Welcome back to another episode of the Reseller's
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 usedbookguy 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
to another episode of the Reseller's Mindset
podcast mike sitting next to johnny today's topic
is going to be one we have been wanting to cover
for a long time and johnny put a little twist
on it right live selling so all the platforms
basically have live selling now uh even amazon
has you can you know influencers can sell products
live like qv type style stuff you got wonderful
whatnot where people make a killing you know
turning and burning through inventory they get
for cheap you even have ebay live right so every
platform kind of poshmark live we had people
on that were successful doing that every platform
has it now and i think it's something we need
to talk about and not only live selling but Live
sourcing, people source on Whatnot, right? That's
a 100 % people's business models today. There's
people on Whatnot every single day sourcing items
to resell that they're buying on Whatnot and
selling for more money themselves because the
idea of live selling is, okay, I'm getting my
DVDs for next to nothing so I can sell it for
next to nothing and I'm just turning through
my inventory and making money. That's kind of
the big spiel when it comes to why people do
live selling. So Johnny, you can take us away
here and get us into it. So you went in the other
direction I was thinking about with it. I was
thinking more of your Facebook, your Craigslist,
because you got to go out and get it, right?
That's live in person. You're talking about live
on the computer, which both are valid. But see,
there's different ways to do it. Because, yeah,
even if you're selling your duds on Facebook
Marketplace, somebody probably has value in getting
those because they're the consumer most of the
part. They're going to be a sad panda bear when
they get your stuff. But they should know what
they're doing. They should know the questions
they ask. They should at least scan a couple
things before handing over money. So it'll be
an educational cost if they don't. But anyway,
getting into it. So live selling, live sourcing.
I'm going to start on the physical side, which
I already started with, which is online. Your
first avenue is Facebook, right? um doing the
doom scroll uh let's let's type in a keyword
um this could be interactive if you're at home
type in the word book uh sort your radius i don't
want to drive more than x amount of miles and
then sort with local pickup only and then uh
you could this is an advanced step set a dollar
range into it so i don't want to spend more than
100 bucks so put in 100 bucks as far as your
maximum or put it as far as your minimum. I want
to spend at least $100, right? So two different
ways to think about it. And then these things
will appear. And then it comes to vetting these
things, right? Looking at them one by one by
one. After you've been doing this a while, it's
just like scroll wheel, scroll wheel, scroll
wheel. Oh, there's something interesting. Right
click, open in a separate window, get about 10
of these up, and then start reading their ad,
message them. And you're going to want to send
probably a message lower than what they have
offered and see if they bite. Or you're good
with spending, well, he's wanting to charge $100,
but that is a whole house full of books. I'll
gladly give that sir or ma 'am $100 for that.
That's step one. And then step two is actually
going there and hope to the high heavens that
it's in the location that they gave you. Or you're
meeting up in a public space like in front of
a firehouse or something, a police department
or a library or someplace public if you're uncomfortable
going to their home. And then inspecting the
goods. You're going to get all kinds of people.
You're going to get the best of people. You're
going to get the worst of people. It's just how
it is. And then if the stuff looks legit, you
pay the sir or ma 'am their money. I prefer cash
because that's a lot easier to figure out. I
only do Cash App. I only do Venmo. I just, I
rule out that song and dance by just handing
him cash money because cash is king, right? And
then you drive off and you cackle yourself on
your way home like, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I got
lots of inventory on the cheap. That's one version
of live selling or live sourcing rather. And
we'll kick it over to Mike because I'm sure he
wants to hit the - I mean, you got like - You
can also look at it like people go to auction
houses, right? That's live. It's me bidding against
somebody else. Storage units, right? Like storage
wars, like why 95 % of people got into reselling
that stupid fake show. Like you're bidding on
storage units live in real time. Live selling
is an opportunity. Live buying is an opportunity.
I'll tell you right now, I hate dealing with
people on Facebook, Johnny. Like, so I don't
get rid of my duds no more. I put it on Facebook,
like free. Come pick these up. The amount of
people that are just flake out on you, I can't
even get rid of things for free on there because
people are like, yeah, I want them. Yeah, I'll
come. And then they never show up. You never
hear from them again. I hate that aspect of live
selling because you have to deal with somebody
else kind of working around your schedule. But
if you do go to an auction, you're there. Things
are being ran on time. But for me, I was thinking
more along the terms of the new... I mean, it's
not a new craze because Whatnot's kind of been
going strong here for probably over a year now.
