WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.160 Welcome back to another episode of the Reseller's 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:04.559 Mindset Podcast. My name is Mike, also known 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:06.559 as the Used Book Guy on YouTube, along with my 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:08.599 friend and fellow full -time reseller, Johnny 00:00:08.599 --> 00:00:11.169 B. We help people start and grow their reselling 00:00:11.169 --> 00:00:13.589 businesses from the ground up. We also have a 00:00:13.589 --> 00:00:15.570 weekly Zoom call and private Discord for all 00:00:15.570 --> 00:00:18.469 YouTube members. Head on over to youtube .com 00:00:18.469 --> 00:00:20.829 backslash usebookguy to join the channel and 00:00:20.829 --> 00:00:23.429 gain access to the full -length podcast, Zoom 00:00:23.429 --> 00:00:26.129 call, and private Discord today. Let's get into 00:00:26.129 --> 00:00:28.329 this week's episode. What is up, everybody? Welcome 00:00:28.329 --> 00:00:30.329 to another episode of Reseller's Mindset Podcast. 00:00:30.449 --> 00:00:34.140 Mike is sitting next to Johnny today. Since eBay 00:00:34.140 --> 00:00:36.240 just dropped their huge promoted listing fee 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:39.140 update and Amazon announced they are increasing 00:00:39.140 --> 00:00:40.700 their fees, me and Johnny thought it'd be cool 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:44.039 to kind of talk about our resellers getting kind 00:00:44.039 --> 00:00:46.299 of pushed out of the market with the increases 00:00:46.299 --> 00:00:50.679 in fees. And is it still viable to continue down 00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:54.060 this path? As you know, I do personally think. 00:00:54.670 --> 00:00:57.810 as years go on margins are going to get slimmer 00:00:57.810 --> 00:00:59.810 right i mean we look at everything i know you're 00:00:59.810 --> 00:01:02.149 big on like tracking the cost of everything in 00:01:02.149 --> 00:01:05.170 your business packing supplies all of that nonsense 00:01:05.170 --> 00:01:08.569 and i do think i mean i think that's just the 00:01:08.569 --> 00:01:11.730 the writing on the wall but i do think being 00:01:11.730 --> 00:01:15.810 a reseller allows us to quote unquote eat the 00:01:15.810 --> 00:01:18.810 the fee and you know price hikes we have to deal 00:01:18.810 --> 00:01:21.170 with because our margins are so high but i do 00:01:21.170 --> 00:01:24.420 think it it offends a lot of people and you know 00:01:24.420 --> 00:01:27.659 i i do kind of bust on ebay sellers and say hey 00:01:27.659 --> 00:01:30.879 you know go sell sell your stuff on amazon and 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:33.439 uh all i can say is an amazon seller who pays 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:38.060 you know roughly 45 to you know 55 percent in 00:01:38.060 --> 00:01:41.659 fees on every single item i sell First time here, 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:44.079 welcome to the club. This is just the reality 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:47.299 of reselling on online platforms. Johnny, what 00:01:47.299 --> 00:01:49.400 is your thought? Because you're much more into 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:52.819 the eBay side of the whole promoted listings, 00:01:52.879 --> 00:01:55.379 and you explained it to me, and it does sound 00:01:55.379 --> 00:01:57.739 like scummy and shady, but at the end of the 00:01:57.739 --> 00:02:00.079 day, I don't think eBay cares what anybody thinks 00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:01.859 about it. They're just trying to impress the 00:02:01.859 --> 00:02:04.560 shareholders. Yeah, I mean, it's money grab, 00:02:04.620 --> 00:02:07.400 and it's definitely to increase their... make 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:09.620 their stockholders happy and they got a board 00:02:09.620 --> 00:02:11.900 of directors and all that kind of fun stuff um 00:02:11.900 --> 00:02:15.180 we should put you on the board of directors i 00:02:15.180 --> 00:02:21.539 don't want to be i tried everybody uh um meetings 00:02:21.539 --> 00:02:27.300 gross uh basically it's if you promote it all 00:02:27.300 --> 00:02:29.419 and somebody clicks on your listing for the next 00:02:29.419 --> 00:02:32.800 30 days it's locked in as a promoted sale no 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:34.819 matter if it comes in through an organic sale 00:02:34.819 --> 00:02:39.139 or not So the odds of you getting a truly organic 00:02:39.139 --> 00:02:42.699 sale anymore if you promote is low. But if you 00:02:42.699 --> 00:02:44.939 don't promote, you're not going to get any sales 00:02:44.939 --> 00:02:48.199 probably. So it's a, well, you want to play? 00:02:48.379 --> 00:02:51.400 Do you want to play the game? And if you want 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:53.280 to play, you got to pay. And that's through promoted 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:58.430 listings, my friends. And it's weird. There's 00:02:58.430 --> 00:03:01.189 some conjecture on, well, what happens if I toggle 00:03:01.189 --> 00:03:04.469 my promoted to like 10 and 8 and 16 % and all 00:03:04.469 --> 00:03:08.330 that fun stuff? What happens to that click? No 00:03:08.330 --> 00:03:10.430 one knows. We'll have to see. So that'll be fun. 00:03:10.530 --> 00:03:13.469 And that's coming out in January the 13th. So 00:03:13.469 --> 00:03:15.889 you got a little room to play with. They're giving 00:03:15.889 --> 00:03:19.469 us Q4 more or less. And then it's, well, no more 00:03:19.469 --> 00:03:25.430 organic. I mean, it's... So it's nothing more 00:03:25.430 --> 00:03:28.169 than a sleazy money grab. That's really what 00:03:28.169 --> 00:03:30.509 it is. It's just they want more money out of 00:03:30.509 --> 00:03:36.050 us. And we already have a base fee injection 00:03:36.050 --> 00:03:39.229 for your category. I mean, it's like 15 % media. 00:03:39.330 --> 00:03:44.030 It's like 14 .99%. So let's just call it 15%, 00:03:44.030 --> 00:03:47.750 okay? And then let's say you do 10 % promoted. 