books go or is it more laid back?

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Everybody loves each other and share and share alike. I think it's getting more and more competitive and

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I'm probably partly to blame for

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That's your fault now

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I'm not gonna i'm not gonna lie like the the book market is different today than it was a few years ago

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Um, the more i've shared about the book journey a lot more people are selling books now

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So i've definitely created a lot more competition for myself

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but um, I guess that in a way

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adds to the challenge I go to stay on top of my game and you know, there's certain things that I

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Don't publicly share just because I know it'll

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Make it even more difficult for myself, but

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It's yeah, I think the book market is definitely

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Definitely strong. There's 30 000

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Book sellers in australia and there's approximately 40 000 sellers

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And there's approximately 40 000 sellers on ebay australia

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And so 40 000 sellers on ebay australia and 30 000 of them three out of four are book sellers. That's amazing

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Yeah, whether or not they've got hundreds of books or just a few books

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But yeah the ebay ebay told me when I met them at the last conference that they had 40 000 users

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And on the quality listing report, it says there's 30 000 book sell used book sellers

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Yeah, I remember when I first started getting into my reselling book career

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You were one of the few people that were actually doing books on youtube

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It was the ewing creator of the loss. I think were the two

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Book people at the time on youtube

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That's since changed. I've even seen a lot more book people on youtube as in 20. What year are we in 2024 now?

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Yeah, it's interesting when I went to youtube sharing my book journey and said I was going to be full-time book seller

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I actually um

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You know had people say to me that it was going to ruin my channel because

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Nishing down like that. Nobody would want to watch somebody who only just sold books because a lot of people didn't sell books

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So people actually told me it would hurt my youtube channel. Whereas it had it hasn't done that at all

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I don't i've got people that follow me for youtube for the books and i've got other people that

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Don't sell books and couldn't care less what I sell. They still will follow me. So

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Yeah, it was interesting that I did

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Um, there was a lot of people who told me I was basically

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Doing career suicide by by just doing books niching on the books

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Are you in fact the biggest content creator on youtube who focuses on reselling books or is there somebody bigger than you?

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Um, there's nobody bigger. I don't think I don't think there is I think you're the top of the food chain there

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There there was always rakin rakin used to sell the books. I don't I don't know. I don't know where he is anymore. But um

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But um, yeah, I don't maybe I am I don't know. Yeah records move on that you beta amazon now

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Yeah, he left us book hustlers behind but uh, yeah

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It is interesting

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Me and me and johnny did a podcast talking about what ifs and juggling like family responsibilities, right? Like

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I got my wife and cats

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It's different for you. You have actual children to take care of so if you're fine with it

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Give us some insight to being a reseller and having the responsibility of children and how that can you know weigh in on your reselling?

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Business in a good way and then possibly, you know, sometimes you got to take them to soccer practice or this or that

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You know, whatever you got going on

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Yeah, it's definitely

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Ha it's definitely hard with children. I guess i'm lucky that i've got four children

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But they're now 23 21

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19 and 14 so three of them are you know adults and kind of can drive and do their own things and

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They're very even my 14 year old is very independent

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But I guess i've worked from home since my first child was born doing side jobs from the home from my garage

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Um, i've i've always done that since the moment my daughter was born

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So I guess they've kind of grown up with me if it wasn't reselling

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It was something along the line that I was doing at home on the internet

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so I guess

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It's one of the benefits of working from home and working for yourself. It's something that i've always liked

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I've got that flexibility that I can just pack up and go to their

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You know, i've been able to go to all their sports or their school plays or their assemblies

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I've been very blessed that i've been able to do that for the entire life of my my kids and i'll never take that for granted

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But it's definitely hard you you have to be

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You have to be organized you have to kind of be you have to plan things you have to meal plan

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and it's definitely a juggle when you've got

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So much on your plate

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And I do think that that's partly like over the years

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it's probably why I have gone in and out of burnout because when i've got a lot on my

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On my plate I get very overwhelmed and then I find it very hard to focus

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On what needs to be done and what needs to be prioritized. So

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Yeah, I think that's

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Probably with the amount of hats that I have to wear in my daily life

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Is probably the reason the biggest struggle that I have and the biggest biggest way that I get overwhelmed in life, which

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When you're overwhelmed it always hinders you from being productive. So yeah, it's a big big juggle

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We asked uh tech and sports the same thing about his his kiddos and do you do your kids think you're crazy for

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Like being a reseller or like are they involved do they help you in the reselling business?

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No, they don't want to they're not interested in it. They don't want to heal they kind of find it

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At first they found it a bit like oh she's going to the charity shops like yuck

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They weren't really the the the I had never really been into charity shops until I started reselling

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It wasn't somewhere where I actively used to

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Shop or anything before I was a reseller. So the kids weren't kind of used to going to those shops beforehand

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So they didn't really understand the whole secondhand shops and

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Things like that, but no, they're not interested in it. They're um

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I don't think they

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I don't know. I don't know if they think it's a little bit of an odd job

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but I think they understand why I do it and they can see that the business is growing every day and

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They used to be a little bit

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They didn't really at first with the youtube they didn't want to tell anybody that I was a youtuber or anything

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But once I got to a certain level then they started to kind of be proud of it and tell their friends what I did

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So I think there was an element when I was smaller that they maybe kept it to themselves because it wasn't the norm

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But now that I'm out there, they're they're kind of very open with it

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So between your youtube business and your ebay business you have

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A ratio of how much time you put into one of the other

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At the moment I put more into my ebay

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And that's not really due because that's not really because I want to do that

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I actually really love the youtube side of it. I love

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You know, it's quite boring really doing ebay and just sitting there entering into the it's like entering a spreadsheet constantly like youtube is much more fun

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And I get to be creative. So I so I obviously enjoy that side of it more but

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eBay is where my

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Main income comes from ebay pays me weekly youtube pays me monthly

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And you know, i'm very reliant especially now more than ever

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On my weekly income. So

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eBay probably takes a priority at the moment, but

218
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Um, it doesn't I don't necessarily want it to be like that. I would like it to be like a very even split but

219
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Finding finding the time to juggle it all and finding a good schedule at the moment. It's just been really hard

220
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Yeah, it's very fair now with all the

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The

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Ducks in the pond if you will

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You have people to help you with either aspect of the business like editor or somebody helps you with the book hauling?

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Just you all you

225
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It's all me I think

226
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Later on towards like at the end of this year

227
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I probably would like to hire some help in the ebay business

228
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And that would just be somebody maybe helping me to pick and pack my items

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somebody to help me with photographs and prepping and taking the stickers off books and

230
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Um getting thing getting all that side of it ready with probably i'll still maintain doing the listing

231
00:16:49,940 --> 00:16:53,700
But just having somebody in there to help me with the pick and pack and the

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Shipping as well. Also, like my warehouse is about 50 minutes away from my house

233
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So it would be really good if I could have somebody in there for a few hours every single day

234
00:17:04,420 --> 00:17:08,580
So if there's a day that I want to stay here working on the youtube side of it

235
00:17:08,580 --> 00:17:12,980
I can still have somebody getting out my orders for me. Like even if that's all they did

236
00:17:13,540 --> 00:17:17,700
Um, a couple of days of the week is just pick and pack my orders. That would be big help

237
00:17:18,500 --> 00:17:22,340
But the youtube I can't I can't hand over the youtube to

238
00:17:23,060 --> 00:17:25,060
Like it's such a creative

239
00:17:25,300 --> 00:17:30,180
Creative thing for me. I I don't feel like I can hand I need control of that

240
00:17:31,140 --> 00:17:32,180
So, yeah

241
00:17:32,180 --> 00:17:35,620
Johnny, uh, we might know a guy that lives in australia that could help her out at her warehouse

242
00:17:35,620 --> 00:17:37,620
We just had him on not too many weeks ago

243
00:17:38,420 --> 00:17:40,420
Yeah, it's everybody now

244
00:17:41,460 --> 00:17:47,940
So, uh, that's your warehouse how big is it and have you ever filled it up into its maximum capacity?

245
00:17:49,300 --> 00:17:55,460
So the warehouse and i'm not sure what this is going to be in american terms, but for me it's almost 11 meters long

246
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And five and a half meters wide

247
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33

248
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33 I know 16 and a half feet

249
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Yeah americans

250
00:18:08,580 --> 00:18:12,100
I was gonna say I know you use square feet and stuff. So I don't know what that is

251
00:18:12,260 --> 00:18:17,940
I didn't I can't do square feet in my head. Maybe my cat. No, it's pretty big though. Yeah

252
00:18:19,540 --> 00:18:21,540
And if you ever filled it up to its

253
00:18:22,980 --> 00:18:28,740
Max it's getting like it's getting pretty full now. I could go higher if I had some different shelving

254
00:18:28,740 --> 00:18:33,460
But I don't have different shelving. It would be very expensive to change all the shelving at the moment. So that's

255
00:18:34,500 --> 00:18:37,860
That's not happening just yet, but the actual warehouse is getting

256
00:18:38,500 --> 00:18:41,380
Like my shelves are getting very full at the moment

257
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So I am really trying to focus at the moment on my sell through rate trying to increase that sell through rate

258
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So I can get those books

259
00:18:47,860 --> 00:18:50,340
Moving a little bit faster so I can keep

260
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Putting more books in there and hopefully not getting too full

261
00:18:54,740 --> 00:18:58,900
Because that is space is a space is an issue. Oh, yeah, I

262
00:18:59,460 --> 00:19:03,060
Completely hear you. So how many books do you think you have in your warehouse at present?

