1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,580 Welcome back to another episode 2 00:00:01,580 --> 00:00:03,500 of the Resellers Mindset Podcast. 3 00:00:03,500 --> 00:00:06,180 My name is Mike, also known as the used book guy on YouTube, 4 00:00:06,180 --> 00:00:09,500 along with my friend and fellow full-time reseller, Johnny B. 5 00:00:09,500 --> 00:00:11,860 We help people start and grow their reselling businesses 6 00:00:11,860 --> 00:00:12,980 from the ground up. 7 00:00:12,980 --> 00:00:15,420 We also have a weekly Zoom call and private Discord 8 00:00:15,420 --> 00:00:16,860 for all YouTube members. 9 00:00:16,860 --> 00:00:20,020 Head on over to youtube.com backslash used book guy 10 00:00:20,020 --> 00:00:21,700 to join the channel and gain access 11 00:00:21,700 --> 00:00:24,040 to the full length podcast Zoom call 12 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:25,700 and private Discord today. 13 00:00:25,700 --> 00:00:27,500 Let's get into this week's episode. 14 00:00:27,500 --> 00:00:30,460 What is up everybody, welcome in to episode 22, 15 00:00:30,460 --> 00:00:33,140 I believe that's what we said, 10, 10 and two. 16 00:00:33,140 --> 00:00:34,780 We actually have help so we can do it today. 17 00:00:34,780 --> 00:00:37,620 We have Joji on the podcast today. 18 00:00:37,620 --> 00:00:39,340 This is a long awaited call for me. 19 00:00:39,340 --> 00:00:41,900 He sells books, but in a completely different way 20 00:00:41,900 --> 00:00:43,340 than me and Johnny B, right? 21 00:00:43,340 --> 00:00:46,280 I'm the Amazon guy, Johnny B is the eBay guy. 22 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:47,860 Now we got the combo can down here. 23 00:00:47,860 --> 00:00:51,060 Joji does basically, utilizes both platforms 24 00:00:51,060 --> 00:00:53,420 to make his business work. 25 00:00:53,420 --> 00:00:54,780 We're just gonna let him kind of take it away, 26 00:00:54,780 --> 00:00:56,760 introduce himself, kind of a little bit about himself, 27 00:00:56,760 --> 00:00:58,180 a little bit about his business. 28 00:00:58,180 --> 00:00:59,940 And then me and Johnny will pick his brain here 29 00:00:59,940 --> 00:01:02,860 a little bit because this is all brand new to both of us. 30 00:01:02,860 --> 00:01:04,460 Yeah, thanks for having me first. 31 00:01:04,460 --> 00:01:05,500 I appreciate it, Mike, Johnny. 32 00:01:05,500 --> 00:01:07,740 This is a super awesome to be here. 33 00:01:07,740 --> 00:01:09,060 Yeah, so my name is Joji. 34 00:01:09,060 --> 00:01:11,780 I'm a high school chemistry teacher, 28 years old. 35 00:01:11,780 --> 00:01:14,700 And basically I got in the game when I was like 22 years old. 36 00:01:14,700 --> 00:01:17,100 So I saw Steve Rakin on YouTube back when I was 22. 37 00:01:17,100 --> 00:01:18,740 So that's like six years ago now, 38 00:01:18,740 --> 00:01:20,580 I think that would have been 2016. 39 00:01:20,580 --> 00:01:22,820 And man, I was hooked from the beginning. 40 00:01:22,820 --> 00:01:24,500 I think the first thing I flipped was a CD. 41 00:01:24,500 --> 00:01:26,300 I think I bought it for like a dollar out of Goodwill, 42 00:01:26,300 --> 00:01:27,900 flipped it for like 65 bucks. 43 00:01:27,900 --> 00:01:29,460 And I was like, dude, this is crazy, 44 00:01:29,460 --> 00:01:31,300 the power of Amazon FBA. 45 00:01:31,300 --> 00:01:33,300 And a little bit later on, you know, 46 00:01:33,300 --> 00:01:34,900 I was in my senior year of my undergrad year, 47 00:01:34,900 --> 00:01:36,900 I realized that, hey, there's a lot of people 48 00:01:36,900 --> 00:01:38,140 on campus that have textbooks. 49 00:01:38,140 --> 00:01:40,980 And I honestly kind of completely missed the opportunity 50 00:01:40,980 --> 00:01:43,620 during my undergrad because I didn't learn about textbooks. 51 00:01:43,620 --> 00:01:44,980 I didn't really learn about Amazon FBA 52 00:01:44,980 --> 00:01:45,800 till my final year. 53 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:48,420 But point is got my undergraduate degree. 54 00:01:48,420 --> 00:01:49,740 Then I went to get my master's degree 55 00:01:49,740 --> 00:01:51,660 because I was gonna get a teaching credential. 56 00:01:51,660 --> 00:01:52,940 And I realized that, dude, 57 00:01:52,940 --> 00:01:55,140 if you join the Facebook groups on campus, 58 00:01:55,140 --> 00:01:56,820 like the textbook exchange group, 59 00:01:56,820 --> 00:01:57,660 the free and for sell group, 60 00:01:57,660 --> 00:01:59,460 there are people just posting up their textbooks. 61 00:01:59,460 --> 00:02:01,020 And these are not cheap textbooks. 62 00:02:01,020 --> 00:02:03,980 Like these are books, 70, 80, $100 plus. 63 00:02:03,980 --> 00:02:04,980 And like a lot of these people are like, 64 00:02:04,980 --> 00:02:08,180 hey, I want 20 bucks for this book that sells for a hundred. 65 00:02:08,180 --> 00:02:10,820 So literally every single day, man, you know, 66 00:02:10,820 --> 00:02:13,040 at this time I was also doing my internship 67 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:13,880 with teaching as well. 68 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:15,900 So I was also teaching a couple of days during the week, 69 00:02:15,900 --> 00:02:17,500 but every day I was on campus, 70 00:02:17,500 --> 00:02:20,140 I was just filling up bags and bags of textbooks. 71 00:02:20,140 --> 00:02:23,880 And I sold, I mean, probably those two years 72 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:26,500 of my master's at least like 30,000 or so in textbooks. 73 00:02:26,500 --> 00:02:28,380 So I basically cash-sold my college 74 00:02:28,380 --> 00:02:30,460 and I graduated debt-free because of it. 75 00:02:30,460 --> 00:02:34,180 And, you know, got out of college with my teaching degree, 76 00:02:34,180 --> 00:02:36,060 went right into teaching high school chemistry. 77 00:02:36,060 --> 00:02:38,740 And I was like, dude, I still wanna do Amazon. 78 00:02:38,740 --> 00:02:39,820 Yeah, I still wanna do textbooks. 79 00:02:39,820 --> 00:02:40,820 But the problem was like, 80 00:02:40,820 --> 00:02:42,620 I don't really have the time to be on campus. 81 00:02:42,620 --> 00:02:44,140 Like I'm not on a college campus anymore. 82 00:02:44,140 --> 00:02:45,700 So I kind of had a transition. 83 00:02:45,700 --> 00:02:47,860 That's kind of how went down the rabbit hole 84 00:02:47,860 --> 00:02:50,780 of doing like offer up online arbitrage. 85 00:02:50,780 --> 00:02:52,780 And then eventually go into eBay online arbitrage 86 00:02:52,780 --> 00:02:54,780 and then learning about how to buy undervalued books 87 00:02:54,780 --> 00:02:56,220 on Amazon and flip them back on Amazon. 88 00:02:56,220 --> 00:02:58,980 So that's like a probably way too long way to explain 89 00:02:58,980 --> 00:03:00,840 that what I do is I buy books online 90 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:02,180 and then I flip them online. 91 00:03:02,180 --> 00:03:03,000 Yeah. 92 00:03:04,300 --> 00:03:06,060 So I have a question for you. 93 00:03:06,060 --> 00:03:09,620 How heavily or if any at all were you in thrifting 94 00:03:09,620 --> 00:03:12,140 before you decided to kind of take it online? 95 00:03:12,140 --> 00:03:14,300 Like, were you heavily out there, you know, 96 00:03:14,300 --> 00:03:16,020 in the thrift stores at some point? 97 00:03:16,020 --> 00:03:18,260 Or did you kind of just skip that whole step 98 00:03:18,260 --> 00:03:19,620 that most of us kind of, you know, 99 00:03:19,620 --> 00:03:21,960 your typical Amazon business is thrift stores 100 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:24,220 and then maybe you switched to something like you're doing? 101 00:03:24,220 --> 00:03:25,180 Yeah, good question. 102 00:03:25,180 --> 00:03:26,780 I did a little bit of thrifting, not a ton. 103 00:03:26,780 --> 00:03:28,780 And I wasn't exclusively books. 104 00:03:28,780 --> 00:03:30,380 In the beginning, it was just anything. 105 00:03:30,380 --> 00:03:32,500 Because back in 2016, it was a wild, wild West, man. 106 00:03:32,500 --> 00:03:35,340 You could send in anything to Amazon and they didn't care. 107 00:03:35,340 --> 00:03:37,740 Like you can send in brand new board games, 108 00:03:37,740 --> 00:03:39,460 half the seals off, like they wouldn't care. 109 00:03:39,460 --> 00:03:41,360 Like it was a wild, wild West back then. 110 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:45,220 And I would say I did mostly garage sales and offer up. 111 00:03:45,220 --> 00:03:46,980 And I don't even think Facebook marketplace 112 00:03:46,980 --> 00:03:48,740 was a thing at that time where I wasn't aware of it, 113 00:03:48,740 --> 00:03:51,000 but I was mainly just garage sales and offer up 114 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:53,700 because people would put a whole bunch of, you know, 115 00:03:53,700 --> 00:03:55,140 people put a bunch of books up, 116 00:03:55,140 --> 00:03:57,020 textbooks up and offer up locally. 117 00:03:57,020 --> 00:03:58,380 But also I was really into video games. 118 00:03:58,380 --> 00:04:00,780 So I did a lot of video game flipping, 119 00:04:00,780 --> 00:04:02,180 offer up deals, Craigslist deals. 120 00:04:02,180 --> 00:04:03,500 So yeah, I didn't really do much thrifting. 121 00:04:03,500 --> 00:04:05,780 I was kind of more directly with just interacting 122 00:04:05,780 --> 00:04:07,340 with people who had something that I wanted. 123 00:04:07,340 --> 00:04:09,820 And I was just hustling like that. 124 00:04:09,820 --> 00:04:11,440 Kind of the same as you, right? 125 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:13,760 Johnny, you really never got out there 126 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:16,540 and really hit the thrift stores like full-time, right? 127 00:04:16,540 --> 00:04:18,180 Thrift store scene wasn't really my thing. 128 00:04:18,180 --> 00:04:21,260 I would go places and do bulk pickup kind of deal. 129 00:04:21,260 --> 00:04:22,780 And I still do that. 130 00:04:22,780 --> 00:04:25,020 I've been into thrifts, don't get me wrong. 131 00:04:25,020 --> 00:04:28,140 I just, it's slower, it's just slower. 132 00:04:28,140 --> 00:04:32,760 So, I mean, that's a huge point that I say all the time is 133 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:33,800 you don't need thrift stores 134 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:35,520 and you shouldn't be relying on thrift stores. 135 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:37,320 Neither of these guys could care less 136 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:39,180 if they go into a thrift store in the next three months. 137 00:04:39,180 --> 00:04:40,800 It does not matter to them. 138 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:42,380 And you might be somebody that's thinking, 139 00:04:42,380 --> 00:04:44,560 well, I have one thrift store in my area. 140 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:46,480 So this business is impossible. 141 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:48,520 And you could be the furthest thing from wrong 142 00:04:48,520 --> 00:04:49,480 with that kind of mindset 143 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:51,280 because these dudes are never interested. 144 00:04:51,280 --> 00:04:53,640 They're never dealing with the riff-raff I got to deal with 145 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:56,720 just to get in and scan the shelf of books sometimes. 146 00:04:56,720 --> 00:04:57,560 Well, yeah, because you never know 147 00:04:57,560 --> 00:04:59,800 if the manager is going to be in to do the buy at all. 148 00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:01,040 Because I do bulk, right? 149 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:03,160 And it's like, it's just, 150 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:05,800 take me two weeks to buy the thrift store. 151 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:06,640 Yeah. 152 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:10,520 I'm curious, Joji, when you first like, 153 00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:13,640 because when you first got into eBay to Amazon, 154 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:16,120 I mean, was there somebody that kind of like, 155 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:19,400 you kind of looked into or maybe had a session with 156 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:20,520 to kind of understand it more? 157 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:22,920 Because there's not really, 158 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:25,080 at least that I see out there on YouTube, 159 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:26,840 there's not that many people that'll sit down 160 00:05:26,840 --> 00:05:29,460 and kind of show you the way it's supposed to be done 161 00:05:29,460 --> 00:05:31,920 like you do with your lives and everything on YouTube. 162 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:33,840 I don't know of anybody else on YouTube 163 00:05:33,840 --> 00:05:37,360 that kind of would be somebody that you, 164 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:38,200 if you're not there, 165 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:39,920 who else is there to kind of show you the way? 166 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:41,120 How did you learn basically? 167 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:41,960 Yeah. 168 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:42,800 Yeah. 169 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:43,640 Yeah, it's a good question. 170 00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:46,080 I think you'd have to back up a little bit. 171 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:47,400 Have you, I'm sure you've both heard 172 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:48,840 of a software called E-Flip. 173 00:05:48,840 --> 00:05:49,680 I'm sure you've heard of that. 174 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:50,560 E-Flip is in arbitrage. 175 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:54,120 So back in, I think E-Flip came out in 2017 or 2018, 176 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:55,960 but when that product came out, 177 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:58,680 I was super interested in that online arbitrage tool. 178 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:00,080 So that's why I started with. 179 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:02,540 And I think that's where I got the gear is moving with like, 180 00:06:02,540 --> 00:06:05,080 okay, you have the opportunity to buy books on Amazon 181 00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:06,000 and flip on Amazon. 182 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:07,440 So I think that was the beginning. 183 00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:09,760 I think Caleb Roth, he's the one who created that software. 184 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:10,880 So it was kind of him. 185 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:15,240 He has a lot of recordings with that software specifically, 186 00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:17,840 but the idea of being able to buy a book online 187 00:06:17,840 --> 00:06:20,160 and then resell it online, the online arbitrage sort of like, 188 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:21,820 that's where that idea came from. 189 00:06:21,820 --> 00:06:25,160 As far as eBay to Amazon flips, 190 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:27,180 that is actually something that feels a profit. 191 00:06:27,180 --> 00:06:28,760 You've heard of Warner Fields? 192 00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:29,840 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 193 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:33,200 So he, I think he came out like maybe last year 194 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:35,880 with a video on like how to use Flipmine, 195 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:38,760 which is a software for eBay to Amazon online arbitrage. 196 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:40,640 So I looked at one of his videos and yeah, 197 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:41,920 he's also a great teacher. 198 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:43,920 He went through like how you could potentially find 199 00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:44,740 some books. 200 00:06:44,740 --> 00:06:46,240 So from there, that's kind of all I needed to know. 201 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:48,200 I just needed to know like what tool could you use. 202 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:50,640 And you know, if we back up back to 2017, 203 00:06:50,640 --> 00:06:53,480 I was actually, back then I was buying books on Amazon 204 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:54,520 and reselling them on Amazon, 205 00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:56,320 but kind of the way that I bought, 206 00:06:56,320 --> 00:06:59,740 the way that I buy books now has kind of evolved since then. 207 00:06:59,740 --> 00:07:04,080 But yeah, I think eBay's buying books on eBay specifically 208 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:06,120 was maybe about last year, 209 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:08,640 like early last year when I learned from Warner. 210 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:11,880 Do you ever go the other way around from Amazon to eBay? 211 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:13,440 Yeah, some people ask me all the time. 212 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:15,240 And I've never done that. 213 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:16,280 I've never tried doing that. 214 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:18,600 I think it's probably possible, 215 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:21,280 but I think it's probably just way more likely 216 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:24,040 to go eBay to Amazon rather than Amazon eBay 217 00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:26,040 for a number of reasons, which we could talk about. 218 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:26,980 But yeah, I've never tried that, 219 00:07:26,980 --> 00:07:29,600 but I'd be interested to know if someone has done that. 220 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:31,440 Will the software let you like say, 221 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:35,240 No, Flipmine will not let you do that. 222 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:37,120 Okay, we can't just hit the reverse button 223 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:38,760 and then it goes the other way. 224 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:39,880 Yeah, I mean, I'm curious. 225 00:07:39,880 --> 00:07:41,000 So why would you guys, 226 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:43,260 so my understanding is Amazon is king, right? 227 00:07:43,260 --> 00:07:44,680 So I'm curious to know both of your thoughts. 228 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:45,960 Like why do you think, 229 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:47,240 I have a couple of ideas maybe, 230 00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:48,800 but I'm curious what your ideas would be. 231 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:50,960 Why do you think a book would sell better on eBay 232 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:51,880 rather than Amazon? 233 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:52,880 I'm guilty of doing this. 234 00:07:52,880 --> 00:07:56,240 I send books on Amazon all the time that are signed 235 00:07:56,240 --> 00:07:57,760 and I just put them under the normal price. 236 00:07:57,760 --> 00:07:59,840 So maybe people are put in, 237 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:01,720 maybe they have a condition note. 238 00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:04,000 I don't put in the condition note that is signed, 239 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:05,120 but maybe some people do. 240 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:06,280 So maybe there'd be a software 241 00:08:06,280 --> 00:08:08,560 that can pull all the Amazon book listings 242 00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:10,160 that are signed by the author. 243 00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:11,880 And you're gonna get more for most likely 244 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:13,280 more for that stuff on eBay 245 00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:15,600 because it's more of a collectible niche market 246 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:17,840 for those kinds of things versus Amazon 247 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:19,680 where they really don't care if it's signed, 248 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:20,880 it's gonna be your condition, 249 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:22,360 your good condition that's gonna sell. 250 00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:24,000 Sure, you can put collectible, 251 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:25,960 but most people aren't gonna look through that. 252 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:28,040 But that would be my take on it 253 00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:29,640 if I had to do it and try to figure out 254 00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:31,160 a way to make it make sense. 