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. What is up, everybody? Welcome
into another episode of Reseller's Mindset Podcast.
The most annoying things me and Johnny get asked.
This is going to be a fun one. I will try not
to offend people, but I'm sure I will because
I guess, you know, the people that ask these
questions are going to know that they asked the
question, right? And I will purposely offend
these people. Johnny's got like a list of names
and the exact question with the timestamp they
asked it. So you're all in trouble. I guess I'll
start. I guess I'll get in the hot water first.
Most annoying thing I get asked when it comes
to being a reseller is, I guess, really like.
the super basic questions of like how how do
i send my stuff to amazon right like it's kind
of blanket but it's super beginning and i feel
like it's annoying and stupid because it is like
the very first like thing or like even setting
up like how do i set up an amazon account right
like i'm not tech support right like i can't
sure i can tell you to go to amazon .com backslash
start selling right but like This is so idiotic
to the level of, I just don't want to deal with
it. And there are certain things we have to,
I guess, do ourselves, right? Because that's
basically what this comes down to. Because you're
asking me something that's so basic on the basic
level, where if you just went to Google or went
to anywhere and typed it in, you would actually
get a full -blown response. Instead of me sitting
here trying to, I don't know, like micromanage,
explain how you send something to Amazon. Yeah,
that's a fun one. I hate that one, too. I'll
scratch that one off my list, Max. Anyway, what
kind of books should I sell, Johnny? I mean,
that is such a loaded question because everybody's
region's different, so they have access to different
material. So, sure, you're new. You don't know
this. I'll give you a somewhat squintable, hard
squint pass. But then it's like, the profitable
ones, dumbass. I mean, they're pretty much asking
me for a bolo list, essentially, without asking
for a bolo list. And it's like, well, I don't
have time, nor do I want to give you a bolo list.
Yeah, I'm in communities and I'm helpful, but
there is a secret sauce division of my helpfulness
where, and I probably said over the years way
too much, and I probably bred some competition
that I normally wouldn't have just because they
were in the dark about it. I can give generals
what generally sells quick. And not necessarily
valuable, but like 20, 30 bucks worth. That's
about as far as I really want to go with it.
Because everything else is like, do your research,
dumbass. Dude, you backed yourself into this
corner, right? Like in all my videos and even
on the podcast, I say multiple times, like I
know nothing about books. I'm basically illiterate.
So I never get asked that question. Well, yeah,
in Amazon land, you got scanning tools. Those
are the books you should send in. It's trigger
-based set. Mine is book knowledge of you got
to know that it sells without any tools. There
are some tools out there. I mean, you could use
the eBay photo app and look up sold comps just
like you could on anything on eBay. But again,
laziness. You could use Terapeak and go through
the different various book categories and see
what sells for big money. Um, also the other
part of the loaded question is how are you set
up? Like, are you the coffee table bookseller?
Probably not starting out because you're going
to have way less listings than a smaller book,
paperback bookseller, or there's books smaller
than those two. So it really depends on that.
Or if you got the warehouse and space doesn't
matter, well, why don't you list them all? And
why are you asking this asinine question if you
already got a warehouse? I got one that's not
even clear. I feel like a lot of these will probably
hit on newer sellers. But this one is I want
to pick on people that have been doing this for
a while. And I get this a lot like how much how
many pieces of inventory do I need to have or
like how much in sales do I need to have to make
X amount of dollars? Right. So I grew up math
was my favorite school subject. So everything
can be reverse engineered. So I've probably done
this like at least a hundred times this year
for people and I'm kind of burned out on doing
it. If you just take your numbers and see where
you're at and compare them to somebody else,
right? Like I put my numbers out there. Usually
every two months I'll do a full numbers breakdown
of how much I made, how many items I sold. All
you have to do is kind of backtrack that and
see, all right, well, if you're making a hundred
thousand dollars and you have. you know, 5 ,000
pieces of inventory, then you can equate, you
know, every thousand pieces of inventory to $20
,000. Right. And it's all reverse engineerable,
but it's like, they just, people just want me
to just do it all for them. And I'm just like,
this is going to be ever changing in your business,
right? You're going to have a different ASP than
me. You're going to be sending different amounts,
but it is still kind of like equatable. And I
say it all the time. A thousand pieces of inventory,
I forget the exact number because I've completely
wiped it out of my memory, is equivalent to like
between $1 ,500 and like $3 ,500 in sales a month,
depending on where you're at. So it varies so
much, but people ask me all the time, like, I
want to make $1 ,000. How much do I need to sell?
