Welcome back to another episode of the resellers mindset podcast
My name is Mike also known as a used book guy on YouTube along with my friend and fellow full-time reseller
Johnny B we help people start and grow their reselling businesses from the ground up
We also have a weekly zoom call and private discord for all YouTube members
Head on over to youtube.com backslash a used book guy to join the channel and gain access to the full-length podcast
Zoom call and private discord today. Let's get into this week's episode. What is up?
Everybody welcome into another episode resellers mindset podcast Mike next to Johnny down below me
We have Jameson as well special guest on this episode
Fellow youtuber so I always like I don't know
I guess I treat the youtubers a little bit more nice than the people that don't have YouTube because I'm a youtuber
So I got to kind of look out for those other
Youtubers out there in the universe, but without further ado
James is gonna introduce himself what he does how we started and me and Johnny are gonna pick on him for the next hours
Yeah, I think you guys are gonna learn a lot from this episode. So Jameson take us away, sir
So what's up everybody? My name is Jameson
I go by 11 ink on like all social media is Jameson Lebanon YouTube Instagram, you know all that stuff
You can find me but I actually sell full-time video games for the past like four years
I've been selling on eBay and as of what like the last like two weeks
I've like go full throttle into Amazon FBA and
I accomplished something in seven days that fellow FBA sellers haven't done in five years
I have the buy box already a lot of you probably know what that is and
It's been really crazy. I haven't had a real big payment yet, but I know it's coming and
I'm feel free to ask him whatever else you want to know and all right
How'd you get into resale? Like what was your first? Do you remember like how you started? Did you watch a video?
Like what was like the the thing that kind of said? All right, I'm gonna give this a shot
So shout out to Harriet tornado because without you I wouldn't be here for the most part. But uh, this is during covid
I used to own a moving and junk-calling business for seven years and when kovat happened
We were you know, you really couldn't go to people's houses anymore
So I was born in the house in the house board and I had five thousand dollars
And I was like I watched like a YouTube video and like Harry tornado popped up
He was like going like thrifting to Goodwill or something
and then he went to Walmart and bought something for like this is a 10 and
looked it up and so worth like 30 and I was like
Oh like I have a car I have a Walmart like I could probably do that and
Then he went I went to a couple good wheels and had no idea what I was looking for
I was like looking at like shirts and pants and I have no idea like I will never sell clothing my life. Don't care and
I've always grown up around video games. So I'm like very heavily focused on video games
But like that's impossible to survive at a thrift store route selling video games
so it kind of did everything in the beginning, but a watch Harry tornado video and
did some retail arbitrage was already physically go to the store sell for more online and
I went that same day and I went my first ever big big score for retail arbitrage was maybe Josh or
Mike and put up a used a picture of their something else in your link or something
But it was a snap squad little Jurassic Park toy like really like the night like this big and it retailed for $4.99
and it sold for $70 like every hour on eBay and
I found 26 of them at the store and now it's just like floor. There's like there's no way there's no way
There's no way and so I bought them all for five bucks apiece. I put them up put one up for 40 gone
I was like, oh
Okay
50 gone 60 gone and they all sold around like with like feet and discounts and stuff maybe like around $60
So I turned was that like a hundred and forty into probably like fifteen hundred twelve hundred dollars after fees and stuff
so that was like when I was like my aha moment where I was like like this is real like
There is definitely potential in this and then while during kovat, you know moving business couldn't happen
So I say went like every local like toy store Fred Meyer
Walmart, I'm in the Pacific Northwest
my targets and like I bought I don't know if I had one down here, but that I E yo yo like ring scanner and
then like just sat there and scanned everything on eBay and like oh like
This sells for 10 and it sells on eBay for 30 and I didn't understand beginning like
Sell through I didn't understand like your actual take-home profit because you buy something for 10 and sells it for 30
You don't actually get 30 bucks
especially if you do free shipping, which is what I was doing because I don't know why I did that but I still do it but
but uh that kind of hurt me so that that first like five thousand maybe turned into like
Maybe like nine after fees and whatnot. I didn't understand sell through and like some of the stuff
I still had until like a month ago
so I'm curious like
At what point did you decide you're not going to be an everything seller and you're just going to sell video games
Like did you get tired of like having crap all around the house or was it just like you wanted to try something different?
