How This Stay-At-Home Mom Makes $4K/Mo Flipping Vintage Items

Amy Podcast

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Transcription:

Rob: Awesome today, guys. We’re so excited to have Amy Powlison join us. She is a Flipper U alumni. So we’re very excited to dig into kind of her success story and her journey. So, Amy, thank you so much for jumping on here and joining us for the show. 

Amy: Thank you so much. This is exciting. 

Rob: Awesome. 

Melissa: Welcome, Amy. We’re so glad that you’re here and that we could spend a few minutes with you today and yeah, learn about some of your business. 

Rob: Cool, let’s dive in, let’s get into the [00:01:00] meat and potatoes of the interview for sure. 

Melissa: So, we’ll just start off with a little bit about your background and how did you get into this whole flipping thing?

Amy: I mean, it’s kind of crazy. So the, the short version is that, I have a master’s degree in exercise science and at some point in my life decided that didn’t work and family and all those things happen. We have one seven year old. That’s plenty. I don’t know how you guys do like, but congrats. That’s awesome.

One’s plenty for us. But as that kind of progressed, we decided that, you know, it didn’t fit and it wasn’t as lucrative as it, I needed it to be, or we needed it to be. So then I started working in restaurants, which I always did on the side, so that I managed really small places. I bartended really small places.

I managed places that did $20 million a year. So I’ve done, like I’ve done one end of the spectrum to the other with that world and loved it, and then the world shut down. So, you know, the world shut down 20 [00:02:00] months ago and things changed for everyone. And one day I had a job and my owner literally said to me, you need to go online and figure out what the process is to apply for unemployment, because there’s a really good chance we’re going to be closed.

And it was less than 24 hours later and everything was closed. So in the interim, it was one of those things where, okay. I don’t, now what? Like my husband’s a fireman, so his life never changed. Actually, the only thing that changed is he worked more. We saw less of him because he went to work more stayed later there, like it was crazy. I say everything works out for a reason. Like he was able to do that because I was able to be home and take care of our little and provide that virtual, I call it home schooling, but it was like that virtual education. Because I don’t know what we would’ve done if we both would have been working.

So. Then as that kind of happened, I’ve been saying [00:03:00] forever, I could do this. I could totally do this. Like, I’ve been doing yard sales since I was kid. I go to, I love a flea market, you know, like love a flea market and love a yard sale. And I buy stuff secondhand and we resell stuff on Facebook marketplace and I’m like, I can do this.

So my husband finally said, “You’re out of reasons, not to. You’re at home. You’re not like, you’re home.” So that’s kind of how it started. I mean, prior to that, you know, I’d throw something on and forget about it and then have to find it, or like I put stuff on Facebook marketplace and you know, that that’s kind of a different breed, cause it was a lot of in-person versus not.

And then it was like, well, you can’t meet anybody. So, it really came out of like pick yourself up by the, pick yourself up, put on your big girl pants, pull up your bootstraps and like figure it out. And here we are. So it’s been a crazy ride, but a great ride. 

Rob: That’s awesome. And yeah, we’re so glad that you actually did.

You, [00:04:00] you looked back on, you know, that you had done yard sales, you love flea markets and that’s where you jumped in and you went feet first. So we’re very, very, we’re very excited for you and to see your journey for sure. 

Melissa: Virtual school is no joke. 

Rob: No, it’s not. 

Amy: Again, one is plenty. I don’t like, I literally don’t know how so. 

Melissa: Our kids got behind for sure. Cause we, I could not put the time that I needed to, to help them on virtual school, so it was tough. Yeah. 

Rob: I’ve got a hard enough time reading myself, much less trying to teach a kid how to read. 

Amy: Right, right. And that’s the issue, so our little is seven. So he was, he left school in March of kindergarten. And didn’t return until this year in second grade. So all that like super formative, like, yeah, I can, I can sit and read with you, but to teach you how to do the… no. So it’s been, it’s been crazy, but. 

Melissa: Our middle ones is the exact same age. So she was the same, left after kindergarten. So that was definitely a tough time that happened. 

So how many hours a week, like, are you part-time, [00:05:00] full-time I know you’re kind of you’re at home. So like how many hours a week are you really? 