And I think a lot of people thought it was just
going to be a fad, but I think it's kind of revolutionized
a lot of people's businesses. And I think it's
a great opportunity if it's done correctly, because
yet again, here we are as resellers. Anybody
can resell. Anybody can have a Whatnot channel.
So what happens here, Johnny, is you get the
people that are really successful. And then you
get the people that try it and they have no success
at all. And, you know, you kind of just blame
the system or whatever it may be. But I have
personally done research on this topic. And Johnny's
grinning over there holding it in because he
made fun of me the day I sat down for the whole
day and went down the the whatnot universe when
it comes to selling books on whatnot. Right.
So you go over to whatnot. Right. Type in book.
i'm pulling up live streams right he probably
laughed all day long because he knew how much
of a shit show was going to be oh yeah and he
was 100 correct right so i'm just giving you
guys i'm going to give you guys a few examples
of what was going on right i had one Somebody
is trying to sell these shitty old books. There's
baby. There's a baby crying like this is live.
Right. So like this is real time. Right. Like
I'm sitting here and, you know, people are shooting
guns. There's naked people running behind me.
I don't know. Miniature pony people riding miniature
ponies, whatever is going on. Right. Like this
is real time. So I approach every single stream
to see like, OK, well, what's really going on
out there? Because I'm in the book space. Right.
I'm in the media space. I like to have a little
bit of an idea. i had a baby crying in one and
another one his wife was yelling at him to end
the stream right like get off that damn phone
like what are you doing and he's like i'm just
trying to sell some books here they weren't set
up professionally at all i think there does need
to be some type of standard right like i got
people that were doing sales that have like loud
music playing their phones dying in the middle
of their whatnot stream right so you're trying
to sell stuff and your phone is dying like it
just completely ends what a disaster chaos nonsensical
waste of time for 98 of people on that platform
not everybody because there is success to be
had yes if we look at the people that are successful
in this they're getting large amounts of inventory
at prices that can't be beat. So they're fine
with turning their items quickly through live
selling. Sure, you don't get all of the money,
but they don't care about getting all the money.
They'll take some of the money because they're
still making money and that inventory is gone
out the door. It is such a fine balancing act.
I think live selling is the hardest type of reselling
there is. I think you got to have a personality.
You got to have something about yourself and
you got to have quality products that are desired
that you're getting for so cheap that you don't
need to get all the money every single time.
And that is such a hard combination to kind of
figure out. And there's people I've seen successful
with it usually are larger sellers, right? Like
it would be hard for me to consistently go live.
And this is something you got to be consistent
with, right? Because people want to know who
you are. You're building your brand. You're building
yourself as a brand at that point. And I think
with whatnot, people think they can just pop
on for one stream or once here and there, wherever
they feel like, you know, they should do it and
they're going to get results. And I think that's
the biggest lie ever. Like if there's something
that's going to be a pain in the ass, hard to
build, it's going to be your own brand in a live
selling environment. That ain't easy. Listen,
I've been doing YouTube for four years now. I
got thousands of videos and I only have, I have
less than 8 ,000 subscribers, right? Like, and
I put everything out there that I possibly can.
You think you're just going to go start and switch
over to a platform and just start selling your
junk? And I think that is another catch 22 is
people take their junk. They're thinking somebody
else is going to buy it. But Johnny said it earlier.
It's not only selling, it's people buying that
are resellers. So they are looking for quality
items that they can buy and then get all of the
money for those items. So it's not like your
typical person that's sitting at home, right?
Watching QVC that you're shopping. A lot of the
people on that platform are other resellers.
That's my two cents on it. No, and I think my
takeaway from your whole spiel there is I think
live selling is the hardest form of reselling.
And we'll look at whatnot, for example, right?
You start it. You have no audience. Not only
do you have to do everything a normal reseller
does, you have to build the buyer base yourself.
You got to follow people. You got to advertise
on social media. You got to go on podcasts like
this one. Hey, you whatnot sellers, you want
to come on the podcast? Let's drop a thing in
the comments so we can get shaken. And I only
know a couple of people that make whatnot work
and they're younger than me. It's a grind. They
talk about it, but they do over six figures.
They do decent six figure money. They don't do
it in books, the ones I know personally. One's
a card seller, one's a video game seller. But
they say they make the most of their money on
their $6, $4 items, but they're not in at $6
or $4 in the first place. That's the big difference.