So I was like in the beginning I was selling everything I can get my hands on and accept clothing and
I had my wife not my now my girlfriend the time my now wife wanted it to
Me to propose and buy a wedding ring and whatnot and I had like I played competitive yugioh for a really long time
So I get very expensive like childhood collection and I was like, hmm
I wonder if I can sell TCG like trading cards on eBay and I buy a ring and
then I was blown away by how expensive some of the stuff was I've had forever and ever and ever and
I sold some of that stuff and ended up getting her ring and then there was still money left over and
I went down a whole rabbit hole of selling trading cards on eBay and like
Spreading my time so thin I was like not profitable like
Granted I was profitable but like Johnny helped me out a lot during this like he's the reason why I stopped that whole train
Like I was spending so much time by chasing like 15 cents
On like a trading card granted like you can be very successful trading cards and selling cards online
But I just wasn't for me because I also sell used furniture. We'll get into that later on but like my time
Selling a used couch is like way more valuable than selling
15 cards for two bucks or something
but uh
I think I did like everything on eBay. I started september 2020
Realistically probably like 15 to 16 months. I've just like anything and everything just to build some kind of capital
And like recoup my initial five thousand bass I can
and then it wasn't until like
Maybe like a legit like
Three to like nine months ago somewhere like in that period
Is like when I zoned in like heavily into video games because I built up more capital
So now I buy I didn't buy like a lot of stuff like I was like
Because I built up more capital. So now I buy I did really really good buying stuff locally
around like 30 price trading.com value, so if something is worth
A whole collection worth two thousand. I'd probably pay like six hundred dollars
Because on average the low end stuff is worthless, but the high end stuff kind of balances you out more or less
And I did that while selling and getting free couches that also like skyrocketed my capital to start buying more and more and more
I turn a free couch into five hundred dollars consistently every day is just crazy, but it's definitely doable. Trust me
and
Yeah, as of the last like I guess you had the you had the junk business. So like the furniture
Kind of was already up your alley
But I mean some of the flips you post it's just insane to me that you'd literally get these items for free and you sell them
For a thousand dollars like over a weekend. It's like
It's like give me a little bit of insight on the furniture side of your business
So I had to go back a little bit because when we had the moving business
After covid we we kind of kept afloat because we did like staging which is like what a house gets put on the market
We like deliver the furniture from a client's warehouse blah blah blah
And then so I touched a lot of furniture like high-end designer stuff
So I kind of had an eye like oh like hmm. That's cool. Like what's that brand and like oh mental note cool
And then I'm like, oh how much did you buy that for? Oh, you bought that couch for 7200?
What the heck that's garbage, but
People buy it because it looks nice
And that kind of like started my brain trickling down that way and then when the junk company
Was able to open back up it went the whole time during covid but like full force
Is we had people that bring the stuff to the curb and we just drive by pick it up and go
So like we didn't have to go in people's homes and that like saved a lot of time
And I started like I think the first ever like couch I sold was like we got for free. I was paid actually to take it
Someone paid us $800 to clear out their whole garage
And I sold that couch for 50 bucks in like an hour. I was like, oh
50 bucks is 50 bucks. Like, you know, I could buy a bottle if I wanted to and have fun with my friends or whatever the time
and then like oh like
I do 100 bucks and kind of just like started like leveling up that way
And like, you know, no matter what I was paid. I was profitable no matter what like I was getting paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars
Just to take this stuff
And majority of the time I never went to the dump because it all got like sold off
Or like donated or I kept it the uh, the balancing act, right? So you're you're getting the furniture
I know you still do it with your wife and you know, you're you're building up your you know, you switch from ebay to amazon
How do you balance both of these things? Because I think it's like
Balance both of these things because I feel like the furniture is kind of like if somebody wants to couch go on like they're just
Going to want it going right away
They don't want to hold it for you for the day or even you know two days
They just like hey get this out of here compared to amazon. So like kind of can work it work it into your schedule
So how does that look for you?
Like where i'm at now i'm pretty like deep into the couch reselling furniture reselling game
I have like a very good eye and I have like a a threshold of $400
I'm not gonna if I can't sell for $400. I'm not gonna go get it
So that's like a really good threshold because in the beginning I was getting like oh like that's like 30 bucks
And you know 30 bucks or 30 bucks at the time when you're broke
But uh now I have a threshold and now so I sell
Used furniture especially like couches and seating wearing stuff like that my wife
If you guys want to see what we sell her instagram is miles underscore mercantile and mine's miles dot furniture
And you can see what we're selling again like she specializes now in like high-end curated antiques like primitive rustic farmhouse type stuff
And like, you know, we're buying stuff for
100 bucks selling it for 2100 and stuff like that consistently
Just feel like a good eye. I mean built up a social media following you clean all the you clean all the furniture
Couches yes, depending like in the beginning if I i'd go get a free couch and a heartbeat
Because I know I can clean it and I could I sell it
But now if I can buy a couch for two three hundred four hundred dollars and sell it for eight hundred nine hundred a thousand dollars
Already clean like i'm gonna go get that one
And uh now my best friend my roommate, uh billy
He also started selling furniture too and his first month his p profit of 4600 dollars just in case he like
Copying what I did. I was like, hey like you go get that
And then that was his take on after I took my percent off the top from like helping him like my knowledge. Basically he paid for
And now like if there's a good couch like he'll go get it and what was like i'll take a percent of it or whatever
And I don't have to go get it anymore. Really?
Unless it's like really good then like okay. Yeah, we'll go get it together
but uh
I'm pretty good
What would make a good couch because when I think of couches most of them are leather these days or cloth or whatever
So what is a high end luxury couch? Does it have a different texture to it? Is it made out of super rare?
It's all just brand
That's it. Is there already like
Where's this tag where the tags at on the couch underneath the cushions or on the bottom or what?
On the very bottom like on that like black
Like felt underneath that black mesh hiding like the springs and innards underneath it
Or like underneath the cushions on like the actual seating part
Yeah, but like johnny brings up a good point like I highly doubt they showed that in the photo
Yeah
Nope, but uh
I can show you guys kind of like a live example if I
I can't tell you the difference between a hundred dollar couch and a thousand dollar couch by just looking at the
$1000 couch by just looking at it without flipping the thing over and doing some goo right?
