1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,460 Welcome back to another episode of the Resellers Mindset Podcast. 2 00:00:03,460 --> 00:00:06,980 My name is Mike, also known as the used book guy on YouTube, along with my friend 3 00:00:06,980 --> 00:00:09,120 and fellow full-time reseller, Johnny B. 4 00:00:09,460 --> 00:00:12,720 We help people start and grow their reselling businesses from the ground up. 5 00:00:12,940 --> 00:00:16,620 We also have a weekly zoom call and private discord for all YouTube members. 6 00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:21,180 Head on over to youtube.com backslash use book guy to join the channel and gain 7 00:00:21,180 --> 00:00:25,460 access to the full length podcast zoom call and private discord today. 8 00:00:25,660 --> 00:00:27,360 Let's get into this week's episode. 9 00:00:27,420 --> 00:00:28,420 What is up everybody? 10 00:00:28,420 --> 00:00:34,800 Welcome into episode 29 Resellers Mindset Podcast, special guest today, Max Ruback. 11 00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:40,560 I personally heard of Max through the Books and Bourbon podcast, probably a few months ago. 12 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:44,360 I did not know he existed before then, but he has a very interesting business, right? 13 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:48,700 He has an eBay store, full-time seller, but he also does consignment with, you know, 14 00:00:48,700 --> 00:00:50,360 Amazon sellers like myself. 15 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:52,000 We're going to throw it over to Max here. 16 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:54,760 He's going to introduce himself, his business, and then we'll kind of just bounce 17 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:59,140 some questions off of him and, you know, see what he's really getting into over there. 18 00:00:59,140 --> 00:00:59,880 Well, thank you. 19 00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:01,520 I'm honored to be here with you today. 20 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:09,520 I'm Max Ruback, Common Ground Finds on eBay, common ground finds, underscore on IG. 21 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:11,760 That's about all the social media I do. 22 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:18,360 I've been a full-time book and I would say art seller for about two and a half years 23 00:01:18,360 --> 00:01:24,500 now, but prior to that, I was doing it for about six years and doing that as a side 24 00:01:24,500 --> 00:01:29,480 hustle as I was a high school teacher for 18 years before I retired. 25 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:36,080 And then what happened slowly but surely is the side hustle became much more 26 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:39,080 powerful than the career job. 27 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:41,160 And so I had to make a choice. 28 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:42,760 COVID happened. 29 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:44,520 Book sales were going up. 30 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:47,800 People were actually buying a lot of art at that time too, during COVID, which 31 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:49,000 is unexplainable to me. 32 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:54,040 And so I was at that crossroads in my life, 18 years teaching, trying to go to 30, get 33 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:58,960 that pension or, or do what I was really enjoying, which was selling books and art. 34 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:03,280 And I chose the books and art and I haven't looked back since. 35 00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:07,360 I've had a couple of great breaks along the way that has really exploded my 36 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:13,800 business nationally and now just forging ahead with the antiquarian, hard 37 00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:15,160 to find and real book business. 38 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:16,440 I'm curious. 39 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:17,600 You were a teacher at the time. 40 00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:19,560 I'm curious, you were a teacher, right? 41 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:22,560 And from my understanding, teaching is a job of love, right? 42 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:24,520 Teachers are underpaid in this country. 43 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:27,160 So like it, for me, it's a little bit different, right? 44 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:28,200 I worked at CBS. 45 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:29,160 I hated my job. 46 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:33,120 So like the first, you know, once I got it to a point where I could jump out, I jumped out. 47 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:35,560 So I'm curious, was it different for you since you were teaching? 48 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:38,480 I'm sure you got enjoyment out of that, you know, teaching the kids everything. 49 00:02:38,640 --> 00:02:42,240 So was it more of like a hard decision when it came to, it's really not just about 50 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:44,880 the money in your case, because you enjoy teaching so much. 51 00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:49,040 Along with teaching, I was also a girls high school basketball coach. 52 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:56,040 And so I have great memories, but I love the coaching more than the teaching. 53 00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:59,600 The teaching I enjoyed, but it wasn't a passion that I had. 54 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:08,280 And, you know, what happened was I was doing the books just as a side hustle. 55 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:12,400 And it just kept growing and growing and growing. 56 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:18,400 And I was selling a lot more books than I had ever dreamed of selling using eBay as a platform. 57 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:24,920 And so it was actually an easy decision and a decision that I wanted to make probably two years 58 00:03:24,920 --> 00:03:26,120 in the making in my mind. 59 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:30,360 I said, once I hit this number, I'm going to get out. 60 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:38,120 And so I was just, I kept striving for that number for two years, learning what I had to do to make that number. 61 00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:42,600 And once I started hitting that number consistently, I really didn't look back. 62 00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:53,880 I enjoy thoroughly the life change that I made, owning my time and working and living out of my house 63 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:55,400 and selling the books and the art. 64 00:03:56,360 --> 00:04:01,360 So I noticed you said you do consigning for Amazon sellers. 65 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:07,160 Outside of those people, does any facet of your business involve Amazon on your side? 66 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:10,960 Very little Amazon. 67 00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:20,160 If I walk into an estate sale and there's 300 cookbooks, all barcode cookbooks, I know that I would, you know, 68 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:23,320 I wouldn't scan those books. 69 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:25,520 I would just look at the collection as a whole. 70 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:27,320 I would make an offer on everything. 71 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:32,240 And then, you know, I would buy everything and then scan what I can for Amazon. 72 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:36,920 But Amazon is probably less than less than 5% of my business. 73 00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:38,440 Gotcha. 74 00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:41,640 Now, how did you get into the consigning with Amazon sellers? 75 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:45,520 Because antique sellers and Amazon sellers, there seems to be a gigantic divide. 