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
to another episode of Reseller's Mindset Podcast.
My name is Johnny. Johnny came up with a good
topic, and it is kind of, we both experienced
this. low cost no cost versus paying up for items
and when i started i was always the low cost
no cost guy and i think everybody kind of starts
there and i think you evolve into being willing
to spend more on items as you grow a business
because guess what happens when you grow a business
you have more money to spend and it's a marvelous
thing when you can leverage your money to make
more money and that's kind of I guess the whole
purpose of making money is to use your money
to make more money. But low cost, no cost. The
first thing that comes to my mind, dude, is those
damn free book pickups I used to do. It's free
based on what I'm paying out of my pocket. But
time and work with the low cost, no cost model
will destroy you before you even get your business
off the ground. What comes to your mind first
with this topic? I mean, it's definitely with
the buying material. It's getting it, like going
somewhere, finding that marketplace. It's free.
It's on the porch. Come get it. You'll get it.
And you pick up the books. Why are they sticky?
Why is my hand now sticky? Why am I in this situation?
I would pay not to be in this situation. Or it's
all garbage or they're all water damaged or they're
broken. And sometimes there's winners in there.
There are. I'm not going to lie. But, man, is
that a lot of work and time lost because normally
you've got to travel. It ain't coming to you.
And at the end of the day, unless you're broke
and you're just starting your business, you will
quickly realize that is not for you. That's not
to say that my consignment business. Is not necessarily
the same thing. As it's coming to me. And usually
what's in there is pretty good. And if it's not.
I have an immediate course of action. As it's
going to the other consigner lady. That I'm working
with. Or the trash can. If it's too badly damaged
or broken. But. The secondary thing. It will
probably lead into. Is equipment. I could. be
printing my Amazon labels with printer paper
on the brother's printer and taping them on,
or I can get a thermal label printer and buy
thermal labels. I much prefer the latter now,
but early on in your days, that seems like a
good expense or I'm sorry, early on in your days,
you already got the printer. You already got
printer paper. And again, if you're broke or
just starting your business, that may be a play
for you. So I think, I think a lot of it was
like you said, when you have no money, you gotta
do it. And it's hard to separate when you get
away from that because we all don't like to spend
money necessarily. But I will spend money if
it'll make my life easier. That goes with software
too. Yeah, I could do my whole Amazon business
off of the Amazon platform, but I'm not going
to do it. I agree. I pay not to do it. I think
once you start making money and your business
starts cash flowing, you literally need to pay
to become more efficient. And that just means,
like Johnny said, whether that's, you know, supplies
that actually save you time or software or even
employees, right? Like there's so much that goes
into this. And I was this way forever. I was
so stubborn to spend any money. And now I'm almost
the complete opposite. Like I don't mind spending.
Up, right, in quotation marks, because spending
up in the resale world is like if you're spending
more than like 10 bucks an item on a book, CD
or DVD. But like if you can walk in and buy Easton
Press for $10 a pop and they have an infinite
amount of them, like we're clearing out the bank.
120, but OK, 10's fine too. Yeah, we're going
to clear out the bank account today. But I still
think a lot of people, if they were presented
with that opportunity, they would be hesitant
because we're so accustomed to the. 50 cents
a dollar per item that if we have to spend a
little bit more than that even though we know
you know that what that thing's got value you
still just you're so scared to pull the trigger
and spend maybe 5 10x what you usually do on
an item but the data's there i don't understand
why people are so hesitant to be like well i'm
only going to make because usually in some of
these cases when you spend more if you look at
the video game market right they have price sharding
Depending on what it is, it's usually like 70,
80 % value of the item. So they will pay you
80 % for the video game, and they only expect
to make 20 % on the back end. And in the resale
world, we're probably thinking to ourselves,
like, that's insane. But no, there are amazing,
huge businesses out there, video game businesses,
that operate off that 20 % margin. And here we
are in the media land, like, if I got to spend
more than $2, I'm going to have to take out a
loan. It's crazy to me. On that note, I saw something
on the Book Flipper community. I think it was
their last Books and Bourbon thing they did at
some location that wasn't on one of their meetups
or whatever. I think it was their last video,
honestly. And the guy they had on, I forget his
name, but you can Google Book Flipper community
YouTube and find it. He said that he was going
to half -price books to source, and he noticed
all the scanners were at the clearance rack.