00:03:47.830 --> 00:03:52.000 So you're at 25 % right there. That doesn't include 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:53.759 your shipping label cost. That doesn't include 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:57.419 your cost of goods. That doesn't include final 00:03:57.419 --> 00:04:01.060 value. Well, I guess final value fees is in there 00:04:01.060 --> 00:04:04.699 somewhere. Then anything else, like your shipping 00:04:04.699 --> 00:04:08.919 supply costs and all that. So the lower margin 00:04:08.919 --> 00:04:11.650 stuff is not going to be worth your time. So 00:04:11.650 --> 00:04:13.750 you're going to have to increase what you do. 00:04:14.289 --> 00:04:17.149 So if you're the $4 .99 guy, you can still be 00:04:17.149 --> 00:04:20.009 the $4 .99 guy, just you're going to need a million 00:04:20.009 --> 00:04:26.230 plus items to make any money. Glenn the bookseller 00:04:26.230 --> 00:04:28.829 on eBay, essentially. And then on eBay land, 00:04:28.910 --> 00:04:31.930 it's always been kind of high. I mean, you said 00:04:31.930 --> 00:04:34.430 what, 50%, 60%, something like that? Yeah, give 00:04:34.430 --> 00:04:38.360 or take, yeah. And then... The new guys laugh 00:04:38.360 --> 00:04:40.259 at us because they think our margins are great 00:04:40.259 --> 00:04:44.000 when they're making 20%. It's all doable. It's 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:48.139 just you either got to do a bajillion items or 00:04:48.139 --> 00:04:50.680 your ASP has to be really up there to make it 00:04:50.680 --> 00:04:54.899 worth it. Yeah, I did see, because I do follow 00:04:54.899 --> 00:04:58.439 a few of the bigger eBay YouTubers. I won't name 00:04:58.439 --> 00:05:00.060 them specifically, but I follow the ones that 00:05:00.060 --> 00:05:04.459 aren't super scummy. But I see people commenting 00:05:04.459 --> 00:05:09.160 like, you know, let's all not promote our listings 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:11.699 like let's take a stand and dude nothing makes 00:05:11.699 --> 00:05:15.160 me laugh out loud because ebay doesn't care and 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:17.680 i'm gonna be full disclosure if i was selling 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:20.600 on ebay and i hear everybody's gonna stop doing 00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:22.839 one thing that could benefit my business then 00:05:22.839 --> 00:05:24.800 i'm doubling down on that right i'm like yeah 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:27.740 let's stop and in the day dude i ramp it up i 00:05:27.740 --> 00:05:32.160 like double my promoted percentage and just get 00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:35.500 all of the sales it's it's tough i think you 00:05:35.500 --> 00:05:38.740 know So it's a balancing act because me and Johnny, 00:05:38.839 --> 00:05:41.459 we've been part -time sellers when we first started. 00:05:41.540 --> 00:05:44.379 We have a lot of part -time sellers in the Patreon 00:05:44.379 --> 00:05:47.220 and in the YouTube membership. So it's a balancing 00:05:47.220 --> 00:05:51.040 act for us. I do think you got to get a little 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:54.100 bit smarter as a reseller. I was talking about 00:05:54.100 --> 00:05:57.079 this the other day. I recorded a video. And it's 00:05:57.079 --> 00:05:58.939 not like it used to be. You got to have a little 00:05:58.939 --> 00:06:02.199 bit of a business sense, kind of business, you 00:06:02.199 --> 00:06:04.279 know. All right, well, let me really look at 00:06:04.279 --> 00:06:06.379 my numbers. The days of just listing something 00:06:06.379 --> 00:06:09.740 and forgetting about it and getting paid on eBay, 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:13.420 Amazon. Those days are gone. You got to pay to 00:06:13.420 --> 00:06:15.259 play. Like Johnny said, you got to be willing 00:06:15.259 --> 00:06:18.920 to. I mean, any other business model, right? 00:06:18.980 --> 00:06:22.319 If me and Johnny launch a brand or have a product. 00:06:22.730 --> 00:06:25.329 They pay for advertising. Advertising is a huge 00:06:25.329 --> 00:06:29.170 part of every company's business model. Like 00:06:29.170 --> 00:06:32.189 their P &L, there's a huge line that's advertising. 00:06:32.389 --> 00:06:34.910 And it's usually a lot of dollars in there right 00:06:34.910 --> 00:06:37.610 next to employee expenses. That's kind of what 00:06:37.610 --> 00:06:40.329 we're talking about here is you advertising your 00:06:40.329 --> 00:06:43.350 products. And I know, I mean, promoted listings, 00:06:43.470 --> 00:06:45.470 like people hated them before they did this. 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:48.360 And I'm with Johnny here. You got to promote. 00:06:48.500 --> 00:06:50.579 If you want to if you want to win an eBay land, 00:06:50.779 --> 00:06:54.019 it is hard to unless you have really, really 00:06:54.019 --> 00:06:56.480 desirable items like we talk about. You're selling 00:06:56.480 --> 00:06:59.579 the iPhones. You're selling the gold coins. You're 00:06:59.579 --> 00:07:02.860 selling the super desirable clothing. Then you 00:07:02.860 --> 00:07:04.779 can get away with it. But that's like a percent 00:07:04.779 --> 00:07:07.240 of a percent of resellers. The rest of us, we're 00:07:07.240 --> 00:07:09.040 just trying to make a buck. And if we've got 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:11.920 to spend a dollar to make a dollar, even then, 00:07:11.980 --> 00:07:14.029 if you really think about it. You know, you spend 00:07:14.029 --> 00:07:16.269 a dollar, you double your dollar. That's great 00:07:16.269 --> 00:07:18.250 in the world of business. But resellers were 00:07:18.250 --> 00:07:20.649 so damn greedy. We're like every dollar we got 00:07:20.649 --> 00:07:23.089 to make $50 on. That's really not attainable 00:07:23.089 --> 00:07:25.829 and realistic anymore. What's up, Amazon sellers? 00:07:25.990 --> 00:07:28.110 We wanted to take a second to talk about GoToLister, 00:07:28.189 --> 00:07:30.689 the software me and Johnny both use to list and 00:07:30.689 --> 00:07:32.949 manage our inventory and grow our businesses. 00:07:33.310 --> 00:07:35.629 With the fastest listing speeds out there and 00:07:35.629 --> 00:07:38.250 built -in profit analytics, it's a no -brainer. 00:07:38.649 --> 00:07:41.189 Easily and quickly have items available for sale 00:07:41.189 --> 00:07:44.110 using 2D barcodes and get more for your items 00:07:44.110 --> 00:07:46.689 with its built -in smart pricing. Make sure to 00:07:46.689 --> 00:07:49.009 check out the 30 -day free trial at gotolister 00:07:49.009 --> 00:07:51.930 .com backslash Mike or using the link in the 00:07:51.930 --> 00:07:55.389 description below. Not at all. I mean, even if 00:07:55.389 --> 00:07:58.189 you were to march on eBay's lawn, the guy's going 00:07:58.189 --> 00:08:00.209 to look down from his corner office from the 00:08:00.209 --> 00:08:03.930 30th floor, be like, raise it from cent a day 00:08:03.930 --> 00:08:07.490 until the lawn is cleared. That's what's going 00:08:07.490 --> 00:08:11.629 to happen. And then getting desirable items, 00:08:11.850 --> 00:08:15.269 how many of those can you get? What's the quantity 00:08:15.269 --> 00:08:17.329 like? Can you get an unlimited supply? If you 00:08:17.329 --> 00:08:18.550 can get an unlimited supply, you're in great 00:08:18.550 --> 00:08:20.269 shape. You don't need to promote at all. But 00:08:20.269 --> 00:08:23.850 if you can only get like 20 a month, and what 00:08:23.850 --> 00:08:25.129 do you do for the rest of the month? I mean, 00:08:25.189 --> 00:08:27.529 unless those are like yachts you're selling, 00:08:27.610 --> 00:08:33.070 good luck. Yeah, it's going to be an interesting 00:08:33.070 --> 00:08:36.570 landscape. I think you're right. Over the years, 00:08:36.629 --> 00:08:38.210 the margins are just going to get slimmer and 00:08:38.210 --> 00:08:41.070 slimmer, and it's how you play the game. And 00:08:41.070 --> 00:08:44.509 how we play the game is going to be debatable. 