Amy: I’m definitely full-time at this point. While he was home for virtual school, I was part-time trying to be full-time. But it was really tough and I spent a lot of nights staying up, super, super late. And then I spent a lot of weekends that I just worked the whole time.

Like it was when my husband could be home, I worked. Or if I could get my, our son to bed, I worked until I was like falling asleep at the computer type of stuff. So, but you know, you do what you have to do, like, but I also have worked in the bar world for so long that being up till 2:00 AM is like my normal and that’s my like, go time.

So for me staying up and working late, like I know some people that’s, that’s crazy talk, but I’ve done it for 20 years. So for me, that’s my bread and butter. So like, let’s do like jam and do it. So I was part-time all of, all of while he was home and the [00:06:00] second he went to school, I was like, all right, we got to move. So it’s definitely a full-time at this point. 

Rob: Awesome. How many hours would you say you’re full-time are you doing 40 hours? Are you doing over 40 hours? 

Amy: It fluctuates a little bit week by week, but I would definitely say I’m at least putting in 40 hours a week. Some weeks it’s more, some weeks it’s a little less, I mean, you know, family obligations and all those things, but if you, in my opinion, if you want to make it work, you have to work.

So it’s it’s around that time, it’s around that 40 ish hours a week for me. 

Rob: Yeah, that’s awesome. And that, that’s one of the beauty things about the business too, is when you do have family obligations, when you do have stuff, you’re not going to lose your job by going out and taking care of your family or your kids, whatever it is, you can step away from it.

And hopefully if you have stuff listed, it can be working for you while you are stepping away if you need to spend time with family, but a hundred percent, you get as much out of a business as you put into it. So if you’re putting part-time hours into it, part-time effort into it. You’re going to get paid part-time and when you [00:07:00] start developing the skills and going to that next level and putting full-time hours into it, that’s where it’ll start paying off for you.

So that’s awesome. That’s super exciting. 

Melissa: Yeah. And that’s another point to that is the, you know, working late nights, we did that, especially when we were going full time. We’re like, okay, we gotta figure this out. We had three little kids. So, nights where our really our only option. So they were late nights. And, but that’s the great job, the great thing is it can be flexible. So, which is pretty cool.

Amy: Right, there’s a ton of flexibility, which has also been one of the reasons why I stayed in the bar industry was because my husband’s a fireman. Like he can say he’s done it whatever time, and that’s super cute. But the reality is if there’s a fire, car accident, or all these things, like he’s not coming home.

So, you know, like I have to be able to be resilient on the fact that if he’s supposed to pick him up from work or from work that day from school and he’s stuck, you can’t leave your kid at school, you know, [00:08:00] or like if I’m supposed to go to work that night and he’s stuck at a three alarm fire, like you can’t go to work, you know. So thank God I worked for someone who had super, who super understood. And I was super good at minimizing that interfering with my work. But I mean, there were times when it just did, you know, and you can’t take a four-year-old to a restaurant, so not when you’re working anyway. So, you know, having the flexibility has been one of those things where I’ve been employable, I don’t think I’m employable anymore. Like you, I don’t think of employable anymore because it doesn’t, it’s not conducive to our lifestyle anymore. And I kinda like it. 

Rob: That’s awesome. And where else? I mean, I’ve gone and picked stuff out of the trash before when I’m on a walk and I have my nine-year-old, she’s there with a camera videoing me and it’s like, where else can you take your kid to work?

Have them do a little [00:09:00] bit of work video on you while you’re doing it. And you’re still getting some work in. So no, it is. It’s exciting what we’re able to do with the kids right now. So, but I am curious, I’m curious. So you’re doing this full-time, what is it that you are doing? Like, what is your expertise or what, what did you choose to hone in, in the reselling world to get the results that you’re getting?

Amy: So when I started, I started. I started by doing your Christmas challenge right in January, right before everything happened. And I was like, oh, maybe I’ll make some money on the side. You know, like, who knows, who knows what’ll happen, maybe I’ll get rid of some stuff. And the Christmas challenge was $250, right.

So we do this whole challenge and I was like, I’m making money. I’m doing this. And I didn’t list a single thing on eBay cause I was terrified. So I did it all on Facebook and I was like, I don’t care. I don’t care. I’m just going to make this funny. I made $247.50. That’s right. I came short and I was livid.

