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 usedbookguy to join the channel and
gain access to the full -length podcast, Zoom
call, and private Discord today. Let's get into
this week's episode. What is up, everybody? Welcome
to another episode of Reseller's Mindset Podcast.
Today's episode, I don't know, man. This year
has flown by so quick. It feels so weird to me
that we're going to be talking about the biggest
lessons and takeaways from 2025. This year has
been a whirlwind. So many changes on both selling
platforms of eBay and Amazon. I guess I will
go first. The biggest thing I have from this
year is you can try to expect the unexpected,
but you're never fully going to be prepared.
Amazon has thrown... crazy curveballs this year
time and time again and there's no feasible way
like there was no crystal ball there was no miss
chloe out there that would have predicted uh
what's currently and what has happened previously
three times this year on amazon and that's the
whole buy box issue and i just try to think like
if me and you like we just talked about the craziest
things like at the beginning of the year that
amazon could possibly do like I don't think we
ever would have said that they would favor Merchant
over FBA, even if the FBA prices were cheaper.
Yeah, I mean it's a deviation from everything
since they've started essentially, and it's like
why? And there's a lot of conspiracy theories
out there, and I don't care to dabble in any
of them. It is what it is. This is the new status
quo. It's the new status quo, and pivot and adjust
and go forward. Yeah, and I think the big one
with eBay. creeped in late with their new promoted
listings idea where they're basically going to
get you almost guaranteed. That's a 2026 problem.
We're in 2025. Oh, so that's not really active
yet? They just announced it? Correct. It's not
happening until mid -January. Oh, that's funny.
I guess Amazon and eBay are like, January 15th,
we're going to cook these suckers up. Now, it
is active over in Europe. It started there. And
then everybody's like, is it going to come to
the US? Is it going to come to the US? And well,
guess what? It's coming to the US. It's funny
too, right? Because I've seen something as it
relates to Amazon. It's like the buy box, what
we're dealing with now is how it normally is
in the UK and in Canada currently. So people
think they use those as test markets before they
roll them out to us over here in the US. Well,
that makes perfect sense just because it's a
smaller seller pool. And if they can make it
work there, they can move it to their biggest
selling pool, which is always going to be the
United States, probably forever. So, yeah, the
UK and Australia are great testing markets for
them to see how it's going to translate over
to the US. If it doesn't work, they can change
it over there. But I feel bad for the UK and
Australian sellers because they're always going
to get hit first. Yeah, well, I guess, you know,
like. Maybe we can't. I think I look at it the
other way, too. Like, we can't cry, right? Like,
because, you know, this is their normal, right?
So, like, this is how it's been for them. So,
it's just like, hey, guys, welcome to the party.
Come on in, right? And we're like, no, we don't
want to come in. Leave us outside. We're secretly
wanting us to cry and quit. Like, come on. You
know you want to. I think, you know, that's another
big takeaway from this year is I've seen more
people. come into the game. I've also seen more
people than ever step out of the game, right?
I don't want to say quitting because I don't
think that's a fair term for a lot of the cases.
I think people move on to other things, although
there are a lot of quitters. But the quitters,
the people I consider quitters, Johnny, are people
that like started for like under two months and
say, oh, this ain't working. That's my definition
of quitter. Somebody that like steps away and
moves on to somebody that's like been doing this
for a while and maybe they're not getting the
results they want to do or maybe. They started
focusing on something else and the business kind
of goes by the wayside. It's weird, though, but
I do feel like, you know, the discord we have,
we have more people than we ever have. Right.
But I've also had more people move on to other
things and kind of stop reselling. So it's been
a weird year when it comes to people coming and
going. Yeah, I mean, and there's always going
to be a new batch of new sellers. Right. But
is that batch going to get smaller and smaller
over the years? I don't know. I mean, people
are always going to try to look for extra money.
And reselling seems the lowest gateway of entry,
essentially. So people will try it. Now, whether
they stick through it six months, 12 months,
18 months or not, I think that time frame is
going to shrink. I think that's what we're going
to see more drastically over anything. Another
thing I want to talk about is I won't say I got
lucky. For some reason, greedy Mike decided to
start taking faster moving items with lower dollar
profits. And I think it kind of made me not fully
immune to the big changes that happened on Amazon.
But like I weathered the storm a lot better than
other people because I had a lot of every day.
