1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,440 Welcome back to another episode of the Resellers Mindset Podcast. 2 00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:06,960 My name is Mike, also known as the used book guy on YouTube, along with my friend 3 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:09,080 and fellow full-time reseller, Johnny B. 4 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:12,680 We help people start and grow their reselling businesses from the ground up. 5 00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:16,600 We also have a weekly zoom call and private discord for all YouTube members. 6 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:21,160 Head on over to youtube.com backslash use book guide to join the channel and gain 7 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:25,400 access to the full length podcast zoom call and private discord today. 8 00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:27,360 Let's get into this week's episode. 9 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:28,120 What is up, everybody? 10 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:33,640 Welcome to episode 35 resellers mindset podcast, hanging out with Johnny B. 11 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:37,920 Today's topic is one near and dear to my heart because I've been seeing it a lot. 12 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:38,080 Right. 13 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:40,120 So we're going to whip everybody in the shape here. 14 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:43,880 So there's going to be some hard truths in this episode, but it seems like 15 00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:48,360 lately everybody almost seems to be in like some kind of funk and it's not so 16 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:50,800 much like complaining about this or complaining about that. 17 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:52,600 It's just everybody's kind of stuck in a rut, right? 18 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:55,600 Maybe you're not getting the results you want, whether that's sales, 19 00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:59,040 whether that's sourcing related to anything in reselling, right? 20 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:01,160 Everybody has a lot going on behind the scenes. 21 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:05,960 Most of us just aren't sitting around reselling 14 hours a day, 22 00:01:05,960 --> 00:01:07,200 besides Johnny B, right? 23 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:08,720 You know, he's the exception to the rule. 24 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:11,320 So we're kind of just going to touch on different topics, different 25 00:01:11,320 --> 00:01:14,600 areas when it comes to reselling, to just try to kind of tell you guys. 26 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:16,960 Like this is how you have to do it. 27 00:01:16,960 --> 00:01:18,720 If you want to get results, right? 28 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:23,680 You can't just wave a wand, snap your fingers and things just happen, right? 29 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:27,280 Sales just happen overnight and I guess I'll kind of, I'll go off to, 30 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:31,760 I'll go off the deep end here first, kind of with my, my crappy results 31 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:33,080 when it comes to reselling. 32 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:35,960 So eBay, eBay sucks for me. 33 00:01:35,960 --> 00:01:38,400 It's I have an eBay account, right? 34 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:40,320 Have I listed on eBay in a month? 35 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:42,360 No, I can sit here and tell you I haven't. 36 00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:47,640 So you think to yourself, well, you know, like you haven't got a sale on eBay and 37 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:51,680 actually got a return on eBay the other day, one of the items I did sell actually 38 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:52,720 was returned, right? 39 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:54,440 So that's like, that's a double way. 40 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:58,320 I mean, I sell one thing a month and when it gets returned, it's like, oh man, 41 00:01:58,320 --> 00:01:59,240 forget about it. 42 00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:03,000 I still like returns or like loans, like here's your 20 bucks and now we're 43 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:03,840 going to take it back. 44 00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:05,920 It was a $50 item too. 45 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:09,760 So like I could have just like let it beat me up, eat me up. 46 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:10,680 It's whatever, right? 47 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:15,840 I literally, uh, that was like, Hey, don't look at your emails. 48 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:16,840 I'm like, Oh God. 49 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:18,960 And it's like, it's an eBay message. 50 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:20,120 I'm like, Oh God, here we go. 51 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:23,000 And it's like, you got a return for $50. 52 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:24,440 And I'm just like, I messaged the person. 53 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:26,200 I said, Hey, keep the item. 54 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:27,720 I sent you a full refund. 55 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:28,760 I cut it loose. 56 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:32,600 I did not let it ruin my day, but that's me. 57 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:36,960 And I can 100% sit here and say, a lot of people are not going to handle that 58 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:38,400 $50 return the way I did. 59 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:43,600 A lot of people are going to get bent out of shape because that's $50 you're 60 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:45,440 taking out of their family's mouth. 61 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:47,760 Uh, give me your opinion on returns. 62 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:49,680 Oh, I got two opinions on returns. 63 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:53,400 I love when I get an international return because I get to keep all the money. 64 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:56,280 eBay pays it out, but I get to keep mine. 65 00:02:56,320 --> 00:03:00,160 I had one recently, uh, last month it was for $200. 66 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:04,120 They never got the book, but they made my problem because it 67 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:05,480 costs international lines. 68 00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:07,080 And after that eBay takes care of me. 69 00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:11,480 So on that front, I love it because I'm out of an item, but I get to keep the 70 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:12,880 money and the customer's out and item. 71 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:13,920 They've had a bad experience. 72 00:03:13,920 --> 00:03:17,160 And I tell them, I'm sorry, eBay messed up. 73 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:19,960 I did everything I could, which literally I did. 74 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:23,280 Cause once it leaves my hands from the post office, I literally have zero 75 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:29,440 control unless I were to drive it down myself or boat it down myself in this case. 76 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:33,680 Now when it comes to domestic returns and the good old U S of a, and I think 77 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:36,800 Canada too, I don't know why Canada is part of the U S but apparently 78 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:37,520 in eBay land it is. 79 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:42,640 I don't like it so much because you can look at it and you can't 80 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:44,080 literally return it for anything. 81 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:50,800 Just like on Amazon, um, even for, uh, didn't like it or change my 82 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:52,120 mind or buyer's remorse. 83 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:54,280 Now those kinds of things don't really affect your account. 84 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:59,760 Now, if it arrives damaged or you missed a photo of some flaw, then you can get 85 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:03,960 what's called an item that is described, which does affect your account metrics. 86 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:05,160 Those in mind very much. 87 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:08,720 I've gotten maybe two in my whole career. 88 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:12,680 One, why I was able to get rid of one faded over time. 89 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:15,880 Cause it was very early on both of those cause I didn't know what I was doing 90 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:22,360 way back when, um, as far as returns go, it's just, I kind of shrug it off these days. 91 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:24,520 Uh, I do offer 60 day returns. 92 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:29,880 Um, most people just do 30 if they do returns at all, but I do full 60 because 93 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:34,080 I've never had anybody return an item on day 59. 94 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:36,280 It's always right when they get it, if they're going to return. 95 00:04:36,280 --> 00:04:38,080 Cause either something wrong with it. 96 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:41,040 It's not in the condition they imagine in their heads, even though full 97 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:42,560 photo spread, right with my listings. 98 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:47,200 And I think that's, I think that's a customer issue. 