I had played sports my whole life. I’ve been very competitive. I was in the straight a student. I have like you tell me no, that’s, that’s the [00:10:00] best thing you can ever tell me. So when I came short, I was like, it’s my fault. Cause I didn’t list on eBay. So then I went around my house, like we talked about and I listed anything and everything that we didn’t use.

And I was like, I don’t care. Here it goes. And you want a piece of humble pie, go back and look at those photos a year later and see how horrible they were and who, who, would’ve bought anything from me, let alone that I was making money like atrocious, but it worked so whatever. So initially I was like, I don’t even care.

We’ll figure it out. Like, we’ll figure it out. Right? Like you just figure it out. I’ve decided that I’m better at stuff that’s considered vintage, which I find a little funny because vintage stuff is like when we were kids, not what our parents were kids, which is what I think is actually vintage, but what do I know?

Right. So I have found that I’m good at that. And I’m probably good at it because I lived through it. You know, like I know what music played [00:11:00] during that, that genre. I know what was cult classic movies. I know like that Barbie was it, you know, like, you know that stuff. And even if you don’t. For me anyway, it sparks interests.

Cause I’m like, man, I remember when whatever, you know what I mean? And then it goes down that road for me, or like your parents have that china or your grandmother had that sitting on her dining room table or whatever it is, you know, your grandfather had it in the shed and every time he opened the door, like you saw it on whatever.

So I found that for me, That works. Now don’t get me wrong. If there’s something that I catch, you know, on the, on like the couple of platforms that I watch or from you guys or that I see or whatever, and I run into it, I’m getting it. Don’t get me wrong, but like, if I can make money off of it, we’re going to do that.

But if I’m going out into the world, like in a nature search, searching and [00:12:00] sourcing by myself, it’s probably going to lean towards those vintage items. 

Melissa: That’s fine. Cause other people are looking for it. Like they want it, they live through it and they want those items. So, and they’re looking for them. So they find them on your store. 

Rob: Yeah. Three huge points that I want to point out to your journey. So check it out. She started with the challenge. She actually got stuff listed. She did locally, but she made it a point to do it. She took that first step and you got paid, you got paid $247 to do that. Awesome. Totally awesome. You got results, but that next step you knew you saw that you were missing out on stuff that could be listed on eBay.

Amazing. So you started where you were at and you look back on it now and you’re like, what do they mean by these? These pictures were horrible. You know, how did I do this? The point is you just have to start to get results. You have to start now, you’ve grown through the last year, two years. You’ve gotten a lot better at it, but you stuck to it and you’re getting results.

And then the third point is definitely, you’re doing stuff like I’m so surprised myself at the vintage stuff right now when I was a kid, the Nintendo, [00:13:00] the Atari. Those things are selling and they’re selling like hotcakes 

Amy: He-Man, Shira, birdie, gem. Oh my gosh. And I think like if I just had my toy box, right, like.

Melissa: I’m sure we have boxes of stuff in the sh the one garage. I bet we can find some stuff. 

Rob: But that points out that’s stuff, that you knew, maybe not stuff that you were totally, well, it was stuff you were interested in when you’re younger. So you had a, a foot up, or what would you say? Like a leg up? Are you, you know, you have a little bit of. 

Amy: Like if I see something like there’s a good chance that I know that, that’s probably a He-Man toy that might be teenage mutant ninja turtle that I probably need to ask my husband because I was probably playing with a Barbie. You know what I mean?

Rob: That’s cool. You figured out in your journey, so you started and you got better and you figured out, you know, kind of what you honed in on is that vintage stuff from when you were a kid, which is the same for me. It’s that, that stuff that is really selling hot now. So those are three key points, big big points in your journey that are really cool. 

Melissa: Another part is that [00:14:00] you considered it a failure, even though you made $247, you were very upset, but you didn’t let that stop you either. Like then you’re like, okay. Game on. I’m going to do that. So, yeah. So that’s fun. So what is your average? Obviously as a reseller, our income goes up and down like it fluctuates a lot. So, but what would you say your average income per month is from your reselling business? 

