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.
I'm right next to Johnny, a good topic today
because we have been doing this enough. We both
have coached. hundreds and hundreds of people,
thousands of people in the reselling game. And
I thought it'd be fun for us to not necessarily
call out specific people, but call out the specific
traits and things we see from people that we
know are going to win in this. And then the same
goes the other way, right? The traits that we
know. somebody's gonna lose reselling and i think
a lot of them aren't as obvious as people make
them out to seem and i guess i'll start with
the most blatant one is that when people ask
the most basic questions endlessly right we'll
give you a pass for your first three super basic
questions of like how do you open up an ebay
or amazon account and like how do i you know
ship something in or how do i do this or that
we give you a pass for your first three after
that All of the information's out there. Between
my YouTube channel, between Johnny's YouTube
channel, between his group, between my group,
between... I mean, dude, we got thousands and
thousands of hours, me and you alone, just, like,
talking about selling books, CDs, DVDs on Amazon
and eBay. Like, that... It's all there. You know,
it's like the Britannic encyclopedias when we're
growing up. Right. You just got to go and search.
Right. It's got the little letter on the spine.
So, you know, if you're looking for something
that begins with the letter B, you pull it off
and open it up to the page. Like, I truly believe
we have covered every single thing that can possibly
be covered. And when you ask the beginner questions
after three questions, you got to start doing
something on your own here. Yeah, I remember
when I first started. I had three, I think I
had a list of 10 questions, but after three,
I had to stop asking them in a text group because
I needed to execute. I needed to build upon that
before I bothered them asking any more questions.
I didn't have questions for months because it
took me a while to get through those first three
initial ones. To me, similar to yours on the
quote unquote loser aspect, I'm going to make
it more winner aspect, asking the right questions,
asking the money making questions, not the general
how to just Google that shit questions. How do
I maximize my profits? Here are my sources. And
yeah, it's a basic answer to that. But that is
an appropriate technical put money in your wallet
question opposed to. How do I use the Amazon
knowledge base? You type stuff in and you click
around. I don't know what else to tell you. Should
you buy a Rolo or a Dymo? Like, come on. That
doesn't make you any more money. I mean, I get
it from an efficiency standpoint. We can answer
it technically like that. But at the end of the
day, it doesn't really make you any more money.
Or I have an opportunity. Here's the scenario.
What do you think the financial benefit would
be? That's a technical money -making question
right there, ladies and gentlemen. winner chicken
dinner right there dude i think that's so that's
so true we haven't seen a lot lately but over
in the discord every once in a while we'll have
a newer seller who's never bought in bulk like
post the actual like facebook marketplace listing
and everybody will kind of chime in i think that's
so important because especially when you're newer
you can't if you run the risk of spending your
only 500 dollars And it's all junk, but you can't
tell it's junk because you're brand new to the
game. Like, that's so true, man. I never even
really thought about it like that. Like, having
others' inputs when you're making these big decisions,
I'm not saying, if me and Johnny say no, don't
do it, right? We're never 100 % correct, but
we have experience and can see things that a
new person really can't see just looking at photos
or reading how they worded their Facebook listing.
Yeah, and... Which is different from them posting
just a random bookshelf of books and be like,
is there any money here? I'm like, well, how
about I teach you how to look it up versus me
doing the work for you and just telling you yes
to number two and five. That's not a money -making
question. The money -making question is, here's
a shelf sampling of books. They have more. My
buy cost is this. How do I get my buy cost down
lower with this individual who wants to do repeat
business with me? That's a money making question
of versus what's the evaluation of the shelf
here, guys? No, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing
your work for you. If you don't know how to do
the work, yes, I will tell you how to do the
work so you can do the work in fact. But outside
of that, I'm not helping you with that stupid
ass question. All right. I will defend myself
here because I do send stuff to Johnny and I
don't look it up, but I at least pay him half
of what it's worth. Right. So and I will say
this. you know he gives me some tidbits you know
he lets me know when i when i send him the shit
he's like hey dude like i might as well just
flush this down until i'm like all right well
what you're looking for he's like send me bible
so i start filling up the box with bibles right
i'm never going to be an expert but like johnny
said if you're just saying hey like you take
it's like the lazy way right you're just trying
to get somebody else to do the work for you and
That's fine if you're going to pay that other
person to do it for you. But when you come into
groups and you're just like, hey, which one of
these should I buy? All you have to do is scan
it for Amazon or just manually look it up on
the eBay app. Anybody out there can do this.