And then they have their bangers, and sometimes
they underperform, sometimes they overperform.
Sometimes they wonder why they got $20 for Call
of Duty. Everybody was drunk in the audience
that night. That's a $4 game. But it happens.
And that's just that game. You're going to win
some. You're going to lose some. But on the average,
you're going to make a decent amount of money.
But those guys worked it hard. And there's a
couple of people in the book and magazine space
that are doing decent numbers as well. I'm not
going to lie there. But I think you put it right.
You don't sell junk on these platforms. You got
to put a lot of work into it. Six months plus,
probably. follow a follow follow follow me back
please or hey i'm doing a stream i'll put it
out on 10 social media platforms and maybe i'll
get five additional people to come uh if you're
okay with not making great money up front but
you realize you're building an audience uh whatnot
and similar things is probably for you um and
i think the couple people i mentioned they got
banned from amazon so Is it eBay or do I try
this whatnot thing? Well, I've done eBay before.
I know what that's like. I can't go back. So
what am I left with? It's whatnot. Oh, man. You
put me on the spot here. You didn't ask it, but
I'll ask it for you. Do I, if I get banned from
Amazon, would I rather sell on eBay or whatnot?
Yeah. Yeah. Those are the choices. Where do you
think I'm going? What's up, Amazon sellers? We
wanted to take a second to talk about GoToLister,
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.com backslash Mike or using the link in the
description below. I, that's a hard one for you.
Cause I, it's like, you don't want to do work.
Both are work. Where do you think I'm going?
It's not, I think you're going to do whatnot
because it doesn't confine you to a daily listing
goal. Yeah. You're 100 % right. I wouldn't even
think twice. Yeah. Is a grind whatnot. Like I
can at least, you know, somebody buy something.
Deb can smack me over the head with an inflatable,
like. sledgehammer right something like that
like i'd be full -blown listen i am personally
after i sat there and did my eight hours of research
on whatnot i am embarrassed as a bookseller for
how pathetic the i don't maybe maybe my expectations
were too high right like but i mean we gotta
you gotta give me something here man right like
it's live selling i mean look at Look at people
that live sell, right? These are personalities.
These are characters, right? They got a little
bit of oomph in their voice. They know what they're
talking about and what they're selling. They
actually believe in that it's worth to the customer.
And what I seen was the complete opposite in
the book space. It was people just trying to
move junk and that don't work. And it ain't easy
to find good inventory that some random 20 people
on the internet might buy from you because. at
the end of the day it's not like you have millions
of people in your streams like the most i've
seen in one of the book streams was like 50 people
like yeah that that's nothing that's nobody right
like so you not you got there are 50 wallets
there how can i at least get a dollar out of
each wallet exactly like you don't have a huge
pool to appeal to right so it's I think it's
a great platform for a lot of sellers. I really
do. And I think those sellers are seeing the
results and that's why you see them doubling
down. But I think the idea that you, me or you
can just go on whatnot today and just put our
phone up and say, Hey, I am selling the history
channel DVD here. I'm going to run this for 10
seconds, go. And then nobody buys it. I saw one
once it was. I couldn't look away. It was a train
wreck. It was a bad train wreck. One, this lady
was so nervous. She had shaky voice, right? You
know what also goes with shaky voice? Shaky hands.
And she had the phone camera and she was trying
to show the object of the book. And her hands
are shaking. It's like, hold still, seizure woman.
Hold still. What? I don't know what I'm looking
at here. And I can't understand you. She was
so terribly nervous. She should not have gone
there, or at least did a dry run. I could tell
this was probably like maybe one out of three
of her first streams. Don't know which one. But
I felt so bad for her. I wanted to close the
window, but I couldn't. It was... I guess I got...
