Welcome back to another episode of the Resellers Mindset Podcast.
My name is Mike, also known as the used book guy on YouTube,
along with my friend and fellow full-time reseller, Johnny B.
We help people start and grow their reselling businesses from the ground up.
We also have a weekly zoom call and private discord for all YouTube members.
Head on over to youtube.com backslash use book guy to join the channel and gain
access to the full length podcast zoom call and private discord today.
Let's get into this week's episode.
What is up everybody welcome into another episode of Resellers Mindset Podcast.
Mike next to Johnny, Johnny's the brains of the operation,
especially on this topic today.
And it's a good one.
And I think it's super important.
And I'm going to have some, uh, basically I got a lot to kind of knock this one
out of the park when it comes to why can't we as resellers think past the idea
that thrift stores are the only place that exists, right?
So he said, let's talk about sourcing and kind of, you know, some good sources,
some bad sources.
And I'll go first here because I got one that's been on my mind lately is when I
first started reselling, goodwill was my jam, Johnny, like I walk into a goodwill
and I'm like, I can't even carry all the stuff out.
I'm like, Deb carry this stuff, get the cats too.
And I haven't stepped foot in a goodwill now.
I'm probably close to two months and it's crazy, right?
Because that's where I started.
I remember like the store still exists, uh, not that far from me, my old honey
hole, uh, Deb likes to call it and the only time I really go in goodwill now
is just to see if anything's changed.
I know it hasn't, or like the nostalgia feeling of being inside of a, you know,
a goodwill that just absolutely sucks.
But I haven't been at one in two months and honestly, I've sourced more items,
more quality items than I ever have.
So you're probably thinking, well, Mike, you're not going to the 15 goodwills
you have in your routes.
What have you replaced them with?
Well, unfortunately I don't like to, you know, hide all my great sources
because I'm worried you're all going to run out here and steal everything.
Like other resellers, I've been going to record shops.
I mean, this past week I've spent close to a thousand dollars in two record
shops and that's only two stores.
Um, that's what I replaced them with.
And you don't know until you know.
So I think it's good to kind of cover this idea of maybe some sources you had
that you no longer have, or some that you kind of came up with, record shops.
I mean, you pay a little bit more, but not really because you're
paying three dollars for DVD at goodwill.
The record shops, believe it or not, even though they're record shops,
they got to write their name.
Um, they have thousands and thousands of DVDs to go along with the
cassettes and the CDs and the one record shop even had books in the record shop.
And their prices range from like $2 and some sets I'm paying $15 for, but we have
the data in front of us to make the decision to buy it.
And I will say this, another benefit to go into a place like that is it's small
locally owned and they check for the quality of the things, right?
Unlike a thrift store where you go, you don't look inside the case, you buy it,
you get home, there's no disc inside the case that doesn't exist at record shops.
These people actually take pride in their business and these discs are
basically brand new look and I personally love record.
And you, you know, I've been pushing heavily in the group to check your local
record shops and people are having success with it.
So that's kind of my initial story.
I'm going to throw it over to you.
Yeah.
I mean, I used to have, I used to go out to state sales and thrift shops as well
when I first started, but for me it'd be like, I need my time back because I'm
doing bulk and I need more time to process than I do needing to source or
wanting to dial down the sourcing time in general.
And the power went out for a couple of days because of some storm, I want to
say five, six months ago, four to six months.
This is back when the employee was still here.
I was like, she shows up to where it went.
Okay.
We're going to go shopping.
I guess the power is out.
So we went down a couple of old places I used to go and I'll tell you, Mike,
they were very happy to see me.
And they didn't know we were in the store, the manager, she came out and
finally saw me and flagged me over.
Didn't know you were coming by.
We got stuff in the back.
Would you like to come by?
We got stuff in the back.
Would you like to come in the back again?
I'm like, sure.
Why not?
You're all day.
Because power is out.
And they were so nice.
They gave me, they gave me my old discount.
I wasn't expecting it because I haven't been in there like nine, 10, 12 months
plus, something like that.
And I had good stuff quality.
The thing I like about them, they're in the back and they run a thrift store,
but they, they got laundry machines back there.
They're constantly cleaning the clothes.
They're scrubbing the hats.
Even the books, they get, they get books and they separate them into, they're
going to donate this to some other thrift store and then there's ones they're
going to put out in their store.