Yeah, like you're like asking them what the brand is. They're like dude. It's a free couch
Why you asking me what the brand is? Um, it's it's I mean, I guess like you said though you you've been around furniture
So you kind of have the eye when you see something, you know
It's gonna and i've seen some of the pieces uh you and the wife sell on instagram
And you could tell like probably even if I seen those i'd be like damn that's probably worth some money
Yeah, so like to stay on the theme of couches like google image is your freaking best friend
Like there's been a lot of stuff. I was like, oh like
That looks cool. But like is it what I think it is?
And like let's say I find it on facebook and i'll screenshot it put it in a google image search and then
It'll pop up all these results and like no no. Oh, there it is. Oh, that's by west elm
Like that's a retail of four thousand dollar couch and they want 30 bucks
I'm gonna go get it
I'm gonna go get it and then um, so like yeah, what makes a high end couch is brand
Typically, they like actually use wood or like walnut or some type of higher end wood and like higher end fabrics
And it's generally more heavy
So that means, you know and higher end cushions and you know, that's kind of stuff and they'll also
the brand carries a lot of weight like some of the really top top stuff i've sold is like
Restoration hardware cloud couch which like retails like 25 30 000 for a freaking couch
Well, here's what i'm trying to figure out. So you're looking at this thing either on your phone or computer
How do you know to go get it without wasting your time?
Like because you're just looking at a photo
Um, I have like an automatic like
Send message. I was like, hey like isn't any rip stains broken things or anything gross?
Because if there's if there's cat urine dope, bye i'm out if there's smoke. Nope. Bye i'm out
And uh, like I asked a lot of questions at first unless I like I know the brand's good and I know I can fix it
Right off the bat like hey, what's your address? I'll be there in 20 minutes. Here's 50 bucks demo
Even though it's free, but like there's a lot of competition near me and i'll like i'll pay out and especially if I can know
I can make my money
So the worst case scenario you end up with
I don't know a couple hundred dollar couch that was free on a
Bad day or bad pickup, I guess and and like worst case scenario if I can't like
I think this week
I gave away I posted for free like three couches that took like they didn't sell in 30 days
So they go up for free like I just want that they're gone like they've used up their time. They use up their space
So like out with the old and in with the new
And they usually post on facebook for free and like gone like two hours later all that was gone
Free has a lot of weight
I i've done that absolutely free and it's gone within hours
Whatever it is that that's so true. It's uh, it's basically he he's offloading his duds to another furniture seller
Yeah, actually, uh, was it yesterday another couch that I physically personally bought off of before and made money off of
He's a hey man, like I want this one like I have it and like yeah, dude come get it
You know where i'm at. He's a cool be there in 10
And uh, my buddy billy was already there working at a storage unit because he now he physically cleans it clean it
He physically cleans the couches backings them and I just take a percent
And uh, so he met up with him and he took his couch and was like hey man
I couldn't sell that for 200 dollars in a month. So like good luck
so
Um now time to get into the juicy stuff. I love ebay to amazon convert
It's like one of the one of my things. I just I don't know
I love people that ditch the ebay life and get on the amazon train. So um, it's so real
So what do you like give me the insight because johnny's kind of the same way now as he's transitioned until basically almost all amazon
He still pumps out his ebay listings, but not like he used to one a day
give me the
Six. Oh, okay. Were you like
Were you hesitant? Were you like worried like oh you're worrying about getting banned on amazon like all the traditional things you hear
From like an ebay seller that's never done amazon is oh i'm going to get banned right away
The fees are high like what was your take taking the jump from ebay to amazon?
Uh, I have some very successful friends that do this full time and they're in like multiple seven to eight figure realm
And if they can do it I can do it
Copy and paste what they're doing and rinse and repeat
Like I the thought I've had a couple of screenshots where I woke up and said your account's at risk of deactivation
I'm like, oh no, like panic mode. It's like high pricing error like no impact. Whatever. Whatever
I was like, you know when I first saw that I never experienced that I was like, oh my god
I sent it to johnny. I sent it to everyone else like am I dead like is that it?