99 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:51,560 They don't, some of them look at the filter by condition notes, but I think 100 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:55,480 by and large, if you're the only listing, they don't even bother looking at the 101 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:56,920 condition notes and they just buy it. 102 00:04:57,080 --> 00:04:59,880 Even though it's clearly marked as an acceptable condition, they get it like, 103 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:02,280 Oh my God, this is all ratty. 104 00:05:02,280 --> 00:05:04,440 I'm like, yeah, it's an acceptable condition. 105 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:06,840 Um, I have nowhere near that. 106 00:05:06,840 --> 00:05:09,480 Did I say like new nowhere close? 107 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:11,280 Do you think it's like wrong? 108 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:16,000 Like my mentality when it comes to returns and I guess like people shopping 109 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:19,240 on the internet in general, it's just like, expect it, right? 110 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:23,240 If you just expect to get the return when it, when it happens, you really don't care. 111 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:25,800 It's when like, you think you're going to sell all this stuff and you're 112 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:27,160 not going to get any returns. 113 00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:31,080 Like that's, I think that's the type of person that really like kind of like 114 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:34,400 destroys the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, 115 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:38,040 their day, their week, they get like angry at the person that bought it. 116 00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:38,600 And sure. 117 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:40,360 There's always scammers. 118 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:42,400 These are the times we're living in, right? 119 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:46,000 Unfortunately, we can't, you know, hop in a time machine, go to a different 120 00:05:46,280 --> 00:05:50,920 time, you know, era where maybe people were more honest and trustworthy. 121 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:55,480 When it comes to internet shopping, returns, it is part of the business. 122 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:59,520 I'm sick and tired of hearing people whine about, well, I got this refunded. 123 00:05:59,840 --> 00:06:02,960 And when I got it back, it was in perfect condition. 124 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:03,800 So what? 125 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:04,960 You just said it yourself. 126 00:06:05,280 --> 00:06:08,640 I mean, I remember the thing it was probably about a year ago when eBay was 127 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:11,120 pushing like, try before you buy it. 128 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:11,480 Right. 129 00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:15,800 And all the eBay sellers like getting nuts because returns are like, that's 130 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:17,080 the worst thing that can happen. 131 00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:17,360 Right. 132 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:20,520 Why is eBay saying, try it before you buy it, you know, someone buys 133 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:23,000 ourself tries it on and then returns it. 134 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,320 Well, that's, that's, you don't want to play that game then, you know, make a 135 00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:30,560 Shopify selling your own website where you don't have to, you don't have to do 136 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:34,880 returns if you're going to be playing on these platforms, especially with Amazon. 137 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:35,680 Oh my God. 138 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:37,800 The Amazon return crybaby. 139 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:42,280 And it's just, it makes no sense to me, especially, especially us that 140 00:06:42,280 --> 00:06:45,080 sell used items, who cares, right? 141 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:47,480 Just, it's going to probably get returned back to your inventory. 142 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:49,240 If not liquidated, forget it. 143 00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:50,240 You're into the stuff. 144 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:51,160 I could see, right? 145 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:55,000 I could see if we're, if me and you, we got it, we got to resell business and 146 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:59,440 we're buying things that are brand new, that cost $500 and people are buying 147 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:01,880 them and returning them completely used. 148 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:04,840 You know, like maybe we're selling diaper genies and people are sending us 149 00:07:04,840 --> 00:07:07,360 diaper genies back full of diapers, dirty diapers, right? 150 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:09,760 It's like, I can see that argument, right? 151 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:11,760 There's no value in that item anymore. 152 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:16,680 But if you have a business model that is even like that, you should be taking 153 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:21,480 that kind of like cost, basically loss into consideration of your business model. 154 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:21,720 Right? 155 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:24,400 There's always going to be some kind of percentage of returns you're going to 156 00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:28,800 have every single year, whether that's two, three, four, five, 10% of you're 157 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:33,680 selling apparel on Amazon, the apparel returns on Amazon are like 35%. 158 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:37,520 So a lot of those people that used to do, you know, online arbitrage, you 159 00:07:37,520 --> 00:07:40,200 know, flipping socks and, and shoes. 160 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,440 They all ran away from that because the returns are so high, but there's 161 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:44,480 nothing you can do about it. 162 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:45,080 You got to eat it. 163 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:47,920 And if you don't factor in that loss, then guess what? 164 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:49,160 You're going to go out of business. 165 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:50,440 Right. 166 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:53,280 I mean, even think about CDs and DVDs for a second. 167 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:55,320 It's got to play or they're going to return it. 168 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:56,480 Books. 169 00:07:56,480 --> 00:08:00,120 Well, unless the last chapter is torn out, it's not going to break. 170 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:04,360 I mean, it may get bent or dinged up, but still able to read it. 171 00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:06,080 So it doesn't break really. 172 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:13,320 What I, what I dislike more than returns is order cancellations, especially 173 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:18,240 right when I've about to pack it and the cancel, like they changed their mind 174 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:19,760 with like within the hour they bought it. 175 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:21,920 And it's like, I just, I just pulled it. 176 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:24,520 And sometimes I've already packed it in that case. 177 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:26,720 I'm like, you can return it when you get it. 178 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:28,640 I've already packed it and put the label on it. 179 00:08:28,640 --> 00:08:33,040 It's in my box ready to go to the post office or it's on the way. 180 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:36,360 What I tell them when they, when that happens is I've already 181 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:37,760 mailed it, even if I haven't. 182 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:39,560 Once the shipping label is printed. 183 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:42,040 They're going to have to do to return. 184 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:43,600 That's my policy personally. 185 00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:49,200 I actually had one of those on Amazon like two weeks ago, uh, lady, vote a book. 186 00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:52,040 I packed it and shipped it, you know, basically same day. 187 00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:56,000 Next day I wake up refund request message and said, Hey, I already shipped it. 188 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:57,520 When you get it back, just send it back to me. 189 00:08:57,520 --> 00:08:58,280 You'll get to return. 190 00:08:58,320 --> 00:08:59,160 And that's what happened. 191 00:08:59,160 --> 00:09:01,040 I mean, it's just one of those things. 192 00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:04,480 I wish I had eBay orders to even have canceled. 193 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:04,800 Right. 194 00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:07,480 But, uh, you know, that, that kind of goes with what you do. 195 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:11,080 And we're going to switch out of the refunds and just like, kind of, kind of 196 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:15,720 the general expectations people have of reselling, I think personally, I've 197 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:20,360 thought about this, I think people's expectations for reselling are way out 198 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:23,440 of line with the effort they put in. 199 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:28,720 I think a lot of people don't put in a lot of effort and expect a lot of 200 00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:30,320 results from a little bit of effort. 