342 : Jerry Balep – Mindset matters most when it comes to scaling a successful Amazon and Ebay business
Sounds like great advice from a well seasoned seller. Well you see… Jerry is really young. But it is awesome that he has the right perspective already. He knows that gratefulness trumps all. Great focused seller with a plan and no doubt he will be successful!
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Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Jerry: [00:00:00] Seller that I previously purchased from and I was like, Oh, do you remember me? I bought $8,000 worth of stuff when any last time it was like, yes, yes, I remember you. And I’m like, alright, point me to the good stuff. I know you saw on Amazon too because I see you’re still on every listing online.
Cool voice guy: [00:00:15] Welcome to the ECOMMERCE will focus on the people, the products, and the process of ecommerce cylinder. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.
Stephen: [00:00:29] He wanted to talk a few moments about some sponsors scope from sellerlabs. Um, when’s the last time you created a listing? Right? And when you create that listing, you’ve got to come up with the keywords, right? It’s all key word dependent. I don’t care if it’s a private label or wholesale. You’ve got to get it right. Well, what’s the best way to get around if you’re selling a similar product that’s really successful, you go and you take and use their keywords and that’s what scope does for you. So phenomenal tool brought to you again by seller labs. The leaders in technology, when it comes to Amazon right now, they are just crushing it with all their products, but scope allows you to get that listing right, get ranked for those key words as fast as possible. Therefore you get the sales, so go to sellerlabs.com, forward slash scope.
Stephen: [00:01:18] Use the code word momentum, save a little bit of money, get some free key words to test, try it out and see if you see an improvement. If you don’t adjust, what’s cool about what I love about seller labs is that you then message and say, Hey, I didn’t get this right tyler. Hey Jeff, this isn’t working right. What am I doing wrong? And Boom, you’re going to get the help you need and that’s what you’re going to get from seller Lamson. And it’s a very special group that had been very. I’ve been very fortunate to be connected with them and again, I look over time they’ve delivered every single time. You know, same thing I can say for Karen from solutions for ECOMMERCE. I mean, she’s been carrying my account for a couple years now and our account, my wife and I, and she really does handle things for us.
Stephen: [00:01:59] Um, I mentioned, uh, just last week we created a new listing with, I forget how many variations, but again, all the flat files uploaded done as I needed. I pop in, so she’ll send me a template, I pop in some information and then boom, it’s handled, await. These pictures weren’t done right, blah, blah, blah. This UPC, Nita poom modified, adjusted and again, the communication been phenomenal too. I get an email back saying, hey, this was done or this, you’re missing this, Steve. Hey, you gotta do this. So, you know, we have those challenges too and that’s why I like working with somebody who’s been doing it. I’ve been doing it for a long time to do, you know, Karen also does listings for Ebay. Yep. Lots of them. So if you want to build out that channel, which of course you should, it’s q four. You should be selling everywhere.
Stephen: [00:02:44] You can, um, Karen can help you with that too. So you gotTa tell her I’ve sent you, so you’re going to go to solutions four ecommerce forward slash momentum. You’re going to save 50 bucks every single month. You’ve got to save that $50. But more importantly, you’re going to get an inventory health report. Um, did you just get hit with monthly longterm storage fees? Well guess what? If you haven’t, they’re coming. You want to get that inventory right and she can help you with that. You’ve got to tell her I sent you again, solutions. The number for ecommerce forward slash momentum will get you into that. Save the 50 bucks. Get that inventory health report though. That’s really, really important. Get that going right away and I don’t want to miss my coach when it comes to retail arb or online or when I have a question and I do.
Stephen: [00:03:23] Not that we don’t, we don’t really do much of it anymore, but when I do have a question, I go to gay lesbian because why? Because she’s really. She is a coach. I mean, she’s really phenomenal, but she also puts out a daily list and you’re going to get that list five days a week. You’re going to get tons of leads, the number of, uh, agreed to amount that you’re supposed to get at least usually gets to those in the four days. And then the fifth day seems to be a bonus most of the time. Phenomenal Group, small amount of buyers where this list is going to end, the best thing is the nuggets that you learn. Hey, why is the red one better than the blue? One? Gay can help you with those questions. I saw. Hey, I got, um, I got to the dreaded letter about a brand.