76 00:04:46,840 --> 00:04:52,720 When I was when I was selling books just on eBay for myself, these videos, 77 00:04:52,720 --> 00:05:00,520 and podcasts started popping up several years ago, and I was getting very angry in a calm way 78 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:08,720 about watching Amazon sellers talking about duds and recycling duds and throwing away duds. 79 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:16,920 And I kept saying to myself, they're throwing more money away in eBay books that they don't know about. 80 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:21,920 Just because they're looking for all barcodes. 81 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:25,920 Well, what happens if there's a book in there without barcode that's worth $500? 82 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:34,920 And I knew I knew based on what I've done and my experience working in an antiquarian bookstore for many years, 83 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:38,920 I knew that in these Gaylords, there was money that was untapped. 84 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:41,920 There was they were just scanning, scanning, scanning. 85 00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:46,920 And then they would make videos and talk about recycling what's left. 86 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:51,920 So I started coming up with a vision of trying to contact some of these people, 87 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:56,920 some of these Amazon sellers and saying, hey, I'm pioneering this idea. 88 00:05:56,920 --> 00:05:58,920 I don't know how it's going to work yet. 89 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:01,920 I don't know how I'm going to make it happen. 90 00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:03,920 But here's what you're missing. 91 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:07,920 And I'm going to make it happen. 92 00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:14,920 Here's what you're missing. And it started to happen little by little. 93 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:16,920 I would contact. They would give me a shot. 94 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:20,920 They'd give me a chance to do it with them. 95 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:32,920 And I think one of the first sellers that I got who was an Amazon guy had about 400 modern library books, all with dust jackets. 96 00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:35,920 That was some professor's collection. 97 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:38,920 He was just a collector. And of course, he passed away. 98 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:42,920 The collection went to some thrift store, ended up being in a Gaylord. 99 00:06:42,920 --> 00:06:45,920 This guy got this guy got the Gaylord. 100 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:50,920 And he started just showing me pictures of these books saying, are these worth anything? 101 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:54,920 And I couldn't act fast enough. 102 00:06:54,920 --> 00:06:56,920 That was probably two years ago. 103 00:06:56,920 --> 00:07:03,920 I mean, we sold 300 of those 400 in the first 90 days. 104 00:07:03,920 --> 00:07:09,920 And so, of course, he likes that consignor that Amazon consignor loves my business plan. 105 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:18,920 And so now he sends me pictures all the time about what he's finding in Gaylord's using my eBay store. 106 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:23,920 He'll go on my eBay store and sort of look at what I'm listing, look at what I'm selling. 107 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:28,920 And then he'll ask me questions every now and then. 108 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:36,920 And he'll learn and he'll get better at what to pick from Gaylord's than he did say a year ago. 109 00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:43,920 And so I just kept peppering different Amazon sellers that I had relationships with saying this is what I'm doing. 110 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:50,920 And then I was speaking with Caleb Roth for about a year from Books & Bourbon and Scout IQ. 111 00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:53,920 And he said, you have a good idea. 112 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:58,920 We're going to put you on the show. And once I did that show, all hell broke loose. 113 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:01,920 All hell broke loose. 114 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:08,920 Nowadays, my phone gets pictures and videos of books all day long from people all across the country. 115 00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:16,920 And so I'm thumbs up in pictures and I'm thumbs down in pictures and whatever I thumbs up goes in a box, eventually comes my way. 116 00:08:16,920 --> 00:08:27,920 And we get them listed and we use a three letter code most of the time to identify whose books are whose in the title. 117 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:35,920 So it's a very busy business now. It's 100 times busier than I ever planned on it being. 118 00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:44,920 But it also reaffirms my belief that great books and great money, what I call paper gold, it's everywhere. 119 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:47,920 I have you can. 120 00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:56,920 There's so many people out there who can make a full time living from books if they put a little bit of work in a little bit of effort and they understand this market. 121 00:08:56,920 --> 00:09:03,920 Just like you had asked me earlier about the Halloween books. 122 00:09:03,920 --> 00:09:10,920 Those came from a gay lord. And I believe they came from a gay lord in Indiana. 123 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:19,920 And the gay lord had thousands of paperback horror novels. 124 00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:25,920 Yeah. So these this paper gold is in gay lords all the time. 125 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:28,920 You know, you just have to know what to find. 126 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:33,920 So that being said, the business isn't stopping anytime soon. 127 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:42,920 There's there's great. You know, I think my inventory today is probably better than it was two years ago and better than it was four years ago. 128 00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:47,920 So what will it be with the more consignors I find across the country? 129 00:09:47,920 --> 00:09:53,920 How good will my inventory be in another two years? Because the progressively just gets better. 130 00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:59,920 I think about this all the time, right? When I first started Amazon, I was, you know, I was the person that was making you cry on the inside. 131 00:09:59,920 --> 00:10:04,920 No barcode. It's not worth anything like I don't even want to know how much I've thrown away. 132 00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:14,920 And I still do think that, you know, 90 plus percent of Amazon sellers, if they see a bookcase and there's no barcodes, they are not even thinking twice. 133 00:10:14,920 --> 00:10:17,920 They're not even going to look at that bookcase. They're moving on right to the next one. 134 00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:27,920 And I think the argument could be made that if you have two bookcases with the same amount of books next to each other, one has books with barcodes and one has books, you know, pre-ISBN error, 135 00:10:27,920 --> 00:10:33,920 that you would make more money off the pre-ISBN error bookcase than you would the scannable barcode bookcase. 136 00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:50,920 Yeah, I'm a firm believer in that. I'm a firm believer that whatever an Amazon seller is paying for a Gaylord, I think eight out of ten times they're going to if they use my knowledge and use my facilities, 137 00:10:50,920 --> 00:10:58,920 they would make more money from those eBay books than they're making from those Amazon books, unless those Amazon books are a Gaylord full of textbooks. 