263
00:19:04,580 --> 00:19:06,580
I got about 7 000 listings

264
00:19:07,380 --> 00:19:11,380
But a lot of them are bundles. So there's a lot more than 7 000 books

265
00:19:11,380 --> 00:19:14,980
So but I don't have very much death pole in there at the moment

266
00:19:14,980 --> 00:19:22,020
It's just basically what's being bought coming in getting that listed straight away. I've kind of eliminated all the death pile

267
00:19:22,020 --> 00:19:25,220
So I don't just have boxes and shelves full of unlisted inventory

268
00:19:26,180 --> 00:19:33,380
Almost everything that's in there now is listed. So the space has been utilized by actual listed items, which is what I want

269
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I'm curious here. If anybody that's like followed your journey on youtube

270
00:19:38,340 --> 00:19:40,820
You kind of like I don't know like I titled this podcast

271
00:19:40,820 --> 00:19:45,540
I sent you like the year of mel you kind of like I don't want to say reinvented yourself this year

272
00:19:46,100 --> 00:19:50,180
Because you're you know, you're always hard work in august. They weren't working hard hard before

273
00:19:50,180 --> 00:19:52,500
I think you're just probably working smarter now

274
00:19:52,500 --> 00:19:59,940
I'll give some insight on like where you were at last year to where you're at today and like the the death pile that you got yourself through

275
00:19:59,940 --> 00:20:03,540
Um that some of us have seen on social media youtube instagram

276
00:20:03,540 --> 00:20:06,660
Uh, just give some insight to you know, what was the wake up call to you?

277
00:20:06,660 --> 00:20:10,820
And are you happy with where you're at today moving forward? Are you still looking to progress?

278
00:20:12,580 --> 00:20:17,300
Yeah, so like if anybody who doesn't follow me my whole like I

279
00:20:17,300 --> 00:20:24,260
Separated from my husband husband. So basically what happened is I was the secondary income earner in the marriage

280
00:20:25,060 --> 00:20:29,860
And one day basically went from the two incomes to just being my income

281
00:20:30,420 --> 00:20:33,460
And when you suddenly have gone from

282
00:20:34,580 --> 00:20:36,580
You know not being the

283
00:20:36,980 --> 00:20:41,140
Breadwinner of the family and next minute you are financially independent on your own

284
00:20:41,460 --> 00:20:45,220
I wasn't earning enough money. That was like a full-time income for myself

285
00:20:45,220 --> 00:20:49,380
so I really had to step up into my business and

286
00:20:50,660 --> 00:20:55,860
Take it from this like secondary income job to a full-time earning job

287
00:20:55,860 --> 00:21:00,020
And it as we all know with ebay that doesn't happen overnight like that takes

288
00:21:00,580 --> 00:21:04,500
Months to actually bring that income up maybe even years

289
00:21:05,060 --> 00:21:07,940
It's not an easy task. So I had to really

290
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Um

291
00:21:10,180 --> 00:21:12,180
Change my whole

292
00:21:12,660 --> 00:21:13,700
Working

293
00:21:13,700 --> 00:21:21,220
Life, I guess it was a little bit different because before I when I was the secondary income earner

294
00:21:22,660 --> 00:21:25,860
I was kind of primarily there doing everything for the kids

295
00:21:26,260 --> 00:21:29,780
Once my husband and I separated we went on to a week on week off

296
00:21:29,940 --> 00:21:34,120
So by by me having like that week off with the kids responsibilities

297
00:21:34,740 --> 00:21:38,100
That allowed me to change my time that I was actually able to work

298
00:21:38,100 --> 00:21:45,620
I wasn't interrupted by appointments and school runs so I was actually able to do some really long hours every second week

299
00:21:46,100 --> 00:21:47,540
so that I can

300
00:21:47,540 --> 00:21:51,620
Get that get that business actually growing for the first time ever

301
00:21:51,620 --> 00:21:55,460
I felt like I was actually able to get the business growing to its full capacity

302
00:21:56,260 --> 00:21:59,060
So I had developed like a huge

303
00:21:59,940 --> 00:22:03,140
Death pile as they call it like an unlisted inventory pile

304
00:22:03,140 --> 00:22:08,820
And that was really just because I was buying and buying and getting these hauls and I just didn't have the time to process it

305
00:22:09,140 --> 00:22:12,580
But once I had this every second week and I had these longer hours

306
00:22:13,140 --> 00:22:20,180
I just started to do big hours in the warehouse 12 hours 13 hours 14 some days and I was just working through that

307
00:22:20,500 --> 00:22:24,120
unlisted inventory pile that had been really overwhelming

308
00:22:24,900 --> 00:22:29,060
And in turn by doing that it brought my sales right up

309
00:22:29,060 --> 00:22:33,780
Increased my sales, you know doubled my 90-day total within three months

310
00:22:34,180 --> 00:22:36,180
and

311
00:22:36,180 --> 00:22:38,900
You know, that was exactly the start that I needed but

312
00:22:39,620 --> 00:22:46,180
My 90-day total is still increasing the more it's not as increasing as fast anymore as it was in

313
00:22:46,500 --> 00:22:50,020
When I initially doubled it, it's a little bit slower now to increase

314
00:22:50,660 --> 00:22:51,620
but

315
00:22:51,620 --> 00:22:56,260
I'm still working on it and it's not where I want it to be but it's

316
00:22:56,260 --> 00:22:58,580
Much closer to where I need it to be

317
00:22:58,820 --> 00:23:05,700
So yeah, I remember seeing you had you had so many books in that warehouse. I was just thinking to myself like holy smokes

318
00:23:05,700 --> 00:23:10,980
It's like yeah, you know how many books you've probably listed in the past, you know since the beginning of this year

319
00:23:12,020 --> 00:23:14,020
Oh

320
00:23:15,540 --> 00:23:21,220
No, so not as many from the beginning of this year, but from october last year I was listing

321
00:23:21,220 --> 00:23:27,860
You know hundreds a week like maybe like five or six hundred at least every single week was going into the store

322
00:23:28,420 --> 00:23:31,700
And that was on top of doing all the cleanup

323
00:23:31,700 --> 00:23:38,100
So I was I was not only going through the death pile and sorting it and cleaning it and organizing it and culling it

324
00:23:38,340 --> 00:23:41,300
But I was listing really really hard on top of that. So

325
00:23:42,020 --> 00:23:44,020
It's it's been

326
00:23:44,020 --> 00:23:48,580
This year has actually been really really busy. I've actually found it hard

327
00:23:48,580 --> 00:23:55,140
In the last like four or six weeks to be able to get as many listings done as I've needed just because I did move house and

328
00:23:55,700 --> 00:24:02,100
You know, I've had a couple of weekends that I've had things on where I haven't been able to dedicate the same amount of time

329
00:24:02,100 --> 00:24:08,660
So but march is looking pretty quiet and i'm ready to like really put some big hours again coming up now march

330
00:24:09,460 --> 00:24:13,620
To really try and bump that 90 day total over the next milestone

331
00:24:13,620 --> 00:24:18,660
So we all don't like change so what is the biggest thing you resisted in your business?

332
00:24:18,660 --> 00:24:22,660
But once you changed over to that thing, it was like why did I wait so long?

333
00:24:24,180 --> 00:24:26,180
I think it was the

334
00:24:27,700 --> 00:24:29,700
It's the um

335
00:24:29,700 --> 00:24:31,460
It's the processing

336
00:24:31,460 --> 00:24:37,220
So that was the that was my biggest issue like the stuff would come in and I just wouldn't process it instantly

337
00:24:37,220 --> 00:24:42,100
I would just sit it there in the corner and then new stuff would come in and I would just sit it there in the corner

338
00:24:42,100 --> 00:24:47,140
and then new stuff would keep coming in and I would cherry pick what I wanted to list and

339
00:24:47,540 --> 00:24:50,420
What would be photographed next from this big death pile?

340
00:24:50,820 --> 00:24:54,580
Whereas now the processing gets done instantly as soon as something comes in

341
00:24:55,380 --> 00:25:01,620
I process it even if I don't feel like it even if it's an item that I don't really want to and i'd rather sit it there

342
00:25:02,340 --> 00:25:09,140
The processing has been the biggest change that i've made getting that stuff done as soon as as soon as I buy it get it listed

343
00:25:09,140 --> 00:25:12,900
Don't leave it sitting there and that's been the biggest change in my business

344
00:25:12,980 --> 00:25:19,060
And it's also what is keeps increasing my income because now as soon as I buy it, it's actually getting listed

345
00:25:19,860 --> 00:25:21,140
So yeah

346
00:25:21,140 --> 00:25:22,020
so

347
00:25:22,020 --> 00:25:30,200
Tell me about amazon in australia as people may not listen to tom's recording may not realize how what amazon life is in australia

348
00:25:31,300 --> 00:25:35,380
It's pretty very much non-existent for most of us

349
00:25:35,380 --> 00:25:42,180
Amazon is totally different in australia than it is in america. I think it is getting bigger in australia

350
00:25:42,260 --> 00:25:44,260
But it's still just not

351
00:25:44,420 --> 00:25:49,620
A platform that most of us use I I have never ever ordered off amazon australia

352
00:25:49,780 --> 00:25:51,940
like it's just not a platform that I

353
00:25:52,580 --> 00:25:55,380
Even look at or consider going to to buy something

354
00:25:55,940 --> 00:26:03,860
So for a long time they weren't letting anything that was secondhand being sold on amazon in the last couple of years. They've been trialing

355
00:26:03,860 --> 00:26:07,860
selling used books and they had a select few um