obsessed with okay how how much more downhill
can this go she dropped the phone a couple times
she she at one point got her stuttering got the
best of her and this woman didn't have a natural
stutter it was you could tell it's because of
the anxiety and she couldn't read the title i
think after 30 minutes she just shut it off like
she just gave up and good for her for giving
it up maybe you maybe you can be the the pillar
of the book selling community when it comes to
you know because you're you're on podcast you
understand content creation like yeah kind of
give people the realistic expectation of okay
if we're going to live stream here let's have
something set up kind of little nice setup here
don't play music because listen if i start playing
the music i like johnny right tarzan boys playing
right like all this terrible music that nobody
wants to listen to But you think, oh, everybody
likes this music, right? And then here I am in
the whatnot stream and, you know, they're playing
God knows what type of music and you're just
like, it instantly turns people off. I think
in the book space, there's, it's talked about
as in, oh, just go start whatnot, right? And
like, it just magically happened. I don't think
there's enough actual content that's created
around brand building, around having a proper
professional stream set up. around things like
that so i think it people jump into it and i
mean look at the people that are successful with
it right we all know some of the big players
out there they're doing giveaways they got interactive
things right like you buy something we spin this
mystery wheel and you get you get like an extra
prize it's like it's not it's more than selling
it's interacting it's like and the ones i see
do gangbusters i see them do silly things like
car giveaways freaking cars man it's the prices
right over here i mean the and they get a lot
of traction and that auction does great um but
does it i i don't know their cost of goods behind
that free car like how much do they pay to get
that car in the first place and do they make
that money plus their normal plus bonus money
for bringing a car on um yeah it's it's ridiculous
um It is the wild west over there, to be honest,
and it's interesting. But yeah, I mean, I've
seen two formats that work great. One, it's a
stationary camera and there's a voice, sometimes
an occasional hand on there. Then one's the full
body and the person's holding the object. But
in either way, it's either focused on the personality,
which is usually the full body person, or it's
focused on the item itself. And the voice kind
of backing up the item in the background. But
either way you go, the camera still. Do not shaky
cam. Don't hold the camera yourself. If you need
to get in an angle or show something special,
that's the exception to the rule, in my opinion.
Like, here's the copyright page proving it's
a first edition. Sure. But outside of that, your
camera should be stationary. You should have
your items beside you ready to go, man. It's
one right after the other. None of this. 30 second
lag time. Oh, let me go move it off the stack.
Pull it out. Cause we're waiting. We're waiting
too big. And the longer you take, the less interested
I get. I don't care how many good items you have,
or maybe I do, but man, am I mad at you for taking
so long? No music. Like you said, nobody wants
to hear my ghetto 69 boys. Damn it. Gangster
in the background. I was going to play Gangnam
Style the whole time. Right. No one wants to
hear that because music is subject to just like
art. People like it or hate it, and maybe they
hate what you're playing. And you've got to have
quality items. You can throw in the junk items,
but throw it in with the good stuff as like a
bonus freebie. Yeah, yeah. I think that's the
biggest thing. All the people I see. Now, I'm
not that deep ingrained and whatnot, but I do
see some of the people and their success stories
in the YouTube videos. They are selling quality,
you know, name brand, well -known type brands,
well -known type items, and they are getting
the results. Like Johnny said, sure, we don't
know their back end, but. I mean, unless they're
literally just bleeding money from their business,
which I know most of them aren't, but I mean,
think about it, right? Video games, well -sold
after collectible category, cards, right? Name
brand clothing, name brand shoes, like those
seem jewelry. Those seem to be like the big knockouts
when it comes to being successful on that platform.
I'm not saying you can't be, you know, there's
some booksellers out there that I'm sure make,
you know, some type of money on whatnot, but
the majority of it and, you know. We get a lot
of people over in the group that are like, hey,
you know, should I do whatnot? And the answer
every time is, well, are you ready to commit
to six months, maybe even longer to grow a following?
Because that's all that platform is. Are you
ready to give away money, right? Like, because
you need people to show up in the beginning.
And if I was going to start whatnot, right, like.
I got a pile of signed books down here, right?
Like I'm giving away a signed, you know, whatever
book. I got the guy from Crosby, Stills and Nash.
Like I'm giving away items that are valuable
that I got for nothing because I got these from
my connections, my library pickups, my bulk pickups.
And I can do that because I'm not into them for
anything. But that is the reality of growing
a brand. And I think people think it's a lot
easier than it is. And you can just turn on the
camera. You can have the best items. But if you
just decide today to just turn on whatnot, they're
not going to sell. And if they do, they're going
to be for a fraction of what they're actually
worth. So you need a following to almost allow
you to get more for your items, regardless of
the quality of items. Sure, having quality in
the beginning, that's just a piece of it because
there's so much more you talked about, like self
-promotion, social media, scheduling streams,
having things listed ahead of time. I mean, it's
crazy to me how much work goes into it. And people
think they can just pop on over there and just
get results. And with anything, dude, it takes
time, right? Like it's going to take time to
grow any type of business. And people think they
can just pop on live selling for once or twice
a month and have some type of crazy success with
it. And I don't think that's the case by any
stretch of the imagination. Right. So yeah, let's
talk about more forms of live selling, like brick
and mortar. That's a form of live selling. If
you're doing the antique mall, You may or may
not be present for that, but let's say you are.