Amy: Because like you said, it does, it definitely goes up and down. And there are months that I’m like, I listed the most amazing things in the world and nobody buys them and you’re like, “What?” And then there’s months that you put stuff up that you’ve found in your basement.

And you’re like, I don’t know how that just sold, but awesome. Right. Like it’s, it’s, it’s crazy. But I also, I appreciate that, you know, like that keeps me interested and I would say on average, I probably make like in gross sales, I’m probably somewhere between like the $3,000 and $4,000 a month at this point, which is, I mean, it’s awesome.

Again, you’re you’re, you’re going to be mad at me again. Like for [00:15:00] me, I’m like that’s below where I want to be, so I’m not happy, but I was unemployed. So I do try to keep perspective of that. Like, I could be sitting here every day going, I don’t, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m going to do, you know, because let’s face it.

The pandemic is still changing everything and restaurants are not the same and businesses are, unfortunately are not the same. And that’s, that’s long haul. That’s not over, that’s not even close to being over. So there are restaurants that I could go back to and work at right now and make a fraction of what I made and work twice as much.

And not be available for my family. So I do like, I’m like, oh my gosh, you made like $4,000 this month. Like sit down, like, you’re fine. But then I’m like, it’s not where I want to be. So for me, like, I just see that there’s potential to keep pushing and keep moving. And that’s why when I get to that number, I’ll let you know.

But until then, you [00:16:00] know, I’m thankful so thankful that I’m able to supplement our income this way and that we’re able to grow and that I’m able to do this and that, you know, I learned something new every day and I definitely learned different things aspects of everyday or what I did wrong and how to not do that again.

And I, and I think that’s part of the big thing that discourages people is that they make one big mistake shipping or one big mistake and you listed something and it sold. And then you saw somebody else selling it for three times as much. You really have to just be like, it’s done. It’s done, it’s gone, it’s over, keep going. Yeah. Yeah. 

Melissa: Do you know about like how much you would have had to invested to make that $4,000? Like I, in your inventory, like on average on? 

Amy: Oh, like all of it, like, like, so I literally sourced stuff from our house and I have a bit of a book [00:17:00] problem, so I sold. I mean, I made so little on them, but it didn’t even matter.

Cause it, it like, it serves such a dual purpose. It got books out of the house and I made a little bit of money and it funded the next thing and funded the next thing and funded the next night. You know what I mean? To the point where that I could actually go out and buy inventory and then sell that inventory.

You know what I mean? I tried to be very specific at not spending money that I hadn’t made. If I couldn’t pay myself, that was fine, but at least I could roll it back in. And like, keep it going, you know what I mean? And that was really specific for me. 

Rob: Yeah. On, on average, when you are like on average, you’re probably saying that you’re bringing in $4,000, how much are you actually investing towards that? 

Melissa: In inventory. 

Rob: Exactly. When you’re buying per month, like, are you spending, you know, you know, a $1,000 and that’s rolling you into a $4,000 or do you roughly know?[00:18:00] 

Amy: I tried to buy stuff super, super cheap. I still, also, I would try to sell stuff out of my house that I keep finding. And now that it’s, now that it’s a thing, now that I’m just not like, oh, Amy’s selling on eBay. Cause she doesn’t have anything to do at home. Right? Like now that people like your family, your friends are now vested.

Like people give me stuff, but like, hey, I was going to throw this away. Do you think you could make money off of it? And I’m like, I don’t know, but if I can’t then I’ll donate it. So just bring it on over, you know what I mean? Like, so I do that and then I have this weird situation that doesn’t happen for everybody. But I was super fortunate is that, so one of the guys that my husband works with his father owns a clean-out company and was like, hey, like we’re looking for somebody that can help us do some more things.

So I go pick through what they bring from their clean-outs and then we have our deal, you know what, like whatever that is. And, [00:19:00] I get a ton of stuff that way that I don’t pay a penny for. So paying a lot for inventory and not paying a lot for inventory. What I’ve done though, because I don’t pay a lot for inventory is I’ve paid for systems and processes and softwares and things and education to keep me moving forward.

So like the Reseller Summit, I was like, yes, I’m going, and I’m paying for the, like the extras I’m doing that. Like Flipper University. As soon as I finished that challenge and didn’t make the $250, I was like, bye. Like, come on that $250 is paying for this and we’re going to keep it moving. You know what I mean?