255 00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:33,720 And my reason, I've seen some stuff on Amazon 256 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:36,720 and I've taken a look and it's due to poor title structure 257 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:38,760 where it's buried and the customer would have to know 258 00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:40,840 to type in certain things. 259 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:43,800 And then call it back to eBay sells the same week. 260 00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:46,240 Interesting, yeah, that, yeah. 261 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:48,500 So yeah, those are both good ideas. 262 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:52,160 Start developing the software, Joji. 263 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:53,960 I mean, that's what we're telling you here, all right? 264 00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:55,520 I mean, get the work behind the scenes. 265 00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:57,440 That one's free, we'll charge you for the next. 266 00:08:57,440 --> 00:08:58,280 All right. 267 00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:01,680 I think my big appeal with this, right, 268 00:09:01,680 --> 00:09:03,800 is you can kind of do this from anywhere. 269 00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:05,480 And there's a lot of people that are on YouTube 270 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:08,400 and maybe they kind of live in the middle of nowhere 271 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:09,740 or they don't have as many sources 272 00:09:09,740 --> 00:09:11,080 or they don't have as much time. 273 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:14,140 So the appeal for something kind of like a business you have 274 00:09:14,140 --> 00:09:16,160 is that you don't have to leave the house 275 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:18,800 and it doesn't matter how many thrift stores you have. 276 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:21,120 It doesn't matter your competition in your area. 277 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:22,320 You're just sitting online, 278 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:23,960 dedicating a certain time to sit down 279 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:25,520 and look at these things to flip. 280 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:27,720 And I think that's the big attraction to it. 281 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:29,560 I mean, like what kind of attracted you to it? 282 00:09:29,560 --> 00:09:33,340 Was it the time or was it the money you could make? 283 00:09:33,340 --> 00:09:34,180 Yeah, that's a good question. 284 00:09:34,180 --> 00:09:35,440 I mean, I think mostly it's just, 285 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:37,900 I just inherently didn't like going out places, 286 00:09:37,900 --> 00:09:39,560 going thrifty, scanning a whole bunch of stuff. 287 00:09:39,560 --> 00:09:41,520 I just would, I was always like, 288 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:43,000 I'd rather just buy fewer books 289 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:44,200 and sell them for way more money 290 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:45,960 than do a whole bunch more volume, 291 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:47,400 which could accomplish the same thing. 292 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:48,640 I mean, you just need a lot more volume 293 00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:50,320 at lower ROI or lower profit. 294 00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:53,600 So I think it was just me kind of naturally 295 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:55,240 not wanting to have to go places 296 00:09:55,240 --> 00:09:56,840 because if you think about all the time, 297 00:09:56,840 --> 00:09:59,080 like it takes for you to actually drive somewhere. 298 00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:02,160 And then, if you make a map of all the Goodwills 299 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:03,000 and all thrift stores, 300 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:05,160 like it, and you go one day around, 301 00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:06,680 it might actually take you like an hour and a half 302 00:10:06,680 --> 00:10:09,040 or two hours just in travel time waiting around. 303 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:11,440 So it's like, that was all dead time to me 304 00:10:11,440 --> 00:10:12,560 where it's like, okay, 305 00:10:12,560 --> 00:10:14,240 I think online arbitrage could definitely work, 306 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:15,760 especially if you've built up some capital 307 00:10:15,760 --> 00:10:19,960 because you can, with online arbitrage, 308 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:21,360 you're already kind of just getting rid 309 00:10:21,360 --> 00:10:22,880 of so many people in this space 310 00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:24,120 because most people won't do that. 311 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:25,440 Like they don't think to do that 312 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:26,640 or they're just not comfortable doing it. 313 00:10:26,640 --> 00:10:29,680 But then when you raise your average buy cost as well, 314 00:10:29,680 --> 00:10:31,520 you also reduce the number of people 315 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:32,920 who even do online arbitrage 316 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:33,880 that are willing to get in that space. 317 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:36,600 So I felt like there was just like a market 318 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:39,720 that was clearly available with plenty of room 319 00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:40,560 for me to come in. 320 00:10:40,560 --> 00:10:43,320 And I was like, you know, at this point in my life as well, 321 00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:44,880 I don't have time to go thrift stores. 322 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:47,840 Like I wake up 6 a.m., I gotta be at school 323 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:49,200 teaching the kids by 8 a.m., 324 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:52,480 then I get home at 4.35 and I spend time with my boy 325 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:54,040 and my wife, and then it's like, 326 00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:55,960 I have to source 10.30 p.m. to midnight. 327 00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:58,120 It's like, I can't go to a thrift store to do that. 328 00:10:58,120 --> 00:10:59,360 You know what I mean? 329 00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:02,560 It's crazy that the kind of numbers you can put up 330 00:11:02,560 --> 00:11:05,400 if you're focused and understand what you're working with, 331 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:07,160 and I'm kind of gonna get into this, 332 00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:08,840 I'm the cheapest person around, right? 333 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:13,080 So you might spend $40 on a book, 334 00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:14,240 and I'm thinking to myself, 335 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:16,520 well, that's 40 books at the thrift store, right? 336 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:18,360 That's my cheap mind running. 337 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:20,120 But you really don't think about, 338 00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:21,600 like you said at the time, 339 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:23,920 and the thrift stores are no guarantee, right? 340 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:26,040 You could go to the 20 thrift stores in a day 341 00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:27,080 and get nothing. 342 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:31,520 So for somebody that has my cheaper mindset, 343 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:33,560 how would you go about, say for example, 344 00:11:33,560 --> 00:11:36,720 I was like, hey, I wanna get into doing this, 345 00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:38,360 but I'm super cheap with this. 346 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:41,280 Is it feasible to kind of start with little to nothing 347 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:43,600 and kind of build this business into 348 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:45,640 what you made it into today? 349 00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:48,200 Yeah, I think, so just to give you some context, 350 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:50,360 the average book cost right now for me is about 20, 351 00:11:50,360 --> 00:11:52,200 like just a little bit over $27. 352 00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:55,640 So like per book that I buy, that's what I would spend. 353 00:11:55,640 --> 00:11:56,600 Can you do it cheaply? 354 00:11:56,600 --> 00:11:59,680 I think probably the best way for you to start 355 00:11:59,680 --> 00:12:01,960 would be take the books that you've already sold on Amazon 356 00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:03,440 and then take a look at them, 357 00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:04,960 take a look at their keepographs. 358 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:06,760 I'm not sure how familiar you are with reading keepographs, 359 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:08,280 but take a look at their keepograph, 360 00:12:08,280 --> 00:12:10,880 look at if in the past there's ever a point in time 361 00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:13,360 where you could say, if I could have gone back in time 362 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:14,680 and bought this book at this price, 363 00:12:14,680 --> 00:12:15,960 it would have been a good deal 364 00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:17,760 knowing what you know now in the future. 365 00:12:17,760 --> 00:12:19,280 And start with the books that you've already sold 366 00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:22,520 because you already have a little bit of like security. 367 00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:24,720 Like you know that you've already sold this book for 45 bucks. 368 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:26,880 So the one book that we were just talking about, 369 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:27,880 I won't mention what it was, 370 00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:30,240 but the book that, the magazine that you had sold 371 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:31,080 before it came on here, 372 00:12:31,080 --> 00:12:32,560 it's like, hey, look back at the keepograph, 373 00:12:32,560 --> 00:12:35,320 maybe that book was 8.99 in the past 374 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:37,400 and you said a keep a tracker alert for that 375 00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:38,360 and you get notified and it's like, 376 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:40,200 hey, I remember selling this for 45. 377 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:42,600 So maybe just investing the money in things 378 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:44,320 that have already moved for you in the past 379 00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:46,840 that you have more, you know, 380 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:48,280 you have more confidence in selling. 381 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:50,920 You could totally buy books that are much cheaper, 382 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:53,040 but it's just that the average sell prices can be lower. 383 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:54,520 So yeah, you could spend, you know, 384 00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:56,080 between five to $10 per book, 385 00:12:56,080 --> 00:12:58,080 but you're probably looking more at like, 386 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:01,000 probably in the low end, like 25 to like 35 or $40. 387 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:03,280 So you could do it cheaply for sure. 388 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:04,600 And then build over time. 389 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:09,840 So, I want you to debunk a myth for me here 390 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:12,480 that an OA buyer is only a couple of bad buys 391 00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:14,160 away from being out of business. 392 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:15,560 Yeah. 393 00:13:15,560 --> 00:13:18,040 If you have no capital, yeah, 100%. 394 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:18,880 Sure, yeah. 395 00:13:18,880 --> 00:13:19,720 Yeah. 396 00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:22,200 Yeah. 397 00:13:22,200 --> 00:13:25,760 So, I mean, that kind of leads us into how you, 398 00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:28,840 I'm gonna assume you use Be Cool as your repricer? 399 00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:29,920 Correct, yes. 400 00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:32,000 So just for clarification here, 401 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:33,800 that allows you to set minimum, 402 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:36,000 maximum prices for your items. 403 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:36,840 Correct. 404 00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:39,560 So you can have a minimum set to maybe it's your break even 405 00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:40,880 or a little bit under if it's been there 406 00:13:40,880 --> 00:13:42,440 for X amount of time. 407 00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:45,200 And, you know, you're selling one-offs, right? 408 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:47,840 You're not buying 100 copies of the same book. 409 00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:52,520 So it does kind of alleviate the risk tolerance, I guess. 410 00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:55,240 Just curious, like just in your experience 411 00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:58,120 for like what you see when you buy that book off eBay, 412 00:13:58,120 --> 00:14:00,760 say it says you're gonna make $50 on it. 413 00:14:00,760 --> 00:14:04,480 How many times do you think you actually make close 414 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:07,000 or that amount or maybe even a little bit more? 415 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:09,520 Just like one out of three, one out of four? 416 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:12,000 Cause we all know when you scan a book in a thrift store 417 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:15,000 and it says $10 profit, you ain't getting 10 bucks, right? 418 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:16,920 That's just, it's gotta get there, 419 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:18,880 it's gotta get repriced, all that nonsense. 420 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:19,840 I'm just curious what you see 421 00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:21,800 with like the higher priced dollar textbooks 422 00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:24,200 so that the prices kind of stay more like 423 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:25,640 where they should be versus, you know, 424 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:28,040 the junkier stuff we're selling. 425 00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:31,760 Yeah, I think it's, like you said, it's very variable. 426 00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:32,920 It depends on the book for sure. 427 00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:34,800 Textbooks inherently can be very volatile, 428 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:36,480 especially during textbook season. 429 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:39,080 So what I would say is that when I, 430 00:14:39,080 --> 00:14:40,760 my thought process into buying a book 431 00:14:40,760 --> 00:14:42,480 is I'm always trying to be super conservative. 432 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:44,840 So by conservative, I mean like 433 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:47,600 the absolute worst case scenario 434 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:49,400 should be that you break even on this book 435 00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:51,000 because you're buying it so undervalued. 436 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:53,640 Obviously there are some books that I have to take losses on. 437 00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:55,040 It's a very, very small percentage. 438 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:58,200 And, you know, some books would be like there are outside 439 00:14:58,200 --> 00:14:59,880 circumstances that you couldn't have predicted. 440 00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:02,400 Like here's a book that let's say over the last four 441 00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:05,680 or five years, there's never been any, 442 00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:07,480 there have been new third party sellers on it. 443 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:09,080 And then maybe they've always been at 150 444 00:15:09,080 --> 00:15:12,280 and then just randomly somebody comes on with 100 new copies 445 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:14,480 at like 1599, like, dude, what the heck? 446 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:15,920 Like there's no way I could have accounted 447 00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:16,760 for something like that. 448 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:19,880 But I would say overwhelming majority of the books do sell. 449 00:15:19,880 --> 00:15:22,240 I do pick up books that are longer tail though. 450 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:24,880 So my average like sales rank is like 1.3 million. 451 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:27,360 Like those are books that take a while to sell. 452 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:28,680 It takes about three and a half months on average 453 00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:29,760 to sell the books. 454 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:32,640 And yeah, I mean, I definitely have some books 455 00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:33,840 that I bought from last year, 456 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:36,400 like almost a year ago that still haven't sold. 457 00:15:36,400 --> 00:15:37,880 But if you look at the keepographs, 458 00:15:37,880 --> 00:15:40,080 like they should still sell. 459 00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:42,840 So I guess my mindset of when I'm buying books is 460 00:15:42,840 --> 00:15:43,880 I'm trying to buy an asset. 461 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:46,320 So I'm trying to take the money that I have 462 00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:49,280 and invest it in something that inherently holds value. 463 00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:51,920 And I think one of the reasons why thrifting is so hard 464 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:53,280 is because if you're finding books 465 00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:55,440 that are lower average selling price 466 00:15:55,440 --> 00:15:56,680 and they inherently hold less value, 467 00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:59,120 then the volatility means that they could basically 468 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:00,600 become worthless like very easily. 469 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:03,880 But if you think of a book that has been consistently selling 470 00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:07,240 for 50 or $60 to the last five or 10 years, 471 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:08,920 and then you invest $25 in it, 472 00:16:08,920 --> 00:16:10,680 it's like you're putting your money into something 473 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:12,200 that inherently holds value. 