Deb hates this term and I got to say it. I had
every day bread and butter items, right? Like
bread and butter, dude. And resell them. Like
I can't deal with that. Everyday value items,
Mike. Everyday value. The bread and butter, for
those not watching, I am buttering the bread
that you can't see over on YouTube. But I literally,
I made a mindset change at the beginning of the
year, like I want my shit to sell immediately.
Even if that means I spend a dollar and I only
make $3 or I only make $3 .50, I'm fine with
that as long as it's going to sell within two
weeks of it getting to Amazon. And when these
changes happen on Amazon, my items aren't super
expensive items. They're in demand items. So
I still had sales carry me through. Even this
most recent one that's been going on for six
or seven weeks or however the hell long. I think
that's where our focus needs to be. But I also
feel like I've talked about self. I feel like
we talk about self through so much and people
still can't wrap their head around. It's okay
to three extra money if you're going to do it
in a week, right? Even at a small scale. So you
got to focus on items that have a demand and
are going to sell or items that maybe don't sell
often, but there's not a lot out there. So you're
the only player out there that's actually has
it listed currently for sale. I'll call Johnny
in the middle of doing a task. He did. Also,
it was a window that was zoom. I couldn't close.
Anyway. Yeah, it's the sell through has always
been needed, but. The marginability hasn't been
as pivotal with lower dollar values as it has
in last, I don't know, post -COVID times. We'll
go with that. So after COVID, I think the model
had to shift because the fees increase all around.
I don't care if they're inside or outside the
platform. The fees are increasing. So $10 sold
price isn't the same as it was. pre -COVID or
during COVID and before. So $10 sale price, it's
kind of like a joke on what you can get. Now,
a lot of us sell $10 items. The question is,
should we? I mean, I don't know. I mean, with
the rising in fees, I don't think it's going
to be sustainable. $10 is going to become $12.
That $12 is going to become $15. $15 becomes
$20 over the course of time. Or you can stop
that altogether and just go way higher of where
you need to be and figure out how to build a
model off of that. Maybe you're the $30 plus
sold price item guy. You can build a great business
model for a decade plus with that. Yeah, I think
it leads you down the road of... How many items
do you want to sell? What's your capacity? What
do you want your capacity to be? And what type
of business model do you want to have? How much
is media mail nowadays? I haven't shipped anything
media mail besides the boxes I sent to you. If
I was just going to ship a one -pound book, it's
probably like, what, almost $5 now? Maybe like
$4 .50? That's crazy, dude. I remember it used
to be like... 320 and every every like three
months i i get a news article usps is raising
their prices again like i can't even begin to
imagine how much media mail is now just just
to ship one damn book like it's shifted so much
in the past like more 60 it's almost five bucks
see dude that's crazy i remember it never being
over four dollars even it was like a pound and
a half book like it still wouldn't be over four
bucks i mean i don't even ship media mail anymore
i do grab advantage because it's almost the same
price Depending on the region of the country
is going to. There's this, I mean, I think, you
know, it begs the question, right? Like, are
we getting to a point now where it is, you know,
maybe you kind of hit it like there's always
going to be people looking to make quick money.
Do we turn the corner here where reselling is
really not seen as a way to. uh actively make
quick money or long -term money just because
of the rising costs across the board just for
your average person right it's different for
people that are like really into it but like
your average joe blow that's scrolling through
instagram and sees somebody flipping nike shoes
and it's like oh i want to go do this like i
wonder if that appeal is kind of going to lose
you know it's not going to be seen as much in
2026 i think it's going to transition to this
we always have that relative or that friend like
hey i've had this thing in my closet for 20 years
i know it's valuable Can you sell it for me?
And everybody would squint that's a reseller
and like, yeah, sure, I'll make a couple bucks
off of it. Why not? I think it's going to shift
from that's not worth anything. I can't even
list it for what you think it's worth. It's no
money. That $20 Christmas Barbie from $19 .99
to $20, I'm going to make $1. It's not worth
my time to list your stupid Christmas Barbie.
Sorry, Christmas Barbie fans. Yeah, I think you're
right, and I've actually had that happen to me,
and I've told. I straight up told my family,
Johnny, no way, Jose. It ain't happening. I don't
care what it is. Once upon a time, you could
list stupid Christmas Barbie, make $10, worth
it a little bit. But going back to the point
of lower dollar items, it's just that game is
always a grind because you need to list more
to make more decent money. So gravitating to
the other end of the spectrum, higher dollar
fast -moving items versus low dollar fast -moving
items. That's just more appealing. It makes more
sense mathematically. Do I want to work twice
as hard to make the same amount of money or not?
