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 usebookguy 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. Hi, everybody. Welcome to
another exciting episode of Reseller Mindset.
I'm doing the introduction today because Mike's
like, this would be funny. Look at him cackle
over there. If you're watching on the YouTube
stream. So yeah, today we're going to be talking
about knowing your competition or knowing your
enemy. And this is more from a local standpoint.
Like if you go sourcing to one of your regular
places and you notice it's not as good as it
used to, you start asking some questions, maybe
to the checkout person or maybe the manager,
if you built up some kind of rapport there. And
like, yeah, there's a new scanner boy or girl
in town. You're not the only one anymore. So
now you got competition in a place that used
to be a honey hole, right? And it's like, what
do you do? For me, I would ask some leading questions
like, oh, when do they normally drop by? And
then I may probably drop by around that time
repeatedly until I figure out who they are. And
then maybe I just subtly start a conversation
with them again, asking some probing questions.
So I will make my plan of attack from there.
And that'll usually mean I come in before them
and I make sure I get it. Or maybe I have a talk
with the manager, like it's time to get that
backroom access going because this guy needs
to die. What are your thoughts, Mike? I didn't
think that I would be this excited about a topic.
Like when you first said, I was like, all right,
I get it, right? Like, but I actually am because
I have real life examples of just what Johnny
said. So I won't go into too much detail, but
I found some sources this year and there's other
scanners there, right? Like what Johnny's saying.
And it kind of just happened as cheesy as this
sounds. It kind of just happened like Johnny
just said, like. oh there's somebody else here
like you're paying attention right so and in
one of the situations i heard the other the other
person was there while i was there right so like
we're both scanning and uh i heard them over
i heard i'm i'm eavesdropping dude right i got
my big ears out like dumbo and uh the person
said like how often they come right I come on
the 17th every single month, right? I'm just
saying that just for context, right? So if me,
for example, if it's me and Johnny and Johnny's
talking to the people that I come on the 17th
every single month, well, guess who's going to
be there on the 16th, right? Like it is, it's
a dog eat dog world. And I don't feel bad about
it, honestly. And that's just one of the kind
of ways where you have to understand what your
competition is in your market. We sell media.
And we always sit here and say, it's everywhere,
right? It is. Every store you go in, there's
tons of different places you can get media from.
But having that little leg up, it's worth its
weight in gold. And this is just why we talk
about having relationships and kind of doing
things like that. But you're right, dude. I literally,
I do that to people. And that's not the only
real life example I'm going to cover in this
one. But that's one where I just literally overheard
the other person give away. when they come every
single month and i said i had a grin on my face
oh yeah i mean you just you just ask the leading
question oh you're a reseller i'm a reseller
too let's be friends right um and i will betray
you at the first moment i can uh so yes and like
when you go to like a library sale it's all the
competition in the world right everybody there
is your competition so it's a little bit different
than when you're going to a thrift store i would
say um So, yeah, you could approach this person
or figure out information from, like I said,
the clerk, cashier person or manager. If you
approach them, don't be overt about it. Just
strike up a friendly conversation like you normally
would. They'll give you all the information they'll
need normally if they'll bother to talk to you
because they may not. They're like, no, go away.
And if that's the case, you. You're going to
destroy them. You just have to figure out when
they're coming and how you get ahead of them,
what their route is. So maybe they got a whole
route that's the same route as yours, plus or
minus a few places. So once you figure all that
out, you'll eventually put them out of business.
Now, if they counterattack and do the same thing
to you, well, that's a very interesting game.
I think it's time to up your game about getting
backroom access and before they don't even get
a chance to touch it. Their schedule doesn't
matter at that point. Now on the reverse end,
you can make, instead of viewing them as your
enemy, you can make them your ally. Like, look,
it's you and me in this area. We got to work
something out here because we're just stepping
on each other's toes. Or maybe like, what do
you like to sell? You're like, I'm books only.
I'm like, oh, okay. Then when I come here, maybe
I'll do disc only instead. And you kind of divide
the store up that way. So you're not getting
in each other's way or wasting each other's time.