138 00:10:58,920 --> 00:11:10,920 I would agree with that wholeheartedly. The crux of that argument that the Amazon Gaylord people I don't think want to endure is it's a little harder on eBay, a little bit more work to be put in. 139 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:15,920 Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it is more work. 140 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:26,920 My consignors, they all have a different way of sending me pictures of books. Some of them just stack them on tables and as long as I see the spines, I'm good. 141 00:11:26,920 --> 00:11:35,920 Some of them make one minute videos for me and they just flip through them and I'll reply what I want sent my way. 142 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:49,920 But you can go through my store, you can go through my history of just a year, and I've sold books, I probably sold well over 50 books 143 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:53,920 for consignors that are over $500 each. 144 00:11:53,920 --> 00:12:07,920 Matter of fact, I sold one about eight months ago. No barcode of course no cover, no front cover no back cover. It was signed by a yogi in 1935. 145 00:12:07,920 --> 00:12:21,920 Horrible signature, but if you knew what if you knew the subject matter of the book you would put more research into it, and that book sold for well over $1,000, and it would be what every Amazon and eBay seller would have thrown this book away 146 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:27,920 just based on its physical appearance without having a cover on front and back. 147 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:31,920 Gotcha. It was just a shredded pile of paper. 148 00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:45,920 Now I've sold some real winners missing covers before I hear you. So, with all this influx because of your publicity off of Caleb show. Did you have to bring in people to help with the, the input output. 149 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:51,920 Yeah, I have, I have two employees right now. 150 00:12:51,920 --> 00:12:57,920 And they do all of the listing for me. And one of them does most of my shipping. 151 00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:09,920 So what I'm really doing is I'm, I'm talking with clients and customers most of the day, and then I'm the one who prices the books and answers questions that come across the eBay platform. 152 00:13:09,920 --> 00:13:20,920 I couldn't do it without the employees they are they are huge asset to me, I just couldn't do we're selling too much for me to be able to ship list and do everything by myself. 153 00:13:20,920 --> 00:13:33,920 No, I'm with you I had to bring in my first employee in January because I have just so much so I hear you. It's a great asset to have though you want you want that you want to be that's how that's how we scale up. 154 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:47,920 Yeah, it's almost how I, I'm almost double what I was doing solo as far as my output and listings it's and that's what you want. Yeah, you want more time also to find this stuff that you like to sell. 155 00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:52,920 And if you're if you're at home shipping all the time or you're at home pricing all the time. 156 00:13:52,920 --> 00:14:00,920 You're not going out to try to find find that paper gold at the thrift stores or the estate sales or make those connections you need. 157 00:14:00,920 --> 00:14:03,920 So, without. 158 00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:19,920 How much of your business is commission versus you going out and finding this stuff for your, for your own self. It's growing but I'm probably about 30 to 35% consigner right now and six between 1670% it's still my original inventory or things that I'm still finding 159 00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:21,920 myself. 160 00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:41,920 My number was probably 20 to 25% a year ago. Right. So, sooner or later it's going to be a 5050 split, which is fine I mean I what I care about is just having great books in my inventory, great, desirable books for the book buyers. 161 00:14:41,920 --> 00:14:53,920 So whether those books come from Washington State or Austin, Texas or Boston, Massachusetts, or a small town in Georgia. It doesn't matter. 162 00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:58,920 You know where it comes from as long as the inventory is something that I believe I could sell. 163 00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:08,920 Now on your commission deals with your clients, you have because people get sent offers on eBay. You have a threshold where you're not allowed to take an offer. 164 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:22,920 It has to be a very special book on any any special book that may be 300 or over. I always tell the consigner that I would talk to them first before I accept any offers so they have a little power and control. 165 00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:35,920 I price high anyways because eBay you just get low ballers all day. So, so I price high enough to win a low ball is usually around the number that I like anyways. 166 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:40,920 If not, then we just counter offer or we decline. 167 00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:49,920 I love the process of selling books I love the journey of selling books. So that's never a headache to me. 168 00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:52,920 I don't collect books myself. 169 00:15:52,920 --> 00:16:05,920 Like those Halloween that trio of Halloween paperbacks it's cool to have it's cool to see it. I know it's desirable. But if someone were to buy it today I'd be just as happy as putting them in a box and set send them out. 170 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:12,920 I don't need to collect I just, I, having the store in the great inventory is what's vital and important to me. 171 00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:24,920 Right so I got a few questions about your business right so because there's a lot of people that kind of just start with Amazon selling books they really, really don't get into books on eBay it's a different beast so like, say for example I'm a new bookseller, 172 00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:32,920 and I come across all these antique books right and I don't know you from a hole in the wall right I'll just, I hear about you on this podcast. 173 00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:43,920 I'm a new seller and I have all these antique books like, I guess the question is like, is somebody that's brand new versus maybe you know Johnny B who's been doing the business for a while. 174 00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:52,920 You're open to taking brand new clients on even if it's somebody that just started selling books as long as the quality of the stuff is there I guess. 175 00:16:52,920 --> 00:17:00,920 Yeah, I mean, um, I have, I have a younger client who just started with me about six months ago. 176 00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:08,920 But I can tell him speaking with him how hungry he was, um, and that he was going to be out there looking for stuff. 177 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:17,920 And we sold the, we sold a book for him for $500 in the first 30 days that he did business with me. 178 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:34,920 And he, he sends me pictures every day he's on the road he's out there and, you know, I'm saying no to 80 to 90% of what what he's sending me pictures of, but there's 10% that he is now making money from. 179 00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:40,920 And he's probably selling five to 10 books a week from me now. 180 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:47,920 And you know 40 books 40 books, a month is nothing to laugh at. 181 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:49,920 As you are learning this business. 