00:08:44.629 --> 00:08:45.909 I mean, we have all these different business 00:08:45.909 --> 00:08:48.669 models out there. Some people like OA. Some people 00:08:48.669 --> 00:08:52.230 like RA. Some people like just to do the thrift 00:08:52.230 --> 00:08:55.149 and flip kind of deal. And then some people want 00:08:55.149 --> 00:09:00.730 to have strategic consignment and other things. 00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:04.600 The purpose of the eBay dollars, the Amazon dollars, 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:08.159 is to put your money into something that produces 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:11.360 money that's sustainable. Whether that's investing, 00:09:11.580 --> 00:09:13.480 whether that's opening up your own business, 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:15.259 whatever that own business could be. It could 00:09:15.259 --> 00:09:17.720 be lawn care. It could be a clothing shop. It 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:20.779 could be, I don't know, Mike's Surf and Turf 00:09:20.779 --> 00:09:25.100 Snacks. I don't know. Something. It's to repurpose 00:09:25.100 --> 00:09:27.159 the dollar because there's going to come a point 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:30.190 where you're like, Do I want to do eBay anymore? 00:09:30.289 --> 00:09:33.090 Do I want to do Amazon either more? Whether that's 00:09:33.090 --> 00:09:35.629 a change on the platform or that's just, you've 00:09:35.629 --> 00:09:39.490 been doing it for 30, 40 years. Maybe you don't 00:09:39.490 --> 00:09:42.549 want to do it for 30 or 40 years. No, it's all 00:09:42.549 --> 00:09:46.690 a balancing act. And Amazon raised their fees, 00:09:46.929 --> 00:09:50.129 25 cents, 50 cents, storage fees, long -term 00:09:50.129 --> 00:09:52.429 storage fees going up. I think we're going to 00:09:52.429 --> 00:09:55.289 continue to see a trend up. And I think to myself, 00:09:55.529 --> 00:09:58.730 what am I going to do to combat it? You just 00:09:58.730 --> 00:10:00.850 got to, you either got to do it or you don't 00:10:00.850 --> 00:10:04.330 got to do it, right? The big people win. When 00:10:04.330 --> 00:10:07.690 fees go up, the big people that have the sell 00:10:07.690 --> 00:10:10.629 -through and the tens of thousands of items listed, 00:10:10.850 --> 00:10:13.870 they don't care. They're happy. They are happy. 00:10:14.029 --> 00:10:16.149 This happens all the time. When there's a huge 00:10:16.149 --> 00:10:17.950 hiccup in Amazon land, people in the Discord 00:10:17.950 --> 00:10:19.840 will be like, hey. Well, people are going to 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:21.840 quit. That's more money for us because it's less 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:24.399 competition. That's how these huge companies 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:27.519 see it. And can you blame them? No. Can you blame 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:29.919 eBay for raising it? No. Can you blame Amazon 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:32.419 for raising it? No. At the end of the day, they 00:10:32.419 --> 00:10:34.700 have to make as much money as they possibly can. 00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:37.559 But you as a reseller can also still make a lot 00:10:37.559 --> 00:10:39.950 of money. You just got to be you can't just be 00:10:39.950 --> 00:10:43.870 the generic. I'm just going to go to my one thrift 00:10:43.870 --> 00:10:46.409 store and try to flip stuff that's never going 00:10:46.409 --> 00:10:48.909 to sell on eBay or Amazon reseller anymore like 00:10:48.909 --> 00:10:51.230 that. Those people are already out of business. 00:10:51.529 --> 00:10:54.529 And the problem with the difference between eBay 00:10:54.529 --> 00:10:57.549 and Amazon is eBay. You can list your stuff and 00:10:57.549 --> 00:10:59.549 let it sit in your house. You don't get punished 00:10:59.549 --> 00:11:01.830 for it. Amazon punishes for it. So they like, 00:11:01.970 --> 00:11:04.409 hey, you're going to quit or we're going to make 00:11:04.409 --> 00:11:05.950 you quit because we're just going to feed you 00:11:05.950 --> 00:11:08.679 to death. at the end of the month ebay you know 00:11:08.679 --> 00:11:10.480 they still you still have your monthly store 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:13.480 fee but it's not as high i think i think a lot 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:15.919 of ebay sellers are more on the part -time side 00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:18.659 and they feel like they're being kind of kicked 00:11:18.659 --> 00:11:21.159 and i don't blame them for feeling that way but 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:22.860 you also have to look at it as a business and 00:11:22.860 --> 00:11:24.580 resellers don't see themselves as businesses 00:11:24.580 --> 00:11:26.879 so they just think everything's like a personal 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:29.169 attack when that In actuality, it's just a business 00:11:29.169 --> 00:11:32.230 making more money to to to keep the lights on. 00:11:32.330 --> 00:11:34.990 And everybody's like, well, the CEO makes 20 00:11:34.990 --> 00:11:38.190 trillion billion dollars and Jeff Bezos has 15 00:11:38.190 --> 00:11:40.549 yachts. And I'm like, who cares? Like he doesn't 00:11:40.549 --> 00:11:42.529 get a vote on what you do in your business. Like 00:11:42.529 --> 00:11:45.269 you get you get to decide what type of resell 00:11:45.269 --> 00:11:47.289 you want to be, what category you want to sell 00:11:47.289 --> 00:11:49.169 and what you want your margins to be. And you 00:11:49.169 --> 00:11:50.809 can be the person who sells one item a year. 00:11:51.240 --> 00:11:53.559 As long as you make whatever money you need to 00:11:53.559 --> 00:11:55.100 make for the year to cover all your expenses, 00:11:55.419 --> 00:11:57.700 so be it, right? You don't have to be the person 00:11:57.700 --> 00:12:00.750 like me and Johnny were like. I got to send tens 00:12:00.750 --> 00:12:02.889 of thousands and list tens of thousands of books, 00:12:02.909 --> 00:12:06.750 