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 the Reseller's Mindset
Podcast. Mike is not sitting next to Johnny today
due to budget cuts, right? Times are tough here
in Amazon land. The buy box isn't working properly.
Johnny's having internet issues. So we got Max
on. We had him on a couple of weeks ago. You
guys liked the episode we recorded with him.
He does a lot of consignment type business in
the Amazon land. So I figured it'd be a good
episode to talk about. Exactly what's going on
with the buy box. Exactly our thought processes.
He does a lot more than me and Johnny and a lot
of other people in the group combined with his
consignment business on Amazon. But we do sell
the same types of things, the books, the CDs,
the DVDs. So, Max, welcome aboard. You can just
jump into whatever you want to jump in. You're
basically the king here, and I'm just going to
tag along for the ride. Okay, well, I have a
very interesting opinion. I haven't talked too
much about the buy box, and I've skirted away
from discussion about it. But the three best
things that have happened to my book business
goes as follows. Number one, I started consignment.
Number two, the first buy box issue. Number three,
the second buy box issue. Definitively, they
were changing to my business and they've had
extreme positive effects on my business in the
end. And it's not just because the sales went
down. It's how you treat how it goes down and
how you manage with it. So give a little bit
of insight on. Like your your monthly sales and
like your consignment business again for those
that didn't watch the last episode. Yeah. So
last month I did about eighty three thousand
dollars in revenue. And when we last talked,
I think I was at sixty something thousand. So
it's a it's a minor improvement, but it's continuing
to grow. And I do fairly strong and I currently
host a consignment program. So if you're gated
in media or you don't even want to do Amazon
and play the game or spend the time getting the
buy box, I offer consignment. If you use Scoutly
or you're able to objectively find valuable books,
you can send it my way or diss or media. Media
is definitely a big focus and send it my way
and I'll be able to consign it for you. I'll
get it shipped out the next day and I'll be able
to send you a consignment report every week.
Do you think, see, I think the problem when things
like this happen, Max, is like, I think the smaller
sellers like get hit harder, right? There's somebody
like me or you, right? I'm doing, you know, just
under 20K a month. You got me 4X, but like. I
think it's tougher for the smaller part -time
seller because maybe they need the $200, $300
a month so they can continue to grow their business.
So when something like this happens, I think
it hits them harder. But I think it's what you
said, right? You see it and there's nothing we
can do to control it. There's nothing we can
do to change the current mess that exists on
Amazon. So you only have two options, right?
You either continue on. where you quit. But the
problem is, I think a lot of people fall into
that middle ground where they're like, I'm not
going to do nothing while this is happening.
I'm just going to kind of exist. And like me
and you, you were outsourcing today. I've been
to a library sale this past week. Like we're
still sourcing. We're still sending every single
week and it's just business as usual. But I think
for the smaller person, I think it hits home
a little bit harder. I think, I think one of
the biggest issues is with part -time people,
they're limited in one way. They're limited in
time, most likely. or the ability to do more
work. And a lot of times, it's hard to subscribe
to a mindset of improvement during a hard time
when you only have so much time to think about
it and you don't see all the nuances of it. And
I can tell you that every time that a buy box
issue came down for me, I benefited immensely,
mostly because I changed my mindset and I learned
a lot of things during the buy box issues. If
you just simply reframe that mindset that you
have that everything is going away and instead
frame it as an idea that you can improve your
business so it's even more survivable even in
the worst times. Because if you're surviving
in the worst of times, then you'll be thriving
in the best of times. I thought about this too,
right? Because my sales are down probably between
20 % and 30 % on a given day. I do sell lots
of new CDs and DVDs. So it doesn't affect the
new items. It's only affecting the used items
currently, right? So I thought about if my sales
existed the way they were, would I keep doing
this, right? And I think for sure I would, because
at the end of the day, even if my sales are down
20 or 30 percent, there's really no work. There's
really no type of backbreaking work that goes
into this business. We just scan stuff, slap
a sticker on it, throw it in a box and wash our
hands of it. So I feel like I would have to probably
be down 50 percent for three to six months. And
then I would probably pivot. Like, what would
be your time for, like, give me your numbers.
I kind of just threw that out there. Okay, well,
right now I'm probably down maybe 33 % from where
I was. And the thing about it is a majority of
people, they continue growing and growing. And
the biggest issue is they lay down the track
work, but they don't really firm it down. So
they build all the new processes, but they don't
tighten it. And they don't make their business
more efficient and more functional. And as a
result of that, I think what you need to do in
order to survive, because I'd even continue on
where I'm at right now because I'm still profitable.
Yeah. And this is really the best opportunity
to figure out where you need to tighten your
processes. Where can you become more efficient?
Where can you cut costs? And how do you operate
better? And I can tell you. I'm basically doing
between five and 10 K and profit a month, right?