182 00:17:49,920 --> 00:18:03,920 And what one thing that I love about this business is his eye is getting better and his eye and knowledge is getting sharper. So he knows what pictures to send me better now than when he first started say six months ago. 183 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:12,920 Everybody wants to send me pictures of every book from the 1800s. Well, that the 1800s in book language is not that old. 184 00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:20,920 It's all to us as human beings but it's not it's just not a, not a very old book. 185 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:26,920 And so cultivating that knowledge for people allows my business to run a little bit more efficiently to. 186 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:41,920 So, so I send you a picture of a book will say is maybe it's a like I did, yes, yesterday and you got back to me. So, he does respond he doesn't leave you on a red for you know days at a time right you don't have to stay overnight at the goodwill 187 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:43,920 to get an answer. 188 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:56,920 So like, do you have a minimum price like if somebody sending you photos of a book, because you have the knowledge base of what something's going to sell for like, is there a minimum price something has to be to make it worth your time and I guess in the, in my time to. 189 00:18:56,920 --> 00:18:57,920 Yeah. 190 00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:03,920 It's a good question. You know, I don't like to sell anything for under $12. 191 00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:17,920 But I've, I've have plenty of clients who go to a state sales, and I'll go live with them, so they'll call me and they'll say okay Max I'm going to be in the state sale. 192 00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:27,920 Here's the time difference. And they'll go live with me they'll put their earpiece in and they'll scan the shelves for me and I'll literally tell them what the pool. 193 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:33,920 So it's like, I'm at that estate sale in Arizona with them from Florida. 194 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:48,920 And, and a lot of times, somebody will just get a stack of 10 to $20 books they're all just right next to each other. And if they can send me two boxes of $15 average books. 195 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:50,920 Everyone's going to make money. 196 00:19:50,920 --> 00:20:01,920 And that's not what I'm really looking for ultimately I'm looking really for that paper gold I'm looking for those $50 books those hundred dollar books those thousand dollar books. 197 00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:11,920 But in the process of waiting for those needles and the haystacks, you grab the other stuff that you believe that can sell to. 198 00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:21,920 I have a couple questions. One, do you deal with international people, and on that note, who pays for the stamp. 199 00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:39,920 So, I will pay half the shipping for consignor who sends me boxes of books. Once I develop that relationship with them. But there has to be a three to six month window, where I know they're going to consistently send me, send me boxes of books. 200 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:44,920 I get boxes of books, every day, delivered to my house. 201 00:20:44,920 --> 00:21:01,920 So there's always money waiting outside my door from consignors and sometimes they send it without me even realizing that they've said that so I might get, I might get four boxes tomorrow to could be from Arizona one could be from Idaho and one could be from Delaware 202 00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:11,920 and I've already forgotten what's what these people are sending me so it's kind of like a treasure treasure hunt when you get back in that box and you see what they've sent you. 203 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:20,920 But I'll pay half the shipping once I develop that relationship with them. And I know that they're capable of sending the sending some good paper gold all the time. 204 00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:34,920 So it doesn't matter if they're US based or Australia, I have, I have two consignors who are well I have two consignors who in Canada, and that gets a little tricky sometimes but we find our way around it, but I don't have anybody out internationally 205 00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:36,920 sending me books. 206 00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:40,920 They're buying books but they're not sending me books. 207 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:53,920 I have this idea of this like a lot. If I wasn't like if I was doing this part time, and if I could just walk in a store, send you a photo of all the books that don't have barcodes right, I grab all the books don't have barcodes stack them at the 208 00:21:53,920 --> 00:22:05,920 end of the shelf or something snap a photo, throw it in a box send it to you. People are probably curious like, how does it work right like how much you take how much does it use book I get at the end of the day, it's a 5050 split after 209 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:08,920 eBay fees, everything's right down the middle. 210 00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:21,920 And there's people wondering hey you know well if I have to pay for shipping well if you buy the shipping label to, you know, that's a write off for your business it's a shipping label so it's not like you're out of the money anyway so don't don't be like put off by paying for 211 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:30,920 shipping label means absolutely. I've sent Johnny B, you know, boxes and boxes of books every single month. That's how I pay them to be on the podcast with all my books. 212 00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:39,920 I got three boxes sitting in the storage unit now but I do think that this, this market this business you have is still so underutilized. 213 00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:51,920 Because there's so much that gets left behind and you kind of, because people that do Amazon really don't want to do eBay like I'm one of those people I don't want to do the listings or anything like that so the fact I can just throw it in a box, 214 00:22:51,920 --> 00:23:04,920 you're basically a buyback company for antique books, and you do all of the work all the extra work it's not even like you know you're just listening on Amazon you were actually taking photos customer service shipping to the item deal with all that. 215 00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:13,920 And then you're just giving somebody you know 50% of the sale every single time. Yeah, I'll tell you this, I have four consigners. 216 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:21,920 And I pay every month, I have four consigners. Just this past month who I paid over $1,000 to. 217 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:26,920 So you know they're doing good business. And every one of those. 218 00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:32,920 What every one of those consigners is an AMA is is predominantly an Amazon seller. 219 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:48,920 And what they're doing with me is just a side hustle to maximize their profits from Gaylord's or from estate sales. I mean there's nothing better than, you know, going to an estate sale if you're an Amazon seller. 220 00:23:48,920 --> 00:24:05,920 And you run into a collection of Western Americana books and and some are barcoded and you know you're going to get some for Amazon but most of them aren't. You just call me and send me some pictures and and we'll buy the whole collection. 221 00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:18,920 And then you you know you're going to make money in the next 12 months, as these books sell. Matter of fact, I'll tell you what, I just bought over 1000 books in Arizona. 222 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:26,920 Last week, Johnny B. These are all Eastern presses, who folio society. 223 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:30,920 Hold on I know one you're going to like limited edition. 224 00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:35,920 Lincoln libraries. 225 00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:39,920 I have a consignor in Arizona who sent me pictures of this. 226 00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:42,920 And it's over 1000 of them. 227 00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:46,920 And I bought everything. Yeah. 228 00:24:46,920 --> 00:25:00,920 It's two pallets worth I'll be making an IG post about that next week, but it's two pallets of these books are coming to my house next week. 229 00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:17,920 It's going to take two years, but every single one of those books will sell under percent sell through right it's the matter of time. 100%. So, so I you know, there's nothing better for me than to be living here in South Florida, and I can make a book deal in Arizona, or a book deal. 230 00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:26,920 You know in Texas or a book deal in Georgia, and have books set and have books sent to me either palette Gaylord or just boxes. 