So they do quality checking in the back before it comes out to the front on
everything that their store is immaculate.
Everything's clean.
And they have one dedicated worker that has one of those push things.
Cause it's carpeted.
That's all they do all day is they just go around doing that.
They're a little bit more pricey than your traditional thrift store, but I'll
pay up for stuff I know has been quality checked versus just digging it out of
the cart and put it on the shelf, whatever happens, happens kind of deal.
Now on those kinds of places, I've been to those places too, but I always hate it.
Like I find something I know is good, but then when I open it up, it's either
damaged or the spine cracks or there's pages missing or it's been doodled in by
a nine year old.
It's like, come on.
This is a waste.
This is literally again, wasting my time.
I don't like to waste time.
So I think going up in quality to get your time back actually ends up you getting
more profit in the long run.
Because again, it's Mike doesn't like for me to say it, but yeah, it's
your profit per hour.
And I want to spend it as aptly as I can to make the most dollars that I can.
And doing it at a junkie, the cobwebs roaches and rats are all over the place.
No, no, no, no, I'm going to go over here where there's none of that, or at least
they call the exterminator now and again.
I agree.
And I'll say this, when I first started this business, everybody used to talk
about backroom access, Johnny, you got to get in the back room.
You got to get in the back room.
I'm here to tell you, there is some validity to it, but I do think the
approach has to be completely different than what is thrown out there, right?
Because everybody makes this team, Johnny, you just walk in and say, yo,
can I go in the back room? like that doesn't work.
You got to build rapport, build a relationship and have a normal conversation.
And I do think I'm a firm believer in karma and treating people the
way you want to be treated.
I think in the thrift store world, especially with the mom and top shops,
the money is good for them, but they just want somebody that's relatable.
They don't want some loser book dealer coming in, just being a pompous
idiot about everything, know it all.
Oh yeah.
You do do do do do like they want somebody that can have a normal conversation.
Explain what you do, what they got going on.
And then that's how you build this.
Ben, we've got so many people in the group that are in the back room of any
type of establishment you can imagine.
And they're all down the earth wholesome people that, you know, if you just had a
conversation out in the street, it'd be a pleasant conversation to have.
And I guarantee you that's how they got in the back room.
It wasn't going in and just being like, Hey, you got stuff in the back room.
And I go back there like, no, what usually happens, at least in my cases, I go in the
store, a shop, I go up to the counter.
I can't even carry all the DVDs, books and CDs.
And they're like, nobody buys this stuff.
What are you buying?
$300 worth of this stuff.
It's even happened in record shops.
And a dude's like, dude, let me know when you're coming back, shoot me a text
message, give me the business card.
I'll bring in all the other DVDs that I have so you can go through them.
It's just a simple conversation.
And I do think it is cemented by you and your family.
And I do think it is cemented by you actually spending money at the store because
they're like, shit, this dude's serious.
Like when's the last time somebody's come in and spent a hundred, $200 on
stuff we'd never sell.
Right.
You don't really have to ask for it.
It's just given to you if you buy frequently, not necessarily in quantity,
but frequently, like if you come in there and only grab 25 items, but you do it
one to two times a week, every week.
And you're consistent again, consistency in this business is huge, even on the
buying front, because they know you're reliable.
They know you're going to get their money and they'll approach you trying to get
more of your money at some point.
Um, and if you're buying, if you're niching and you're buying the same thing,
you can ask this question and it doesn't mean you're asking to go in the back room.
Do you have any more of these show them what you mean by these or Hey, it's on
the, it's on the countertop.
Do you have any more of these?
And they'll either say yes or no.
And they may say, yes, we got some in the back.
Come on back and we'll get you rung up here.
Cause you're already committing to buy.
Um, it's like going on a date, right?
You, you don't go sit down at the table and like, Hey, you want to go back to my
place? Your meal hasn't even arrived.
You haven't even had a conversation yet.
Come on, man.
Come on.
It's true.
And I, I just try to, we're not sitting here saying that thrift store, the
thrift store businesses sucks and it's dead.
It's whatever we're just trying to get people to go a little bit further upstream
to get the better quality stuff.
And believe it or not, you pay the most at the thrift store and it's the most
picked over stuff.
So not only do I want you to get better quality, I'm telling you, you're going
to pay less for the better quality stuff.
