Episode 62: The Topic of Topics

We’re combing through recent episode topic suggestions to try some on for size. We’re bringing you right inside the podcasting studio with us today because we want to know what you want to hear about! Join in the brainstorm today and see what sounds compelling to you!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey everybody! Welcome to episode 62, the topic of topics on the Seller Club podcast. Before we get into it, let's drop that beat. Let me ask you guys something. How do you choose a topic for a podcast episode?

SPEAKER_04 0:26

We have to go by experience or what what what things are going on currently. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 0:31

What experience, what things are going out current going on currently, or you open your mind to things that you've never thought about yet.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Boom. Okay, those are great answers. I'm pulling an old hustler hacks trick and putting you guys on the spot. Um and I actually do have a topic in my back pocket for today. But first of all, how are you guys? How are you doing? Who are you? What are you?

SPEAKER_05 0:56

I I'm I'm um I'm gonna give away to Glenn first.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

I'm gonna give it to Ken because he's been he's been sourcing like an animal and through words, truly. Yeah, yeah. And so I can I can tell by look on his face he's not done yet. So he has he's he's tired, he's a little beat, but he has a lot of work to do. He's getting there.

SPEAKER_05 1:19

Yeah, yeah. Things are getting done, that is for sure. Um you know what else is surprising? Because we've been just sourcing and just focused on the business and you know, quote unquote busy building. Um one of the positive effects about it is I'm dropping pounds. I've lost more weight doing the b the hustle be thing. Unfortunately more than my workout last year.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

So it's either I'm losing my muscle or I'm just Yeah, I was gonna say, are you losing muscle mass or you're really just sourcing like an animal like that?

SPEAKER_05 2:01

Yeah, that too. I I do I I I have all my jeans and pants now, I c have to wear belts. So it's inches, not just you know, scale pounds. So uh that is a good thing. And um just recently, I guess, you know, I won't brag about it. I'm a proud owner of a minivan again. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Repeat owner.

SPEAKER_05 2:26

Yeah. So history repeats itself. Yeah. What do you think about that, Glenn? I like the minivan.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

He's jealous.

SPEAKER_05 2:34

Glenn Glenn knew me. You you should get a minivan, Glenn. Wifey don't want a minivan?

SPEAKER_04 2:39

Um, I guess we could, but I don't know. We get we did get that SUV. It's been working fine. Minivan. Man, I don't know if I'm if I'm if I I guess do so many miles in driving like you do. I mean, how many miles have you put on that minivan since getting it already?

SPEAKER_05 2:57

Alright, I have to say I it's kinda I kinda I'm gonna hurt, but I've already put 2,000 miles.

unknown 3:03

Oh man.

SPEAKER_04 3:05

That is crazy. Even my SCP only has like 8,000 miles, it's already over a year old. Like I haven't even put that much on it at all. And in the cold, I might add.

SPEAKER_05 3:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_02 3:19

Yeah, it has been.

SPEAKER_05 3:20

Yeah, well, the crazy part is, um, you know, because I've been in Anasturf too. Um her area is way warmer than Cincinnati.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Uh-huh. Right now, I mean it was negative twenty.

SPEAKER_05 3:34

Well, it was still worse. Like we've ne today was the first time we've hit over, I mean, above freezing. It's finally 35 today. Oh, yeah. Dang. And um, and the crazy part is I've had to shovel every time because I don't want to make my, you know, my driveway slick because we're going in and out. I I don't want the mailman to slip, and the Amazon, next thing you know, I have a problem with my hands, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:57

You're so considerate. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:00

I yeah, I would say, and then could I Anna's saying that because her driveway is just ice right now.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Well, here's why. My driveway is rocks. No, it's just like it's really hard to shovel rocks.

SPEAKER_05 4:12

Yeah, it's gravel, it's gravel. You can't, you can't.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

It's like not the same as having like a concrete driveway.

SPEAKER_05 4:18

So it won't get that slick like the the ice on dry on you know cement.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:27

Because you got some grip, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Well, if it unless it's really thick, which it has been, like the ice on the top is still super but anyways, it's fine. Here nor there. Um well that's how you you guys have been doing. It's been it has been a very busy first month here of January. I know.

SPEAKER_05 4:46

Would you guys agree that this has been the busiest first uh January uh in like our businesses? For me, yes. Anna, yes, right for you.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 4:58

What about you guys? Tell us why.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Tell us why and how tell us why, Anna, why because I've been sourcing like a junior animal. So I've like never really jumped on a lot of retail arb kind of opportunities this time of year before. Um, not like to the level that I am now. And I've just been doing a major like inventory overhaul. So like the amount of hours I've been putting into my business, and I've still been shipping stuff too. Like that's sales have been decent this month for sure, but um I've just been putting in lots of hours. And usually January is kind of a downtime for you know most activities. Um so it's really interesting. It's kind of fun though, like it's it's kind of energizing, it's exhausting at the same time, but I'm trying to look at it like I'm setting myself up to work, you know, part-time hours most of the weeks of the rest of the year after this. So I'm willing to work really hard right now and kind of try to test that model, right? For like how to balance my work through the year.

SPEAKER_05 6:03

I don't like the word balance, but rhythmically work.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

I don't like that word. You're splitting hairs, but okay. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:12

What about GPT? What's another word for balance?

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Not balance to make it equal. That's the point. It's like I'm front loading it now. Uh in order to balance out the front loading later with less work.