So just trying to, I guess, lazy short -cutting
corners that kind of get people into a hole.
Now, I do like people. In the beginning, I kind
of can tell they're going to win when they're
when they really focus, like Johnny is saying,
like they understand. All right. I got to keep
my buy call slow. I have had one of ones. And
this is another thing, too. I have like probably
40 to 50 one on ones a month. And these people
do not, for the most part, they're not like they're
the quiet ones. Right. You won't see them in
any of the weekly calls. They pop on a one on
one with me once a month. And they just crush
it behind the scenes, right? So it's the quiet
ones that really just ask me, you got 25 minutes
to sit down with me, right? You can't ask every
question under the sun in 25 minutes. So maybe
that's what Johnny's saying. Maybe that forces
them to be more tactical with the questions they
ask. And there's layers to the question. And
they just don't show up with a snapshot and say,
hey, what should I buy from this, right? It's
like, well, here's my buy cost. How many pieces
of inventory do I need to get to X amount of
dollars? There's so many little things that I
catch on to. And I'm like, you know what? I won't
fully juice you up yet because you're new, but
I got high hopes you're going to be a top prospect
in this league. It's like American Idol. You
don't tell them they're great off the get -go.
You just say, you're okay. You're okay. Your
one -on -ones are much different than mine. Mine
come in with, here's my whole business model.
What do I need to do next? That's generally how
it goes. I got one new person right now who's
like, what you're talking about brand new. So
I'm working with her for the ground up. But most
all, everybody I get, they're like, here, and
here's a PDF. I'm like, cool. I like PDFs. Let
me read this real quick. But I think another
telltale sign is knowing your numbers. That is
so critical in this business. Even if you're
earlier on and you're like, I'm spending, here's
my buy cost. Here's what I'm spending in subscriptions.
Here, if you're renting, I don't know, a storage
unit, blah, blah, blah. They know their numbers.
They got that down and they may have a technical
question of. at least at amazon land i'm getting
conflicting reports from different places in
amazon i want to be exact which one of these
is exact and that's what i get to laugh at them
and be like they're all wrong and right at the
same time just pick one i'm sorry you can't be
really exact here um the only thing you can really
be exact is what's coming in your bank account
and which one of these three sheets is as close
to reflecting that as you can um 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. Not knowing your numbers,
though, can be learned. I find that people that
do know their numbers tend to be more successful.
They have more control of knowing which lever
in their business to leverage in order to expand
the way they want to expand at any given time.
The person who doesn't, they're a little bit
more hesitant and conservative. Even though they've
been in the game a lot and they're just kind
of like, I just get a bucket load of money, but
I don't. I'm not going to make any bigger plays
because of that. It's not that they're afraid
to make bigger plays. They're just they don't
know if they got the funds to support a big,
big play kind of deal. Yeah, I want to kind of
piggyback on the big play idea because I see
this right in the beginning. Everybody's like,
let's just get it right. Let's just focus on
this Amazon thing. Let's just run this Amazon
thing up into as much as we possibly can. And
I have seen this over the past years of where
people are getting results and all of a sudden
it's I guess becomes mundane and boring. Right.
We say it all the time. What we do is not fun
and exciting. We're just scanning stuff. Sure.
We catch something out in the store every once
in a while. That's worth it. But for the most
part, I think a lot of people just. they feel
like all right well this is it and it's not fun
it's not exciting and they start to think of
different things that they can do to possibly
make money when it comes to i guess diversification
the word i hate the most in reselling and everybody
drags me for it i don't care right if this works
i'm on the plane already we already left the
runway so if it crashes you know i'll be the
sole survivor but uh yeah like i think people
that start getting results Maybe they start overthinking
things, right? And that's the first, it's a red
flag to me when I'm like, wait a minute. If we
had a conversation that we were making, our goal
was to make $500 a month. Now we're making $4
,000 a month. And all of a sudden we lose focus
on everything. It's just like, well. Maybe I
could start doing something else. Right. And
then you start slowly, like stop putting as much
time into the business. And then it's like a
slow because Amazon, you'll get sales. Right.
If me and you stop sending to Amazon, we'll probably
get sales for the next, you know, 12 to 18 months.