231 00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:38,920 So, I'm allowing me to cherry pick the greatest inventory, which is I think what you're hinting at. I'm a lot I'm allowing myself to cherry pick the great inventory, all across the country now. 232 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:48,920 I don't have to really get into my car and get lucky at a thrift store in a state sale. I get to do it using my phone and the computer now. 233 00:25:48,920 --> 00:26:05,920 I'll flip back over to my say Arizona deal was that an auction house by chance. No. Okay, I was I was at an estate, the state sale, I was in the state sale and my consignor my friend was buying for himself, and he told me ahead of time he's like I'm 234 00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:10,920 going to regret sending you a picture this because I know you're going to buy it all and then you're going to make me work. 235 00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:18,920 And I'm just gonna love the truck. Yeah, I think I think he sent me the pictures on Saturday. 236 00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:26,920 And on Monday I tried to make a deal with the, with the owners of the estate. 237 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:32,920 My bid for the books wasn't what they wanted they had someone who was going to pay more. 238 00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:39,920 And a week later, the person who was going to pay more didn't pay anything. Oh, and I got it at my number. Nice. Yeah. 239 00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:43,920 So, dealing with higher end books. 240 00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:52,920 Your hundred dollar a thousand dollar $10,000 books right. What happens when a return happens. 241 00:26:52,920 --> 00:27:02,920 You try to develop a relationship with that buyer with that type of book so I sold the book. 242 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:06,920 And I was able to refer $5,000. 243 00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:11,920 It was the first edition Alcoholics Anonymous book. 244 00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:17,920 If you know that book you know that's a whole that's a, that's a true holy grail. 245 00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:29,920 And I had several conversations, both by phone and by messages with the buyer asking questions and so you just have to feel comfortable with the deal. 246 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:34,920 And that's the problem with a return of a high caliber number book. 247 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:38,920 Sometimes you might get a return on $100 book. 248 00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:42,920 But but that's part of the business these things happen sometimes. 249 00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:57,920 But if I was, if I was to sell another $5,000 book my advice is, you just want to develop a relationship with that buyer, and and have a trust with them, because they're just as anxious to get that book as you are about selling it too. 250 00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:00,920 And they want to know that they can trust me as well. 251 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:09,920 So, you know, I don't I don't think I know sometimes eBay, eBay sellers and buyers. 252 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:27,920 I get negative talk sometimes on these podcasts and, and these and these Instagram posts, but I think most of eBay. I think most of the buyers for me are wonderful people and there's no ill will or harm that they want to do to my business. 253 00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:34,920 Well, I was more. It was a great answer, but I was more curious on the angle of it's from a, it's a client's book that you sold for big money. 254 00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:42,920 It's already been dispersed, maybe, I don't know. Right. So what happens on a return when there's three people involved. Yeah. 255 00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:47,920 Okay, so I sold the painting. 256 00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:52,920 About three months ago for $15,000. 257 00:28:52,920 --> 00:29:10,920 And the buyer wanted 100 more pictures and the 24 pictures I was allowed in the listing. And so I did that and we had phone conversations, and my fear of that deal was shipping. 258 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:24,920 You know you ship a $15,000 painting and and and the ups drivers and delivers don't treat it well. You're going to you're going to have that painting sent back to you if it's got a hole or any damage to it. 259 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:31,920 Luckily for me this painting was a pickup. The gentleman lived about two hours north of me. 260 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:46,920 But when I have other people involved if it was a consigner part of the deal. Um, you know, there's a 30 day eBay policy of returns, and you just have to wait it out and and hope nothing happens I've never had anything bad happened to me on things 261 00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:48,920 like that. 262 00:29:48,920 --> 00:30:03,920 You know, my returns, very few. It's mostly, it may be a mistake that I make in listing or I forget to take a picture of a book plate or something. 263 00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:07,920 Or there's handwriting on page 78 that I missed. 264 00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:13,920 Sometimes I'll get a return for that but that's that's that's human error. And that's also part of the business. 265 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:22,920 Yeah, I've had very few returns and like you said usually a mistake on my end, or the customer already had the item in question and didn't realize it. 266 00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:37,920 Yeah, well that's a whole other conversation with customers. Um, I think, you know, unfortunately I think there are customers out there who watch podcasts and they watch ij's, and they target you and they want to, they want to dent your reputation. 267 00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:42,920 I think that, you know, I'm not naive I, you know that I know that exists out there. 268 00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:55,920 Yeah. So it's, it's like Amazon right there you have an account level reserve well with Max just got a max level reserve right you got to wait for your, your money to clear, and then he'll send it to you right it sells today he texts you hey, your 269 00:30:55,920 --> 00:31:03,920 $500 book sold today it's not like he's going to cut you that check right away and you know that as you know, as a seller anyway right. 270 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:17,920 So, my bookkeeper sets it up where when we sign a contract with you, you can either get paid by the fifth of the month or by the 15th of the month, so on we sort of have to two avenues of when you're going to get paid, but you get paid every month, 271 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:30,920 no matter what. And we can send you as much as we want right because I personally thought about doing this and I, and I was just like well you know I'm doing this full time so it's a little bit different for me since I'm, you know, the knowledge for me is worth it. 272 00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:42,920 Versus you know just just sending something away but for somebody else that doesn't want to deal with eBay doesn't have an eBay account and I always said you could sell on Amazon and eBay, and not even sell the stuff yourself you could just use buyback companies and 273 00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:54,920 somebody like yourself, and you could literally, you never even need to sell on these platforms, I have people like that I have people who just what they do is they just think all they care about it they're estate sales. 