I'm like, okay, let's do math here. If the average
sales price of your items is $20, all right.
How many do you need to get to $1 ,000? Are you
talking profit or are you just talking sales,
right? How much is Amazon taking? If Amazon's
taking 50%, then that needs to double. I'm just
like, I guess basic math just, it pissed me off
anymore because I'm just a math guy and I know
everything can, the math is the math. I'm just
like, well, just figure it out. Sit down with
a pen and piece of paper if you got it and just
write it out. That's what I used to do in my
YouTube videos. I would write everything out
before just taking the screenshots of it on my
phone. you're going to easily equate whatever
you want to get to how many items you need, how
much you need to send. It's the same idea of,
are you growing your inventory? Well, how much
are you sending a month versus how much you're
selling a month? It's just common sense mathematics
in any business, I guess, but it doesn't, it
doesn't exist out there. And I know a lot of
experienced people and people, even our group
asked me this and I literally had the same conversation
with all of you. Some of you are probably watching
this. Just run the numbers backwards and you'll
find out exactly how many pieces you need. I
got a better one. And I know you don't like lying,
but just tell them 5 ,000 pieces. I should, right?
You know, I should. 5K, simple. No more questions,
no more fun math. And unless they're doing their
business wrong, like sending in things that won't
sell. 5 ,000 active pieces in Amazon land is
going to yield you a pretty nice paycheck. If
you don't like the numbers after 5 ,000, well,
send in 10 ,000 and keep going up until you are
personally satisfied. That's how I would approach
that. But Mike's a gentleman, a scholar, post
the scoundrel like I am. Things that annoy me.
Well, on a similar vein, how many eBay listings
should I do? Well, what are your items worth?
Are they worth $10 or are they worth $100? Well,
okay. The answer is going to vary based off what
you personally want. I don't know what your goals
are. Are you the apartment guy who just wants
to make his rent bill? Are you the guy who wants
to retire on a private island? Your mileage in
the answer is really going to vary. And it's
going to be based off the material. So either
you list a lot less, but your items got more
bang for the sale than the $10 an item guy who's
going to be a pure volume -based business. General
rule of thumb, and nobody's going to like this
answer. They never do. And I got this answer
from Tekken. No, I won't say it was Tekken. It
was in Chris's old group. I don't remember if
it came from Chris or Tek. I'm thinking Chris,
maybe. 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 speeds out there and built -in profit
analytics, it's a no -brainer. Easily and quickly
have items available for sale using 2D barcodes
and get more for your items with its built -in
smart pricing. Make sure to check out the 30
-day free trial at gotolister .com backslash
Mike or using the link in the description below.
It would be 20 items is considered part -time
and 30 items is considered full -time. A 10 -item
separator. But I guarantee you most people don't
even get to 20 a day. 20 items a day times 7,
140 items listed a week on eBay is considered
part -time. Anything above 30 is considered full
-time. If you can't list 30, and you're treating
this as full -time, well, it's time to go back
to that full -time job or switch over to Amazon.
One I get all the time is whenever I bring it
up, like, how do you get that relationship with
the library? I'm just going to start telling
people, I don't care that I say library, right?
I don't care about the pronunciations, okay?