356
00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:12,980
resellers that were selling the used books and now anybody can come on there and sell

357
00:26:13,460 --> 00:26:15,940
You just apply for it and you can sell the used books

358
00:26:16,820 --> 00:26:22,580
I did speak to somebody who was selling used books. They had like 15 000 listings and they were selling one a day

359
00:26:23,380 --> 00:26:27,380
So I was really like yeah, i'm not interested in a sell-through rate

360
00:26:27,380 --> 00:26:35,620
Yeah, and it maybe it's increased a little bit now maybe the platform's getting a little bit more traction but

361
00:26:36,420 --> 00:26:41,780
I think the reason like people often say to me you get so much money for your books on ebay australia

362
00:26:41,940 --> 00:26:48,340
And I think it's just the fact that we don't have any other platforms to compete with compete with i'm not competing against

363
00:26:48,740 --> 00:26:53,860
All the amazon sellers like you are in america. I'm not competing with big media male

364
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:55,780
companies

365
00:26:55,780 --> 00:26:57,780
That sell everything for pittance

366
00:26:58,020 --> 00:27:00,020
so i'm very

367
00:27:00,020 --> 00:27:02,340
Uh, yeah, i'm very lucky amazon's just

368
00:27:03,300 --> 00:27:06,580
It's it's not even in my radar the amazon at the moment

369
00:27:06,980 --> 00:27:14,260
So I'm curious was that 15 000 sent into the warehouse or is that 15 000 sold at some facility like a merchant fulfilled?

370
00:27:14,820 --> 00:27:18,740
Kind of deal. Uh, they had 15 000 that was merchant fulfilled

371
00:27:19,140 --> 00:27:24,020
Ah, okay. I wonder what the fba is like. I think you should send a box and see what happens

372
00:27:24,020 --> 00:27:28,500
It's really quite expensive to hold the stock at the fba

373
00:27:28,980 --> 00:27:30,020
so

374
00:27:30,020 --> 00:27:32,740
Like I have looked into it, but the costs are very high

375
00:27:33,220 --> 00:27:36,820
And you know if you if you don't have a fast sell-through rate

376
00:27:36,900 --> 00:27:41,460
You're going to pay a lot of money or that stuff's just going to end up being sent back to you and it'll cost you money

377
00:27:41,540 --> 00:27:42,740
Just sitting there

378
00:27:42,740 --> 00:27:47,300
So I think you would have to choose books that have a very fast sell-through rate

379
00:27:47,940 --> 00:27:49,700
right and

380
00:27:49,700 --> 00:27:51,620
I don't know I

381
00:27:51,620 --> 00:27:55,780
Obviously, I do have a lot of books that silver like have a fast sell-through rate

382
00:27:55,860 --> 00:27:57,860
but some of them also are like a

383
00:27:58,420 --> 00:28:04,340
Six nine twelve month sell-through rate and I just think that's too long for amazon, especially at the

384
00:28:04,980 --> 00:28:12,180
The level that it is here in australia. I I would not want stock that's got a 12 month sell-through rate being held at amazon

385
00:28:15,460 --> 00:28:18,340
Right, no, bye, okay fine. So

386
00:28:18,340 --> 00:28:21,380
Have you do you sell anywhere else besides ebay?

387
00:28:22,420 --> 00:28:25,380
Help all ebay. Okay all ebay

388
00:28:26,260 --> 00:28:28,820
Pretty boring. Hey, I don't even sell on facebook

389
00:28:29,860 --> 00:28:37,380
I I stay away from facebook marketplace really mainly because my youtube I don't want people coming to my place and

390
00:28:38,020 --> 00:28:42,820
Stuff like that or I don't want people saying I bought books from mill and they were rubbish. Sure

391
00:28:43,460 --> 00:28:46,260
So I just really stay away from the facebook platform now

392
00:28:46,260 --> 00:28:50,660
Gotcha. So were you in any other groups before reseller nivana now?

393
00:28:50,660 --> 00:28:55,620
We're in reseller greatness before or was that your first group that you actually joined

394
00:28:56,580 --> 00:29:03,060
Yeah, that was definitely my first patreon or any kind of group. That's that like that, you know, I was in facebook marketplace

395
00:29:03,060 --> 00:29:09,380
I mean facebook, you know reseller groups, but nothing like the the zoom or the patreon like it's been

396
00:29:10,020 --> 00:29:13,620
It's actually been life-changing for me really to be part of that group like

397
00:29:13,620 --> 00:29:18,500
Yeah, I i've learned so much from being in that group and yeah, I can't honestly

398
00:29:18,500 --> 00:29:21,860
I can't thank tech enough for everything he's done for me. He's been amazing

399
00:29:22,580 --> 00:29:27,380
Yeah, there's a lot that goes a lot to be said when you surround yourself with like-minded people

400
00:29:27,380 --> 00:29:31,860
And I know like it sounds kind of cheesy like maybe coming from me or mel like we're on youtube

401
00:29:31,860 --> 00:29:36,660
We make youtube videos like we like talking to people and respond to every single comment we get on youtube

402
00:29:36,660 --> 00:29:41,540
But there is a lot to be said to have people that have the same goal of being in that group

403
00:29:41,540 --> 00:29:49,060
And I think that's a great way to have people that have the same goal or same mentality of working towards an end goal

404
00:29:49,060 --> 00:29:54,500
Or get into a certain point in their reselling career when you have those, you know voices in your ear

405
00:29:54,500 --> 00:30:00,340
It just uplifts everybody and that's one thing like I like to see on youtube is reselling people that are uplifting everybody

406
00:30:00,340 --> 00:30:04,100
Hey, you know like everybody here can win every you know us three sitting here

407
00:30:04,100 --> 00:30:08,340
If we wanted to make a million dollars selling books, we could we really put our mind to it and put in the hours

408
00:30:08,340 --> 00:30:12,020
Of you beside yourself and reselling so i'm curious your youtube journey

409
00:30:12,340 --> 00:30:17,460
Why did you decide to go down the rabbit hole of being on youtube because we already kind of said, you know, like

410
00:30:17,940 --> 00:30:19,220
YouTube doesn't pay the bills

411
00:30:19,220 --> 00:30:23,140
So like we have to our resell business needs to be our focus short youtube's fun

412
00:30:23,220 --> 00:30:26,900
We enjoy doing it but the reselling business pays the majority of our bills

413
00:30:26,900 --> 00:30:32,740
So what got you into youtube and i'm like, what are some future plans for your youtube channel? I know you really enjoy doing it

414
00:30:33,540 --> 00:30:35,620
yeah, um

415
00:30:35,620 --> 00:30:42,180
I think it was just that community side of it. Like I've always, I'd always worked from home and

416
00:30:42,180 --> 00:30:48,020
I'd never had a community in any other, in any of the other jobs that I've done. I'd never had a

417
00:30:48,020 --> 00:30:53,620
community. So when I found the reselling community and found this whole online thing and the YouTube

418
00:30:53,620 --> 00:31:00,100
thing, I just, I'm a people person and I get my energy from other people. So I just absolutely

419
00:31:00,100 --> 00:31:04,100
loved all these live streams and you could go in there and you could chit chat and I'd never had

420
00:31:04,100 --> 00:31:10,180
anything like it working from home. So I had like my little Instagram page and once I got to a

421
00:31:10,180 --> 00:31:14,900
thousand followers on Instagram, I thought, oh, maybe people, maybe I should start a channel.

422
00:31:14,900 --> 00:31:19,780
Maybe people would be, they seem to be interested in what I'm doing. Maybe I'll start a channel and

423
00:31:19,780 --> 00:31:25,220
get more involved. And that's basically how it started. And I, I don't think I ever really

424
00:31:25,220 --> 00:31:29,700
thought that the YouTube would end up being something that I would love to do as a full-time

425
00:31:29,700 --> 00:31:37,700
job. It just was kind of there as a social thing, bit of fun. And I just enjoyed the whole pro,

426
00:31:37,700 --> 00:31:44,020
I was a photographer, family photographer before I did reselling. So I was kind of used to the camera

427
00:31:44,020 --> 00:31:51,700
and I enjoyed that side. I, yeah, I always just enjoyed the vlogging side of it. And

428
00:31:52,260 --> 00:31:57,540
I've continued to enjoy the vlogging side of it more than the actual going to YouTube to be like

429
00:31:57,540 --> 00:32:02,900
a teacher or do tutorials or stuff. It's not really something, I don't really enjoy doing the

430
00:32:02,900 --> 00:32:09,220
tutorial side of YouTube. I prefer to just tell my story and vlog my life and show what I'm doing.

431
00:32:10,100 --> 00:32:14,500
And yeah, I just, I loved the community side of it. So yeah.

432
00:32:15,460 --> 00:32:21,780
So when it comes to doing eBay listing, is there a genre or type of book format wise that you just

433
00:32:21,780 --> 00:32:27,780
find slightly more annoying than all the rest? Yes. The books that you like, Johnny,

434
00:32:28,900 --> 00:32:35,380
the hard books, the rare and querying books, like that take me longer to price comp.

435
00:32:36,340 --> 00:32:42,020
I'm just not interested in them. I prefer the more bread and butter quick ones that I can just

436
00:32:42,020 --> 00:32:47,620
look up quickly, make a quick decision on. It takes me one second to look at what the

437
00:32:47,620 --> 00:32:52,900
last top five have sold for and make my, you know, sale price based on that.