Like just by myself. So like, I don't work full
-time hours. I'm not out here 40, 50 hours a
week, maybe 20, 25 hours on a busy week. Right.
So like, even if I'm pulling in that type of
money and I'm still working 25 hours a week,
I'm still making way more than if I was working
my shitty job at CVS. Oh yeah. 100%. And with,
with this focus on, on improvement, I can tell
you that in the first time around, I, tightened
up my trigger set, and I tightened up everything
that I'd taken, the amount of risk that I take.
And in the second roundabout, I was cutting costs.
And I cut probably over $5 ,000 of unnecessary
spending in the time of the buy box alone, all
of which is sustainable for the future. So these
times, of course, they're going to be rough,
but there's tons of tons of room for improvement
in your business, whether you like it or not,
unless you've been doing this for... 10 or 15
years, your business is not perfect by any means.
And this is the perfect opportunity because if
you're reducing your sourcing, well, what else
are you going to spend with that time? Nothing?
Or are you going to spend time improving that
business so it's even more profitable and those
profits carry over even when the times get better?
I'm just going to watch Unsolved Mysteries all
day, dude. Forget sourcing. I'm just going to
become the biggest bum out there. That's a way
to go about it. It's not the worst way to go
about it. Getting your mind off of the whole
buy box issue is a way out. There's two ways
to go about it. Three ways, actually. You go
and quit, which, you know, if you're watching
this right now, it's probably not your avenue
that you're looking to go down. You can either
focus on something else, so that'd be diversifying
your business. As in Amazon or anything else,
you can start another business in the meantime,
or... you can focus on this business and see
how you can improve it better. And I chose that
third option, and Mike's choosing the second
option. How long do you think this lasts? We're
on, what, day 11, I think somebody said in the
Discord? Yeah, I think it started on the 4th.
Do you think this is permanent, I guess, is the
first question. Do you think this is permanent?
If the API updated on Scoutly to show it, then
sure. But that's not the case. And we've seen
precedent without any proof of... change it's
the buy box has happened and had issues for two
times already and it's come back one was i think
12 days and one was 21 days ish and there's no
precedent and there's no i mean this is the precedent
that's been made and there's no variance from
that pattern that we've seen yeah we've seen
people go out and say this is permanent but we
didn't see that last time and the time before
that as well so What's up, Amazon tellers? We
wanted to take a second to talk about GoToLister,
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.com backslash Mike or using the link in the
description below. To diagnose that issue and
saying that this is going to be different from
the other two times is very difficult to claim
unless you have really substantial evidence showing
otherwise. And it doesn't exist because I've
seen evidence that's 100 % the opposite. Even
if you go on Seller Central and you can pull
the featured offer and it says you're the featured
offer, then you go to the product page and you're
not. So what Max is saying here, we can go and
scan, right? We can still source. We scan the
book. And it's still pulling the data as if it
were or as if as if it was before. So they're
saying, hey, FBA, you're going to use buy boxes
going to the FBA offer at 1799. So you can still
sell this. But when you go to the actual product
page for this book, it's going to the merchant
for two dollars plus four dollars shipping. So
I'm 100 percent on board that, you know, I'm
not I don't want to be the person to just be
like, hey, you know, like deal with it. But.
All the analytical data, like you said, we've
experienced this twice before and we're still
getting the same. And it's literally just it's
just happened again. The question is, how long
does it last? Right. Like how long longer do
you think I'm putting this podcast out tonight?
So as we were recording this right now, this
will be going out two hours. Yeah. So, OK, so
I'm going to put you on the spot. My bet 100
percent is going to be before Black Friday. I
can't really it's going to my assumption is sometime
in the next week or the week after. is my assumption
uh i'm hopeful of course but that's really how
it goes and does it really even matter at this
point that's the very important question to ask
and for all the people who sit in the despair
of it's going to be permanent would you rather
believe the precedent of what's happened two
times before or a facebook post facebook post
dude 100 and if you're following the facebook
post why haven't you quit already You know, that
Facebook post looks very credible. If you're,
if you solely believe that Facebook posts, you
would not be in this industry right now. You
would have packed up, you would have left and
you wouldn't even be in this field. See, it's,
it's different. We have two different perspectives
on the ideas of like how people interpret things
because everybody just heard how much money you're
doing a month, the relationships, how quickly
you built this business. And I see a lot, I get
a lot of. dms from people saying hey like mike
what's going on like i've even got referenced
that facebook post reference forum post and it
just i just try to tell people like don't believe
you might as well like yell out your window and
just hope somebody gives you an answer and i
do think the problem that we have and me and
johnny have talked about this endlessly like
you're going to find the answer you're looking
for right as sooner or later if you keep looking
you're going to find the person that's going
to tell you yes this is permanent you better
go get a job at McDonald's today, right? Or you're
going to find somebody like Max who's like, all
right, well, what are we doing during this downtime
to make our processes better, to prepare for
when this does return that we can be making more
money. And that's why we keep sending stuff because
guess what? When this does flip back on, if it
ever does, right, we already have all the inventory
sitting there. So our sales, we're going to know
within an hour of this thing kicking back on
that it's back on just because the sheer amount
of volume of inventory we have been sending.