SPEAKER_05 6:22

To compensate, it's not bad.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Yeah, pretty much.

SPEAKER_04 6:27

Last year was way busier than this year. I mean, I'm trying to get everything set on all I don't know, within like inventory and selling and everything, but it seems like this January's been slower for people to bounce back from Christmas. It feels like Christmas, yeah. Yeah, like it feels like that. Um not just on like eBay, whatnot, as well. Even going to the gym has been like kind of empty.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Like, usually you'll get like resolution people are still there.

SPEAKER_05 6:59

So they fell out already?

SPEAKER_04 7:03

I don't think they ever showed up.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

They were like, you know what? Lost cause.

SPEAKER_04 7:08

Yeah, we're still trying to bounce back, like what's the point?

SPEAKER_05 7:11

And so, finally, those people that keep bashing them for starting uh resolution finally just get won. Day one, you know, exactly. Um you guys are right.

SPEAKER_04 7:23

Um maybe it's because of like other outside factors like pre like new president and people were freaking out about TikTok, which is out of control. Um that like they were losing it and people were losing it. There are just so many outside factors now that I think people are focusing on, but you know, it's uh it's a weird time right now. Or more like people are distracted. Yeah, a little bit more by than it may be their own personal goals at the moment. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 7:54

That is true. Um but it's been good. Um I would say, I mean, last year I was, you know, under palm trees and drinking fresh coconut uh sand on my feet. And then now I got salt. Shoveling snow. Yeah, snow. Um I have to rock out some Gore-Tex, you know, boots to just keep my feet um warm. Yeah, and like I think a lot of it's just like being inside a car. It's like, you know how like it fogs up, you know, and then you cannot find that perfect, you know, temperature. You like turn up the heat, and if you turn the heat too low, then it just your windows and glass just fogs up. Um but but it's been a lot of uh you know, since I'm driving a lot, so there's a lot of thinking, there's a lot of podcasts, there's a lot of pondering. Um so I would say I've been more dialed in and been more, I guess, open to new things. And but yeah, I'm excited. Uh I'm excited about our topic today, which we don't know. We have no clue what it is.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Okay, well, I'm gonna take you guys back to a little thing called the 12 days of giveaways, which we did in December. Okay. So one of our giveaways, I think it was day 10 or 11. Um, as part of entering the giveaway, people had to recommend a topic for us to discuss on the podcast and or a recommendation for who they think should sponsor the show, which was hilarious. Um we'll save the sponsors for another day. We have to make some inquiries about that. But some of them were super funny. Some of them were like, okay, yeah, I could see that. It makes sense. And some of them were like not logical at all, but it was still great entertainment. But basically, I went through the hundreds of entries that we got for that giveaway, and I pulled out some of the suggestions for topics because, you know, running this podcast is really fun. It's one of the ancillary reseller activities that we do together. And so this is a little bit of how the sausage is made. We've never done this before. Um, we've never like kind of crowdsourced ideas for topics, but we have conversations with other sellers all the time, right? And we discuss things off the air all the time that could be good topics. But basically, for this episode, we're gonna sort of have a little bit of this crowd participation element. And I'm gonna tell you guys a topic, and you're gonna basically give me a thumbs up or thumbs down. And then if you choose to explain your thumbs up or thumbs down, or you have a strong reason or an idea about it, you're welcome to share that. But I'm not gonna tell you if I have a thumbs up or thumbs down because we have to preserve some element of surprise, and some of these are going to make it into our actual schedule for the year of things to talk about.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

So like that.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

So I if it's like a no-brainer, like it might be easy to guess, but there might be some that maybe we will talk about them in an episode and maybe not. So I don't want to give that away. So I just wanna you guys haven't seen any of these. You haven't seen this list at all. So I'm just gonna like rapid fire tell you topics, and I want your thumbs up or thumbs down, and if you want to talk about why or why not, you can. But you don't have to. It'll we'll never get through them all if you do that for all of them, just so you know. There's a lot. So choose wisely. Okay, so does that sound like a fun little sausage making experiment?

SPEAKER_04 11:23

Stool. Yes. Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Glenn's like, I'm vegan, but yeah, it's fine.

SPEAKER_04 11:27

Poor vegan sausage. Poor animal.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

It's 100% vegan sausage. Okay, so here is the first topic. How we approach our storefront on eBay. Like, do we specialize categories? Do we change out our featured items? Do we use newsletters? And overall, the storefront as a traffic driver for our store. Should that make the list?

SPEAKER_04 11:54

I would say one thumbs up. I'm gonna have two thumbs.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Oh, so now we're working with six thumbs? Okay, that's good to know.

SPEAKER_04 12:01

Yeah, yeah. I'll I'll give one thumb, one thumb for that one. Thumb up, thumb up.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Ken.

SPEAKER_04 12:09

Thumbs up, thumbs up, thumbs up.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Thumbs up, okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:13

Two thumbs up. Two thumbs up. Two thumbs up. Oh, dang. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Well, in that case, let's move on, because we'll have a lot more to discuss about that in the future.

SPEAKER_04 12:22

Maybe wait, so we don't know Anna's response?

SPEAKER_02 12:24

We don't know. Yeah. We don't know. Yeah. But I'm just saying, two out of three, there's a pr pretty good chance we'll probably talk about it.