438
00:32:52,900 --> 00:32:55,620
You're right. Some of mine don't even have sold. It's like, what do I do with it? Well,

439
00:32:55,620 --> 00:33:01,620
I guess I make my own price up today. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not really interested in,

440
00:33:01,620 --> 00:33:09,620
like I don't find the research side of it fun. Like some people love learning about that research

441
00:33:09,620 --> 00:33:13,860
and they dig right into the book and they want to learn the history of it and really dig deep on how

442
00:33:13,860 --> 00:33:18,820
much it's worth and where it's come from. I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in getting my

443
00:33:18,820 --> 00:33:22,500
book up for sale and making a profit on it, turning it over and buying another book.

444
00:33:23,140 --> 00:33:29,780
So anything that takes me longer than like two seconds to price comp is a pain for me. So I tend

445
00:33:29,780 --> 00:33:36,500
to steer away from those halls or those books where they're books that I'm less knowledgeable

446
00:33:36,500 --> 00:33:41,780
about. And I tend to just stick with the genres that I know a lot about. They're very common,

447
00:33:41,780 --> 00:33:48,820
can turn them in and out and that works for me. Ironically, I don't like the books you like to

448
00:33:48,820 --> 00:33:54,180
list, the big coffee table books and the bundle stuff, because I just hate storing it. It's always,

449
00:33:54,180 --> 00:34:00,660
it's a puzzle. I hate puzzles like that. I enjoy puzzles, but not that one. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm,

450
00:34:01,620 --> 00:34:08,660
we're completely the opposite. Right. How many, how many photos per book are you doing for your

451
00:34:08,660 --> 00:34:17,300
email listings? As many as it needs as on the quality listing report, I think it said my average

452
00:34:17,300 --> 00:34:26,180
was 12. So like if it's just a basic fiction book, it's about eight front back, the four sides,

453
00:34:26,180 --> 00:34:31,460
the copyright page, maybe a photo of the text inside. I generally show a picture of the page

454
00:34:31,460 --> 00:34:37,300
just so they can see the size of the text inside a book or that there's no writing or something

455
00:34:37,300 --> 00:34:44,820
like that. But if it's an illustrated book, like a coffee table book or a cookbook or a book about

456
00:34:44,820 --> 00:34:50,580
gardening or plants or something like that, then I always show photos of the illustrations inside

457
00:34:50,580 --> 00:34:59,140
and I'll take as many photos as need be. So yeah, sometimes I'll feel, yeah, sometimes I'll feel the

458
00:34:59,140 --> 00:35:04,580
24 photos. Sometimes I'll have more than 24 photos. It will tell me there's too many. So yeah,

459
00:35:04,580 --> 00:35:10,660
it's the basic books. It's normally eight at the minimum, but yeah, on average I'd say about 12.

460
00:35:10,660 --> 00:35:15,940
Do you have a minimum like sales price? Like for me now with eBay, since I suck at it and I just,

461
00:35:15,940 --> 00:35:19,620
you know, I don't have enough inventory for eBay. Like I don't list anything unless I'm going to

462
00:35:19,620 --> 00:35:24,660
list it for at least $19.99. Do you have like a minimum floor price when it comes to what you're

463
00:35:24,660 --> 00:35:31,860
willing to list? So I'm trying to not list anything under the $25 mark, but that doesn't happen.

464
00:35:31,860 --> 00:35:36,740
So now anything that I'm listing under the $25 mark, I'm trying to make sure that it's got a

465
00:35:36,740 --> 00:35:42,580
faster sell through rate because I will sell things that are under that $25 if I can move,

466
00:35:42,580 --> 00:35:50,100
if I can move them over faster. But there's, I don't put anything in my store that's under

467
00:35:50,100 --> 00:35:57,220
$15 because then I'm literally making no money on it. So the only books that kind of go in there

468
00:35:57,220 --> 00:36:03,620
at that $15 mark, they're normally like low end fiction books and $15 includes postage as well.

469
00:36:04,260 --> 00:36:10,340
And I try and offer like coupon deals and stuff. So it's like a buy two, get two free or something

470
00:36:10,340 --> 00:36:16,900
like that. So that way if they buy two, it still means they're getting like a $30 spend, but I can

471
00:36:16,900 --> 00:36:23,700
put four in and because I charge free postage, you know, like I still make profit selling four

472
00:36:23,700 --> 00:36:28,340
books for the price of two. And then I'm still hitting that $30 mark, which still goes above

473
00:36:28,340 --> 00:36:35,540
the base metric that I'd like to hit. So when I do put those lower end books in, I try not to put

474
00:36:35,540 --> 00:36:39,700
kind of like one-off books that are that price. I'm trying to put books that are either by the same

475
00:36:39,700 --> 00:36:46,020
author or the same topic in my store to entice people to come in and buy like multiple books

476
00:36:46,020 --> 00:36:47,540
if they're going to buy them at that price.

477
00:36:47,540 --> 00:36:52,820
So let's talk sourcing for a minute. Did it take you a while to figure out how to source books or

478
00:36:52,820 --> 00:36:55,460
was it fairly easy for you where you're at in the world?

479
00:36:57,460 --> 00:37:03,700
I don't think it really took a long time, but it takes a long time to build that Rolodex up in your

480
00:37:03,700 --> 00:37:10,180
head, I guess, of what actually is going to sell. And that takes practice and that takes, you know,

481
00:37:10,180 --> 00:37:17,300
mistakes. And, you know, it takes listing a lot of books to know what sells fast and what actually

482
00:37:17,300 --> 00:37:22,420
takes a year or more to sell that you would never actually want to sell again into your store. So

483
00:37:22,900 --> 00:37:27,940
you can look at the comps and you can do all that kind of stuff. But I do find sometimes that

484
00:37:27,940 --> 00:37:36,820
what sells for somebody else might not sell for me. And I tend to focus on trying to list a lot of

485
00:37:36,820 --> 00:37:43,620
the same types of books into my store or books on the same topic, because I find that brings those

486
00:37:43,620 --> 00:37:51,060
repeat buyers back to my store and also brings the multiple sales. So I don't think it's so much

487
00:37:51,060 --> 00:37:58,420
of a hard thing to learn, but it just takes a long time to build that knowledge of, you know,

488
00:37:59,140 --> 00:38:02,580
what is actually going to sell in your particular store.

489
00:38:02,580 --> 00:38:07,140
Now, do you have like a dedicated route when you go sourcing or do you have assigned days or

490
00:38:07,140 --> 00:38:11,940
what's the organization life of sourcing if there is one or is it just let's go sourcing today?

491
00:38:13,460 --> 00:38:19,300
My life doesn't feel very organized at all. I do not run to a schedule. I don't really have

492
00:38:19,300 --> 00:38:27,460
a route that I do. I do have particular stores that I go to regularly and often. So I've definitely

493
00:38:27,460 --> 00:38:34,260
got my favorite stores, my honey holes, and I don't show those honey holes on YouTube.

494
00:38:35,460 --> 00:38:44,740
So I don't share my stores that I shop at regularly on YouTube for those reasons. But

495
00:38:46,340 --> 00:38:50,820
I don't really have set days or anything. It's really just worked around when I've got time,

496
00:38:50,820 --> 00:38:56,020
what's going on. I do a lot of my sourcing with Todd, but I don't really have a set day.

497
00:38:56,020 --> 00:39:01,700
I do a lot of my sourcing with Tom. So it also depends on his schedule. And, you know, we do a

498
00:39:01,700 --> 00:39:07,780
lot of sourcing as well. That's a couple of hours away from where we actually are. So we do travel.

499
00:39:07,780 --> 00:39:13,380
And so normally when we go sourcing, we will make it like a bit of a day trip or at least half a day

500
00:39:13,380 --> 00:39:18,340
trip where we're out going to as many stores as we possibly can in the timeframe that we've got.

501
00:39:18,340 --> 00:39:25,620
Yeah. So is there a type of area like a library sale versus a charity shop kind of deal that you

502
00:39:25,620 --> 00:39:31,460
haven't done that's on the reseller bucket list to go to? Mine's like the shipyards and see what I

503
00:39:31,460 --> 00:39:38,660
can do there. That's like down the road. Just figure that out as I go. Not really. I think the

504
00:39:38,660 --> 00:39:44,820
main place that I like to source is at the book fairs. So Tom and I, like we have a big book fair

505
00:39:44,820 --> 00:39:50,580
twice a year where we live and there's other big book fairs around Australia. And we like to kind

506
00:39:50,580 --> 00:39:55,700
of travel to the ones that we're, normally the ones are within about three hours from where we

507
00:39:55,700 --> 00:40:00,580
are, we will travel to those book fairs, but there's probably a couple more that are, you know,

508
00:40:00,580 --> 00:40:07,780
further away that we'd like to kind of go to, but to go further than that, you end up requiring to

509
00:40:07,780 --> 00:40:12,980
stay there a night or two. You need to take a big truck when there's two of us buying a lot of books.

510
00:40:12,980 --> 00:40:20,340
And it just becomes quite a costly trip. And you know, when you need to take a couple of days off

511
00:40:20,340 --> 00:40:24,420
the business as well, you've also got to equate for the time that you're losing, not being actually

512
00:40:24,420 --> 00:40:29,620
there in the business doing the actual business work as well. But yeah, the book fairs.

