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.
Mike next to Johnny. Johnny's got the topic.
I had no idea. He gave me like a little hint,
but I'm still confused because I just sent things
to Amazon. So, Johnny, take us away. All right,
we're going to play a little game, Mike. I pulled
up something using AI, and I'm going to see if
we agree with what AI had to say, or us humans
have the better information. So it's literally
us versus AI. And here, let's get the show on
the road. So the prompt is, what are the top
10 reasons people fail at selling on Amazon?
Whoa. All right. And maybe we'll cover some stuff
we've never covered before because I didn't really
look at the answers. So it's going to be a surprise
for both of us. Better not say be subscribed
to the used book guy. All right. Number one,
poor product selection. Many new sellers fail
to conduct proper market research and end up
offering products in oversaturated niches. They
often rely on assumptions or personal preferences
instead of using data to find profitable items
that have strong demand and low competition.
I agree with it. Yeah, I agree. And I'm going
to relate to the video we just recorded. But
it would be this past week's video when we talked
about everybody's business to them is the best
business, right? Everybody's selling. Everybody's
product is the best product. So what happens
here? How do you start selling on Amazon? You
find somebody on the Internet that says you can
make money selling on Amazon. And then you think
you can just copy and paste what they do. But
you don't know how much they're paying for the
Def Leppard cassette, right? Maybe they're getting
it for free. But Johnny's got to pay $10. Well,
of course, Johnny ain't going to make no damn
money. But me, who has the connection, build
a relationship, 100%. Poor product selection
is, you know, I mean, we sell the junkiest stuff,
right? Like, let's just shoot straight. Like,
we sell books, CDs, DVDs. The majority of them
in used condition. When it comes to saturation,
it's 100%. That's us. We literally eat, sleep,
swim in saturation, but there's still a path
forward. But it is a reason, you know, a lot
of people fail on Amazon because if you get sucked
down the wrong rabbit hole and you don't get
the full picture, which has really never spun
up when you come across these other ideas, all
the overhead costs, that's probably one of them
in there anyway. All right, I'm going to shut
up about number one because we'll never get through
these 10. Yeah, I mean, if you're not using a
scanning app and you're one of those guys who
just, this looks like it will sell, I'm going
to buy it and send it in. This applies to you.
Good luck. Good luck, Chuck. Number two, insufficient
budget and poor financial planning. Underestimating
the full cost of selling on Amazon is a common
cause of failure. Sellers often fail to account
for rising fees, advertising costs, and storage
penalties, which can quickly erase thin profit
margins. Not having enough capital to sustain
the business through its initial low profit phase
is another factor. I agree. It's funny because
my topic... was going to be, right? So I asked
Johnny if he had a topic, because if not, I had
one. So this is literally my topic in a nutshell.
My topic was going to be resellers living paycheck
to paycheck based on your resale and paycheck
is just a recipe for disaster. And this 100 %
is it. I mean, Are there ways you can get away
with a low budget and be successful reselling
100 %? But that is a completely different mindset
grind that should only exist for a short period
of time as you start to build your business.
Any business takes capital to start. Thankfully,
we as resellers can start with the items we have
around our house, right? Like we can sell things
around the house. And if you've ever been broke
and had to sell something to make your bills,
you understand this. We had Ms. Lachey commented
on the video and she wanted us to cover kind
of the true overhead cost of selling on Amazon.
And I'll just rip a few off right here, right
now, right? You got your scouting app. That's
going to be $30 a month. You got your listing
app. It's going to be another $50 a month. You
got your Amazon $39 .99, right? So we're already
at $110 a month. You're going to need a scanner.
It's probably going to be another $20 a month.
You're going to need boxes to send your stuff
to Amazon. You're going to need a thermal printer.