It's a gentleman's agreement or a lady's agreement,
whatever the case may be. But they can go that
way. And maybe you can ask them, hey, when you
go to some other places, if you see any new sealed
DVDs or CDs, you can throw them my way. And if
I see any, I don't know. box sets, I'll throw
them your way. And now you've made a connection
where you're exchanging inventory versus competing
over the same inventory. And that can be to your
benefit as well. And it can lead to something
else. Or maybe you can look at them like, okay,
they're going to fail, but they might be a good
employee. So you could view it from that angle
as well. Like I'm going to put them out of business,
but I'm going to hire them in order to do so.
Maybe you need somebody to do photography or
shipping or whatever. Because they may be doing
this part -time. They're moonlighting. It's a
couple spare bucks. They have no master plans
of becoming a big empire. And you can use that
to your advantage. If you can offer them an hourly
wage that's better than them going to the thrift
store, they might take it, actually, because
they don't like necessarily coming to the thrift
store. They're just trying to get a few extra
bucks. And if you're offering that with less
work involved or less thinking, they actually
may do it. I've seen that happen before. I got
lots of examples for this and they're all kind
of recent to like this year. I don't know what's
going on, but another one I'm going to give everybody.
I've been going to library sales this year for
the first time in my 50 -year Amazon selling
career. And what I noticed was some library sales
have a preview night, right? So you got to show
up. And you got to pay. It's usually between
$10 up to $25, right? So you got to pay to get
in the door, right? Imagine you go to Studio
66. You got to pay to get in, right? To be with
all the celebrities. I noticed there's this one
group, large family. They're at every one that's
free. But if there's an entry fee to get in,
they do not go to those, right? So little things
like this. are going to give you a leg up. And
I know it doesn't seem like much, but these people
are always, I don't know, I should go like one
time just to see, like, I don't know how early
they get there or they just camp out overnight.
These are not big sales by no means necessary.
I'm talking like 5 ,000 books. And these people
are in first in line every single time. And there's
usually at least five of them up to like eight,
right? So one person just sits in line right
before it opens, they all kind of go up, but
they only go to the free ones. So, all right,
well, you know, if it's free. You're guaranteed
I'm going to see these people. I've been all
over the state this year going to library sales.
Every single one that's been free, they've been
there. Every single one you've had to pay. What's
up, Amazon sellers? We wanted to take a second
to talk about GoToLister, the software me and
Johnny both use to list and manage our inventory
and grow our businesses. With the fastest listing
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the link in the description below not there right
so all right all of a sudden you got that first
huge group out of the way now you can still find
stuff right even if they're there um you're still
going to be able to find items but that's yet
another thing right little little things you
start catching on to right along the way you
start making little mental notes right i've been
going to these library sales for the first time
it's a brand new experience for me so i'm like
all right well why are they going to this one
that's right here but they're not going to this
one that's right in the next town right it would
only make sense that you would go to both and
then you're like wait a minute well you got to
pay 25 hours a person they got 10 people right
that's an extra 250 bucks but me and johnny will
sit here and say you're definitely going to make
that money back anyway so like Clearly, they're
not making no type of money in this business.
They can't afford to spend $10 a head just to
get into some of these sales. That's another
thing I really noticed. Knowing your enemy, it's
more than just almost thrifting. It's like habits.
People are a creature of habit. If I go run the
same routes every single day, every single week
of the month, I'm doing the same things, northeast,
southwest, and Johnny moves to the area. And
he figures out, well, Mike goes to, you know,
Reading every second week of the month. And he
goes to wherever, Allentown every third week
of the month. Well, that's what Johnny's going
to do. He's going to undercut the crap out of
me. And then all of a sudden, like he said, you
go to these places and you're not finding this
much, right? And sure, sources change all the
time. We talk about sources change. So just because
you're not finding this much might not directly
mean that, you know, Johnny's moved into your
neighborhood or I moved into your neighborhood.
But there are things you have to pay attention
to. And this stuff really is like, it can make
a big difference. And now I know whenever it's
a free library sale, the math don't even math,
right? I'm gonna go off the wheels real quick.