474 00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:14,720 Like it's just a store of value that's not money, 475 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:16,320 but it's like an object, you know what I mean? 476 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:20,280 So I guess that's my thought process behind that. 477 00:16:20,280 --> 00:16:24,320 How much automation to manual work is your workflow like? 478 00:16:24,320 --> 00:16:26,480 Is it like fully automated Skynet style 479 00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:28,720 or you have to use some manual number punching 480 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:30,240 from time to time? 481 00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:32,040 Yeah, I definitely have to do manual stuff. 482 00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:33,720 Like I have a spreadsheet of every book 483 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:35,640 that I purchased exactly when I purchased it, 484 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:37,720 where I purchased it, how I purchased it. 485 00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:42,160 And then I also, you know how you have a transaction 486 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:43,600 statement every two weeks that tells you 487 00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:44,560 exactly what you sold. 488 00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:45,880 So every day at the end of every day, 489 00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:47,040 I'll go in and see what I sold. 490 00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:48,400 And I don't sell very many books. 491 00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:50,680 Like on average I sell five to six books a day. 492 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:53,480 But I should say between three to five books a day 493 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:54,360 is generally what I sell. 494 00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:55,960 My average sale price is $99. 495 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:58,760 So it's like, I don't sell very many books. 496 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:00,960 What I do is I just will take that book that I bought, 497 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:02,320 I'll go over to my spreadsheet 498 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:03,880 and then I can just log it in individually. 499 00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:05,760 So there's probably a much better way to do that. 500 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:07,800 So yeah, that's what I do manually. 501 00:17:08,840 --> 00:17:10,920 Even with repricing with my Beat, would be cool. 502 00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:12,520 I have to type in the min and the max price. 503 00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:14,320 I have to look at every keep a graph 504 00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:15,240 of every book that I buy. 505 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:17,720 So it's definitely not super automated. 506 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:18,960 I do have a couple of VAs now 507 00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:20,640 that are helping me with helping me with sourcing. 508 00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:21,960 So that's definitely helped. 509 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:23,880 But I would say I spend about like two hours a day 510 00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:27,960 on this business and that's what I do. 511 00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:30,040 Is it seven days or is it five days a week? 512 00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:31,200 Yeah, like I said, no seven days. 513 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:33,440 I spend like two hours every day on it, yeah. 514 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:37,680 Okay, so we're looking at 14 hours a week. 515 00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:40,240 Just throw, you don't even have to be exact. 516 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:43,600 Throw out like a monthly sales number that you recently had. 517 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:47,200 So January this year was 32K 518 00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:50,520 and then last month was 13, just over 13,000. 519 00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:53,120 So, and then basically all of last year. 520 00:17:53,120 --> 00:17:55,040 So last year I did 105K in sales 521 00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:59,160 and that was about $30,000 profit, yeah. 522 00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:02,480 So, I mean, for people out there that don't have time, 523 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:04,520 I mean, he just blew up your whole argument. 524 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:07,800 He literally, you know, has a newborn, 525 00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:10,360 works a full-time job and still finds a way 526 00:18:10,360 --> 00:18:13,400 to kind of make this work. 527 00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:14,720 What's the big motivator for you? 528 00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:16,720 Is it just the financial freedom? 529 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:18,200 Because for me, that's what it was for me, right? 530 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:19,240 I grew up in debt. 531 00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:21,240 I was in credit card debt my whole life. 532 00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:23,280 And kind of, I said, well, I can have this side hustle 533 00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:24,920 to kind of get me out of the debt, 534 00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:26,680 get me out of the credit cards and kind of, you know, 535 00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:29,040 just if I want to buy something, then I can buy it. 536 00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:30,320 That was kind of my motivator. 537 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:31,160 I didn't want to have to, you know, 538 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:33,960 worry about if a cat needed surgery or something, 539 00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:35,640 I ain't got the money to put it up. 540 00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:37,760 So that was kind of, that was kind of like my motivator. 541 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:39,240 What was yours like? 542 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:41,840 Yeah, I think my motivator is that, 543 00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:43,880 it is ultimately like financial independence. 544 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:45,120 So my wife and I are on a journey 545 00:18:45,120 --> 00:18:46,960 of financial independence retire early. 546 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:50,320 And increasing your income is one way to be able 547 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:52,760 to become financially independent earlier in life. 548 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:54,560 I would say there are other aspects of it. 549 00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:56,400 Like I genuinely just love flipping stuff. 550 00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:57,240 It's like a game to me. 551 00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:58,520 Like it's just super fun. 552 00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:00,600 You know, I have, obviously have other interests and hobbies, 553 00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:02,960 but it's like, you know, some people are like, 554 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:04,200 well, don't you ever want to take a break? 555 00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:05,680 And in some ways I'm like, this is my break. 556 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:06,640 Like, this is fun to me. 557 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:08,320 Like, this is stress relieving. 558 00:19:08,320 --> 00:19:10,680 Like, this is something that I generally want to do. 559 00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:14,520 So maybe I'm fortunate that I was able to align a side hustle 560 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:18,160 with a hobby and like in those things, they co-mingle well. 561 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:19,560 And then I guess the other thing is like, 562 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:21,120 I do want to start a YouTube channel 563 00:19:21,120 --> 00:19:23,680 because I, you know, somewhat selfishly would love 564 00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:24,640 to put my name out there 565 00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:26,320 and would love to meet people like yourselves. 566 00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:29,320 Like there's no way we could have really met 567 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:31,320 if we both were on YouTube. 568 00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:33,120 Like we live in different, we're in the US, 569 00:19:33,120 --> 00:19:35,400 but in reality we live in different parts of the world. 570 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:37,040 Like we would never see each other. 571 00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:40,680 You know, so I guess it's just, you know, 572 00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:43,080 combination of things, but yeah, I think, 573 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:44,480 I want to become financially independent. 574 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:45,320 It's a hobby. 575 00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:46,160 I really like to do it. 576 00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:47,840 And then also selfishly, like, 577 00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:49,000 I want to kind of get my name out there. 578 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:50,640 I want to kind of, I would like to be known. 579 00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:52,240 I'd like to meet new people. 580 00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:53,760 And I like to also teach people 581 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:56,440 because I think that's a skill of mine. 582 00:19:56,440 --> 00:19:59,360 So is there a scenario where you would leave your teaching 583 00:19:59,360 --> 00:20:01,000 gate to go do this full time? 584 00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:04,360 Yeah, I think once we become financially independent, 585 00:20:04,360 --> 00:20:05,960 I think that is what the goal is. 586 00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:09,280 So our goal is to be financially independent by age 35. 587 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:10,800 Right now we're age 28. 588 00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:12,640 So by 35 means that- 589 00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:14,640 Mike, he's making me feel old. 590 00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:17,080 So the goal is that by age 35, 591 00:20:17,080 --> 00:20:19,280 we'd get to a point where we would no longer 592 00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:21,320 need to work any longer based upon our current 593 00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:23,440 living expenses because we live very frugally. 594 00:20:23,440 --> 00:20:27,680 And at that point it would be probably just get out 595 00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:29,920 of teaching because I love teaching high school. 596 00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:31,200 It has its own challenges though. 597 00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:34,920 And, you know, it's as much as I love teaching high school, 598 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:37,480 it is also, you know, emotionally it's also taxing. 599 00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:39,400 Like it's not an easy job. 600 00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:42,120 So yeah, I think I like to transition. 601 00:20:42,120 --> 00:20:44,480 I think YouTube can help me with that as well. 602 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:46,040 Like helping get my name out there, 603 00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:48,000 helping help other people, 604 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:50,400 hopefully also grow the business in that way. 605 00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:53,720 Cause going back to your point, it's like last year, 606 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:55,720 you know, I sold a hundred thousand dollars in books, 607 00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:57,880 made $30,000 a profit, but I had to bust my ass. 608 00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:00,280 Like I had to do that two hours every day. 609 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:02,200 You know, I had to do that 10.30 PM to midnight. 610 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:03,520 I had to wake up at 6 a.m. 611 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:05,240 Do it, you know, so it was not like it's easy. 612 00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:06,480 Like it's sacrifices. 613 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:09,160 So I know that education, coaching people, 614 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:11,280 that is also a way that you can generate more revenue. 615 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:13,960 So maybe kind of taking the pedal off a little bit 616 00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:16,720 in terms of going so hard and like getting Amazon ramped 617 00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:19,720 and maybe helping people more could be a way to segue. 618 00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:21,080 That's still part of teaching. 619 00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:22,720 You wouldn't be giving it up all to get. 620 00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:23,600 Exactly. Exactly. 621 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:25,040 You're right, Johnny, exactly. 622 00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:26,600 Yeah, I know I seen, 623 00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:28,000 cause I'm in your discord and everything. 624 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,000 You just started your, you know, 625 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,040 offering one-on-one like coaching sessions. 626 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:33,200 Yeah. 627 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:35,560 I mean, as a teacher teaching you, right? 628 00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:36,520 It's one of those things. 629 00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:38,120 And that kind of gets me to like, 630 00:21:38,120 --> 00:21:40,120 say if somebody comes along like myself, 631 00:21:40,120 --> 00:21:44,000 I suck with computers, I suck with software. 632 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:46,800 Do you think it's possible for somebody like myself 633 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:49,160 to get into a business like yours 634 00:21:49,160 --> 00:21:50,960 and start doing eBay to Amazon flips 635 00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:53,960 with no really technology experience? 636 00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:55,080 Just kind of run that down, right? 637 00:21:55,080 --> 00:21:56,560 Cause I know there's a bunch of different programs 638 00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:59,400 that you need and just kind of like the cost 639 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:01,280 of those programs as well for somebody out there 640 00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:03,440 that's maybe just thinking about giving it a shot. 641 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:04,440 So it's gonna be a rundown of, 642 00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:06,560 if you had to teach somebody from nothing today 643 00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:09,040 and lay out the expenses of me starting. 644 00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:10,880 Yeah, if you're just starting brand new, 645 00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:12,760 the only software you need is Keepa, that's it. 646 00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:15,600 Because Keepa is how you're gonna analyze 647 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:17,240 every single book that you come across, 648 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:18,760 really any product that you come across, 649 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:20,880 it tells you everything that you need to know about it. 650 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:23,480 And then also Keepa has these ways 651 00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:25,320 for you to source inventory. 652 00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:26,800 Like, not sure if you guys have used 653 00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:29,120 the Keepa product finder, you used the Keepa deals page, 654 00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:31,760 if you use Keepa alerts, but those three things, 655 00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:33,680 independently, like if those were softwares 656 00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:34,680 that were not part of Keepa, 657 00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:36,800 I would easily pay a hundred dollars a month 658 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:38,480 for each of those individually. 659 00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:41,160 So those are really powerful sourcing tools. 660 00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:43,640 If anyone out there is familiar with like E-Flip 661 00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:45,520 and Zen Arbitrage and Master Book Flippers, 662 00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:47,200 like all those softwares, in my opinion, 663 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:50,760 are inferior to Keepa's ways to source books 664 00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:51,600 that I just mentioned. 665 00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:53,280 So all you really need to get started 666 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:55,440 is a Keepa subscription, which is about $20 a month. 667 00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:58,400 Now going to what is required in terms of like, 668 00:22:58,400 --> 00:22:59,960 you need to be able to analyze data. 669 00:22:59,960 --> 00:23:02,240 So being able, like if you're not really able 670 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:04,400 to look at a graph and you're not really able to follow, 671 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,840 like look at, you know, make sort of relationships 672 00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:11,360 between like how, like supply and demand, 673 00:23:11,360 --> 00:23:14,440 which is things that it's not like it's super difficult, 674 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:15,720 but at the same time, it's like, 675 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:17,080 you have to have some analytical ability. 676 00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:19,040 So I would say if you're someone who just, 677 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:20,520 you look at numbers and you look at graphs, 678 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:22,240 and you're like, oh, it just makes me crazy, 679 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:25,360 then I would say probably maybe start with thrifting, 680 00:23:25,360 --> 00:23:26,800 start maybe a different model, 681 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:31,240 because I would lie if I said it wasn't analytical or heavy. 