It quickly adds up. You're talking about at least
a couple hundred dollars of overhead in the beginning
and an ongoing overhead of probably at least
150 bucks every single month you're in business
on Amazon. Right. And I don't know if your numbers
include like, I don't know, the 20 to 30 dollars
a box it costs to send in. Yeah. Yeah. And then,
oh, wait, there's storage fees. I mean, it's
low off the gate, but. pointing to the longer
-term storage fees over time. Again, the storage
penalties really add up. And I mentioned this
in our previous episode. I experienced this in
my return to Amazon. That can be a big, gigantic
bill if you're not paying close enough attention
or thinking you can outpace it. So, yeah, I agree
with number two here. Number three, weak listing
opposite. optimization a product listing is a
digital storefront and a poorly optimized one
will not attract or convert customers failures
include weak titles low quality images unclear
descriptions and insufficient use of keywords
all of which hurt products visibility and search
ranking i only agree with this in the context
of you putting your item on the right asin listing
outside of that i don't really agree with this
because it can have a no photo or a weird photo
but if it's got proper data to back it up, it's
good to go. But again, knowing which ASIN, if
it is one of those with multiple ASINs, I think
is the really only applicable thing. Number three,
I agree with. Yeah, you're right. I mean, the
idea and why we see so many ASINs in Amazon's
catalog is if you're gated and you can't sell
the Def Leppard cassette. Right. You just create
another listing and don't categorize it under
the brand Def Leppard. You actually can wind
up losing your ass listing on generic listings
instead of the actual one that the brand is on.
Like you can lose your Amazon account over this.
So, yeah, Johnny is right. Make sure we're actively
listing on the ones that have the lowest sales
rank and are actually categorized as a cassette.
and not just unknown binding, or you'll even
see, you know, DVDs listed as books, books listed
as DVDs, things like that. So you do have to
pay attention with this. And I guess, you know,
this kind of does appeal more to like, I guess,
if you're doing private label type stuff. But
like Johnny said, sometimes you run an Amazon
listing and like I took the photo. But if there's
sales data to back it up, like this is selling
all the time. Some of the old Stephen King, the
last Stephen King Bachman books that I went to
list was a photo that somebody took. But this
thing sells all the time for, you know, 80 bucks
there. As long as it's the right thing in the
right category, you're OK. But yeah, this can
this can screw you over. Definitely. Number four,
poor inventory management. Both overstocking
and understocking can be disastrous. Running
out of stock hurts your product's search ranking,
while overstocking leads to high storage fees
and tied -up capital. Many sellers also fail
to address stranded inventory, which becomes
unavailable for sale but still incurs storage
fees. I mostly agree, more so on the last half
of this. Yeah, you gotta listen. I know I sit
here and I, you know, I don't really focus on
much of the back end that comes with Amazon,
right? I don't go that crazy because we have
software that'll reprice and do everything for
you. I'm a firm believer. Most of this goes away
if you're selling 90 % of your inventory by the
time it has to get disposed of in 12 months.
And that's what my business model looks like.
So inventory management. So you have to realize,
you know, what are you paying for this stuff
versus what are you selling it for? At some point
in the road, we lose money on the items we sell
because we want to avoid the Amazon fees. So
if you're sending in a bunch of junk that's slow
moving, that's a business model in itself. But
you have to accept the fact you're going to lose.
You're going to win some, you're going to lose
probably more of them, but you should still come
out ahead. Inventory management, I mean, people
just send stuff. They have no idea what they're
doing. They don't know how to price it. They
let the software price it for them. And what
happens here, right? The storage fees aren't
bad. They're not terrible, but those who have
no idea, it's about two cents to two and a half
cents per item per month to store it at Amazon's
warehouse. Not bad on the surface level, right?
Doesn't sound bad. Well, when you get five. 10
,000 items. Well, quarter four comes around.
That fee doubles automatically for three months.
So quarter of the year, you're paying double
fees across the board. That's where your ass
gets sunk. Right. And on the stranded inventory
side, you got to monitor that. You do. Quoting
a tech here, it ain't for sale if it's in the
back room. Nobody can buy it. That's what I'm
saying. And here you're getting a bill for it.
So not only is it not for sale, you're getting
a bill for stuff you have there that's not for
sale. I don't know. I do mine like once a week.
Yeah, they're not that bad either. They used
to be worse, dude. I mean, think about how bad
stranded inventory was last year, right, with
all the errors and, you know, all the listing
errors. Yeah, now it's nowhere near as bad. I
never even had more than 10 at a single time,
and I got, you know, basically 5 ,000. What's
up, Amazon tellers? 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. Yeah, he's
right. It used to be really bad. It used to be
in the hundreds. It would take you a sitting
to get through that stuff. Yeah. All right, going
on to number five here. Neglecting customer reviews
and feedback. Reviews are crucial for building
trust and influencing sales on Amazon. Ignoring
customer feedback or failing to address negative
reviews can damage a seller's reputation and
deter potential buyers. Some new sellers also
resort to illegal tactics like buying fake reviews,
which can lead to account suspension. Thankfully,
we don't have to deal with feedback, right? Because
if you're selling FBA, you can have 100 % of
feedback removed regardless of what it is, right?