That's the, that's our only goal here.
We're not because listen, thrift stores are still, you know, 80%, 85% of my.
Stuff comes from thrift stores.
So I'm just saying I've made a little switch and I'm seeing the benefits.
And honestly, I didn't have a choice.
What was I going to do?
Keep going to Goodwills and finding one item, two CDs, three CDs.
Like that's not sustainable.
So I had to make a switch.
Another thing I switched to this year was pawn shops, uh, pawn shops, sell
DVDs and video games, and usually you can get them for pretty cheap.
I don't know much about video games, but I know what titles are pretty popular,
what I can get for.
And yet again, these places make sure that things aren't completely beat up.
And pawn shops give DVDs away, dude.
I never pay more than like 50 cents at a DVD at a pawn shop.
And it sometimes they have these I'm going to one this next week and I got
10 for a dollar DVDs and CDs, and they have like thousands of these things.
Like it's crazy to me the opportunity we have, if we just think a
little bit outside the box.
Right.
I have one guy who sells to me locally.
He still will, even though my store shut down right now, uh, because I'm moving.
Nothing bad has happened for you people listening.
I'm just going to be relocating.
Um, but he will open every CD.
He will check the back.
He will check to see if the disc is in there.
He'll flip it over to make sure it's got both front and back artwork.
I never have to check his stuff ever.
Anybody else I'd have to check and do all that, but he he's taken part of
that labor away from me, um, because he knows my money's right every time he
gets paid for quality, cause I don't pay the deal was before I mentioned this to
him, I don't pay for this or this or this or this, you may have these back.
Okay.
I'm going to rectify the situation.
So I know exactly how much money I'm going to get when I come over and see Johnny.
It's going to be to the penny because it's correct.
Now I checked in one more time after that.
I haven't had to check him since, um, and that's just great that it saves
again, saves me time.
I love having my time saved.
It is almost, almost, it is a strong runner up for money.
I love money more than anything, but having my time given back to me,
love that almost as much.
And I've been telling people, that's a good thing to hit on.
A lot of people that just start getting into selling CDs and DVDs, they're
worried about like scratches and like, they don't, you know, they don't want to
spend the $200 for a resurfacer in the beginning, which makes sense.
And I said, well, you go to a record shop, they check it all.
You don't got to worry about having to resurface anything.
And then they do first stores are expensive anymore.
And the realm, if we're talking in the media realm, their stores have become
thrift stores have become five X what it used to cost to buy a book, CD,
DVD at a thrift store.
So you're only helping yourself.
Sure.
If it's a real good store, I still got really good thrift stores.
I can go to once every two weeks, fill up an Ikea bag, get out of there.
But why not just, why not be the best you possibly can be at sourcing?
I guess this is what this comes down to.
And this isn't like the end of the line, like for me or for you, when it comes to
our sourcing strategies, because we're always open to having another relationship
of the qualities there and the prices.
Right.
I mean, we'll take it.
There's an endless supply of the items we sell.
And you can argue unless you're in a super rare collectible category, there's
an endless supply of anything we can resell it, no matter what the category is.
You just have to find a good supply.
And sometimes you have to pay up for it.
So I'll tell you right now, a lot of cases, I mean, you pay down for it.
I bought full collections, full Stephen King first editions for 15 cents a pound.
Like they were, they were in the plastic sleeves.
I'll never forget it.
I'm not a Stephen King fan.
I probably should have kept them because they'd probably be
worth billions in 20 years.
But 15 cents a pound for all first edition Stephen King.
I'm talking every single book that he ever put out.
I mean, all you got to do is open your eyes.
And I think the biggest thing I have in sourcing is I let everybody know what I
sell and who I am.
I mean, even in this podcast, my name is in there, even Mike's thing, it's there.
But everybody knows me as a paperback seller because I do sell paperbacks.
Cause I talk about it all the time.
So people know he's not just a book seller.
He likes these paperbacks.
And not only that he likes paperbacks from the eighties on back and seeing
I'm talking about on this podcast, everybody listening now knows I'm the
paperback guy from 1980s on back.
And then I get approached with deals.
I don't even ask for them.
They get thrown my way.
Mainly in the group I'm in several groups, so they all know what I sell.
And when somebody comes across, I get a message.
Hey, you interested in like, yeah, send me some photos.