What's up, Amazon sellers? We wanted to take
a second to talk about GoToLister, the software
me and Johnny both use to list and manage our
inventory and grow our businesses. With the fastest
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Mike or using the link in the description below.
money coming into the bank account, you are not
going to continue to spin your tires for very
long. Unless you have zero obligations financially,
you cannot continue to just keep going and not
see any results. You're going to end results
as in dollars because you could sit here and
say, oh, well, I got more listed. Well, if you're
not selling more, none of that shit matters.
Right. If you go the angle of, well, I'll just
list merchant now. well there's a lot of overhead
you're not you haven't accounted for just yet
my friend um because you're gonna run out of
space really quick it's nice when amazon takes
it all but when it's your own space you're gonna
have to figure that whole thing out which is
fine um there's plenty of people still to do
fba that have a warehouse too but you're probably
gonna if you're gonna do merchant seriously and
make any kind of real money you're gonna need
a very very large space um because there are
there's been tons of merchant sellers even with
it switching to buy box i still think you're
waiting for everything to sell through you're
gonna fill up before you need to figure out how
to turn over your warehouse how do you turn over
your warehouse you need faster moving will sell
items because if you fill up well now you need
a date -based system of when you're just going
to toss the stuff because you've run out of space,
but you need to continue to list, right? Turn
the machine. Merchant's a more complicated game
than people make it out. I'll piggyback off that
and say these people can't make it selling FBA,
and you think you're going to make it selling
merchant? Good luck. I got news for you. You
ain't going to make it. And that kind of gets
me to another thing I want to talk about this
past year that I realized is people that are
still treating it seriously as a business are
still getting crazy good results behind the scenes
and i've said this a lot lately like i got a
lot of people i do one -on -ones with that are
never in the discord are never on the calls and
like i want to drag them out into the light and
like show them off like hey check out this person
look they actually treat it like a business and
they're still getting results i think um And
the reason they're probably getting results is
because they're not screwing around and on the
calls or, you know, in the groups messing around.
They're actually out there getting shit done.
But there's still lots of room for success in
reselling. And, you know, 2025 will be my best
year ever. I work more than I ever have worked,
if that's what we're going to call it. But I
still think there is plenty of room for growth.
It's just a matter of. where do you want to be
what do you want to do right so for me i'll probably
tap out around like 175 for the year on amazon
so like i ask myself do i want to try to grow
this bigger than 175 do i want to keep it there
do i want to scale it back and work on other
things like we have to be asking ourselves these
questions and for me i think i'm just going to
keep it where it is trying to maintain you know
12 to 17k months and focus on some other things
that can make me money stupid other business
ideas that i have and you know things that i
have going in the background that i don't want
to talk about because then everybody's going
to be bugging me hey mike what are you doing
dude can you teach me how to everybody wants
to copy the leader can everybody yeah you can
start selling hot dogs staying courses and shit
like that i just think you know you have to realize
what business you want to be and what what you're
capable of right because i'm kind of maxed out
like i think i've literally sourced my sources
to the limit this past year like There's no room
for me to go to them more. If I do, I'm just
scanning the same inventory. So like with my
hour and 20 minute radius, the used book guy
is capped out at 175. Unless maybe he wants to
deal with more bulk inventory, which I'll tell
you, I talk to this guy all the time. He does
not want to deal with more bulk inventory. He'll
keep his few libraries that he has. But I think
that's a big thing we have to realize is 2025,
we should have figured out who we are, where
we want to be, how we're going to get there,
and what are we going to do when we get there?
Are we going to keep going? Are we going to try
to cut back the time or maybe hire an employee?
Yeah, I mean, for you, you've probably maxed
it out as far as you can. You got a couple of
choices. Maintain as you are. which just sounds
like where you're leaning. You can get an employee
or two and they can help increase your bubble
and or rotation off your current stuff. Or you
do some online stuff, figure out how to make
stuff come to you. But there's no wrong choice
here. It's just a matter of, like you said, what
do you personally want to do with your own business
as you're free to run it as you see fit? Yeah,
I think... the biggest thing with reselling that
drives me nuts is people like always feel like
they got to be growing their business like even
when they're already maxed out they're like I
need a bajillion dollars. I'm like, how miserable
are you, right? Like, sure, there's business
models out there that people enjoy doing and
they enjoy working 80 hours a week. Nothing wrong
with that. But there's a lot of people out there
like, I'm grinding and I'm grinding. I'm beat
up. I'm worn out. I'm like, well, let's make
a change here. I mean, you don't have to always
be trying to like, super max, mega max. I'm going
to be Jeff Bezos Jr. type money, right? Like,
just find out what, I don't know, dude, just
be happy. I'm not going to do this if I'm miserable.