682 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:32,720 Like pretty much every book that I buy, 683 00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:33,720 you have to read a Keepa graph, 684 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:35,520 because you have to know if it's a good buy or not. 685 00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:38,200 So it may not be a good fit. 686 00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:41,160 When you started it, like, did you like, 687 00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:43,480 for maybe like the first month or two or three, 688 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:45,760 did you like go for like the lower value stuff 689 00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:47,120 to see if you knew what you were doing, right? 690 00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:48,680 I'm gonna assume you didn't just jump in 691 00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:51,120 and start buying $50 textbooks from the beginning. 692 00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:54,720 Yeah, I would say from the beginning, 693 00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:57,240 because I already had that experience of being on campus 694 00:23:57,240 --> 00:24:01,480 and being, I was willing to spend a little bit more for books. 695 00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:03,840 Like for books that I knew that were selling for, 696 00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:06,560 you know, 100 plus, I was willing to put up 30, 40, 697 00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:07,800 maybe even 50 bucks from them. 698 00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:10,520 I think I was able to come into like E-flip 699 00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:12,600 and like spend a little bit more money. 700 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:14,440 I would lie though, if I didn't say that 701 00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:16,280 it makes you anxious sometimes, it's like, man, 702 00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:18,320 do I really wanna put 50 bucks for one book? 703 00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:19,240 Because there's a lot of things 704 00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:20,600 that can inherently go wrong. 705 00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:23,000 And in the beginning, like even when I was flipping books 706 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,120 on college campuses, when you don't know what you don't know, 707 00:24:26,120 --> 00:24:28,320 it's like, man, am I really gonna spend 25 bucks 708 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:29,160 for this book? 709 00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:30,600 It looks great, it looks like it sells for 100, 710 00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:32,920 but you don't actually know it until you do it. 711 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:34,480 And so I think it was kind of just building up 712 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:36,960 the confidence with starting slow. 713 00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:38,280 And once you start slow and you're like, okay, 714 00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:39,360 you start to notice patterns, 715 00:24:39,360 --> 00:24:41,720 like these books are actually selling, they are moving, 716 00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:42,840 I am making money. 717 00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:46,920 Then I was able to go a little bit deeper. 718 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:48,800 And like now I get to the point where 719 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:50,680 I feel comfortable with my keep abilities. 720 00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:53,600 Like if I look at a book and it looks like it holds value, 721 00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:56,600 like I've definitely bought books for over $200 on eBay 722 00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:58,360 and flipped them for 400 or 500. 723 00:24:58,360 --> 00:25:00,720 So I'm not, at this point, I'm willing to do that, 724 00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:03,160 but it took a long time to get to that point. 725 00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:07,200 And what would be your biggest advice 726 00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:08,920 to someone just starting OA 727 00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:11,440 or the biggest mistake you've made to avoid? 728 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:15,520 Yeah, I'd say the biggest mistake for OA booksellers is, 729 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:20,360 is the, is the, you know, the way, like the business model, 730 00:25:20,360 --> 00:25:22,000 the way that you think you're gonna make money. 731 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:24,800 So like E-Flip, Zen Arbitrage, Master Book Flippers, 732 00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:27,000 the goal for those softwares is to find 733 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,200 the lowest merchant offer and then flip lowest FBA, 734 00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:31,880 which would be in the buy box. 735 00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:34,040 In other words, exploit the prime bump. 736 00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:37,040 So I would say most people go wrong 737 00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:39,880 in buying books for eight or $9 on Amazon 738 00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:40,960 as the lowest merchant offer, 739 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:41,800 thinking they're gonna sell them 740 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,120 for 45 or 50 bucks in the buy box. 741 00:25:44,120 --> 00:25:45,400 In other words, the way that they make money 742 00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:46,440 is exploiting the buy box. 743 00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:48,960 And what you learn is that, okay, 744 00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:51,400 you have to understand when the buy box 745 00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:52,240 is actually reasonable. 746 00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:54,720 Yes, people are 100% willing to pay more money 747 00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:57,160 to get it in two days, but you gotta think logically, 748 00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:00,000 like, is someone really gonna pay 40 or 50 more dollars 749 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:01,240 to get that in two days? 750 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:03,000 Probably some small percentage of people, 751 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:04,920 but the overwhelming majority of people are not. 752 00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:07,440 So it's like, what I had to learn quickly was that, 753 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:09,720 okay, all these initial buys in the beginning 754 00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:11,240 when I was like trying to buy these books 755 00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:13,600 at the lowest merchant offer, flip them for the buy box, 756 00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:14,680 like I was like, this isn't working. 757 00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:15,600 These books are not selling, 758 00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:18,600 the buy box eventually comes back down, it tanks. 759 00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:22,160 I end up barely making money or I basically break even. 760 00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:24,680 So then I had to learn, well, how do you fundamentally 761 00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:25,800 buy undervalued books? 762 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:29,080 Because the way that, at least my thought process on it 763 00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:30,520 is now is that I'm trying to find books 764 00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:33,120 that are cheaper than they should be, 765 00:26:33,120 --> 00:26:35,440 and therefore the way you make money is just by buying them 766 00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:37,880 and then reselling them for what they should be sold for. 767 00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:40,720 Like that's how you make the margin, so yeah. 768 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:43,440 Are you on any other platforms for selling 769 00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:44,720 other than Amazon? 770 00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:46,200 Yeah, I mean, I'm a little bit on eBay. 771 00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:48,480 I'll usually sell books on eBay. 772 00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:50,800 If I have some restricted books that I can't sell 773 00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:52,520 to a buy back company or I can't sell 774 00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:54,400 the restricted inventory, I'll sell them on eBay. 775 00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:57,640 But very, very small percentage, yeah. 776 00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:01,680 I was gonna say that since your main focus is textbooks, 777 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:04,040 what is your gating situation look like, right? 778 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:07,240 Because kind of when we created our Amazon accounts, 779 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:09,480 years and years ago, there was really none of this nonsense 780 00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:12,120 of every publisher is gated, but now every day, 781 00:27:12,120 --> 00:27:16,320 somebody needs to get ungated in McGraw Hill, Pearson. 782 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:18,360 Do you have any big gates that are still up for you? 783 00:27:18,360 --> 00:27:21,760 Or are you actively still trying to ungate some publishers? 784 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:23,160 What's it kind of look like for you? 785 00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:26,000 I've ungated everything that's ungatable at this point. 786 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:29,040 I still cannot sell the popular textbook categories, 787 00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:31,560 which are the Cengage, McGraw Hill, Pearson, 788 00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:32,640 like the specific books. 789 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:35,160 And those are, a lot of people complain about that, 790 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:36,840 but it's actually the silver lining to that 791 00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:39,360 is that all those books are highly likely to be counterfeit. 792 00:27:39,360 --> 00:27:42,320 So story time, back in early 2021, 793 00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:44,160 I was selling textbooks. 794 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:45,680 I sold three counterfeit textbooks. 795 00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:48,560 I got test-buyed out by a company. 796 00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:50,280 They sent me basically letters that said, 797 00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:52,040 hey, you're selling counterfeit textbooks. 798 00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:53,520 They gave me no proof that the books I sold 799 00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:54,360 were actually counterfeit. 800 00:27:54,360 --> 00:27:56,400 And even at that time, I wasn't even aware 801 00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:58,400 that counterfeit textbooks were a thing. 802 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:01,160 And as a result of that, 803 00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:02,960 basically my account got suspended on Amazon. 804 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:04,800 I had to hire an attorney. 805 00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:07,000 I had to pay like $1,500 to write plan of actions, 806 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:08,640 which tend like actually end up 807 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:10,360 to not be very good plan of actions. 808 00:28:10,360 --> 00:28:12,320 And I could probably just done a better job myself, 809 00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:15,000 but I basically had to wait for those counterfeit claims 810 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:16,800 to fall off my account after 180 days. 811 00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:18,840 Eventually my account went back to green 812 00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:20,640 and I'm no longer suspended anymore. 813 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:23,520 But the point is that those specific categories 814 00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:25,040 of textbooks that everyone's gated, 815 00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:25,880 and it's actually a good thing, 816 00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:27,400 because those are books that are highly likely 817 00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:28,400 to be counterfeited. 818 00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:30,800 And if you're not gated in those right now, 819 00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:31,920 and you are selling textbooks, 820 00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:33,880 you should probably expect to get test-buyed 821 00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:35,920 at some point by those companies. 822 00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:37,440 And from my understanding, 823 00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:39,960 they don't have to provide any evidence whatsoever 824 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,280 that the books that you actually sold to them are counterfeit. 825 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:45,760 You have to prove to them that what you bought 826 00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:46,600 is not counterfeit. 827 00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:48,880 And you cannot do that if you bought it from a student 828 00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:51,680 or you thrifted it or you got it from a bulk buy. 829 00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:53,320 The only way you can do that is with an actual invoice 830 00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:54,640 from a distributor, which no one has. 831 00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:58,280 So yeah, I basically can sell everything else, 832 00:28:58,280 --> 00:28:59,200 just I can't sell those, 833 00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:02,160 which is not necessarily a bad thing, but yeah. 834 00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:06,640 Well, dark cloud scenario, if the suspension become, 835 00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:09,160 would ever become a permanent thing 836 00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:11,480 for lack of unforeseeables, 837 00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:12,520 what would you do? 838 00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:14,600 Would you still book flip? 839 00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:15,440 Yeah, that's great. 840 00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:17,200 Yeah, probably I would. 841 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:18,520 I'd probably get my account, 842 00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:21,920 my wife to form an account in a different address 843 00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:23,640 in a different bank account. 844 00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:24,720 That's not tied to me. 845 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:26,960 Probably use a VPN so the IP address is different. 846 00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:27,800 So that's probably what I would try to do. 847 00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:29,840 You would still go back just to sneakily. 848 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:30,680 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 849 00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:32,440 I like it. I'm not in the wrong here. 850 00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:35,400 These guys, I mean, yeah, 851 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:36,600 I would try to get an account somewhere. 852 00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:38,280 If I couldn't get an account with someone I knew, 853 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,120 then I'd try one of my friends 854 00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:42,680 and probably try to work out like a commission deal 855 00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:46,160 or something like, hey, can I sell books 856 00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:47,960 under your name on your account? 857 00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:50,560 And I'll give you 10% of whatever I make. 858 00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:51,560 Yeah, I like it. 859 00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:52,840 I'll even do the mail run for you. 860 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:54,240 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 861 00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:57,000 So hopefully Jeff Bezos isn't watching this or. 862 00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:00,800 I think those older accounts are in the free and clear now. 863 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:03,600 They only go after the newbies it seems like overall. 864 00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:05,400 Yeah, hopefully we'll see. 865 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:06,240 I don't know. 866 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:07,080 I mean, hopefully. 867 00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:08,200 He just jinxed it. 868 00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:11,840 I was gonna ask you if you buy books off eBay, 869 00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:12,800 if you're inspecting them, 870 00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:14,640 but you use a prep center, don't you? 871 00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:15,800 Correct, they use a prep center. 872 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:19,080 So what I do is I use Books Run as a website. 873 00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:20,080 It's a buyback company. 874 00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:21,440 They also sell books on their website. 875 00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:23,680 They have a counterfeit probability check. 876 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:26,000 It's not perfect, but what I'll do 877 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:28,760 and I have my VAs just run that ISBN 878 00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:30,880 through that counterfeit probability check. 879 00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:32,320 And if it comes back likely or unlikely, 880 00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:33,640 I just don't even mess with it. 881 00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:34,920 If it comes back unlikely, 882 00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:36,520 which most books do come back unlikely, 883 00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:38,400 then I'll just send it to a prep center. 884 00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:41,040 And I have a, I think a really good prep center, 885 00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:46,040 the Central Virginia Prep, that's my prep center. 886 00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:49,120 They do a really good job of inspecting books 887 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:52,120 in comparison to I think other prep centers. 888 00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:53,920 Not saying that they're opening every book 889 00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:56,440 and they're like check marking every, 890 00:30:56,440 --> 00:30:57,560 they're just doing a better job 891 00:30:57,560 --> 00:30:58,760 comparatively to other people. 