I think it's more pertains to like if you launch
your own product. I don't think people even pay
attention. I think I still think the majority
of people believe when they shop on Amazon, they're
buying directly from Amazon. They don't think
it's like a third party seller. It's actually
selling the item. Feedback doesn't matter in
our space. I got 100 percent feedback in quotation
marks. And I've been doing this for five over
five years now because every single negative
one I got. Right. I send Def Leppard and there's
no cassette. And they leave a review that says,
hey, there's no cassette. I just click two things
and it's gone within like three seconds. It's
not like any other selling platform when it comes
to feedback. Amazon FBA, they just automatically
accept responsibility. I do think it's shitty,
though, because some of the feedback is legitimate,
right? Like if I didn't send a cassette, like
I shouldn't be able to remove the feedback. But
I just. I just use the system to my advantage,
I guess. They make the rules. I'm just following
the rules. Yeah, I mean, you got 90 days to take
care of this. So as long as you're somewhat monitoring
it, I can say you can be pretty lazy with this,
like once a month. I don't think it matters.
Like very rarely do I not buy something on Amazon.
I don't look at the review section. I don't.
It's like, I want that. I know I want it. I'm
going to buy it. The reviews don't matter to
me. They're irrelevant. I'm not shopping at Amazon
because I care about reviews. I'm shopping at
Amazon for the convenience because that's the
whole idea behind Amazon is convenience buying.
As far as the illegal tactics of buying fake
reviews, somewhat agree with that one because
early on we tell people you need reviews for
the buy box and sometimes they try to buy it.
But don't do that. Just phone a friend. If you
don't have a friend, pay Mike three bucks. He'll
be your friend. Yeah. Number six here. Yeah.
Okay. Ineffective advertising, PPC. I'm already
going to tell you I don't agree with this one.
in what we do but anyway many sellers fail to
build a profitable advertising strategy some
rely on organic reach and skip ads altogether
which others waste money on poorly optimized
pay -per -click campaigns with increasing competition
a strategic advertising approach is no longer
optional for maintaining visibility this only
really applies again if you're in the private
label white label sector most of us are not so
If you're in that sector, this applies. If you're
not, it doesn't apply. I got one for you. I'll
relate it. I'll relate it to our business, right?
People always want bulk inventory. Jotty, where
do I get bulk inventory? Well, how about we run
an ad on Facebook? How about we run an ad on
Nextdoor? three dollars five hours a day for
a week and how about we get some leads that come
to us right like that would be my equivalent
of you being a cry baby you don't want bulk but
you're not willing to spend three bucks or five
bucks a day and put put together a nice little
canva ad free canva ad and just pay a few bucks
see what can happen that is the equivalent of
ineffective advertising is you just put in a
post i i'll take your things instead of being
like hey I will come do a free book clean out
or, hey, I will come pay 20 cents for every DVD
you have in your house. That would be the equivalent
in our realm. Nice. Number seven. Oh, we're getting
spicy now. Not building a brand. A common rookie
mistake is focusing on selling a generic product
rather than creating a unique, well -branded
customer experience. Sellers who overlook branding
and inconsistent messages have a harder time
standing out, connecting with customers, and
earning repeat business. I mean, dude, it's kind
of, yeah, if we relate this to us again, though,
right? I mean, think about it. You have a brand.
I have a brand. Even if we completely terminate
social media in this podcast, we have a brand
of when we go into the libraries we work with,
they know who we are and exactly what we do.
That's almost our brand, right? The face of the
company, what we do, kind of our whole business
model is out there. So our brands is, you know,
for all the people out there who don't do social
media and probably think, well, I don't have
a brand. Well, you do have a brand. You are who
you are. When you walk into some place and you
have a conversation, everybody's seeing at what
they are, right? Your brand is almost your personality
and your business behind it. And you have a brand,
even though you don't post social media content,
it's just not out there on the internet. That's
all it is. There's plenty of people that don't
exist on the internet that make lots and lots,
trillions and billions of dollars reselling.
And their brand is their brand. They have relationships.
They show up to the flea markets. They are basically
a brand. They're a walking brand for their business.
Right. And some of my best dealings have been
with people I've met through this channel, your
group, other groups, et cetera. And some of the
best relationships, business and personal relationships
also come from me branding myself, talking and
putting myself out there in various groups and
networking within my own community. So not within
Amazon, but outside of Amazon, absolutely. And
again, unless you're in the private label sector.