Stephen: [00:04:02] Here’s the, here’s the way you approach it. Hey, receipts. Um, how do you, what’s the best practice? I saw her leading instructions, teaching me the accountant how to do a better job with it. And it’s phenomenal. So it’s Gaye Lisby made a million dollars selling. Um, I’ll have the link in here. You’ve got to use the, my, my link and it does help me. I don’t want to say it that way, but it’s part of amazing freedom with Andy, slam inslee, Ron Hirsch, corn, and nate’s lamins so you know you can trust. Okay, so come out to the website, take a look at it, and you will get a savings and you can get two weeks free right now only through my link. You get two weeks free. Try it. You don’t like it? I get it back off, but right now is the time to make money.
Stephen: [00:04:46] Get cash flow going right now, and so join you. Get two weeks free. The only way you’re gonna get the two weeks for these. If you use my link, it’s on this episode. Come on out and give it a try. You will not be disappointed. Again. You’re going to see me in there, so reach out if I can help you too. Let’s get into the podcast. Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode 342, jerry ballot. I’m very, very cool. Very inspired, man. This kid is a hustler. I’m calling him a kid. Yes, I can call the kid because he’s young. You’re going to be blown away when you hear how young wait to hear how much money he’s spending. Way Too here, whose money he was spending all your parents hold onto your wallets. You know, like this episode. What I I really appreciate is the education he’s getting when he’s talking through terms that, you know, I went to college to learn and here he is not and he’s learning.
Stephen: [00:05:36] He’s learning like in the real world, not some stupid textbook that doesn’t really work anymore. This old model that was back from the thirties. He’s learning it in the streets and he’s learning it and he’s applying it. I think that’s it. His execution. I think that’s the thing I’m taking away from it. This mindset comes up a whole bunch of times. We finally get to this one word which really explains why he’s having so much success. It’s something that we all know we need more of. It’s something we need to do. I want you to hear it in there or I’m going to mention at the end if you didn’t figure it out, but pay attention to how much he knows and where he’s learned it. Love it. Let’s get into podcast. Alright, we’ll come back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. We’re excited about today’s guest. His name has come up so many different times by so many different people. Um, and what’s interesting is I think I’ve got kids older than them. Jerry Ballup. Welcome Jerri. Steven. I am really well. You have your name has come up a bunch of different times from a bunch of different people just saying, you know, they’re impressed me. First off, how old are you?
Jerry: [00:06:38] All right now I’m 19.
Stephen: [00:06:40] Nineteen. And they were all like, he gets it. I mean, just for some reason there’s a whole bunch of people that are following you. I’m like, you’re the leader and yet you’re 19. Cherry and Kelly loge will appreciate this. I have socks older than you, Jerry. Oh, well happy birthday. No, I’m not. I’m just teasing you. I mean, that’s, that’s pretty cool when people are calling you out and noticing you. I mean that’s gotTa make you feel pretty good. Especially as 19.
Jerry: [00:07:11] I’m on the come up.
Stephen: [00:07:12] Oh yeah. Well, you know, why? Why are you in this world specifically? I mean, why reselling?
Jerry: [00:07:23] Well, it all started out in freshman year of high school. I was into collecting old Danish Gamecube era, Super Nintendo, Nintendo, and a certain point I started realizing, oh, I have doubles and triples, are some games because I was buying them from goodwill’s for two or $3 each. I was like, all right, what can I do with these extra game?
Stephen: [00:07:41] So what you were buying them just for yourself. You’d see him and they were a deal. You just buy him. Boom. I just want them. I want them on them. Okay. So you end up with a whole bunch of video games. Okay.
Jerry: [00:07:52] Yeah. And then one day I was looking up on youtube, like how to make money at my age and I think I came across some college pickers, Don Reagan and bonafide hustlers. The videos,
Stephen: [00:08:03] the green room guys.
Jerry: [00:08:05] Yeah. The green guys, I was like, oh, Amazon, I buy off Amazon, but what about selling? So after looking everything up and seeing how you’re supposed to ship out on everything, I listed my first item and attended a game cube and within the first night it’s old
Stephen: [00:08:21] now. Wait a second. You’re not even 18 years old at this point?
Jerry: [00:08:24] No, I was 14 or 15 at the time.