892 00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:00,920 And I've been using a prep center 893 00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:02,080 for the last year and a half 894 00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:05,000 and so far I haven't had any issues with more counterfeits, 895 00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:07,680 but one of the big reasons that I cannot sell the books 896 00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:09,400 that are very likely to be counterfeited. 897 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,720 So probably that's one of the reasons why as well. 898 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:13,560 So- 899 00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:14,640 Go ahead, Mike. 900 00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:16,440 I was gonna say, so checks and balance wise, 901 00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:19,160 you actually run every one of your books you buy 902 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,520 through this software just to err on the side of caution, 903 00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:26,560 even though, like you said, most 99% of the time, 904 00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:27,440 it's not counterfeit. 905 00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:29,720 You just wanna cover all your bases on your end. 906 00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:31,720 And is that like a paid software or what? 907 00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:32,880 No, it's actually free. 908 00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:35,160 And I would step back and say it's not 99% like, 909 00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:38,280 actually there are a ton of counterfeit books out there. 910 00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:39,640 It's actually more than you would think. 911 00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:42,200 I just, so there are books every day that I'll run through 912 00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:44,760 that say likely or very likely that I just won't buy. 913 00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:46,160 So I come across them. 914 00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:50,080 We come across them every day, but it is a free, 915 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:52,120 it's free, it's not a software, it's just a website. 916 00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:54,480 You can just type it, type in books run, 917 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:56,480 a counterfeit probability check. 918 00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:58,040 And like I said, it's not perfect. 919 00:31:58,040 --> 00:32:00,000 Just because something says likely or unlikely, 920 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:01,520 or sorry, just because something says likely 921 00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:03,080 or very likely doesn't mean it's counterfeit. 922 00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:05,400 It just means there's a good chance that it could be. 923 00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:06,960 And just because it says unlikely doesn't mean 924 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:07,880 that it's not counterfeit. 925 00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:09,400 So it's just kind of like you said, 926 00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:10,680 it's a preventative thing. 927 00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:13,880 I catch books that probably could have been counterfeit 928 00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:16,360 and that's the goal is to prevent those from 929 00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:17,920 getting to the warehouse. 930 00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:20,240 Well, textbooks gets all the glory, right? 931 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:22,160 Are there other books besides textbooks 932 00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:23,320 you'd like to go after? 933 00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:25,120 Yeah, 100%. 934 00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:26,520 Yeah. 935 00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:29,240 So, you know, at eBay, basically with Flipmine, 936 00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:30,640 I should say that software, 937 00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:32,680 anytime a new book is listed on eBay, 938 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:34,640 or really anything in any product because, 939 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:36,560 or any category, because Flipmine isn't just 940 00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:37,400 for books specifically, 941 00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:38,760 it's for any product category out there. 942 00:32:38,760 --> 00:32:41,160 But whenever anything new is listed on eBay, 943 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:44,680 what Flipmine tries to do is take that UPC code 944 00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:46,040 and match it to something on Amazon. 945 00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:48,080 And the goal is if there's a price differential 946 00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:50,440 between the two, then potentially you could buy it 947 00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:51,920 on eBay and flip on Amazon. 948 00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:53,640 So yeah, there are tons of books that have value 949 00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:54,840 that are not textbooks. 950 00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:56,880 And an easy way to see how many books out there 951 00:32:56,880 --> 00:32:59,400 that are not textbooks would be just to use 952 00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:00,440 the product finder tool. 953 00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:02,320 You can basically input parameters and say, 954 00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:04,920 hey, find me books that have a value over the last 955 00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:07,360 180 days above $75. 956 00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:10,280 And then you can, down below, you can say, 957 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:11,720 I don't want this to be McGraw Hill. 958 00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:12,880 I don't want it to be Cengage. 959 00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:13,720 I don't want it to be this. 960 00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:15,400 So then you can basically filter out, 961 00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:18,120 there's tens of thousands of books that have a ton of value. 962 00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:20,880 And those are books that I would also flip as well. 963 00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:21,960 Nice. 964 00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:23,240 You only like books? 965 00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:24,920 Are you into flipping other things? 966 00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:26,440 Or does it even interest you? 967 00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:28,040 Or are you just staying, 968 00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:30,240 being the book flipper guy with this 969 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:33,240 and not really trying to get into other categories? 970 00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:38,480 Yeah, I think I used to be into video games a lot. 971 00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:40,320 Like I said, I was doing a lot of like offer up 972 00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:43,560 and Facebook marketplace, video game flipping. 973 00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:46,520 And I kind of just realized that the amount of time it takes 974 00:33:46,520 --> 00:33:48,640 in comparison to me buying books is not worth it. 975 00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:53,200 Like in many ways flipping video games is so much fun. 976 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:55,400 Like the hunt is so, I'm not sure if any of you guys do, 977 00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:56,760 but the hunt of going out there, 978 00:33:56,760 --> 00:33:58,520 finding video games like garage sales 979 00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:00,880 and even thrift stores, like it's really awesome. 980 00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:02,720 But at the end of the day, like when you sit down 981 00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:05,480 and you run the numbers, like selling books is way up here 982 00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:07,280 compared to flipping video games. 983 00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:09,760 So that was one of the reasons. 984 00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:11,680 Another reason is from what I've read, 985 00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:13,560 like there's this book I read called The Pumpkin Plan 986 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:14,880 that I'm not sure if you heard about it. 987 00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:16,440 It's by an alternate Mike McCallewitz. 988 00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:19,000 He also wrote, he also wrote Profit First. 989 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:20,680 But the idea is like, if you think about 990 00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:23,720 those pumpkin farmers that win these big competitions 991 00:34:23,720 --> 00:34:24,920 for like the biggest pumpkin, 992 00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:26,640 the only thing that they think about 993 00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:27,880 is growing the biggest pumpkin. 994 00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:30,760 They think about like, well, what's the exact soil I need? 995 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:32,000 What's the exact seed that I need? 996 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:33,120 What's the exact sunlight? 997 00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:34,200 What's the exact amount of water? 998 00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:36,120 So they really hone in on one thing 999 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:39,640 to try to grow one big pumpkin rather than to try to grow 1000 00:34:39,640 --> 00:34:44,080 some, I guess, larger, have more quantity of larger ones. 1001 00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:47,360 So I think the idea is that focus can really help you 1002 00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:49,920 grow something big rather than being distracted. 1003 00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:53,680 And now actually that I'm becoming more automated 1004 00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:55,320 with the business, that I do have a couple of VAs 1005 00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:56,280 that are helping me. 1006 00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:58,680 Once I get books completely automated 1007 00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:00,400 and I feel like my VAs are buying 1008 00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:01,640 at the same capacity that I am, 1009 00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:03,000 I do kind of want to transition 1010 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:04,760 to just normal traditional OA 1011 00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:09,520 because I think that could be very lucrative as well. 1012 00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:11,520 Cool. 1013 00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:15,520 I would love to be a video game flipper like yourself, 1014 00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:17,760 but there ain't enough product out there. 1015 00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:18,920 I think, I would say like, 1016 00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:21,680 do you feel like one reason you kind of stick with books 1017 00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:24,240 is a lot of people kind of undervalue their books 1018 00:35:24,240 --> 00:35:26,200 versus say video games, if you're on eBay, 1019 00:35:26,200 --> 00:35:29,000 like people more likely to put an astronomical price 1020 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:31,360 on a video game than a book, 1021 00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:34,720 just some crazy person that decides to list something. 1022 00:35:34,720 --> 00:35:36,200 Yeah, 100%. 1023 00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:38,280 People in general, I'm sure both of you agree, 1024 00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:42,120 like they see books and it's a really weird dichotomy 1025 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:45,520 of books because people don't see them as having value, 1026 00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:47,080 yet they don't want to throw them away. 1027 00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:48,720 So it's weird that you would see something that's like, 1028 00:35:48,720 --> 00:35:50,240 oh, this has no value, 1029 00:35:50,240 --> 00:35:51,400 but also I'm not going to throw it away. 1030 00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:52,960 Most people when they think it has no value, 1031 00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:53,800 they just toss it. 1032 00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:57,480 But yeah, 100%, if you're somebody who is flipping books, 1033 00:35:57,480 --> 00:35:59,560 I would say look at Facebook marketplace, 1034 00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:01,480 offer up in your local area. 1035 00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:03,720 If you're living in some place that's populated, 1036 00:36:03,720 --> 00:36:04,920 I'm sure throughout the week, 1037 00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:07,120 there's got to be at least three or four pretty good deals. 1038 00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:09,880 Like I'm talking spend 20, flip it for a hundred plus. 1039 00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:11,800 Like there's got to be a couple of those 1040 00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:14,600 because I've been, like even now on my YouTube series, 1041 00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:16,680 I'm doing a zero to thousand series. 1042 00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:19,040 And I'm trying to show people like if I had zero, 1043 00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:21,880 like if I actually had $0, what I would do. 1044 00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:24,200 And I'm still finding like four or five deals a week 1045 00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:25,440 where I can literally go drive out 1046 00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:26,720 and meet someone in my local area. 1047 00:36:26,720 --> 00:36:29,040 Now granted, I live in a kind of more populated areas 1048 00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:31,000 so that helps, but definitely don't sleep 1049 00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:32,320 on those great opportunities. 1050 00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:34,480 And yeah, a lot of people just, 1051 00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:38,080 they just don't see books as having a lot of value, I think. 1052 00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:39,440 No, you're absolutely right. 1053 00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,240 I mean, I see that also in CDs and DVDs. 1054 00:36:42,240 --> 00:36:45,360 Well, more so in CDs, less so in DVDs. 1055 00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:46,840 Because I think the video games 1056 00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:50,200 have that general public stereotype, they're valuable, 1057 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:52,480 but everything else in media, not so much. 1058 00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:54,080 Yeah, 100%. 1059 00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:57,200 I think you started, didn't you like 1060 00:36:57,200 --> 00:36:58,440 with that series on YouTube, 1061 00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:00,240 you just got books from your neighbor, right? 1062 00:37:00,240 --> 00:37:01,080 Yeah, yeah. 1063 00:37:01,080 --> 00:37:02,400 And the lady was looking to get rid of her books 1064 00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:04,200 and you're just like, I'll take them. 1065 00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,720 Yeah, I literally, so I literally made a, 1066 00:37:07,720 --> 00:37:10,720 I spent like five minutes making a little thing on Canva, 1067 00:37:10,720 --> 00:37:11,720 just like, I'll pick up your books. 1068 00:37:11,720 --> 00:37:15,040 I put it in my apartment complexes, laundry room. 1069 00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:16,200 There's like 100 units here. 1070 00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:17,440 And I was like, that's all I'm gonna do. 1071 00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:19,320 I could put it on Craigslist, on Nextdoor. 1072 00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:21,080 I could put on Facebook marketplace. 1073 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:22,640 I could do a whole bunch of stuff, 1074 00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:24,360 but I literally left there for about a month 1075 00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:25,520 and someone finally messaged me. 1076 00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:27,600 And so then, yeah, I went down and grabbed her books, 1077 00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:29,040 sold them to a buyback company 1078 00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:30,800 because most of the books actually weren't worth anything, 1079 00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:32,040 but I was able to get like 12 bucks 1080 00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:34,920 and then that's where I snowballed it from there, but yeah. 1081 00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:36,760 $12 and a dream. 1082 00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:39,000 That'll be a movie. 1083 00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:41,840 It'll be like one of the ESPN 30 for 30s. 1084 00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:43,960 $12 and Joji's dream. 1085 00:37:43,960 --> 00:37:46,240 And it's crazy to think about though, right? 1086 00:37:46,240 --> 00:37:48,680 The volume you're doing, the amount of sales you're doing. 1087 00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:49,800 I think you're kind of, 1088 00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:51,360 you're trending in the right direction, 1089 00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:53,080 but on the topic of trends, 1090 00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:56,200 you were doing eBay to Amazon and these kind of flips 1091 00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:58,840 before it kind of took off here in the last year, right? 1092 00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:02,200 So how do you feel about it kind of being like, 1093 00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:03,440 because to me right now, 1094 00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:05,240 I would say it's the hottest reselling trend. 1095 00:38:05,240 --> 00:38:07,800 eBay to Amazon is the hot thing right now. 1096 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:10,040 Like how has that affected your business 1097 00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:11,440 because you were there before 1098 00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:12,960 and you're gonna be there afterwards. 1099 00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:14,360 I'm just curious what your mindset is 1100 00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:16,480 on everybody trying to get in on it. 1101 00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:19,280 Yeah, I think it's a lot harder to find books on eBay now 1102 00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:22,120 using Flipmine because there are a lot more people 1103 00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:23,400 looking for books specifically. 1104 00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:24,440 It's a low hanging fruit. 