Last one I went to was like 4 ,000 books, right?
Maybe not even. That's not including nonfiction
and fiction, right? So that's probably like a
50 -50 split. So it's like 2 ,000 books. You're
looking at maybe a 10 % accept rate, right? So
out of your 2 ,000 books, that puts you at 200
books that are profitable in the wholesale. Well,
you're not the only people there. You're not
scanning the wholesale. So if you're bringing
10 people, we ain't making no damn money. The
math, don't math. But yet again, here we are.
And knowing your enemy sometimes means you got
to... uh sometimes math is people's enemy and
i'm a -okay with that but that's just another
reason i want i want you to get to one that you
specifically have and i think that's on ebay
and knowing your competition for the category
you selling because you're you're kind of niched
down and like the the super trade paperback sci
-fi type guy and i'm curious like when you first
decided to go down this venture like did you
do like research to figure out like all right,
what do, how are people listing their stuff and
how can I do something differently? Exactly.
So when I decided on, I like selling the easy
sell at a decent clip and they're fun to list.
I enjoy, not everything I list is fun, but these
are fun. So I started looking it up. Well, there
may be. On some of them, there may be up to 10
to 12 listings. On some of them, there may be
two. And then looking at the listings as a whole,
whether it's 10 or two, and repeating that up
to 100 or 200 sampling size, the lack of effort
is not there. Generally, these are one of two
people. Either it's the comic book store, and
they sell these books in addition to comics,
just like they sell graphic novels. So I'm competing
with those guys. Or it's somebody's private collection.
They've been collecting for years. They got 10
,000 of them. They say, well, it's been nice,
but I'm old, so security isn't great. I need
to sell these off. The comic guys, they don't
like putting in, most of them do not like putting
up banger listings. And the comic guys, they
don't want to be listing to begin with. A, they're
emotionally attached. B, it's hard for them.
They're not trying to be a reseller. They're
just trying to get a couple few bucks there.
So what I chose is like, if I make a quality
listing with these, I win. Now, there is thrift
books and secondhand books and Dispens and all
those people. They're just playing the margin
game. And I see them as well, but they're not
my competition. They're playing a gigantic game
of lowest price wins. So I don't even view them
and they're using stock photos. So screw those
guys. So that was my angle on it. And then I
was like, okay, if I want to do a quality listing,
I would need to charge up for this because my
listings look like no one else in this little
sector. So I did. And then that's changed over
the years. I started at a certain price and now
it's at a different price. It's actually higher
now because I know what I can get away with because
I've been doing it so long. Because when I first
started, it was $12 .99 free ship as my entry.
Now it's like $20 plus like almost $7 shipping.
Because I know, and that's my minimum injection.
That doesn't mean I don't sell stuff for more
if it's worth more. But that's what I need to
do. So I'm usually the highest price listing.
But you know what? Given enough time, my stuff
does sell because it's supply and demand. There's
a lot more demand. There is supply. But it's
a huge catalog of these paperbacks, right? around
the 1920s up till today so over 100 years of
material um and some of these guys would pump
them out like once a week or in some cases more
sometimes doesn't mean they're fantastic works
of literature a lot of it is but a lot of it's
hot garbage too like they had a quota to me they're
just cranking these suckers out and they put
most of their money in cover art and that's what
makes you separate these things A lot of the
times is the cover art. So they'll spend all
of their effort there and little hair goes into
the writing because it's just trash or it's mediocre.
It's not great, but it's a cool cover. And some
people just collect them for the cover. So they're
very comic book -esque. So I would say my main
competition is the comic book stores, but they
mainly focus more on comics and these paperbacks
are even below graphic novels for them. And they
also like to focus in the toys and the statues
and the pop figurines that goes around the comics.
Those are bigger ticket items for them. So it
makes sense for them to focus on that. Do these
guys have everything, including what I sell?