Stephen: [00:08:26] Well first off you’re not supposed to be selling. You’re only 14 or 15. So when you went to your parents and say, Hey, sign up an account for me, I want to sell on Amazon. What did they say to you?
Jerry: [00:08:36] Oh, they are okay with it. They rotate. Like you paid the taxes out of it.
Stephen: [00:08:41] Okay. So they didn’t think anything of it. They just thought, oh no big deal.
Jerry: [00:08:45] Yeah, the sign some stuff on the side.
Stephen: [00:08:47] Okay. All right man. You know, I guess there’s a dad. I would sit back and say, cool, that’s good if you’re not using anymore, this is utility. Especially if you’re going make your money, you spend $2, as long as you make two bucks, I’m happy. Right?
Jerry: [00:08:58] Yeah. The, they’re just like, all right, get rid of some stuff in the house and go ahead.
Stephen: [00:09:04] So what did you pay for the game cube? Do you remember?
Jerry: [00:09:08] Around like eight bucks. Five bucks.
Stephen: [00:09:10] Five, eight bucks. What did it sell for
Jerry: [00:09:14] that time? I, I didn’t really get the whole fees and everything, so I just sold it for lowest price. Like 30 bucks.
Stephen: [00:09:20] So 30 bucks. And what did you net out of it?
Jerry: [00:09:23] I’d probably be like five bucks after shipping.
Stephen: [00:09:26] Okay. So $5 after shipping. So you spent five, maybe you made five where you spent eight and made five is now to a 14 year old kid. Still a lot of money. But what, what did you think then? I mean, did you realize this is hard, this isn’t worth it or huh? There might be something here.
Jerry: [00:09:44] Yeah, that’s why I hate me off. I was like, hm, I made five bucks here. What if I go back to goodwill, spend the $10 I have and find a way to double it.
Stephen: [00:09:56] And that’s what clicked in your head. So you’re, you are okay. If I could double my money and then you take that 10 and that doubles to 20 and then 20 doubles to 40 slash 40, right. Does that the math you’re doing?
Jerry: [00:10:06] Yeah, I was like, oh, can I snowball into something bigger?
Stephen: [00:10:10] And when you, when you. Before you decided to resell, when you went to goodwill, just looking for as a buyer to buy for yourself, did you have trouble finding stuff?
Jerry: [00:10:24] No, because a 2014 during that time you could still find a retro video games at thrift shops at cheap prices of caught on.
Stephen: [00:10:35] Okay. So you were just going out there and buying me. There was no pressure if you found them. Awesome. Life is very good. They were abundance at that point. Um, fast forward to today, how often do you see those games in goodwill and thrift stores?
Jerry: [00:10:51] Almost. Barely. Never a. If I’m going somewhere and the goodwill is right next to the gas station or pass by and pop in, maybe find a handful of items for Ebay, but I barely ever thirst anymore.
Stephen: [00:11:04] Yeah, barely. Right. Because it’s just, you know, a, the thrift store companies are selling it themselves. They understand. Right. And so they’re doing a lot of that themselves or there are people, and I watched, I’m a, like I’ve had Lonnie Honeycutt is a garage flips every day. He goes to a goodwill every single. It’s right next to his post office, so it’s convenient but every single day. And so when people do that that frequently, they’re more likely to find that stuff. So the odds of you just happening in to find that stuff anymore are probably pretty slim pretty much across the country. Okay. So, so you flip this, this thing and then you’re like, okay, I’m going to take this money that I got net and I’m going to invest it and buy more. Was it video games your thing? I mean, is that the category you stayed in?
Jerry: [00:11:51] Yeah, that was my thing. And then what ended up branching off from that had buddies in school that are like, oh, I have my old gamecube games, I want to sell you during the free period of class, I’d take a look at all her games again, assessment of what I can get after fees and giving them a fair value. Sunday, your friends, my friends are telling their friends and their friends started telling other people. So now when you’re in high school, you have a bunch of people with old stuff they want to get rid of.
Stephen: [00:12:20] Oh you got a network and they don’t have access to cash and they don’t want to work and their parents aren’t giving them money. So this is a good network, right? Because they didn’t buy it. Somebody else bought it for him. I’m your math teachers probably. We’re pretty proud because here you are in the hallway doing math. Let me calculate you, assess them. That means you did some math and said, hmm, if I buy it at this price and you know, blah blah blah blah blah. So, um, any trouble in school from it?