At the end of the day, pronunciations... Mike,
do you know you're saying library wrong? That
question annoys me, too, when I see it. library
l -i -b -e -r -r -y right it's a it's a type
of berry some type of hybrid like mayberry but
library i can't even say it like you how do you
how do i get a a library connection or how do
i get backroom access well i hate to break it
to you i mean if we can't it's just common denomination
like all right i guess unless you built the library
yourself right then you're automatically right
it's all yours but like for everybody else right
you have to i don't know maybe go in maybe talk
to someone maybe send an email like it is the
crazy talk no what do they think i do do they
think like i i just like shoot steroids i get
all oiled up i go in there ripped looking for
the old ladies like hey no no You go in and you
sign their year -long membership, pay a $500
fee, and this allows you access to the evil council
of witch librarians. And if you don't tip them
each $100 and do the hokey pokey, you don't get
back access. I really think like that's what
people, I actually was in the back room of one
of my thrift stores three weeks ago. probably
three or four weeks ago and you didn't see nothing.
I didn't tell nobody about it because I didn't
even want to hear this shit about, yo dude, how'd
you get in the back room? I literally, Johnny,
what I was doing, there was a lady walking around
straightening up the store. I had like a little
shopping basket full of books and DVDs and they
had a lot of them. So I'm like digging through
them. Lady came over and said, hey, you buying
all those? I said, yeah. She said, I got more
in the back. Dude, is that that easy? Like if
you just, and when I'm there, right? I, me and
you both believe on treating others how we want
to be treated, right? I'm in the, if I'm in the
store, it's a little thrift shop. I'm making
sure the shelf is nice and neat after I'm done
scanning and screwing it up. I think it's so
easy to do it, but it still drives me nuts. People
are like, how'd you get in the back room? Or
where can I get a library cart full of books?
And I'm just like, you just got to be personable
and have conversations. And, you know. It's all
a service. We're service -based. Provide them
the service, right? It's not like I pull up to
the library and I have all the old ladies load
my car up, right? I'm like, hey, I'll come in
and I'll load it to the car, right? Resellers
are scumbags. All you got to do is be the tiniest
bit of nice and you're already above 95 % of
the resellers out there in the universe. It's
the same when you go to a library sale. And all
the crazy ass people are running around, right?
I'm just, I just laugh at them. Like, you're
never going to get nowhere. You're always going
to be chasing your tail. And that's, but yeah,
dude, where, how can I get that? How can I get
that bulk source? I'm just like, I don't know.
Like Johnny said, I got a little library, witchcraft
Ouija board over here that every night I go to
and it tells me where to go. Yeah. I mean, it's,
it literally is as simple as asking. Those that
dare to ask a better part of valor. I'm probably
misquoting that, but you get the idea. Most people
don't ever ask. They expect that they'll be offered
it, I think. And why would the librarian even
think of this? They might at some point if they're
really savvy. But these people are just doing
their 9 to 5. They're worker bees. They don't
really care. You're an inconvenience when you
come to the counter, and they want you gone as
fast as possible usually. So if you ask the question,
they're usually looking for two things. They're
looking for cash money, or they're looking, like
Mike said, to have a service offered to them
to get their time back. Because they got stuff
maybe building the back room, and they didn't
even think about somebody daring to ask them
this question, and now they have a solution to
the back room problem that they have that's an
ongoing basis. Because these libraries and thrift
stores too, they get stuff donated all the time.
That building is only so big. And that's why
they do these library sales to thin those back
rooms out usually. Now, some libraries have like
a real deal private collection in the back room
that they may put out a book of that once in
a blue moon in a special case. And they won't
let you touch those books or go anywhere near
them and they'll never sell them to you. But
that notwithstanding, they usually have the run
of the mill. They don't perceive value in those
kind of books. For us Amazon and eBay sellers,
there's huge value in it. They care about the
ultra -rare 1700s leather -bound inked -in -blood
kind of books. Those are precious to them, and
they will keep and hold on to those until the
end of time. Things that annoy me. Let's see
here. It's really a lump -all question of how
do I do this. Where do I do that? And a lot of
those answers are really Google -able. Google
that shit. You can really Google it. I promise.
Type it in. Maybe YouTube it if you can't find
a Google search. And after that, your question
is then valid to me. If you haven't done those
two simple things, your question's invalid. And,
well, I've been using this word a lot today.