CDs, DVDs every year. This grind is not for the 00:12:06.750 --> 00:12:09.730 weak. All right. And, you know, I know I kind 00:12:09.730 --> 00:12:12.370 of spin it up on YouTube and it seems nice and 00:12:12.370 --> 00:12:14.909 easy. And I just go to the sales and I find stacks 00:12:14.909 --> 00:12:17.830 of Criterion Collection and all these really 00:12:17.830 --> 00:12:22.509 expensive books. And that is that is like a blip 00:12:22.509 --> 00:12:24.950 in the radar for me. Like it's a one percent 00:12:24.950 --> 00:12:28.350 chance of me walking into a store and being able 00:12:28.350 --> 00:12:31.960 to buy. 100 plus items in a single store or a 00:12:31.960 --> 00:12:34.720 single library sale or a record store that's 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:38.399 like a one percent shot everything else is me 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:42.779 just grinding between 10 and 50 items every single 00:12:42.779 --> 00:12:47.179 store it is not glorious and i can see why resellers 00:12:47.179 --> 00:12:49.340 move away there is no way right i say it all 00:12:49.340 --> 00:12:52.820 the time there's no way i would do ebay unless 00:12:52.820 --> 00:12:55.379 it was something really, a really desirable category 00:12:55.379 --> 00:12:58.000 with a high sell through. My whole focus has 00:12:58.000 --> 00:12:59.600 been sell through. And I think even when the 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:02.679 fees go up, if your sell through is up, you don't 00:13:02.679 --> 00:13:04.759 care, right? If the bank account's going up, 00:13:04.799 --> 00:13:07.000 the fees are just like, yeah, whatever, you know, 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:09.679 I'm kicking ass over here. But it's the people 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:12.659 that are like stagnant or haven't seen no growth. 00:13:12.659 --> 00:13:15.360 They're like, oh man, I'm just getting squeezed 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:17.519 a little bit more. But then I challenge you like. 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:20.080 Are you really getting squeezed more because 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:23.019 you don't sell shit to begin with? What's an 00:13:23.019 --> 00:13:27.360 extra 5 % on the 30 bucks you sell a month, right? 00:13:27.480 --> 00:13:30.639 Let's take a real look at the business, right? 00:13:30.759 --> 00:13:34.039 Is it really going to kill you that bad? I don't 00:13:34.039 --> 00:13:36.100 think so. But people like being dramatic in the 00:13:36.100 --> 00:13:39.940 reselling space. Yeah, you have to change. You 00:13:39.940 --> 00:13:42.299 have to pivot. You have to adjust. If your business 00:13:42.299 --> 00:13:45.850 is... I don't know, flatline, unless it's flatline 00:13:45.850 --> 00:13:48.350 in a good way. But then again, inflation is going 00:13:48.350 --> 00:13:50.409 to get you over the course of years. So you have 00:13:50.409 --> 00:13:53.090 to change at some point. You can't just stay 00:13:53.090 --> 00:14:00.730 that way. And I don't know. The best time to 00:14:00.730 --> 00:14:04.389 do eBay or start eBay and start Amazon is today 00:14:04.389 --> 00:14:06.669 because it's only going to get more difficult 00:14:06.669 --> 00:14:11.610 tomorrow. It's an ever -growing thing. I mean, 00:14:11.649 --> 00:14:14.610 the heydays of eBay, the heydays of Amazon, the 00:14:14.610 --> 00:14:17.889 golden years where there were zero to little 00:14:17.889 --> 00:14:21.750 fees. Those are long, long gone. We're in today's 00:14:21.750 --> 00:14:25.159 eBay and today's Amazon. Yeah, there's new platforms 00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:27.320 that pop up, but the problem with those new platforms 00:14:27.320 --> 00:14:30.379 is they are small in comparison. A lot of the 00:14:30.379 --> 00:14:32.899 traffic has already been captured by these two 00:14:32.899 --> 00:14:35.879 people, and honestly, Amazon's the bigger of 00:14:35.879 --> 00:14:37.899 the two. So if you've got to pick one, it's going 00:14:37.899 --> 00:14:40.200 to be Amazon, or it should be Amazon anyway, 00:14:40.340 --> 00:14:43.200 because eBay is hard in comparison to Amazon. 00:14:44.139 --> 00:14:47.159 I'd say unless you're wanting to become a master 00:14:47.159 --> 00:14:49.659 of your niche, then you should lean toward Amazon. 00:14:49.720 --> 00:14:51.659 If you want to become a master of your niche, 00:14:51.779 --> 00:14:53.480 eBay is a good place to do that in because you've 00:14:53.480 --> 00:15:00.820 got to learn a lot more. And, yeah, I don't know 00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:02.820 where we're going to be at 10 years from now. 00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:04.860 If there's going to be a new kid on the block, 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:09.500 maybe it's like eBay 2 .0 or Amazon 2 .0. Because 00:15:09.500 --> 00:15:13.850 all these companies, even before... I mean, look 00:15:13.850 --> 00:15:17.149 at Kmart. They went out of business. What was 00:15:17.149 --> 00:15:21.509 it? Circuit City or stuff like that. Tried and 00:15:21.509 --> 00:15:24.970 true household names have come and gone. And 00:15:24.970 --> 00:15:27.889 it may be eBay's turn one year to be gone. It 00:15:27.889 --> 00:15:31.009 may be Amazon's turn to be gone one year. We 00:15:31.009 --> 00:15:33.889 just don't know. But until that day happens, 00:15:34.049 --> 00:15:35.590 you've got to play with eBay and you've got to 00:15:35.590 --> 00:15:40.629 play with Amazon. I'm curious. What percent of 00:15:40.629 --> 00:15:44.309 your sales? Would they have to take for you to 00:15:44.309 --> 00:15:53.870 stop selling books, CDs, DVDs? 30%. 30 % more 00:15:53.870 --> 00:15:56.289 than they do today. Okay. So you're saying like 00:15:56.289 --> 00:15:59.590 in Amazon land, they're taking like 70%. Yeah. 00:15:59.830 --> 00:16:02.289 Once I get to that point, it's like, I got so 00:16:02.289 --> 00:16:05.549 much categories. It's like, I'm not selling new 00:16:05.549 --> 00:16:09.009 products here. We're 30 % margins. Okay. Yeah, 00:16:09.009 --> 00:16:13.450 I agree. I think 70 % on Amazon would have me 00:16:13.450 --> 00:16:16.409 just pivot to more desirable items with a faster 00:16:16.409 --> 00:16:18.330 sell -through so you can turn your money, right? 