SPEAKER_05 12:31

Oh, she's a tiebreaker, basically.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

Yeah, I am the tiebreaker. So or the hostage if it's a topic I don't want to talk about, and you guys both want to talk about it. So it really works both ways. Okay, the next topic organizing our workspace um or shipping area or shipping supplies.

SPEAKER_04 12:50

Thompson. Yeah, I would say. Oh man. I'm looking at my area right now and it's kind of He needs help. Clans like, on what basis can I make recommendations about this? I'm like, hmm, shipping station. Hmm, where do I move this bin? Uh yeah, I would say uh I would say that that's a good that's a good topic. I would say thumbs up on that.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

Okay, cool, cool. Okay, how about how about this one? I feel like we'll have some takes on this one. Um 2025 trends for hot items or bolos.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

Dumps down. Oh, Kenny. Come on. You know you gotta give these bolos out. There's people that can't source unless you tell them what to source for. Come on.

SPEAKER_05 13:39

I I always say when somebody says, like, hey, can you help me? It's like um open YouTube search hustler hacks.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

That's what I say. I've literally heard you say that to people. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 13:53

All the time. All the time. And then I don't even talk about like what I do. I just say like, uh, you watch YouTube? Yeah, go Google Hustle, uh search Hustler Hacks, and um he'll tell you what to do. I learned from him. That's what I always say.

SPEAKER_04 14:07

I mean, at this point, you can sell anything you want to sell. Um, I'm not saying you're gonna be profitable or not. I mean, I don't know what your cost of goods are.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

That's a good point. It's like be on the lookout for this, but why? Why should you?

SPEAKER_04 14:23

Would you be on the lookout for Pokemon cards at Costco? Have you seen all those posts?

SPEAKER_00 14:30

No, I have not.

SPEAKER_04 14:31

Oh, no? Okay. Well, some Pokemon.

SPEAKER_05 14:34

Oh, I've seen those. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, people went crazy. It was like Black Friday. Really? Yeah, yeah. Dude, apparently, it's was the only Poke uh was it only Costco exclusive or something?

SPEAKER_04 14:44

Yeah, it was like exclusive with like a box type thing. Yeah, they were just like tell us what's going on with that. I think some stores had rules, other ones didn't.

SPEAKER_05 14:54

Yeah, like it was like they couldn't touch until they opened it, and I saw a video, right? You see that guy? And then as soon as he opened uh kind of like the gate lord or like the palette like, yeah, everybody just started grabbing, right? And then the people like fell. And it was so savage. The dude fell- Sounds dramatic. The dude fell, and guys were picking off of his hand uh off of his pile. And I'm like, I was like, poor guy. And then there's some I was like, this like because there dudes were like grabbing five or six or like a stack, and then this guy was actually handing it out to people in the back, and then just got one. So I was like, oh, that's a collector right there. Yeah, and then you could just tell the resellers, they were just up front, and then they just had carts and they were just using the carts to block people, and they would just dump in their carts. It was wild.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

That does sound wild.

SPEAKER_05 15:48

It's like Black Friday on, you know, I was like a Black Friday on Janu uh January.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

I kind of feel like how did I not hear about this? But then again, I've been a little busy.

SPEAKER_05 15:55

So it's well, it's it's it'll it'll pop up on your feed. I've seen it, it just popped up on my feed too.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 16:01

Okay, so you think this gives resellers a bad name? 100% makes resellers look bad. I mean I mean, most resellers look bad already, so I think it's funny because like a lot of the comments were like, these people look like exactly what I would think they would look like.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Ouchie.

SPEAKER_04 16:21

So that's what the resellers are. Okay, noted. That's really funny.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

I don't know what we're supposed to look like, but yeah. Okay, so no bolo talk, no bolo. No, oh Glenn said no. Glenn said thumbs down.

SPEAKER_05 16:35

Yeah, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

What do you think, Glen?

SPEAKER_05 16:37

No.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

No thumbs down?

SPEAKER_05 16:39

No, yeah, too easy. Come on. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Okay, what about what about trends, hot trends?

SPEAKER_05 16:45

No, there's no trends.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

What about talking about why you don't want to talk about it?

SPEAKER_05 16:50

Yes, let's do that. Right, Glenn? Yeah, we can do that. Why I don't want to talk about it. Why it's not useful for your growth.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

Because like, well, we we have talked about this briefly on the show before, but like there is a world in which like if you're just getting into this world and you don't know, you like you don't know what you don't know, right? So if you're just learning like brand names and stuff you wouldn't recognize.

SPEAKER_05 17:16

Or yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

Yeah, because I have a at the surface level that's helpful because you go, oh, I've heard of that before.

SPEAKER_05 17:21

Maybe I have a subtopic already.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 17:23

Instead of trends.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Okay, what's that?

SPEAKER_05 17:27

Things expensive things that you like or wish to buy.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 17:34

Right? Okay. Alright. I think everybody has that. Glenn, what about you? Let me ask you this real quick. What's that one thing that you keep buying, but it's expensive, and if you found it cheaper, you would buy a bunch. For you, like personal, not trying to resell. Like if you're just a regular consumer.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

I know the answer.

SPEAKER_04 17:56

Oh, cat food, 100%.

SPEAKER_05 17:58

Oh. That's a good one. Oh, that is a good one.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

That is expensive.

SPEAKER_05 18:04

Well, sounds like you're an Amazon reseller. Ooh.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Ooh.