201 00:09:30,320 --> 00:09:31,640 Now this is possible. 202 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:37,640 I mean, you can, you can get away kind of doing things half butt in some facets 203 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:42,280 of reselling depending on what you're selling, but I do think overall, a lot 204 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:46,800 of people expect full-time results and they don't put in a full-time hours. 205 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:48,800 Like what's your take on, you think a lot of people are that way? 206 00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:49,960 Yeah. 207 00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:53,480 I mean, look at packaging, how many stuff smelled in cereal boxes. 208 00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:56,600 It's ridiculous or pizza box, flimsy pizza boxes, right. 209 00:09:57,160 --> 00:10:02,000 And that's like the one thing you don't have to be super expensive with it. 210 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:03,240 You can even find free stuff. 211 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:05,480 That's better quality in that you don't have to go as cheap as 212 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:07,240 possible, even on a freemium model. 213 00:10:08,120 --> 00:10:13,000 And your, your, your items can arrive all gnarled up, chewed up by the post 214 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:14,120 office machines or the carrier drops it or used, I don't know, the 215 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:19,600 instead of real tape, you use Scotch tape or something, and it just, there's 216 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:21,200 no way it's going to get there in one piece. 217 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:22,640 It's like, why would you do this? 218 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:26,240 I get that you had a roll of Scotch near you, but you use some real tape 219 00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:28,760 to ship your packaging or pack. 220 00:10:29,040 --> 00:10:31,200 Do you think it's like, I don't know. 221 00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:35,560 Like, so I I've had this probably two or three times so far this year on 222 00:10:35,560 --> 00:10:38,960 even, I really haven't sold that much on eBay, but somebody will buy something 223 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:42,680 from me and I'm like, I'm going to sell it to you, I'm going to sell it to you. 224 00:10:42,680 --> 00:10:47,400 And then they'll come back and they'll send me a message, like, Hey, can you 225 00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:50,160 make sure you pack this properly? 226 00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:57,120 Like, it's almost as if the sellers on eBay are ruining the experience 227 00:10:57,120 --> 00:10:58,560 for the buyers on eBay. 228 00:10:58,560 --> 00:11:03,440 So the sellers blame eBay for slow sales, but in actuality, maybe if we 229 00:11:03,440 --> 00:11:07,760 take a step back and go even further, maybe it's kind of like the sellers 230 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:12,320 you're saying that are ruining the platform because it's, it's kind of 231 00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:15,760 mind blowing to me that somebody buys something and they have to be like, 232 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:18,920 yo, Mike, don't send this in the Count Chocula box, right? 233 00:11:18,920 --> 00:11:20,520 I want this in a normal box. 234 00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:23,400 Like that's what kind of customer. 235 00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:25,600 Why does the customer have to tell us this? 236 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:27,720 Cause they've had a bad experience before. 237 00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:28,840 Exactly. 238 00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:32,920 And it's almost crazy to think like somebody would even go back and shop on 239 00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:36,280 eBay again after they got something in a DiGiorno box, right? 240 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:38,120 It's, but that is the reality of it. 241 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:41,960 So the people that are like, the whining the most about it is it's 242 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:45,080 almost as if like the sellers created this problem. 243 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:46,120 You shouldn't be yelling at eBay. 244 00:11:46,120 --> 00:11:49,960 You should be yelling at every other single eBay seller that is keeping 245 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:52,120 their, you know, food boxes to ship items. 246 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:53,560 And we, we joke about it, right? 247 00:11:53,560 --> 00:11:57,200 We can sit here and say, yeah, but this is happening every single day. 248 00:11:57,200 --> 00:12:00,760 There's multiple people doing this for stuff they're selling every single day. 249 00:12:00,760 --> 00:12:02,400 I see it in some of the groups I'm in. 250 00:12:02,760 --> 00:12:06,480 I've seen somebody bought a Lego set, the flip from eBay to Amazon, and all 251 00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:11,400 they did was wrap the Lego box in newspaper and slap a shipping label on the newspaper. 252 00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:13,400 Like this is going on every single day. 253 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:16,280 So I think, I think we all kind of got to step back. 254 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:20,040 And one thing I think should be implemented. 255 00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:23,960 I mean, this is, we're going off to deep end here is almost some kind 256 00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:25,920 of like packing standard, right? 257 00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:31,280 Like Amazon, they can't enforce what you ship like your stuff in, but they say, 258 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:36,040 Hey, we want plain boxes, plain, you know, polymellers, things like that. 259 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:39,080 You know, you can't, they don't want you shipping in any kind of box. 260 00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:42,280 It's got any kind of, you know, label and promotion on it, anything like that. 261 00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:48,280 I do think like maybe eBay would be better off if, and even Amazon, if they 262 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:52,600 had some kind of like standard for what, what they expect their sellers to do 263 00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:57,000 when a customer orders a product, because if I ordered, so like I ordered, you know, 264 00:12:57,000 --> 00:12:58,880 I ordered from my jerky guy last week, right? 265 00:12:58,880 --> 00:12:59,000 Yeah. 266 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:01,560 And so I talked about my jerky guy a few episodes back. 267 00:13:01,880 --> 00:13:07,160 And if I got my beef jerky and like, you know, like a pizza box, like I 268 00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:09,720 would be so pissed off, like it's just sick. 269 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:11,000 It's just disgusting to me. 270 00:13:11,960 --> 00:13:12,440 No, no, no. 271 00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:17,600 Now, I don't know if you caught on since you don't do eBay, uh, as intensely as I 272 00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:22,200 do, but they've changed the rules on feedback used to call in and go agent 273 00:13:22,200 --> 00:13:23,920 shopping to get the feedback removed. 274 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:25,760 You can't do that no more. 275 00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:27,400 You get like two tries and you're done. 276 00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:31,480 So I'm going to have to go with external things. 277 00:13:31,480 --> 00:13:35,640 If I ever have a negative feedback, like literally I pay a guy to call in for me. 278 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:39,360 And, um, they'll take care of it or they'll attempt to, or get my money back. 279 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:46,280 Because I, I, I should be more versed in the whole terms of service of eBay and 280 00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:50,080 know the right keywords to plug in to make the agent do the thing, but I don't. 281 00:13:50,680 --> 00:13:55,360 Um, so the good old days of agent shopping are gone. 282 00:13:55,400 --> 00:13:57,920 And that leads us back to what we're talking about here. 283 00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:01,640 I think the standard is going to improve because of that, because you're 284 00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:05,800 going to have people, well, they're making less money because they have 285 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:08,120 so many negative feedbacks there. 286 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:09,520 They literally lost money. 287 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:11,120 eBay said, no, you can't do that. 288 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:14,320 We're taking 15% of every sale now from you and that affects your wallet. 289 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:17,360 The people are either going to leave or they're going to shape up. 290 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:23,360 Um, and I think we're going to be left with low quality standard people leaving 291 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:25,880 the platform because they can't handle that or hack that. 292 00:14:25,880 --> 00:14:27,400 I mean, a few of them might change their way. 293 00:14:27,400 --> 00:14:27,920 Sure. 294 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:30,840 But then we're going to be left with everybody else, like you and me, who 295 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:36,960 will do a good enough job where it's not enough freaking pizza box or cereal box. 296 00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:39,640 And it's it, I mean, they bought an item. 297 00:14:39,640 --> 00:14:40,640 I mailed it properly. 298 00:14:40,640 --> 00:14:42,600 They received the item in a proper fashion. 