Right. It won't be crazy, but we'll get sales
probably one or two a day. So like. you still
see results that trickle in, but your effort
goes down. And it's like, you just slowly killing
your business. And it's so hard for me to just
get it through to people because people are so,
like you said, scared of like, I don't know what
the, like scared of risk or scared of like being
banned. But like, if that's the case and you
should be more scared of like getting hit by
some idiot when you're driving to the thrift
store, then you should be worried about losing
your account on Amazon. It's tough for me because
we've been doing this long enough now, Johnny,
like. We look back, we've seen people we thought
were going to crush it and they no longer exist.
Right. And we've seen people that that have moved
on to different greener pastures. I think there's
a difference here of a failed reselling business
and somebody that moves on to something else.
I do. I will say this. I have nothing wrong with
people moving on to other business opportunities.
You find out this is not for you versus somebody
that still thinks they're a reseller and their
sales just keep going down and down and down.
And then the crying gets louder and louder and
louder. Right, absolutely. And then this next
one's interesting. And it's a medium between
the two. It's the no -cost, low -cost mentality.
And the people, I think, are winners that know
to shift away from that versus the people that
stay at that all the time. They do not ever want
to, I don't know, upgrade equipment or bring
on staff when they clearly need staff. Something's
preventing them from spending money that would
transform their business. And they have money.
That's the scenario. And they stay there. Versus
somebody like, okay, I need a person. I'll pay
the $20 an hour to bring them in to save me 30
hours a week, which I could then put it back
into my business to make even more silly money.
Or I'll upgrade from that brother printer to
get the... the the rolo or the dymo uh to enhance
my business or you know what listing on amazon
that that's great but i'm going to find a third
-party tool that does it faster you need to figure
out ways to get your time back because with that
free time you can either Give it back to yourself
and enjoy a little bit more of life. Or you can
put more hours into your business doing other
aspects of your business that are more money
-making tasks or a combination thereof. But it's
essential that it needs to be done at the end
of the day. So don't let no cost, low cost. And
get in your way of enhancing your business. I
agree. I think it also falls into your sourcing.
And I'll give you... I'll give everybody prime
examples from my own personal experience. I listened
on Amazon through Seller Central for like three
goddamn years. I don't know what I was thinking,
right? Like, because I was so cheap. And back
then I was probably pushing like six grand a
month back then. And everything was listed through
Seller Central with 30 up labels. So you would
get a full sheet, like a full paper size sheet,
and you have 30 sticky labels you have to peel
off and press on the items. Well, the stickers
were not in order. So I would list items and
then I would just have multiple sheets of these
stickers that I have to mix and match and try
to figure out where the items were. And I was
so cheap for so long. Like if I just would have
got a listing software, I probably would have
been, you know, at least 10 K a month. And I
think now if I had to go back to using 30 ups,
like I don't even know if it would be feasible
to. to send in 300 units a week five there's
no way you're going to be able to send over 500
in a day doing 30 up labels so like you gotta
pick and choose your spots right and i i just
did a video on like the top 20 amazon questions
and this was one of them like you don't need
all the bells and whistles in the beginning but
like johnny said like there should be a transition
period and like we've kind of come to this realization
in amazon land right like 200 units for a repricer
and then like three four five hundred units for
listing software i think you can be cheap in
the beginning but i said it in the video and
i'll say it here again if you're going to start
a business you should have some type of bankroll
set aside right i think that i truly believe
on amazon at least the days of starting with
zero dollars is gone right i i i think you have
to have some type of capital and even when me
and you look back to when we started this right
you were working a job i was working a job so
we had capital right from our yeah we had an
influx of cash we were just working for that
influx of cash else outside of our core business
and whether you i don't know take money out of
your joint account with your spouse because they've
agreed and to help i don't know be your benefactor
you gotta You've got a family member who really
believes in you and they toss you a few bucks.
That isn't uncommon in what we're doing. Usually
those people want proof of concept, like you've
got to be bringing in money before we give you
money. But yes, it generally works. And again,
I wouldn't go out and get the loan. I wouldn't
max out the credit cards. But if you've got a
nice friend or family circle and they're willing
to throw you a few bucks to get you going along,
assuming... they don't think you're crazy and
they're going to get their money back. Yeah.
Or it's a gift from them because they really
believe in you and they want to see you successful.
Great. There's no shame in that by the way, but
like you and I did it, we funneled it in with
our own day job money. And if you're doing the
day job route, great. If you need that to follow
your initial bankroll in just before your money
starts producing your business, that's also great.