And he decided, instead of waiting to get his
turn at the clearance rack, to go throughout
the store and buy items. And he was buying five
$10 items. He was spending this amount of money
to make $20, $50, $100 while everybody else was
fighting at the clearance rack. And I promise
you he made more money than everybody at the
clearance rack by doing that. He paid up in the
same facility that everybody else was at that
was a reseller to make probably 10 times as much
money. than everybody else, even though he was
spending four to six times more money per item.
That stuck with me, and it's one of the smartest
things that I've seen a recording on that someone
said for good information. And that is such a
good tip. If you're in the library sale and you're,
I don't know, you're just looking at their pricing
chart and you're just going for the cheap stuff,
well, everybody else is going to do that too.
Go for the more expensive things. They're going
to hit that last. I've seen that, dude. Right
now, some library sales I go to, they will have
like a, usually one or two folding tables of
items that are individually priced. Nobody goes
to them, dude. I don't have the knowledge because
a lot of it is like the stuff you deal in, right?
It's like the antique books. So I have no clue.
If I go to that table - That'd be my first hit.
And everybody else is over there, crowded. I'm
there for an hour, dude. So I lose if I stop
at that table, but I'll tell you right now. When
people go through the doors like crazy lunatics,
there ain't nobody stopping at that table, dude.
I'll hit the most expensive section and then
followed by the mass markets, and then I'll fight
with everybody else, whatever else is left. That's
my go -to for libraries. Well, that, and I mentioned
this before, and if you're not doing this, you
should. Ask the sale person, who's probably a
librarian or a volunteer, hey, where's your bookstore
at the sale? So I'll hit one, two, three, and
then I'll play with the general public as number
four. I'm telling you, going where everybody
else is not, or at least not first, is a big
play. Fun fact. I'll follow up on this with real
life experience. Library sale, like Johnny said,
they got a little bookstore upstairs. When you
check out at the library sale, Johnny, they give
you a coupon for the bookstore upstairs, right?
So I'm like, I was there the longest out of anybody,
right? So I already got like three Ikea bags.
I'm like, you know what? I got this. five dollars
off ten dollar coupon for the bookstore right
so everybody's already basically checked out
that's a reseller i'm figuring i'm not gonna
find nothing up there dude i went up there i
fill up another bag i'm like what is going on
out here like why i don't i don't understand
and a lot of mine they'll charge me the the library
sale prices for the stuff because i paid up yeah
Well, you can do that too, but you also got a
coupon. So did you really? And they don't mind
that, honestly, because you know what doesn't
sell at the book sale? It's going to that bookstore
a lot of the times or back in the back room.
So, and again, you're doing it once. Like you
didn't go another day. You did it the same day.
I'm the same way. I'm going to do everything
the same day. You're saving gas money and you're
already there. I want to say you're going to
save time by doing this too. Let's see another
one. Let's take it out of libraries. Let's go
to, I don't know, a thrift store, right? Here's
one that I don't recommend for new people because
you don't have the cash flow for it. But again,
once you got some money in your pocket, and I
used to do this, I used to go up there and be
like, how much for your entire book section?
Because it's quicker. for me to load it up in
my car than to work on their shelves and try
to scan and or decide if it's eBay. But I was
set up for that. I could take it home. I could
process it on my equipment much faster and have
a solution for it to go away. But the counter
argument is, well, Johnny, you're not cherry
picking. You're taking a whole lot of junk. Yeah,
but as long as you got a junk solution, it's
no problem. At the time, it was my bookstore
and or other donation places. Because I was pulling
for both eBay and Amazon. I still pull for eBay
and Amazon. So I can take in a lot more than
if I was just one or the other, honestly. The
same with flea markets, dude. I've been to some
flea markets this year for the first time in
my resale career. And those dudes all want it
all gone, right? They usually just clear out
storage unit lockers or they stumble upon a couple
thousand DVDs. I haven't found... profitable
textbooks at the damn flea market just and they're
all in the boxes that are on the ground like
you would it would just be so much easier to
be like hey 100 bucks for everything all right
boom wheel it up gone right another another tip
that people don't realize when you do that the
way i'm describing and you ask the key question
after you're done paying now that you've got
proof of concept at a new place you got any more
in the back That's it. Instant backroom access
probably. If they said yes to you buying it all
in the first place. If they said no, then you're
probably not going to get backroom access even
at that point. I think specifically to like the
media though, like what you're saying. They don't
want to deal with the books, right? They'd rather
use that floor space for clothes or something
else that maybe has a higher sell -through. So
what you're saying is you clear out the whole
front, and if they got it in the back and you're
willing to take that stuff too, they might be
okay with you. Royal red carpet point at that
stage. How can I help you, sir? Do you need anything,
sir? Can I help you load your car, sir? your
life gets a little easier when you're buying
in bulk. And yeah, bulk comes with its own problems.