299 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:47,680 I mean, it's a bold statement for me to sit here and say, eBay is not the problem. 300 00:14:47,680 --> 00:14:49,160 It's the sellers on the platform. 301 00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:50,000 That's the problem. 302 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:52,080 And listen, it is what it is, right? 303 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:53,280 You can take it how you want to take it. 304 00:14:53,280 --> 00:14:58,600 But for every one good seller, there's probably two, two sellers that, you know, 305 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:01,200 or it just, they're just not doing what they should do. 306 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:03,680 They're not shipping items when they should ship. 307 00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:05,240 They're not packing items the right way. 308 00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:06,200 On time. 309 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:06,960 Exactly. 310 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:11,560 And what happens is the, that person, like you said, right, that customer's 311 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:12,440 never going to come back. 312 00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:12,640 Sure. 313 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:16,560 The guy that bought from me, you know, he had that experience or, you know, he's 314 00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:21,320 a collector and if he didn't have that experience, clearly he's heard of somebody 315 00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:24,320 having that experience because you wouldn't send the message if you didn't 316 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:26,720 never had that kind of experience or knew somebody, right. 317 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:30,880 It's, but I do think like for me, I don't do nothing on eBay. 318 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:33,360 So I really can't expect to get a single sale. 319 00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:37,560 Like until I'm listing on eBay, my expectation should be zero. 320 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:43,640 And even if, even if I list 30 items, you know, today and nothing else, like your, 321 00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:46,200 your expectations should be next to nothing because you're not being 322 00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:47,680 consistent with the platform. 323 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:49,480 I'm not saying there's nothing wrong. 324 00:15:49,640 --> 00:15:50,680 I've 100%. 325 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:54,880 I love all the part timers we have in the discord that sell media and crush it. 326 00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:58,600 But I do think they all understand what they are, right. 327 00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:00,400 They understand they're doing this part time. 328 00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:05,400 They understand they have 10 hours a week and they build their business 329 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:09,080 around those 10 hours and they have the part time expectation, right. 330 00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:12,520 They're not coming to me saying, Hey, why aren't all my items? 331 00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:14,920 So why, why am I not selling as much as you? 332 00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:17,320 Because they understand I'm doing it full time. 333 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:21,400 They are doing it part time and you could still make good money doing it part time. 334 00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:22,920 You just have to do it the right way. 335 00:16:22,920 --> 00:16:25,200 You have to have the right expectation. 336 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:29,480 Like, I don't know if you were doing it part time, say one item, you were 337 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:31,840 listed one book a day or just one item. 338 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:33,120 We don't even got to take it to media. 339 00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:36,000 Like if you're listening to one item a day, like what do you think your 340 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:39,600 expectation should be like, uh, just, just overall in general. 341 00:16:40,640 --> 00:16:43,320 A year later, I'd make one sale a day every day. 342 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:48,440 If I listed 365 books for a full year and I continued that on the year two, 343 00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:51,240 that would be my expectation that I would sell one book a day. 344 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:54,680 I think if I sold two books a day, whoa, I'd be elated. 345 00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:55,160 Wow. 346 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:56,320 I sold two whole books. 347 00:16:56,520 --> 00:16:56,840 Yeah. 348 00:16:56,840 --> 00:17:00,000 But see like that, that's, you just said one year, right? 349 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:04,760 Nobody that's doing reselling or starting reselling wants to hear that it's 350 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:07,280 going to take a year to sell a single item every day. 351 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:11,520 If you list an item every day, like that's just, that's just, I don't 352 00:17:11,520 --> 00:17:15,480 think people understand the, that everything you sell isn't selling 353 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:20,920 multiple times a day, like 98% of items we sell, we sell, we sell, we 354 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:25,240 sell, or we're lucky if it sells once every day, you know, so just think 355 00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:26,720 about that, it's just a numbers game. 356 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:30,000 If you really look at the numbers and understand basically averages and 357 00:17:30,120 --> 00:17:34,360 sellers and how things work, like you will see that this stuff isn't going 358 00:17:34,360 --> 00:17:38,800 to sell every single day, even if you have the best price, sure. 359 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:40,640 If you've listed for a penny buy it now. 360 00:17:41,360 --> 00:17:42,320 It'll sell right. 361 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:44,760 There's just bots out there that'll track that stuff. 362 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:49,280 But like, if you're actually like pricing to the market, best listing, 363 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:52,360 things don't sell every day and people don't understand that, right? 364 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:56,720 Because everything out there and somebody that as a YouTuber, you see 365 00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:59,720 it all the time, all the videos are, yeah, I went to the garage sale. 366 00:17:59,920 --> 00:18:01,680 I got this controller. 367 00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:05,680 It's going to sell for $80, but they don't say how long it's going 368 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:07,240 to take to sell the controller, right? 369 00:18:07,440 --> 00:18:09,880 That's only the monetary that you get from it. 370 00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:13,120 There's no, well, I found this controller is going to sell for $80, 371 00:18:13,240 --> 00:18:15,040 but it's going to take 90 days to sell. 372 00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:15,400 Right. 373 00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:17,920 And that is the case with a lot of these items. 374 00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:19,320 These people are picking up, right? 375 00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:24,640 They're picking up these old like glass, you know, cups, mugs, like mugs. 376 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:25,480 The great business. 377 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:25,720 Yeah. 378 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:26,200 Guess what? 379 00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:29,280 Those mugs are going to sit on your shelf for a month. 380 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:31,160 You're lucky if it's going to sell after that. 381 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:31,480 Right. 382 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:34,320 So like, I see these things because I used to live the mug life. 383 00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:36,120 I used to try selling mugs, right? 384 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:37,560 I got mug experience. 385 00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:39,240 So I'm not just shooting from the hip here. 386 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:39,560 Right. 387 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:41,400 It was one of those things. 388 00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:41,600 Yeah. 389 00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:45,120 You see the comp you see right then and there, you're going to make $30. 390 00:18:45,120 --> 00:18:47,960 And that's you're going off with that person sold it for. 391 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:49,520 Maybe that was an anomaly. 392 00:18:49,520 --> 00:18:49,840 Right. 393 00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:54,200 Maybe that person for some reason, maybe they had 50% promoted listings 394 00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:56,640 and eBay just shoved it out there down somebody's throat. 395 00:18:56,840 --> 00:19:00,360 So I do think the expectations are way just overall. 396 00:19:00,360 --> 00:19:01,200 Like, what do you think? 397 00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:05,480 Do you think the expectations are kind of in line because you're in the refinement 398 00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:07,720 group, there's a lot more full time eBay sellers. 399 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:11,080 Do you think it's like, do you think the people have the right expectation? 400 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:13,960 Or do you always think people are expecting a lot more than they're putting in? 401 00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:15,600 No, I mean, that's been a big. 402 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:19,160 Thing over in refinement lately. 