513
00:40:29,620 --> 00:40:35,540
The book fairs, that's like, I guess people would think of it as equivalent to like a library book

514
00:40:35,540 --> 00:40:40,420
sale here in the States. I'm curious because a lot of the library book sales, well not a lot,

515
00:40:40,420 --> 00:40:46,900
every library book sale I've ever been to, these people are maniacs Mel. Like I took my wife to one

516
00:40:46,900 --> 00:40:51,540
and they're like running her over to get to the books. Like what is the vibe over there when it

517
00:40:51,540 --> 00:40:57,460
comes to, you know, these book fairs? Is there a line when you show up, people camped outside,

518
00:40:57,460 --> 00:41:02,340
I've seen this happen, you know, people are waiting a day before the sale. Are people polite and

519
00:41:02,340 --> 00:41:09,060
courteous or like, you know, is it just chaos? No, people are polite and courteous. On the first day

520
00:41:09,060 --> 00:41:14,740
of book fair, there's normally like a big line. And like the one that was recently just here where

521
00:41:14,740 --> 00:41:21,460
I live, it opened at nine o'clock in the morning. I got there at seven o'clock in the morning,

522
00:41:22,020 --> 00:41:27,860
was it around about seven or something, but the people where we were standing within line,

523
00:41:27,860 --> 00:41:32,020
they had been there since six o'clock in the morning and they were not the first in the line.

524
00:41:32,020 --> 00:41:37,460
There was people there earlier. So there are some people that get there, you know, hours beforehand.

525
00:41:37,460 --> 00:41:43,060
But I find that the people, almost those people, quite often they're collectors. They know the one

526
00:41:43,060 --> 00:41:47,860
table that they've got to go to to get their stuff before the resellers get there. And so they will

527
00:41:47,860 --> 00:41:53,300
line up and get there very, very early to go to there. They know exactly where they're going and

528
00:41:53,300 --> 00:41:58,580
exactly what they're looking for. So you've got a mixture of the resellers and the collectors

529
00:41:58,580 --> 00:42:03,540
who are going to the book fairs, but you know, they're not push and shove inside there.

530
00:42:03,540 --> 00:42:11,620
Everybody's courteous inside there. And yeah, the book fair, we don't really have big library sales

531
00:42:11,620 --> 00:42:16,580
here. That's not a, I've never been to a library sale. It's not a thing that we have definitely

532
00:42:16,580 --> 00:42:20,740
where I live, whether or not they've got them in other states of Australia, I'm not sure,

533
00:42:20,740 --> 00:42:26,580
but there's definitely nothing like that here where I am. The only time I occasionally will get

534
00:42:26,580 --> 00:42:31,620
ex library books is in a charity shop. And they might have some for sale there, but I've never

535
00:42:31,620 --> 00:42:38,340
actually been to a library book sale, but the book fairs are fantastic. Do they have, are you able

536
00:42:38,340 --> 00:42:43,220
to purchase books at your libraries? Not that they have a sale, but just maybe a dedicated bookstore

537
00:42:43,220 --> 00:42:51,380
within the library. They don't have that either. No. So is there a big overall goal for 2024 you're

538
00:42:51,380 --> 00:43:02,500
wanting to hit? I think 2024, I'm aiming for 200,000 in sales. That's my sales goal. So

539
00:43:02,500 --> 00:43:07,140
fingers crossed. No, it's still won't be quite where I want to be, but like,

540
00:43:08,500 --> 00:43:14,900
I think that's the capacity that I can probably reach this year. So that's my sales goal. But I

541
00:43:14,900 --> 00:43:23,300
think the goal is just to maintain more consistency this year and to stay on top of it and not get

542
00:43:23,300 --> 00:43:29,780
snowed under, not get behind. And mostly that consistency, because that's the biggest thing I

543
00:43:29,780 --> 00:43:36,100
struggle with in my life is just consistency. And I fall off the wagon very quickly and very easily.

544
00:43:36,740 --> 00:43:42,980
And I'm not tech's ideal student who lists consistently every single day.

545
00:43:42,980 --> 00:43:49,300
That I'm not his best student in that way. I do try my best, but I'm definitely not that person.

546
00:43:49,300 --> 00:43:56,260
So I need to be careful that I don't fall off that wagon for too long. So yeah, consistency to

547
00:43:56,260 --> 00:44:01,540
hit that goal will be my biggest thing. So when you find yourself being inconsistent,

548
00:44:01,540 --> 00:44:09,540
how do you get back on the consistent bandwagon? It's so hard. It's so hard. I guess I feel like

549
00:44:09,540 --> 00:44:13,620
a lot of, this is something that I say quite often, a lot of people are always like, how do you be

550
00:44:13,620 --> 00:44:21,460
motivated? How do you get motivated when you're not motivated? And I truly believe that productivity

551
00:44:21,460 --> 00:44:27,780
is what causes motivation. So instead of focusing on how do we get motivated, we should just be

552
00:44:27,780 --> 00:44:33,380
focused on productivity. What can I do today? And then the more productive we are, the more

553
00:44:33,380 --> 00:44:38,020
motivation that naturally causes. Because when you're productive, you're like, oh, I'm going to

554
00:44:38,020 --> 00:44:44,260
do this. And then you want to go and do more. So the hardest bit when you're lacking or being

555
00:44:44,260 --> 00:44:51,540
inconsistent is just trying to do something that's productive, giving yourself a high five,

556
00:44:51,540 --> 00:44:56,340
ticking it off. I did this, even if it's a small goal. And then the more you do it, the more

557
00:44:56,340 --> 00:45:02,100
productive you are, I just find the more motivation you get. And then you can build back that

558
00:45:02,100 --> 00:45:08,900
consistency after being down or low or when you've taken a hit and you're not doing what you're

559
00:45:08,900 --> 00:45:10,340
supposed to do. So yeah.

560
00:45:10,340 --> 00:45:15,460
I mean, mine's music. I mean, Mike knows this and Mike's wife thinks I work at a club, honestly,

561
00:45:15,460 --> 00:45:19,940
because sometimes my music's just blaring all the time. That's how I get through the day.

562
00:45:19,940 --> 00:45:23,860
Pretty sure my employee halfway hates me because of this, but only halfway.

563
00:45:23,860 --> 00:45:27,380
That's more than halfway, dude. I can't imagine what you're playing over there.

564
00:45:27,380 --> 00:45:32,420
I was going to say it depends on what you're playing, Johnny.

565
00:45:32,420 --> 00:45:34,420
Hate by hate on a daily basis.

566
00:45:34,420 --> 00:45:38,980
I think it brings you back though to the benefit of being in a group, like how you're one of the

567
00:45:38,980 --> 00:45:43,700
pillars over in tech's group, right? It's like, if we have a down and out day, you just pop in the

568
00:45:43,700 --> 00:45:47,780
group for five minutes, you're going to see all these people that are making these huge jumps and

569
00:45:47,780 --> 00:45:53,220
success stories. And I always think to myself, that's a big benefit of having a YouTube

570
00:45:53,220 --> 00:45:57,780
channel. I don't know, it kind of motivates me. I don't want to be the lowest slacker on the totem

571
00:45:57,780 --> 00:46:02,580
pole. I'm always like, listen, if everybody else is out here working, then I got to be. I can't be a

572
00:46:02,580 --> 00:46:06,820
YouTuber and tell people, yeah, go resell on Amazon when I'm not even doing it myself.

573
00:46:06,820 --> 00:46:14,580
Yeah. Yeah. I think the thing I like about the group is that everybody is growth-focused and it

574
00:46:14,580 --> 00:46:19,620
doesn't matter if you're small seller, medium seller, large seller, everybody in there is happy

575
00:46:19,620 --> 00:46:24,900
to help or give advice and cheer each other on. No matter if you're lifting five things a day or

576
00:46:24,900 --> 00:46:30,260
a hundred things a day, people will cheer you on in the same way. And I just find that it is a nice

577
00:46:30,260 --> 00:46:37,140
space to be in because everybody is so growth-focused or focused on improving themselves or their

578
00:46:37,140 --> 00:46:41,700
business compared to the other Facebook groups where there's just people coming in and

579
00:46:41,700 --> 00:46:47,700
constantly being negative or whinging or talking, you know, complaining about how they're doing

580
00:46:47,700 --> 00:46:54,580
talking, you know, complaining about their low sales or their negative customers or whatever it

581
00:46:54,580 --> 00:47:00,260
is. You know, they're looking for validation on whatever it is. And I just find Tech's group is

582
00:47:00,260 --> 00:47:07,460
very, you come in, you be positive. If it's, if eBay is a roller coaster, if you're having a slow

583
00:47:07,460 --> 00:47:12,580
day, you just stay positive and keep going. I will say, and I hope you don't take this

584
00:47:12,580 --> 00:47:18,100
disrespectfully, Mike, it was a big shift when I joined Mike's group coming from Daily Refinement

585
00:47:18,100 --> 00:47:23,620
at the time. And I had to slow my roll and my intensity because as you know, it's very number

586
00:47:23,620 --> 00:47:29,860
intensive growth focused. And I had to like, there's different ways to do things and that kind of put

587
00:47:29,860 --> 00:47:36,340
things in a humbling perspective, respectfully Mike. Hey, I don't think no offense to anything.