I think the best advice that you can take in
a situation like this where there's hard times
is just simply to stay positive. If you subscribe
to the negativity, then that's going to manifest
itself, and guess what? You'll be out of here.
There's a lot worse of situations you can be
in, 100%. I mean, just imagine the fact that
there's arbitrage people in, let's say, video
games where they're relying on the buy box, and
they're either overleveraged, there's credit
card debts that need to be due next month. And
there are hundreds of thousands of dollars or
tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Or there's
people who simply have an entire business that's
collapsing at this point in time just because
of the operation. This business model, as a result
of that, is a lot better off. And the thought
that it could be a lot worse is something that
takes up a lot of space in my mind. And I think
that's something very important that you need
to focus on because in reality, it could be worse.
Our sales could be down 60%. They could be down
70%. They could be down 95%. And we wouldn't
be able to control anything, but we're not there
yet. We're not there yet, or we won't be there.
And we have the optimism of saying, well, guess
what? We're not hundreds of thousands of dollars
in debt, and we're not relying credit card to
credit card payment to survive. And as a result
of that, we have a lot more wiggle room, and
we have the benefit of being able to send more
in, even... In a time like this where it's hard.
And you know the pipeline continues through.
And money is still paying out like normal. And
last time what happened is. That slowed down
right when the buy box fixed itself. I think
it was a little bit worse. The time before that.
But we still have money coming through. And we
can completely bankroll the business. Because
we make such a great return on investment. On
these inventory. And it's like. And the very
important thing to think about. Is let's say
you didn't have Amazon. you're still able to
liquidate the books if they're inherently valuable
yeah that 40 book on crystals you'll still be
able to sell on ebay for example for 25 or 30
so it's not like you're losing your investment
hell you'll make a profit on a lot of these books
yeah even regardless of amazon or not so in the
end you're not really losing much by having a
dip in sales for the time being i think i think
one thing that you kind of hinted on there is
like people will they'll just be like well Amazon's
not doing it. So I'm going to start up my eBay
store again. And I just like, I, I just want
to grab them and shake them, dude. I just want
to be like, no, don't do that. Right? Like if
we can't float 11 days of down 30 % sales, like
what are we doing in our business? Honest, let's
be real here. We're paying a dollar or less for
this shit that we're selling. Like if we can't
stay afloat and have no money in the bank for
two weeks. If you're literally living paycheck
to paycheck with your Amazon money, you have
a bigger financial problem in your life than
worrying about Amazon. You need to have a full
-time job and grow an Amazon business so where
you don't have to be in that situation. If you're
like, hey, I need this Amazon money every two
weeks or I'm out on the streets, I'm going to
tell you, go get a job because you shouldn't
be, oh, this is all I got. If I don't get my
$2 ,000 from Amazon this month, I'm belly up.
That's no type of way and we never recommend.
Going into debt for this business or just betting
it all on black or red and just hoping that you
just stay afloat and you continue to go dollar
to dollar and dollar to dollar. A very important
thing that you have to see is this is hard times
in any business, especially this one included,
is really just the definer of who's actually
staying and who's going. There's a lot of turnover
in the reselling community. And this is definitely
seen in issues like this. Your sales go down
30%. Guess what? 30 % of sellers are going out.
And as a result of that, there's going to be
the benefit of less competition. And I know that
it's very common to see there's a lot of idiots
in the Amazon scene where they don't know how
to properly reprice or properly manage. And they
end up with a sales price of $9, $10. Not unless,
of course, if their model is bulk, that's different.
But they go through and they buy with the intention
of this. And then they go and lose all their
profits through stupid reasons. And it's those
people who are really going to feel crushed.
Really, if you're in that avenue, you need to
either get out or figure out how to correct your
path that you're on. It's a lot easier to quit,
dude. Listen, we can't have everybody quit because
then nobody's going to give me their $2 .99.
Then I'm going to be bankrupt because I have
no YouTube members. I do love the idea of diversifying
your income. I made a YouTube video talking about
that. I don't diversify my business models, but
I do like having a diversified income stream
where I have money coming in from other things.