00:16:18.450 --> 00:16:20.710 Because that's all it comes down to. You can't 00:16:20.710 --> 00:16:22.750 live on your 30 % margin when you're barely selling 00:16:22.750 --> 00:16:25.720 anything every single month. Just requires too 00:16:25.720 --> 00:16:27.919 much work. Unless your 80s and the 70s are higher, 00:16:28.059 --> 00:16:29.899 it's not worth it. Which is not going to happen 00:16:29.899 --> 00:16:32.840 in this lifetime in our category. Yeah, it's 00:16:32.840 --> 00:16:37.120 hard because I like to have the mindset and kind 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:40.120 of, you know, cheer on the little sellers, the 00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:42.559 little guys and girls out there reselling. But 00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:45.399 I do see it, you know, it's another squeeze on 00:16:45.399 --> 00:16:47.980 them. But like Johnny said, we don't really talk 00:16:47.980 --> 00:16:50.220 about finances and we try not to be financial 00:16:50.220 --> 00:16:53.200 advisors. But like, you got to start thinking. 00:16:53.820 --> 00:16:56.519 What what's the long term player? I'm not talking 00:16:56.519 --> 00:16:59.379 next year. Like, are you investing? Are you going 00:16:59.379 --> 00:17:02.039 to retire one day? Are you are you putting money 00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:04.299 aside for another endeavor or something you really 00:17:04.299 --> 00:17:06.319 enjoy doing that's going to make you more money? 00:17:06.539 --> 00:17:09.220 I think we have to start thinking about these 00:17:09.220 --> 00:17:11.059 things. And even if it's a little bit of money, 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:13.220 start putting money aside for yourself. We are 00:17:13.220 --> 00:17:15.579 resellers. We have the craziest, stupidest margins 00:17:15.579 --> 00:17:18.339 on some of the stuff we find. So we should be 00:17:18.339 --> 00:17:21.480 able to put money aside and, you know, live. 00:17:21.869 --> 00:17:25.390 below our means one day when they do decide to 00:17:25.390 --> 00:17:28.710 raise their fees to 70 % and we make no money, 00:17:28.809 --> 00:17:30.990 right? I think another thing, dude, I've been 00:17:30.990 --> 00:17:32.950 seeing more bookstores pop up around me over 00:17:32.950 --> 00:17:35.069 the past two years. I think maybe it gets to 00:17:35.069 --> 00:17:37.890 a point now where, I mean, this isn't going to 00:17:37.890 --> 00:17:40.150 cause it, but I do think, you know, in the future, 00:17:40.230 --> 00:17:44.519 maybe the circle of life. you know, turns around 00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:47.160 here and people go back to retail establishments 00:17:47.160 --> 00:17:49.740 because it's going to be cheaper to have a brick 00:17:49.740 --> 00:17:52.240 and mortar than to sell online. Because, I mean, 00:17:52.259 --> 00:17:54.700 think about the fees I'm going to pay Amazon 00:17:54.700 --> 00:17:57.039 this year alone, just as me, just as the little 00:17:57.039 --> 00:18:00.539 used book guy. I won't, I probably won't hit 00:18:00.539 --> 00:18:02.880 200K unless I have a really good November and 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:06.059 December. So we'll say I do 190 for the year. 00:18:06.740 --> 00:18:11.099 Amazon is taking probably close to 100K of that. 00:18:11.789 --> 00:18:18.869 Like, I paid Amazon $100 ,000 just to sell on 00:18:18.869 --> 00:18:23.730 their platform. Dude, I mean. I mean, you got 00:18:23.730 --> 00:18:26.890 two years of rent money right there, Mike. I 00:18:26.890 --> 00:18:29.799 don't. I mean, the idea that we're going to cry 00:18:29.799 --> 00:18:33.680 about a percent increase on promoted listings. 00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:37.039 Meanwhile, I'm shelling Amazon out eight grand 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:40.579 a month. My Amazon store fee, like your eBay 00:18:40.579 --> 00:18:42.660 store, you got the starter store. I'm paying 00:18:42.660 --> 00:18:47.720 eight G's a month. All right. I have the highest 00:18:47.720 --> 00:18:52.460 souped up eBay store possible at $8 ,000 a month. 00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:54.960 And do I lose sleep about it overnight, Johnny? 00:18:55.019 --> 00:18:57.859 The answer is no. It is the cost of doing business 00:18:57.859 --> 00:19:01.380 and the cost of sending my stuff and never having 00:19:01.380 --> 00:19:03.940 to worry about it, never packing an order, answering 00:19:03.940 --> 00:19:07.079 a customer question. Is it crazy when we sit 00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:09.400 here and talk about it in that perspective? Like, 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:11.720 sure, it seems nuts. But then you think to yourself. 00:19:12.589 --> 00:19:14.829 Who else is going to buy this shit that we sell? 00:19:14.930 --> 00:19:16.809 And who else is going to do the majority of the 00:19:16.809 --> 00:19:19.029 work so we can kind of just throw it in a box 00:19:19.029 --> 00:19:21.789 and forget about it? To me, it's worth it because 00:19:21.789 --> 00:19:24.509 all the costs are factored in, right? When we 00:19:24.509 --> 00:19:27.269 scan an item with the software, we see it's going 00:19:27.269 --> 00:19:29.349 to be X amount in fees. We can still expect to 00:19:29.349 --> 00:19:31.589 make X amount of dollars. Sure, it's not always 00:19:31.589 --> 00:19:34.130 right by any stretch of the imagination, but... 00:19:34.619 --> 00:19:36.500 If you can factor these things in, I think you 00:19:36.500 --> 00:19:38.220 can even do this on eBay. If you know you're 00:19:38.220 --> 00:19:40.599 going to have to promote a 10%, well, when you 00:19:40.599 --> 00:19:42.420 look at the sold comps and you're outsourcing, 00:19:42.519 --> 00:19:44.059 right, you don't have the fancy software that 00:19:44.059 --> 00:19:45.880 Amazon does. You can still think to yourself, 00:19:46.119 --> 00:19:48.039 all right, what's a tenth of this? Because I 00:19:48.039 --> 00:19:49.940 can cut that off the price right then and there 00:19:49.940 --> 00:19:51.900 in addition to the fees. They got the eBay fee 00:19:51.900 --> 00:19:53.680 calculator. People just don't want to do it. 00:19:54.460 --> 00:20:00.160 No, it's hard. People don't like hard. But no, 00:20:00.279 --> 00:20:06.039 it's an interesting concept. We grew up where 00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:08.859 the weekends were taken up by errands to go out 00:20:08.859 --> 00:20:13.039 and buy things, right? Before pre -Amazon days. 00:20:13.460 --> 00:20:16.220 The mall used to be a thing, like an every week 00:20:16.220 --> 00:20:19.039 occurrence kind of deal. Or the little strip 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:21.960 mall that had the bajillion shops in there. Those 00:20:21.960 --> 00:20:24.960 days are kind of guys. We'd rather just sit home 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:27.819 and order it online. But I think people are kind 00:20:27.819 --> 00:20:30.160 of starting to creep out of that and they miss 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:32.839 going out because they don't see, well, people. 