I'm not saying it doesn't. You got a lot of trash
you got to deal with, but there's also a lot
of upside too. There is. I mean, you just got
to be willing. I tell everybody it starts out
in this business, right? Because in Amazon land.
we kind of tell everybody three months until
you actually get your first like positive payout,
right? So three months is a long time to go with,
you know, not having money, especially if you're
spending considerable amounts of money on inventory.
So I tell everybody like, all right, well, let's
get out there, right? Let's get to the free little
libraries. Let's pick up some free book pickups.
Let's kind of grind it out in the beginning to
kind of build your business. And I don't think
there's anything wrong with that. I think that
can still exist, but I think what happens here.
And what happened to me is as you start to grow
and as you have capital, you start to realize
that, okay, I am, my time is better spent not
doing a free pickup and maybe going to a record
shop and spending $5 per item and buying some
of the better quality stuff. So there is kind
of like almost a transition, but you also can
still continue to do like the free pickups. Like
yours is almost free pickup with your consignment,
right? Because you don't know what I'm putting
in the box and I'll straight up. I tell Johnny
all the time, I don't know what I'm putting in
the box. I just know the box says Johnny and
it's a book that doesn't have a dust jacket.
This guy can figure it out. And if he burns it,
he burns it. I don't know. But like it's it's
cool to see that you have a consignment business
that is almost like free pickup because you don't
know what's going to show up at your door and
you don't have like a set value of like. what
you expect people to send and that's like the
biggest appeal to me because i have no idea if
the book in there is a thousand dollars or it's
worthless right or whatever it would be a hell
of a lot harder if i was trying to sell it all
but i'm not i have a lady who deals with it and
some of the stuff i send her so it's like it's
like a siphon right like i'll take the best stuff
Or the fun stuff. Because I do like, there's
some things I just enjoy listing. Like my little
mass markets. I'll keep those. And then I'll
send her the other stuff. And then she'll do
the same thing. Okay. I can list this as a singleton.
I'm going to try to make a bundle or a lot here.
This is the store credit pile. And this is, I
don't know what she does with this. Make compost
out of it for all I know. So it's a filtration
stuff. And me and her were joking the other day,
like you need a junk for your junk person. Like
there needs to be a third, like the bottom barrel
flea market guy. He'll just take it and pay you
a whole dollar for it or something. But yeah,
if you're not set up to deal with it or handle
it, you can try to figure it out. I've spent
an exorbitant amount of time figuring some of
the junk removal stuff out. that i don't have
to deal with what's the quickest and easiest
and for me it's just a dedicated person that'll
just take it i think you have somebody for your
other stuff too that comes every now and then
pick stuff up it's way easier that way um and
here's here's another one and we'll go into disc
media here so if you're a disc only media person
and max was kind of ragging on the jfj machine
but i was like look max it's not meant for huge
volume sellers it's meant for 50 or 60 here for
you to do here and there. You know, if you're
doing disc media full time, you probably need
to upgrade beyond the JFJ and be angling to get
a master at some point. There's machines in between
the JFJ and the master, of course, but you got
to know what your business, and if your business
needs a master machine, for those that don't
know, that cleans 50 at a time opposed to one
at a time. It's probably the route you should
go. I mean, you can buy 50 JFJs, but good luck.
It's I'll give a perfect example of this. When
Deb was growing her cat and dog toy business
and the embroidery machines, you start out with
one and it's got one needle. Right. So every
time it has to change a color, you got to change
the color, rethread it. Well, she got to the
point where, OK, I have enough money. I'm going
to buy a seven needle machine. So now you have
seven colors. You don't have to change colors
at all. You don't have to really. It's kind of
more hands off. It's the same way what we're
talking about. You have to invest in the business
in ways that make sense. And I think a lot of
people, I know for a fact, a lot of people are
just like, they just buy the most fanciest shit
for no reason. Like, it'd be stupid for me to
buy. a master resurfacer, right? Because like
you said, I do between 25 and 50 discs a month.