SPEAKER_05 18:09

Cat Perishables diapers, toilet paper, they're all diapers. That's uh that's essential. I I'm not gonna cross that line.

SPEAKER_04 18:18

Yeah, they're all just adding up and and just causing mayhem at this point.

SPEAKER_05 18:23

So replenishables that Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Consumables.

SPEAKER_05 18:28

Yeah. Yeah, I've uh me uh JC did like the the couponing one time, and we ended up having like twenty like Thai detergent jugs. And um that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Why am I not surprised that you guys were into couponing? We need to talk about that on.

SPEAKER_04 18:45

I really wanted to try it. I really wanted to try it, but yeah, you have to do it.

SPEAKER_05 18:50

You ha you have to have a good um like page to follow that's like not trying to sell you course, you know, like that's just kind of like this.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Yeah, yeah, like the hustler had some couponing.

SPEAKER_05 19:03

That was that was so cool. It was so cool because it was like buying one, get the next one for a dollar, and I could I could you not we we didn't I could like for the now I'm surprised that we're buying, you know what I'm saying? Because for the longest time we've had so many and it didn't add as a cost, and then now it's like twenty bucks, like every time, right? It's like so it's like now it's painful. So uh probably that would be a good uh we that would be a good something uh to learn, you know, like shampoo, basically space for sure. I mean that's easy.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

It's a lot of like hygiene and like cleaning stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:40

Yeah, I mean even like cleaning stuff, like uh JC bought like those uh Dawn Power or something like that, and she bought a bunch, and then now every time we have to buy it's like it's painful.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Yeah, you're used to getting it for like a cent.

SPEAKER_05 19:53

Yeah, or like you just buy in bulk and then you pay, you know, a hundred bucks and it'll last you like a year and you don't feel it.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Right, you don't you know because well see that's what Costco is all about, Ken. Just buy it like that.

SPEAKER_05 20:07

I'm not there yet. I I don't know why I'm anti bulk buying in gross.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

Unless it's sneakers.

SPEAKER_05 20:16

That is true. That is true. I don't know why. I feel like it's so it's like such a big well, I guess this is this is my mentality. It's like if I'm buying five hundred dollars worth of stuff that would last me six months, what if I buy a sneaker tomorrow and I could flip it more over and over again?

SPEAKER_02 20:33

Yeah. Because these aren't assets, they're just no they're just consumable, right? So you're you're tying up a lot of your cash and consumable today's cash.

SPEAKER_04 20:43

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Well, this has taken us far from the actual topic, but that's okay. It's an interesting conversation.

SPEAKER_04 20:49

Yeah, I do like that. Okay, should we keep going? Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Okay, okay. Next one, sourcing in small towns.

SPEAKER_04 20:58

I'm pretty sure me and Ken have some sort of stories in sourcing some small towns. Um end up in the middle of nowhere trying to uh find something.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

I'm trying to remember where we are. That is the thesis of my business right now. I I live in a small town.

SPEAKER_05 21:18

I Ken's thinking about it. I'm thinking like I'm thinking there might be a lot more downside than upside. So I would like to discuss it. That's a thumbs up. That's a thumbs up.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Is that two thumbs up?

SPEAKER_05 21:33

That's two thumbs up.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Four thumbs up? Four, four, four.

SPEAKER_05 21:36

Yeah, four, four, three. Because yeah, we have to think too, like, you know, I I think it's smart to live in rural places because it's cheaper. Right, cost more peaceful, traffic is less. I think it's less. I would say pe I think just the peace of like slower life. I like that. So I think it would be a good discussion. If we ever had to move and it's a small town. It's not like I can't drive twenty minutes more to get to a bigger city or something.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

Civilization. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

It's true.

SPEAKER_05 22:09

I agree, I agree.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

Okay. Well, that was pretty tidy. Okay, so the next one is how to decide whether to start lowering prices when items aren't selling versus holding at your price point and hoping for the sale later on.

SPEAKER_05 22:21

Oh, all the decision making around that. I feel like I know who commented it. It's like Anesthetica Solaney. It was actually just me.

SPEAKER_04 22:33

We're doing like a little items.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Well, guess what? I don't even want to talk about that. So Well, thumbs up, Dan.

SPEAKER_04 22:39

Two thumbs up.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

Two things. You guys are gonna hold me hostage. Okay, great. Glenn, are you in for that one?

SPEAKER_04 22:45

Yeah, I'm in for that one.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

Okay, great. Figured, okay, so my plan actually worked all along. Ha ha ha. Um, just kidding. So next one is diversifying and adapting your business to an ever-changing market.

SPEAKER_05 23:00

Hmm. I feel like that's a competitive advantage if you talk about it. We should just keep everybody where they're at.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

Well, I was gonna say that's actually a good topic too. Like, how do you um how do you freely share without like ruining your competitive edge, right? That's more of a question for the content creators than the actual.

SPEAKER_05 23:22

Yeah, the YouTubers that ruin every the market, you know. True. Um I would say thumbs up on that one, because I would like to uh grill some content creators on this one. Yeah, we'll do thumbs up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Glenn Glenn knows all the Reddit posts and all the trash.