I seen a post on Facebook. I think it was earlier
today or maybe it wasn't today. Maybe it was
yesterday. And somebody posted they were quitting
because of this. And dude, there was like 20
replies. Everybody's like, yeah, me too. I'm
quitting too. And I think to myself, just with
Max things like anybody can do this. So like
these people probably only sent 10 books, 20,
30 books their whole life. Like, honestly, they
never were going to treat it like a real business
anyway. And I don't I don't want to sit here
and just kind of downplay everything like. It
is shitty that Amazon doesn't say when they're
doing this, why they're doing it. They kind of
just leave us in the dark. But none of these
platforms care about us. So it's just another
thing where you have to prepare and have some
money set aside for a rainy day fund. Oh, yeah,
100%. And in that context, you need to keep a
contingency plan at all times. Of course, I'm
talking about a business where we've had good
sales for 12 months out of the year. some businesses
get away with maybe two good months of sales
and that's that's the huge advantage of this
business model and as a result of that having
three months off let's say worst case scenario
that's not terrible in the context of any business
really no and that's the risk that any business
brings but if there is permanent risk yep there's
there should always be a contingency plan in
your business if anything goes awry yeah now
It's important to diversify, but that's, of course,
into some things that are even passive, such
as investing and other avenues that might be
easier to do. Of course, you can focus on other
business models and diversify, but you still
lose out on specialization and you lose out on
a lot of the returns because a majority of the
returns is made in the final two hours of work
that you do. So the additional two hours of work
that you do that you wouldn't have done in any
other work. Starting two hours in, let's say,
online arbitrage or any other venture would cut
out the most profitable two hours of your work
as a book cherry picker. And that's the thing
about it. I think people missed the one huge
thing because they didn't sell on Amazon when
it happened. Restock limits, right? So you used
to only be able to have 1 ,000 units from September
to February or March. That's it, right? So like
I have roughly like 4 ,500, 5 ,000. You probably
got what, like 20 ,000? 30 ,000. 30 ,000. So
from September to February, we were not able
to send one single item, right? Now that shit
there, that is the stuff where you got to be
like, okay, I got to front load everything. Like
Max was saying, we get everything sent in. And
then for those months, we can't do nothing about
it. That was way worse than what this is. We
can still make sales. We can still do shipments.
We can still source new inventory, send it in.
I think people that are thinking that this is
the end of the world really haven't experienced
what it's like to not be able to send a single
thing for six months, which used to be a reality
in Amazon two years ago. So maybe I'm kind of
jaded in the fact that I've been back in those
times where I couldn't send stuff for five months.
And now I'm just like. hey, at least I can still
send my box every single week, right? Or I could
still send my box every two weeks, whatever that
is. I think a lot of people really, really haven't
experienced that. And a lot of new people just
feel like, well, I think people look, I think
people always want it to be easier than it actually
is, right? Like they see me and you, maybe they
watch the videos, they listen to some podcasts
and it sounds so easy. But at the end of the
day, you are outsourcing all day, working with
some of your co -signees. I'm doing a lot of
shit behind the scenes, you know, prepping. 500
units a week by myself. There is work that goes
into it. I think it does kind of get spun up
to be one of these get rich quick things. And
it's the furthest thing from passive income that
can exist on planet earth. 100%. And I think
the biggest source of complaint from this whole
buy box issue is people who've never properly
run a business before or managed any sort of
operation, because this is a very important,
this can either be interpreted as the end of
your business and you're not meant for business,
or you take it as a lesson because. In any business,
there's going to be downtimes, and there's going
to be these big things that are uncontrollable,
and whether you like it or not, something is
going to be out of whack in your business, and
for the time being, it's Amazon's fault. Is it
going to be permanent? Probably not. If it is,
have a contingency plan, and the biggest source
of backlash is just the people who don't know
how to properly cope and manage with it. What
do you... So what's your timeframe? Are you on
board with me three to six months? Then we can
start thinking about pivoting out of this if
it stays the same. Yeah, of course. I have, of
course, what I would do is I would downscale
some operation, reduce some overhead, and then
get to a point where it's relatively cheap for
me to run the operation. That would probably
be about three months in, but I'd still keep
the operation running. That's the interesting
difference about it because a lot of people will
just leave and they'll do whatever, but I can.
I'm going to keep the operation running because
there's still money to be made. And although
it's not passive, and yes, it's a lot of work,
there is value delivered and fulfilled by Amazon.
Don't tell me otherwise because people want to
get their books in two days, whether they like
it or not. That's one of the biggest enticements,
and that's still there. Just the fact that we
don't have the same playing ground as a merchant
-fulfilled offer wouldn't make much of a difference
because, in fact, that would make buyers more
aware over time to click towards the bot prime
offer if it is that desirable. I wouldn't completely
stop selling media. I would focus more on new
media. I would still buy used ones. The idea
you said in the beginning, tighten up the belt
a little bit, make some changes in the business
model, focus on higher sell -through items in
the media land. I think this just exposes people
that already have shitty businesses. Yeah, and
something very important is it's going to squeeze
those people out. And better yet, There's other
individuals who might be even fraudulent, even.