So like, why would I go spend the thousands of
dollars? That doesn't make sense. But I think
a lot of resellers, as cheap as we are, we make
some stupid buying decisions on crap we're never
going to really use or need at the scale to justify
the purchase. 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
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and quickly have items available for sale using
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backslash Mike or using the link in the description
below. Right, absolutely. And here's another
one. Your general shipping. I would rather peel
a self -peel adhesive envelope or poly than have
to tape a bajillion items, like every corner
and every seam. It's so much slower. It's cheaper,
way cheaper, but I don't want to. The time is
not worth it because the time equals more dollars
than being able to do something else. So most
of all of my shipping supplies are self sealed
or tablocked, like no tape required. I don't
have to tape in my business anymore. I know the
same way besides taping those boxes like for
Amazon. That's it. Yeah. I mean, outside of Amazon
box is fair. I need to look. Now that I'm thinking
about it, maybe there's tab lock boxes for Amazon.
There's those boxes. They have the boxes that
actually come with the pieces of tape for the
box, but you still would have to take the tape
off and put it on. But it actually comes with
the pieces of tape for that specific box. But
it's so weird, right? Because it's not even just
inventory -based. Everything me and you really
are talking about have been almost equipment
process -based that have kind of leveled us up
versus... Just spending more on inventory, right?
But I don't think there's really a right or wrong
with the free pickup or spending more money besides
your time. If you have an infinite amount of
time and you don't have all the cherry picking
sources, then you can do all the free pickups.
I think it's going to be different case to case.
But I do think it's as you grow. And in my experience,
I don't do the free pickups anymore because I
have enough sources to go out there and buy.
I will still buy in bulk. I have no problem with
buying. 2 ,000 DVDs at 10 cents a piece, right?
And it's almost like a free pickup. I'm just
paying for it, but I know I'm gonna make the
money on the backend. Those kind of deals really
don't exist with books. Like I would never pay
for books again because I don't have the knowledge.
Like you can look at a collection and be like,
okay, this is worth X amount. For me, the only
book pickups I ever did were free. I did pay
15 cents a pound and I did kind of knock some,
I had some crazy good. bulk pickups at 15 cents
a pound like shit people wouldn't believe you
know like the first i had the same thing in my
store i was also charging 15 cents a pound because
of you and that worked great i mean there was
a lot of i'm just throwing money away here but
there was more of this is solid for amazon or
this is really solid for ebay i think it's hard
to lose honestly as long as you're not like i
mean what would even what would be too much to
pay per pound for books like if it's going to
be at least 500 a thousand pounds like you probably
could still pay like 50 cents a pound and still
come out ahead in most cases like i've never
had a bulk even if it was like all harley quinn
romance novels that you're just gonna have to
lot up honestly you're still gonna make money
you're not gonna make as much money but i still
think you're gonna be in the positive yeah yeah
i think you're always going to come out ahead
monetarily the catches the time right but if
we're just going based off the numbers of what
you spend versus what you make 99 of the time
with media you're going to come out ahead with
the dollar amount The question is, how long does
it take you to get through all this stuff? And
that's kind of the big sinkhole people run into
is, OK, I have 2000 DVDs now. What the hell am
I going to do with them? And like Johnny said,
I give them away. I scan through them. I throw
them up in Facebook marketplace. They meet me
at the storage unit. They're gone. I don't even
ask for a penny. And if they show up, I'm like,
hey. I might have more next week. And can I reach
back out to you? I got one guy that's come multiple
times now for the books after I scanned through
them. He's like, yeah, I got a library. I like
loading up my little free libraries all around.
And yeah, just reach back out to me. So this
guy's come multiple times with his minivan. I'll
help load them in. Like that's how you're going
to grow this business. You can't try to chase
every book, every dollar. No, absolutely. You
could try, but you're going to, it's just you.
If you had a team, maybe you could treat it like
a farm or utilize all parts of the buffalo kind
of mentality. The horns, the hooves, the skin,
the meat and all that. But until you've got a
force, I mean a workforce to help you with that,
it's not worth your personal endeavor. Yeah,
will you miss out on a few dollars? Yeah, but
you should be concentrating on the most money
on that pile and not worry about the lower, like
doing lots on eBay. That's a little bit more
work. You shouldn't waste your time with that
early on. Unless it's already done for you. They've
already lauded it. It's just one box of Harley
Quinn. Okay, fine. Good to go. It's one listing.
Or not even bother with it. Just drop it off.