SPEAKER_04 23:41

YouTube comments and right, right.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

Glenn is like well versed in all of that content. Yeah. Um, okay, well, the next one, um, I will tell you my thumb on this one, actually. The only exception. So this one was financial literacy, stocks, reads, crypto, etc. And um I'm gonna thumbs down this topic for us because we are not experts in any of those areas. Um but I will say what what could be interesting is I actually am really interested in all of those things. And I listen to a lot of um personal finance and investing podcasts, and I would be happy to share the shows that I like to listen to that I feel like are credible. So I feel like in general, that could actually be a good kind of parallel or like kind of a lateral move to a topic where we might recommend other types of or or you know, media that we consume that's about other topics other than reselling that interest us or that we find to be like really helpful that we never talk about because we always talk about reselling. Oh so we can have like a recommendations corner.

SPEAKER_05 24:46

I would say I would say four thumbs down, including my including my toast, because um my reasoning is unless you're doing eight figures, yeah, don't diversify to like oh I'm gonna put this there because it's gonna make twelve percent a year, because I'd rather be the specialist in my industry than the uh generalist. And yeah, and everybody say like oh, people have like real estate, yeah, like because they could afford to drop four or five hundred thousand dollars on the real estate. Um, but like just going my belief, my personal belief is that going across different industry and just leveraging off debt and cash flow and doing that just puts you in so much more higher risk than actually doubling down on what you're doing already.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

Especially if you don't know what you're doing, which is our position on all of this, except for maybe Glenn, because he paid off his house this year. So I'm sorry, last year.

SPEAKER_03 25:54

That was last year.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

But like, can we all agree that we are not finance experts to like do a podcast about it?

SPEAKER_05 26:02

Uh yeah, I'm fine. Yeah, uh no. Glenn, what's your take on that?

SPEAKER_04 26:06

I mean, anything to do with like stocks, crypto.

SPEAKER_05 26:10

Oh, the England almost got rich. Remember that time?

SPEAKER_02 26:14

So we can tell anecdotal stories about it.

SPEAKER_05 26:17

We should. Remember, remember Glenn when Hertz went to like one cent or something like that?

SPEAKER_04 26:22

And I I do remember that, but I remember you and um man, who else is trying to Jake's like 20? It was Jake. Yeah, Jake was like 2020-ish, right?

SPEAKER_05 26:32

Oh our plan was to put our uh COVID money on that, and man, we were two days late, and it was just uh like our COVID money would have been 10 grand. And me and Glenn were just like talking about it. And then Glenn's like, I don't have a count. Like, I have account, like let's just just dump it. Like, should I go? And then we just go like 100, 100 each, and then like I think we lost it.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

This is some real behind the scenes, you guys.

SPEAKER_04 27:05

Yeah. I think it's just really difficult because like I don't know anything about that stuff. I think very I think it's all interesting though. I would like to learn more about it, but yeah, yeah, running this resale business, I just don't have that time to. But yeah, yeah, yeah. Um I don't know, like, there's so many people that are doing well on these things that say uh crypto stocks and even like like sports gambling. Yeah, yeah. Like so they're making it legal everywhere. Yeah, there's people that are doing well, and there's also lots of people that are not doing well.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

That is accurate, I would say, from my uh viewpoint. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:45

Yeah. So I mean, I'm definitely interested in it. I don't know. I guess I don't mind. I would give it one thumb up, one thumb down. So um, I'm in between.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

Okay. So well, we'll see if that comes back around. Um, even though all of the thumbs have outruled you already. Because I still think there might be some value in just like rec recommending some stuff. Like, we're not the resource, but we can recommend the resources that we listen to or or like or whatever. Um and I only say that because as a topic idea itself, because the reason that I discovered I could sell like full time on eBay was from listening to a personal finance podcast where some resellers were interviewed on the podcast about their business slash lifestyle of selling stuff on eBay. And I never would have done this had it not been for that. So there could be something really helpful kind of through the grapevine that way. But um, I thought that was a funny suggestion also. Like, will you guys tell us about crypto? I'm like, huh. Yeah, which the next one is just equally as huh, because it's just um very broad. But the the suggestion was just style and fashion.

SPEAKER_04 28:54

Oh, style and fashion.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

Style and fashion.

SPEAKER_04 28:58

Hmm. I'm not really one to uh now that I think about it, it's kind of getting a little depressing too. I wear like the same stuff every day that I'm starting to become more like Ken to wear. They're just like, hey, throw on a black shirt, go source, go work. Who cares what uh not necessarily who cares what you're wearing, but it it is very true though what Kenneth told me like years ago, with like a lot of business owners and stuff, like you normally do see them wearing the same things over and over again because they don't want to make that extra like thought of what yeah, decision of what to wear.

SPEAKER_03 29:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:39

And I'm at that point now, and uh not saying that I like it. I wish I I did wear something like that.

SPEAKER_05 29:45

Well, and I think you could um kind of like create and plan it a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

You know, like have a capsule wardrobe.

SPEAKER_05 29:53

Yeah, like basically I've I've kind of like expanded now, but now I have like one pair of jeans, uh two pairs of different. Pants and then just rotate as they get washed. Um and then I'll like I wear a long sleeve kind of just like adding variation to it, but but yeah, generally it's just like black and olive. Um but it's uh definitely not making me think because now because that's all in my wardrobe now, it's way faster to get dressed and just be out the door.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

So it sounds like you guys do want to talk about style and fashion.

SPEAKER_05 30:24

Oh, we should, we should. We should thumbs around, because because no, we got some fashion days too. We got some fashion days too.

SPEAKER_04 30:33

I'll give one thumb up, one thumb down.