Jerry: [00:12:45] From buying and selling?
Stephen: [00:12:46] Yeah, I mean did it ever just say, Hey, what are you doing? And it’s not like you’re doing drugs. I mean it’s, it’s, this is buying something. All right. So they were cool with it, but I mean again, you get what I’m saying that, you know, as a, as a, as a teacher, they would be like, Huh, you understand the concept of arbitrage, you’re buying a or a economics supply and demand and pricing.
Jerry: [00:13:05] It’s for a couple of years was on until the last two years of high school that people are catching onto what I was doing.
Stephen: [00:13:13] And when they catch on, did they, did they jump into to, to copy you or did they say, hey, or did you start having even a bigger network of people bringing you inventory?
Jerry: [00:13:25] There were like two guys. I didn’t like the price. I gave him her collection of stuff so they just sold it themselves on Ebay. But add more people coming in saying, Oh, you’re all my nintendo games here. All my game game. Oh I have some Lego I want to sell. And
Stephen: [00:13:40] Oh, we got into Lego that well, so we slipped out of video games into Lego. What was attractive to Lego for you?
Jerry: [00:13:50] A lego already have sources where I can sell the bricks in bulk and usually once they sell the bricks are already making 20 to 40 percent profit. And from there all the little mini figs, animals face please. Anything extra from that is just extra money that comes in and usually milk another 100, 200 bucks out of that.
Stephen: [00:14:11] So man, that’s a good point. So let’s just pause on that because I think that’s one of those places that people get stuck at. So almost every yard sale at. Not that I go to him anymore, I try not to because I will buy something and I don’t want to buy it. Um, um, I have these giant containers of Lego’s in my warehouse as Jamieson because he’ll tell you, um, they’re, they’re, um, and they just show up and I don’t know where they come from. I haven’t opened them. I don’t know what they are because it’s overwhelming when you look at it because it’s just enormous volume of stuff, but. So your, your advice is to find, I mean, I know you can sell it for seven bucks a pound. I think it is on Ebay or one of those places. Yeah. More or less. Right. So, but it’s, it’s so you, you split it up, you’re going to poll the mini-figs of course. Right. In. So many things are worth money and most of them aren’t. Um, the instructions have value boxes have value depending what they are. Again. Um, how about, do you pull out the wheels and all the, all the small little parts when you’re selling in volume, are you just selling them the bricks, the basic bricks?
Jerry: [00:15:13] Usually it depends because if I have a good amount of the sale of the wheels where I can fill in a medium flat rate box. Four wheels. Yeah. Saw separately but not as tossing it over the rest of the bulk bricks and sell it as is.
Stephen: [00:15:27] Okay. Alright. So thinking about that, when you see a tub of bricks at a yard sale, right, what’s a typical pressure pay for that stuff? Because that’s what you usually see. See some plastic bin, some kid had, you know, 20 sets and they, you know, some of it’s there, not all of it. What’s, what’s that cost usually at a yard sale?
Jerry: [00:15:44] Uh, I actually don’t really find much at yard sales of sources of north that give me like a couple of hundred pounds at a time. But when I finally I tried buying at $3 a pound or less.
Stephen: [00:15:58] Okay. So you’re assessing that tub and you’re looking at it, you might pick it up and tantamount about five pounds. So the most you want to pay us 15 bucks. So you’d offer 10 and maybe land at 15. Okay. So you got this tub, you bring it back. What’s that involve? I mean, is it worth your time? Because that’s the other thing that I look at. Is it worth your time to sort that stuff?
Jerry: [00:16:20] Well, when I was little, my parents would buy me any lego set I wanted. And Christmas, you always get those big lego castle sets the airport. So of course I loved Lego. So for me getting a big 30 pound tub and already having the box set up to ship to my bulk buyer, I was put on a podcast or a TV show or something, and quickly filter through to Briggs, take out what I can sell separately. And maybe within 10, 15 minutes I can get 30 pounds done.
Stephen: [00:16:50] No kidding. And 30 pounds at $7 a pound. I mean, that’s, that’s a significant amount of money. I mean, that’s significant, right? And especially if you only have a 90 bucks into it and you’re selling it for, you know, 200 plus. Um, so that is, that does sound worth it in that scenario, is it a mindset issue? Because I think, you know, as I sit and think about it, it looks overwhelming to me. It looks like I don’t think I could keep my attention. Um, so I’m probably going negative, you know?