00:20:33.789 --> 00:20:38.410 we we we kind of need interaction there was a 00:20:38.410 --> 00:20:41.670 study it was a bad study but they they had like 00:20:41.670 --> 00:20:45.140 a set of 10 babies or two batches of them And 00:20:45.140 --> 00:20:47.859 they just had one come in and do the basic needs, 00:20:48.099 --> 00:20:50.279 like feed them and change them. And that's it. 00:20:50.339 --> 00:20:53.599 And they had another set of babies where they 00:20:53.599 --> 00:20:56.079 would actually like rock them and sing to them 00:20:56.079 --> 00:20:58.039 and give a little bit more interaction. Guess 00:20:58.039 --> 00:21:01.099 what happened to the 10 babies who got basic 00:21:01.099 --> 00:21:03.980 needs done? They all died. They became eBay sellers. 00:21:04.700 --> 00:21:08.400 They all just died. Or a majority of them died. 00:21:08.460 --> 00:21:11.569 But I think. humans need the interaction thing 00:21:11.569 --> 00:21:14.430 or else it's it's you're you built your own little 00:21:14.430 --> 00:21:18.009 personal prison more or less with your computer 00:21:18.009 --> 00:21:21.630 now you got all the luxuries you're living the 00:21:21.630 --> 00:21:24.410 lime life you got tv you got all the streaming 00:21:24.410 --> 00:21:27.490 services you got this that and the other but 00:21:28.400 --> 00:21:30.779 even if you're an extremely introverted person 00:21:30.779 --> 00:21:33.779 i think you need interaction here and there and 00:21:33.779 --> 00:21:36.140 that's what going out causes with these brick 00:21:36.140 --> 00:21:39.259 and mortar stores these retail stores or going 00:21:39.259 --> 00:21:41.740 out to eat instead of getting the doordash stuff 00:21:41.740 --> 00:21:45.599 um so it's going to be an interesting swing do 00:21:45.599 --> 00:21:49.359 we go back to what was or do we continue as is 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:54.039 i don't know it's tough man i think these next 00:21:54.039 --> 00:21:59.420 one to three years with reselling and ai i mean 00:21:59.420 --> 00:22:01.440 they're just going to be massive swings one way 00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:03.819 or the other and you just got to think to yourself 00:22:03.819 --> 00:22:07.160 you know well what what do i want to be you know 00:22:07.160 --> 00:22:09.960 if you for some reason the part -timers usually 00:22:09.960 --> 00:22:12.319 like to cry the loudest on both ebay and amazon 00:22:12.319 --> 00:22:15.359 i think myself well it's part -time right like 00:22:15.359 --> 00:22:18.019 you and when it comes to you getting a full vote 00:22:18.019 --> 00:22:19.680 you don't get a full vote because you don't do 00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:23.839 this full time and i It's it's tough, man, because 00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:26.140 it's like you said, it's just a cash grab. But 00:22:26.140 --> 00:22:28.440 every fee increase is just a cash grab. And, 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:31.759 you know, I seen people were freaking out at 00:22:31.759 --> 00:22:34.119 this point. Amazon laid off like twenty thousand 00:22:34.119 --> 00:22:36.539 people. They're replacing them with robots, you 00:22:36.539 --> 00:22:39.019 know. And at the end of the day, like it sucks 00:22:39.019 --> 00:22:40.720 for those twenty thousand people. But for the 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:43.539 business, they're like, hey. We can save X amount 00:22:43.539 --> 00:22:45.759 of dollars on payroll. We just have to do the 00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:47.359 upfront. The same thing happened when I was at 00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:49.619 CVS, dude. They said, we're going to put self 00:22:49.619 --> 00:22:51.319 -checkout in the store. So this was like right 00:22:51.319 --> 00:22:54.259 before I quit, right? I didn't have a store that 00:22:54.259 --> 00:22:56.440 had self -checkout. I literally quit CVS before 00:22:56.440 --> 00:22:58.539 they rolled them out. But they said, here you 00:22:58.539 --> 00:23:00.480 go. We're going to roll out self -checkout. Some 00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:02.000 of the stores were getting them. Every store 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:04.119 that got a self -checkout machine, Johnny, lost 00:23:04.119 --> 00:23:07.819 80 hours of payroll instantly. So they said, 00:23:07.940 --> 00:23:09.359 all right, we're just going to put this machine 00:23:09.359 --> 00:23:11.819 in, take away from payroll to cover the upfront 00:23:11.819 --> 00:23:14.380 expense of this. It's the same thing with these 00:23:14.380 --> 00:23:17.259 huge mega corporations that do this shit. You 00:23:17.259 --> 00:23:20.099 think Amazon cares about the 15 ,000, 20 ,000 00:23:20.099 --> 00:23:23.240 people? It sucks. But thankfully, we live in 00:23:23.240 --> 00:23:25.119 a country where you can just go find another 00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:28.400 job. Or you can start your own business. You 00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:30.319 can start doing anything you want today. That's 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:32.039 the beautiful thing about this country. But the 00:23:32.039 --> 00:23:34.759 only problem is it's going to be hard work. I 00:23:34.759 --> 00:23:37.359 know. We're scared of hard work. Me in particular. 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:39.359 I don't want to work very hard for my money. 00:23:39.559 --> 00:23:42.480 That's why I pay Amazon $8 ,000 a month. So I 00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:44.299 don't have to work very hard for my money. I 00:23:44.299 --> 00:23:46.819 just throw a sticker on it and get it out the 00:23:46.819 --> 00:23:49.750 door. That's literally all I do. I still got 00:23:49.750 --> 00:23:51.650 to work hard and go to all the damn thrift stores, 00:23:51.809 --> 00:23:55.130 the 150 thrift stores and the flea markets and 00:23:55.130 --> 00:23:58.630 the library sales and every damn thing else every 00:23:58.630 --> 00:24:02.609 single month to make ends meet. It pays much 00:24:02.609 --> 00:24:05.390 more than any retail job that I could have in 00:24:05.390 --> 00:24:08.190 middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania. But if I had 00:24:08.190 --> 00:24:11.009 this income and I lived in California, dude, 00:24:11.089 --> 00:24:12.730 I'm barely keeping the lights on with how much 00:24:12.730 --> 00:24:14.769 I'm making on Amazon. So like you've got to pick 00:24:14.769 --> 00:24:16.869 and choose your battles. And I wish everybody. 00:24:17.390 --> 00:24:19.670 Go where the money is, right? Like go make the 00:24:19.670 --> 00:24:21.609 most amount of money. If it's not Amazon and 00:24:21.609 --> 00:24:24.589 you can go sell hot dogs on the corner and make 00:24:24.589 --> 00:24:27.069 more money than Amazon, then guess what? Amazon 00:24:27.069 --> 00:24:29.430 needs to go away. Like you need to focus on your 00:24:29.430 --> 00:24:32.809 finances. I know I sound greedy, like I'm a Mr. 00:24:33.089 --> 00:24:34.809 Krabs, you know, like just give me all the money. 