403 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:20,640 Hey, it's been two years. 404 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:21,440 I'm listing 30. 405 00:19:21,440 --> 00:19:22,560 I'm not selling 30. 406 00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:23,760 Why question mark. 407 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:27,200 And the general answer is desirable items. 408 00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:28,560 Are they desired? 409 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:31,800 Listing used Kleenexes. 410 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:33,440 I mean, I'm sorry, it's not desirable. 411 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:36,520 You got to find the right items. 412 00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:40,000 Like even me, I adjust for a lot of my sales. 413 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:46,680 I run the I'm 100% certain I run the highest promoted listings on a bookseller. 414 00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:49,200 Nobody does 15% promoted listings. 415 00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:52,400 They're they do the minimum recommended guarantee. 416 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:57,600 I do that because I know all of my items are long tail items. 417 00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:02,360 I also charge a premium and I'm just recently now I charge stamp money on top of that. 418 00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:05,720 So it's even more of a premium and I'm still getting sales. 419 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:13,240 I mean, I had a guy buy 21 books yesterday from me, but my whole sales yesterday were just six. 420 00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:18,600 I had six whole sales yesterday, but I made a lot of money within those six sales doing it my right way. 421 00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:21,760 Because I understand how eBay works because I know the expectation. 422 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:23,880 I'm like, OK, these are longer tail items. 423 00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:25,240 I need more people to see it. 424 00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:26,920 Thus, I need promoted listings. 425 00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:31,600 I need to remind people that I'm a bookstore and send out my newsletters. 426 00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:33,280 And I also need to have coupons running. 427 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:35,840 So I look like a good deal in town with my high prices. 428 00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:37,600 Oh, I buy two from this expensive guy. 429 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:39,440 He's going to give me two more free. 430 00:20:40,080 --> 00:20:47,240 I mean, I do all of these things to get the results that are necessary. 431 00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:54,240 Now, on my end, I need to have a little bit more higher end items, though those higher end items will sit longer. 432 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:55,680 But when they sell, they count. 433 00:20:55,680 --> 00:20:57,480 It's like that Rocky Creed thing. 434 00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:02,480 You had old Rocky versus young young guy and they trained him like every hit counts. 435 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:04,560 Right. When you do hit because you're going to miss a lot. 436 00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:07,840 But when you hit, you're going to put them on his ass, essentially. 437 00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:09,560 Same concept here. 438 00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:12,320 All right. I'm going to take this. 439 00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:14,920 This work we're going on going to the deep end. 440 00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:21,520 Now, do you think it's expectations from the platform or expectations from yourself 441 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:24,920 that kind of motivates you to have a business? 442 00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:28,360 Right. Because I consider and say, I'm motivated to have my own business. 443 00:21:28,360 --> 00:21:32,600 So I have expectations for myself, regardless of anything else. 444 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:37,200 And it's even more apparent, like with Deb's business, right? 445 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:38,960 She has her own Shopify website. 446 00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:42,400 She has to drive her own traffic, her own SEO. 447 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:44,040 And on Etsy, it's the same way. 448 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:45,680 She got to have the best pictures. 449 00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:48,040 And Etsy doesn't require none of this, right? 450 00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:50,520 You can you don't have to list every day on Etsy. 451 00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:51,920 You don't got to do none of this on Etsy. 452 00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:54,520 But she says, this is my business. 453 00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:56,560 I'm going to take pride in what I do. 454 00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:58,360 I'm going to be the best at what I do. 455 00:21:58,360 --> 00:22:04,240 So she creates an expectation for herself, regardless of whatever the platform wants. 456 00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:08,720 She's still going to hold herself to a standard above what the platform wants. 457 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:09,960 Do you think that kind of plays into it? 458 00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:13,320 That people almost are just like, well, eBay wants me to do this. 459 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:14,040 So I'm going to do it. 460 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,280 And if eBay didn't make them do it, then they never would do it. 461 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:20,440 I'm going to say this one. 462 00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:22,000 I love Deb's mentality there. 463 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,840 That's great. I share a little bit of that because I take a lot of pride in my eBay store. 464 00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:28,280 Just like she does her Etsy and Shopify store. 465 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:29,480 That being said. 466 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:33,400 Yes, there is the eBay standard, but that's just the start. 467 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:36,360 You need the customer standard on top of that. 468 00:22:36,360 --> 00:22:37,480 They're like a totem pole. 469 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:38,400 Yeah, eBay is there. 470 00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:39,200 That's the bottom. 471 00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:42,560 Well, that's the bottom rung, the customer rung. 472 00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:44,160 And then you're wrong. 473 00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:49,520 Your personal standard, I think is so is your personal standard eBay and customers. 474 00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:52,280 The very top of that little pyramid I just built here. 475 00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:58,200 And I have a personal standard eBay makes me take it a step up and the customers take me another step up. 476 00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:03,320 And that's why my listings look better than most all other bookseller listings, honestly, 477 00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:05,400 because I have everything they want. 478 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:09,000 The only thing I probably don't put in there that I could, because I get this occasionally, 479 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:10,200 it's stupid page numbers. 480 00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:13,880 Maybe I should, but that's an extra step in the listing process. 481 00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:20,240 So somebody can outdo me if they just copied me and put page numbers in there. 482 00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:20,880 There you go. 483 00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:23,200 That's how you beat Johnny B. That's how you beat me. 484 00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:25,000 You're going to put the page numbers on every listing. 485 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:25,800 That's how you beat me. 486 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:28,560 It takes us back there, right? 487 00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:34,480 You understand what's expected and you understand the market you're selling it. 488 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:39,480 You understand when you list something, it's not going to sell immediately unless it's 489 00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:42,640 the hottest item on the market, whether that's Amazon or eBay. 490 00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:47,080 Everything is you understanding your business. 491 00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:52,160 And by understanding, I mean, not just watching videos, listening to podcasts like this, 492 00:23:52,360 --> 00:23:57,000 you actually understanding what type of business you are, how much are you willing to pay for 493 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,760 an item that you're buying, how much are you willing to sell things for on eBay, right? 494 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:01,600 Have a cutoff. 495 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:04,600 My cutoffs, I'm not listening to anything under $19.99 on eBay. 496 00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:09,520 Completely understand your business and have a realistic expectation. 