They might post fake numbers. They'll refuse
to post their last seven, but they'll have one
screenshot that they rely on. And guess what?
Those are the people that are going to be hurt
the most in the end because they rely on the
weak people. And guess what? This entire business
model is being weeded out. It's weeding out the
weak people as a result of the uncontrollable.
And that's what pushes anyone out of any business,
and especially the people who rely on those weak
people. It sucks because there's a lot of people,
we have a lot of people in the group that get
frustrated with this. And I just try to backtrack
them in and say, hey, you know, we've seen this
happen before. We have the proof that it will
eventually come back. And, uh, I know it's hard
and I know, you know, I don't have a problem.
I always tell everybody to be cheap as possible,
right? Like I'm the cheapest person on plant.
We were talking before I said, I just got a new
PC and like, you're, you were like, mine's a
seven years old. I'm like, yeah, mine, I had
you be mine's older than seven years. So, um,
it's, uh, it's like, you can take a step back
and if we're getting things for a dollar a piece,
I think it's okay to like, you know, if you don't
have the capital. Then just pause for a little
bit. And by pause, I don't mean completely stop.
I still want you to send a box every single week.
You still have to show Amazon you're dedicated
to the game because if you stop sending stuff
and you lose the buy box on your account and
this comes back, then you're really screwed.
Like that is like worst case scenario. And I
think a lot of people, unfortunately, will just
completely turn off the spigot. And then they're
kind of screwed. They're up the creek without
a paddle. And it's like, well, what am I going
to do now? Well, I don't know what you're going
to do now, honestly. You're going to have to
figure it out one way or another. Yeah, it's
really what's in the matter of your control.
And you just decide what you're able to do. And
the thing about it is you can be as expensive
as you want in this business if your entire goal
is to not make money. If your goal is to make
money, then you should always be as cheap as
possible. If you're being as expensive as possible,
that just means you're cutting into your profits
and you're lowering your profit number, and it
defies logic. So therefore, even in any context,
you should be as cheap as possible. And the very
important thing about it is, if you've survived
a famine before, you're going to be very skimpy
on food, even in the best of times. And the same
exact mindset should carry over. So if it's famine
right now, but it's feast a month from now, You
should still carry a famine mindset. You should
always have food set aside, and that's how you
should always approach it, even when something
uncontrollable such as this happens. I'm going
to say this, and people will probably hate me
for it, but I don't care. Max already kind of
harped on it, but I go to these library sales,
and I see these idiots scanning books. And I
think to myself, you know, the margins have gone
down a book so significantly. Like if this pushes
some of those people out the door and then so
be it, right? Like it's a dog eat dog world.
I hope nobody listened to this fails in the Amazon
land, right? Like my whole YouTube channel is
about you being successful. But if you decide
to stop selling on Amazon and you're selling
the same stuff as me, right? If Max goes away,
right? That's 30 ,000 less listings I have to
compete with if he's on like. Does it suck? Am
I, you know, am I sad for Max or sad for whoever
it is that they kind of throw in the tail and
really never see the fruits of selling on Amazon?
100%. But at the same time, I think to myself,
like, that's one less person I have to deal with
competing on some of these listings. And unfortunately,
a lot of people that quit really don't understand
the business. So they usually have the worst
settings when it comes to repricing and they
don't know how to price their items and they're
tanking the listings worse than I do. Yeah, that's
the thing. There's a lot of idiots in the business.
There's a lot of idiots in any business, really.
And this is basically just the ultimate test.
Are they idiot enough to survive, or are they
going to just quit, you know? Of course, like
you just said earlier, it's very easy to quit.
And, I mean, what's stopping you? It's too cheap.
It's too cheap. So these people can drag, like
you can drag an Amazon business out almost forever,
like an eBay business, because it's just books
and CDs and DVDs, right? They're like a dollar
a piece. So it's like, if. People can drag this
thing out for years and years if they really
wanted to. And a lot of people will, and they'll
never be profitable. I'll tell you right now,
I'm never FBMing, right? I'm never listing my
own items. I'm never packing my... There's a
lot easier ways in the world to make money than
selling FBM on Amazon. So don't get any ideas
that Mike's going to start filling his storage
unit up with shelves and packing and listing
orders. That shit ain't ever going to happen.
You might have a different mindset, but even
still, I feel like you got enough other things
in your life that you could generate income from.
Yeah, and that's the importance of having a plan
to be diversified in the case that you need to.