00:24:34.869 --> 00:24:36.670 But at the end of the day, it makes a lot of 00:24:36.670 --> 00:24:39.670 headaches go away and you can sleep easier at 00:24:39.670 --> 00:24:41.309 night when you have a bank account full of a 00:24:41.309 --> 00:24:46.599 whole bunch of cash. Yeah. So depending on how 00:24:46.599 --> 00:24:49.059 angry I am on the occasions I have to call into 00:24:49.059 --> 00:24:52.000 eBay, they had this line at the beginning. You've 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:54.480 been at eBay for blah, blah, blah years. Thank 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:56.000 you. I'm like, what are you thanking me for? 00:24:56.099 --> 00:24:58.920 Tell me exactly. I want the list. Give me the 00:24:58.920 --> 00:25:03.440 list of what you're thanking me for. And their 00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:06.279 brain just dies. Yeah, we'll get on with what 00:25:06.279 --> 00:25:11.200 I'm calling in about them anyway. Yeah, it's 00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:14.799 it's interesting. Now, if. I think corporate's 00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:17.339 going to have to change. It's like, okay, we're 00:25:17.339 --> 00:25:20.539 raising the fee, but we're going to have an all 00:25:20.539 --> 00:25:22.839 -American customer service team. There ain't 00:25:22.839 --> 00:25:26.619 no shot, dude. No, no, no. If they do stuff like 00:25:26.619 --> 00:25:29.920 that, or you know what? Instead of cosmetic things, 00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:32.599 we've heard you out with all these seminars where 00:25:32.599 --> 00:25:34.579 you've given us information. We're finally going 00:25:34.579 --> 00:25:36.900 to do something about it. Finally. We're going 00:25:36.900 --> 00:25:38.940 to take your information and we're going to produce 00:25:38.940 --> 00:25:40.779 it, but it's going to cost money. So we're going 00:25:40.779 --> 00:25:42.220 to raise the fees, but you're going to get what 00:25:42.220 --> 00:25:44.710 you want. Your wish list of stuff that you've 00:25:44.710 --> 00:25:46.490 wanted, that you told us that you want, we're 00:25:46.490 --> 00:25:48.970 going to implement with your money. You're going 00:25:48.970 --> 00:25:50.589 to provide us the money to get the things that 00:25:50.589 --> 00:25:52.410 you want. It's going to be great. Everybody's 00:25:52.410 --> 00:25:54.309 going to win. But you know what? They don't do 00:25:54.309 --> 00:25:57.390 that because they don't have to. How about instead 00:25:57.390 --> 00:25:59.930 of promoted listings, people just put their money 00:25:59.930 --> 00:26:05.019 into eBay stock? Sure. I mean, right. You benefit 00:26:05.019 --> 00:26:07.539 from the fee increase. The stock goes up, hopefully. 00:26:07.700 --> 00:26:10.559 Right. It is funny, though, because I also think 00:26:10.559 --> 00:26:12.220 about this. If it went the other way, Johnny, 00:26:12.339 --> 00:26:16.359 and they said, hey, no more fees. Right. And 00:26:16.359 --> 00:26:19.119 then people, resellers would complain that. oh, 00:26:19.119 --> 00:26:21.880 my God, everybody's selling on eBay now because 00:26:21.880 --> 00:26:25.019 the fees are so low. Like, I truly believe you 00:26:25.019 --> 00:26:28.200 cannot appease, like, 90 % of the resale population, 00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:31.220 whether you change one thing one way or you change 00:26:31.220 --> 00:26:34.460 it the other way. Like, outrage just has to exist 00:26:34.460 --> 00:26:36.900 in today's world. Like, the fees are going down. 00:26:36.940 --> 00:26:39.819 Can you believe it? Now all my neighbors are 00:26:39.819 --> 00:26:41.500 going to be selling on eBay, and I'm going to 00:26:41.500 --> 00:26:43.720 make less money. Like, people will still be pissed 00:26:43.720 --> 00:26:46.650 off. I don't know if you remember, you probably 00:26:46.650 --> 00:26:51.130 do, because we're of similar age. Remember before 00:26:51.130 --> 00:26:54.170 Blockbuster went belly up, they had those commercials 00:26:54.170 --> 00:26:57.099 where like... We're getting rid of the late rental 00:26:57.099 --> 00:27:00.359 fees. And you had people in the streets swarming. 00:27:00.920 --> 00:27:04.900 It was like a party. There's pinatas. There's 00:27:04.900 --> 00:27:06.900 thousands and thousands of people ripping their 00:27:06.900 --> 00:27:09.880 clothes off in celebration. Because this was 00:27:09.880 --> 00:27:12.039 a thing that people always complained about. 00:27:12.359 --> 00:27:15.039 And they finally gave in, kind of. I mean, they 00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:17.059 just extended it. It was like 30 days instead 00:27:17.059 --> 00:27:21.640 of two days, which is dumb. It was a good time. 00:27:21.740 --> 00:27:24.099 I mean, everybody was happy about that, but then 00:27:24.099 --> 00:27:25.740 they went bankrupt because of streaming services. 00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:28.980 True, right? So that's what happened, right? 00:27:29.160 --> 00:27:31.740 Everybody complained. Everybody complains that 00:27:31.740 --> 00:27:34.759 competition is up because eBay and Amazon reduced 00:27:34.759 --> 00:27:38.220 fees. And then the business goes bankrupt and 00:27:38.220 --> 00:27:40.170 they're like... I told you you should have raised 00:27:40.170 --> 00:27:44.250 fees. They didn't listen to me. Everybody's always 00:27:44.250 --> 00:27:46.549 going to be like siding on the side of outrage 00:27:46.549 --> 00:27:49.150 and like, yeah, I know I was right. Like, and 00:27:49.150 --> 00:27:51.450 I just kind of looking from an objective standpoint, 00:27:51.569 --> 00:27:53.430 it's just, it's another day in business. And 00:27:53.430 --> 00:27:55.869 if you think everything in your life isn't going 00:27:55.869 --> 00:27:58.309 to go up in price over the next year, like you're 00:27:58.309 --> 00:28:00.369 crazy, right? Everywhere you look, things are 00:28:00.369 --> 00:28:03.289 super expensive. And, you know, if you can't, 00:28:03.289 --> 00:28:05.410 if you can't stand the heat and get out of the 00:28:05.410 --> 00:28:08.460 kitchen and as a business owner. You got to be 00:28:08.460 --> 00:28:10.400 focused on your bottom line. Where's your money 00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:12.539 going? Where is it coming from? How much is coming 00:28:12.539 --> 00:28:15.809 in? How much is going out? I know as a reseller, 00:28:15.809 --> 00:28:18.630 you didn't sign up to have an MBA in business, 00:28:18.710 --> 00:28:21.029 but we're