So that's a form of live selling. Again, kind
of like whatnot. You're the salesman or woman,
right? You got to sling your wares or have proper
signage or have things organized or have a good
value and price. Like buy four, get the fifth
one free kind of deal. You got to upsell either
your product or yourself. Some people are better
than one or the other. If you're a quieter person,
you probably just want to have good deals. If
you're the talkity -talk person, I fall in this
category, you want to upsell it. Like, hey, this
is a great book. Let me tell you about it. And
here's a trick I learned, and I'm going to give
this to you all. Because I used to run the convention
circuit back in my book publishing days. But
at the booth, here's a trick we used to do. If
somebody was browsing our stuff, we'd pick the
most expensive book. And we walk over to them
and put it in their hands. And like, let me tell
you about this book, sir or ma 'am. And you're
upselling the book. They got the book in their
hand, right? 80 % of the time they buy the book
because we placed it in their hands. Same deal,
same song and dance and not handing the book
in their hands, then buy it. But that one little
thing, placing the book in their hands. And then
doing the song and dance expository thing made
them buy it 80 % of the time. It was the stupidest
thing, but something psychological with it. It's
a tough line to kind of walk when it comes to
live selling. Because if I go set up an antique
booth, right, how much time am I going to put
into it versus how much I'm going to get back
out of it? You're not going to know until you
know. You're not going to know until you try
these things. I just caution everybody that.
give something a real test run and then if it
doesn't work you have to make the decision to
kind of throw it to the side but i do you know
live selling is it's great i mean you can even
consider flea markets live selling right you're
there you're negotiating a price right then and
there with somebody i mean lots of resellers
you know rely solely on flea markets and those
types of relationships that's how you win right
like that's how you're going to come out ahead
because through live selling you build these
ongoing relationships that no longer needed to
be live right like I got the relationship at
the auction house. I don't got to be at the auction
like everybody else fighting over the stuff.
My stuff's set in the back. They know I'm coming
to buy it every single time. So it's almost like
a doorway to you having the need to be there
all the time to just be an, oh, we don't need
to sell this storage unit because we know Johnny's
going to buy it from us at X amount of dollars.
They don't have to spend their time trying to
sell it to somebody. And you don't have to spend
your time trying to go buy it because you built
that relationship from showing up day in, day
out and say, hey. come on over. You see it when
tech does his flea market videos. They're like,
hey, they shoot him a text. He's like, yeah.
First thing there, he's there. They know he's
buying every single piece because he says, hey,
I'm looking for this brand. I'm looking for these
hats. Hey, shoot him a text. We got your hats.
They're still sitting in their truck. They don't
put it out because they know he's coming by to
scoop it up. But the way he got that was showing
up and having a live conversation. And I think
a lot of us, I think we live in a society that's
anxiety ridden. Deb even told me this morning,
she's reading this book about the human attention
span. I think she said it was like eight seconds
or something crazy like that. Barely over goldfish.
Yeah, yeah. It's funny. She even said the goldfish
thing. And it's like, we can't tolerate just
sitting here and just existing. And I'm 100 %
guilty of this, right? It doesn't help that we
have the podcast, we have the group, we have
the YouTube channel. I'll just be listing stuff
and I got to have something else open, something
else playing. And to the counteract of that is
like, that's what live selling is, right? Like
it's the dopamine of raising my paddle to bid
on something, right? Like winning a live auction.
It's how QVC became an HSN. Like you can just
buy it right here, right now, right through the
TV. Like that's the appeal of it. I love live
selling. I think it's, I won't lie, I turn on
QVC every once in a while to see what they're
slinging. And Deb usually laughs at me, but like.
They, their personalities, it's a form of entertainment,
right? Like they provide an entertainment value.
Billy Mays and his OxyClean. Yeah. Yeah. Or the
Slap Chop guy, right? Like that, that's, that's,
that's what live selling is, but you can source
from that. I got people I know personally in
the group that source off whatnot every single
week. I won't say what it is because I'm not
going to out their business models, but the categories
they sell in. They will go on whatnot and buy
it for $2 or $3 a piece. And these items are
$30 plus items on Amazon. And all you got to
do is pop into the stream and say, hey, do you
have XYZ? Can you run it for me? There you go.