There's no shame in it. You don't want to start
at $0 and be out in there with your flashlight
at the dark going through trash cans. Me and
Johnny actually debunked this. I did it on behalf
of Johnny and behalf of myself. If you don't
have money, you can go drive DoorDash today and
make a hundred bucks probably in like four or
five hours. Like I literally went out and did
this myself and I had the screenshots to prove
it. So if you're sitting here saying, I got no
money to start a business, get off your ass,
get in your car, go drive DoorDash for five hours.
They'll pay you the same day you get a hundred
bucks. I kid you not Johnny, I made like 25,
$30 an hour more than I did working at CVS. Did
you do this recently? No, this was probably like
two or three months ago. I had no idea. I guess
I'm behind on your videos. Every once in a while,
Johnny, just like I did that when I went down
that whatnot rabbit hole. Yeah, you fact check.
Yeah, yeah. I get pissed off so much and I just
go do these things. So I have a little Rolodex
of BS callers, right? So like I got the whatnot
one where I went and watched all these idiot
booksellers on whatnot. Now I have this one that
people say I ain't got no damn money and I can
just be like, hey. I literally went and did this.
So you can go and do this. And if you don't believe
me, here's my little screenshot to show you that
I made $25 an hour. Was it boring? Nah, dude,
it's easy. You go in, you grab the stuff, you
drop it off at the door. You don't even gotta
meet people, dude. But here we are broke. Anyways,
did you give your business card for your books
or is that not allowed? I should have, dude.
I mean, maybe I start doing it again, right?
And just, you know. You knock on the door. You
got any books? Here's your food. You need to
make the money you just paid for this meal. Like,
you got any books, CDs, DVDs? I'll pay for your
meal if you give me every book, DVD, and CD in
your home video game right now. One thing I know
for sure that somebody is going to be successful.
Now, to what degree of success, who knows? If
somebody comes to me and I have a one -on -one
and they say, Mike, I understand that this is
not a get rich quick business. And I understand
it's probably going to take six to 12 months
for me to see actual results and actual bank
accounts start going up. I think for me, that's
like the icing on the cake because a lot of people
come in and it's like, I sent my first box. When
do I get paid? I understand that you've never
sent a box, your first box. But I think that
I think those people also think that. I sent
my box, I'm going to be getting paid next week.
And it's like, hmm, randoms. Yeah, having realistic
expectations. And I think that's very important.
Also knowing practicality, which will lead me
into mine of don't be afraid to innovate. Even
if you lose on that innovation, the knowledge
you've gained, like my... my uh my comeback into
amazon i did a huge innovation we'll see how
this plays out i didn't win entirely but i didn't
lose either but the knowledge i gained like me
knowing i can price higher than what the buy
box is saying initially no matter what, within
reason, and me figuring out what reasonability
is during that experiment is going to follow
me the rest of my Amazon career, assuming Amazon
doesn't change the rules. And a few other things
I learned out of that experiment, even though
the experiment is whole, I would never repeat
ever, ever again, because that comes with a big
hefty bill in storage costs. But yes, there was
a lot of things I learned out of that. And people
who try things that can back it up with... a
good at least hypothesis that aren't afraid to
innovate i think are going to be very successful
because just like the light bulb experiment how
many failed experiments till he figured it out
right you just have to win once um really now
i'm not saying do this to the extent of you gambling
because that that is that that'll put you more
on the loser side of the canvas if this works
it'll it'll compound my business by a thousand
percent that that has more validity to me than
i don't know We'll see what happens. The people
that shrug and go, I don't know. We'll see what
happens. Not so much a fan of that. So, and again,
you don't have to be innovating all the time,
but having one to two general innovation, or
if you want to call them experiments going on
to see what happens, to figure out the results,
to prove what you thought was all wrong, right
or wrong. I think those people, those kinds of
people are going to be successful in life in
general, but also in their reselling business.
Yeah, I think another thing we can hit on here
is when somebody comes to us and they're like,
hey, here's my business model, right? Me and
Johnny, we know our business model is not, you
know, copy paste for anybody in the universe,
right? We can tell you what we've experienced,
what our experiences are. But I think the problem
is when you come to us with a different business
model that has never been proven, we can tell
you, hey, here's what we know. Here's what we
know is you don't get paid until an item sells.