I'm going to be straight up. If I was miserable
coming on the podcast and you were miserable
coming on the podcast, we ain't doing this shit.
And there's a lot of people that do miserable
things and don't get the money they make. At
least you're going to be miserable. You better
be super max in your bank account because I might
as well just go back to CVS and be just as miserable
over there. At least it's steady income. You
get the benefits, right? The health insurance,
all that shit that comes along with it. Who's
reselling to be miserable? I don't understand
the idea of it. I don't either. Yeah, it's kind
of like people who climb mountains, right? One
day they just stop. They've done enough. They
climb whatever checklist they have, whether that's
Everest or, I don't know, something down in Chile.
But everybody's got their own mountain to climb,
and whether they keep wanting to climb mountains,
that's totally on them. I think there's this
drive to always doing better because there's
always another person that makes more money than
you, right? Everybody has this mentality of,
I want to be like Mike, right? I'm talking about
Michael Jordan, not this Mike over here. But
everybody wants to be the best. Everybody wants
to be number one, the big person. But that, I'm
not saying don't pursue that, but decide if you
even want to. That's the biggest thing. Because
everybody can have these lofty dreams in year
one, right? But after year one, you really got
to do a new, intake of what do you really want
to do? Because now you've got an idea, not just
I can do anything. That's the thing in reselling.
When you first start, I could do anything. I
just need enough time, right? And then time goes
by and like, okay, what do you really want to
do? And now that people ask themselves that question,
I don't think. I think the problem is too with
that is like people think the more money you
make, the smarter or better reseller you are.
And it's 100 % false. It's 100 % false. Just
because you quote unquote make more money than
somebody does not mean you are a better, more
intelligent. You do not get more IQ points the
more money you make. I'm afraid to say this.
I've met people. who are more simple than i who
make way more money than me doesn't mean they're
technically iq smarter than me they just run
a more profitable business than me and on the
reverse i've met people that make way less money
than me but are super intelligent they went to
like i don't know mit they're that kind of smart
i'm never going to be that smart but i don't
think they're dumb because they make less money
than me i just think their business isn't as
fine -tuned as mine and i think People, I think
you said it right. I mean, the more money you
make, the smarter you are. That's not true. That
is the most untrue statement there is. Yeah,
but in resale, dude, it's that comparison thing,
right? Like if I make more money than the used
book guy, right, then I'm better. I'm smarter.
I'm everything. I'm going to start my own group
and crush Mike. I mean, good luck with that.
I'm glad for people that make more money, right?
I'm happy. And I used to be the worst, dude.
I'll straight up I used to be the worst at comparisons
when I first started YouTube and like reselling
like I always had to like try to beat other people
out like you see on social media I could care
less I'm happy I hope everybody makes a lot more
money than me I'll cheer you on. I'll be the
biggest cheerleader with my pom poms on the side
of the marathon you're running. And I do think
a lot of resellers struggle with that. And I
think a lot of, you know, we struggle with the
idea that you see somebody else doing more. And
it's so like social media and content creation
and reselling. It just. pushes that narrative
of you got to make trillions and billions of
dollars or you're you don't know nothing right
like how many small youtube channels out there
that resellers have such a wealth of knowledge
that will never ever be big time because they
don't do the clickbait or the you know the flashy
types type of nonsense we see out there some
of the best channels i actively watch are small
channels the big channels i get little from they
they appeal to the mass people thinking about
reselling or maybe want to buy a course to figure
out if they really want to do it or attend a
seminar but they don't have the best info and
i'm sorry if you're one of those doing that but
you don't the smaller channels do they're giving
away the secret sauce the the really granular
information and if you've been doing for this
minute that's what you crave you want the granular
information the stuff nobody's talking about
that they should be talking about Yeah, it's
the same reason why we, you know, we have certain
people on the podcast over the years, right?