Number eight, ignoring Amazon's constantly changing
rules. Amazon is a rule -heavy platform, and
its policies and fees change often. Sellers who
fail to stay updated on the terms of service
risk policy violations, which can lead to listing
suppression, account suspensions, or even permanent
bans. Yeah, dude. We talked about this yet again.
If you ain't sold on Amazon in the past one to
three months, it's completely different now than
it was one to three months ago. It's always changing.
I mean, my whole business has changed because
of Amazon fees. When I started, I was only the
used book guy. I'd never even thought about scanning
a CD or DVD. I didn't have to. I used to carry
an inventory of over 5 ,000 of books alone. amazon
fees go up based on size and weights of items
well i can't be the only the used book guy anymore
i had to diversify so 100 and you know it's not
even just the fees right the policies are changing
how long when we started long -term storage was
a year you didn't get charged for extra storage
if it sat there all the way up to a year well
now it's six months and me and you were probably
guessing it's probably going to go to three months
because they don't want your stuff sitting there
you gotta don't be consumed by it right it's
not like i i'm on like the amazon seller newsletter
every day like reading through this stuff but
like big changes come along and you have to put
a little you got to stick your nose in here and
there to see what's kind of going on like all
right uh like with the used board games and everything
how they're kind of doing away with that right
there's there's these little things and amazon's
sneaky about sliding these things in right it's
not like they make a huge announcement for everybody
it's like the sellers realize what's happening
before amazon even announces it right and i won't
lie and this is a common joke amongst all of
us if i don't check my email each morning to
see if i'm still employed with amazon am I still
working with this company or not? I mean, it's
funny, but it's terrifying at the same time,
but it's becomes kind of a high stress joke.
Hey guys, I'm still, I'm still on Amazon today.
It's a good day. But no, they put the fear of
God in you. They really do. Cause you hear the
horror stories, people who've done technically
nothing wrong. But maybe, maybe it's a gray area.
They've done something wrong and they're getting
hit for it. And you watch these people. maybe
have to take a walk or submit all kinds of documentation
that's not easy through robotics or maybe a poor
customer service agent and it's nightmarish it
really is um so yeah amazon's scary but it also
pays the most money i got another one too before
we hop off this one uh gates like you're gated
in the item right This has considerably changed,
right? Think about it. It used to be only 10
units to get ungated in a brand, right? 10 ain't
bad. Even if you pay 10 bucks, it's 100 bucks.
Well, this past year now, it's 100 units for
most of the big brands. Well, now instead of
spending $100, you're spending at least 500,
closer to $1 ,000. And wait, it gets better.
Just because you buy from universal .com doesn't
mean they're taking your damn invoice, right?
As the rules are changing, Amazon is not clear
about. you know if the rules if they even apply
to a lot of the stuff that they do it's like
it's like well for mike you can get in but johnny
no you gotta wait oh for you you're definitely
never getting it we'll let you think i'm not
my favorite i'm not the favorite they picked
mike over dude it's crazy man yeah and all i
have to do each year is just add on a zero that's
all i gotta do when it gets to 10 million units
people are gonna be like nah man i'm good Number
nine, losing the buy box. The buy box accounts
for the vast majority of Amazon sales. A seller
can lose this coveted spot due to pricing mistakes,
poor performance metrics, or low stock, all of
which directly result in lost sales. This is
what my Amazon nightmares are. I think I'd rather
be banned than never have the buy box again because
I do believe. And the numbers even show this,
that over 90 % of Amazon sales come through the
Buy Box, which is that stupid Buy Now button.
Listen, I don't make people's mentalities. I
know it's stupid that people just go to the page
and hit Buy Now. I understand everybody always
complains and yells at me about that, that people
are drones and they just hit Buy Now. But without
the Buy Box, it's not talked about enough. You
start out on Amazon. You are not buy box eligible
in the categories you sell in for used items.
So you start selling used books, used CDs, used
DVDs, right? You're brand new to this. You go
spend money. You're not going to get 90 plus
percent of sales you otherwise would until you
get the buy box. And wait, there's more. How
do you get the buy box? Amazon, we can't tell
you. It's proprietary information. So here you
are. Stupidest answer they've ever given. Here
you are with. 5 % of the sales you should get.