Dumbass. Yeah, I think. I think it's honestly,
I think the society we are creating as human
beings is it's all just everybody else does it
for you. Right. Like I don't have to do anything
myself. Right. And that's why I keep it at two
dollars and ninety nine cents, because if somebody
asked me a question like you're paying me two
dollars and ninety nine cents. Right. Like I
don't have the time of day. Like, let's let's
be honest. Like if I see the question, I'll answer
it. But like overall, like you said, these things
are so. basic and silly. And I'm going to piggyback
on that one with the next one I got is if somebody's
like thinking about buying like a huge lot, they
put it out for everybody else's opinion. Should
I buy this, Johnny? Should I buy this lot? And
there's 35 photos. I don't work for you, photo
guy or girl. I'm just thinking myself like if
we can't make the decision ourselves based on
the photos, like why would you ever? Like, all
right, I'll ask Deb sometimes like, hey, what
do you think of this? Right. But like, I'm not
going to ask random people on the Internet, be
like, hey, is this a good lot? Like, yeah, I
can take a quick look at it. But then I guess
it's just a cop out. So if it sucks, you can
just blame me. Right. Like if Johnny tells me
to buy it, it sucks. And like, Johnny, you owe
me ten thousand dollars that I pay for those
hundred DVDs. Right. I guess that's why people
don't sell paperbacks because they don't do work
like I do. They buy them and they try to sell
them and they get. two dollars i'm like well
there's a reason you got two dollars because
you made a two dollar listing i don't know man
it just it drives me nuts because if you if it
doesn't seem like it's a good deal to you all
right i i go on facebook marketplace there's
his deals it looks terrible to me But I still
put it out there. And Johnny's like, it's a great
deal. And I'm like, just because Johnny says
it's a good deal, if I think it's a shit deal,
I don't care if Johnny says this is the greatest
deal he's ever seen in his life. I'm not buying
the damn thing. But people are like, I guess
people are influenced by others. i understand
that to a degree if you're brand new but then
i would just say why are you trying to buy all
these items in bulk if you're brand new right
you should have a little bit of knowledge under
your belt before you're buying a thousand dvds
and you're not going to be able to see every
single title and most of the times i'm not looking
any of the titles up right i'm just saying how
many they got or that their photos look decent
do they look like they're in half decent condition
and is the price right i don't do any type of
I'm going to look up every DVD in this tote to
see if it's worth it. Now, I don't do any of
that, but it just drives me nuts because who
cares what other people think? You're the one
that's got to pay the money out of pocket. You're
the one that's got to go do the work. Exactly.
And I'll touch on that in just a minute. But
like he was saying, what may be a good deal to
me may be a horrible deal to him. I have access
to knowing how to sell that or who to sell it
to. Mike may not have that or you may not have
that. Just because I think it's a great deal,
I have the means to liquidate it by my means,
whether that's on eBay, whether that's a phone
call, whether it's to some brick and mortar store
that loves those things. I have access to that.
You don't. So it may be a horrible deal, even
though I say it's a great deal. So if you don't
know how to sell it, it's probably not worth
your time to pick up. Unless, again, you have
a solution to that. There are consignment things
out there. Again, there are bookstore relationships
you can make. There are Amazon and eBay are also
options. But if you don't know that off the get,
don't pick it up. It's not for you. Unless you're
trying to learn, like, I don't know how to sell
this, but I'm going to learn everything about
how to sell. Good for you. That is the price
of knowledge, you learning. And on those notes.
I'm going to steal one of Mike's again, but I
have a different answer why I hate it. The photo
thing. And I'm talking about you're at an estate
sale, and you take a picture of the whole bookcase.
Hey, guys, what's valuable here? What should
I pick up? Fuck you. I'm not your employee. I'm
not doing the work for you, jackass. There's
going to be a lot of swearing on this podcast,
and I'm not sorry. I do not work for you. Why
are you wasting my time and everybody else's
time by asking that? I get it. You're wanting
an answer and, I don't know, quote -unquote community,
save me time. I get that. But for me to even
read your message, I'm like, waste of time. They
don't even know what they're doing. It takes
more time to take a photo and upload it than
it is to just look the items up. Yeah, do your
research there. With that phone, you just took
a photo. I hope it's a phone that you took a
photo of and look them up. If you don't do it
and you got a, I don't know, gut instinct feeling,
well, take the risk. If you're really unsure
and tentative, don't take the risk. It's as simple
as that. But I'm sorry, that one annoys me the
most. And worse than that, we'll get the wall
of bookshelf. There's hundreds of books there.