497 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:14,800 Just because you see me or Johnny selling all these items doesn't mean that you can't 498 00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:20,080 do it, but just understand all the steps we've taken to get our business to where they are 499 00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:20,480 today. 500 00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:24,520 It is possible for anybody to achieve anything with reselling. 501 00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:28,840 But if you start off with the mentality and the wrong expectations that everything is 502 00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:32,520 going to fly off the shelf when you listed, you're not going to you're not going to last 503 00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:33,320 more than six months. 504 00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:36,360 I'll sit here and say that you're just not going to be around because what's going to 505 00:24:36,360 --> 00:24:36,760 happen? 506 00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:37,880 Your stuff doesn't sell. 507 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:39,240 You start blaming eBay. 508 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:40,440 eBay doesn't work. 509 00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:42,880 eBay, eBay, I'm closing up eBay. 510 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:44,960 And that's just the reality of it. 511 00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:50,680 And to debunk a few things, since I turned on the stamp, it's been about a week now since 512 00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:51,240 I have. 513 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:53,160 So here are the results of that. 514 00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:58,160 Yes, I am selling less, but I'm keeping more in my pocket, which pretty much means I'm 515 00:24:58,160 --> 00:24:59,560 making the same amount of money. 516 00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:03,360 So I think over time I'll come out ahead. 517 00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:05,200 Again, this is a week analysis. 518 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:09,960 I like to look at at least a three month analysis, but here here's my week result. 519 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:13,320 It's I'm making about the same amount of money and you're doing less work. 520 00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:15,280 You don't have to pack and ship as many items. 521 00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:16,080 Exactly. 522 00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:19,560 And you'll probably get more sales in the long run, like you said, because you have 523 00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:22,360 more lines down the water to catch a fish. 524 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:23,160 Right. 525 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:27,120 Because because eBay does give us pay bumps at active listings. 526 00:25:27,120 --> 00:25:29,680 So and pay bumps, I mean, traffic. 527 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:33,720 And that's the other thing I did notice my traffic take a dip, which well, I can equate 528 00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:34,440 that to sales too. 529 00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:37,400 So more traffic, less traffic, get less sales you're going to get. 530 00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:39,320 So more traffic, get more sales you're going to get. 531 00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:40,160 That's just how it works. 532 00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:41,600 It is true though, right? 533 00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:43,720 Because I've been doing the same thing this year at my Amazon. 534 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:47,480 I've been selling a whole lot less and I've been making basically the same amount. 535 00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:53,160 So I'm prepping and packing a lot less inventory and it makes a huge, it might, you 536 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:56,480 know, today might not seem like a big deal to you, but I think that kind of takes you 537 00:25:56,480 --> 00:26:01,800 back to the expectation of you should have an expectation to get paid for your time 538 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:05,960 as a reseller and paid by pay by the company. 539 00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:11,000 And paid by paid for your time is not listing one dollar items, right? 540 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:15,520 And anything you're going to make one dollar on is not worth your time. 541 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:19,240 I don't care if it's something that's sitting here right in front of you right now that 542 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:23,840 you could sell and make a dollar on the time it takes you to list your list, the item, 543 00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:29,000 do the correct title item descriptions, pack the item, take it to the post office, 544 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:30,400 do a customer service. 545 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:35,000 If they have a question, a possible return, you are playing a losing game. 546 00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:40,520 I think there's like, if we could go through and like flag like junk on eBay that's just 547 00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:44,440 way out of line and like the listings are terrible. 548 00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:47,080 It's just a completely broken listing. 549 00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:51,000 Like we probably could wipe out like half of eBay's listings. 550 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:52,600 Like know what I would love? 551 00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,240 No, I wouldn't love it because I got friends who do this. 552 00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:56,440 So I feel sad for them. 553 00:26:56,440 --> 00:27:01,880 But outside of the friends, what if eBay came along and said no more stock photos and we're 554 00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:05,880 taking down every listing that has a stock photo? 555 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:06,880 Whoa. 556 00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:07,880 Whoa. 557 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,240 I mean, it's not even that though. 558 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:14,760 It's like it's overall like the listing is like the fire emoji listings, right? 559 00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:19,520 You know, like why can you even have special like they shouldn't even allow special characters 560 00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:20,520 to be put in there, right? 561 00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:24,720 If they want to talk about here's our standard and we don't want fire emojis, then why do 562 00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:25,720 they allow it? 563 00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:26,880 So I mean, I don't know. 564 00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:30,640 I do think expectations and it's the same on Amazon. 565 00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:35,720 People expect especially because a lot of people come from eBay to Amazon, right? 566 00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:39,640 People expect you're going to send something in Amazon and it's going to sell overnight 567 00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:43,600 like immediately and like, no, it's going to take three weeks for them to check it in. 568 00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:47,280 If you're lucky, then they're probably going to transfer that item across the country. 569 00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,960 That's going to take another two weeks and that maybe it'll sell when it gets checked 570 00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:53,000 in and hopefully by then the price hasn't tanked. 571 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:56,720 And I do think like you got to understand here. 572 00:27:56,720 --> 00:28:02,600 You're playing if you're doing this full time or you want to be full time, it takes large 573 00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:04,520 amounts of quality items. 574 00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:08,360 Now, what quality means to you and means that somebody else could be different. 575 00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:12,440 But I do think there is a point where you're wasting your time when you're when you're 576 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:15,800 just sending it, you know, anything that's going to you're going to make under five bucks 577 00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:16,800 on. 578 00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:20,120 I do think you're wasting your time on Amazon unless this is something that's not returnable, 579 00:28:20,120 --> 00:28:21,120 right? 580 00:28:21,120 --> 00:28:25,240 On Amazon, maybe it's a grocery item or something along those lines, but it is there's far and 581 00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:29,400 few in between people that are successful at selling that low level junk. 582 00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:33,720 And I'm just tired of seeing it because like I see it all the time because all my YouTube 583 00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:35,480 feed is basically resellers, right? 584 00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:38,520 And it's like what what these items sold? 585 00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:42,080 It's like I sold this for a dollar ninety nine plus four dollars shipping. 586 00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:47,160 And I'm like, that ain't even worth me getting up and putting in the inventory system, even 587 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:51,480 typing in the SKU to have it in the inventory system, then packing it and shipping it because 588 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:56,920 I know people aren't taking into consideration how much they pay for packing supplies, right? 