Yes, but I'm only selling this. I think the biggest
advantage we have as resellers and knowing your
enemy is that the overwhelming majority of resellers.
are going to be lazy and take shortcuts and not
do things the right way. That's just the reality
of it. I'm sorry if this offends anybody. I don't
care. The years and years and years and years
I've been doing this, the biggest thing is people
don't do the job thoroughly and fully start to
finish in reselling because anybody can start
this business. You can drag it along and be non
-profitable for the rest of your life if you
wanted to. So the biggest thing that I look at
when I'm out and I'm sourcing is I know even
if Johnny Well, not Johnny, because he would
scan everything. But even if there was another
scanner and they scanned before me, and I tell
everybody in the group to do this all the time.
And I do this at library sales. I got this other
person at my library sales. I don't know what
his triggers are, right? We're working off software
on our phone. You can have it set up to whatever
parameters. Maybe Johnny's buying $20 only profit
books, but I'm willing to take 10, right? So
it's different for every single person. I scan
behind this specific person and I get looks,
right? Because I'm like scanning after them and
they see me putting stuff in my bag, right? They're
like, the hell's going on? I just scan that.
They're not making no money, right? And I'm sitting
here like, I'm thinking the same thing about
this guy. I'm like, the hell is this guy doing?
He's leaving behind all this money. And one of
the things I noticed is that if the book doesn't
have a scannable barcode, for those on YouTube.
I don't have one specifically, but there's no
barcode on the back of the book, right? But there's
like a little ISBN number. This dude does not
scan ISBN numbers, right? And a lot of these
books are usually from like smaller press companies,
right? Like the university presses or something
like that. The accept rate on the ISBN scans
is always 10 times higher than the barcode scans.
But for some reason, We can't spend the two seconds
to hit the little camera button on our phone
and scan it. So whenever I scan behind this guy
and he's almost at every sale. Right. I know
I see the ISBN book. I'm like, here we go, baby.
It's like it's you got to know what's going on,
being aware of around you. And maybe maybe the
first time you start doing something new, maybe
the first time you go to the bins. Right. Or
you're trying a new source. You're going to library
sales for the first time. Maybe the first time
isn't so much about making and scanning as much.
It's kind of seeing what other people are doing,
right? Seeing what the flow of the place is.
Where is everybody going to, right? In my experience,
most people run to like the history and like
the war sections. Me personally, I'm going self
-help and religion. That's where the sell -through
is for me. Not so much the crazy, super high,
profitable, slow -moving military book you might
come across. I really don't care about that.
And I know if I just walk over here. boom, I'm
knocking it out. And it's the same way when selling
disc media, I go to a library sale. I'm not even
going to the books first. I'm going to the disc
media every single time. And most booksellers
are just stuck in their ways and they don't,
they just sell only books. And I'm just like,
well, if this is what it's going to be, then
I got to do something a little bit different
to make some more money. And yeah, dude, it amazes
me how resellers just assume that every other
reseller is the greatest reseller, right? Like
if somebody's in there before me, Oh, there's
nothing left for me, dude. They're already in
there. I'm the opposite. I'm like, I'm laughing.
I'm like, let's go see what Doink the Clown left
us in the store because I know there's some good
money sitting in there. When I go to a sale like
that, the first thing I do is I don't shop for
Amazon. I shop for eBay. So I make a complete
pass of what I could just instantly pull, no
questions asked. I will scan this stuff later.
or look it up later to see if it can go to Amazon,
and that's where I will send it. But I spend
zero thinking time, and I just use my book knowledge,
make my initial pass. HubSpine, yoink. Trade
little paperback sci -fi that I love to sell,
yoink. Bible, yoink. These are things that I'm
guaranteed that I'm going to list on eBay. Regardless,
I'll do a condition check before I buy this stuff.
That's a secondary thing. I'll yoink everything
out that I can, that I can just eyeball test.
No questions asked. And there may be things that
I have to toss them back. Like I open it up.
It's all water damage or somebody took a gigantic
Crayola to the majority of the book. That's going
back or I open it and it falls apart on me. That's
going back, but I'll do that first. And then,
then I'll do my Amazon scanning because I'll
get a lot of books that the Amazon scanners.
won't even look at that way or if there's in
my area there's more ebay people than amazon
to be honest Me doing that, I'll get a lot more
than they can even touch because they really
don't have interest in Amazon for the most part
because they're eBay people. But they're an everything
store eBay kind of type, the ones that attend
these book sales. So they aren't really booksellers.