Probably the answer is going to be yes.
Or I have ongoing relationships that come out of this.
I have a couple that have networked with me.
They run bigger book operations.
And they don't like the stuff that I like.
So I'm a solution to their problem, man.
They get a little bit of cash.
It's a win, win, win.
I mean, just look at the storage unit guys.
It's the same principle.
They take what they want.
Then they go out to the flea or they post it on marketplace to put it back in
the ecosystem to either other resellers or they try to make a couple of dollars
on it themselves, but they really don't care about that other stuff.
They want it gone.
They want their space and time back.
Just like I do.
I want my space and time back.
I guess space is another thing we didn't touch on, but no, that's definitely a
thing if you're not running in a warehouse when it comes to sourcing, like
if you're running out of your home or storage unit, you got to be a little bit
more picky on what you're taking back with you, because if you take back just
a pile of junk or an absorbent amount that exceeds your capacity, you're
going to have a hard time to get back out and go do it because sourcing is
to most people the treasure hunting aspect or the going out, that's the fun
part of this game, sure, but if you bottleneck yourself, not being able to
do it because you're filled to the ceiling front to back and you got to
get through it somehow, some way.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I like thinking about sourcing is like almost investing or like
having an investment portfolio.
You have to diversify, right?
You're not just buying all single stocks and you would just be like,
you only go to single stocks that go into the same goodwill bins five days a week.
Sooner or later, you're going to get jammed up.
Now what smart people do, they spread their money out.
I got some in bonds, I got mutual funds, maybe a few single stocks here and there
if it's something that aligns with what I want to do, but if one goes boom,
the whole thing doesn't go boom, right?
Like you're still afloat, you're still going, you're still making progress.
And I think that's what it kind of relates to with me is because we look at
I got thrift stores, I got libraries, and then I had back rooms at thrift stores.
And then I got bulk pickups that I get from like Facebook marketplace
and all those types of places.
So that's four completely separate, almost investments I have into my
big portfolio here of reselling.
And if you just got one, you just got that one library or that one thrift
store chain or what, no matter what it is, you're still going, you're still
going to get the same amount of money that you're going to get from the thrift
store chain, but no matter what it is across the board, then something happens.
Maybe the donations slow down or maybe the thrift store raises their prices,
which goodwill has done.
And, you know, I went from 97 cents books and now they're all these three dollars.
You are bound by their rules.
Yeah.
I mean, that that's the thing.
There's their rules and there's your rules, right?
And it's not going to be a big deal.
It's just going to be a little bit of a challenge.
And, you know, I'm not going to be able to answer your monetary expectations,
but you have you have the additional one of quality, right?
So if you decide, hey, I want to buy it all, and you're trying to
make this repeat thing, but I have the following expectations of you.
They need to know this.
If you do have expectations, I don't want water damage books.
I don't We've got to get some books on our tables and somebody says,
hey, we're not going to submit these over a Social Network.
Three people can submit it to the United States.
Then we'll send it to you.
You nail the Media unpack table to give medical support.
You
time by taking this deal on or am I going to take a walk to deal with somebody who will meet my
expectations? If you're not choosing door number two, I'm sorry, you're doing it wrong. You need
to choose door number two. Yeah, you're 100% correct. And I'm going to, I'm going to hammer
that home because we talked about it. This stuff is everywhere, dude. I mean, you can go, every
house has a piece of media in it, like in the world. So why are we feeling obligated? And if you think,
if you're the person that's like, I want to be a bulk seller. And you think these mega bulk sellers
just have one source, like one source that only brings her to track the trailers. No, they have
multiple, multiple sources because you can't afford that one source to go belly up. You can't afford
to have that go belly up. Have the conversation upfront, like Johnny's saying, 100% crystal clear
across the board, exactly what you want, because you can't say, yeah, I'm the book person. And you
show up and there's nothing but Webster dictionaries. Well, you didn't say you didn't take dictionaries,
Johnny. So here goes 3000 pounds of Webster dictionaries. Then you're in a situation where
shit, I didn't say that. So like, this has to be thought out. And it all kind of relates back to
treating reselling as a business, right? Thinking at it, like from a business person, like, this is
my business. What does my business want? You can't just be the generic, I'll take all the books person.