274 00:31:54,920 --> 00:32:00,920 We'll go to an estate sale on a Friday or Saturday. We'll go I'll go live with them. 275 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:15,920 And seven days later I get a box of books in there happy because they they like the hunt of finding this stuff which is exciting. And then they like the financial rewards when they find the really great stuff. 276 00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:30,920 And it, I gotta tell you it happens all the time. It, the great books are out there. I believe it do you sell anything besides art and books like say if I have like, say if I stumble across you know a bunch of like vintage toys or something along those lines 277 00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:42,920 or like some some new old stock you know, are you open to selling that kind of stuff for somebody as well. Yeah, before I find to what I'm doing now with books and art I was selling vintage toys. 278 00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:46,920 You know, tin toys marks and things of that nature. 279 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:49,920 Star Wars figures. 280 00:32:49,920 --> 00:33:00,920 You know I get questions about that all the time and if I think if I think it's resellable, and there's profit to be made from from both parties I'll definitely do it. 281 00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:14,920 But when I made a post about that $15,000 painting, and suddenly all my consignors were sending me pictures of every of every painting and every thrift store in the state sale for a month after that. 282 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:19,920 You know art is a little bit harder to find great stuff. 283 00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:24,920 But it's also the greatest return of investment. 284 00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:43,920 So, you know, you can regularly find good lithographs or good paintings or good vintage posters and thrift stores in the state sales, and there is very, there's definitely a hundred dollar value on a lot of that stuff if not $1,000 value. 285 00:33:43,920 --> 00:34:02,920 But you just have you just have to get a little bit knowledgeable about it. And the advice I would give is just go on eBay, type in the words vintage poster and click on sold or type in hand sign lithograph and click on sold and just see what sells across 286 00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:09,920 eBay's platform for 30 days and start developing your eye of what to look for. 287 00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:13,920 And the treasures are out there. 288 00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:32,920 People die every day, and their collections are going to thrift stores, every day, that's really the bottom line. And, and part of what I want to do is just get myself out there enough to when these things pop up wherever they may be that I get the contact, and I get the 289 00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:44,920 contact, I'm guilty as charged, although the all those metal racks of like paintings and thrift stores, I have never looked at a single one of those things that I've been in a million plus thrift stores. 290 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:59,920 But I but I can teach you you know in 10 minutes. I can show you what to look for. And I guarantee you, you will kick yourself for things that you will recognize and and you've ignored. 291 00:34:59,920 --> 00:35:11,920 I believe in 100% I guarantee I probably will pass lots and lots and lots of money in those paintings because I just think, you know, it's it's Joe blow who painted this in his basement and you know 1993 is not worth nothing. 292 00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:22,920 See, Mike, I'm telling you we need to open up our own goodwill and the stuff just comes to us for free. Yeah. Well, that's kind of what I'm doing is, but I'm just cultivating and cherry picking that stuff. 293 00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:30,920 You know, Mike, you made me mad the other day when you said you you sent signed books to Amazon and didn't care that it was signed. 294 00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:34,920 I'm I'm blaming Johnny B for allowing you to do that. 295 00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:36,920 He wouldn't send them to me. 296 00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:48,920 He knows he can't stop me I'm just cutting it loose it is it's one of those things. It's one of those things though right I just like, I don't see it until I'm literally about the I already have it labeled it's ready to go in the box for Amazon. 297 00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:53,920 Listen, somebody's getting a sweet treat when they get my book. 298 00:35:53,920 --> 00:36:04,920 Was that was that a Donald Trump signature if I remember correctly what was it, I had, I came across the Donald Trump signature and you know one of his running things like the art of the seller, I don't know one of his crappy books. 299 00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:19,920 So I gave that one to a friend because he's a fan but I have a dog the bounty hunter that I keep for myself but I come across books all the time that are signed and I just send them in Amazon I don't think choice but now it's like, you know, maybe I can squeeze an extra, but like on average 300 00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:33,920 how much you think an autograph on a book raises the price by like 20 bucks 30 bucks 50 bucks. All right. Are you sitting down. I am the last time I sold a signed Trump three months ago I sold it for $545. 301 00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:52,920 Well it's a lifelong good friend Mike, and he's my YouTube editor so I can, I can't cross them here I can't ask for him, ask for it back. What I would say to you is go on my store, just click on my inventory and type hand signed or signed click sold. 302 00:36:52,920 --> 00:37:14,920 And then you'll see what a signature does to a book. Sometimes, sometimes it only raises it $30. Sometimes it raises it $1,000. It all depends on whose signature it is. Yeah, you don't you don't think those signed Donald Trump books are going to sell for almost 500 to $1,000 if he runs again. 303 00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:29,920 Yeah, I mean if I ever come across another one it's getting sold but uh, now I'm curious with like, say you know a lot of the newer stuff, even if it's signed like, I know you kind of focus on the antiquarian books are you open say, you know maybe I don't have an eBay store at all 304 00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:45,920 I don't have an eBay store I do barcode stuff but I come across like, you know, Stephen King book club editions or first editions is that something you're willing to take on as a business, even though you know it has a barcode it is a newer book or if it's a sign. 305 00:37:45,920 --> 00:37:59,920 I mean, you know, last month. Are you open to taking that kind of stuff in your business, I am very open and I sell quite frequently hardcover Stephen King. It doesn't have to be. That's a big misnomer doesn't have to be a first edition. 306 00:37:59,920 --> 00:38:19,920 I can sell, I can sell a book club edition shining for 40 to $75. Depending on the condition. I can sell a Dolores clayborn, Stephen King for $20, even if it's a book club edition. 307 00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:29,920 I'm not looking for first editions, all the time I'm looking to sell books, and I have a pretty good pulse on what the market is and what people buy. 308 00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:42,920 And so, so yeah I mean you know, Johnny D will understand this. I love selling book club edition science fiction hardcover, because that's the greatest, that's the greatest artwork there ever is. 309 00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:57,920 Yeah, go to go to those 1950s 60s and 70s artwork. And there is nothing like that today, it's so vanilla nowadays that the art and the beauty of those books is in the artwork of the cover. 310 00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:07,920 Right, and a lot of people don't realize some there's some really famous artists and illustrators and those things like Frank Fazzetta, he did a ton of sci fi and fantasy artwork in the book land. 311 00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:17,920 And nobody really knows it it's not a. I wouldn't say it's like public information even though these books have been out there forever. 