There's so much money -making opportunity. It's
just where we spend our focus. And it should
always be with the least amount of time for the
most amount of money is always the answer. And
then there's a totem pole of everything that
follows that. Another thing that I've experienced,
dealt with myself, is when I went to an estate
sale, I was not set up to do anything. I had
some Ikea bags. Those were worthless because
it's books, right? Too many books. And I ran
out of Ikea bags and I had to start hand carrying
things out. Ever since then, I used a cart that
fits through every door in America and in tubs
that I could stack. And I never have to hand
carry a single damn book again out of a door.
Yeah, dude. I think that's so true because you
kind of learn the hard way, I guess. But like
as long as you learn from the mistakes, like
you kind of – and there's some like you can't
catch. Like I bought boxes off of state sales.
What was it? CT bids. And like they didn't say
that they were in the basement. Right. And like
you can't you can't do nothing about some of
these. But there are situations where you can
kind of make your life a lot easier. And I'm
a huge proponent of that. And I think, you know,
I guess this probably sounds crazy to some people
out there. But like I have a Goodwill bins I
theoretically could probably walk to. And. I've
been there two times and I've lived here for
forever, it feels like. And I like Johnny would
have to pay me like 200 bucks for me to go sit
there all day just to just to experience that.
And that's like what he's saying. Right. Can
you have a business model based off sitting at
the Goodwill bins? Yes. But do you want to have
that business model? Do you do you understand
what that business model entails? Right. For
me. The answer is no, because there's better
sources. Sure, I'm not, the Goodwill bins ain't
even cheap no more. It's like 99 cents a pound.
So even if you get a damn book, like this Bible,
for example, like I'm probably paying more like
$3 for this Bible than if I just bought it at
the actual Goodwill store, right? So like the
Goodwill bins around me is not even a good deal.
I have enough better sources, even though I pay
more, I'm not paying 99 cents a pound, right?
So the CD would have been like a quarter instead
of paying a dollar at the thrift store. But that's
just a whole nother can of worms that I do not
want to deal with. Are there people out there
that have reselling businesses on YouTube, probably
have podcasts and whole courses around making
money solely off the Goodwill bins? 100 % they
exist. It's just a lifestyle choice. And if you
have better... I always want you to go for the
better quality items, even if that means you
have to pay more. If you can't afford to pay
more, then grind out the free stuff so you can
afford to buy the better quality, more expensive
items and make more money. Right. I mean, you're
going to fight it at first because, yay, I finally
have money. And then I'm not going to have money
because I'm going to decide to make my life easier.
And then you're going to do that a few more times.
And you're going to question all of reality of
I'm making no money. My job's easier. And then
all of a sudden, you bought everything you needed.
And then you start making money. And then you
go, aha, it was worth it. Don't fight it. I'm
telling you, just like any business, I'm not
going to say you're not going to make any money
your first couple of years. You're going to make
it so much faster in reselling. But it's going
to seem for a hot minute that you're making no
money. And you're just constantly pumping it
back into the business. But give it time and
be patient. And your life's easier. And then
you're... Going in after the first, I don't know,
I'll say after the first year, your expenses
are going to go down unless you decide to do
the warehouse life, unless you decide to do the
employee life. And then it may be a little bit
more longer. But just for your basics, all your
software, all of your, like the carts, all your
packaging. I mean, my packaging comes from Uline,
some other sources, so I pay up for my packaging.
Your printers, all of that. Maybe you do have
a storage unit. After all of that, after you've
done all your initial expenses, because that's
what they are, initial expenses, you'll be much
better off versus you trying to tough it out
and not spend a single dollar to avoid spending
money in the first place. Yeah, and some of these
things, you don't know until you know, right?
But I do remember the days of... printing out
the label and cutting it with the scissors and
taping the whole damn label. And then you finally
buy the sheets where it's like two, four by six
labels on one sheet for your normal printer.
Then you get the thermal printer. And it's funny
because you see people like myself that are so
scared to like buy the Dymo, right? I'm like,
man, that's 250 bucks. I could go buy 250 books
or CDs or DVDs. And then there's the other side
of the coin where it's like. somebody hasn't
even sent in their first box and they got like
the new dymo 25 000 labels they're out like two
grand you just started what's wrong with you
it's so crazy like there's two completely sides
to it and i'm still the same i'm still as cheap
i'm the cheapest sob there is out there even
to this day and like whenever deb's like i'm
like deb i need labels right she'll go on amazon
she's like trying to find the cheapest ones because
she knows i'll be like 20 bucks for 10 000 labels
like this is setting me back and i'm just like
i got the money right like just just buy the
damn labels that are at least half decent that's
going to make my life easier and they're not
going to peel off after i put them on oh and
here's another thing where you can get your mouse
banging for your buck and a lot of people have
thought about well They might have, but they
dismissed it because they knew they were going
to pay more. We all think thrift stores and flea
markets and estate sales to get our best deals.