Diversification, of course, it can come in different
ways. You can be literally diversified, spend
20 hours on this job, 20 hours on this other
job. Or you could spread it out as in saying,
I have a plan to be diversified and you have
a lifeboat. Really, that's what diversification
really should just mean. It's just a lifeboat
in the case something were to happen, and it
reduces your overall risk. But you shouldn't
remove that extra profit that you can make that
we talked about earlier. So I need to know, why
do you think Amazon changed the buy box? What's
your conspiracy theory hill that you're going
to stand on? They very easily could be just fixing
and correcting orders. The thing about it is
I've noticed that my payouts per day has gone
up tremendously during the whole buy box thing.
That means that more items are being closed out
and more orders are being closed out and finished.
And as a result of that, that's my hypothesis
and belief that they're just correcting warehouse
operations because they had restock limits, what,
two or three years ago? Yeah. And this could
just... And maybe they decided that this is more
profitable to restock limits. And this would
be the alternative to restock limits. Let's just
slow down the buy box for a minute. Let's just
limit our fulfilled by Amazon operations for
our used division. We aren't going to limit our
new one because new is more profitable for us.
And we put that at second rate and we'll get
our warehouses ahead. And it's more profitable
for us than just completely cutting off and screwing
over our sales in all of January. Yeah, I think
another thing, too, a lot of booksellers and
media sellers like. We're selling used media
like Amazon don't want you don't want all your
shit clogging up their warehouses. Right. We're
just a little speck on the huge map that Amazon
is. I think like, oh, Amazon started with books.
So they really care about books. No, they don't.
They want to sell the most expensive items, new
items, get them out the door. You think they
want their warehouses looking like my fake. you
know background that i have here where there's
just tons and tons because we already said anybody
can do this business so how much shit is sitting
at amazon's warehouse that will never sell in
the in the media category we're talking millions
and millions of items that will never sell and
amazon has to keep them in the corner and charge
their sellers five cents a month 20 cents a month
until they actually can get rid of them and They
can sit there forever. If you don't have your
automated removal settings on, they'll just keep
charging your card till the end of time. You
can store a book on Amazon. Maybe we should do
that as a test. Just like maybe we'll send one
book today, Max, and we'll just price it so ridiculous
and just see how long it can sit there and how
much we pay like 30 years from now. I think there
should be two different mindsets you have because
this is also in the context of fee raises and
software API fee raises. And I think that there
should be two different perspectives based off
of what you said. I think, first off, you can
think of Amazon as greedy scumbags. They're trying
to take as much money as possible. There's validity
to that. But I think there's another way you
should think about it. I think having used dusty
books in their warehouse for them is inherently
undesirable. So as a result of that, to deal
with it, they have to ask more of a higher price
to reduce the idiots who send in no -rank books
and all the books that are bad. So they make
it more expensive, first off, to make them more
money, but to... remove the idiot books and the
idiot booksellers from the scene and as a result
of that only the strong will survive and if you
think of it that way then it makes a lot more
sense than just being scummy because they have
to be doing it for a reason they're running a
business and they're trying to make record stock
prices right now and they wouldn't be able to
do that if they didn't think about it reasonably
and they're just trying to run a business just
like us really Yeah. So what Mac said to all
you media sellers is that you're all the, you
are the reason this is happening because you
sent this undesirable crappy items to their warehouse.
And they're tired of seeing your Nora Roberts
on the shelf that you got listed for 49 99. That's
never going to sell. And it's just taking up
space. They don't want to be in the media game
and I don't blame them, dude. You don't want
to deal with the headaches. You don't want to
deal with the. The nastiness that comes in the
warehouses, the stuff just sits on your shelf.
Like I would love to go to a warehouse and just
see how they store all their books and like what
their process is, because I guarantee you they
regret being so heavy in media nowadays compared
to five years ago. It was probably nothing like
it is now. Now it's just. So many people have
started this business and haven't gotten results,
and their stuff still exists at Amazon's warehouse,
and they don't know what the hell they're doing
because anybody can start an Amazon account today
and send in their first box this week. Like,
I can tell you even in the context of a smaller
Amazon, my own consignment business, I get a
lot of items that I'm not able to sell. And if
I wanted to remove that, I'd either raise my
fees to reduce the amount of people who come
in, or I would just raise the bar in which needs
to be good. And I think Amazon is just doing
basically what I'm saying here. And, well, I
don't do that because I believe everyone should
be able to maximize their dollars. Amazon doesn't
like media as much. Media is a black sheep compared
to the rest of Amazon. There's not a lot of used
categories. Think about it. The only used categories
there are books, discs, as in DVDs, CDs, cassette
tapes. and video games. There's not used toys
anymore, and used is a category that's not really
desirable by them. They make most of their money
on new items, because new items, there's on paper
less returns, and there's less returns sent in,
because if you get a return, if you get a new
item returned, you can't really sell it new again.