They're everything sellers. They just saw this
sale on Facebook. I'm like, oh, cheap books.
I can sell cheap books, right? Well, go away,
everything seller. Nobody likes you. And as far
as scanning goes, yeah, I hit the religion thing
first because I'm Texas, right? Bible Belt. They
usually got a big religious section. So I hit
that first. And then it's either the self -help
or the nonfiction. And then I'll hit the fiction
because I already know fiction. And because of
my eyeball walk around, I've already yoinked
what I wanted to yoink anyway. And it's in my
cart already. Now it's just a matter of scanning
for the outliers. In my opinion, they're going
to go into Amazon. So I don't even really start
with fiction, but I do focus on fiction because
I have that knowledge in the fiction world. And
I start with that first, right? But I've already
done the work and everybody avoids the fiction
like the plague minus the actual end consumer
who reads fiction and is there to shop for fiction.
And yeah, they're the customer. Fine. So they're
my only real competition on that front, but I
don't really worry about them. Now, another thing
for competition. If we're going around to places,
like we were mentioning at the beginning of the
podcast, we can't find them, right? Well, here's
a little thing to think about. Look at your social
media in your area. And if you notice somebody
who has dreams of being a young YouTuber, sorry,
Mike, and they're posting stuff, look at their
videos. And if you've been to enough stores,
you can pretty much figure out what stores they're
going to. And you can watch some of their videos
at that point and then figure out their schedule
because they'll talk about it because they're
YouTuber. Right. They want to talk about how
they do things. I mean, no offense to Mike, but
he talks probably more than he should about where
he sources from. But, yeah, it's out there and
even on Facebook or Instagram or even the almighty
Twitter. Right. The information's out there.
Now, I have looked at what. On Amazon, when people
are on the listing, like, where are these people
from? Where are they getting this? I thought
this thing was rare. Like, what state are they
in? Because it gives you that information. You
can do something similar on eBay. And Tech and
Sports, who does the Reseller Greatness podcast,
he's got a great video on how to find stores
and stuff in his group. I've watched that video
several times because it's always like, if I
need to know this, this will do me a solid at
the stage where I have heavy competition in my
area. I'm trying to think here. So when is a
point that you should start worrying about competition
as far as the listings go on eBay and Amazon?
Like, I think I was going to say this, but it
kind of leads us right into this. I think another
thing with knowing the enemy with reselling is
that a lot of resellers. want all the money all
the time and they're not thorough with going
back and being the best price right so not only
do they have one of the not best listing they
don't have the best price either and to them
i see it all the time and a lot of resellers
complain when they go to garage sales people
say oh i know what i got and i want x amount
of dollars well when you all go list your stuff
you do the same exact damn thing there's no sold
comps and you think you can get 10x with a last
sold for 90 days ago this is the biggest advantage
i have it's the only reason my amazon business
exists i don't even care it's because i scan
at the lowest price i send it in the lowest price
i sell it at the lowest price nothing else matters
in amazon land i don't care who comments on this
video and says well my books are better condition
or the buy box depended on location That is like
a 0 .05 % of how they decide to buy box on Amazon.
The biggest one is price. So guess what I care
about? The price. And that is why I sell thousands
and thousands and thousands and thousands and
thousands of CDs, books, DVDs every single year.
And that's why I'm still here. That's why the
bank account goes up. It's not because I sit
here and brag to Johnny that I have 50 ,000 Amazon
listings. It's cool that I have 50 ,000 Amazon
listings, Johnny. Check me out. I'm the coolest
guy, the coolest cat on the block. And Johnny's
like, well, Mike, you're living under the underpass.
And I'm like, dude, we don't care about that.
You see my listing count here? You see my bars,
right? That's the biggest thing, dude. We have
to price our items to sell no matter what platform.