SPEAKER_05 30:36

Okay, that's fair. We should do that because also too, we could um we could connect it to like just essential um you know, and and there's something to say with being um put together, you know, well put together. Like like when Glenn said like he's like there, it's not like he's just throwing looking like a homeless dude or like not trying to, you know, care. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Because like, you know, like think about all those rich people, like they you know, the right fit, you know, nothing jeans all tailored.

SPEAKER_00 31:12

Tailored, you know, like skinny jeans.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

I don't hate on skinny jeans.

SPEAKER_05 31:15

No, no, no, no, no, on Glenn. On Glenn, I said on Glenn. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

Glenn you never wore skinny jeans?

SPEAKER_05 31:21

Oh, he has to be. Maybe in my emotes.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

Yeah, come on.

SPEAKER_05 31:24

Everything's skinny on him because the guy's skinny.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Yeah, that's what it is. Skinny jeans like regular jeans on it.

SPEAKER_05 31:30

Glenn on a wide leg? Oh man, it'd be retro. It'd be retro. It'd be drowning, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

That's how my husband is too. I totally get it. Okay, well, I guess I'm putting a pin in that one. That got more of a positive response than I expected, to be honest. Um, but I also have in mind, I'm not going to tell you by thumbs, but if we do that as a topic, I have another angle that I think might be interesting. So I'll just leave that right there. Um, moving on to the next one: how to make a listing that stands out, or what to do when another seller plagiarizes your listing.

unknown 32:05

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Like, and I'm assuming that the the way that generally happens is sell similar and reuse the photos, right? Like, people are like, this is a top-notch listing. I'm just gonna take the whole thing.

SPEAKER_05 32:18

No, because then undercut you. Yeah, that's what I did. I was actually I was actually I was checking comps, and then I was like, it's like why did we sell this this cheap, babe? And then she's like, um And she's like, I never priced it that low. And she started looking at our own uh our like inventory, and it's like, wait, we still have it in store. Here it is, and we click it, and the dude just undercut it by undercut us by 35 with our own photo. Oh, disgusting. And I'm like, bro, like disgusting. Undercut me by a dollar, and it becomes competition, you know? Like by 35, I was like, I feel bad for you at this point, and just disgusted because like you're a you're a plagiarizer and uh and a fool. You know? A fool.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

Plagiarizer and a fool. That's gonna be the t-shirt this year.

SPEAKER_04 33:16

Well, I I don't think eBay can really do anything about it. Um and so I mean we could talk about it, but in the end, I really don't know what that solution would be. I mean, unless you did like a watermark and every single photo, which slow your process so nobody could copy you.

SPEAKER_05 33:33

Like, nah, forget that.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

But only that, it's I bet at some point we could talk about making your listing stand out, but probably not as an entire hour-long episode.

SPEAKER_05 33:43

Oh, Anna has some tips on how to make your listing stand out and how she takes photos of shoes.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

I do.

SPEAKER_05 33:51

We can't talk about it. We cannot talk about it because we're gonna out. No, it's terrible. It's terrible. It's terrible. He hates me.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

He hates this one way that I photograph shoes and it is so bad.

SPEAKER_05 34:05

It's so bad.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

Whenever I take that shot, I always just send it to him.

SPEAKER_05 34:10

I'm just gonna I'm just gonna lowball her. I'm just gonna send her one dollar if I see it again. Okay. But um, we're not gonna talk about it because we we we cannot have other people just wanna be like me? Yeah, and make me mad.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

And make me like Ken would like lose his mind if everyone started doing this. I know.

SPEAKER_05 34:28

Don't do it, but Well, because Anna, that could be your competitive advantage.

SPEAKER_02 34:33

It might be, and that's why I'm still doing it.

SPEAKER_05 34:35

You're like you're attracting the non-discussing people.

SPEAKER_02 34:40

Yeah. It's to my fellow weirdos. Um, no, it is really funny though, that you hate it so much. Um so okay, so that's maybe probably not gonna make it. Just because it's not enough. It's not enough for a whole topic.

SPEAKER_05 34:52

But yeah, we could just do like best listing practices or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 34:56

But that's a good question though. Um, okay. We're on to our tenth one. I'm not sure how many we're gonna do, but we're at 10 just to gauge where we are. Um what do you guys think about this? I'm just gonna read it exactly as it was posited to us. So, top ten American-made household brands to buy from in areas of quality, availability, and affordability.

SPEAKER_05 35:21

Oh. American-made that's affordable.

unknown 35:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 35:26

Those two things don't go together. Would you agree, Glenn? Yeah, I agree. That's that's really unless they're like cookies from your neighbor.

SPEAKER_02 35:35

Well, it says quality, availability, and affordability last. So maybe that's a little nod to the fact that affordability can't be the main factor.

SPEAKER_05 35:44

Yeah. Affordability and availability don't go together that well if you want quality. Pick your battles. Ooh, you gotta pick your battle. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

I thought this was interesting. It's not really what we talk about. Like, I my first question was like, is this about inventory for inventory purposes or for like general consumer, you know, advice? Like, what do you guys think the spirit of that question is?

SPEAKER_05 36:17

Maybe like they're trying to resell, like, or find something that's American made that could be flipped for a lot, but it's hard to source it because the quantity I mean they usually don't go clearance because their their cost is higher. So as a reseller, maybe I'd be hard pressed to find those. Unless you, you know, like mom and pop making soap and really low cost, like kind of like those d um boutique style products, but the demand won't be that high because there's no branding.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

Right, like people don't r know to search for it, especially on like our type of platforms. Okay. So what are our thumbs looking like for this one?