There might be one other person in there looking
for that same thing, but you're going to get
it way under market value. I'm curious. I'm surprised
you don't do more whatnot arbitrage. My thing
about that is it's slow, even at like 10 second
auctions. Because if they have their ducks in
a row, and I know my item is way down here, it
still takes, I don't know, half an hour to get
to it. Let's say I showed up on time. Or, hey,
it's off at the start. Or, I don't know, I just
find it terribly slow. I've done it before, and
yeah, great deals, great value. But it's slow
in my opinion, even though it's live, right?
It's so much faster to do it on eBay. I'd rather
pay eBay up. to be faster it's what it comes
down to because i i do source on ebay and i source
from people that just send me random messages
too um what i'm curious on we talked about it
a while ago and i don't know if you heard anything
back on it but remember when we talked about
reverse garage selling like hey just setting
up some tables and i'm buying um and promoting
the hell out of that i don't did anybody ever
say they did that Me and you will make a pledge
right here, right now that we both will try this
come summertime. Okay. Sure. And then we'll have
real life experience, but no, nobody's tried
that. Not that I know, not that any, I've gone
to more flea markets this year than I have my
whole life. And I haven't seen anything like
that yet. Yeah. And the stuff you don't want,
you can sell that stuff on another team. I guess,
wait, I guess I take that back because there
are a few booths in the antique mall. Like they
don't have much, but they're like junk companies.
So like, it's almost like a promotion thing,
right? Like, Oh, They'll have like business cards
and what they do, like they'll have banners up.
It's like a display. It's paid advertisement,
like a billboard. Yeah, they really don't give
a shit about selling stuff because they really
never really have much in there. And it's funny
because what they do is dirt cheap. And I usually
always get like, they only have like 20 things
at most. It's like an eight by six, we'll say.
And they only have like 20 little things in there.
But they got their business cards. They got their
company logo, the phone number. It's almost like
a promotional thing. I just want a giant banner
that says, I buy books. Phone number. What better
place to put it than in one of these antique
malls where it's nothing but hoarders trying
to sell their junk, right? So, like, that's another
aspect of it is, you know, that's their brand
building, like we kind of talked about, right?
Whether that's whatnot or whether that's an antique
mall, whether that's a flea market. Because what
happens here is if you set up every single week
and you're buying items, all of a sudden word
gets out that, yo, this dude down at the flea
market, he's here every week. He's, you know,
buying books, CDs, DVDs, you know, he's going
to pay you cash from the spot. It'll take time,
but you get traction, word of mouth spreads.
And all of a sudden you got a live sourcing opportunity.
And it was the same when you had the books front,
right? Like you told people you bought, you buy
their stuff and they would just give you it,
right? They don't even care about their money.
They're like, no, just take our stuff. Leave
us alone. And you're like, can you please just
take like a box of books on the way out to like,
no, we don't want your stuff. No more, no more.
It's a whole nother opportunity. I think that's
what appeals to you so much with the grand plans
of you wanting to have multiple locations where
you take trade -ins and you have a little storefront
where you can sell some of the items that aren't
worth it to sell online. That's the whole reason
behind it. It's not because you want to be a
bookstore owner. You just know your sourcing
instantly levels up immediately. It's fast. It's
so fast. They walk in, drop it on the floor sometimes.
I didn't even get a chance to say hello. It's
nuts. And we got people in the group that do
this too. We got some crazy good ideas out there
that people are executing in the group when it
comes from almost live sourcing, but you really
don't even have to pay for the inventory. You
give inventory away and people give you the inventory.
It's nuts, man. See, I like your antique mall
idea. And here's what I would do. I would have
the giant sign that's the center of attention.
And then I have a bunch of junk books. It just
says free, all free. Take as many as you want,
please. And it's just, I get people to come over
to the booth that way. Hey, free stuff, right?