It's like no, it means nothing like keep you over man game over. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah respawn on five. Yeah
But uh, i've never had anything weird or like i'm never scared like
The only way to in my mind to learn is to try it if I don't try i'll never know
So might as well try find out
Yeah, so so people are going to say that the fees are higher on amazon
So why won't you just sell it on ebay instead you're selling video games. They're collectible
Ebay is a collectible platform now. So
Give me your two cents behind you're going to a platform where the fees are higher
And you leave in a platform that kind of focuses on collectibles and the retro, you know
Snes games that you're selling and the retro games you're selling
So like my big big like i plan to do amazon fba since I started ebay like that was from the start from the get-go like that's my goal
Because i'm gonna get to exactly where I am now when I started
And so like my whole like, you know timeline i'm getting here took a long time anyways
But uh, the big reason was like I could have my basement back like
All the stuff I do store for ebay is now in some amazon warehouse around the country
And I don't have to deal with customers. I don't have to deal with shipping. You know, I just get paid
So like that was a big benefit. I mean that's just
It sums up amazon and the difference between amazon and ebay like
Uh hit a little bit more on the price difference between today and amazon because I know
I don't have to buy box and video games. You heard jamison talk about it. He got it already within a week
I just when I started my account
Like he like he said you can't sell video games if you rely on thrift stores because they don't exist in thrift stores anymore
And if they do they're ridiculously priced. Yeah, if you're paying like nine dollars for a three dollar game or something
Yeah, yeah, so I never got the buy box. So like it radio games kind of been an afterthought to me
But I know for a fact there is a huge price difference between amazon and ebay for these video games. So dive into that a little bit
So I can kind of go from the high down
So on amazon, i've only been selling on amazon for video game wise. I think like three weeks now and probably if that sounds about right
Johnny since we came back but um
Like there's the renewed program which is like you're authorized by nintendo sony playstation whatever these brands are
To refurbish and rehab and restore their products and sell them underneath their brand on amazon for an additional
But in order to get that it's like fifty thousand dollars uh ungating fee per brand
With an invoice of that product so then back down to where majority of the rest of the world's at like where i'm at and a couple of my friends are
um
You can go on ebay and like for example
Like I buy these all the time for like on ebay like 20 to 25 dollars
But uh, you know, it's better if you can buy them in like lots so, you know if you can buy a lot of i love retro games but uh
If I can buy a lot of these for like I think I paid like 130 bucks for these
But uh, I can take a super mario game on ebay is like 25 30 dollars on amazon. It's like 55 60
So I can buy a lot of these for like a hundred and thirty bucks for like a hundred and thirty bucks
So I can buy 25 30 dollars on amazon. It's like 55 60 by itself
but then you can go one step further and you can bundle it with a
Super nintendo. Oh, it's over there
But uh, and now super nintendo goes for the console on like ebay is like 100 to 120 free shipping give or take depending on condition
And now it's 230
Because I added this game
and like there's some crazy insane margins
And amazon has substantially more fees. Yes
but like the speed at which you sell is
unmatched
like I don't understand if people don't understand sell through rank and stuff like that like
A rank like 2000 and amazon video games is like gone gone gone gone gone
But then like, you know that same game on ebay might have like a week potentially
And then the people are buying it
Well, I don't know ebay video game seller should sell on amazon
Uh in my mind, it's like a filter a lot of people are scared
A lot of people are afraid to try a lot of people think it costs a boatload of money. It does not
Um is extremely frustrating though for sure
Like to start and like if you don't have like a good community or like someone like one of you guys or other people just like
Hey, like hold my hand
Uh, it's very very difficult in my opinion
Especially because like, you know any moment amazon can just shut your store down like
No question to ask no nothing
It's just like a big filter
That is true
I guess that's kind of like it's a good thing if you're going to resell on amazon is
It is a lot more of a pain in the ass getting that getting your account even set up
They got all these hoops. You got to jump through there's so many, you know, nothing straightforward
The seller support sucks
I mean ebay's you know, ebay seller support sucks too, but ebay's kind of the wild west
You kind of can do whatever you want, right? You can list
Yeah, you know, you can list the pokemon game on ebay, but you go to amazon
You need to get ungated in pokemon to sell the pokemon game. So it's like
The extra barriers of entry are only beneficial to you the person that's taking the steps
To get past them and that goes for anything. It's not even just video games any kind of name brand
That's gated on amazon people get frustrated like oh, I can't sell disney
Can't sell nike. I can't sell nintendo. I'm like well get ungated then you can how many people are nike
People are not going to get ungated boom. That's an instant like it's cheat code it you literally are passing people by
On the side of the road because you're doing these little things
And like you said, it's not crazy stuff
You got to do you just got to know what you're doing and there's tons of communities out there to get the information
I think for me like the largest like filter is like you ebay like
Any joe schmoke and wake up on the side of the road and send in to sell something on ebay like no problem
Um amazon you need like a real business registered to your state
You have to be you know
You can't be like a joe schmoke to make a real physical entity
And like you have to have you get the pass like their visual exam your driver's license exam
Like all that kind of stuff. There's like way more
extra filters to prevent scam to prevent fraud fraud on amazon
because like
there's
Insane power on amazon and selling speed
like if you were to make like a fake ad or something and promote some scam product and
They're liable. So like ebay like you can sell a fake like I have a next to me. I have a bunch of fake
uh games I keep on me just to compare to like
Some joe schmoke and sell us on ebay like oh it's real
But you don't know the difference and then like someone buys it like oh buy blocked and you delete your account whatever
But amazon is not like that
So coming from ebay to amazon
How much of the work ethic from ebay has transferred over to amazon for you like the mentality to
Refine systems and get everything done the same day kind of deal
Uh, I think it's like notched up
Like the quality I want to send in like is way superior than what ebay would get
Because in order to get the buy block on amazon you have to have a very good condition game, which is basically like
brand new out of the wrapper essentially
And like in order to do that you have to buy replacement cases and like all that kind of stuff
And like
There's just so more so many more extra things you need to do to like please the lords of amazon
Yeah, and like ebay like you can sell like a broken console
you know
I mean, yeah, this one's broken in the back. Hmm. You know, I can still it works
You know, I can still let on ebay all day long for probably 100 bucks or whatever. But like amazon like no way
That's the thing too like I was I was putting things aside that I couldn't
That I thought I could not send into amazon just because of quality difference
I ended up having a couple conversations mike included over here. It's like no dude send that in amazon. Don't care. I like, okay then
Uh, but like trice. I think it's a little bit different because everything has to be in working order
Right cover creasing spine slanting. No dust jackets all good to send in. Yeah. Yeah
Yeah, like amazon like
If you were to send in like this is the same game that makes me lego star wars, but like it's missing the cover art
like no
Like you that's just a no because like if you were a physical if you're the grandma buying it for your grandkid
Like here's your here's your blank game son or whatever like
It doesn't hit as good as like here's lego star wars, you know
Yeah, like my my book missing a dust jacket
I mean, it's like, oh but a lot of the photos of books on amazon honestly
A lot of them don't have dust jackets. I've seen them that or they have the
Photoshop not really anything to do with the book image
so I get why amazon has
Let down well made it less gray that you can do so now
But it was it's interesting after doing a bajillion listings where it seems like a bajillion listings
it's
I think the consumer just wants
Quote-unquote legitimate reading copies. They don't come there to collect
That's what they go to ebay for they want an exact copy or
Ultra rare edition
Ultra rare edition one of five thousand kind of deals because I don't think that's over at amazon
Do you feel do you feel a certain way?