Mike mentioned it earlier. Record stores, great.
This may blow your mind, people, but there is
a thing called a bookstore. A used bookstore
is that. And they got books there, believe it
or not. Yeah, you're going to pay up. Don't get
me wrong, but it is a whole facility of nothing
but books. And it's going to be more than the
couple shelves you're going to get at your thrift
stores most of the time. Another thing on that
is it's just lesser known as all. They're your
charity organizations that are thrift stores.
They're not called Goodwill. They're not called,
say, Salvation Army. They're not a national chain.
There may be like a couple in your city of different
name things. Go to those. Those are great most
of the time. And then there's your church rummage
sale. Sometimes they ain't the cheapest. It's
not a garage sale. It's a rummage sale, right?
But I've made a lot of money going to church
places too. And yeah, normally I'm going to have
to pay a little bit more than I would at the
thrift store, but they usually have great stuff.
Usually. Another one is, I hate to say it, your
vehicle, depending on what kind of work life
you're dealing in. A truck or a big old economy
van is much better than like a small Prius car.
If you're doing bulk pickups a lot of the time,
maybe you need to get a trailer. If you're not
doing bulk pickups, you can ignore what I'm saying
here. But you kind of have, again, it's an equipment
cost. But if you're living that lifestyle, you
need the equipment to support that lifestyle.
Because making, I don't know, six trips in your
Prius versus one with your diesel truck and your
trailer is a lot easier. yeah i agree and this
is uh i i'm people don't give me as much crap
about it as they used to but you know people
like mike why don't you get a truck and i'm like
i'm not that heavy into bulk right like yeah
i got my two library sources i work with and
a few like other ones i reach out every once
in a while but like if i'm only picking up once
or twice a month like You don't need it. Exactly.
They literally have notes in the back of the
library, Johnny, that says, Mike drives a little
car. Let's try to use as many little boxes as
we can. They show a picture of a box. They show
it next to your car. That's what I'm saying,
right? There's an understanding. Do they give
you little boxes, Mike? They do. So I can fit
them in the back seat between the seat and the
actual driver's seat and everything. It's amazing
if you have... conversations with some of these
relationships. You know, will the truck make
your life easier? Sure. But to what extent, right?
I'd be stupid if I went and just bought a truck
just to have it for my two pickups a month. If
you were doing it like three or four times a
week, that's a different story. Yeah, then we're
all in, right? Then I'm getting, you know, the
Sprinter van and that's the life you're going
to choose. But it works both ways, man, because
I'll tell you right now, there's probably somebody
out there that started reselling books and got
their first pickup in their... nissan ultima
like me and said wait a minute i need to go buy
a brand new truck and then they didn't last for
more than a month and you're left with a brand
new truck payment for the next eight years of
your life oh man or or if you don't want a truck
you still want to drive your prius i guess rent
the u -haul thing for the day yeah Yeah, there's
alternatives to everything, right? You know,
like you don't even have to label your own items.
You can pay somebody, right? Like prep centers,
whole business models revolve around sending
your, you don't even see the item. It goes right
to the prep center. They label it, they send
it to Amazon for you. But the back end to that
is you got to spend X amount, $1 .50 per item
to have it taken care of. But here we are again.
Going against your time, me and Johnny labeling
the item ourselves, we don't pay the $1 .50 per
item. We're paying it and factoring that in when
you buy an item. Okay, it's going to be an extra
$1 .50 coming off the actual profit of this item
and sending it to a prep center. It's all a balancing
act, but you have to figure out what business
model you are and what you want to do based on
your time and your money, your capital. And then
you can start making these decisions, but they
have to make sense at the end of the day. Right.
And the biggest one I've seen people fight, and
Mike still fights me on this one, is when to
get an employee. Now, to be fair, Mike has a
couple of employees, just mainly on the YouTube
side. And it's when you can make more money with
your time if you weren't doing a mundane task.