And like Johnny said, you log into your phone
every day and hope in the box it says no, that
it says yes. That is literally how unlogical,
delogical, no logical words I'm making up. It
just doesn't make any sense. And it drives me
nuts because it's not talked about enough. And
it's solely the only thing that matters. I just
told you I'd rather get banned than be put in
no buy box hell for the rest of my life. Let
me put it to like employment perspective. So
you start a new job. You're an intern. You're
getting paid minimum wage with the possibility
to move up in the company. So you go to your
boss. You're like, yo, boss, what do I need to
do to prove to you guys so I can move up to get
a better paycheck? They're like, we don't know.
We're not. Well, we do know, but we're not going
to tell you. And you're like, well, what if I
do this? And they give you might work. Am I wasting
my time? Maybe. And that's how it is. It's literally
like, how do I get promoted to Amazon? And you
go to your boss and he's like, we know, but we're
not telling you how. You do whatever you think's
best, sir. We'll maybe think about it. Maybe.
People get it in a month. People get it in a
year. That is literally like real experiences
that people have had in our groups is that some
people get it in a month. Some got to wait a
year and some may never get it. And you know
what? When they step away from Amazon. I don't
blame them because you cannot run a business
at 5 % to 10 % capacity of what it actually is
just because of some algorithm proprietary information
the platform has. All right, number 10, lack
of patient and unrealistic expectations. Many
newcomers expect instant profits and give up
when they realize that building a successful
Amazon business takes time and consistent effort.
They may also fail to take calculated risk or
outsource tasks, leading to burnout. I mean,
I kind of agree with this one all around. Yeah,
I mean, that's not even, you know, that's not
even Amazon. I think that's anywhere. Like, sure,
you can start on another platform and get some
results right away, but especially with Amazon,
because... They hold your money, right? They're
going to hold your money. You sell something
today, you're not getting that money for four
weeks, right? Even when you've been doing this
for a while, they still hold your money for a
decently long time. And a lot of it, unfortunately,
a lot of Amazon... Content creators are around,
you know, the crazy big numbers, right? Like
start today and you can make, you know, X amount
of dollars. And it's usually five, six figures.
And it's not realistic for your average person
to go start an Amazon business and make six figures
profit in the first year. I'll tell you right
now, I'm not going to hit six figures profit
this year, my Amazon business. I literally would
have to. Mine, I'm right about 45, 55 splits.
So for me to do six figures of profit, I would
have to do like 215, 220 in overall sales. I
might hit 200, but I'm telling you this from
somebody that's carrying thousands of inventory,
sending multiple boxes every single week, eat,
sleep, breathe, send in as much as I possibly
can. So expectations and what's really going
on and what's being spun up out there is too.
And that's why I accept the fact, right? Like
I'll never be the huge reselling YouTube channel
because I'm never going to try to sell somebody
something that ain't real, right? It takes time.
And if you start Amazon thinking you're going
to be able to make money your first three months,
you're dead wrong. I don't care what business
model you have. You're not going to be profitable
at least your first three months. I would probably
say you're looking at six months until you get
some type of positive flow back into your bank
account. Absolutely. I mean, the only way this
is even feasible and you have to have outside
money. a good chunk of it and then you go all
in with amazon and yeah maybe you can pull that
off in your first year but even if you had that
bankroll of money you're not going to learn what
you're doing and i'm going to question yeah you
did 100 grand in sales but how much was your
overhead because of your warehouse your employee
cost your your cost of goods and all of that
like were you really profitable question mark
i don't know you got to be doing this for a little
while to have some knowledge where you can pull
this trigger on those bigger things now if you
hire i don't know mike to come run your amazon
business and you fund him to do that that's a
whole different story again those are one -off
scenarios and questionable results at the end
of that so because mike mike's right it costs
so much to get started we went over the monthly
cost at the beginning and if you're not that
well off or have a benefactor bankrolling you
this is it's grind you got to grind it out you
got to pay your dues more or less with real dollars
and sweat equity yeah i think the you know you
kind of look at it that way too it's When you
start out, when we started out, we had other
things going on, right? Like it wasn't like we
just started from zero and no money and we're
trying to build this resale business, right?
Like I was working at CVS, you had your job.