312 00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:31,920 People just don't realize but they're always like, oh, pretty color. Once you know who for said it is, you'll always recognize for that artwork, even though there's people who sort of copied him a little bit, but at least, at least you know what the 313 00:39:31,920 --> 00:39:37,920 book looks like and, and then you look at the signature and then you'll you'll know if it's a for Zeta. 314 00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:48,920 I'm sure I'm sure if someone called you up and said, Hey, my father collected all for Zeta, and as 4000 paperbacks, a lot of duplicates. 315 00:39:48,920 --> 00:40:00,920 Your jaw would drop and you would buy the whole class already started them all the way. Yeah, for Zeta for Zeta is for you is, is the Eastern Press Franklin Library to me, you know, you're going to sell every one of them. 316 00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:09,920 Yeah, it's in self everybody 100%. I don't even know who for Zeta is for those wondering, you're going to know you're going to know after today. 317 00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:20,920 He's more famous in comic books he did a lot of the class of comic book art, but he also did a lot of book cover art and cheer your illustrations in books, Conan. 318 00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:33,920 Yeah, yeah, my man Arnold. I do think there is like just that conversation alone kind of sums up the opportunity that somebody like myself is missing out on right somebody that just sells on Amazon. 319 00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:46,920 We really don't have the knowledge base that takes time to develop the knowledge you to have, and that's perfectly fine you can you know like you were saying you work with consignors, we get smarter over time from what you're telling us you know whether this is, send it to me or not 320 00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:54,920 you know you're still gaining knowledge, but you're just not doing the work I think that's the big appeal to this and honestly I've been thinking about like, I'm looking to buy a house here. 321 00:40:54,920 --> 00:41:06,920 Hopefully once something pops up on the market that me and Deb like, and it's like, I'm just going to send you a picture of my eBay inventory, and whatever you want goes to you and everything else I just get rid of it just so I don't have to move 322 00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:22,920 out of the house at all when I move into a house like that's 100% my plan that I'm committed to. But what's more exciting in talking with you guys today for me is, if you go to a thrift store if you go to your honey hole this week or you go to another thrift 323 00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:24,920 store. 324 00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:35,920 And you see, you see all books without barcodes on a single shelf. And they're all books about snakes and snake history. 325 00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:43,920 I'm more excited that you're going to recognize hey I need to send this picture to Max, because this is all someone's collection. 326 00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:50,920 Whenever you're able to buy someone's collection of whatever they collected for 20 304050 years. 327 00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:53,920 There's always going to be great stuff in there. 328 00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:59,920 And if it's a, if it's a collection about books about snakes and herpetology. 329 00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:13,920 That's, to me that's paper gold. It is, I guarantee you you're going to run into this stuff once you recognize once you recognize what's out there, and the availability of making more money through books. 330 00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:23,920 I mean I'm making, you know I'm making 10 times the living now, as I was as a career invested teacher and coach. 331 00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:31,920 And I get to work from home I get to put on my music and listen to Pink Floyd and price books for an hour every morning. 332 00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:35,920 I mean my life completely changed because of books. 333 00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:48,920 So on the topic of acquiring all these books. I took a look at your stories you know and yours is about three times mine. And so as far as size and I have more like mine is I assume you have more in your key line. 334 00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:51,920 So talk to me about. 335 00:42:51,920 --> 00:42:55,920 Well, tell me all the wonderful things when it comes to storage. 336 00:42:55,920 --> 00:42:58,920 Well, I own my home. 337 00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:11,920 I have a two car garage, which does not have any cars in it. It's all library bookshelves. So if you were to go into my two car garage you would just, it would look like a library in there. 338 00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:18,920 I also have a small warehouse that on when I get overstock in that stuff has to go. 339 00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:27,920 So when that when that collection of 1000 Eastern presses and Franklin's comes next week it's going to go to the warehouse first. 340 00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:33,920 Before it makes it over to my place to get priced and whatnot. 341 00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:47,920 If that's the advantage of living in a house with a garage is you can, you can make, you can make money from your home by using the space, and if you do books, and you have 50 bookshelves. 342 00:43:47,920 --> 00:44:01,920 And every shelf is six, six, six levels, and you get 30 to 40 books on the shelf, and every book is just say an average of $20. 343 00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:03,920 How you make a living. 344 00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:06,920 It's how you make a ticketing system. 345 00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:17,920 No, no, no, no, no, every, every shelf is a letter. And then each shelf on that letter is a number so let's just go with the C one shelf. 346 00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:24,920 See would be the shelf. And then one would be the top two would be see two would be the second shelf see three. 347 00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:33,920 The problem is is I'm, I'm, you know, 18,000 books in. Yeah, but we're getting creative with our alphabet now now we have a ZZ shelf. 348 00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:36,920 And then XY shelf. 349 00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:39,920 We've run out we've run out of single, single alphabet. 350 00:44:39,920 --> 00:44:53,920 So I was using date base for the longest time it was compartmentalized per bookshelf. It's the October 2022 bookshelf right switched over to just sequential numbering, and I use these like bookmarks and they stick out the end pretty much. 351 00:44:53,920 --> 00:45:03,920 I'm not sure if I'm going to do that too but I'll tell you another thing that I do that I've learned along the way if you look at my bookstore. 352 00:45:03,920 --> 00:45:07,920 Any book that I've listed in the year 2023. 353 00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:16,920 It's price point to three. Any book that I ever. Any book that I bought in 2022 and listed is point to two. 354 00:45:16,920 --> 00:45:30,920 That's from 2019 there's no more point one nines. There's probably under 100 point two zeros. So this is also a way for me to look at my inventory. 355 00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:42,920 And know that I need to lower prices, or maybe even exercise a stock from from my inventory. So next year, everything that I list will be point to four. 356 00:45:42,920 --> 00:45:53,920 So, um, work, I was using database with color coding we're migrating all of our stuff over to the new system and what I've noticed while doing that. 357 00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:56,920 I don't know if you've done an audit of your stuff in the past. 358 00:45:56,920 --> 00:46:11,920 There are some listings that have no longer exist for reasons unknown happens always okay it's just going to get relisted more inventory I guess but I found that fascinating like what'd you do with my listing eBay I can't find you. 359 00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:18,920 It happens it happens it happens all the time with eBay eBay glitches out a couple years ago, which doubt. 