589 00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,080 It's like they have no idea. 590 00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:03,520 And that will tell you right now how much you pay for every single polymellor based 591 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:09,160 on size, every single squeaker that goes in a toy, every single foot of fabric we cut. 592 00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:10,520 It is all costed out. 593 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:15,000 And I think it's like the expectation of, oh, I'm a business owner. 594 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:16,040 But are you really? 595 00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:20,860 You're not because you don't know really nothing about your actual business numbers. 596 00:29:20,860 --> 00:29:24,040 I would I mean, I'm going to go on record here and I'm going to blow up eBay sellers 597 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:25,040 again. 598 00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:31,360 I'm going to say 75 percent of eBay sellers do not know the cost of their shipping supplies 599 00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:32,360 down to the piece. 600 00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:35,440 I got it down to the penny. 601 00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:36,720 The exact penny. 602 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,640 I think 75 percent I might be I might be being a little too kind. 603 00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:41,640 I might be 95. 604 00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:42,640 I'm not 95. 605 00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:43,640 I'm not 95. 606 00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:44,640 I'm not 95. 607 00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:45,640 I'm not 95. 608 00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:46,640 I'm not 95. 609 00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:47,640 Then I'm going to get canceled, right? 610 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:52,040 I'm saying all basically all eBay sellers, but it could very well be that right. 611 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:54,360 I don't even think it's limited to just eBay. 612 00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:58,280 I think it's all sellers across all platforms don't know their numbers. 613 00:29:58,280 --> 00:29:59,280 Oh, I agree. 614 00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:00,280 One hundred percent. 615 00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:05,000 I think, you know, it might not seem like a big deal, but when you start selling more, 616 00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:08,120 like say if you're part time and you're really not worried about this and then you go full 617 00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:11,520 time and all of a sudden you don't realize you're spending, you know, a dollar fifty 618 00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:17,320 per box or, you know, you have all these expenses coming in and then you're like, I'm not making 619 00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:18,960 no money and I'm doing this full time. 620 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:21,040 Well, is there ways you can save money? 621 00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:22,040 Right. 622 00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:25,360 Like Deb's always looking for a deal now for fourth quarter because we know we're going 623 00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:26,360 to use the bags. 624 00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:27,600 We know we're going to use the squeakers. 625 00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:29,440 We know we're going to use the catnip. 626 00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:32,000 So we can find it on special now. 627 00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:33,920 And hey, let's stock up now. 628 00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:35,120 And it brings down your cost. 629 00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:36,280 And I think you hit it on the head. 630 00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:40,320 Like people just don't understand how the business works. 631 00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:45,520 It's not just all fun and games going out and thrift stores recording YouTube videos. 632 00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:46,520 Look what I found. 633 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:47,680 I sold for a million bucks. 634 00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:49,200 I found this gold bar. 635 00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:50,640 I can't believe what I found. 636 00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:57,000 It's just like that's just like the very, very, very tip of having a reselling business. 637 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:01,240 And people don't want to accept the fact that they think they might tell people they might 638 00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:03,920 think in their own mind they have a reselling business. 639 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:08,480 But if there was like, you know, a set of 10 requirements to be able to say you have 640 00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:12,720 a reselling business, probably, you know, like you said, five percent of people would 641 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:17,160 be able to actually get the reselling business at the wear around. 642 00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:20,240 Everybody else would just be considered part time hobbyist. 643 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:21,240 All right. 644 00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:24,320 So here's an extreme example for you. 645 00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:26,440 Let's say you had one employee. 646 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:28,680 Employee cost fifteen dollars an hour. 647 00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:31,680 They work seven hours a day, five days a week. 648 00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:33,880 That's one hundred and five dollars a day. 649 00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:36,640 That is five hundred and twenty five dollars for the week. 650 00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:41,320 Let's say you had a thousand dollars in gross sales for the week. 651 00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:43,080 Oh, yay. 652 00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:44,080 That's gross. 653 00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:45,080 That's not net. 654 00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:48,560 So let's just take let's take away a big chunk of that from fees. 655 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:50,920 Let's be nice here and only say 30 percent. 656 00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:51,920 Right. 657 00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:54,080 So now you're down to seven hundred dollars. 658 00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:56,480 Well, you got to pay the employees. 659 00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:59,160 So five twenty five coming out of that seven hundred. 660 00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:01,960 So how much are you left with, folks? 661 00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:02,960 How much? 662 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:05,880 One hundred and seventy five dollars you made for the week. 663 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:08,240 How many hours did you work that week? 664 00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:10,240 How much did you pay for the stuff you sold? 665 00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:11,240 Right. 666 00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:12,240 And I didn't even get it. 667 00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:15,760 I didn't even touch shipping supplies where I'm sure it really factored in that kind 668 00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:17,320 30 percent number I threw in there. 669 00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:21,760 And I didn't even factor in tax man taking his cut at the end of the year. 670 00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:23,240 I didn't do any of that. 671 00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:28,680 I mean, even if you are using Count Chocula boxes, cereal is expensive nowadays. 672 00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:32,560 So you'd probably be better off shopping from Uline than going to your grocery store 673 00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:36,120 and just keeping your cereal boxes, honestly. 674 00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:37,120 I do. 675 00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:40,800 I do think it brings us back to the overall topic is just like, have a realistic 676 00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:44,520 expectation for what your business should be. 677 00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:46,640 Sure, it's OK to whine, right? 678 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:49,720 I whined to Johnny, you know, hey, I'll text Johnny. 679 00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:51,720 Yo, my sales suck. 680 00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:52,720 I'm done with Amazon. 681 00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:55,880 I'm done with even he's like, shut up, get back to work. 682 00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:59,600 And honestly, I think that negates everything. 683 00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:04,120 If you put in the time, you put in the work, you put in the effort in the right way, you 684 00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:05,120 will get results. 685 00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:06,600 Sure, there's always going to be down times. 686 00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:08,720 And we were kind of talking about it. 687 00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:12,400 Jimmy and Deb earlier is like, I don't think there's a summer slowdown on Amazon. 688 00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:14,040 eBay, I do think it exists. 689 00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:17,760 But if you're selling desirable items on Amazon, it is around the year. 690 00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:20,520 So I don't want to hear, well, oh, summer slowdown on Amazon. 