Jerry: [00:17:18] Yeah, definitely a mindset issue.
Stephen: [00:17:19] Hmm. Okay. All right. So, so you started selling Lego video game. The network expanded their, their connections went out to the other. At any point, did you have anybody at the win, at that earlier stage? Did you have anybody buying for you or did you pay a finder’s fee or anything like that to try to get more business?
Jerry: [00:17:39] A couple of friends in the grade above me to pay on a finder’s fee if they found friends that wanted to sell to me. So every two days like, oh jerry, this is my friend was a saw y’all is ds games. Oh my friend wants to sell you all is a game boy stuff and I had five, 10 bucks for every person they found.
Stephen: [00:17:59] And were you utilizing? Um, you know, uh, I guess yard sales or a craigslist would’ve been around coming here. You’re young enough. Craigslist would’ve been around, I don’t think offer up or let go or any of those would have been there at that age. But uh, it, newspaper, yard sales and craigslist would have been the only other avenues. Were you using those avenues at that point too?
Jerry: [00:18:20] Yeah, it was. Every now and then I’d, I’d connect with people through there and meet up at the gas station on a corner or a walgreens or a target, but for first couple of years it was mostly off friends and then a good advantage point I had was I joined early on and one of the big retro gaming groups on facebook. And from there I’d be buying bulk games off people and Sonos individually and Amazon.
Stephen: [00:18:48] So those groups, those were typical players, but that. Is that what or collectors?
Jerry: [00:18:54] Yeah, collectors have any retro system and of course when you’re collecting you’ll buy extras, make money to buy more games. So I believe every week I had a couple of boxes come in, just 10 Mario, 64 is 10. A legend of Zelda has. And I still have a couple of photos on my phone is I’ll be like, wow, back in the day I can get 20 legend of Zelda was at 15 bucks each and make $10 each. No problem. And today it’s really hard to find that.
Stephen: [00:19:23] And what’s it sell for now? That same game,
Speaker 4: [00:19:27] uh,
Jerry: [00:19:28] let’s say Mario, 64, back then it was like 20, 25 and today it’s around 25 to 30.
Stephen: [00:19:37] Okay. So it went up a little bit, but it’s just the frequency of finding them. That’s really the harder thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s one of the, you know, I saw somebody say something about this the other day that the Nintendo game systems seem to be the only system that has held its value. Is that, is that fair?
Stephen: [00:19:55] definitely. Okay. So, so you’re still in high school, you’re having some success with this and what, what’s the, what’s the plan? Uh, what’s, what’s the plan you’re doing this just to, just to have, to make some money to have some fun. Did you ever think that this could be a business?
Jerry: [00:20:17] Um, I think around sophomore year that’s why I really did q four intensively using like my parent’s credit cards and stuff and paying them back.
Stephen: [00:20:26] Wait, retail arbitrage with your parents’ credit card? Yes. Oh Dude, man, I can. I can picture that conversation with me when my boys coming in Taf way TC, I got this big idea and I get out, you know, go. No, cut some grass. That’s my generation. Be Cut grass. What happened? How do you convince your parents to let you borrow money?
Jerry: [00:20:48] Well, when I first set the whole Amazon thing, I a separate bank bank account under all my parents’ name. So that debit card would be the wide use, but if I need additional I’d asked for a credit card.
Stephen: [00:21:01] Okay. But that’s fair. Okay. So you’re saying your dad or your mom gave you some rope and they’re probably behind the scenes. St Each Other. Oh, don’t worry. He’ll. This is a phase Jerry’s in a phase. It’s going to go away. Don’t, don’t worry. It’s just a phase, but I think it’s very healthy that, you know, you built up a balance, you’ve built up a commitment and then they let you use that. I mean, I think that’s a smart move as a parent. Um, I think it’s very healthy. Okay. Were they having a conversation with Jerry? What are you going to do with the rest of your life? Yet at this point,
Jerry: [00:21:32] uh, it was still in that phase of high school were like, Oh, what college am I going to apply to? Yeah, yeah. What are you going to do making I can pay for college? And then starting junior year I said, look into the actual costs. And then I was like, all right, now I’ll just do this full time,
Stephen: [00:21:48] you know, now think about, now you’re 19. So your friends that went to college or still in college, correct?