When considering you're selling the same games now for sixty dollars that you're selling on ebay for thirty dollars
Do you feel like a a greedy reseller scalper now that you're getting double the price? I feel like I made it
I hit my goals like
I I wanted to do this and I did it like yellow me all you want like
If you would if you could increase your like end sell through or end sell number double by doing something else
Why aren't you? Yeah, but you know amazon has the stigma around it right like amazon's the root of all evil in the universe
I mean ebay can be rude too like i've been screwed over by ebay. I've made some
bad things that happen, you know, whatever but like
Having like your space back to me for what my progress is like such such a benefit
My time dude, my time was my big one. Oh and it's just a time difference
Considering like how long does it take you?
How long would it take you to list a box of video games for amazon versus ebay?
Like that time alone. I feel like is you know, I understand people are scared of trying something different
But the power of amazon it might not be around forever, you know, but
It's here now. We'll cross that bridge if it gets there and that's why I always try to tell everybody just give it a shot
I mean it could change your life overnight
Yeah, not quite overnight but over like a couple of weeks, but yeah for sure
Yeah, yeah. Well back in my day when we signed up for amazon, they would say okay. How far is it check?
It used to be like the wild west back in my day
But now you know, they gotta gotta have video chats with jeff bezos. You gotta verify who you are
You're not a hologram and all that stuff. But yeah, it is a little bit longer of a process
But like you said it kind of weeds out the bad players
I think you know this informed consumers act that everybody's pissed off about i'm all for it
If you're a legitimate business, all you gotta do is click a few buttons get a little postcard sent to you
Put a few numbers in boom. You're verified and what happens here
You get all these people that buy these amazon accounts live in other countries are doing shady things. They go bye-bye
So things like this, I mean the more barriers to entry and maybe it's crappy of me to say this since i'm
I've been on amazon i'm ungated and you know 90 of items i've never even sold in brands because i've been around for so long
But I honestly think the harder it is even if you're starting today
The better off you're going to be if you just get through it to begin with
Exactly like
One of like my big hurdles and like things with amazon was like understanding you know like getting my physical space back
And like saving the time from like having it like next thing you're like right here is like a what is this?
I don't know like a 24 by 24. That was like cube photo light booths and like previously i'd have to like you know
Open the game take the disc out take the manual out set it all down picture picture
You know close up show all the flaws you know whatever whatever and now it's just like
I'm you know assuming that prior I went and did the work made sure everything's good
The case is clean you know all that kind of stuff so
So tell us about your first box what experience was that for you because everybody first box with you or like first box with games
Your first box ever for amazon. I don't know if I was your first box. Yeah, you were so I popped your uh box cherry, okay
Yeah, you hopped in my box, dude. Oh
Oh, we're gonna get how long did it take you?
I'd like johnny like helped me like once he showed me how to do like one or two. I was oh, yeah
Yeah, i'm good
And then like I call him back on like i'm done and maybe like realistic probably like an hour
Because when I started uh for free uh, there was like 40 000 free books
And at that time I had my moving company so I had box trucks
So I went down in a 16 foot box truck filled it up for free
Came back unloaded like I don't know 200 300 boxes like uh, u-haul smalls in my driveway. My wife's like what are you doing?
I was like i'm gonna be rich
and uh
You know, I thought like every book you scan was good. So oh, yeah, i'll take everything
I'll take as much as I can and that's not the case
But uh, surprisingly like that I scanned the whole thing. My success rate was like 42 percent
It was actually pretty freaking good considering
But uh, he was like a it was like a ex-librarians like private horde basically
and
So I had that ring scanner and I downloaded it and printed it
and so I had that ring scanner and I downloaded it i'm pretty sure like
I think at that time is when I found mike. I found like uh, your how to use scoutly or what scout iq or something something
and I was like, oh cool and
Started scanning all that stuff in with johnny's help
And I didn't understand how like print my little effing skew stickers. I was like, oh where did I put them?