588
00:47:36,340 --> 00:47:39,540
All right. I just want everybody to make a little bit of money so you can quit the job you're

589
00:47:39,540 --> 00:47:44,340
miserable at. Like that needs to be a slogan that I have. It is fun though, like to have groups and

590
00:47:44,340 --> 00:47:49,620
be involved and see other people and you get in the right mindset. And the problem is it works both

591
00:47:49,620 --> 00:47:55,060
ways, right? So like if me, Mel and Johnny just always whine to each other about how eBay sucks

592
00:47:55,060 --> 00:48:00,660
and how Amazon sucks, like you really start to believe the things that you hear around you all

593
00:48:00,660 --> 00:48:05,620
the time. And that's why it's so important to, you know, be in the right mindset. And if you have

594
00:48:05,620 --> 00:48:10,260
somebody, you know, if Johnny was always whining in my ear, I'd be like, yo, Johnny, like stop

595
00:48:10,260 --> 00:48:14,900
whining or like, we got to move on from the friendship. And sometimes you got to cut ties

596
00:48:14,900 --> 00:48:21,620
and not only like with relationships with your business, the processes you're doing within your

597
00:48:21,620 --> 00:48:26,980
business to kind of get you to that next level. On the topic of like sourcing and dealing with

598
00:48:26,980 --> 00:48:32,180
books, I always tell everybody here, hey, put out a free ad, you'll take books for free. Is this

599
00:48:32,180 --> 00:48:35,940
something you do down there? And if so, is there like, do a lot of people are like, hey, Mel, come

600
00:48:35,940 --> 00:48:42,820
get, you know, my house full of books. Yeah. I haven't done it recently because I just had an

601
00:48:42,820 --> 00:48:48,660
abundance of books coming at me, but whenever I'm low on inventory, yeah, I'll put out a call out on

602
00:48:48,660 --> 00:48:54,820
Facebook marketplace. I've also got pamphlets that I will letterbox drop if I go for a walk or I'll

603
00:48:54,820 --> 00:49:00,740
sometimes pin them up on notice boards if I'm at the shop. So I normally have like a pile of pamphlets

604
00:49:00,740 --> 00:49:06,820
in my car or around just for those times. But yeah, I definitely, I mean, that's how I really

605
00:49:06,820 --> 00:49:11,940
got into the books full time was doing those call outs saying, you know, I'm looking for books,

606
00:49:12,660 --> 00:49:16,820
free books, or sometimes I'll put on there that I'll also pay for the books or whatever.

607
00:49:17,460 --> 00:49:24,020
But it's definitely putting out call outs. It's just the way you word it. I think you have to just

608
00:49:24,020 --> 00:49:31,460
be careful how you word it and the books will come to you. Yeah. So I know you say you did a little

609
00:49:31,460 --> 00:49:37,940
bit of CDs and DVDs. Is that something you've been doing a while now or is that something

610
00:49:38,660 --> 00:49:42,100
where that has to be a certain ASP metric for you just to even touch it?

611
00:49:43,380 --> 00:49:48,180
No, I think like always back from when I was a bit of an everything seller with clothes and

612
00:49:48,180 --> 00:49:52,900
shoes and some books, I always still had some DVDs and some CDs. But whenever I did them,

613
00:49:52,900 --> 00:49:58,100
I always tried to lot those ones. I'm not really one to do the individual DVDs or CDs. I'd rather

614
00:49:58,100 --> 00:50:05,780
lot them into like a series or, you know, the same kind of like I used to, I did a haul once

615
00:50:05,780 --> 00:50:10,660
where I got a lot of CDs that were all classical. So I bundled them all together and because I knew

616
00:50:10,660 --> 00:50:16,500
nothing about classical music, I just bundled them together by all the strings or the orchestras or

617
00:50:16,500 --> 00:50:22,660
the choirs or whatever. And I'll still sometimes look for stuff like that. I've got quite a lot of

618
00:50:22,660 --> 00:50:30,100
media in my, I still do have like a death pile of media because there's a lot of it that's scratched

619
00:50:30,100 --> 00:50:34,820
and I'm just, there's a lot of good stuff there and I've learned that it's good stuff just by

620
00:50:35,620 --> 00:50:41,860
being with Tom. So I know that some of the media that I've got is good, but like a lot of it's

621
00:50:41,860 --> 00:50:46,580
scratched and I just don't want to be reliant on listing it and then having to go over to Tom's

622
00:50:46,580 --> 00:50:52,420
all the time and say, hey, can I borrow the disc cleaner? Cause I don't think that's fair. So I will

623
00:50:52,420 --> 00:50:57,220
get a disc cleaner. He just has to set a quarter machine next to him. Every time you need to use it, you put a quarter in it.

624
00:50:57,220 --> 00:51:03,220
Yes, true. He likes to be in control. I don't think he'd want me using his disc machine.

625
00:51:04,660 --> 00:51:08,180
He's one of the only people that's allowed to touch his disc cleaning machine.

626
00:51:09,540 --> 00:51:15,140
So yeah, I would just stay away. I'd rather have my own. If I break it, then it's on me.

627
00:51:15,700 --> 00:51:21,380
Fair enough. Fair enough. So what is the biggest learning lesson you've learned on the entire

628
00:51:21,380 --> 00:51:33,860
reselling journey or the most impactful? At least the biggest learning lesson. I mean,

629
00:51:33,860 --> 00:51:39,780
I mean, the, the lesson I learned the most was doing that death poll. Definitely. That was just like a

630
00:51:42,260 --> 00:51:48,900
pivotal thing in my, in my whole reselling career was how I just got so out of control

631
00:51:48,900 --> 00:51:54,020
with that death poll and that unlisted inventory. And I think that's so common for so many resellers.

632
00:51:55,460 --> 00:52:01,460
I guess the biggest things to learn from it is that it's hard work. It takes discipline. It takes

633
00:52:01,460 --> 00:52:08,900
consistency, all these kinds of things. It's not like a little easy side job. It's not a side job.

634
00:52:08,900 --> 00:52:14,580
You have to take this like a real business. I think one of the other things I'm really learning

635
00:52:14,580 --> 00:52:22,020
at the moment, which is via tech is like the metrics and knowing my numbers. I feel like

636
00:52:22,020 --> 00:52:27,140
I've said this recently, like for the last few years, I kind of feel like I've just done eBay,

637
00:52:27,140 --> 00:52:32,100
like I've just been doing it. I get there, I photograph, I list, I get it up, I ship it,

638
00:52:32,820 --> 00:52:38,180
but I don't feel like I'm actually in control of the business. So it's only now that I'm

639
00:52:38,180 --> 00:52:44,180
gone back, fixing up the mistakes, going through this unlisted inventory, now doing my metrics

640
00:52:44,180 --> 00:52:50,260
every day, writing down my, you know, my notepad here, how many things I'm listing, how many things

641
00:52:50,260 --> 00:52:57,140
are selling for over the metrics, keeping track of the daily sales and the expenses and stuff.

642
00:52:57,140 --> 00:53:03,060
I think that is one of the most underrated things. And that's probably my biggest life

643
00:53:03,060 --> 00:53:08,500
lesson at the moment is knowing where I'm at within the business and not just doing eBay.

644
00:53:09,060 --> 00:53:15,460
I got to be like running a business as such. I'm curious, I think a lot of resellers run into this.

645
00:53:16,340 --> 00:53:21,540
Have you become more pickier with the items you pick out from when you started selling books to

646
00:53:21,540 --> 00:53:25,620
today? Because I know personally for me, I used to, you know, I'll buy a book for a dollar if I can

647
00:53:25,620 --> 00:53:30,340
make two bucks on Amazon. Them days are long gone behind me. I just like leave it for somebody else.

648
00:53:30,340 --> 00:53:35,220
Have you had kind of the same experience in your business? Yeah, I'm trying to pick up those books

649
00:53:35,220 --> 00:53:40,420
that are higher now. Like, and I will, some of them I will just leave or I'll give them to Tom,

650
00:53:40,420 --> 00:53:45,540
because he's a different level seller than me. Like he's got a lot more space. He can have like

651
00:53:45,540 --> 00:53:51,620
a lower metric than what I can have. So I'm definitely trying to kick better books now,

652
00:53:52,260 --> 00:53:58,100
or trying to bundle up books that are lower end so that I can get my ASP up by doing the bundling.

653
00:53:58,100 --> 00:54:04,660
So yeah, I'm definitely more picky than I was. And I only want to, we'll still do those books

654
00:54:04,660 --> 00:54:08,820
that only make that small profit as long as I know that they're going to be a fast sell through rate.

655
00:54:09,780 --> 00:54:16,260
I'm curious. One more thing here, Johnny, before you jump in. When it comes to, I ask every eBay

656
00:54:16,260 --> 00:54:21,940
seller this, it's like a right of the podcast, promoted listings. Do you use them? Are they

657
00:54:21,940 --> 00:54:26,820
required? Are they a scam? What is your take on promote? I personally, I use them. I know Johnny

658
00:54:26,820 --> 00:54:30,260
uses them as well, but some people, you know, they're like, I don't believe it. It's like an

659
00:54:30,260 --> 00:54:34,180
extra fee. What's your take on promoted listings? Do you think it's worth it? Do you need it?

660
00:54:35,540 --> 00:54:39,620
Yeah, a hundred percent. I do promote promoted listings and I do think it's worth it.

661
00:54:40,660 --> 00:54:45,460
And I do think it's needed, especially in like the book market, because it's a saturated book,

662
00:54:46,660 --> 00:54:51,780
books are saturated. And obviously there's some books that are rare and they're not as,

663
00:54:51,780 --> 00:54:57,300
there's not as many of them listed on eBay and they don't probably need the promoted listings,

664
00:54:57,940 --> 00:55:04,260
but I just promote at a flat rate throughout the whole store, whether or not it's a rare book or a

665
00:55:04,260 --> 00:55:09,300
basic read, I just have a flat rate that goes through my entire store and doesn't change. And

666
00:55:09,300 --> 00:55:15,300
that seems to work okay for me. Yeah. And even on the rare obscure stuff, sometimes it's so obscure

667
00:55:15,300 --> 00:55:19,540
and so rare, nobody's ever heard of it. And does it mean it's not worth money or there's not an

668
00:55:19,540 --> 00:55:23,380
interest in it? Just people aren't aware of it. So that's partially why I use promoted listings

669
00:55:23,380 --> 00:55:37,220
myself is just to give exposure on my more weird oddities. So are we going to do more CDs and DVDs

670
00:55:37,220 --> 00:55:40,900
in the future, you think, or is that a, nah, I'm just going to deal with what I have.