So you're only getting the top of the line, and
you're also getting larger companies, because
only larger operations sell new. with the exception
of new dvds or other media and as a result of
that you need more money and you need a stronger
business so as a result of that amazon might
think this whole division is weaker because there's
a lot of weaker people in the business who might
not operate a business as well or might not have
operated a business at all i got a crazy take
and i'm curious if you agree or disagree with
me i think they will get rid of The used media
category before they keep the buy box going to
merchant fulfilled forever. Yep, I fully agree
with you on that. If they, I mean, right now,
I think used is a good punching bag. The used
category inherently is a good punching bag for
Amazon to do whatever they want with. If they
want to get their items in order, let's just
slow down used. Used is basically an extracurricular
to their entire operation at this point. And
right now, if you look at corporate Amazon, they're
trying to go into higher -end stuff. They're
trying to go into – they partnered with Saks
Fifth Avenue. They partnered with higher -end
companies, and they're partnering with AI companies
because they want to sell stuff with a higher
average sales price. And guess what media is
doing? Guess what specifically used media is
doing? They're going down $9, $10, $5. So – they
can use it as a punching bag. And if they get
rid of that, then they're not going to have anything
to slow down. What are they going to do? Slow
down a whole category? They're not doing that.
That would be nonsensical to them. They aren't
just going to slow down their entire car parts
sales division just because they do that, because
that's a whole division of their company. Let's
just give a subject of a whole category. And
this is the only real category which they can
do that with. It's weird to say this, but it's
true. You got me thinking about this. They don't
want to deal with the used stuff, and that's
why the fees go up, and that's why they have
to charge $6, $7 minimum in fees for these used
products, these used books. In some cases, the
fees on a book, depending if it's a hardback,
it's going to be $10. I think they look at their
overall business from the lowest performing shit,
which is a used hardback book that is this thick.
and weighs, you know, three pounds. Well, what
is the worst case scenario if we have to go remove
this or we have to pack this and ship it to a
customer, right? So like, it's almost as if the
use category determines how much they're going
to charge in fees across the board because they
have so much of this junk sitting here and this
is the most lowest value crap that they're selling.
So they need to go based off of a worst case
scenario. If this is all we were selling, then
how can we still sustain our business? Yep. A
mindset used by a lot of executives is to look
at the weakest link and figure out what you can
do from there. And it's the same thing with team
management. If you have a team or a set of employees,
you're going to look at the weakest employee
because in the end, if it's a chain operation,
one, two, three, four, five, six, each employee
does a different thing, then they're only going
to go as fast as the weakest person. And in the
context of media, that's going to be very common
for the fact that media definitely carries not
a lot and they only make money when... They make
more money on the higher -dollar stuff than the
lower -dollar stuff. That's undeniable. And they
make more money per hour with it. Because think
about it. If you sell a $400 book and you get
$350, they made a $25 placement fee, or referral
fee, technically, just because they referred
the item. So that's $25 for basically having
Amazon. Compare that to a DVD that you sell for
$5. They get $0 .15 for having Amazon up. If
I was Jeff Bezos, I'd wipe out the used media
division first. If I had to get rid of a division
and the country was going into a recession and
I needed a strict budget cut, that would be what
would be cut first. Max wants you to consign
with him. All the information is down below.
But if he gets hired at Amazon, we're all screwed
because we're first on the chopping block. I
mean, if you give me something else to cut first,
then I'll take it into consideration. With everything
we know about media, it's the black sheep of
Amazon, really. Yeah, dude. $12 .20 in fees to
sell this book at $18 .60. One book, they have
to charge $12 because it's such a headache for
them to pack, ship, provide the customer service.
And I think another thing with the used category,
why I stand on the idea that they would just
get rid of the used category altogether before
this sticking. is the process they have to do
if a customer returns a used item, right? Because
they have to pay somebody to sit there and say,
is this used good condition or used very good,
like new, whatever you people put in your used
condition notes. They have to pay somebody to
sit there and make a determination if they can
resell this book at the condition that's listed,
right? So in the new category, you can see whether
it's new, right? Like it's going to take you
half a second to determine whether or not the
DVD is still shrink -wrapped or the toy or the
Lego set is still, you know, sealed from the
manufacturer versus the used category, man. I
can't imagine the backlog and you couldn't pay
me any money in the world to sit there for an
eight -hour shift. and process used media returns
and make the decision whether or not they're
still sellable because they have way too many
conditions. They got acceptable, good, very good,
like new, right? Is that all of them, right?