If you're going to have a business that's all
slow moving inventory. then guess what's going
to be slow moving? Your bank account. That comes
right along with this, right? So I think everybody
wants to try different things. And like you said,
innovation, doing different things is cool. There's
plenty of business models out there in media
that probably make a lot. I mean, we had the
STL bookkeeper on who sells the nudie magazines,
right? Like nobody probably ever thought somebody
could sell 20 grand a month on whatnot of nudie
magazines. But like, that's the type of innovation
we're talking about versus you saying, hey, I
have this completely different business model
as you. but I want to get the results you get.
Well, unfortunately, our business models are
completely different, right? Like everybody's
going to have a sweet spot of where they fall
into. And I think when you start expecting other
business models, that's like, I own a McDonald's,
Johnny owns a Wendy's, but we want to make Chick
-fil -A money, right? It's like, it just, it
doesn't make sense at the end of the day. We're
not sponsored by any three of those. I don't
even know if I could - But we're looking, if
you'd like to be a sponsor of us, give us a call.
Johnny's got to show off his chicken sandwich
from Chick -fil -A after every segment. I'll
just be eating it when Mike's talking. It's so
tough, man. But there are telltale signs of people
that are going to win. And sure, there's always
the anomalies that surprise us, right? The people
that we thought were going to win that don't
make it. Or the people we thought were going
to be absolute losers and absolutely crush it.
But I'm here to tell everybody, we literally
have people from every walk of life. Young, older,
seasoned resellers, I guess we'll call them so
they don't get pissed off at us. Getting results.
And it all comes down to putting in the work.
I think a lot of people think reselling is way
easier because of hot shots like me who act like
they don't work. But I've been putting in more
hours than I ever have this year and have maxed
out my sources basically. bare bones. I'm not
going to get nothing from them for the next three
to four weeks. I think a lot of people think
this is easier. And you could argue that, you
know, when I started Amazon, it was a lot easier
or a lot of people, you know, started during
the pandemic, right, where you could sell a polished
turd, not even a polished turd for, you know,
to ask what the market value is. Now, this one's
going to be maybe a little bit controversial,
but. The people that answer other people's questions
but give examples from their experience, whether
that was a good experience or bad experience,
I would consider those people more in the winner
camp than loser camp because they're not just
saying it doesn't work. They're saying it doesn't
work because X, Y, and Z for me. Those people,
in my opinion, have learned to be a little bit
more technical, at least in their question answering
aspect in life. Therefore, they can probably
make... better informed decisions by connecting
dots versus jumping to conclusion which is the
you suck answer like why like when you go see
a movie um was it what would you think about
it if you just say it was good or bad and not
give any details you're an asshole first of all
second of all learn some vocabulary learn how
to answer a question properly uh me and deb watch
movies horror movies all the time right it's
kind of like our thing and after each time we
watch a movie it gets a rating between one and
ten stars all right it's not oh it was all right
it was okay we give a little bit of detail in
the rating but i dude this is you literally just
hit the only sole reason i still exist in the
in the youtube and podcast realm is because people
need somebody who's going to show them the actual
numbers and give them actual facts on the business
now don't get me wrong a lot of people are led
astray and maybe they wind up joining your patreon
or joining my youtube membership and all of a
sudden everything's different right there they
came from a place being told they can make five
thousand dollars their first month on amazon
to now me and johnny are breaking the bad news
of Okay. You want to make money? It's going to
take months, right? It's going to take a much
longer time than they first anticipated. So being
around people that have experience and can give
you actual facts is going to be how you can learn
from people that I guess have already done it,
right? Like I wish. I wish this podcast would
existed before I started because I would have
had so much of a runway. The money I'm doing
today, I probably would have been doing two years
ago and who knows what type of money I would
have been making today. But the problem is, Johnny,
we're just a little blip in the Milky Way galaxy.
So like it's hard for people to really get the
hard based facts where there's real evidence
that backs it up because most people just say,
hey, you could do this. And there's really no.
I guess concrete evidence that it can be done
besides them just posting a 30 second short or
real or whatever the hell it is. Right. Exactly.