And then you just wind up with a big mess. Go where the quality is. And no deal is not too good to pass
up. There's always going to be more opportunities along the road. There's never been a week where
I'm like, well, I found nothing this week. So I guess I got to go pay for the shit. Nobody else wants
sits down at the Goodwill bins. Like, there's no deal that you have to feel like you're tied to in
this business, especially in the media world, because it is everywhere for the taking every
little town has a library that probably runs on volunteers, don't have enough volunteers gets
donations every single day. All you got to do is go have a conversation. You don't even have a
conversation. You could send an email, you can do whatever you want. But I would never feel tied to
a deal. Honestly, I would almost be the I know, like, I'd be like how you are. I had expectations.
My expectations aren't me, we're gonna have to have a conversation. Right now conversations aren't
fun. Right? When the day comes and I got to fire Johnny, it's not going to be a fun conversation.
Right? It won't happen. At least not this year, although we're coming to the end of the year,
maybe next year, when we re evaluate the budget, your salary goes up from zero to zero. But hard
conversations are part of this, right? And we all had to have them at one point sign as a store
manager at CBS. I used to have them all the time. And it's not fun, right? It's not fun to tell
somebody, like, hey, you know, this isn't, this doesn't meet my expectations. Like you're almost
giving somebody a performance review. But Johnny said, you got the cash money, right? You gave them
what you want, what you accept. Okay, I'm paying somebody, and I expect these types of goods in
return. If you don't get those goods, then you need to have a conversation and be like, hey,
this doesn't make sense to me, right? We had the conversation, maybe it was good the past 10 times,
this time it wasn't. And then the next one isn't. Okay, I'm not saying blow a gasket, because
the first time you got something that wasn't right, you know, that's just bad business. But
if it's something that's an ongoing problem, make note of it. And then we address it. And if they
say, hey, it is what it is, well, then you say, hey, it is what it is, me and my wallet are going
somewhere else. Yeah, exactly. Now, if your expectations are, I want you to flip through
the book and check for underlying everyone, and you're dealing with a bulk person who sells in
bulk to other resellers, that may be a bit too much, or they're like, sure, but I need to charge
X for that, because they also have a time metric for dollars. So you need to decide once they give
that number, if they do give a number, that's fine. Or they may say, sure, yeah, that's no big
deal. We have Jimmy the intern. That's how we'll treat all our interns. Fine. But they may want to
charge you more. And you got to decide if it's worth it or not. And if it's not worth it, again,
dollars too high for the kind of service you're offering. I have other people, or I'll go find
other people who will deal at my dollar per item on my expectations, because you're in control,
because it is your wallet. They want the things in your wallet, but they may not want to do
for the time the amount of dollars that's in your wallet. And that's okay on their end, and that's
okay on your end. You're just not meant to do business together. It's as simple as that.
You're not the right customer for them, and they aren't the right source for you. That's fine. You
got to let that go. You can't make it personal. This is entirely business. You can respect their
decision, maybe a little annoyed by it, but you can respect it and move along and go find somebody
else. Yeah, I'm a firm believer in valuing your time and having expectations. And if they're not
met and being held accountable, right? It's almost like kind of expectations we have within ourselves
within our business, right? If we expect ourselves to, you know, list 10 items a day on eBay or
do five boxes a week on Amazon, and we don't keep up with our expectations, like, we're just pissed
off at ourselves. We're unmotivated. But yeah, for some reason in the reselling world, see it all the
time, like, resellers just get suckered all the time, and they just continue to get suckered.
Just like, just be done with it. There's stuffs everywhere. I mean, you could resell anything
and find it in quantity anywhere. I don't understand why we're like, well, you know, it's like,
hypothetically speaking, if I, you know, if I decided, all right, I'm going to go the wholesale
route, I'm just going to start selling Gaylords because I'm the book guy and everybody loves the
book guy. And I'll sell Gaylords for a premium price. And, you know, the quality just sucks.
But Johnny said, well, it's Mike. So, you know, sooner or later, maybe the Gaylord will be good
that he actually sends me that I overpay for and it never happens. But that's happening today.
There's people out there that are buying in bulk from a source that they know sucks, but they're
so scared to lose the source when they just open up their window and yelled out like the JG Wentworth
commercial, like, it's my money and I want it now. Like somebody else will pop up like, hey,
I got books for sale. Like somebody pops out. Hey, you said you buy books. Here goes,
can you want to weigh this right now? You going to give me my cash right now? It's everywhere.