And we cannot do that because we're so damn greedy
that even though we spent. a dollar for the DVD,
we need to get maximum, maximum money. Even if
there's somebody else on the listing and I look
at it and like, well, mine's is a little bit
better. This thing sells once every 90 days and
there's only one other person, right? Mine's
a little better quality. So I'm going to charge
like an extra 50 bucks. And then it just sits
there, especially on eBay. Nobody goes back and
looks at their old prices. Like what is the percentage
of eBay sellers? I would love to know this. Did
it actually go back? and either have the pricing
buckets based on dates like a lot of the professional
eBay sellers do, like yourself, because I personally
rarely, rarely did it when I was an everything
seller on eBay. Whatever they set that initial
price at, regardless, maybe somebody comes on
the listing and they got 100 of these, and the
quantity is 100, and it's 20 bucks cheaper than
yours. Dude, this is going to sit in my house
forever. I'm going to be staring at Alfred Hitchcock
for the rest of my life. For those watching on
YouTube, I got one of his DVD sets. And you think
to yourself, Well, eBay sucks. No, you suck.
Well, since you brought up garage sales, here's
another thing I like to think about. And maybe
a lot of you haven't ever thought about this,
but do you ever view garage sales and thrift
stores and estate sales as your competition?
Like, why didn't you get the phone call? Why
didn't you get the email? Why is this stuff going
there and not directly to me? I think about this
a lot. that's my stuff sitting on that shelf.
It should already be at my driveway. Why isn't
it? What can I do to make that happen? So I know
it's an extreme, but I kind of view it that way.
Like they are my competition. They're getting
the stuff I'm not, and I'm having to pay them
to get the stuff. So I like to view it like,
okay, how can I get it direct? How can I get
it from wherever it came from? Somebody's home
more than likely. I'm not going to include libraries
because that's its own little special entity
or any kind of nonprofit. But it's just like,
okay, how can I up my game where I can make the
thrift store shelves barren from books? That's
it, dude. I mean, you got a good point. I'm going
to tap on this real quick. You see that as competition.
I see, and I think people now are kind of catching
on to this more because these thrift store chains
are selling online. The thrift stores are the
competition. You go shop in a Goodwill, you're
literally giving your competition money, right?
And guess what they're doing? They're looking
everything up nowadays. So does self -test get
into the sales floor? Sure, some items slip through
the crack, but we're talking a percent of a percent
anymore, right? It used to be a lot easier to
go into a Goodwill, fill up the cart. That does
not exist, at least around me, in any way, shape,
or form. You're not going to any Goodwill and
even get more than 10 items when it comes to
media because everything's scanned at a centralized
location. So like you're saying, that's your
competition, right? And when I drive by the Goodwill
and somebody's donating a car full of books,
I have the same thing. Johnny thinks like, shit,
that should have been mine, right? And I actually
would have gave that person some money for their
stuff. And maybe they would have appreciated
it. Maybe that would have turned into some word
of mouth. Then I get another connection and another
connection. Absolutely. They are a competition,
boys and girls. They're selling online. We're
competing with them. They're our direct competitor.
And yet we're putting money in their pocket.
So until you establish different sources, why
are you funding your competition? Or until you
figure out how to take away the stuff you're
selling from your competition, why are you supporting
your competition? These are key critical things
you need to think over the lifespan and the course
of your career as a reseller. It doesn't really
matter what you sell. And then taking a step
further, people like to flip, go from eBay to
Amazon, right? And there's plenty of people who
buy stuff from eBay to go to Amazon, but you're
funding the competition over on the eBay front,
right? You really are. uh even on the even on
the dollar start auctions or if you're doing
whatnot um you're funding the competition there
more or less um you could view it more of in
that scenario they're they're a supplier i guess
but where are they getting their stuff from why
isn't it yours already that's i view it in the
same kind of light like as the thrift stores
we were just mentioning like how come they got
it and i didn't that's how i'm looking at it
that's all that's all boils down to and i know
everybody thinks that right like everybody thinks
i think that myself when i like roll out of a
back room and like there's another reseller there
and they give you that look like why like why
is that person in the back room right or like
when people watch my youtube videos and they
you know they see me filling up the car with
books from the library back room which i'm going
to do today after we record this it's like well
why how let it's not fair and i It is fair. You're
just too lazy to put in that tiny bit of effort,
right? Like I've talked about the story a million
times, like how I wound up with one of my library
relationships was through a Craigslist post.
