We recently lost a $2,000 investment in 3 seconds flat.
Melissa and I went to a conference recently and learned a bunch of stuff, but while there, I made an investment where we lost the potential for a $2,000 flip in three seconds.
Why We Go To Conferences
We love to always be learning and investing in ourselves. We love to go to conferences, listen to podcasts and books, and we hope to bring some of the things we learn back to you. We’re planning to go through what we learned in different podcast episodes.
This conference was held in Las Vegas and it was a business conference hosted by the software that we use in our business. A lot of the sessions are about business or mindset. It’s amazing to be around entrepreneurs doing awesome things in their businesses. We always have a lot of takeaways.
Lesson Learned On The Way To The Airport
We almost didn’t make it to the conference because we almost missed our flight. A police officer pulled me over on the way to the airport. She pulled behind me once we got on the main road, then pulled up next to me, and then pulled back behind me and pulled me over. The officer ran my plate and saw that I was driving and told me my license was suspended. I had no idea. Apparently it was related to an insurance hiccup we’d had where the autopay didn’t go through on our renewal because of a card. We had already corrected that with the insurance company, but they hadn’t updated the state. I had three counts of suspension on my license so she was going to have to take my license and take my plate off the car.
Thank goodness Melissa was with me, because her license wasn’t suspended. We had to go back to the house and pick up another vehicle. Luckily we were only a mile from the house, but this interaction took some time because the officer was having trouble getting the plate off. We were a little stressed about time for getting to the airport. Since we were about to catch a flight, the officer cut the edge of my license and let me keep it for ID at the airport. She was very nice and told me she felt bad about the whole thing. I had no idea that my insurance company hadn’t reached back out to the state.
The officer told me she’d throw the fine out once we got it taken care of, so we were super grateful for that. It could have gone a lot worse. But we did make our flight, and made it to Las Vegas to the conference. We called our insurance company and they fixed the problem.
During this whole interaction, I was hoping they would not arrest me for this because I thought it was something they could do. I’ve already been to jail over 20 years ago for an eBay sale – see episode 85 of our podcast for more on this.
At that moment, I just accepted the situation and decided if we missed our flight, we’d just find another one. We could figure it out. In the overarching thing, it’s a great way to approach life.
Instead of getting upset and anxious, think what’s the worst thing that can happen and how can it be fixed? This is relatable to your eBay business and flipping because things happen. You might get a return or setback and you don’t have to dwell on it. You can move forward and keep going.
How I Lost The $2,000 Investment
As mentioned, the conference was held in Las Vegas. We’re not big gamblers though, so that was not an appeal to us. But on the last day, one of our friends wanted to go play something, he didn’t even care what it was. I’d played roulette on a cruise once, so I knew you can either go red or black and evens or odds and you have a chance to double your money. The buy-in on the table was $25 so he threw down $50 and I put down $50 and we put it on red. The lady spun the wheel, and it landed on double zero, which is green, so you lose if you’re on red or black. Just like that our $50 went out the door.
How is that a potential $2,000 investment? With $50, we could have made $1,000 to $2,000 easily in a Facebook marketplace find that we sold on eBay.
That’s the upsetting part. We recently paid $25 for a prosthetic leg and sold it for $1,000. Another sale was a total gym that we paid $40 for and sold for $2,500. In this moment, for us to throw away $50, it was like throwing away $2,000. All I stood to make from that $50 would’ve been $100. That’s still not 10xing our investment.
We Don’t Gamble On Items
It was a little fun, just for the rush of being able to do it, but we did have a limit. Immediately after losing, I had no temptation to throw any other money down. That was the only $50 we gambled and lost. And it was a reminder why we don’t gamble, even when it comes to sourcing our items.
For example, I recently bought a treadmill and found out it was Matt Damon’s treadmill. It needs some work, so I’m trying to decide if I put in the work and sell it as “Matt Damon’s treadmill” or if I just part it out. I paid $150 for it and the motor alone could probably sell for $1,000. This is something we check before buying so we know we can recoup our investment.
We make sure items we buy are at a good price and that they will sell for 10X as well. Even if we buy an item and it isn’t fully functioning, we make sure the parts can be sold to recoup the cost of the item and make profit.
Show Notes
I Went To Jail For Selling An Item On eBay
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FURTHER RESOURCES
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