Let's see what they got. Plus they see my giant
ass sign of I buy books phone number. Yeah. Johnny's
junk hauling company. Johnny's junk. Yeah. And
I know I'm going to get in the comments. Well,
you're just going to be buying your own books
back sometimes, but I guarantee you most of the
time I'm not doing that. Yeah. Well, those people
are going to lose anyway, dude. I think that
the idea that's like the. this scarcity mindset
yeah because the people coming in there to buy
your to take your books for free don't have a
whole house full of books right like come on
yeah yeah i mean let's get real now especially
in our category i think it's fun and exciting
i like live selling it you know it's it's definitely
more fun than ebay i mean you've done a you've
done some garage sales like you had them all
lined up yeah Done, you're like, just free, take
it. Just free, yeah. I mean, I made probably
like 60 bucks sitting out front right on my sidewalk
and just had boxes of brand new books that I
got for nothing. I paid 15 cents a pound. I was
selling them for a dollar a piece and then I
put them free and I basically, everything got
wiped out. I mean, I made a little bit of money
and it's nice to have conversation, but it's
not for everybody, dude, right? Like you said,
like some people try to do this. Some people
hate that, yeah. You gotta have a conversation,
like it's a conversational thing and it's almost
like you need to trade of. talking because there's
nobody else to talk to right it's like if i do
a podcast myself i have to almost have a conversation
with myself well that's kind of what you're doing
like sure you might have people in the chat asking
questions but it's more or less like hey here's
what i got anybody interested in like you need
the personality behind it and i i can see why
people are kind of you know turned off from that
side of it and i would just say to that like
It's okay. You don't got to live sell and keep
doing what you're doing, but don't think that
live selling is just going to be, you can be
a little hermit and not say anything and just
show the CD and just don't say nothing and just
be like, all right, here you go. 10 seconds,
seven, two. All right, next one. And like, that's
not, you're not going to get results. And there's
another whatnot tip or any kind of live selling
tip. Read the chat, please. Even if it's reading
it out loud. Because, you know, sometimes people
have questions, and if you ignore their questions,
you've ignored that individual, and they're going
to take one of the six wallets from your stream
away because you're not paying attention, answering
their critical need -to -know -I -want -to -spend
-money -with -you kind of question. I see this
a lot. They're too busy running the show, and
they ignore the chat. They're just trying to
get through the stream, and you've got some guy
every 15 minutes asking the same question that
goes unanswered. And then the show's over. That
person ain't coming back to your stream ever.
They want to spend money with you, but you didn't
take the 2 .6 seconds to answer their question.
So the question comes down to when it comes to
live selling and live buying items, right? I'll
tell you right now, I've never been to one of
these auctions where you bid on stuff. I've seen
the shows. I've never personally been to a storage
auction or any place where I get a little paddle
with a number on it and I can bid on things.
I think it'd be cool and exciting. I might get
carried away. I'm one of these suckers, Johnny.
I'm like, I really want that item. And Deb's
like, give me that damn paddle. I just keep putting
it up. And she's like, what are you doing? I
think I would get suckered in. And that's, like
you said, sometimes you sell items for more,
but most of the time you sell them for. less
and i don't i don't know if live selling is like
a trainable could i train every i asked myself
could i train could we train everybody to be
successful live selling and i don't think you
can because i think it's uh a type of personality
trait that you gotta have that you're like outgoing
and you don't you can't you know you you you
just keep going you keep talking high energy
you know like because in addition even if you
got good energy good items right but your energy
sucks like you're not going to sell anything
and then it's vice versa if you got good energy
but your items suck you're still not going to
sell anything so you got to kind of have like
a recipe so the idea that maybe you build almost
like a course around live selling i i think that
would be a little bit skewed because everybody's
different. Everybody's got a different personality,
right? And you can't train. It's hard. It's not
that you can't, right? Because you can train
anything. It's much harder to train somebody
to be a great live seller than it is just to
go fill a box with random CDs and send them off
to Amazon. When I went to California, I stayed
with a friend in Arizona. And in the morning,
we went to her auction place. And how it ran
was like this. Everything was set up in advance.
There was a start time. And then you just had
crowds of people. And then the auctioneer went
from table to table to table. Everything was
outside at first. And then it snaked on inside.
Finally got around to the books. That's what
I've been waiting. You're allowed to look at
everything in advance. But you got to wait. Just
like whatnot. You got to wait till that table
or that box comes up before you can even bid
on it. You may have to wait an hour. You may
have to wait an hour and a half to get to it.
Anyway, I came up to the books. And he's like,
all right, books. And I'm like, one dollar. And
he's like, for what? All of them. And he's like,
sold. He didn't even allow anybody else to bid.