Trying to say this politely. It's hard, Mike. It's hard.
It's your fault if you're continuing to do bad business with yourself.
It's your fault 100%. You are the master of your wallet and the goods you receive from your wallet.
That is all on you, sir or ma'am, to make the corrections necessary to put more dollars in it.
Because if you're having to throw away 90% of the stuff you're getting and your dollar,
your wallet shrinks because of that, because you got a bill from them, what was left over,
you're barely making by. Plus we're in media and if you're just the eBay seller, long turnover.
It's going to be a while before you're even back up to par from that purchase. But if you're
repeatedly hurt yourself, it's like punching yourself in the face. Go ahead, punch yourself
in the face right now, listener. Tell me how it feels. We're not responsible for any brain
injuries that may or may not occur from my suggestion here, but it hurts, right? Yeah,
it's going to hurt. And if you're completely punching yourself in the face, well,
I don't know what to do with you. Stop it. I got the question that we should have faced this
podcast around and you're going to have to give me an answer because I don't have one. I was
thinking about it here while you were telling viewers not to punch themselves in the head.
No, I did. And then I said, we're not responsible, but go ahead.
Resellers are so cheap. They don't want to spend more than a dollar, two dollars for an item at a
thrift store. But if a bulk opportunity comes along and it costs them three thousand dollars
and they got the photos of the pallets, the Gaylords money, all of a sudden means nothing.
They're willing to put it on credit cards. They're willing to get a HELOC to buy the bulk
inventory. I don't understand why. Why are we so tight at the thrift store? But you get this cool
look in bulk opportunity and we just completely forget about what your dollar is worth and what
you would get if you took that three grand, spent it at thrift stores and flip that into something.
It's just for some reason the word bulk makes people just everything goes out the window. They
just need it. They need to have it no matter what the cost is. When you're dealing with deals in the
thousands or tens of thousands and you don't go to inspect it, you're doing it off photos.
I'm sorry, you're foolish. Unless you've done business with this person before, then maybe
it's got some credibility. But for the first time, no, I'm going to go look at it and I'm
going to go touch it just like I was in a thrift store. And to your point of why can't we do it
in thrift store, if they're asking three dollars for a three hundred dollar book, please take my
dollar by three dollars, please. I don't care that it's three dollars at that point, but it's
going to be the right book. It's got to be the right quality in the same deals here, even on a
bigger scale. If they're offering you to do a three thousand or a thirty thousand dollar deal
and you don't go inspect it to make sure it met those two metrics, the price is right and the
quality is right, you are a fool. Plain and simple. I'm going to break it down real easy.
So we buy me and Johnny buy Gaylord. We're in the media around expecting like 90 90 percent is going
to be trash, maybe maybe 85 percent. So at least it's what 15 percent say there's a thousand books
in the Gaylord. We walk away with 150 items. I'm here to tell you, you go to a few thrift stores,
you're going to come out with a lot more than that. And guess what? There ain't no getting rid
of the other 85 percent of shit. You don't you literally only bring it home to good stuff.
Right. Every all the junk stays behind this idea that people just want to run into these huge deals.
This is what sinks ships all the time. We've seen it over the years. People come and go in a group
because they get that shiny Facebook marketplace. Oh, buy in bulk. We got oh, we got Amazon
liquidated pallets. Right. Great for reselling. Right. And all of a sudden, the person that's got
a hundred dollar a week thrifting budget is willing to spend eight hundred dollars on this random
Amazon liquidation palette because that's what resellers do. Right. This is how this is how we're
going to get rich. There's no possible way we can lose when we're buying in bulk. And I'm here to
tell you that is completely wrong. Ascending thinking because you don't value your time and
you're spending capital you don't have. Most people that buy these once in a lifetime opportunities,
they don't have the capital to actually support that, especially if the deal goes south,
which a lot of these usually do. Or maybe you break even and you just lost. You might break even
monetarily, but your time's gone out the window. You lost two weeks, three weeks, however long it
takes you to get through it. I just, it's hard for me to, to understand this idea of sourcing
at thrift stores. It can be brutal, but if you track your thrift stores, have the route, it makes
sense. Go a little bit upstream. I'm not saying every bulk deal out there is a scam. I'm not
saying everything you're going to buy is a scam. That's not the case. I have plenty of, I deal with
bulk of libraries all the time and it's quality stuff, but like it's quality stuff because it's
not picked over. Now, if it was Johnny selling me his leftovers that he already scanned, I lose
automatically. I lose my money. I lose my time. I lose everything, but we can't think about that
because Johnny just got the cool looking pallet that's stacked. It maybe puts like that one Stephen
King book up top. So you think like, Oh, I totally do that. Like there's the good stuff on top,
right? Yeah. Now, another thing, the people that buy online only, you may not, because you're buying
in lower quantity. Usually I'm not saying go inspect the 10 disc from the guy in Connecticut.