Like, you know, is this good? Is this good?
You know like showing all these things like because I don't know what i'm physically looking at. It's a book
I can read it great. But is that is that good quality? Is that very good? Is that poor, you know?
so like learning like all the different like scales of quality is like
Kind of like hard
In the beginning, but like once you like sit down and do your first box of whatever niche you want to be in like
Here's off to the races. So like maybe like
10 minute phone call with johnny said I had like my laptop in the garage and there's like huge wall of books behind me
I was like, hey man, like now what I got the books
How do I become rich and he's like, oh like we'll grab a box
Scan it and he's like I was like, well this one's got stickers. Like should I take it off?
He's like set it aside and keep going
and so like, you know having that system too is like
Scan everything that didn't have a sticker over the barcode and like, you know, just keep going set it aside and like, you know
eventually come back to those
Mm-hmm
And uh, that was like, oh wow, like what a crazy time sink and like, you know, yeah
Yeah, because he was doing one by one and like well, yeah
I'd scan the barcode. Oh next one. I stick it open up typing the isbn like oh
Err
You know, I'm just totally back to that pile in a minute. Do the ones with the barcode first. Yeah. Yeah
I came back to that pile like nine months later like all the stuff that has stickers
The shirt that says I got the books. How do I become rich now?
Yeah
The books box wait for your check. That's all I do. It's magic. You wave your wand. Yeah ever go
I
I think I opened my amazon account. I immediately joined the you know, the $40 pro seller is you basically need to
And I think that was like february 2023
So like a little bit over a year and a half by now
almost
and uh, I sent in my first shipment with johnny's help and I was like, oh like
600 or a profit man. I'm killing it
you know, it doesn't that doesn't like
I granted I knew it's not like 600 hours instantly wire transfer
And so, you know, it's like maybe
100 wire transfer in like seven months because like storage fees shipping amazon fees blah blah blah blah blah
Like I don't understand that I didn't care
I just wanted my store to have the pro account level of 40 dollars a month and having like trickle sales of like, you know
I'm active
because eventually I'll get to the point where all I'm gay all video game brands and like just
pour gasoline on my fire and that's exactly where i'm at right now is
I set a goal to maintain my amazon store to have like good health score and like
Because in my mind, I thought like the longer the older your store like maybe I got engaged easily
Like I got engaged in lego for sending it an invoice for
transformers, so
Maybe because I had an old account. I have no idea
Probably I think there is something to say about the older accounts
Uh, you do have more leeway, I think
So, I mean listen you got to get some kind of benefit for being around forever
That's how I look at it. I got to give us some kind of juice here
Um, so i'm curious here when it comes to video games and maybe somebody's thinking about getting into video games
Give us some tips and tricks if somebody's brand new to selling video games or maybe they want to start selling video games on amazon
Sell clothes. No, okay. Oh
uh
To sell video games on amazon like you honestly you need to get ungated and it's a major brand. So like nintendo sony
PlayStation is very weird because there's playstation with capital p capital s
There's playstation with lowercase lowercase and there's playstation with just a capital s
It's very weird to get you have to get ungated in all of them
You know your main ones is basically nintendo
So sony xbox microsoft and all that kind of stuff and then once you get more and more deeper into it
You're like, oh like here's one like this is a pretty crazy game
Like you need to get like konami ungated because this granted is an xbox game
But on amazon, this is branded under konami's listing. So like
Just because you can sell xbox. You can't sell konami
and like that was like
When I first did my first shipment of video games
I scanned my entire ebay store. Well, maybe not really maybe like two or three boxes next to me
And like whatever I could sell immediately like I put it into the tote whatever I couldn't sell into another tote like i'll come back to you
And then sent in all the stuff I could sell in and just get out of the house
And like, you know tote by tote by tote
You know I now have
Originally, I had 13 racks of listed ebay inventory and now I have
I think five
All right, i'm not quite done. We're gonna we're gonna do off the free sauce here. It's really not anything special
But people when you hear somebody oh, I need to get ungated in something. Everybody thinks you got to spend a million dollars
personally, i'm ungated in nintendo and pokemon because
Uh, i'm already ungated in the other ones because my account's been around for a while
But I was gated in nintendo. They're pretty protective of all other ip stuff
And I know nintendo items hold value over the years much better than the other
Publishers so give me some sauce on how to get ungated in video games
And if you remember how much you paid I know I only paid 50 bucks to get nintendo. I got uh,
amiibos 10 new amiibos that got me ungated for nintendo from where
Uh, inet video. Yeah. Yeah
Um, so yeah, give me some insight how you got ungated did it cost you an arm and a leg is it feasible for somebody?