These are things we kind of built up on the side
before we take the plunge. But I do think those
types of people are far and fewer in between
because it's so appealing now, right? To work
for yourself. It's kind of like the trendy thing
to do to be an entrepreneur. And I believe 100%,
the best way to get ahead. in this lifetime is
to have your own business and you know work your
own ass off and make your own money and keep
all your money at the end of the day i do believe
that but with reselling comes this false idea
that you can go and we can you know the big thing
is like retail arbitrage that's kind of the one
that most people see on the internet it's like
you can go to your local walmart clearance aisle
or your marshall or your ross and uh You can
buy the item for $20 and make $40 on Amazon,
and they're not wrong. But the idea that you
can go do that today and ship it to Amazon tomorrow
and get paid by the end of the week is 100 %
wrong. Right. I mean, so we had a list of top
10. Most of it I agree with. There were some
situational things, or we needed to reapply it
elsewhere. But I thought it was a pretty decent
list. i think ai is on it it's not perfect uh
but nah i think uh i think ai you know it'll
get better over time um and for those of all
know i've kind of talked about it publicly like
i really don't mess around with ai like that
like all but like one or two things i've ever
done in social media is like ai related uh so
i don't really like kind of incorporate it with
my resale business. I know a lot of you out there
do, and a lot of you get results. I've heard
some crazy things, right? Like you can plug in
like 10 different books you have, and they'll
be able to tell you which ones you should bundle
together to sell on eBay. I've heard of people
doing things like that. Like that's cool and
appealing to me, but like, I don't, I just do
my own thing, right? I just scan stuff and box
it up. Like I try not to get too involved with
all the craziness and trying to, you know, crack
the code. Like I already, I feel like I. hack
my time well enough on my own that i don't need
ai trying to tell me you know because if i if
i talk to ai dude ai is going to be like yo you're
lazy bro like why don't you get out here and
work right like i'm not talking ai is going to
be trying to work me harder instead of smarter
because it'd be like well it seems like you got
everything figured out besides you actually going
out there for more hours and i'm like no no no
no sorry we can't be friends ai whatever the
hell one we're using oh man i mean yeah ai is
uh A tool in the toolbox, an imperfect one at
points. And again, yeah, I see people do some
crazy stuff with it. Like here's a photo of a
bunch of books. Which one's worth $100? And AI
is like, none. Okay, pass. They'll do it again
and again and again. Or then they figure out
a way to automate it, right? So that's cool uses
of AI. Or hey, AI, research this rare signature
in this book. Tell me if it's actually valuable
or not. is ai really a signature expert who knows
but maybe it'll say yes maybe it'll say no um
or doing or getting rid of va swapping for ai
to do it in its place right poor va they were
only making three dollars an hour to begin with
and you just fired them but whatever robots replace
humans it's cool hey can i uh when i send you
a box Can I get paid like more or less if you
use AI to look at my stuff, right? Because I
know you look up things manually yourself. Like,
will I get an extra 10 % if I just say you can
have AI look it up instead of you having to look
it up? No, there's a fee for that. You get charged,
actually. The AI is probably free, though. Come
on. You did the AI work. You're making me do
it. If you're making me do it, I'm going to charge
you for that. That's how business works, Mike.
It's just one photo. Just upload it for me. I
don't even know how to log in to chat GPT. It's
okay, Mike. You'll get the bill. You don't have
to worry about it. I'm always trying to cut corners,
even in Johnny's business. I'm like, hey, how
can I get some extra percentage out of the stuff
I sent to Johnny through AI? My answers are always,
that doesn't work the way you think it works,
Mike. You're just going to get charged. more
and you know what he's gonna do right he's got
my box sitting there he'll get through it today
he's gonna put it through the damn ai and it's
gonna say none of it's worth anything oh man
yeah i mean you kind of hit on the head right
we we brought it up before and got your opinion
on like all the the ai listing software that's
come to ebay and i do think there are uses for
it um i think for the the person that's like
yourself and is trying to differentiate yourself
in the manner of the quality of your listings
ai isn't there yet right like it's kind of like
when you when i used to list on ebay and i would
hit sell similar and like the shit's never filled
out right right there's always something kind
of askew and like one of those little details
can kind of have your listing never sell i think
for the especially the space we're in with media
especially older books i think it's got a long
runway ahead until it gets to where we need it
to be but I think it's, you know, I think some
people enjoy it. And I think some people are
making a lot of money doing it. Like you said,
like building bots to kind of skim Facebook marketplace,
things like that. Like there's crazy uses out
there that nobody's really thought of yet. But
it is, you know, things are changing. We've said
it before. You got to be up with the times. Yeah,
like I'm using one right now, but it. saves about
15 seconds per listing, which is significant
when you're compounding listings. But I still
have to put in a lot of manual work on top of
that to get what you said, the quality listing
out of it. It does a passable job, probably better
than a cross -listing software, I would say,
but it's still not top -notch. I don't know when
it will be top -notch because all of them, media
is kind of like bottom rung and the one I'm using
is okay. But again, it's just okay. It's not
great. It's not fantastic. It's not something
where I can just upload photos, hit list, done.