SPEAKER_04 37:02

Down. Probably down.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

Well, in that case, the next one is personalizing the selling experience to encourage repeat business.

SPEAKER_05 37:19

How personalized can you get as an eBay seller?

SPEAKER_00 37:24

That's a question.

SPEAKER_05 37:27

I would say that could be a subtopic of investing practices under uh customer service. Yeah. Subtopic. Subtopic. See, we're building subtopics. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

It's a thumbs up. But like topic tier specifically for a subtopic. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, this one is a little specific, but I feel like it can be interpreted more broadly. When is something better sold on Facebook Marketplace over your typical online platforms where you ship?

SPEAKER_04 37:57

Unless it's huge and you don't want to ship it. Done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:01

I I don't got time for that. I don't got time for people coming and late, moving it and flaking on me. I already hate unpaid items on eBay. Imagine having to like have people like, oh, I'll take it. Oh, I don't. Oh, will you take less?

SPEAKER_02 38:19

Like that's why you just have them pay you to hold it.

SPEAKER_05 38:22

Nope. I don't got time for that.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Nope. Yeah, I feel like I was just telling John the other day, like, I hate using Facebook Marketplace, honestly, like personally. But we have found some of our favorite things ever, especially furniture on Marketplace for the city. To buy, I think it's great. Yes, but I still hate it. I still hate it, but I have to do it anyway. Because I'm like, it's undeniable the great stuff we've gotten. So it's too cheap. I can't stay away, even though I hate it. Sounds really unhealthy. Okay, so we're putting our thumbs down for that one, I guess, because we Glenn just ended it. So he's like done. Okay, next one is tips for new resellers or how to begin, which is something that we have sort of talked about, but was never really part of the heart and soul of our kind of mission because we feel like there's a lot more content out there for new people, right?

SPEAKER_05 39:19

Um I would say we should talk about it. Double thumbs up, and we create a seller club, best practices for beginners that will just trump everybody's advice. Bang. Even the old hustler hacks, how to sell on eBay. Cause um, remember that Glenn? Um they when they did my eBay seller spotlight, they used Glenn in Glenn's like top five tips to do as a and he's got a mohawk with as a new eBay seller in 2014. Something like that, yeah. 2014? It was like I think he was right next to a wall. It was like an outside wall, I think, right? I think you were outside. I think that was your mad chip kicks background or something like that. Something. Um yeah, yeah, so we're fractional.

SPEAKER_04 40:14

We need to update it from uh Q14.

SPEAKER_05 40:17

We need to update that. So thumbs up for that one.

SPEAKER_04 40:19

We're 11 years behind.

SPEAKER_05 40:21

And then if and if they start like asking, we just send them that link. Actually, I might just put it on a QR code. It's like here. Oh, hey, how can he sell on eBay? Like here, QR code.

SPEAKER_04 40:31

We'll go back to the video and see if some of those are even still good.

SPEAKER_05 40:34

Oh, we should dissect it. We should dissect it.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

We should do with that old content.

SPEAKER_05 40:41

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:45

I I think I think a lot of them are. Your advice would have been always solid. It was it's not dated. Besides the person, the advice is not dated. Glenn's the only one that gets dated, uh, the advice didn't. Alright, that's a good one. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 41:03

Okay, so we've generally got some thumbs up for that. Okay, so I'm I think I'm deciding right now. I'm gonna give you guys two more for this episode. That'll take us to 15 that we have thrown thumbs for. Um, not throwing hands, just thumbs. It's all good. Okay, so the next one is a customer service episode sharing funny or strange stories.

SPEAKER_05 41:28

Thumbs down. I got I don't got time for that.

SPEAKER_02 41:32

Ken is over here acting like she doesn't like to tell stories. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_05 41:38

Are you kidding me right now? Subtopic. Subtopic.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

Subtopic. What do you think, what? Do you have an art of horror stories?

SPEAKER_04 41:50

I mean, I guess we just don't really have any do you have really good ones to say?

SPEAKER_02 41:58

I have a couple of good ones.

SPEAKER_04 42:00

Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

Actually, I have two like go-to good ones that I've told a lot of times.

SPEAKER_05 42:06

Uh I I don't have go-to's.

SPEAKER_02 42:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 42:10

Well, I just had to wrap a uh Christmas uh a birthday present the other time, and I was just kind of salty because uh it was a $20 item.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

Oh no. No, sir.

SPEAKER_05 42:23

I'm gonna add a buy it now, um, personalized uh wrapping and and note because some people wasn't there like something where your fees were little to nothing if you had a personalization in your listing for a while.

SPEAKER_02 42:38

I don't know if that's still a thing. But I feel like people were doing that as a way to like get lower fees on their listings. I don't know if that's still a thing. But don't quote me on it. I don't remember the details at all.

SPEAKER_05 42:49

But subtopic, subtopic.

SPEAKER_02 42:51

Okay, maybe a subtopic. I also think that could be a very interesting um topic where we get other sellers to call in and share their story. You know, like it doesn't just have to be our guide.

SPEAKER_05 43:02

Let's do that when we ran ran out of better ideas to talk about. Put it on the bottom of the topic list just in case we wake up one day and we just are just exhausted and don't have anything to talk about.