That doesn't have uh, five thousand dollars to start like full disclosure
Like I made an entire video on my youtube channel jamesonlevening because exactly what I bought exactly where I bought it from
What these brands got me and I think my all-in was like 984
And that I'd like open the gates to every major video game brand I needed
There you go, uh, and the link for that will be down pinned in the comments
So you don't know how to get ungated in video games. He's already got a video for you
I didn't even know about the video and i'm subscribed to the channel. So I guess i'm a bad subscriber. I apologize
All right, i'll take i'll admit when i'm wrong. I make vlog content. I record basically what i'm looking at
I don't know how to edit i'll never learn how to edit. So if that's your thing great if not great you do you
I pay an editor. So I mean I can edit a little bit but i'm not i'm not up there
So yeah, it's really it's more accessible. I think than people actually realize
I think that goes for selling on amazon overall, but even like video games
Um, you know, you'd be amazed the value of some of these some of these inattentive games some of these pokemon games on amazon
And everybody's gonna say well jamison
What about the returns? Well jamison's only been in here a few weeks selling his video games on amazon
But the price of business it's you know, you're gonna have five percent return rate probably i'm a little bit under four percent
I looked today for the past 30 days
So it's the cost of doing business and like he said there's plenty of people out there
That are crushing it doing just video games. There's plenty of you know, large youtube channels
We had jack on you know a few months ago doing it by himself seven figures
What's your goals for this year for your amazon business?
Like do you have a a sales goal or like an inventory goal or like you say you're in the same boat as me then
Get in the house
Yeah, um like right now i'm in the pacific northwest
Like i'm with my same income currently right now i'm approved for like 380 000
380 000
But if you take that same income and move it to florida entirely over coast, it's like 490
Yeah, and like the difference from like a clunker project house here for 380
Versus like brand new custom build the pool there
plus like there's a bunch of other benefits and stuff that I can go into later or whatever, but
Yeah, the goal is to
buy a house
like purely off of like you know from scratch on like something that like
I was told I could never do and that there's no I was told
Um by a close family friend relative that there's no money in online. You can never make money online
And now i'm making their entire income in a month. So have you talked to this person recently?
Yeah, it's my mother-in-law. So yes. Oh man. That's that's you
That's uh murky waters. Good luck chubb
Yeah, but it's it's been great like it's
ebay alone, uh, you know watching like uh
Tech and sports videos. I met him. I met johnny. I met jack like
All the big people I looked up to and all the people that helped me out like tremendously
Uh without them, I don't think i'd be here
Maybe i'd be here but like in like two three years time
Yeah, because I talk to them not just like I was going this way like hey, there's a shortcut to go this way
I'm like, oh cool. Yes. I always tell everybody like
I can put as much information out there
But it's at the end of the day jameson. You're the one that took the action
On it, right? You decided to get ungated
We you could have a million videos on how to do a million different things
But if you just watch them and never do it who cares you never amount to anything
So like yeah, it's cool to be like hey, you know you you get shortcuts from other people
And it's not like it's not even like you're cheating because everybody has access to these people right jack tech
They're all on every social media platform. You just message these guys and be like hey, here's what I got going on
You're going to get a straight-up response. It's not like anybody here is trying to like, I don't know
Trying to ruin somebody before they start so you just took advantage of the resources you have around you
Yep, I didn't I didn't pay for no course. I learned on my own dime
Because I didn't know any resellers besides like Harry tornado when I started
And like I talked to him a little bit too. So Josh, if you ever watched this. Hello. Thank you very much, but uh
I had no one when I started for like a year and a half
I was like in my you know in my in my garage at the time with like racks of inventory I bought
And like I was like dang like a bit cool if I could like I love talking about this stuff
I love showing people like hey like I can buy this for five sell it for 20
I just made $10 profit at a thin air because it went from this hand to this hand like how cool is that
Like oh, you're a liar. You're a scammer. You're a scalper is like what okay?
Then go work at Starbucks for two hours and make the same amount of money like I don't care
There's just like a bunch of ways you can make money at the end of the day
We all have the same 24 hours a day depends on how you use it how you use it
And uh, the best quote i've ever heard is from my mom
And it's you're the creator of your own life create the life you want to live
And I definitely definitely believe in that if you want to be sad be sad if you want to be successful
Think it manifests it. That's that's really real like
Before my wife and I met she wanted to drive own a white jeep
And uh date a guy with blonde hair and blue eyes
When we first met I had a white jeep and I still had blonde hair and blue eyes as far as I know
And like a bunch of other crazy things that like she manifested and like I manifested like like are all intertwining now and it's just like
like dang like
We did it
That's uh, that's pretty inspiring man. Like I think your mom hit it right on the head. You're not subject to
Anything you don't want to do or anything, you know, you don't want to be you kind of choose your destiny in this and
Sure, there's a lot of people that rather just roll over and be like, oh jamison video games. You're unemployed
You know like you're a loser like we all deal with it as resellers even no matter how successful we get right
We could literally show up in a Lamborghini to thanksgiving and they're like, uh, what's up unemployed mike guy? Yeah
I'm just like
To each your ged yet or what?
No, i'm still in middle school somewhere. I'm still in middle school. I'm still in middle school
No, i'm still in middle school somewhere. I'm like, uh, what what adam sandler movie was that where you went back to school?
Little nicky no, no, no, no
Come on it's gonna before my time kid everybody's gonna comment and make fun of me now that I can't figure out the adam sandler movie
billy madison
Pretty sure that was it. Yes jaws
Yeah, yeah, uh, here we
So you got a collection you collect video games as well
Uh, you come across you come across the video game
You don't have in your collection and sells for 300 on amazon. Are you keeping it or are you selling it?