And then I think another, this is going to sound
weird and it's totally counter -cultural. The
non flashy people that don't go say, Hey, look
what I bought or, or they were just working in
the background and they pop up. once every six
months, maybe, to ask, I don't know, key critical
questions, and then they're gone for another
six months. I think those people, though we don't
hear from them all often because they're not
flashy, they're like, hey, guys, look at the
new, I don't know, Penske truck I bought, or
hey, here's photos of my new wear. I'm not saying
don't do that. You should be proud of what you
got because you earned it, right? But I think
the non -flashier people are doing way better
than the flashier people because... I got to
tell you, if they're working that hard, you don't
got time to flash anything. It's like, okay,
it arrived. Check box. Let's break open the box
and actually use the damn thing. Not take a photo
of it. Dude, I'm a YouTuber and some would call
me a YouTube sensation, right? Well, that's your
responsibility. It's part of your business to
be flashy. But you're right, dude. Like when
I do a bulk pickup or like... i'm listing my
700 units every week i think to myself like man
this would be a real cool video and then i guess
little devil johnny's on my shoulders like mike
you ain't got time for this just get the job
done i'm like all right dude you're right it's
gonna make you it's gonna take you 30 percent
longer mike it's not efficient and damn it mike
it's not efficient don't you do it and then i
go away to poof it's so true though man because
think about it right i've been pumping those
type of units in probably for the past you know
three to six months and sure i'll pop a video
in here and there of me listing and like doing
the pricing but overall it's just me in a video
talking about you know some analytical thing
where it doesn't take all the time away from
my actual production i wish i was a hot shot
we got plenty of people i talk about all the
time we got a little section of discord it says
great sales people are posting like three five
hundred dollar books like I don't even think
I've ever sold a book in my career for over $300.
I literally am just the nickel and dime guy.
I'm like the Tom Brady. We're going to go four
yards every single pass. We're going to get a
first down, keep the sticks moving. I want to
be flashy, dude. Dev hates how cocky I can be
sometimes. I don't really get the chance to be
that cocky because my market dictates, like,
I don't find the absolute bangers that other
people find. Like, I'm happy for those people.
But dude, like, I want to be happy, right? Like,
I sent you that stupid book that was like a $400
book. Like, that was going to be my best sale
all year long. And it's just like, man, I want
to be flashy. Let me be, like, forget the ultimate.
Like, I need to go buy, like, an actual Lamborghini
like I talk about. There you go. Or just rent
one for the day. Yeah, and then I find the people
who are asking efficiency questions like, okay,
I'm experimenting with different types of mailers,
and here they are. What are you all using? And
I find that to be a little bit more efficient.
This is more like an eBay side efficiency kind
of thing because eBay does require a lot, or
if you're a merchant person, probably there.
Though I don't see a whole lot of merchant. questions
come up too often i don't know why anyway um
packaging supplies and or i'm using this kind
of software is there a software that functions
more toward this because that's what i'm looking
for the i think those are more efficiency type
questions i find those people to be a little
bit more on the winner's side of the circle than
not um because If you're not trying to get better
or streamline is what I mean, really. If you're
not trying to streamline your business in any
way, I consider you more in the loser camp. Sorry,
losers. I'll tell you my streamline. Don't do
anything for Amazon products. And I think after
years and years of telling people to never prep.
Like, I think it's like an ongoing joke with
a group, right? Whenever somebody asks, like,
should I polybag an item? Or like, is this good
condition or very good condition? Like, the group
knows my answer. And like, I've seen somebody
posted like last week or something like, don't
tell Mike because he's going to tell you don't
waste your damn time. Like, I'm glad I have finally
gotten through to people. And listen. my way
100 is not the most customer friendly but my
way is my business friendly right like people
like well what about your returns i give them
my return rates like well shit like yeah i guess
i guess there's proof right that if you don't
prep there's real no huge drop off like we talked
about it years ago condition notes they mean
absolutely nothing on amazon and if they weren't
auto populated if we had to type one letter we
wouldn't put anything in that box right so like
These are the things. And it is cool to kind
of see like there's those weird little questions
that come out and like people already know the
answers. Like people won't ask like. how, Hey
Johnny, like, how can I tell if this is an actual
first edition? Because no, John's going to say,
well, did you Google it first? Right. Like, it's
so funny. Now we have like this concrete set
of things people know, I guess, not to bother
us with, or if somebody does, right. Like if
somebody does ask that question and we don't
respond right away, the people that read that
question are probably like, yeah, Johnny's rolling
over in his grave right now. Like, how dare you
ask that question? it doesn't help that i yelled
them like once every three months i think i have
a reminder for me to do so just to put them back
in line watch them jump a little bit um but yeah
i mean even i had a little issue with the condition
thing as far as like like not the notes because
i never cared about that but you and i talked
about that and your answers to me were like dude
this is acceptable so i come from an ebay background
in an ebay world what works in amazon world they
don't overlap a lot of times the condition is
definitely one of those things what i would consider
is good or below acceptable it's still good in
amazon lane it's it's a bizarre thing with amazon
but he's right it doesn't really affect your
returns and that's what we get held up sometimes
is worrying about the returns or and here's where
i'm going with my winner point the people who
don't get caught up in the what ifs or They're
way too hesitant to try something because all
the negative noise out there, what will get you
banned and whatnot. When you got a lot of people
screaming in the corner, no, you won't just send
it in. If you're still getting caught up in that,
you're more on the loser's side than the winner's
side, especially if you've been given the same
information again and again and again, you're
still getting in your own way. Stop it. Just
when somebody who. like Mike gives you an answer,
just roll with it. Don't second, that's the other
thing. You're second guessing the person giving
you the advice. Why would you ask for their advice
if you're gonna second guess them the whole time?