1105 00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:25,960 It's really not that hard to do it 1106 00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:28,400 in the grand scheme of online arbitrage. 1107 00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:31,120 So yeah, it's been harder to get books on eBay. 1108 00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:32,880 With that said, I'm still finding books on eBay. 1109 00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:35,080 And then also I think what's something 1110 00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:38,600 that most people are not doing is Amazon to Amazon flips. 1111 00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:42,400 So I think in that space, it's still very, very wide open. 1112 00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:45,840 And most of my books I buy are from Amazon directly. 1113 00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:49,040 And that's still something that is every day. 1114 00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:53,400 Like, I mean, even during our podcast right now, 1115 00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:55,600 I'm getting alerts right now on Kipa 1116 00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:57,400 for books that are potential leads. 1117 00:38:57,400 --> 00:38:59,480 And it's like every day I buy two or three books 1118 00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:01,640 just from alerts that I set in the past. 1119 00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:03,480 And those are books that have become undervalued 1120 00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:06,640 that you could buy on Amazon, flip back on Amazon. 1121 00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:10,440 Well, speaking of fads, have you ever done any sourcing 1122 00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:12,960 from a good old whatnot? 1123 00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:15,000 Oh, no, I didn't even, I have not. 1124 00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:15,840 I mean, I've heard of whatnot, 1125 00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:18,320 but I've never done any sourcing there. 1126 00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:20,400 But should I be doing that? 1127 00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:22,280 I've looked at it, at least in the book market 1128 00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:24,240 in my vintage game. 1129 00:39:24,240 --> 00:39:25,360 You definitely could. 1130 00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:28,800 Now, I haven't done any specific investigation 1131 00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:31,040 on textbooks over there. 1132 00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:32,960 Because that's the thing, they'll hold up a book 1133 00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:35,200 and it's not like you're getting alert about it or anything. 1134 00:39:35,200 --> 00:39:38,320 So you have to attend and know what they have. 1135 00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:40,640 I think that would be the hard part to unravel. 1136 00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:43,360 Yeah, I could see how whatnot would be 1137 00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:46,160 a super lucrative thing for a bookseller 1138 00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:47,600 that gets a lot of textbooks. 1139 00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:50,240 Like if somebody has a honey hole from a college 1140 00:39:50,240 --> 00:39:53,280 or somebody who actually has like hundreds and hundreds 1141 00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:55,600 of textbooks and they get a consistent flow of them, 1142 00:39:55,600 --> 00:39:58,040 I can see how as a seller, whatnot would be great. 1143 00:39:58,040 --> 00:40:00,560 Because if you attract a whole bunch of Amazon book flippers, 1144 00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:01,840 I'm sure you could just move stuff 1145 00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:03,840 for obviously cheaper than what you could sell for on Amazon, 1146 00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:05,800 but you could just move stuff so quick. 1147 00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:08,040 But I haven't looked into that. 1148 00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:11,320 I'd be curious to know how fruitful it would be 1149 00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:13,640 for the time that would be invested for it though. 1150 00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:16,600 Right, I am too, especially if you're sitting into Amazon. 1151 00:40:16,600 --> 00:40:19,240 It's like for me, I know I could do that easily for eBay, 1152 00:40:19,240 --> 00:40:21,920 but on Amazon, that's a question mark. 1153 00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:24,200 Yeah, that is a question mark, interesting. 1154 00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:29,040 I'm curious here, so you wanna transfer kind of into 1155 00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:31,320 your standard OA kind of deal. 1156 00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:34,000 Do you have a timeframe for that? 1157 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:37,160 Because right now, you're the hottest thing on the block here, 1158 00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:40,560 eBay to Amazon, these are the glory days, right? 1159 00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:42,360 Nobody cares about us thrifters, right? 1160 00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:44,920 Our thrifters are a thing of the past. 1161 00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:47,560 Everybody wants to do what you're doing currently. 1162 00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:50,920 So do you have maybe, I know you're talking about 1163 00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:53,320 financial independence, actually switching over to OA, 1164 00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:54,440 is that when you're gonna switch, 1165 00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:56,680 when you clear everything and you're ready to go, 1166 00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:58,400 or you're kind of just gonna dabble in it 1167 00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:00,320 and kind of work your way into it? 1168 00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:02,040 Yeah, I'm actually starting to dabble in it a little bit. 1169 00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:04,440 I got my first box over there of some OA products 1170 00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:07,240 that I bought, so I'm just starting to dabble in it now. 1171 00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:10,800 And the reason why, like I said, 1172 00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:13,200 is I feel like my book business is at the point 1173 00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:15,760 where it's almost completely automated. 1174 00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:18,120 I've got a prep center and I've got VAs purchasing books 1175 00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:21,480 for me and I have them also doing some work behind the scenes 1176 00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:23,080 to kind of take a little bit of time off me. 1177 00:41:23,080 --> 00:41:25,280 I'm currently still also buying books, though, 1178 00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:27,000 which is the thing. 1179 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:28,480 But at some point I feel like, okay, 1180 00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:31,120 maybe I could start transitioning out of buying books 1181 00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:33,280 and could go towards more traditional OA. 1182 00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:35,760 And why do I want to do that? 1183 00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:37,760 I just think that there is a lot of opportunity 1184 00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:39,360 in the OA, traditional OA space, 1185 00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:43,480 that I never got into for mainly just fear. 1186 00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:45,160 I knew it existed, but I was like, 1187 00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:48,280 you know, I wasn't really sure how to get engaged in things, 1188 00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:49,760 wasn't really sure about IP complaints. 1189 00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:50,960 So there's all these unknowns, 1190 00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:52,560 there's these things that I didn't know what I didn't know, 1191 00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:54,440 and so that kind of prevented me from going into it. 1192 00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:55,520 And I was also really good at books. 1193 00:41:55,520 --> 00:41:57,240 So I said, you know what, let's just focus on books. 1194 00:41:57,240 --> 00:42:00,240 But having gotten on YouTube and gotten to meet 1195 00:42:00,240 --> 00:42:02,520 a lot of people who are in the OA game specifically, 1196 00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:04,920 I realized that, wow, these things are a lot easier 1197 00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:05,760 than I thought they would be. 1198 00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:08,680 So I feel like I'm missing some opportunity, 1199 00:42:08,680 --> 00:42:11,600 especially if I can sort of delegate 1200 00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:16,320 so much of the book buying business to my virtual assistants 1201 00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:17,640 to carry over. 1202 00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:19,160 So for your book buying, 1203 00:42:20,720 --> 00:42:22,720 I know you're targeting probably individual books, 1204 00:42:22,720 --> 00:42:26,040 but is there cases where you target book lots perhaps 1205 00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:27,480 to get that one or two gem 1206 00:42:27,480 --> 00:42:29,640 and then you're stuck with 48 other things? 1207 00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:33,680 Yeah, mostly just one-offs. 1208 00:42:34,560 --> 00:42:36,840 Yeah, mainly Amazon, eBay, 1209 00:42:36,840 --> 00:42:38,800 they're generally just people listing individual books. 1210 00:42:38,800 --> 00:42:41,120 There are some books that I'll buy multiple copies of, 1211 00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:42,520 that there are some books that are replans, 1212 00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:45,560 like I've sold four or five times in the last year 1213 00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:47,480 that I'll buy once I get to a certain price. 1214 00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:49,120 Just to buy kind of things, yeah. 1215 00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:53,640 Yeah, but generally I don't do many bulk buys 1216 00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:55,520 or I don't really do any bulk buys. 1217 00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:56,360 Yeah, one-offs. 1218 00:42:56,360 --> 00:42:57,440 All right, you're either gonna blow up 1219 00:42:57,440 --> 00:42:59,320 my whole business model here or not. 1220 00:43:00,240 --> 00:43:03,400 How do you condition your books? 1221 00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:04,680 Do you care about condition? 1222 00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:07,520 Do you just roll, do you do what, 1223 00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:10,080 I say everything good condition or like, 1224 00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:11,680 because your stuff's going to a prep center, 1225 00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:13,200 so your answer is gonna be a little bit different 1226 00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:15,160 because you don't physically see the book 1227 00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:17,400 and I'm gonna assume a lot of the books you're buying 1228 00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:19,720 are probably stock photos maybe, I don't know. 1229 00:43:19,720 --> 00:43:21,280 That's another thing you kind of can answer here 1230 00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:22,960 if most of it's stock photos, 1231 00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:26,320 but just your conditioning of your books when you're selling. 1232 00:43:26,320 --> 00:43:28,840 Yeah, that's funny, I remember you, 1233 00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:30,840 I don't know if it was a video that you had 1234 00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:32,000 or it was a comment that you said 1235 00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:33,640 basically you list everything good in that. 1236 00:43:33,640 --> 00:43:34,480 Originally I was like, huh, 1237 00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:35,840 that's an interesting perspective. 1238 00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:38,520 And yeah, I actually really appreciate that perspective 1239 00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:42,160 once I heard of like once I actually took some time 1240 00:43:42,160 --> 00:43:44,720 to process it, but basically what we do now 1241 00:43:44,720 --> 00:43:45,800 is like whenever we buy a book, 1242 00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:47,520 we just take whatever the condition is 1243 00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:48,800 and we put that on the spreadsheet 1244 00:43:48,800 --> 00:43:50,160 that the prep center looks at. 1245 00:43:50,160 --> 00:43:51,160 And when they receive the item, 1246 00:43:51,160 --> 00:43:52,280 they actually do the conditioning. 1247 00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:53,960 So they open up and they go, okay, 1248 00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:55,680 this is in good condition and they match it. 1249 00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:57,720 So if mine says very good or good, 1250 00:43:57,720 --> 00:43:59,960 they'll be like, okay, we'll just list this as good 1251 00:43:59,960 --> 00:44:01,600 because we think it's in good condition. 1252 00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:03,080 So the real reason why I would just take 1253 00:44:03,080 --> 00:44:05,040 whatever the condition was and put on that spreadsheet 1254 00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:07,000 is in the case that we bought a book 1255 00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:08,000 that was supposed to be very good 1256 00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:09,160 and it's like acceptable. 1257 00:44:09,160 --> 00:44:11,320 And so there's like something that we could maybe return 1258 00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:16,320 to the seller if they basically misrepresented what they had. 1259 00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:19,320 But generally now I'm kind of taking more 1260 00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:20,160 of your perspective. 1261 00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:21,320 It's like, it's either good or acceptable. 1262 00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:22,880 So I use this good or acceptable. 1263 00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:24,200 That's like what I do. 1264 00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:26,120 And I'm also not convinced the customers 1265 00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:27,440 ever read that condition. 1266 00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:28,260 I'm really- 1267 00:44:28,260 --> 00:44:29,100 Yeah. 1268 00:44:29,100 --> 00:44:29,940 Yeah. 1269 00:44:29,940 --> 00:44:33,360 I mean, I can't remember when I was buying textbooks 1270 00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:35,120 on Amazon when I was in college, if I read them, 1271 00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:35,960 I think I just- 1272 00:44:35,960 --> 00:44:36,800 Did you ever read? 1273 00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:37,640 I don't think so. 1274 00:44:37,640 --> 00:44:39,160 I never read a condition note on our product 1275 00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:40,080 if I'm from Amazon. 1276 00:44:40,080 --> 00:44:40,920 No. 1277 00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:41,760 Yeah. 1278 00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:42,880 I'm another thing here. 1279 00:44:42,880 --> 00:44:44,920 Like I am my, all right. 1280 00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:46,280 So I don't have a prep center. 1281 00:44:46,280 --> 00:44:47,120 I never used one. 1282 00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:49,440 I kind of seen videos, people talking about prep centers 1283 00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:51,600 and it usually seems like it's kind of always negative. 1284 00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:53,400 People always like, oh, this prep center sucks, 1285 00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:54,400 yada, yada, yada. 1286 00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:57,160 But it seems like the one you have is like, I don't know. 1287 00:44:57,160 --> 00:44:58,980 They just seem like if I had a prep center, 1288 00:44:58,980 --> 00:45:00,480 that's what I would do for my customers. 1289 00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:03,440 It's almost as if like they kind of go the extra mile for you. 1290 00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:05,080 I don't know why or what, but I mean, 1291 00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:07,280 the fact they're inspecting your books for you 1292 00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:08,720 is, I mean, that's crazy. 1293 00:45:08,720 --> 00:45:11,560 And the fact, so say you buy a book 1294 00:45:11,560 --> 00:45:13,840 and it's just water damaged. 1295 00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:15,520 They're willing to actually send it back 1296 00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:17,400 to the eBay customer for you. 1297 00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:18,240 Right. 1298 00:45:18,240 --> 00:45:20,640 I mean, I'm gonna be the one who has to contact the seller 1299 00:45:20,640 --> 00:45:23,600 and has to get them to give me a free return shipping label. 1300 00:45:23,600 --> 00:45:25,440 But what they'll do on the spreadsheet is 1301 00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:27,960 they'll basically highlight the entire cell red. 1302 00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:30,200 And that basically says, hey, this is like a, 1303 00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:31,480 hey, you gotta do something with this 1304 00:45:31,480 --> 00:45:33,160 because this was supposed to be very good. 1305 00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:34,040 It came in acceptable. 1306 00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:35,920 It's water damaged, the spine's broken. 1307 00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:37,560 They're basically saying it's unsellable. 1308 00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:39,360 So we're not going to send it in 1309 00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:41,240 because we don't feel good to send this in. 1310 00:45:41,240 --> 00:45:43,560 Like we don't think the customers would be happy with this. 1311 00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:45,680 And so then I have to go back and figure out, 1312 00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:46,720 okay, where did I buy it from? 1313 00:45:46,720 --> 00:45:48,520 That's why tracking the books is very helpful 1314 00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:50,520 to know where you bought it from, who you bought it from. 1315 00:45:50,520 --> 00:45:52,920 And then you would contact the seller and just say, 1316 00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:54,880 hey, you know, I was supposed to receive this 1317 00:45:54,880 --> 00:45:55,720 in good condition. 1318 00:45:55,720 --> 00:45:57,340 It's an unsellable condition for this reason. 1319 00:45:57,340 --> 00:45:59,280 Please send me a free return shipping label. 1320 00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:00,800 And then all I would need to do is email 1321 00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:02,360 that return shipping label to them 1322 00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:04,160 and they'll go ahead and put that on the package 1323 00:46:04,160 --> 00:46:05,160 and they'll go ahead and send it off. 1324 00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:07,160 And they charge like a dollar 50 or something. 