SPEAKER_02 43:17

Yes. Okay, noted. There's like a very half-hearted quarter of a thumb from Ken. What about you?

SPEAKER_05 43:24

It's like uh it's just uh thumbnail clippings.

SPEAKER_02 43:29

Ew. No, thank you. Vito. Vito. Okay, last one. I'm just gonna leave that one there. The last one I thought was interesting. Um, I thought all these were interesting to an extent. That's why they made the list. But um the last one is content aimed towards college students.

SPEAKER_05 43:55

I think that's a good one. That's a good one. That is a good one, but is the conversion high enough? Or are they even thinking about trying to make money?

SPEAKER_04 44:04

True.

SPEAKER_05 44:06

Oh, I think that's a good topic.

SPEAKER_02 44:10

I think that is a good topic because I have enough thoughts about it off the rip that I think we could have a good discussion about it.

SPEAKER_05 44:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because because I could be like, I could be the uh the the nay, you know, and Glenn would be the yay. Um, I could be the nay, because I'm like, nah, these college kids are stinkers, they could care less, they watch football games, they go party, you know, do anything productive. So prove me wrong because I went to college and I went to university and I was in a business department and nobody was running a business or trying to run a business or trying to get money. Everybody was just living off parents' money.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

So Okay, we'll definitely have to talk about this because I think I think we do have some good A lots of perspectives, different experiences, right? We've all probably had a very different experience.

SPEAKER_05 45:04

Let's do it. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

But also, like I really loved the idea of the college kid who is trying to think outside the box, right?

SPEAKER_05 45:13

Is like trying to get ahead while they're still I think they I I would say I'm not gonna talk about it because that's gonna be Okay, don't say it.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

Keep it to yourself for now.

SPEAKER_05 45:23

Yeah, yeah, so make sure you come back and listen to it.

SPEAKER_04 45:25

Yeah, I told my parents I wanted to quit college to sell an eBay and so well. That's we'll see for the story.

SPEAKER_05 45:35

Oh, I like that. I like that. I I I I kept stopping. It took me seven years to finish a four-year degree. Oh. And and in in our culture, that was a big no. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:48

Ken, it took me three years to finish two four-year degrees.

SPEAKER_05 45:52

Well, a perspective. If you average us to get better, no, no, uh a perfect a perfect um contrast of what college here is in the Philippines.

SPEAKER_02 46:02

Yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_05 46:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

Okay, we'll have to we'll have to talk about it. We have to talk about it.

SPEAKER_05 46:06

No, no, no, we're gonna have to talk about it because I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna spit out some fire takes.

SPEAKER_02 46:12

Okay, great. Well, we may have to do that one sooner than later. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:16

Yeah, we have to.

SPEAKER_02 46:17

But um, yeah, so this was my attempt at a Hustler Hacks edition episode where I sprung this topic of topics on you guys. But I also think I really like the interactive brainstorm kind of uh element of talking about this stuff because it's a little bit of like inside baseball making a podcast, right? But also it's just probably got some people's wheels turning, and maybe there's some other topics that will come out of this, these ideas. Um and you know, if you're listening to this and you have a great idea for a topic, please send it in.

SPEAKER_05 46:49

Like oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:50

We do actually uh love to talk about stuff that gets generated from those kind of conversations, and these are all scraped from the comments of our giveaway, but people had some really interesting ideas, and you know, we love to talk to each other, but it's not all about that. We love we want to interact with the whole community and hear what you guys want to hear about.

SPEAKER_05 47:10

So yeah, exactly. I mean, I'll uh at least some of what you guys want to hear. No, no, same sentiment here. Um well, yeah, but before we we go, Glenn, anything else? Give us some encouragement for people that are in January. Um for those people that are hitting it hard and the other people that are not hitting it hard yet. Give us your wisdom.

SPEAKER_02 47:35

So the people who are going out and getting it and the people who are gonna be going out and getting it. Yes, okay, got it.

SPEAKER_04 47:40

Well, the for the ones that aren't going out and getting it, I hope you're focusing on your foundation of the business. Basics, the basics. The basics so that the year can run smoother. So, you know, when you're saying summer is slow, it wouldn't be slow because you've focused on everything, whether that's catching up on listings, getting like, I don't know, your your time right, you know, focusing on these things so that everything else just runs so much smoother throughout the year. That's a good one. For those that are going out and getting it right now, keep what you're doing and try to figure out how you can add just like a little bit more. Uh maybe maybe three, five more items, whether it's listing them, um, selling them, sourcing them, that little boost. A little bit more and more.

SPEAKER_05 48:32

A little incremental increase.

SPEAKER_04 48:33

Yeah. Because you're already going out and getting it.

SPEAKER_05 48:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:36

Yeah. But slight little improvements. Right. You're just gonna see it explode.

SPEAKER_05 48:41

Oh, I like that. Like, go to one more store. One more store.

SPEAKER_02 48:45

I accept that, Glenn. I'm going out and getting it, and I receive that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 48:50

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, there you have it. Uh really wonderful and interesting style of topic today. And you should think thank you to Anna for bringing that here. And also, um thank you for everybody that's listening in this podcast, and we want to um give a huge shout out to our sponsor, eBay and seller ledger. Make sure you follow them on Instagram at eBay for sellers and seller ledger as well. And we will see you on the next episode. Peace. See ya. Bye.