I don't have it. I'm keeping it
That's that's not a that's not a good reseller answer we were looking for
I mean in my life, I don't care say like this game right here
Is like 2500 dollars. It's earthbound big box. It's like 2500 dollars
I got on a crazy deal because I joined um other reselling discords and stuff and people know I collect super nintendo. They're like hey like
I got this like do you want it? I was like, uh, I mean, yeah, like what do you want?
He said oh like I want 1100 plus i'll throw in this other stuff. I didn't have like cool
Yeah, and then I think the validity there is
Maybe you know back before you started anything because me and deb have kind of gone down the same path as
We used to be so broke like I would you know
We would buy like an ipad for deb and then like we couldn't make the bills and we have to sell the ipad
And then we wound up buying an ipad a few months later when we had another few hundred dollars
So like as you change your situation and reselling and your finances overall
You kind of can have it's easier to make these decisions if you want to collect things
Sure, there's no problem doing it because the three hundred dollars isn't you know your grocery money and half your rent money this month
So it is kind of you know as you grow your business and as long as you're smart with your finances
Um, you can you can do these kind of things. You can hold on to a three dollar game or
2500 dollar game sitting behind you. I'll give you 50 bucks for it
You can take a picture for 50 bucks. You can zoom on me right now. I seen on ebay. They're selling for 50 dollars, dude
I'm not paying the amazon price
That's the ebay price. You can't even buy that on amazon
Amazon uh, it's 50 million my whole super nintendo collection everything you see behind me I got for in theory free
because
My whole goal was to collect the whole super nintendo library
Like 721 games complete in box for zero dollars out of pocket
With the sole challenge of like I have to find a free a free item on the side of the road couch chair, whatever it is
Still locally for 50 to 100 to a thousand dollars, whatever it is, and then I take half of that money
And like that's my super nintendo budget
And so i'll go on ebay and spend half that budget like oh cool add a cart buy
On a two percent cash back credit card too. So I was like, oh getting a little kickback extra too
but uh
Yeah, it's pretty cool
All right, and like all of this is a write-off too. So like
I need it for my business. Yeah your business. Uh, you're collecting business
I will sell it like if I had to sell everything to buy a house
Dude, i'm in the same boat. I swear I swear to you I was thinking about this the other day
I'm like I would part ways with all the collectible stuff I have because you know
That's kind of like the progressive steps for a lot of us, you know
You start reselling you just want to pay your cell phone bill or be able to buy, you know
Chipotle or mcdonald's and you could you just
It just goes to the next thing into the next thing and it's funny that we're kind of at the same point here when it comes
to you know, looking for houses and trying to get get a space that you know works for us and pay off a house and
Be able to retire with a whole lot of money and you know, not really, you know
Bust our ass as much as we have right we put in the time now
So we don't have to later on that's kind of how I look at it
So I think we're going to wrap it up here final thoughts jamison. Where can people find you?
Uh your overall take on you know
Tips and tricks for a brand new reseller and what are some of your goals to end this year when it comes to
How much in sales you want to do at the end of the year? I guess we'll start there
Give me a number
The end goal sales for this year is hopefully I can do a quarter million
Last year I did well over a hundred thousand just on ebay
But I want to do a quarter million alone and that's with like ebay amazon and furniture
Which I think I can
If what people are telling me is true q4 is super crazy like oh i'll hit that no problem
and like
tips to people starting now
there's like
So many youtubers you can watch and go down like crazy rabbit holes of learning stuff
But like the best way is learn it yourself like seriously brute force
Like go out there download the ebay app on your phone like go to whatever your store is you go to yard sales and like just
Scan something like type it in like oh like furby brand new 1996 like
You know, whatever it is like do your research. Don't just like I hate the questions like hey man, like I got this how much it's like
Yeah, and do your research
Hey, it's like that photo. I sent you that killer instinct and I had no idea what it was
I was just like a killer instinct. It's a game. You might like it. All right, so where can people find you at?
Uh, I think pretty much all social medias is jamison11ink
Like instagram youtube. I think that's all I do
Is selling if I wanted to start selling video games today on amazon is there still plenty of room?
For a new person to start selling video games and make a whole lot of money
Yes, uh to sell video games in my opinion, you know a lot of capital because there's a massive comp
There's a huge pool of people competing
um, but like that pool is dwindling with all the new filters that come through new rules new whatever and like
One of the really big sellers that we all talk to
Uh, he's like if you can survive the storm you're doing great
So if you just stay afloat whenever no sinks
Like all the prices go back up
You know, then you can capitalize on the loss and the games and you know that kind of stuff
But uh, definitely you can definitely do it
All right, jamison. We appreciate you hanging out with us. We'll probably check in on you in a year
We got to start making our rounds again. Johnny going back to people we interviewed just to see how they're doing
And yeah, um look forward to seeing what you do this year with the youtube. You've been uploading more lately
So i'm excited for that. I'm excited to see the couch flips over on instagram every single day
You and the wife are crushing that game. It's ridiculous
Some of the flips you guys get and yeah, we'll talk to you in a year, man. We appreciate you hanging out
I'll be my house in a year. I promise
Hopefully me too. Everybody have a good one. We'll talk to you next week's episode
Thanks for listening to another episode of the resellers mindset podcast
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