1325 00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:09,960 So, I mean, at the end of the day, it's better than, 1326 00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:10,920 you know, you sending in a book 1327 00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:13,360 that you get negative feedback on or, you know what I mean? 1328 00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:14,680 But. 1329 00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:18,560 So we've had this come up in Mike's group here. 1330 00:46:19,440 --> 00:46:22,280 Could a person do what you do that's homebound, 1331 00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:25,440 let's say doesn't have a vehicle or is handicapped 1332 00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:27,240 for whatever reason, you can't leave the home. 1333 00:46:27,240 --> 00:46:29,120 Can they do what you do from their home, 1334 00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:30,960 never leaving their home? 1335 00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:32,560 If they had a prep center. 1336 00:46:32,560 --> 00:46:34,440 Yeah, it would still be a little bit difficult 1337 00:46:34,440 --> 00:46:35,640 because you have returns. 1338 00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:38,320 Like there's that some level you're gonna have to touch 1339 00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:39,480 some amount of products. 1340 00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:42,680 But like for me, like 95% of what I buy, I don't ever touch. 1341 00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:44,920 It just goes right to my prep center. 1342 00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:46,680 It goes to Amazon, then it goes to customer 1343 00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:48,640 and most books don't get return. 1344 00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:49,740 But there are gonna be some books 1345 00:46:49,740 --> 00:46:51,520 that you sell the customer gets returned. 1346 00:46:51,520 --> 00:46:52,920 Amazon says unsellable. 1347 00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:54,820 Then you have to obviously get sent back to your house. 1348 00:46:54,820 --> 00:46:56,800 And then you'd have to like, go leave your house, 1349 00:46:56,800 --> 00:46:58,280 go down to your mailbox and get it. 1350 00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:01,080 So I would say pretty much you can make it 1351 00:47:01,080 --> 00:47:02,700 so that you don't ever have to leave the house. 1352 00:47:02,700 --> 00:47:03,960 But there's gotta be some point 1353 00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:06,500 at which you're gonna have to touch some books. 1354 00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:10,440 Like for those listening that have had questions. 1355 00:47:10,440 --> 00:47:12,960 I mean, it just goes to show like kind of, 1356 00:47:12,960 --> 00:47:15,320 and that's another benefit of why a lot of the OA people 1357 00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:17,200 are heavily into OA because you can do it 1358 00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:18,600 from anywhere in the world, right? 1359 00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:19,440 Yeah, 100%. 1360 00:47:19,440 --> 00:47:21,520 You could be, you know, where he's at today 1361 00:47:21,520 --> 00:47:23,560 and tomorrow he could be on the moon and then Mars 1362 00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:25,800 and then the Bahamas and then, you know, 1363 00:47:25,800 --> 00:47:27,920 anywhere he can do this from. 1364 00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:29,520 And that's a huge appeal, right? 1365 00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:31,880 A lot of us want to get our time back. 1366 00:47:31,880 --> 00:47:33,420 A lot of people enjoy traveling. 1367 00:47:33,420 --> 00:47:35,480 And this type of business, right? 1368 00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:38,400 Listen, I gotta be in my storage unit every day, you know? 1369 00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:40,560 Joji, you don't gotta be at the storage unit every day. 1370 00:47:40,560 --> 00:47:42,280 I gotta go pick up the books, you know, 1371 00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:44,880 when someone calls me, you're not really worried about that. 1372 00:47:44,880 --> 00:47:48,040 And I think another thing that kind of is appealing is, 1373 00:47:48,040 --> 00:47:50,440 you're not, you know, your prep center, 1374 00:47:50,440 --> 00:47:53,560 how many books you say you send them in a week? 1375 00:47:54,440 --> 00:47:57,500 Yeah, we buy about, usually like the average 1376 00:47:57,500 --> 00:47:59,080 is about five books a day. 1377 00:47:59,080 --> 00:48:02,060 And so it could be 10 one day, it could be three one day. 1378 00:48:02,060 --> 00:48:04,720 So, I mean, that's just based off of last year's numbers. 1379 00:48:04,720 --> 00:48:06,200 It was about five books a day. 1380 00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:09,520 So, I mean, basically they're getting about, you know, 1381 00:48:09,520 --> 00:48:11,880 35 books on average a week. 1382 00:48:11,880 --> 00:48:14,420 It's actually starting to increase a little bit more now 1383 00:48:14,420 --> 00:48:15,520 because in the last few months, 1384 00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:17,280 I actually picked up a couple of VAs. 1385 00:48:17,280 --> 00:48:18,160 I'm still sourcing. 1386 00:48:18,160 --> 00:48:19,780 So it's probably, they're probably getting more 1387 00:48:19,780 --> 00:48:21,120 around like 10 books now, 1388 00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:22,920 but the average last year is about five books a day. 1389 00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:25,000 That's how many books I bought last year. 1390 00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:25,820 So for people- 1391 00:48:25,820 --> 00:48:27,420 Last time I was gonna ask you if you had a budget, 1392 00:48:27,420 --> 00:48:29,560 monetary budget, a daily one or not, 1393 00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:33,040 but it sounds like it's just a passive personnel 1394 00:48:33,040 --> 00:48:34,160 kind of thing. 1395 00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:38,000 Yeah, for me is like my average profit per book is $49. 1396 00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:42,320 So it's like, how many books would I need to buy 1397 00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:43,900 to make a certain amount of profit? 1398 00:48:43,900 --> 00:48:46,960 So like for me, it was like, I need to buy five books a day 1399 00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:48,980 to kind of get to where I wanna be. 1400 00:48:50,180 --> 00:48:52,800 Yeah, so for me, it wasn't ever like a spend goal. 1401 00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:54,560 The average book cost is $27. 1402 00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:55,920 So it's like, if I buy five books, 1403 00:48:55,920 --> 00:48:57,840 I'm spending over a hundred dollars a day. 1404 00:48:57,840 --> 00:48:58,960 And if you spend over a hundred dollars a day, 1405 00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:01,960 that's over $3,000 a month. 1406 00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:05,040 So like it obviously, that's just the average. 1407 00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:05,920 Sometimes you buy more, 1408 00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:08,000 but between three to $5,000 a month 1409 00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:11,040 would be like what you're spending or what I'm spending. 1410 00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:11,920 Yeah. 1411 00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:13,840 I mean, you kind of build up to it, right? 1412 00:49:13,840 --> 00:49:15,760 You know, it's not like the first day you're doing it, 1413 00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:18,360 you're gonna find 30 books you're gonna buy. 1414 00:49:18,360 --> 00:49:21,520 And I think it intrigues me the fact 1415 00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:24,200 that you don't have to send large quantities, right? 1416 00:49:24,200 --> 00:49:26,280 If I'm thinking Prep Center, 1417 00:49:26,280 --> 00:49:29,840 I'm thinking I gotta send X amount of units per week, 1418 00:49:29,840 --> 00:49:31,680 per month or something like that. 1419 00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:35,360 So that's kind of good to see that you don't have to 1420 00:49:35,360 --> 00:49:38,480 send so many units for them to actually take care of you 1421 00:49:38,480 --> 00:49:39,920 as a customer for somebody out there 1422 00:49:39,920 --> 00:49:42,120 that maybe doesn't wanna prep. 1423 00:49:42,120 --> 00:49:46,240 I'm just curious, why do you utilize a Prep Center? 1424 00:49:46,240 --> 00:49:48,000 Yeah, because at the end of the day, 1425 00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:49,880 it's like you gotta think about 1426 00:49:49,880 --> 00:49:51,900 what works for you in your time. 1427 00:49:51,900 --> 00:49:54,480 For me, it's like I have about two hours a day 1428 00:49:54,480 --> 00:49:55,720 that I can do stuff. 1429 00:49:55,720 --> 00:49:57,320 So do I need to spend that two hours? 1430 00:49:57,320 --> 00:49:58,680 I need to do in that two hours 1431 00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:00,040 what makes me the most money 1432 00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:02,320 and what makes me the most money is buying. 1433 00:50:02,320 --> 00:50:06,720 It's actually not as difficult to be able to unpackage, 1434 00:50:06,720 --> 00:50:08,400 you know, a book, condition it, list it. 1435 00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:10,800 Like that's not something that's making the money, 1436 00:50:10,800 --> 00:50:12,140 it's the actual buying the book. 1437 00:50:12,140 --> 00:50:16,480 So for me, it was that if I didn't have a Prep Center, 1438 00:50:16,480 --> 00:50:17,400 I don't know how I'd do it. 1439 00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:20,080 Because literally, as soon as I put my boy to bed, 1440 00:50:20,080 --> 00:50:21,520 I'd have to go down to the mailbox, 1441 00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:23,360 I'd have to get five, seven books, 1442 00:50:23,360 --> 00:50:26,280 I'd have to haul them up doing this at 10.30 at night. 1443 00:50:26,280 --> 00:50:27,280 Unpacked, so it'd just be like, 1444 00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:30,120 it'd be a lot less sourcing, I guess is what I should say. 1445 00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:31,240 So for me, it was like, okay, 1446 00:50:31,240 --> 00:50:33,400 how do I automate that part 1447 00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:35,760 of not having to send the books in Amazon? 1448 00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:37,200 And what I will say is it took me forever 1449 00:50:37,200 --> 00:50:39,100 to get a Prep Center because I was fearful, 1450 00:50:39,100 --> 00:50:42,080 I was anxious, because I didn't know what I didn't know. 1451 00:50:42,080 --> 00:50:43,760 You're all about all these people saying, 1452 00:50:43,760 --> 00:50:44,960 yeah, if you have a Prep Center, 1453 00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:46,560 like those must be those guys doing 1454 00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:47,840 hundreds of thousands of dollars, 1455 00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:48,780 like it must be really hard. 1456 00:50:48,780 --> 00:50:51,760 But I will tell you, every single step 1457 00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:53,120 that I've taken in my Amazon business 1458 00:50:53,120 --> 00:50:57,560 has always been, every single big step has been 1459 00:50:57,560 --> 00:50:58,840 me coming to conclusion like, wow, 1460 00:50:58,840 --> 00:51:00,160 that really wasn't that difficult. 1461 00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:02,400 Like I should have done that so much sooner, 1462 00:51:02,400 --> 00:51:03,900 but it was like the fear of the unknown 1463 00:51:03,900 --> 00:51:05,360 that kind of stopped me, prevented me. 1464 00:51:05,360 --> 00:51:07,440 So what I'll say about the Prep Centers, 1465 00:51:07,440 --> 00:51:08,600 if you're someone on the fence, 1466 00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:11,200 if it comes down to it where it's like, 1467 00:51:11,200 --> 00:51:12,120 you're running out of time, 1468 00:51:12,120 --> 00:51:13,480 you should absolutely get a Prep Center 1469 00:51:13,480 --> 00:51:15,200 because if you have enough capital leftover 1470 00:51:15,200 --> 00:51:16,400 to go buy more products, 1471 00:51:16,400 --> 00:51:18,460 that's probably going to be a job 1472 00:51:18,460 --> 00:51:20,040 that makes you more money in comparison 1473 00:51:20,040 --> 00:51:21,280 to actually doing your prep. 1474 00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:23,240 And in reality, you could get a Prep Center set up 1475 00:51:23,240 --> 00:51:25,580 within one day, like literally within three hours, 1476 00:51:25,580 --> 00:51:27,060 you could email Prep Center, 1477 00:51:27,060 --> 00:51:28,920 you could go ahead and say, this is my model, 1478 00:51:28,920 --> 00:51:30,880 this is how many things I plan to send you. 1479 00:51:30,880 --> 00:51:32,760 You would literally give them access to your accounts 1480 00:51:32,760 --> 00:51:34,020 so that they can list things for you. 1481 00:51:34,020 --> 00:51:35,180 And literally within a day, 1482 00:51:35,180 --> 00:51:36,360 you can get a Prep Center set up 1483 00:51:36,360 --> 00:51:38,320 and send them stuff starting the next day. 1484 00:51:38,320 --> 00:51:40,520 So it actually is way easier than you think. 1485 00:51:41,800 --> 00:51:42,720 Same thing with VAs, 1486 00:51:42,720 --> 00:51:45,160 I thought getting a VA would be so crazy, so hard. 1487 00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:46,960 You had to be this next level person, 1488 00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:49,020 but it boiled down to it again being, 1489 00:51:49,020 --> 00:51:50,280 I don't have enough time, 1490 00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:51,880 I need to buy them back more time. 1491 00:51:51,880 --> 00:51:53,520 And I realized again, 1492 00:51:53,520 --> 00:51:55,760 hiring a VA is not really that hard. 1493 00:51:55,760 --> 00:51:57,520 It's just taking the first step, 1494 00:51:57,520 --> 00:51:59,240 you learn along the way, 1495 00:51:59,240 --> 00:52:00,480 now is everything. 1496 00:52:00,480 --> 00:52:01,880 Starting Amazon seller account, 1497 00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:03,720 that's hard for a lot of people, 1498 00:52:03,720 --> 00:52:04,540 but you realize after you do it, 1499 00:52:04,540 --> 00:52:05,680 it's not really that hard. 1500 00:52:05,680 --> 00:52:06,680 Same thing with selling eBay, 1501 00:52:06,680 --> 00:52:08,400 it's like that first product that you list, 1502 00:52:08,400 --> 00:52:09,240 you think it's really hard, 1503 00:52:09,240 --> 00:52:10,400 but at the end of the day, once you do it, 1504 00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:13,040 you realize, okay, it really wasn't too bad. 1505 00:52:13,040 --> 00:52:15,760 So I'm guessing with your business model, 1506 00:52:15,760 --> 00:52:18,720 since restock lemons were a big talk this year 1507 00:52:18,720 --> 00:52:19,880 because of things, 1508 00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:22,600 you're not really affected by restock lemons, 1509 00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:24,600 or I'm not thinking. 1510 00:52:24,600 --> 00:52:28,800 Yeah, I mean, I was actually affected by restock limits 1511 00:52:28,800 --> 00:52:29,960 about two weeks ago. 1512 00:52:29,960 --> 00:52:31,360 I actually hit a thousand. 1513 00:52:31,360 --> 00:52:33,400 So my base was actually a thousand, 1514 00:52:33,400 --> 00:52:35,840 and the reason why is because my average selling price 1515 00:52:35,840 --> 00:52:36,840 against $99. 1516 00:52:36,840 --> 00:52:38,800 So if I have a thousand books in there, 1517 00:52:38,800 --> 00:52:40,640 a thousand times a hundred is a hundred thousand dollars. 1518 00:52:40,640 --> 00:52:41,960 So you have like a hundred thousand dollars 1519 00:52:41,960 --> 00:52:43,280 of inventory in there. 1520 00:52:43,280 --> 00:52:45,380 So for me, it wasn't really a problem 1521 00:52:45,380 --> 00:52:49,000 because I was doing the model fewer books 1522 00:52:49,000 --> 00:52:50,840 that are worth more money. 1523 00:52:50,840 --> 00:52:53,120 They also move very slowly, 1524 00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:54,320 three and a half months on average 1525 00:52:54,320 --> 00:52:57,480 takes a long time for a book to move. 1526 00:52:57,480 --> 00:52:59,320 So just recently, yeah, two weeks ago, 1527 00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:00,160 that was the first time 1528 00:53:00,160 --> 00:53:01,800 that I couldn't send any more inventory in, 1529 00:53:01,800 --> 00:53:03,640 and then they changed the storage capacity. 1530 00:53:03,640 --> 00:53:04,480 What was that like for you? 1531 00:53:04,480 --> 00:53:05,640 It was great. 1532 00:53:05,640 --> 00:53:07,080 What do I do? 1533 00:53:07,080 --> 00:53:09,520 Yeah, I mean, I actually was starting to go back, 1534 00:53:09,520 --> 00:53:12,040 and I mean, I knew that this capacity limit thing 1535 00:53:12,040 --> 00:53:13,600 was coming up, so I was like, you know what? 1536 00:53:13,600 --> 00:53:15,920 I'll probably just wait for two weeks 1537 00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:18,240 because I knew that once, again, 1538 00:53:18,240 --> 00:53:20,240 I was gonna have the minimum 100 cubic feet 1539 00:53:20,240 --> 00:53:23,320 that that was gonna be well over a thousand units for books. 1540 00:53:23,320 --> 00:53:24,840 So I was like, okay, I'm still good. 1541 00:53:24,840 --> 00:53:26,800 So it's kind of something I'm kicking down the road. 1542 00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:28,960 Eventually, if I get to that point 1543 00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:31,560 where I have probably it's gonna be close to 2000 books 1544 00:53:31,560 --> 00:53:33,600 is my estimate based upon the numbers. 1545 00:53:33,600 --> 00:53:36,040 Like when I would get to that hundred cubic feet capacity, 1546 00:53:36,040 --> 00:53:38,000 then maybe I'll think about, 1547 00:53:39,520 --> 00:53:41,520 I think I'll have to think about another strategy 1548 00:53:41,520 --> 00:53:42,900 of how to get things to move faster. 1549 00:53:42,900 --> 00:53:44,560 I mean, I know that you can bid for space, 1550 00:53:44,560 --> 00:53:46,000 I'd probably look into that. 1551 00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:49,400 If we're at the club and they're like, 1552 00:53:49,400 --> 00:53:52,680 hey, anybody that's been really affected by restock limits, 1553 00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:53,800 you're not allowed in that line 1554 00:53:53,800 --> 00:53:55,800 just because you had to suffer for one week. 1555 00:53:55,800 --> 00:53:57,840 Yeah, one whole week. 1556 00:53:57,840 --> 00:53:58,680 Two weeks. 1557 00:53:58,680 --> 00:54:02,040 Two weeks, the worst two weeks of my life, man. 1558 00:54:03,200 --> 00:54:05,080 I'm like sitting there for six months. 1559 00:54:05,080 --> 00:54:07,120 I'm still outside in the line shivering, 1560 00:54:07,120 --> 00:54:09,000 waiting to send my stuff in. 1561 00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:10,800 Yeah, I got very fortunate. 1562 00:54:10,800 --> 00:54:12,520 I'll say that, very fortunate. 1563 00:54:12,520 --> 00:54:14,680 I mean, we're all kind of following in your suit, right? 1564 00:54:14,680 --> 00:54:17,400 And we all want to have a higher ASP. 1565 00:54:17,400 --> 00:54:18,520 I'm not sure, like, 1566 00:54:18,520 --> 00:54:20,520 had your mind changed at all with sell through? 1567 00:54:20,520 --> 00:54:21,880 Like, are you thinking about maybe going 1568 00:54:21,880 --> 00:54:23,720 for a little bit faster selling items 1569 00:54:23,720 --> 00:54:26,240 now that you kind of got smacked with restock limits 1570 00:54:26,240 --> 00:54:27,080 for the first time? 1571 00:54:27,080 --> 00:54:28,440 Has it even like come across your mind? 1572 00:54:28,440 --> 00:54:29,920 Like, maybe I only start doing stuff 1573 00:54:29,920 --> 00:54:31,600 that's two and a half months or three months 1574 00:54:31,600 --> 00:54:33,440 versus, you know, three and a half months. 1575 00:54:33,440 --> 00:54:35,240 Yeah, I definitely have changed some things. 1576 00:54:35,240 --> 00:54:37,560 Like originally when I would be buying a book, 1577 00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:39,320 where I'd buy maybe like three or four copies of, 1578 00:54:39,320 --> 00:54:40,260 and it's inherently a book 1579 00:54:40,260 --> 00:54:41,840 that doesn't really move very frequently, 1580 00:54:41,840 --> 00:54:43,600 I would just send all three books to the prep center 1581 00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:44,960 and they'd send it to Amazon. 