It's no. Yeah, I do that. It fills in a lot of
stuff. I have to delete some stuff, swap some
stuff out. I still have to double check the addition
thing because here's the problem with all the
AI tools right now. Books have the word first
edition in there all the time. Doesn't mean it
is. Yeah. And that's book knowledge. So I have
to look at the actual copyright page to verify.
No, it's not delete. It's a third printing. Yeah,
you're right. There are things that it's just
it's just not going to be able to catch ever.
Right. Like no matter how good it gets, because
it's just going off the. the information it's
given right yeah so if you submit that photo
that copyright page and it says first edition
well it's gonna say the words first edition on
there and it thinks it is a first edition when
it's really not yeah i mean like the harry potter
books right it's his first edition and it's not
a true first edition and like the difference
in price is like tens of thousands of dollars
it's like there's a return i guess i did a loan
through ebay now i got huge penalties on the
return Yeah, it's kind of cool. I mean, we'll
see how it pans out here in the next year or
so. I think it's kind of like any new technology,
you know, like electric cars, solar panels. This
is the beginning of it. And then it's only going
to get better and better and better as the technology
gets better, better and better. That was that
was kind of a cool thing. No, I'm I was surprised
that it actually didn't give out crazy ass, you
know, things that actually would, you know, would
hurt an Amazon business. But it kind of was,
you know, like it does. It kind of summarizes
everything and kind of put it in the bullet points.
But I wouldn't live or die by what AI says ever.
I think you're trying to be like the Terminator
dude, right? Where he gets like shot up and like
lit on fire and he's like half his face is man
and the other half is machine, right? You're
like trying to be the perfect combo can. Exactly,
exactly. I mean, yeah, I mean, we have to do
at least an eBay land or anything you're doing
manual like that. In my opinion, not necessarily
algorithmically, but for the customer. Okay.
The algorithm leads them to click on it. But
if you give a garbage presentation, they're going
to go hit the back button and go click on something
else. You got to present it in the right way.
So again, I think your analogy is spot on. You
kind of have to be the Terminator cyborg person
of, okay, I'm going to use technology here, but
I need to put the human touch and knowledge here.
And once you combine the two, it's a beautiful
thing. I will say 100 % of the time when I shop
on eBay, which I do frequently. Even, even Deb,
she'll tell you the same thing. We're looking
at the item descriptions. We're looking at how
many photos and we don't want that stupid AI
generate AI item description. And all it does
is put your active like item descriptives into
a lame ass paragraph. That's like fancy worded.
Like when I'm shopping for something, that is
the last thing I do think now though, right?
This is another thing. you can tell when somebody
is using ai even in like a response right you
can almost tell that somebody's using ai instead
of typing up something themselves and i think
that is like First off, it's going to rub people
the wrong way. I think a lot of people, I mean,
a lot of people use this for like research papers
or like school things or even job resumes and
cover letters. I think that's already a turnoff
in the space because they know it's just some
lazy ass you typing in a few prompts into chat
GPT or whatever. And you're getting this response
back and you're just copying and pasting it.
People aren't even reading what they're saying.
And I do think humans can spot when something
is AI versus when it's not. Right. I mean, even
on the listings, I'll notice it'll do that. I'll
have two sentences of solid, this is what the
book's about. And the rest of it is like, here's
an ISBN number. It says $1 .75 on the front.
Nobody cares. Your customer does not care about
that stuff. Oh, it shows its vintage age because
it was written in 1970. Nobody cares about that
shit. Yeah. That's the work I have to backspace
that, keep these two, and let me spice it up
a little bit with my own stuff here. You're right.
It is an absolute turnoff. Now, outside of reselling,
what I've really found AI to shine at is I'm
bad. I give really short boilerplate emails.
So I'll use AI to actually make it more flowery.
The flow is a lot better. It's a lot nicer. I'm
a nice guy, but I'm very direct. So making AI,
making me sound nicer than I actually am, even
though I'm not being mean, I'm just being direct.