671
00:55:40,900 --> 00:55:51,060
I think I've looked at them a little bit more now just because I've learned by, because I'm always

672
00:55:51,060 --> 00:55:58,180
picking with Tom and he's obviously primarily a CD seller. So he's kind of taught me a lot along

673
00:55:58,180 --> 00:56:03,620
the way. And he's, he's of the mindset that if I'm going to a charity shop to look at the book shelf,

674
00:56:03,620 --> 00:56:06,820
I may as well quickly look at the CD shelf as well while I'm in there.

675
00:56:06,820 --> 00:56:11,220
It's because sometimes you'll go into a charity shop and they'll be hardly, you'll walk out with

676
00:56:11,220 --> 00:56:15,940
one book. So if you're only going to, for your time, if you're going to go there, maybe it's best

677
00:56:15,940 --> 00:56:23,060
to have a look for some, something else as well. I think if I, I'll probably list the stuff that

678
00:56:23,060 --> 00:56:29,620
I've got as long as it's not too low end. But I think if I was going to go down to CD, I probably

679
00:56:29,620 --> 00:56:34,900
wouldn't bother with the DVDs at this point, but if I was going to go down to CD route, I think I'll

680
00:56:34,900 --> 00:56:40,980
focus on bundling my CDs. So I don't think I'll be that CD seller that's looking to do individual

681
00:56:40,980 --> 00:56:50,420
CDs. I will do, I will bundle. Yeah. Right. I'm looking to get into DVDs and CDs late this year,

682
00:56:50,420 --> 00:56:55,220
or maybe in 2025 myself, but most of that's primarily going to go to Amazon, to be honest.

683
00:56:56,020 --> 00:57:01,140
Probably a little bit of it will go to eBay, especially if I get an across listing, just,

684
00:57:01,140 --> 00:57:07,940
well, I'll just be part of the eBay process. So on that note, are there any other platforms

685
00:57:07,940 --> 00:57:16,980
you would like to sell on and where you're at? Not actual platforms. We don't really have many

686
00:57:16,980 --> 00:57:22,420
platforms here in Australia. So I don't think there's any other platforms. If Whatnot comes

687
00:57:22,420 --> 00:57:27,060
to Australia, it would definitely be of interest to me. I don't know if it's going to come here.

688
00:57:27,060 --> 00:57:32,420
And the only other thing that I would like to do is build my own website. Now I'm kind of at

689
00:57:32,420 --> 00:57:39,780
that point where I think I would like to have a back from burnout website. And with your own

690
00:57:39,780 --> 00:57:44,980
YouTube channel makes sense. Yeah. Do it. Yeah. If I could have some kind of software that also

691
00:57:44,980 --> 00:57:52,180
listed cross-listed my items over into my own website store, then possibly, yeah, I would be

692
00:57:52,180 --> 00:57:56,900
interested in that. Yeah. I think that's genius, especially with your following you have, you

693
00:57:56,900 --> 00:58:00,660
should definitely do that in my opinion, but everybody's free to run their business how they

694
00:58:00,660 --> 00:58:08,180
see fit back to my corner. Yeah. I know. I think it would actually be quite good. And like before

695
00:58:08,660 --> 00:58:14,340
one of my previous jobs, before I was a photographer, I actually had an online party business,

696
00:58:14,820 --> 00:58:19,300
kids party business. So I used to import all these party supplies in from America and I would sell

697
00:58:19,300 --> 00:58:24,260
them on my own website. And occasionally I would sell some on eBay back then, but most of the time

698
00:58:24,260 --> 00:58:30,900
I just did my own website. So I actually learned in that process, I learned a lot about SEO. I

699
00:58:30,900 --> 00:58:36,260
learned a lot about building my own website and, and selling on my own website. So I've got, I do

700
00:58:36,260 --> 00:58:43,460
have past experience on that, but now also I've built myself a brand. So I do think that not only

701
00:58:43,460 --> 00:58:50,020
would I be able to be able to attract probably people through my brand, but I think that I would

702
00:58:50,020 --> 00:58:55,860
also probably be smart enough to be able to know how to market that website outside of my brand

703
00:58:55,860 --> 00:59:01,940
as well, to just bring in regular people who in then in turn might become followers and of my

704
00:59:01,940 --> 00:59:07,460
actual YouTube as well. So it would work together. So yeah, definitely, definitely something that's

705
00:59:08,100 --> 00:59:12,100
I built the, I've all the other websites that I've ever had before, but I've built my own

706
00:59:12,100 --> 00:59:16,420
websites that I've ever had before. I've built myself on WordPress. I've done them myself. So

707
00:59:16,420 --> 00:59:22,020
I feel like I could build my own back from burnout one. I would just, it's just a time thing really

708
00:59:22,020 --> 00:59:28,420
for me of having that time to actually sit down and play around and make my own website.

709
00:59:28,980 --> 00:59:34,020
You were hustling way before eBay ever even came into your mind. It's like you are, you've always

710
00:59:34,020 --> 00:59:37,700
been out there hustling different kinds of gigs. It's just, it just happened to land on eBay and

711
00:59:37,700 --> 00:59:42,580
it's been sticking for the years. So we always ask everybody like, what is the best piece of advice

712
00:59:42,580 --> 00:59:47,540
you would give? Maybe somebody listened today's thinking about getting into reselling or, you know,

713
00:59:47,540 --> 00:59:51,780
they're just started reselling. Like what's the one piece or it doesn't even got to be one piece,

714
00:59:51,780 --> 00:59:55,460
just a summary of your best advice you would give to a new reseller out there.

715
00:59:56,420 --> 01:00:04,580
Yeah, I think it would be price comp everything. Don't just buy what you like and what you think

716
01:00:04,580 --> 01:00:11,700
is nice or cool. Like it's reselling is not just about what you like. I mean, it's good to be able

717
01:00:11,700 --> 01:00:16,900
to sell things in a category that you like, that you've got an interest on it, but often things

718
01:00:16,900 --> 01:00:21,940
that we have personal attachments to and we like, we think they're going to sell and they don't end

719
01:00:21,940 --> 01:00:32,980
up being the best sellers. I would tell people to not have emotions really in the actual business

720
01:00:32,980 --> 01:00:38,660
that it is very black and white. It is very, it is a business. Don't be emotional about it.

721
01:00:39,540 --> 01:00:44,580
Set your business boundaries from the beginning, your own business rules, your own business

722
01:00:44,580 --> 01:00:50,740
boundaries, and then stick to those boundaries because it's easy to get sidetracked if you don't

723
01:00:50,740 --> 01:00:56,100
have a plan for your business. So by putting some boundaries into place about what you will and will

724
01:00:56,100 --> 01:01:05,700
not accept, that'll really help you as well. And be mindful of who you consume and be mindful of who

725
01:01:05,700 --> 01:01:12,580
you hang around with. Like we were talking about before, you do need to hang around with positive

726
01:01:12,580 --> 01:01:21,700
people and people who are interested in growing and not, there are toxic communities within the

727
01:01:21,700 --> 01:01:30,900
community. So just be mindful of who you associate with. And yeah, I have fun with it, but go slowly,

728
01:01:31,540 --> 01:01:38,980
learn properly, don't rush into things and try to, I mean, everybody needs to have some bad buys to

729
01:01:38,980 --> 01:01:46,980
learn from, but the more you can price comp and learn about eBay before you actually dive into it

730
01:01:46,980 --> 01:01:52,820
full-time, the better. Yeah. What do we have to look to be doing it? You need to do it for a little

731
01:01:52,820 --> 01:01:57,460
while as a part-timer, I feel like. And I also feel like you need to experiment with genres

732
01:01:58,020 --> 01:02:03,780
when you're new and find what you like. Like I actually feel like it was very helpful for me

733
01:02:03,780 --> 01:02:09,220
to be a clothing seller first, because when you do clothing, you learn a lot about returns

734
01:02:09,940 --> 01:02:16,740
and you have a lot more customer problems than I have with books now. So I think by learning these

735
01:02:16,740 --> 01:02:23,300
different genres first before finding the genre that I wanted to actually stick to. Yeah. That

736
01:02:23,300 --> 01:02:28,900
was really, really important. Yeah, for sure. I always tell everybody like, don't just start

737
01:02:28,900 --> 01:02:33,380
selling books on eBay because Mel's doing it, right? It's like, it's one of the most saturated

738
01:02:33,380 --> 01:02:39,060
categories. Run away from media. Everybody listen in. It's one of the most saturated categories out

739
01:02:39,060 --> 01:02:43,460
there. It is fun to, especially if you're into books, but it is a lot more work than some other

740
01:02:43,460 --> 01:02:49,220
category. Then it can be a low ASP at times. It comes from it. I'm curious here and everybody's

741
01:02:49,220 --> 01:02:54,740
probably curious, like, what are we looking forward to 2024, your YouTube channel, your passion this

742
01:02:54,740 --> 01:03:00,100
year, you're going to full-blown YouTube as best as you can. What do we have in the future lined up?

743
01:03:01,700 --> 01:03:07,540
I think firstly, I just want to say you're right there. Don't just copy what everybody else does.