You can't even zoom in. I can't even read the
title. Some of the books are flipped upside down.
Fuck you. It's like that meme where the guy's
trying to read the thing. He's like this close
to it. Dude, that's AI's around the corner. We'll
never have to do it again. They can just plug
it into some AI software somewhere. And that'll
wipe our hands clean of the, hey, Johnny, is
there anything profitable behind me in these
warehouse shelves there? Can you figure it out?
I'm going to put it on a script a little bit.
Questions that we wish people asked us. I'll
start out because I've got one in my head, right?
How much driving? does the used book i do in
a week right like how long are you sitting in
the car listening to the dave ramsey podcast
every single week right like it's not it's funny
because these things are so pertinent to like
the ins and outs of my business but like to the
most least exciting things but like if i told
people hey you're gonna have to drive you know
some weeks you know 15 20 hours maybe even 25
hours like people are going to check out instantly
right like they think i just go to like my local
i walk to all my thrift stores johnny you don't
even need a car right they think it's just that
easy i'm just like hey if you guys understood
like a red wagon behind you yeah like tomorrow
i'm gonna be way out going to a library sale
i'm gonna be driving it's gonna be you know an
hour and probably 15 minutes one way i'm gonna
hit thrift stores and then i gotta go to the
library sale and i'm gonna be out basically from
eight to eight it's not exciting but nobody ever
asked me about that I guess it paints a clearer
picture, and I could talk about it here and there
passing by on YouTube videos, but I can't just
do a YouTube video of me just sitting in the
car listening to podcasts all day. Here is a
question I would love to ask. I've yet to be
asked this, and now I'll only be asked it because
I'm mentioning it on this podcast. I know. Johnny,
what's an original book -selling idea that I
could do? Because I see everybody else doing...
Basically the same thing. Where's the hole in
the market that I can fill? I would love to answer
that question. That'd be a great question. We've
talked about some ideas here on the podcast,
but no one in our group, I'm talking to you group
with my sad eye face, has ever asked this question
about how to be original. Because I get people
to look at my store. I got people, we got people
that copy Mike. verbatim nothing wrong with that
that's what the group's here for but they never
go outside the box or experiment um well i'm
not gonna say they never experiment but they
don't experiment in the way i'm trying to describe
they're not trying to be no one's ever done this
before they're not pushing the boundaries and
the argument can be made there are no more boundaries
to push but i call bullshit there are plenty
oh yeah i agree there's always different things
you can do there's always different completely
different out of the box ideas that are out there.
And like you said, we've talked about some crazy
ideas and there's people out there making lots
of money with some of those ideas, right? We
talked about doing like the book saves or even
the book art, right? Like there's so many different
things you can do with media besides just sell
the actual item as the item that it is. And that's
just the beginning of it, right? Johnny's not
even talking about just being like, all right,
well, why don't you just be like the most, I
haven't thought about doing this, right? What
if you just cornered the market? What if I said
I'm going to be the only damn railroad bookseller
out there? Yeah. And I just go buy every single
railroad book. I crush my competition. And then
basically, I can control the market prices on
maybe it's not even all railroads. Maybe it's
like the Lionel trains, right? So every Lionel
train book, I'm going to own. And I'm going to
decide what the price is. And whenever it pops
up for $5, I'm going to buy it. And I'm going
to sell it on mine for $20. I think there's so
many different things we can do. But you're right.
Number one. Nobody wants to be a specialist.
They want to go the tried and true method. Nothing
wrong with the tried and true method, but we
ask the question, what are questions we would
love to hear? I would love to hear that. I would
probably sit down with that person and talk with
them for an hour or more. You could do this.