It gives a non -direct presentation and it flows
a lot better. So on my email correspondence,
it works really well. I'll say that. That's where
flowery language can really shine is in emails.
I need you to develop me an AI for when anybody
ever messaged me about reselling. So I don't
even have to exist on the internet no more. It's
just AI responses from the used book guy. Yeah,
it could like literally watch all your videos
in, I don't know, 60 seconds or less and make
AI response mic. That's what I'm saying, dude.
All of a sudden, I just show up for the podcast
twice a month, and it's not even me, dude. I
need like a hologram. I won't even have to do
my own video. If you see Mike and I with like
six fingers or the double lip thing going, you
know that we've replaced ourselves with AI. We
are not here no longer. It's hologram Johnny
and Mike. Oh, I was trying to shoot a video the
other day for my channel, and I was trying to
pull up a book because I was giving examples
of books. I had to go to eBay because it wasn't
on the other channels. And I had to scroll forever
until I found a legitimate photo, like a real
photo of the actual book because of either stock
photo or AI photos, like AI -generated photos.
It's not real, right? Yeah. I couldn't believe
it. I had to go to page two to find this thing.
I mean, it was a rare book, to be fair, but...
As a customer, if I was shopping for that rare
book, I ain't clicking on any of those. I want
the real deal. I want to know what I'm buying,
especially if I'm going to spend five grand on
a book. Yeah, I agree. Even when I go to check
the... validity of a product right if i got something
new sealed in a thrift store or like a tv set
that like i can't find on amazon and i go look
it up on ebay you're right dude like it's not
it's never the first top few that are the actual
product like photos and everything you actually
got to scroll and that's where business models
like yours take advantage of it right because
we're like the hell with this we're going to
do way better than this we're going to have better
title better photos better everything that is
how you win on ebay when you're in a super saturated
niche like media. You have to do something different.
Sure. Can you get away with it? 100%. If you've
got 100 ,000 listings at AI. That's why the stock
photo cross -listing game works, right? Because
if you sling enough of it up, you only need a
2 % sell -through rate. It's fine. Yeah. And
then even then, right, you're going to still
be making peanuts versus if you put a little
bit of effort and understand what the customer
is looking for, then you kind of build it out
the way you have. You know, I would, you know,
sell the stock. stock photo of Def Leppard, right?
In this case, it's all beat to shit. The cassette's
beat to shit, but here you are at an extra 20
bucks, but there's actual photos of the cassette,
the inside, the artwork versus mine at $5, but
it's just a stock photo. I'm probably going to
get a return anyway versus your customer who
sees what they're actually getting. I mean, it's
kind of a no brainer. Yeah, I did do an experiment
about 500 listings mine. This was a recent one
to see if any of them would sell just using AI
and me putting just one keyword because I can't
stand not having a blank field. So at least one
in each of the required fields or optional required
fields. And you know what? I haven't sold a single
one of those. And I think to sell those, my price
point would have to come down because it's an
inferior listing in my point of view. But I just
wanted to see if it would sell. I'm going to
give it another 30 days to see if any of them
do sell. But I'm probably going to have to go
back into those 500 listings in my spare time,
which is very few minutes, and correct them.
Because I just let AI do its thing with just
a down and dirty quick, I need to fill at least
these couple things out and just let it ride.
But so far, that experiment's not been great
in results. And I think that's, I mean, to everything
we're talking about, but I think that's what's
going to flood the market is a lot of that stuff.
And a lot of that stuff is just going to sit.
Yeah. What happened? Oh, I got a crazy doomsday
scenario that just came to my mind. What happens
if eBay puts a little filter box on the left?
It says exclude AI -generated listings. Oh, man.
I'm going to have to go back and re -upload the
actual photos. Dude, I'm just saying. Johnny's
going to have nightmares now for the foreseeable
future. I did notice that, too, at least in the
software I'm using. It has a different photo
file than I'm used to. It's like HCEC or something.
Oh, yeah, yeah. If they have a filter for that.
I got to go redo a lot of listings, and I got
to pay the photographer to redo photos because
that'll suck. I know. Listen, dude, I got you
off the rails. Just act like I never said that,
all right? I'm not going to sleep now, Mike.
I'm not going to sleep. I poisoned Johnny's mind
for the foreseeable future. As always, we appreciate
you listening on the podcast or watching over
on YouTube, and 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
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