Like for me, photography. I make way more money
by not doing photography than I would doing photography
myself. Way more. Because they can photograph
while I list or I'm busy doing Amazon boxes or
something else. You shouldn't get them early
on. Again, you need a few bucks in the bank to
even consider that. And have you maxed yourself
out? Do you have more than one days of work that
you could do? Do you have a week's worth of work
that you could do or a month? Then it's probably
start time to consider an employee to help you
catch up, even on a part -time basis. Or a one
-time thing to try it out. Because some people,
once they try it, they're like, no, I'm not good
with people. They hate me. I made them cry. I
can't do employees, which is fair. Maybe you
can't do employees. Then you can make a business
set up for a solo person. And it's really hard
to judge, but again, the two indicators to me
is you have more work than you could possibly
do yourself, and there's no end in sight. You've
got a rotation of sources. You've got to keep
those connections going, and you may need somebody
to help you because else you're always going
to be constantly behind. And you need money in
the bank to pay this person. If you don't got
money in this bank because you're blowing it
all on inventory that you can't process yourself,
it's not humanly possible, you've done your business
wrong. You need to refigure some things out.
You're right. I mean, you hit it on the head
with me, right? Like I don't consider you an
employee, but like having you do two calls every
single month, like it takes, it gives me that
extra free week of not having to do a call. But
at the end of the day, I know when people sit
down with you, they're getting the correct information
that actually makes sense. It'll help somebody.
It's not like it just. it's kind of like if you
hire an employee and they're clueless and you
just keep them on just to keep them on, right?
It'd be the equivalent if I just hired somebody
to do a call. So I don't have to do an extra
one, but the person is absolutely clueless and
they don't even have a real business. And it's
the same with my YouTube editor. I edited my
own videos probably for the first two years before
I brought him on. And like, he can do it in probably
a 10th of the time I can, right? Like he's much
more efficient than me, me sitting down here
trying to figure out, I will say I've learned
to edit it. videos because i had to right it
was just me in the beginning i had to figure
this out but i grew the youtube channel to a
point where i was making money so i can afford
to pay for him right and it's the same with you
right i i pay you out of the money i make from
youtube so it's like all right i have the money
now what can i do to get my time back but If
anything, the experience gets better for the
person, right? The person watching the video
on a video he edits is going to be edited better.
It's going to be fancy. It's going to have better
graphics, better sound, everything. The same
with the coaching calls. I'm 100 % Amazon. Okay,
well, I have a book selling media selling group.
A lot of people are passionate about books. Johnny
knows a lot about books. He's got an eBay business
that he operates. People get more value from
having Johnny do two calls a month. than me doing
four calls a month because it's a different side
of the business that a lot of people dabble in.
So it benefits me, not just with my time, but
it also benefits the people that are actually
getting the quote unquote experience, I guess.
No, you're absolutely right. And versus Mike
trying to learn things about books and have book
knowledge, which he doesn't want to do. He's
not, he doesn't want to be skilled in that. Just
like. I'll take it a step further for everybody
listening. You learning how to develop a software
to make something in your reselling business
more functional, you're better off hiring somebody
that's skilled in development to do that for
you. You're going to pay a lot of money for it.
But you're going to spend so much of your time
trying to learn that stuff yourself. I know we
got other things like ChatGPT and we can kind
of cobble together something. Maybe you should
just hire the specialist to develop about the
get go or hire some VAs that are cheaper US alternatives
to do that for you or a combination thereof.
Like maybe you do the initial run, but all the
hard technical gluing it all together that you
got off the chat GPT, that's safe for the VA
to do. Like you're the idea person and you're
giving them their idea and they run with it and
make it a reality from your idea. I got one that's
on the top of my mind and it might be. That's
not really controversial, but it's kind of what's
going on lately in the eBay realm with the AI
listing softwares. I'm curious, do you feel like
somebody should be at some point in their business
before they start using this? Because I think
people see this as a shortcut. And I think it
can be in some cases, but I think in the majority
of cases, it's not a shortcut at all. And I think
the new sellers, I guarantee you, Johnny, since
all these... ebay ai listing solvers that have
come along i guarantee you there are sellers
out there that have never actually listed and
owned their own item on ebay and have used only
software yeah okay it's a good i like this question
um so you got to know what you're doing to know
what the ai is not doing if you don't know that
and you're just using the tool because it's a
tool you're going to have some things wrong with
it. I just started recently using one and I know
what's wrong with it. And so I let it do its
thing, but I have to go back and do the corrections.