I'm not saying that I'm saying if you have a supplier and it's a first time that you two are
conducting business with each other, if it were me, I would take a trip out to Connecticut to see
what's going to be in my box. I'll buy there or I'll correct them right then and there. Because
that is an in-person thing that needs to happen. If I'm going to do recurring business with a person,
it needs to be correct. That way, when I receive it and it's incorrect, I make a phone call with
all the power. Like, look, I flew up there. It was expensive for me to go see you, tell you how I
wanted my shipments to be. They are in the wrong at that point. I'm not in the wrong because I went
up there. I lay down the law, Johnny's law of what it needs to be. If you're going to receive my
dollars, I'm going to receive your goods. This is how it's supposed to work. Plain and simple.
I think another thing we have to think about here is when you start building some of these
relationships, even within first stores, it's okay if things change as long as you have this
follow-up conversation. Some of my sources would be like, hey, are you taking these yet? Do you
want this encyclopedia set? If things change and all of a sudden I want to take encyclopedias and
I go to them and say, hey, it's okay now if you start putting encyclopedias in my pile, that's fine.
Don't feel like the first conversation you've ever had with this person is how it's got to be
forever. It's an open line of communication I think you've got to have when it comes to these
relationships. The open line of communication has to be more than, hey, your stuff's ready, pay us,
and we'll send it to you. It's got to be more personable. I'll tell you right now, if I'm
buying Gaylords or I'm buying thousands of anything in my business, I want to be able to have this
person's phone number. I want to be reached out to at least on a weekly basis to have a conversation
of what they got going on, what I got going on, when's the shipment coming. I think it's important
to cultivate some of these relationships because when you find good ones, they're good, right?
The libraries I have, it's forever as long as I'm doing this. Then even when I stop doing this,
I can pass the torch on to somebody else in the area that does this. Hey, I have these sources.
I'm no longer doing this. Why don't you come with me one time? I'll introduce you to everybody.
If these relationships, I show up to the library, I got donuts, Dunkin' Donuts. I got little
munchkins. I even had to choose the donuts. I used to go to Dunkin' Donuts and they would just have
pre-ready dozens of donuts. Now Dunkin' Donuts got these kiosks and they make you choose your dozen.
I'm sitting there, I don't know, it's like 35 different donuts. He was like, well, we ain't got
this one, we ain't got this one. I'm like, dude, I just chose things randomly anyway. I'm used to
just you giving me a random dozen of donuts. That type of stuff goes so far with people.
Bringing them a donut. Oh my God, it's a donut. Oh my God, you're the hero. You'd be amazed. They
got signs. I posted on YouTube, Mike does not have a truck. He's got a sedan. Please box the books
nicely. They do it. You take care of people and they'll take care of you. I guess that's what
it comes down to. I did this once with, they're no longer around. It was a senior citizen activity
club thing and they had a library in there. I used to rotate their library, meaning I give them
books and they give me what's circled out. The first time I dealt with them, I asked for them
to have them boxed ready to go because I assumed they had some kind of staff or something. They
didn't. These old people got the tiniest boxes known to man. You can maybe put four hard backs
in there. They had giant pallets worth stacked up like that. My mind was blown that they got these
tiny boxes and then packed and taped these tiny boxes for me because of my request. I felt a little
bad because of an assumption I made, but it was like, huh, if you just ask, you will receive
sometimes. It may not be able to receive like you thought because I had to undo all these boxes,
only four bucks a box, but I couldn't complain because they had complied with my request in a
different way than I expected. It's never going to be perfect. I got another story that relates to
that. I worked at Kmart for a while and one of the managers told the loan and guard in person,
they set up little displays and he told the guy, hey, put the mulch in the display. The mulch
put around the guard. They got a little fountain set up for a display. Put the mulch in the display
so it looks nice. He calls me, he calls me over, he says, you got to come see this. We go out to
the loan and guard area and the mulch is in the display, Johnny, but it's just the bag mulch.