1582 00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:48,000 Now it's like, you know, I'll send one book 1583 00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:49,920 to the prep center and I'll send the other two to my house 1584 00:54:49,920 --> 00:54:50,960 and I'll let it sit on a shelf. 1585 00:54:50,960 --> 00:54:53,840 And as soon as this book sells and I'll just replenish it 1586 00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:54,800 when I have to, 1587 00:54:54,800 --> 00:54:57,520 because I eventually have to make shipments myself as well. 1588 00:54:57,520 --> 00:54:59,640 Because, you know, I'll get books here again 1589 00:54:59,640 --> 00:55:02,360 that get returned because they got returned by the customer. 1590 00:55:02,360 --> 00:55:04,200 So there are, you know, every, 1591 00:55:04,200 --> 00:55:05,840 usually like once a month I have to send a shipment 1592 00:55:05,840 --> 00:55:08,600 of like 30 or 40 books into Amazon's warehouse. 1593 00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:10,520 So that was one way that I transitioned. 1594 00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:12,040 Yeah, also I was thinking, 1595 00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:15,080 I've actually started to buy books that, 1596 00:55:15,080 --> 00:55:16,640 or I guess this is just to say, 1597 00:55:16,640 --> 00:55:17,760 I started to buy books, 1598 00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:20,200 stop buying books that wouldn't move as, you know, 1599 00:55:20,200 --> 00:55:21,680 that would move more slowly, I should say. 1600 00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:24,240 So I've tried to transition to buying books 1601 00:55:24,240 --> 00:55:26,040 that would move a little bit more quickly. 1602 00:55:26,040 --> 00:55:29,240 And then going back to online arbitrage, traditional OA, 1603 00:55:29,240 --> 00:55:30,520 inherently you're buying products 1604 00:55:30,520 --> 00:55:33,480 that have a much lower ROI, but turn much quicker. 1605 00:55:33,480 --> 00:55:35,280 And the idea is that having a little bit of OA 1606 00:55:35,280 --> 00:55:37,880 in there will probably help with sell through a little bit 1607 00:55:37,880 --> 00:55:38,880 and that will therefore, 1608 00:55:38,880 --> 00:55:42,320 hopefully increase capacity limits a little bit. 1609 00:55:42,320 --> 00:55:43,640 So I had a curious question 1610 00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:45,760 because we talk about college textbooks a lot. 1611 00:55:45,760 --> 00:55:48,000 You never hear a lot about high school textbooks. 1612 00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:49,160 Yeah. 1613 00:55:49,160 --> 00:55:51,520 So what's the game like there, my man? 1614 00:55:51,520 --> 00:55:53,760 Yeah, I think most high school textbooks 1615 00:55:53,760 --> 00:55:55,680 are generally not worth anything. 1616 00:55:55,680 --> 00:55:58,280 There are some, like most of the AP textbook editions, 1617 00:55:58,280 --> 00:56:00,320 those books generally tend to be worth something, 1618 00:56:00,320 --> 00:56:01,480 but just, it's weird. 1619 00:56:01,480 --> 00:56:03,720 Like in my experience selling books, 1620 00:56:03,720 --> 00:56:05,400 like there's just not very many high school books 1621 00:56:05,400 --> 00:56:07,600 that actually hold a bunch of value. 1622 00:56:07,600 --> 00:56:08,440 Interesting. 1623 00:56:08,440 --> 00:56:10,440 Yeah, but there are definitely some out there 1624 00:56:10,440 --> 00:56:12,960 and their textbook season is usually June, July, 1625 00:56:12,960 --> 00:56:13,800 rather than August or September. 1626 00:56:13,800 --> 00:56:15,800 They even have a different season, okay. 1627 00:56:15,800 --> 00:56:16,640 Yeah, they have a different season 1628 00:56:16,640 --> 00:56:19,000 because they buy right before the beginning of the textbook 1629 00:56:19,000 --> 00:56:20,840 or right before the beginning of the year, 1630 00:56:20,840 --> 00:56:23,040 which, yeah, I don't know why. 1631 00:56:23,040 --> 00:56:25,400 It's just a little bit, it's a little bit sooner. 1632 00:56:25,400 --> 00:56:26,360 That's weird. 1633 00:56:26,360 --> 00:56:27,200 It is weird. 1634 00:56:27,200 --> 00:56:28,040 Yeah. 1635 00:56:28,040 --> 00:56:28,880 Stop saying. 1636 00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:30,040 Mike, do high school textbooks. 1637 00:56:30,040 --> 00:56:33,000 You walk in first day of class 1638 00:56:33,000 --> 00:56:35,200 and there's new textbooks for you in the class. 1639 00:56:35,200 --> 00:56:37,000 Are you scanning that barcode? 1640 00:56:37,000 --> 00:56:38,280 The barcode? 1641 00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:39,120 100%. 1642 00:56:39,120 --> 00:56:40,520 Yeah, there we go. 1643 00:56:40,520 --> 00:56:41,360 I knew it. 1644 00:56:42,880 --> 00:56:45,640 I mean, just to know, not that I'm gonna sell them, 1645 00:56:45,640 --> 00:56:49,440 but I just, I wanna know, like if, you know, if. 1646 00:56:49,440 --> 00:56:51,600 At the end of class, you have a little donation bin, 1647 00:56:51,600 --> 00:56:52,960 drop off your textbooks. 1648 00:56:54,120 --> 00:56:55,440 Yeah, I mean, it was funny. 1649 00:56:55,440 --> 00:56:56,760 My first year of teaching, 1650 00:56:56,760 --> 00:56:58,280 they were throwing a whole bunch of textbooks 1651 00:56:58,280 --> 00:56:59,240 into the dumpster. 1652 00:56:59,240 --> 00:57:00,520 And so after school, I went back 1653 00:57:00,520 --> 00:57:02,320 and like was scanning some of them from the dumpster. 1654 00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:03,840 I'm like, I felt so, 1655 00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:05,320 I think I felt like weird about it 1656 00:57:05,320 --> 00:57:07,560 because I was like, I don't know if I should be selling these. 1657 00:57:07,560 --> 00:57:09,400 Like these are from the school. 1658 00:57:09,400 --> 00:57:10,880 You absolutely should. 1659 00:57:10,880 --> 00:57:12,240 But like in my defense, I was thinking, 1660 00:57:12,240 --> 00:57:13,800 what's the worst case scenario that's gonna happen? 1661 00:57:13,800 --> 00:57:15,800 They're gonna write a newspaper article that says, 1662 00:57:15,800 --> 00:57:19,680 teacher selling books from the dumpster to make ends meet. 1663 00:57:19,680 --> 00:57:21,320 I'm like, that's not that bad of a headline. 1664 00:57:21,320 --> 00:57:22,160 Like that'd be actually. 1665 00:57:22,160 --> 00:57:24,440 No, it's gonna be teacher was dumpster diving 1666 00:57:24,440 --> 00:57:25,840 to sell textbooks. 1667 00:57:25,840 --> 00:57:27,200 That's a much better headline. 1668 00:57:27,200 --> 00:57:28,600 No, I got it right here. 1669 00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:30,240 This would be it, right? 1670 00:57:30,240 --> 00:57:34,520 He's no longer Joji Davenport, he's dumpster Davenport, right? 1671 00:57:34,520 --> 00:57:38,160 And all the kids and teachers and faculty point and laugh 1672 00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:41,360 at dumpster Davenport every time he shows up. 1673 00:57:41,360 --> 00:57:42,920 But when he drives up his Mercedes, 1674 00:57:42,920 --> 00:57:44,960 the name calling is not so bad. 1675 00:57:44,960 --> 00:57:46,240 That is true all of a sudden. 1676 00:57:46,240 --> 00:57:48,120 They're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, he was on the song. 1677 00:57:48,120 --> 00:57:50,320 It's true, I'm dumpster Davenport, it's cool. 1678 00:57:50,320 --> 00:57:55,160 Have you like personally tried to get other people 1679 00:57:55,160 --> 00:57:58,160 that you know in real life into the business, right? 1680 00:57:58,160 --> 00:58:00,600 Because you kind of, you have proof of concept 1681 00:58:00,600 --> 00:58:01,560 and everything. 1682 00:58:01,560 --> 00:58:03,840 And I can admit, I've tried to get, you know, 1683 00:58:03,840 --> 00:58:06,480 some of my in real life friends and it's just not for them. 1684 00:58:06,480 --> 00:58:08,200 Have you tried ever going that route and be like, 1685 00:58:08,200 --> 00:58:10,440 hey, you know, like, this is something you could do 1686 00:58:10,440 --> 00:58:11,520 to make money? 1687 00:58:11,520 --> 00:58:13,400 Yeah, I mean, I got my dad into it. 1688 00:58:13,400 --> 00:58:15,320 My dad's been selling since like 2017. 1689 00:58:15,320 --> 00:58:16,400 So I taught him how to do it. 1690 00:58:16,400 --> 00:58:18,480 He doesn't do books, he does all like DVD 1691 00:58:18,480 --> 00:58:20,320 and he does like ties on eBay. 1692 00:58:20,320 --> 00:58:23,200 So it is ties on eBay and he does DVD. 1693 00:58:23,200 --> 00:58:25,720 So he goes to his local, you know, local thrift stores 1694 00:58:25,720 --> 00:58:27,240 in the area and he'll literally just pick up a whole bunch 1695 00:58:27,240 --> 00:58:29,040 of sealed DVs and flip them that way. 1696 00:58:29,040 --> 00:58:31,280 And he got ungated early on in the game 1697 00:58:31,280 --> 00:58:33,520 when it wasn't so easy, when there wasn't this guy, 1698 00:58:33,520 --> 00:58:35,120 you know, Mike, the used book guy, 1699 00:58:35,120 --> 00:58:37,200 just telling everyone how to get ungated for free. 1700 00:58:37,200 --> 00:58:39,880 So that darn guy, he's, but anyways. 1701 00:58:39,880 --> 00:58:40,720 I ruined it. 1702 00:58:40,720 --> 00:58:41,560 I ruined it. 1703 00:58:41,560 --> 00:58:42,400 You did ruin it. 1704 00:58:42,400 --> 00:58:44,000 But I think my dad, like back in the day, 1705 00:58:44,000 --> 00:58:47,040 I think he paid like $250 to get ungated in DVD 1706 00:58:47,040 --> 00:58:49,440 because back then, like it's become so much easier 1707 00:58:49,440 --> 00:58:51,640 to get ungated and stuff because the information out there 1708 00:58:51,640 --> 00:58:53,600 has, you know, there's people like Mike out there 1709 00:58:53,600 --> 00:58:55,720 willing to give that information out for free. 1710 00:58:55,720 --> 00:58:57,920 And so I got my dad into it. 1711 00:58:57,920 --> 00:58:59,560 I got my mom into it a little bit as well. 1712 00:58:59,560 --> 00:59:02,880 Like after the pandemic, she got furloughed. 1713 00:59:02,880 --> 00:59:06,440 And so I taught her how to do some textbook flipping as well. 1714 00:59:06,440 --> 00:59:07,400 She got a new job. 1715 00:59:07,400 --> 00:59:08,960 It wasn't necessarily for her. 1716 00:59:08,960 --> 00:59:10,320 Yeah, I've tried to teach some of my friends. 1717 00:59:10,320 --> 00:59:14,240 Like I still remember 2017, 2018, 1718 00:59:14,240 --> 00:59:15,760 I could go into the campus bookstore 1719 00:59:15,760 --> 00:59:17,280 and they had a clearance section. 1720 00:59:17,280 --> 00:59:19,000 And some of the books on that clearance section 1721 00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:20,080 were like great books. 1722 00:59:20,080 --> 00:59:22,160 Like I probably made at least a few thousand dollars 1723 00:59:22,160 --> 00:59:25,080 from the textbook store where they were just taking 1724 00:59:25,080 --> 00:59:26,680 a hundred dollar books and putting them on clearance 1725 00:59:26,680 --> 00:59:29,160 for 20 bucks because they were no longer being used, 1726 00:59:29,160 --> 00:59:31,000 but they still had value with them. 1727 00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:35,360 So I remember taking one of my friends into the bookstore 1728 00:59:35,360 --> 00:59:38,040 and scanning the books with the Amazon seller app. 1729 00:59:38,040 --> 00:59:41,640 And at that time, Amazon would offer back gift cards for, 1730 00:59:41,640 --> 00:59:43,480 they would actually do buybacks themselves. 1731 00:59:43,480 --> 00:59:46,200 So I said, hey man, take this book, buy it for 20, 1732 00:59:46,200 --> 00:59:47,240 slip it back to Amazon. 1733 00:59:47,240 --> 00:59:49,160 They'll give you a $75 gift card. 1734 00:59:49,160 --> 00:59:51,360 And I think he found that super interesting, 1735 00:59:51,360 --> 00:59:52,400 but then he never did anything. 1736 00:59:52,400 --> 00:59:53,960 So yeah, going back to what you said, Mike, 1737 00:59:53,960 --> 00:59:56,120 I think just most people are not really interested. 1738 00:59:56,120 --> 00:59:57,880 They don't have that mindset, which is not bad. 1739 00:59:57,880 --> 00:59:59,200 It's just, I just don't think, 1740 00:59:59,200 --> 01:00:00,760 I think we're a unique kind of breed. 1741 01:00:00,760 --> 01:00:01,840 You know what I mean? 1742 01:00:02,880 --> 01:00:06,240 Yeah, it's one of those things where you gotta kinda, 1743 01:00:06,240 --> 01:00:08,680 kinda get into it and you know, yeah, sure. 1744 01:00:08,680 --> 01:00:10,120 Somebody can flip something once, 1745 01:00:10,120 --> 01:00:12,360 but that's really not gonna get them hooked on, you know, 1746 01:00:12,360 --> 01:00:13,680 convincing somebody, right? 1747 01:00:13,680 --> 01:00:15,680 You know, you tell your family and friends like, yeah, 1748 01:00:15,680 --> 01:00:17,520 I make a full-time income selling books 1749 01:00:17,520 --> 01:00:18,760 and they're like, you're nuts. 1750 01:00:18,760 --> 01:00:20,320 Like that doesn't even make sense. 1751 01:00:20,320 --> 01:00:21,160 Like we- 1752 01:00:21,160 --> 01:00:21,980 Get a real job. 1753 01:00:21,980 --> 01:00:23,120 Yeah, get a real job. 1754 01:00:23,120 --> 01:00:24,840 Like it's crazy to think about. 1755 01:00:24,840 --> 01:00:27,760 So like, kinda here to round this out for somebody 1756 01:00:27,760 --> 01:00:30,520 that was on the fence and they kinda wanted to start doing 1757 01:00:30,520 --> 01:00:33,200 what you were doing, eBay to Amazon flips. 1758 01:00:33,200 --> 01:00:35,920 Like what would kinda be like your best advice 1759 01:00:35,920 --> 01:00:38,480 for somebody that wanted to start today 1760 01:00:38,480 --> 01:00:40,660 and just get into the business head on 1761 01:00:40,660 --> 01:00:42,080 and fully commit to it? 1762 01:00:43,400 --> 01:00:45,000 Yeah, I mean, I'll back up in saying that 1763 01:00:45,000 --> 01:00:46,980 most of my business is not actually eBay to Amazon. 1764 01:00:46,980 --> 01:00:48,400 Most of it's Amazon to Amazon. 1765 01:00:48,400 --> 01:00:52,000 I'd say about 25% of the books I sell is eBay to Amazon. 1766 01:00:52,000 --> 01:00:53,480 Then the other 50% is like, 1767 01:00:53,480 --> 01:00:55,480 50, 60% is more Amazon to Amazon. 1768 01:00:55,480 --> 01:00:57,620 But if it was somebody who's just getting started, 1769 01:00:57,620 --> 01:01:00,240 I would, specifically with Amazon and selling books, 1770 01:01:00,240 --> 01:01:02,160 I would actually not recommend doing online arbitrage. 1771 01:01:02,160 --> 01:01:04,280 I'd recommend going to thrift stores, 1772 01:01:04,280 --> 01:01:06,320 library sales, Offra, Facebook marketplace, 1773 01:01:06,320 --> 01:01:08,380 your local area and learning cheaply 1774 01:01:08,380 --> 01:01:09,560 because you're gonna make mistakes 1775 01:01:09,560 --> 01:01:11,680 and it's best to learn them more cheaply. 1776 01:01:11,680 --> 01:01:14,200 So I would say if you're somebody who's thinking 1777 01:01:14,200 --> 01:01:16,620 about long-term transitioning into this sort of work, 1778 01:01:16,620 --> 01:01:19,440 then keep your nine to five job, 1779 01:01:19,440 --> 01:01:22,400 go out and hustle when you have some time 1780 01:01:22,400 --> 01:01:25,880 and learn the ropes and then maybe transition. 1781 01:01:25,880 --> 01:01:28,080 But I also wanna give people some context. 1782 01:01:28,080 --> 01:01:30,440 I sold $105,000 in books last year. 1783 01:01:30,440 --> 01:01:32,400 It's only $30,000 in profit. 1784 01:01:32,400 --> 01:01:34,040 And if you think about $30,000 income, 1785 01:01:34,040 --> 01:01:36,160 that's not like an amazing income. 1786 01:01:36,160 --> 01:01:38,660 That's not, I mean, that's probably like, 1787 01:01:38,660 --> 01:01:41,360 I mean, I don't know, minimum wage is like $20,000 1788 01:01:41,360 --> 01:01:42,200 or something. 1789 01:01:42,200 --> 01:01:44,440 So it's not like it's an amazing income. 1790 01:01:44,440 --> 01:01:47,200 But I also did that basically two hours a day 1791 01:01:47,200 --> 01:01:49,600 throughout the whole year and I have a nine to five job. 1792 01:01:49,600 --> 01:01:52,880 So when you add $30,000 onto what you already make 1793 01:01:52,880 --> 01:01:54,920 at your normal job, then it is pretty significant. 1794 01:01:54,920 --> 01:01:57,640 So if, I don't wanna come across 1795 01:01:57,640 --> 01:01:59,040 like I'm making butt loads of money, 1796 01:01:59,040 --> 01:02:01,200 it's like, just put it into context. 1797 01:02:01,200 --> 01:02:03,200 People who have massive orange bars 1798 01:02:03,200 --> 01:02:05,040 usually have very, very low margins. 1799 01:02:05,040 --> 01:02:08,120 So, you know, think of, I have people like comment 1800 01:02:08,120 --> 01:02:09,520 on my Instagram when I show what I sell 1801 01:02:09,520 --> 01:02:11,440 and like, dude, your margins are insane. 1802 01:02:11,440 --> 01:02:13,240 And they think an insane margin is 1803 01:02:13,240 --> 01:02:16,320 you sold $105,000 in books and you made 30 grand profit. 1804 01:02:16,320 --> 01:02:18,160 So for guys out there that are doing 1805 01:02:18,160 --> 01:02:19,480 hundreds of thousands of dollars, 1806 01:02:19,480 --> 01:02:20,640 like they're still making good money, 1807 01:02:20,640 --> 01:02:23,840 but also know that that's not a profit 1808 01:02:23,840 --> 01:02:25,640 and it's not easy either. 1809 01:02:25,640 --> 01:02:26,720 It's like, you gotta put in the work, 1810 01:02:26,720 --> 01:02:28,040 you gotta put in the reps. 1811 01:02:28,040 --> 01:02:30,600 And I would just say, yeah, I don't know 1812 01:02:30,600 --> 01:02:32,760 if that's good advice, but learn from these guys. 1813 01:02:32,760 --> 01:02:34,400 Obviously they're teaching you how to do it. 1814 01:02:34,400 --> 01:02:36,480 Ask good questions and just learn from your mistakes 1815 01:02:36,480 --> 01:02:39,320 and scale slowly, still scale sustainably. 1816 01:02:40,240 --> 01:02:42,360 Don't wanna be any last questions for Joji. 1817 01:02:44,440 --> 01:02:49,240 What has been the biggest thing you learned during 2022? 1818 01:02:49,240 --> 01:02:50,360 2022. 1819 01:02:52,360 --> 01:02:54,040 I would say the biggest thing, 1820 01:02:54,040 --> 01:02:55,560 it's not even related to books. 1821 01:02:55,560 --> 01:02:56,920 It's more online arbitrage. 1822 01:02:56,920 --> 01:02:59,400 I learned that online arbitrage, traditional OA 1823 01:02:59,400 --> 01:03:01,720 is actually much easier than I thought it would be, 1824 01:03:01,720 --> 01:03:04,120 which is why I kinda wanna start transitioning 1825 01:03:04,120 --> 01:03:05,280 into that a little bit, 1826 01:03:05,280 --> 01:03:07,560 because I see that it can be very lucrative. 1827 01:03:07,560 --> 01:03:11,880 And I think that, yeah, I think that's one thing. 1828 01:03:11,880 --> 01:03:14,160 YouTube space, I learned that networking with people 1829 01:03:14,160 --> 01:03:15,040 is actually really big. 1830 01:03:15,040 --> 01:03:18,600 I went to the Miami Seller's Conference, 1831 01:03:18,600 --> 01:03:19,440 which was huge for me. 1832 01:03:19,440 --> 01:03:21,560 I was able to meet some really cool people. 1833 01:03:21,560 --> 01:03:24,640 I was, yeah, so I would say networking with people 1834 01:03:24,640 --> 01:03:26,480 is really key, meeting cool people like yourself 1835 01:03:26,480 --> 01:03:29,080 is actually really helpful as well. 1836 01:03:29,080 --> 01:03:31,640 When you leave books, we will miss you, Joji. 1837 01:03:31,640 --> 01:03:32,480 And we will look- 1838 01:03:32,480 --> 01:03:34,440 Well, I'm never, because I'm never leaving books. 1839 01:03:34,440 --> 01:03:37,480 I'm just also gonna have books on top of it, so yeah. 1840 01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:39,160 You'll be doing one book a week, 1841 01:03:39,160 --> 01:03:42,200 and I'm still flipping books. 1842 01:03:42,200 --> 01:03:43,960 900 deodorant sticks, yeah. 1843 01:03:43,960 --> 01:03:46,240 Yes, 900 deodorant sticks. 1844 01:03:46,240 --> 01:03:47,600 Yeah. 1845 01:03:47,600 --> 01:03:50,200 So if anybody's interested in finding out, 1846 01:03:50,200 --> 01:03:51,040 Joji's whole thing, 1847 01:03:51,040 --> 01:03:53,280 he does live streams on YouTube all the time. 1848 01:03:53,280 --> 01:03:56,840 If you're listening, Joji, J-O-J-I, Davenport, 1849 01:03:56,840 --> 01:03:59,920 D-A-V-E-N-P-O-R-T, if you're watching on YouTube, 1850 01:03:59,920 --> 01:04:02,200 it's literally his YouTube channel, it's just his name. 1851 01:04:02,200 --> 01:04:03,840 He doesn't try to be all fancy like me 1852 01:04:03,840 --> 01:04:05,480 and put the used book guy, 1853 01:04:05,480 --> 01:04:08,000 because I gotta tell people exactly what I do, right? 1854 01:04:08,000 --> 01:04:11,200 It's like, it's the only way somebody comes to my channel. 1855 01:04:11,200 --> 01:04:13,240 If I had just my name, I'd be nobody. 1856 01:04:13,240 --> 01:04:16,280 I never ask you what you do, like dude, it's in the name. 1857 01:04:16,280 --> 01:04:17,560 Yeah. 1858 01:04:17,560 --> 01:04:19,560 So we appreciate you all listening to this episode, 1859 01:04:19,560 --> 01:04:22,280 and we'll talk to you guys next week. 1860 01:04:22,280 --> 01:04:24,440 Awesome, thanks guys, appreciate it. 1861 01:04:24,440 --> 01:04:26,040 Thanks for listening to another episode 1862 01:04:26,040 --> 01:04:28,080 of the Resellers Mindset Podcast. 1863 01:04:28,080 --> 01:04:30,400 Today's full episode and all previous episodes 1864 01:04:30,400 --> 01:04:32,520 are available to all YouTube members, 1865 01:04:32,520 --> 01:04:35,320 along with the weekly Zoom call and private Discord. 1866 01:04:35,320 --> 01:04:38,480 Head on over to youtube.com backslash to use book guy 1867 01:04:38,480 --> 01:04:57,480 and consider joining for as little as 2.99 a month.