Very good. Yep. Yeah, that would be. Four different
ones. So they have to train somebody to be able
to tell what the difference is. And there's really
not much difference in a condition like categories
on Amazon. Like you could sell a book in good
condition. technically without a dutch jacket
like you could literally sell this in good condition
based on amazon's condition you know criteria
and the thing about it is if you if you take
that perspective and continue it the weakest
link right let's think about the worst case possible
scenario for the grade and resale program let's
say you have an employee and it costs maybe a
hundred dollars of time to train them to get
them to understand all the different conditions
and whatever right on top of that extra hundred
dollars that you have to do towards this use
category Let's say we get a box of returns and
let's say 200 returns and they're all $8 DVDs
Let's say let's say conservatively spend 30 seconds
grading each item right and let's say that that
creates What maybe 50 cents of value for each
of it? That's maybe That's maybe what so that's
120 cut that in half. That's $60 an hour of value
For value that they might not even get because
they're not earning any money off of grading
the returns really They aren't earning any fees.
So $60 for the seller. So they're basically losing
whatever the wage is on top of the $100 that
they spent to train them for really a pointless
operation. And it would be a lot easier if it
was higher dollar and they could regrade and
resell it. Because you know those items that
are all $8, they're going to get liquidated out
anyways. Unless they're really fast moving. And
if it's really high dollar stuff, then the value
would actually be made. Really, it's just lost
value. And they're not making a lot of money
off of regrade for media. And they don't make
a lot of money. It's a lot of volume that's required.
And Amazon's moving in a direction that the exact
opposite where they're trying to reduce their
volume and get higher dollar per. I agree wholeheartedly.
I'm going to give my final thoughts and then
I'm going to let you have your final thoughts
after mine. I think, you know, it's business
as usual for me. I gave you all the runway three
to six months. So I think this is permanent.
No chance. If it turns out to be permanent, we'll
cross that bridge when we get there. But I'm
not I don't make business decisions just on a
flip of a switch, whatever it may be, whatever
the hell is going on. I do think there's still
great opportunity. I still think it's a great
time to start to start on Amazon. I'm not saying
that just to get your two dollars and ninety
nine cents. Right. Like I do genuinely believe
that, you know, there's not many businesses in
the world where you can slap a sticker on something.
throw it in a box and kind of forget about it.
But I do think after this, there will be something
else. And after that, there will be something
else. And all I can do is tell you all to, you
know, have an emergency fund for your business
and be willing to, you know, if the time does
come and we can't sell used books, CDs, DVDs
anymore, you know, think about something else
that's going to make sense. But we're not doing
that any time right now or in the near future.
Max, give your final thoughts on this whole situation.
Okay. my thoughts are this so over time it's
gotten harder to become an amazon seller there's
been more gates there's been more issues and
something that's also very common is if you stop
selling you stop selling entirely all that progress
that you've made let's say you've been a seller
since 2017 all gone so if you want to maintain
the reduced barriers of entry and benefits of
being an older seller you need to continue selling
and if you're a newer seller Now is the best
time to consign if you don't want to go through
that work and the rising gates and issues that
follow. If you want to save time, you can consign
and send out to me or Johnny, and you can reduce
that issue of having to deal with all this stuff,
and you could skip this entire podcast, really.
So if you want to make your business easier,
you can consign with me, or if you're an older
seller, just continue on with usual. Figure out
what's the easiest for you and what gives you
the most value per your time. And the ways that
I just outlined above is definitely, in my opinion,
the best ways. We have to make sure Max doesn't
get hired at Amazon, all right? So, you know,
everybody keep your eye out. You see him driving
around a fulfillment center or Amazon headquarters,
don't let him go in, all right? He's going to
terminate us all. There was an AI picture of
me in the Discord with me and Jeff Bezos. on
a yacht together oh yeah and you know it's it's
already in progress if if you see my name by
the way if you want to look at my consignment
search up my name m -a -x -d -a -m on facebook
you can reach out to me there or in mike's discord
service go to the very bottom max gated items
and i have a whole fax page but if you see my
name on the executive roster and me talking at
a shareholder meeting know that you're next Yeah.
And then I'll bring them on the podcast and a
lie to our face and say, I'm not getting rid
of use the use category. I'm not getting rid
of the use category and I need editorial rights
over this podcast. Yeah. But yeah, all Max's
consignment information, that'll all be down
below. You know, I appreciate him coming on,
spending his time with me. This was short notice.
So it always good to have, you know, see somebody
that's for he's doing over 4X what I'm doing.
Right. Like, so it's not just me being stubborn
and saying, keep doing what you're doing. It's
all the huge players. They keep pushing on, right?
Do you have to be 11 days, right? 11 days is
nothing, dude. That's not even, don't people
take vacations? If you take a two week vacation,
that's longer than 11 days and you haven't done
nothing in the business, right? So like, I think
people are, I think the Amazon media selling
space is absolutely crazy. Everybody wants to
quit yesterday. And I think when things like
this happen, it's just like, all right. I'm out
of here. So as always, we appreciate you listening,
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 full episode and all previous
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