691 00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:22,920 I've been sending in more and I've been selling more. 692 00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:23,920 So guess what? 693 00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:28,840 I debunk that immediately with media when it comes to summer slowdown on Amazon. 694 00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:33,600 But I do think people just have to have to get real with themselves and get real with 695 00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:34,600 their business. 696 00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:37,280 If you want it to be a business, then treat it like a business. 697 00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:42,840 If you want to be like me and list every other month on eBay, then have the expectation that 698 00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:46,440 every other month on eBay, you're going to get sales, you're not going to get sales. 699 00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:47,640 And you have to accept that. 700 00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:50,160 It'd be stupid of me if I complained. 701 00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:54,680 If I complained to you, hey, I haven't got sales on eBay, what's going on? 702 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:56,160 You haven't listed in five weeks. 703 00:33:56,160 --> 00:34:02,000 I'm like, well, no, did you see that eBay did an update on the back end of their international 704 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:03,000 shipping? 705 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:05,920 And even though I'm not enrolled in international shipping, that's why I haven't got it. 706 00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:10,280 It's like, no, Mike, you didn't list it. 707 00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:14,280 It's so much easier, though, to make an excuse for yourself instead of just getting out there 708 00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:16,280 and just getting it done. 709 00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:17,920 Like, that's honestly all I can say. 710 00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:22,480 If you're going on Amazon, you get any sales on Amazon, whatever, send in another box so 711 00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:24,000 you can get some more sales. 712 00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:28,680 Yeah, I think people are so quick to like almost look for an excuse or an out instead 713 00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:30,920 of just being like, okay, I got to get out. 714 00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:32,600 I got to do more sourcing. 715 00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:34,040 I got to find a different source. 716 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:36,000 I got to repost my Craigslist ad. 717 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:37,720 I got to repost my Facebook ad. 718 00:34:37,720 --> 00:34:41,640 I got to get on real estate sites, storage auction sites. 719 00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:45,120 There's so many things we can do that people choose not to. 720 00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:46,120 So it's like... 721 00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:48,080 Trip out to California. 722 00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:53,760 Like my 10 list to classify yourself as a reselling business, I need like a 10 bullet 723 00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:56,720 point list before you can complain about something. 724 00:34:56,720 --> 00:35:00,640 You have to meet these 10 requirements and then you can complain about something. 725 00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:01,640 Right. 726 00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:03,000 I mean, I complain too, guys. 727 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,720 My life's not perfect every day. 728 00:35:05,720 --> 00:35:11,720 I do the same thing mostly every day, but I have days where I don't need to be complaining, 729 00:35:11,720 --> 00:35:12,720 but I will. 730 00:35:12,720 --> 00:35:15,600 I mean, yeah, stress gets to you all the time. 731 00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:16,600 Sure. 732 00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:20,400 And that being said, I live a pretty stress free life, honestly, because it's the same 733 00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:22,800 thing every day. 734 00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:26,880 Give me your final thoughts on expectations here. 735 00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:30,000 Expectations, both Amazon and eBay. 736 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:33,000 I think you have to know the tools you're working with. 737 00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:37,600 If you're in Amazon land, I know we didn't discuss this in length, but know your repriceit 738 00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:39,620 tool and how it works intimately. 739 00:35:39,620 --> 00:35:41,500 Know your scanning app. 740 00:35:41,500 --> 00:35:42,720 Know how it works intimately. 741 00:35:42,720 --> 00:35:48,080 If you know how to read every number in that column, you've done a good job. 742 00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:54,280 And my final, final thoughts on eBay is, remember, do what the platform wants and then go a step 743 00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:56,680 further and do what the customer wants. 744 00:35:56,680 --> 00:35:57,680 My take on it. 745 00:35:57,680 --> 00:35:58,680 I'm done. 746 00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:03,800 And he literally makes a sale as he finishes his monologue here at the end. 747 00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:05,280 It's like, it's so scripted, dude. 748 00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:06,280 I'm tired of the script. 749 00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:07,280 All right. 750 00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:08,280 I'm really tired of it. 751 00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:11,120 But yeah, I think you summed it up, right? 752 00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:16,400 You got to just get out of the mindset that everything is working against you. 753 00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:20,520 And you got to basically create opportunities for yourself. 754 00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:22,880 We talk about luck all the time, right? 755 00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:26,600 Is it really lucky that you go into a thrift store and find an item? 756 00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:27,840 No, it's not. 757 00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:31,520 Because you took the initiative to get off your butt and actually go to the thrift store 758 00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:32,720 to find this item. 759 00:36:32,720 --> 00:36:36,480 I might be lucky that it was still sitting there on the shelf, but guess what? 760 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:39,600 It's really not luck because if you never would have went, it never would have happened 761 00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:40,600 to begin with. 762 00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:44,800 So the luck, luck really doesn't play a factor in your reselling business. 763 00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:49,800 It's consistency and just having, you know, putting in the time, putting in the work and 764 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:50,800 you'll get results. 765 00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:55,520 I can promise you that if I, if I, anybody that is really kind of, you know, we always 766 00:36:55,520 --> 00:37:00,280 say you can't carbon copy somebody, but anybody that's in my discord, that's taken selling 767 00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:05,000 media seriously and kind of did what I did along the way. 768 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:09,920 I'm comfortable in saying that today, if they're still doing it, they have grown their business 769 00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:14,000 10 times from where they started and that they're getting the results or working towards 770 00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:16,240 the results that they ultimately want to get. 771 00:37:16,240 --> 00:37:23,560 So it's not 100% copy and paste, but I do think there is almost like a recipe for success 772 00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:26,480 in reselling, no matter what category you're in. 773 00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:31,200 If you take the steps, like you said, if you take the steps eBay wants you to do, Amazon 774 00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:34,840 wants you to do, then you're going to get results as long as you're, you're, you're 775 00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:36,020 doing it correctly. 776 00:37:36,020 --> 00:37:41,960 So just, just think the next time I want people to just think next time you have a slow sales 777 00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:47,320 month of slow sales week, instead of just running and yelling that the economies were 778 00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:53,120 in the worst recession in the history of the solar system and the Milky Way galaxies, I 779 00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,520 want you to take a step back and think to yourself, well, what can I do a little bit 780 00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:58,480 differently this next month? 781 00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:00,080 That's going to give me better results. 782 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:01,320 So we appreciate you all listening. 783 00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:03,560 We'll talk to you in next week's episode. 784 00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:08,080 Thanks for listening to another episode of the resellers mindset podcast. 785 00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:12,520 Today's full episode and all previous episodes are available to all YouTube members along 786 00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:15,240 with the weekly zoom call and private discord. 787 00:38:15,240 --> 00:38:19,560 Head on over to youtube.com backslash to use book guy and consider joining for as little 788 00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:24,560 as 2 99 a month.