But if I didn't have the knowledge I have from
all my hard years doing eBay, I wouldn't know
what to correct. And I would just let it go.
And it'd probably sit there. Like maybe the title
structure is out of order or maybe it's missing
it. Maybe it uses a keyword like green when I
could use a much better key on like keyword like
neon. that makes it sell faster. Or instead of
horror, I put creepy. You got to know the certain
nuances of your category in order to use these
tools. Will they get to the point where that's
not needed? Probably, but it's not today. Not
by a long shot. Also, before you consider listing
software, paying for it, you're going to say,
oh, wow, $75 for a thousand listings? Question
mark. Are you doing a thousand listings? Because
that breaks out to about seven and a half cents
per listing. But if you're not doing a thousand
listings, it's much more. It could be 30 cents
a listing for you or 80 cents or, I don't know,
$75 if you do one listing. You got to justify
the volume of the cost of these tools as well.
Because if you don't get the material and or
the work ethic to list what you bought, you've
wasted your money in my opinion. You got to be
set up for it. You got to have the material and
you got to put in the hours to make it worth
it. Yeah, I think a lot of new people see it
as like this ultimate shortcut. And I think it's
exactly what you said. I think it's the biggest
trap because you never really understand what
the platform expects or what it wants, right?
Because you never went and listed an item and
then it didn't sell for a month. And then you
went in and you changed this one thing in the
title. where you add in an item description and
then it sells within an hour of you changing
it, right? So then you learn yourself, okay,
this is what I did wrong. But if you just rely
solely, I guess then you can just blame it on
the software though, right? Because if I'm a
brand new seller and I just only use software
and the business sucks, I can just say, oh man,
this AI software is the reason that my business
failed. Right, I'll equate it to something like
this. We all know what two plus two is, four,
right? The person who doesn't know how to do
simple arithmetic has to use a calculator. They
don't know how I got to two plus two is four.
But what if that calculator said two plus two
is five? It's wrong. It's the same thing here.
You got to know when it's wrong. And I don't
think a lot of people do that are using it today.
And like you said, they're using it as a shortcut.
So they're putting up a bunch of listings that
two plus two equals five on eBay. Or worse, two
plus two equals negative five on eBay. So that's
like almost the complete opposite of what we
talked about, right? Because essentially you're
paying up because you can list the items for
nothing yourself. So you're paying up to have
the software list the items. It's saving you
time, but it's not doing it properly. And dude,
one of my biggest pet peeves when I worked at
CVS, if we're going to do something. We're going
to do it right the first time. Because if I have
to send somebody back to redo the whole damn
planning gram or redo it myself, I'm going to
be pissed off about it. My biggest thing is if
we're going to do it, let's do it right the first
time through. Even if it takes us a little bit
more time, we know that it was done in a way
that actually is in the best possible outcome
that we need it to be in. Right. Don't use it
unless you know what it's doing. is my main point
that I'm going to make. And don't do it if you're
like the 10 a month lister. It's not worth your
money because you're going to go seven and a
half cents a listing. But when you bought a thousand
listings, it's not really seven and a half cents
a listing. Those are my two biggest consider
it before you do it suggestions. Yeah. And if
we kind of wrap it up here, I'll kick it back
to the idea of, you know, get inventory for cheap
or nothing. You're not going to be perfect, right?
Me and Johnny, you go pick up. uh carload of
books you're gonna suck right you know this is
your first free pickup you don't know what the
hell you're gonna do with this stuff but you
figure it out along the way as long as you're
progressing towards something you don't always
have to be some people love free pickups even
if it eats all their time they love the thrill
of just not knowing what they're going to get
from somebody right and there's nothing wrong
with that i just challenge everybody to make
the most amount of money reselling And if we
can spend money to make more money, then that's
where we need to be. And sure, you can mix it.
If you have the itch to do a free pickup, they're
always going to be out there. But if your sole
purpose is let's make as much money as we can,
sometimes you got to kind of push it to the side
for the time being. And maybe in a slow season,
we can get back into it. So Johnny, what's your
final thoughts on this topic? Know where you're
at in your business. So, you know. what you could
do to get your time back, even if it means spending
a little bit more money to do so. 100%, that
covers it. Like you gotta know your own business
and then you'll be able to decide where your
money is best spent and where your time is best
spent. So we'll talk to you all in next week's
episode. Thanks for listening to another episode
of the Reseller's Mindset Podcast. Today's full
episode and all previous episodes are available
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