Like, so I do a lot of those types of things where I invest it back into, I say it’s investing it back into the business, but it’s investing it back into me being more capable of doing the business. So I probably, if I had to say like, give you a number, let’s say I get, I get thrifty, and I decided I’m going to go to all the yard sales [00:20:00] versus just like going and getting stuff from the warehouse.

Cause I just want to change. Let’s say I spend $500 a month. Like that’s, that’s a lot for me, but if I do that, it’s probably because I’ve sourced some ridiculous thing that you’re going to help me put on a pallet at some point, you know what I mean? Like, hi, I’m like, I just want to, I went and bought a crazy stove because why would I not?

And then I went and bought this like crazy this, because why would I not? And then like, I bring it home and then my husband goes “What?” And I’m like, fine. It’s totally fine. We’re going to make money. It’s totally fine. You know what I mean? And, that’s kind of what I do like, so I either spend very, very little, or I will spend specifically to either build the brand and my company or I know I’m going to make a serious amount of money off of an item. So, I mean, it’s kind of all, I’m a little, all, [00:21:00] all over the place, but I feel like you have to be, and having those contexts is so good. 

Melissa: We definitely believe in those, like you can. That’s awesome. 

Rob: Yeah. One thing that I wanted to go back to that you were talking about was definitely that you, you’re appreciative for where you’re at.

A lot of people in this game can look at other people’s even right now, seeing that you’re making. $4,000 a month. Somebody can look at that and they’re only making 700 to a thousand dollars and compare themselves to you. You can’t do that. You can’t play the comparison game. You have to get better than you were just like where you started out in that first month, you know, making $247.

That’s where you have to start and you have to look at these cents 50 cents and make sure the next month that you’re getting a little bit better and keep comparing yourself to your, I mean, keep comparing yourself to who you were yesterday or last month and keep growing and getting better. So, and that’s part of your investment as well.

You’re investing into your knowledge, you’re investing into your business, you’re trying to grow and get better at what you’re doing. So you can make more money and get better at your craft. [00:22:00] 

Amy: I mean, the other thing that I did too early on is that I would list anything. And I do mean like if I could make 50 cents, it was going up, you know what I mean?

Like. That’s because I wanted to create standards and platforms. Like I wanted to have the rating and I wanted the review and I wanted to knock your socks off with how I shipped it and how pretty it was and this, that, and the they’re not pretty anymore. They go in a box. They go, I mean, they’re well wrapped, but like I was.

I was over the top. Like I was, I was running like a gift shop store on the side, like, you know, cause I just wanted it to, I wanted to wow people so that I would get good reviews and they would up my rating and it would up my visibility and it would up my, so I didn’t care what it cost. Like I didn’t care if I was making 25 cents.

I just wanted the sale. So I think that’s the other thing too, is that people get very caught up in like, you know, we live in a world where everything’s so accessible, so you can see YouTube and videos and this and that and this and the [00:23:00] podcasts, whatever it is. And you see somebody doing whatever amount they’re doing anything.

Well, if I’m not doing that, then I’m not doing anything. And like, you just have to stay in your lane. Whatever that lane is, you have to figure out what that is and just be comfortable with it. And like, So for me, it was, I’m going to list everything under the sun and then it became, okay, my time and worth is a little more valuable than that now, only because I’m making money. So now I’m going to raise that level and I’m not going to list something if it’s not, if I can’t sell it at this price. And then when I started with this, cause like working with this guy, it was like, well, I’ll say so, anything that’s his at any price, just to show him that I can sell stuff.

And then it was like, okay, well, now that I’ve proven to him that I can sell stuff, like now we’re going to raise that bar. Now I’ve read both the bars. If I’m not going to make this number in my head, approximately it grows. I probably have other things I should probably be doing today. You know what I mean?

And that’s, and it’s okay to not be there. Like it’s [00:24:00] okay. If you make 5 cents on an item. Awesome. Roll that into something else. I mean, you know, Stacy, you started with 50 cents, you know, and she’s crushing it. So it’s not a matter of necessarily like, oh, I didn’t my first item wasn’t a pallet shipping of like a, you know, like $50,000 item.