Stop doing that. Yeah, it's tough, man, because
I get it, right? Like I understand people get
so worried, like, oh man, your return rate's
gonna be so high and you're just gonna lose money.
And I don't. I think it's the complete opposite.
Like I deleted 3%. If you think that's a high
return percentage for an e -commerce business,
you're absolutely out of your mind. 3 % is nothing.
I've sold, you know, I don't even know how many
units so far this year, probably close to 10
,000. I'm actually going to look right now. So
you guys have actual numbers. I sold 9 ,268 items
so far this year. So 3 % return, like. let's
get cooking right like every what what johnny's
saying here is if we get over over productive
as OCD resellers, which I understand a lot of
resellers deal with, you know, everything's got
to be perfect, right? Especially if you come
from eBay land where you have to take actual
photos of the item. eBay is more personal, dude,
right? Like you order something on eBay, you
know, you're buying from Johnny and it's coming
from his basement. And, you know, like it's a
small business mentality. People on Amazon, the
majority of people that shop on Amazon think
everything they buy on Amazon. is coming from
Amazon themselves. When in reality, over 60 %
of Amazon sellers are third -party sellers versus
Amazon. So we are literally more of Amazon than
Amazon is themselves. So let's just cut it out,
right? I'll give you a pass in the beginning.
Every DVD, CD is your firstborn child. You got
to make sure it's in the cleanest, best shape.
But after that, let's start talking efficiency,
how this is going to scale. Give your final thoughts
on this before we wrap this up. Look at what
everybody is doing in the noise. And it's a lot,
right? Everybody's doing everything differently.
And align yourself with the person who seems
to back it up with facts versus speculation and
or opinion. Showing your numbers is a key indicator
of that. But there's more than that. But somebody
who's giving evidence along with what's working,
they may not have the flashiest numbers, but
at least they're transparent with you. And those
are the people you need to gravitate around.
They don't necessarily need to be a YouTube star
like Mike over there, but they at least need
to be giving answers in the community in such
a regard. That's the people you want to surround
yourself with. Learn from them. And by learning,
I mean emulating that. So learn from people who
are conducting business in such a way so you
can run a business, your own business better
in that same fashion. And if worse comes to worse,
as a famous man once said, everybody can run
their business as they see fit. Now, when you
start doing crazy things and you start slacking
off, you're not going to get punished. day one
day two week one week two but there will be a
time where you will see the results from you
not putting in the time and effort and like johnny
said in most cases you don't want to listen to
youtubers uh that's just the honest reality you
want to get in a group that has a lot of people
that are specifically in that space where you
can get real answers not just yes or no somebody
that can say hey no i wouldn't do this because
xyz or yeah that's definitely a good buy i would
buy that myself i see this all the time it pops
up should i buy this lot i'm like where you live,
how close am I? Because I'm about to go buy it
myself. So that's going to do it for this week's
episode. Thanks for watching on YouTube and listening
on podcast platforms. We'll talk to you all next
week. Thanks for listening to another episode
of the Reseller's Mindset Podcast. Today's full
episode and all previous episodes are available
to all YouTube members, along with the weekly
Zoom call and private Discord. Head on over to
youtube .com backslash to use book guy and consider
joining for as little as $2 .99 a month.