talking basic business math here, P 00:28:21.029 --> 00:28:25.430 &L. This is the very, very basic of being a business 00:28:25.430 --> 00:28:29.750 owner in 2025. A lot of you can just drop your 00:28:29.750 --> 00:28:32.369 numbers into your little AI friends and say, 00:28:32.450 --> 00:28:34.890 hey, what does this mean for me? You don't even 00:28:34.890 --> 00:28:36.710 got to have a real person to talk to. You don't 00:28:36.710 --> 00:28:38.730 even got to understand anything. The AI can do 00:28:38.730 --> 00:28:41.660 it for you. And I'm kind of glad, dude. I've 00:28:41.660 --> 00:28:44.380 always been a math nerd. So the fees going up 00:28:44.380 --> 00:28:45.960 and people freaking out and people quitting, 00:28:46.099 --> 00:28:50.299 you know, it's less competition for me. I understand 00:28:50.299 --> 00:28:52.359 business math. I understand what it takes to 00:28:52.359 --> 00:28:54.980 run a business. I don't show the full, you know, 00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:57.640 grind that I do in the business, but I understand 00:28:57.640 --> 00:29:00.730 it's hard work. But I've worked crappier, shittier 00:29:00.730 --> 00:29:03.190 jobs by far. I mean, it's not even close. I made 00:29:03.190 --> 00:29:05.450 a I made a whole lot less money doing a whole 00:29:05.450 --> 00:29:07.450 lot more work. So if you think eBay fees are 00:29:07.450 --> 00:29:10.890 bad or Amazon fees are bad, go try getting a 00:29:10.890 --> 00:29:13.950 job at one of these warehouses. Go go throw boxes 00:29:13.950 --> 00:29:16.450 all day. Right. Like you ain't going to last. 00:29:16.630 --> 00:29:18.109 You're not going to last a single day. You're 00:29:18.109 --> 00:29:19.769 going to take your lunch early and you're not 00:29:19.769 --> 00:29:23.750 coming back. Like that's it for you. Yeah, I 00:29:23.750 --> 00:29:29.000 mean. We get used or we adjust to the ever -increasing 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:31.220 prices. I mean, just look at gas and milk, right? 00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:35.480 Or eggs. My coffee went up triple this year. 00:29:35.680 --> 00:29:37.480 You know what? I'm still buying my damn coffee. 00:29:37.559 --> 00:29:40.720 I love my coffee. But, like, if you look back 00:29:40.720 --> 00:29:43.720 in the 90s, how much could $20 get you? You could 00:29:43.720 --> 00:29:47.079 buy, like, 30 tacos at Taco Bell. Or if you got 00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:48.920 dropped at the mall, you could see a movie, buy 00:29:48.920 --> 00:29:52.640 a sweater, go down to Suncoast, pick up a $5... 00:29:53.210 --> 00:29:56.789 No, not even a $5, like a dollar movie. And it 00:29:56.789 --> 00:29:58.930 was a good movie. We're not talking dollar bin 00:29:58.930 --> 00:30:01.029 stuff, a legitimate good movie or something. 00:30:03.049 --> 00:30:05.650 Our money doesn't go as far as it used to. And 00:30:05.650 --> 00:30:07.809 if you're getting in the same amount of income 00:30:07.809 --> 00:30:10.289 every year, but you could do less with it every 00:30:10.289 --> 00:30:13.049 year because of just inflation, you're losing. 00:30:16.569 --> 00:30:19.930 We can either settle for less and do less with 00:30:19.930 --> 00:30:21.890 our money, or we can figure out a way to make 00:30:21.890 --> 00:30:24.210 our money grow. And that's our job as business 00:30:24.210 --> 00:30:26.670 owners. How do we make our money grow? Do we 00:30:26.670 --> 00:30:28.670 double down on what we're doing, or do we pivot 00:30:28.670 --> 00:30:32.930 or adjust to something else? And it's okay to 00:30:32.930 --> 00:30:34.650 double down what you're doing. I mean, I'm sure 00:30:34.650 --> 00:30:36.750 Glenn makes some amount of money selling his 00:30:36.750 --> 00:30:41.710 $3 .99 videos at Amazon land, somehow, quarters. 00:30:41.990 --> 00:30:44.579 I don't know what he makes, but yeah. It's all 00:30:44.579 --> 00:30:46.559 doable. You just got to pick the business model 00:30:46.559 --> 00:30:49.559 that is the easiest for you right now and adjust 00:30:49.559 --> 00:30:52.980 along the road as time goes on. I'm going to 00:30:52.980 --> 00:30:55.119 wrap this episode up with this, right? I tell 00:30:55.119 --> 00:30:57.019 you all to suck it up. And every night I call 00:30:57.019 --> 00:31:00.059 Johnny on my Al phone, right? And I cry to Johnny 00:31:00.059 --> 00:31:02.779 until I fall asleep. I'm like, Johnny, the fees 00:31:02.779 --> 00:31:05.740 are going up. How am I going to feed Al? What 00:31:05.740 --> 00:31:07.700 am I going to do? And Johnny's like, well, Mike, 00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:09.779 this is the end of time for you. And I'm like, 00:31:09.839 --> 00:31:12.359 but I don't want it to be. At the end of the 00:31:12.359 --> 00:31:14.960 day, you got to have a business, right? I mean, 00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:17.140 look how much they made. they made so much money 00:31:17.140 --> 00:31:19.640 off alpha loan, right? Like how many alpha telephones 00:31:19.640 --> 00:31:21.980 did they sell? Right. And they factored in the 00:31:21.980 --> 00:31:24.640 cost and they knew when it was time to stop producing 00:31:24.640 --> 00:31:28.680 alpha telephones when the bottom line didn't 00:31:28.680 --> 00:31:31.099 make sense no more. And I know it's a hard pill 00:31:31.099 --> 00:31:33.059 to swallow, but that doesn't mean you're a failure, 00:31:33.140 --> 00:31:35.599 right? If you do decide to move on from reselling, 00:31:35.680 --> 00:31:37.119 it doesn't mean you're a failure. You just go 00:31:37.119 --> 00:31:38.700 start another business. We're all entrepreneurs 00:31:38.700 --> 00:31:40.500 at the end of the day. I think entrepreneurship 00:31:40.500 --> 00:31:43.119 is the best way to make money in America. I think 00:31:43.119 --> 00:31:45.680 it's the best way to get ahead financially. Yeah, 00:31:45.720 --> 00:31:47.519 as always, we appreciate you watching and YouTube 00:31:47.519 --> 00:31:50.480 listening. And just get a little bit tighter 00:31:50.480 --> 00:31:53.099 around the belt and factor these calls when you're 00:31:53.099 --> 00:31:54.819 outsourcing your items. And then it's like nothing 00:31:54.819 --> 00:31:56.460 ever changed. So we'll talk to you all in next 00:31:56.460 --> 00:31:58.799 week's episode. Thanks for listening to another 00:31:58.799 --> 00:32:01.700 episode of the Reseller's Mindset Podcast. Today's 00:32:01.700 --> 00:32:04.119 full episode and all previous episodes are available 00:32:04.119 --> 00:32:06.640 to all YouTube members, along with the weekly 00:32:06.640 --> 00:32:09.380 Zoom call and private Discord. Head on over to 00:32:09.380 --> 00:32:12.160 youtube .com backslash to use book guy and consider 00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:14.220 joining for as little as $2 .99 a month.