Like, you know, we've had tech on, but I mean,
that's the biggest name we're going to get. And
that's just because, you know, the relationship
you have with him, but it's like everybody else,
you know, they're just lurking in the shadows,
kicking ass, taking names. And, you know, they're
some of the most knowledgeable, successful people
reselling on eBay and Amazon. And there's much
bigger, fancier. flashy names out there in the
universe it's hard man 2025 is like this year
has been just wild it's flown by there's been
so many changes there's been it's just been crazy
uh all across the board it's it's i don't know
man i'm gonna make the call i think 2026 is gonna
be worse yeah johnny's going on record already
dooming us all uh i'm doing it before christmas
let me let me get an umbrella out So I can prepare
for 2026. All I can say is no matter what happens,
if your bank account is going up, if it's not
going up, you need to start thinking about how
you're going to make it go up. Put money aside.
So when Johnny's meteor storm comes, I can block
the meteors with my fancy sunshade umbrella.
I don't know. I don't know what 2026 is going
to be. Usually I'm like another term that Deb
hates that I say. Usually I'm bullish one way
or another. It's been so up and down. People
will sit here and tell me, Johnny, that this
year selling on Amazon books, CDs, DVDs is probably
the worst year with the changes they've made
and the worst year for a lot of resellers. And
I said at the beginning of this call, like, it's
my best year on Amazon. So it's like, I can't,
I can sit here and say, hey, this is my best
year. But like, I know for a lot of people, like
they're getting crushed with this new change.
So I don't, I don't know which way it's going.
I know in 2025, like. I think we're going to
get an email toward the end of January with the
new updates coming. And those updates are going
to be bad. You're going to have less margin.
There's going to be some BS thing nobody likes.
Probably has to do with inbound shipping. Again,
this is my crazy conspiracy theory of what's
going to happen. And they'll probably announce
that the merchant changes are permanent. Maybe
I don't even know if they'll announce that, but
they'll just be like, it is what it is. And there'll
be some other horribleness that I can't even
think about because who knows what they're going
to lay down, but it's going to, I'm going to
say it's not going to be great. And you can either
adjust, get out or sell something different.
All right. So I'll wrap it up here. Johnny, just,
you know, sell something different might be on
the plate for a lot of us come 2026, but for
2025, if you had desirable items. it's business
as usual right even with the crazy changes sure
we take a hit but we're always going to take
a hit shipping goes up fees go up like this is
just the cost of doing business you got to get
better at sourcing you got to build better relationships
and i think 2025 made it more evident that having
relationships is how you can level up your business
and continually have quality inventory come to
you and i think that is going to be the play
i do think 2025 smacked everybody outside the
face and made them realize that if you were a
thrift store client your days are numbered maybe
it's a year maybe it's two years but we talked
about how everything's going up the thrift stores
are absolute i can't i mean it's hard now johnny
to find somebody that's like i love going to
thrift stores and my thrift stores are great
like no matter what they sell right it's hard
sure there's pockets out there right for the
person that's writing up the comment right now
it's like my thrift stores are great you are
one out of like a thousand people that enjoy
their thrifting experience and actually find
profitable items because i'll tell you right
now It's not like it used to be. And 2025 made
us realize this. Like, we got to do something
differently if we want to kind of keep this going.
You got anything you want to add after my last
little rant? Sure. And to get off the gym and
gloom wagon, every change is you can overcome.
You can. You just got to figure out how to play
the game differently. It's the people who just
want to, I don't know, get angry and or conspiracy
and cross their fingers and hope for the best
that things will go back to normal. You're not
going to do as well if you just adjust right
now. The best time to adjust is right now. So
get ahead of the curve. Don't wait till the curve
to happen before you smash into it. Because waiting
is, well, not the best sage advice, I would say.
So just make your plans and execute your plans.
What wagon am I getting off of? The Jim and Luma
wagon? I don't know what you're talking about.
You said something at the beginning of that last
rant you just had about getting off the wagon
or getting on some wagon. I don't recall mentioning
the wagon. You already forgot about it, or maybe
I just made it up. Maybe I think I'm living on
the Oregon Trail, and I'm in the wagon about
to cross the river. I hope this goes in the blooper
reel. No, this is going in the real damn podcast,
not the fake one that we record on Mondays, not
Sundays. All right, we'll talk to you all on
next week's episode. Thanks for listening to
another episode of the Reseller's Mindset Podcast.
Today's full episode and all previous episodes
are available to all YouTube members along with
the weekly Zoom call and private Discord. Head
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