Yeah, no, it probably shouldn’t be.

Melissa: What was one of your most memorable flips? 

Amy: I’ve had a bunch of both that have gone right and wrong. The wrong always sticks out more for me because I’m so competitive. Like I want to fix it and be better next time. But one that went really right for me, that was like, nobody believed it is that.

So when everything, the world was shut down, right. Once in a while I could sneak into the warehouse and like sort stuff when nobody was there. And like, I didn’t have to worry about seeing people and things. And I found an item and I was like, I think this is a chess set. And I was like a queen’s [00:25:00] gambit, chess is up over a thousand percent.

It’s everywhere in the news. They’re running out of chess sets, you can’t even get them, can’t even find them. So I like, you also have to keep your ear to the ground, like what’s happening right now, you know? So. I brought it home and was like, all right, let’s just, let’s just see. Right. So I started looking it up and I was like, it is, it’s a chess set, it’s totally a chest set that, but it looked like nothing you’d ever seen.

It was super long in this box that had like a blue apatite, like over the front of it. And it like slid back with like, a wooden drawer. It had spots in the back for a hook. You’d like, hang it on the wall and display it. Right. Like, they were like this big and they were very mid, modern, vintage word, right.

That mid modern, like look to them. And I kept looking at I’m like, I know it’s a chest set. So we started looking, we as an I’m looking and I’m telling my husband, I know it’s a chest set. [00:26:00] Okay, whatever crazy lady, like you just brought home the most random thing ever, right? Yeah. That random things sold for a thousand dollars in two weeks, it was actually a mid modern chess set.

As I suggested, made out of tin and each piece was made out of one piece of metal. It wasn’t cut piece together from this particular artist who did a series of chess sets. And that’s why they had the hooks in the back because you could hang them as display because he was an artist, not a chess maker.

The only reason I knew that the only reason I even, well, for two reasons, my dad played, we played chess as a kid. I played chess young. So, you know, like when the chess thing became hip again, I was like, man, I totally know how to play chess. Right. And then w just happened upon this. And I was like, I think it’s chess.

We’re going to find out. Like right then and there any. [00:27:00] It was the first big item I sold, like the first big dollar item I sold not size, but dollar item, I sold. And when I sold that, my husband was like, whatever we need to do. You know what I mean? Like after that, he’s like, yeah, yeah, cute. Make some money.

Don’t be bored when you’re not trying to teach your child, like do what you do get some stuff out of the house. I’m in. Get stuff out of the house. Yes. I came home with that thing and sold it and he was. Whatever we need to do it. 

Melissa: Or you had, how much did you pay for it or you? 

Amy: I sourced it for free from my contacts.

Melissa: Awesome. 

Amy: Crazy. Right. So. 

Melissa: A thousand bucks. That’s so fun. 

Rob: But one thing that you did say about that is your ear to the ground. You know, what’s going around you that’s when the big series of the Queen’s Gambit, is that what it was that was going on? People were on there looking for stuff we did. But even right now, there’s problems in manufacturing for stuff that people can not get there [00:28:00] months and months on back order for stuff.

That’s where you keep your ear to the ground. Right now, you figure out what it is. Appliances are huge right now for us. You can get appliances and sell them for so much money because people can’t get them they’re on back order and they can’t do it. So that’s a very good point for everybody to take.

What is going on around you take advantage of that stuff. That’s going on around you and try to look in those areas. So to find stuff that you can resell. So that’s a that’s amazing point. Great point. 

Amy: Wall Street Journal just released an article and I’m not a big, like, I don’t read the paper, I don’t watch the news. I like, I catch things. And then if they spark my interest, I, I vet them out. I source them. Right. So. I don’t spend a ton of time doing that. I’m just aware of what’s happening in the world. A little, you know, Wall Street Journal released an article. It was over the weekend that said, retailers are telling you if you have not already significantly completed your Christmas list, it’s not going to happen. It’s, it’s what day is it? It’s November eighth. 

Melissa: They’re going [00:29:00] to go to eBay. 

Amy: I got you like vintage toys. Let’s do it. You know what I mean? Like, whatever it 

Melissa: It’s Christmas. 

Amy: Exactly. 