360 00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:33,920 And it only saved one picture of, of, you know, I sell vintage posters to, and I had about 400 to 500 posters that only had one picture, because every other picture glitched out. 361 00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:41,920 So I had to retake all the pictures of all those inventory. 362 00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:52,920 And, you know, but that's part of that's part of this business I mean we're dealing with technology. It still is a new business. It's a new model for a lot of people. 363 00:46:52,920 --> 00:47:03,920 And eBay still learning how to grow to eBay never thought they would become what they've become in a million years they never saw this coming. And so they're learning how to deal with growth to. 364 00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:09,920 And, and so it's you know, sometimes it hurts for us sometimes it hurts for them. 365 00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:23,920 I mean with photo storage on eBay I wonder how much actual photos, because they're the host right they're hosting all photos in the millions and millions of sellers that do more than one photo it just amazing. 366 00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:36,920 Yeah, we do a minimum of six but most of the time we're doing at least 10 to 12. Yeah, pictures for for every book, and it's if it's expensive book is getting 20 to 24 pictures. 367 00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:41,920 I forbid we ever get a glitched out of that and have to retake all that. 368 00:47:41,920 --> 00:47:47,920 But you know, it's it's books. The book businesses sometimes headaches with inventory. 369 00:47:47,920 --> 00:47:56,920 We're not selling toothbrushes are not going to sell every day. Sometimes it takes three years to sell a book. Sometimes it takes three minutes to sell a book. 370 00:47:56,920 --> 00:48:07,920 You just you never. I'm always surprised daily of what sells, because you just never know what people looking for I would never be able to guess what's going to sell quickly. 371 00:48:07,920 --> 00:48:25,920 I say, Max take your 50% and deal with the headache so I don't have to deal with any of it all day long. It's not it's not really a headache that's the beauty of it I thoroughly enjoy this, this journey and and dealing with great books every day. 372 00:48:25,920 --> 00:48:40,920 I mean, gone fishing man it's it's just a good life. I do like paperbacks. Yeah, I do think there's like the upside to this like what you're doing like I can see this getting so big like you're just going to have to get an actual warehouse at some point 373 00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:53,920 right the garage is going to have to finally you know you have to park your Lamborghini in the garage finally unfortunately but I do think like, if you think about it, you know it's it's personal right you know we've been texting for the past few weeks and it's like, 374 00:48:53,920 --> 00:49:05,920 if you have a question about something and it's hard to come by and I think that's why a lot of people kind of gravitate to my YouTube channel is, I give everybody a response right and that and you're kind of the same way you know it's, hey is this book worth it. 375 00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:18,920 Sure, you're going to give you know a thumbs up or a thumbs down and you really don't have that you know human interaction when it comes to bigger consignment businesses or another knowledge base a lot of it is basically outsourced like maybe a VA does it or you just get a 376 00:49:18,920 --> 00:49:33,920 generic response but with what you're doing I really like the idea that you're actually hands on involved, you let you know your employees take care of the, the, the quote unquote you know busy work while you deal with all of your clients and I think that's kind of gotten you to the 377 00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:45,920 point where you're at today because it's personable you know, hey you can reach out to Max send him a photo, I'll get a response, or maybe throw me a tidbit like hey you know you should always be looking out for this or that and I do think that's kind of the benefit you have. 378 00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:53,920 And I really you know, when it comes to consignment on eBay. Do you have like any competition out there that you know of or is it just you. 379 00:49:53,920 --> 00:50:01,920 I recognize that I'm pioneering something here, especially with going live to a state sales. 380 00:50:01,920 --> 00:50:03,920 So yesterday. 381 00:50:03,920 --> 00:50:06,920 I was in Arizona. 382 00:50:06,920 --> 00:50:13,920 I was in Georgia, and I was in Maine. 383 00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:19,920 At three different estate sales from the chair that I'm sitting in now in South Florida. 384 00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:24,920 So I recognize I'm pioneering something here. 385 00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:34,920 But going back to the earlier part of the question. I'm not opposed to having a large warehouse and doing this but South Florida real estate. 386 00:50:34,920 --> 00:50:40,920 It just wouldn't make it financially viable right now. 387 00:50:40,920 --> 00:50:54,920 There, you know, there are always opportunities to grow and move and go to a city that is more open to large warehouse space at a normal number. 388 00:50:54,920 --> 00:50:58,920 You're welcome to come down to Texas. 389 00:50:58,920 --> 00:51:09,920 There are, I know I have several consigners in Texas that Texas is a great, great book area. Matter of fact, one of my largest consigners is from Texas that there. 390 00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:20,920 They're out near San Antonio maybe an hour out, but they're on a farm and they're serious Amazon and eBay people. I love it. I love dealing with them. 391 00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:32,920 Alright, so we're going to wrap it up here we're going to let Max plug so somebody that's listening out there wants to get some more information you know how the program works everything like that where exactly should they reach out to get more information on the 392 00:51:32,920 --> 00:51:34,920 program and kind of, you know, jump headfirst into this. 393 00:51:34,920 --> 00:51:43,920 I think the easiest way is probably just to get me on Instagram which is common ground finds underscore it's all one word. 394 00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:52,920 If they can't figure that out for whatever reason they can contact you and you'll sort of lead them in my direction. 395 00:51:52,920 --> 00:52:00,920 They can also look at my store, if they're familiar with eBay just go to common ground finds and look at my store you can also ask me a question on there. 396 00:52:00,920 --> 00:52:08,920 But I'll send you I'll send you some links for this podcast and you can post them and people can reach out to me. 397 00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:11,920 They can also get me on email. 398 00:52:11,920 --> 00:52:24,920 And I'll send you that information as well. It's been an honor talking to you guys I watch you guys every week so it's, it's fun actually having the chance to talk to you I hope we can do it again I, I have a feeling we've left a lot. 399 00:52:24,920 --> 00:52:30,920 A lot on the table that we just like last week I got a few more questions. 400 00:52:30,920 --> 00:52:38,920 I'm going to be on on Romer the romer's boot camp tomorrow actually, which I think you did Mike already. 401 00:52:38,920 --> 00:52:41,920 So I have that going on tomorrow. 402 00:52:41,920 --> 00:52:43,920 So we're about to get busy again. 403 00:52:43,920 --> 00:52:49,920 That's good. We, as always, we appreciate you all listening and we will talk to you on next week's episode. 404 00:52:49,920 --> 00:53:04,920 Thanks for listening to another episode of the resellers mindset podcast today's full episode and all previous episodes are available to all YouTube members, along with the weekly zoom call and private discord, head on over to youtube.com backslash to use book 405 00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:20,920 and joining for as little as 299 a month.