Like who uses damn Craigslist anymore, right?
And I literally have a library for the rest of
my life because of a stupid Craigslist post.
Those are the types of things. I look back, like
that's when I first started and I wanted it all,
right? Like that hunger, I'll straight up admit,
like I don't got that dog in me like I used to,
right? Like I was like, I'm putting ads out everywhere.
I want all the free microwave cookbooks. I don't
care. I'll deal with them. I'll figure out a
way to deal with them. That type of hunger and
just thinking a little bit, a little bit outside
the box, right? So many of us just rely on those
thrift stores to pay us. And so many of us fail.
because we only rely on the thrift stores. But
Johnny said, they're selling all this stuff online.
This is your direct competition. You're not worried
about selling media on Amazon and worrying about
the used book guy. Just go look on some of these.
The Goodwills are in competitions with themselves.
I've seen some book lists. The lowest 20 offers
are all different Goodwills. The Goodwills, they
don't care. They want to undercut their other
competitors, which is in the same damn company.
It's crazy to me. Right. I mean, I don't know
if they're required to because of like collusion
rules or what. But no, I see them undercutting
themselves all the time. But I guess the regionalized
or franchise and they're all, quote unquote,
independent. Maybe they pay Big Papa headquartered
Goodwill a yearly fee to do so. But they're all
competing with each other and then we're competing
with them. But they're getting the stuff because
we go buy it from them. Right. Why can't we get
this stuff? It's not any harder. Yeah, they got
the name brand recognition. We're going to get
called out for that in the comments, certainly.
I get it. But there's no reason you can't start
building your own brand in your own little area.
You may not go national or international with
it like they have, but you could be the regional,
I don't know, Winsboro, Texas book guy. It's
going to him every time. He pays cash money.
um and maybe he starts offering i don't know
cryptocurrency as payment because that's the
new fun thing to give instead of actual dollars
um you can figure it out it's hard a lot of us
are still working on it as like how do we get
more how do we get more and more and more for
cheaper cheaper cheaper um or how do we get it
all just coming to us and now we're just a factory
machine like uh mike's background back there
that's a factory machine warehouse kind of operation
yeah it's uh It's kind of eye -opening when you
really think about it. And I'll be straight up.
I tried to find an eBay seller or even a bookstore
to come get stuff that I don't have that's good
for Amazon. I can't find nobody, Johnny. I've
tried the zip code search on eBay. I've sent
messages. I've reached out to smaller bookstores.
Nobody wants to come literally get stuff for
free. And I think it's a huge missed opportunity
because... They don't even know what I got, right?
So why not just take the risk once and see what
the quality is, right? You don't, this could
be good stuff. And it's hard, man. Knowing your
competition is, it's so crucial to this game
anymore. It's not like it used to be. It's not
nowhere near as easy as it used to be. And we
just try to take the easy way out. And there's
no easy way out. Like the great song from the
Rocky soundtrack, there's no easy way out. Listen
to it. It's the facts of life. It's cheesy to
say like, oh, well, that's not fair because Johnny
just went to his library three weeks ago and
he got all the books. Like, how is that fair
for somebody like me? Well, guess what? I hate
to be the bearer of bad news. That's like one
library out of probably 50 ,000 in the state
of Texas. So many libraries. It's dumb. It's
really dumb. Every small town has a little small
library. You just create an excuse for yourself.
And it's just like a whiny crybaby excuse. So
that's going to do it for knowing your competition.
You've heard it here, right? Like the opportunity
is there. There's always another source. And
let be pissed off like Johnny is. Or when I drive
by and I see someone donate stuff, being like,
damn, why can't I let me be the next person that
gets this stuff next in line? And all you have
to do is not just go into a thrift store and
hope you fill up your cart. Get active on social
media. Put out some free pickup ads. The world
is yours for the taking. We'll talk to you all
in next week's episode. Thanks for listening
to another episode of the Reseller's Mindset
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