Rob: Yeah, absolutely. I love it. I love it. 

Melissa: So, so have you had any, one last one, have you had any flops that you can think of? Everybody likes to hear the, you know, like it’s all exciting and good, but what are some like maybe something that you learned from? 

Amy: I like to sit in my misery and sort through it and figuring out how to fix it. If, if not for anything else, I mean, those are the things that stick out for me. I thought I was going to make a gazillion dollars off of selling books from the dollar store. Let me just, let me help you out, the answer’s no, you are much better off to take whatever’s on your bookshelf and make some money because you’ve already bought and paid for it. That was like, I knew I was going to get rich that way. Like that was the silliest thing I’ve ever done. You know what I mean, dollars. I have made enormous mistakes in [00:30:00] shipping, like enormous.

I mean, we talked about shipping stuff as, as soon as yesterday, like I have made enormous mistakes in shipping and not always because you did something wrong, like they changed their prices. They changed the size, but like, and I say they is in the three big, like without doing freight, like FedEx, UPS and, and USPS, like they changed what their cost is going to be.

They change what their measurements are going to be for whatever price range. They change availability, P.S. They don’t have people working, so you can’t get anything out. You know what I mean? Like I’ve had enormous flops because of that. And things that I’ve lost money on like significant money on where you literally have to make a decision that you’re going to like sit and wallow, which okay, cool.

And get up or sit and wallow and be like, I can’t do this. It’s too hard. Guess what? Every single job is [00:31:00] hard. I don’t care who you work for, what you do, what it is. If you like 80 to 85% of what your job is, you’ve done well. If that 10 to 15% like, isn’t great, guess what the rest of the world has that. So like you get to pick, what’s going to be hard.

Like, is it going to be hard cause you messed up or is it going to be hard cause you went to work and messed up for somebody else and maybe got fired? And now like you don’t have a job. Like I didn’t have a job, you know what I mean? Like, so it just, you have to pick your heart. So shipping has been probably my biggest. But it’s my mistake it’s stuff that I like. I’ve made mistakes and you just learn from it and you just move forward from it. 

Rob: Yeah. That is a huge point because people do, and that is what hangs people up is they do make a mistake in whether it’s shipping, whether it’s listing, they listed something too cheap and then they figured out, hey I sold that too cheap.

There’s a lot of mistakes that you can make. But you have to go back on this business as a whole. Where else are you going to be able to have the control of your time? Where else are you gonna be able to take care of your kids while you’re doing it? [00:32:00] And if you take those mistakes, just like you said, you’re not wallowing. You’re not sitting there and meditating on that mistake. You’re figuring out what can I learn from this? How do I not make the same mistake next time? And that’s how you continue to grow. So that’s awesome that you’ve already realized that, and you’re, you’re, you’re using it. You’re, you’re doing what you’re, you’re preaching you’re you’re not sitting in it and thinking about it, you’re actually getting to that next level and you’re growing, you’re continuing to grow, which is huge in any business that you’re working with.

Amy: And I want to savor that. It’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to like that sucked. Like I messed that up and that sucked. Okay, cool. Have your moment do what you need to do. Walk away from it for a day. Well I’ve taken full weekends when I’m like, I’m not even opening Ebay app, like I’m not even like I’m turning off notification. If it sells over the weekend, I can deal with it on mine.

Like I’m not even looking, but you’re better to do that. And then refocus and go back then just walk away. 

Rob: Absolutely. I totally agree. Well, cool. Well, Amy, [00:33:00] let’s wrap this up. We totally appreciate you doing this. You’ve given some great, great information for people who are out there starting out and even going to that next level.

A huge, huge list of amazing things that you’re implementing in your business. So thank you for jumping on here with us. Thank you for giving this, amazing information to everybody. So, yeah. Thank you so much. 

This has been awesome.

Rob: Awesome. Sweet, have a great day. We’ll see you guys soon. Thank you. Bye guys.

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Robert Stephenson

I grew up in Central Florida and have lived here my whole life. I first got into buying and selling items when I was 16 years old, and have been hooked ever since. It has mostly been a hobby that makes some extra cash, but sometimes it serves as my main income as well. I don't plan on stopping any time soon. I find too many fun toys for my family (or myself), and just love the whole process.

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