And then he shook my hand. Thank you for buying
these. I haven't had anybody buy books in so
long. I'm like, you're welcome. Took it back
to her place, sorted them. She put the shit I
didn't want in her donation pile. I took the
rest home or to California with me and back again
to Texas. Oh, man, it's like. So what outweighs
itself more? Is there a bigger opportunity sourcing
live or selling live? I think it just depends
on your business model and what you have going
on. I think you can be really successful live
selling. I think once you get live selling going
and you have a consistent flow of inventory where
you consistently have a schedule that is consistent,
understand what I'm saying here, consistency,
consistent, that is the main, the word of the
day, I guess, when it comes to live selling.
If you're going to live sell, you have to be
consistent. And even with the sourcing, right,
because not all like Johnny even said, you know,
you're going to have to wait some time. So I
just see you as like you ever see the meme of
the guy that's got like 30 cell phones and he's
like clicking on them all like that's you like
on whatnot, trying to source from like 30 different
streams. They're all on mute. I'm just product.
It's a great opportunity to sell and buy, but
both take a little bit of work. and a little
bit of knowledge behind it. And if you're going
to sell, there's more characteristic traits that
you need to have versus just being the box guy
like I like to be. But I mean, it's more exciting
for sure. I mean, I don't know who would say
live selling is less exciting than listing on
eBay. I mean, what is exciting about listing
on eBay? Nothing. live selling, at least I can
play Tarzan boy and piss off the three people
I have in my stream, right? Like, you can have
some fun with it. And, you know, I just, I don't
know, maybe things have changed, Johnny, but
as a bookseller, what I've seen out there and
whatnot, I think there's a lot of opportunity
for somebody to come along and be like the prominent,
prominent person. I mean, there are a few in
the space now that see some results, but I still
think there's a lot of room for growth in that
category. And I think it's a good opportunity
for somebody that has the characteristics, likes
to talk to people, has a little bit of swagger,
personality, a little bit of style in what they
do, a little bit of care in what they do. They
set things up nicely, nice little background,
nice little backdrop, are knowledgeable about
the items they're selling. I think it's a great
opportunity. I don't think it's going anywhere.
I think it's here to stay. And I know a lot of
people still are on the fence about live selling.
But I think what we said about the intention
span. Live selling appeals to that, right? 10
second auctions. Our brain, we know 10 seconds,
something else is coming up. I'm ready to bid,
right? It appeals to the human mind that we have
now and the human need to always be clicking
on something on the phone or always be doing
something. I think that cements that live selling
isn't going anywhere. Right. And I'm going to
program AI to attend all these live auctions
so I don't have to. You just, just Johnny AI
has entered the, entered the chat and then, you
know, everything, everything he wants, he's going
to win. He just says, I'm surprised. There probably
are bots that scour whatnot, like kind of like
the other reselling platforms and just bid on
items that they know are kind of worth it and
just market value. I don't know. That's going
to do it for this episode. Live selling, live
sourcing. We'd love to do it. I, I guess I'll
end this on this cocky note. If I was a live
seller, dude, I'd be knocking it out the park.
And I have all the little gimmicks and everything
going on, right? I do the full 10, everything
I possibly could. I won't be giving away no cars
or whatnot, right? But maybe, I don't know, I'll
give away a Ricola or something. Whatever, whatever.
Just give something away. Right. You got to keep
the people entertained. I think I think you would
be successful live selling as well, because you
have the knowledge, you know, a lot of a lot
of stuff about books and you do have a personality.
You wouldn't be on this podcast if you were just
monotone, dude. I would have, you know, we would
have had to bring you into the office and fire
you a long time ago. But you got a little little
spunk in there. Right. I think you think you'd
be successful and whatnot. I think I would be.
Yeah. But my my dollars per hour, I know better
spit on Amazon. Exactly. That's all I have left
over. I got my little paperbacks. I like doing
it on eBay. Could I do my little paperbacks and
whatnot? Maybe, but I had to pump more time than
I pump into eBay doing it. Yeah, that's all it
comes down to for us is like, how much money
can we make doing whatnot versus eBay versus
Amazon? And for us currently, we're just stick
with what works. But I think for somebody that's
looking for a new opportunity, maybe aren't getting
the results. I think it's a good chance to get
out there, see what you can do with it, but just
understand it's going to take time. We will talk
to you all in next week's episode. Thanks for
listening to another episode of the Reseller's
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