He put the bags. He put the bags of mulch.
They did exactly it. It was requested of them, but it was the wrong way.
That is exactly it. Go into these things knowing that it's not going to be perfect. I still get
jammed up sometimes. I had a pickup where it was more than I thought it was going to be and it
wasn't communicated to me, but once you're in that situation, you got to get it done. It's not going
to be just roses and rich money falling out from the sky. It's going to be things where you can't
plan for. There are certain things you can't plan for. What we just talked about, even if you say
things, you know what you mean in your head, but this person or the person you're speaking to or
then they have to relay the message, it can be taken a completely different way than what you
thought it was going to be taken. Then you wind up with di journo boxes full of books because
Johnny said, just put them in boxes. I said, we ate a lot of di journos this week, so let's put the
books in the di journo boxes. Right. This goes outside of reselling. This goes with any relationship,
a friendship, a personal romantic relationship, a business relationship. Never assume, never presume
because you're wrong usually 99.9% of the time on whatever you got noodling up here in the old brain
case. I'm sorry you are. You need to either ask or you need to spell it out explicitly. That way,
it's crystal clear and then ask the clarifying question, do you understand? Because people are
afraid to look stupid a lot and they'll say, yes, I understand. Then you can do the last follow-up,
okay, can you explain to me what I just asked of you? You're not being rude, but you're making
all the attempts they could possibly make to make sure that it's crystal clear between you and them.
Again, this goes beyond business. This goes to friendships, personal romantic relationships,
acquaintances, people you just meet for the very first time. You cannot assume. You can't judge a
book by its cover. There you go. I made a book pun. Ha, ha, ha, ha. All right. Johnny kind of wrapped
it up there. He gave you all relationship advice. Good luck taking that. He is not responsible.
I told you to punch yourself in the face this podcast too. He's just going to have you guys
all over the place. The luck taking his advice, it's not insured. It's not backed by the,
what is it, the FDIC? There's no backing to what he said. We're not responsible for you hurting
yourself. We are not responsible, but I do think it is so important to think about sources and
diversify your sources. It's kind of like the idea of selling on multiple platforms, which a lot of
you do. You protect yourself in that aspect, so why not protect the stuff you're getting the same
exact way? This, all this conversation is about is if you're the thrift store person, email a library,
email a clothing rag house, email a state sale company. You'd be amazed that people want their
stuff gone and you can give it to them for little to nothing and you get it before the thrift store
gets their grubby paws over it. We all hate the goodwill. All right, well then why don't we just
get everything before it goes to the goodwill? I haven't thought about doing this. What if you
just set up a little tent now back of a goodwill, like not on their property when somebody rolled
up with donations, dropping off the goodwill, I'll give you 10 bucks for that. Just bring it over here.
I mean, I'm just saying, dude, I'll unload it for you. I'll bring it from your car to my car. I'll
give you 10 bucks. You can sit out there, you know, don't be looking like some sketchy person, but
you know, maybe a little tuxedo on. Storcing at the bins before it hits the bins. That's a clever idea.
I like that. I mean, every store has got a donation center. So like you just, you could literally kind
of get a little pop-up tent across the street and say, I'll buy everything you're about to donate.
Big ass sign. Like sure, people give you riffraff, but at the end of the day, what do you think a
goodwill is doing with it? Do you think all this money is going to support, you know, homeless people
in America? You're dead wrong. This is going all in pockets out there. These companies are as
shameless as we can get. And at least you're giving the person that's donating some money for their
items. Sure. You know, we won't get everybody, but I guarantee you, you get rid of, there's so many,
I just came up with that all at the top of my head. There's so many ways you can make money
doing this. I mean, it just blows my mind, but hey, we can't leave the goodwill because
you step outside the goodwill, all of a sudden weird things start happening. You know what
happens? You start making more money, start finding better quality stuff, and you actually spend less
money. All right, Johnny, I'm out here. I'm not even letting you wrap it up. We'll talk to you all
in next week's episode. Thanks for listening to another episode of the Resellers Mindset Podcast.
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