744
01:03:07,540 --> 01:03:12,340
That's one of the biggest mistakes. I've got a lot of people that just will flat out copy my store,

745
01:03:12,340 --> 01:03:18,980
but then what happens is they become very reliant on only learning what I put out there. There's a

746
01:03:18,980 --> 01:03:23,940
lot of stuff that I don't put out there. You need to do the work for yourself and you need to learn.

747
01:03:24,980 --> 01:03:29,620
Also, what's available for me in my area might not be available for Johnny in his area.

748
01:03:30,820 --> 01:03:37,700
You can't build a business around something that you can't actively source. I think that's one of

749
01:03:37,700 --> 01:03:42,180
the biggest problems is you see these people on YouTube and people want to copy and do exactly

750
01:03:42,180 --> 01:03:48,660
the same, but it doesn't necessarily cross over into that. I'll just say that.

751
01:03:49,460 --> 01:03:54,900
No, you're absolutely spot on and no disrespect to the gentleman, but I tried copying the hairy

752
01:03:54,900 --> 01:04:01,140
tornado method. It did not work out at all for me. Just saying. Nothing wrong with this channel or

753
01:04:01,140 --> 01:04:06,340
the guy at all, but as far as what we're talking about copying, do your own thing, you'll be better

754
01:04:06,340 --> 01:04:12,100
off, honestly. Yeah. It even comes down to business relationships. I have a business

755
01:04:12,100 --> 01:04:18,500
relationship with somebody that gives me a particular type of book, a lot of them. If

756
01:04:18,500 --> 01:04:22,580
somebody's following me, they might be like, oh, she puts all this stuff into her store,

757
01:04:22,580 --> 01:04:27,620
so it must be good, but little do they know that I've got a deal going where I get all this stuff

758
01:04:27,620 --> 01:04:33,860
for very, very cheap. That's the only reason why a lot of it will go into my store. I think that

759
01:04:33,860 --> 01:04:38,660
there's stuff that people don't know and you definitely can't just copy what somebody else

760
01:04:38,660 --> 01:04:45,860
is doing and have to do your own research. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the MTV show

761
01:04:45,860 --> 01:04:51,940
Cribs where they go and tour houses. Basically, they go in celebrities' houses. When you get your

762
01:04:51,940 --> 01:04:55,620
house all dressed up here that you just moved into, are we going to have a full-blown tour of

763
01:04:55,620 --> 01:05:02,740
everything? Oh yeah. I've done the empty tour, so when I get it all filled up, I'll do the full-blown

764
01:05:02,740 --> 01:05:07,460
tour. I think that was the next part of your story when you were saying what's on for the YouTube or

765
01:05:07,460 --> 01:05:16,980
whatever this year. That's something that I would really like to go down. My YouTube channel is a

766
01:05:16,980 --> 01:05:22,340
lot about reselling and it's Mill the Reseller, but it's also very, I take people on a personal

767
01:05:22,340 --> 01:05:29,220
journey and it's about me and my life in general. I think now that I'm in my own space and stuff,

768
01:05:29,220 --> 01:05:36,260
I've got some ideas for some different types of videos and I would very much like to introduce

769
01:05:36,260 --> 01:05:42,260
maybe every fortnight or something like a video that's not just about reselling. Do you know what

770
01:05:42,260 --> 01:05:47,380
I mean? It's more of a, it's still maybe like, it's about me and my life and maybe there's part of

771
01:05:47,380 --> 01:05:56,740
that is some reselling going to a thrift shop or something, but it's kind of not solely reselling,

772
01:05:56,740 --> 01:06:02,180
I guess. That would be my goal, but to do a video like that every two weeks means I have to be doing

773
01:06:02,180 --> 01:06:06,820
more videos than I currently am because I'm not just going to have one video every two weeks.

774
01:06:06,820 --> 01:06:14,100
It's about me in Australia, my life in Australia or anything like that. I've got a lot of big plans

775
01:06:14,100 --> 01:06:21,300
for the YouTube channel. It always comes down to my time and trying to find some kind of routine,

776
01:06:21,300 --> 01:06:26,180
which I'm hoping now I'm in this new house I can actually find, but it's definitely hard.

777
01:06:26,180 --> 01:06:31,220
So I'm going to go the reverse of a previous question I asked you. What are your favorite

778
01:06:31,220 --> 01:06:38,660
books to list on eBay? Okay. My favorite books to list would be books that I personally like myself.

779
01:06:38,660 --> 01:06:49,780
So that's... I'm just saying, it's funny. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Chick lit, romance novels, Nora.

780
01:06:49,780 --> 01:07:01,380
Nora. No. Do you already hate selling Nora Roberts? I'm down to sell Nora Roberts. She sells for me.

781
01:07:01,380 --> 01:07:06,580
You can have them all when you come down here. You can have them all. No, no. You have to bundle them.

782
01:07:07,460 --> 01:07:12,980
I figured this out. You can't sell them individually. It's impossible. Yeah. You have to bundle them,

783
01:07:12,980 --> 01:07:20,820
but you can bring some really good money if you bundle that type of books. So yeah, I like selling

784
01:07:20,820 --> 01:07:28,980
the chick lit, the romance, the cookbooks, all the girly type of books, I guess. And the self-help.

785
01:07:28,980 --> 01:07:34,180
I'm really... Sometimes I'll pick the self-help up even though I know it doesn't make me very much

786
01:07:34,180 --> 01:07:41,620
money, but it might be a book that... Some of those really, really common self-help books, they don't

787
01:07:41,620 --> 01:07:46,900
make you much money, but they just sell and sell and sell over and over and over very quickly. So

788
01:07:46,900 --> 01:07:52,420
I like to put those in my store because they are books that bring buyers. They are looking for those

789
01:07:52,420 --> 01:07:56,500
very popular self-help books and it brings buyers to the store. And then hopefully they'll look

790
01:07:56,500 --> 01:08:01,060
around the store and buy something else while they're there. There is one romance that I like

791
01:08:01,060 --> 01:08:07,140
listing. It's the medical romances because they sell. How do medical romance do for you in Australia?

792
01:08:07,140 --> 01:08:12,180
Do they do well? It does. Medical romance does really well for me, but it's very hard to find.

793
01:08:12,820 --> 01:08:18,020
Same. I love finding... What even is medical romance? There's your doctor on the front.

794
01:08:19,220 --> 01:08:24,020
Yeah. He's shirtless and he's got the stethoscope around his neck. Yeah. Not necessarily. There's

795
01:08:24,020 --> 01:08:29,940
actually a decent storyline. I know way more about this than I really should, but yeah.

796
01:08:29,940 --> 01:08:36,580
They're more clothed than you think they are, Mike. I stand by my statement that if somebody out on

797
01:08:36,580 --> 01:08:43,540
eBay had a romance novel only bookstore and they hired hunky men that were shirtless, tanned up and

798
01:08:43,540 --> 01:08:48,260
oiled up and they held the book for the main eBay photo, they would get a lot of sales. I don't think

799
01:08:48,260 --> 01:08:53,140
you're wrong. And I think that's genius. Even if you had the hunk sign the book, right? You know,

800
01:08:53,140 --> 01:08:57,380
hunk or whatever his name is, right? Brian the hunk, he signs the book, you get a boom, right?

801
01:08:57,380 --> 01:09:02,180
I'm telling you, you got to think outside the box at reselling anymore. Free business model for those

802
01:09:02,180 --> 01:09:08,980
listening. You know, I actually think you're a hundred percent correct. I actually think that's

803
01:09:08,980 --> 01:09:15,460
brilliant. I've never even thought about that. I've seen women standing there in different things,

804
01:09:15,460 --> 01:09:20,180
but I've never seen a hunky male. I wonder if there's a mannequin with a whole lot of abs that

805
01:09:20,180 --> 01:09:27,780
you could somehow sit like a stand up. I don't know. Like those highland Scottish romances,

806
01:09:27,780 --> 01:09:35,380
he can be in a kilt holding a Scottish romance. That would kill it. It would absolutely kill it.

807
01:09:35,380 --> 01:09:40,020
And I definitely feel like you could have an entire eBay store that was just romance novels

808
01:09:40,020 --> 01:09:48,900
and you would kill it. It's one of my top sellers and I will sell those meals and burn

809
01:09:48,900 --> 01:09:54,420
silhouette, Harlequin, whatever novels you want to call them over and over and over on repeat

810
01:09:54,420 --> 01:10:01,140
every day. I think we could try and experiment with Tom after a long day of work. We can cut

811
01:10:01,140 --> 01:10:06,180
his sleeves off his shirt, have him hold up a few books, you know, just quick and easy. Tom, listen,

812
01:10:06,180 --> 01:10:09,860
just hold the book. Don't worry about what we're doing with it. All right. Just a few pictures.

813
01:10:09,860 --> 01:10:15,300
All right. And then we'll see where it goes from there. Who knows? Oh, that's hilarious.

814
01:10:15,300 --> 01:10:25,620
I'm getting to do one. You probably could Photoshop one. It's actually a fantastic idea.

815
01:10:27,780 --> 01:10:32,260
We're going to wrap it up there. Mel, we appreciate you spending your morning with us and

816
01:10:32,260 --> 01:10:35,940
we're looking forward to what you do this year. We're all excited for the YouTube channel,

817
01:10:35,940 --> 01:10:39,380
the growth of your eBay business. So yeah, thanks for hanging out with us today.

818
01:10:40,420 --> 01:10:41,940
Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

819
01:10:41,940 --> 01:10:46,820
Thanks for listening to another episode of the resellers mindset podcast. Today's full episode

820
01:10:46,820 --> 01:10:51,620
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821
01:10:51,620 --> 01:10:57,060
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822
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