You could do that. If you do this, you then open
it up and then we can talk about sell through
and then we can talk about dollars and or your
ASP in dollars and this kind of deal, like which
avenue do you want to go? What's abundant in
your area? Like like like Texana books, if you're
the Texana bookseller, I mean, you're going to
have a very curated list of people to sell to
or the I mean, we talked about it. If you were
literally the Bible hymnal seller or the local
signed author seller. Or the surfboard bookseller
or movie seller or the soundtrack only seat.
See, these are just, see how quick that comes?
Like that. There's like, what could I do to be
that guy or that girl? I mean, there are so many
cool ways you could go. I went kind of, I mean,
even Maya's not technically specialized. It's
just. Old vintage paperbacks, it's pretty generic,
but everybody thinks that's super niched down.
Well, it's really not. If I was the vintage horror
paperback seller and now we're talking, that's
niched. Yeah, it's for the sake of me and Johnny
not getting asked all these questions. Those
are the only two we are going to give you for
questions we want to be asked. I'm going to get
back to my last one I have for this episode is.
Oh, what should I be doing for taxes? Oh, God.
I am not a CPA tax professional, yada, yada,
yada, yada, yada, yada. There's people in your
local area that do local small business taxes.
And there's plenty of resources out there where
you can get and find out information about bookkeeping
and taxes for you as a sole proprietor, S Corp,
L Corp. m corp p corp whatever damn corp you
want to be llc ceo cfo i don't even know but
it's like it's always people that are like they
haven't even sold their first damn item yet and
they want to know should i be an s corp i don't
even know what an s corp is i i don't operate
as one i appreciate you asking me i don't know
maybe i i have no idea but the tax questions
and the bookkeeping questions oh my there's even
groups out there like just go go to cheryl's
page join her group she's a certified professional
she'll take care of you like asking your average
show blow reseller which i'm here to tell you
most of them probably file their taxes absolutely
wrong especially when you come across them on
the youtube realm or they don't file taxes at
all right uh the good old i didn't make 20k so
i'm gonna file tax shit uh but i i'm not I'm
not going to give advice on these things because
it's different for everybody. I don't know how
you operate your business, but it pisses me off.
This is such a technical question and literally
has legal trouble behind it if you get the wrong
one. If I told everybody, dude, go be an escort.
Don't file taxes. You'll be fine. We'll all wind
up in jail together. A similar one to me is,
what credit card should I have? What should I
be getting for a credit card to run my business?
I heard cash back is good. The answer to that
is so loaded, it depends what you are. If you
travel a lot, a travel -based cash back card
or points card is better for you than a cash
back person. Which one offers percentages? Which
ones have caps? Which one's unlimited? Um, can
I combine a bunch of these into a center thing?
Like Jack, he's a master at that. He spends time
and research doing that. And again, there are
other people on YouTube and elsewhere that specialize
in that answer. Um, they are qualified to give
their expert opinion. And again, it's just that
an opinion because every, just like what kind
of books I should sell, it's going to be different
for answers going to be different based off what
you personally. or wanting i can't give you an
answer to that yeah american gold card deal with
that no don't do that yeah well whatever the
hell uh whatever we tell you i guess you know
i guess it all comes back to to wrap this episode
up is that people trust us johnny and it's not
that we don't want to answer questions we enjoy
answering questions i enjoy sitting on the discord
and answering questions from time to time but
there are definitely a large amount of questions
that you spend more time asking than if you just
went to google and like it's those things where
you start typing it in google and it auto it's
like it knows you're going to ask it right like
those are the types of questions we kind of i
don't know they irritate us and i i guess you
know what did i say every quite no question is
a dumb question but I think in today's world,
when it comes to starting a business, like how
do I open an Amazon account is a dumb question.
Like I think there are exceptions to that. No
question, it's a dumb question. So that's going
to do it for this week's episode. I wish somebody
would ask me why I'm going bald at age 37. Nobody
ever asked me, Johnny. I guess nobody really
cares about my hair or my looks. And I guess
I just have to live with that. And I'll give
you the answer. It's because I worked at CVS
for over 10 years and they just ran me into the
ground and I lived on Pringles and Arizona teas,
right? So all my hair nutrients just, I guess
it went away. So that's going to do it for this
week's episode. We'll talk to you all next week.
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