Jerry: [00:21:56] Yeah. Their second year or third year. Right now,
Stephen: [00:21:59] how many of them seem certain of their future when you think, when you talk to them, I mean like they got to play. I mean there’s always that guy, the outlier, the doctor or the lawyer, whatever because his dad was. But outside of them, how many of your other friends have a real clue what they’re going to do and know exactly where they’re going?
Jerry: [00:22:15] I mean, a lot of like the Dr lawyer types, you know, at least for them they can pay off the loans easily. They can at least after a certain amount of years of experience or earn good money, but there’s other guys staying like journalism and music and I just see the money. They’re raking up in debt. I’m like, no, no.
Stephen: [00:22:34] Yeah, you never going to pay it. Yeah, I agree with. And they amortize this as like a home mortgage. Thirty years now I’m sitting here thinking about this, this experience you’re getting is, is really an education in sales. Back in the old day, this is your grandfather’s day. I’m going to talk about their, these tapes. They would’ve put in cars to listen to the ural nightingales and these kind of people that would have, you know, basic motivation and sales trainings and all that kind of jazz. Right? Um, that education, um, they used to call it Gary Ray called it a dashboard, a university or something like that. And so you’d listen to these things and that’s how you get this additional education if you didn’t go to school. And especially for sales because a lot of sales people never went to school. Um, you’re getting this with video games and Legos. Jerry, you’re getting paid to get an education. Do you understand that?
Jerry: [00:23:30] Yeah, no, I, I do cost benefit analysis. I’m like, would I rather spend 40 to 70,000 per year on a university or potentially make a couple hundred thousand dollars per year reselling items and there.
Stephen: [00:23:46] Well, you know what happens if this doesn’t work, you could always go to school, correct? Oh yeah. I mean just so what do your parents say? Well, you know, what do your parents say though? Because this has to be still in their mind. When you said to him, Dad, mom, I’m not going to go to school. I’m going to do full time in this business. What was there
Jerry: [00:24:08] junior year of high school? I was hinting at it, they were still against that idea. They’re like, no, you’re applying to school. If anything you’ll go to university of Miami or something within your hometown. And then by senior year, you know, I’m always seeing the money coming in and she’s like, alright, this is what you want to do is don’t be stupid with the money amount saved up. Just be responsible and you can do whatever you want,
Stephen: [00:24:33] you know, thinking back to pr people who would have started a business, it would have taken an enormous amount of money to create a business, Jerry, right? I mean, think about it, right? You know, to buy the building or to lease a building to, to get all the old equipment and, well, you got to get vans and vehicles and all this stuff. It costs a fortune. You’re starting this business with bootstrapped, right? I mean, you’re just using the money that you made from, from that first Nintendo thing that you flipped. It’s still going right. Um, that, that mitigation of. I just had this discussion yesterday at a party about mitigation of risk in business. Most people go into selling on Amazon, selling on Ebay because they see somebody post numbers. Look, I just sold $10,000 worth of books. Youtube can do this. It’s easy now.
Stephen: [00:25:21] You and I both know it’s not easy and yes, you could sell $10,000, but then it doesn’t mean you make money. So let’s, we all know that, right? But that’s not what somebody who is selling a course is going to say, so we, you know, to be fair, there are people that do that stuff. Marketers, um, however, um, it comes with risk, especially if you’re using credit cards, right? If you’re borrowing money and, uh, you were counting on the toysrus points that you going to use, they’re gone. They stopped them. And so anybody who got stuck with them lost all that profit that we’re gonna make is gone. So you’re mitigated risk because you’re bootstrapped this business. Um, and you didn’t expand. I mean, to me as a parent, I would sit back and say, my God, this is, this is somebody back in the 18 hundreds opening a business. It really does seem that way. You know what I mean? Do you get that vibe that you get what I’m saying? Yeah,
Jerry: [00:26:12] I mean, the future is now technology at our fingertips. It honestly doesn’t cost that much to start a new company and get everything done.
Stephen: [00:26:20] Well, especially with what you’re doing because generally, and I’m now correct me if I’m wrong, is your business model. Uh, I mean, I know q four especially in where we’re going to talk about that because you have a key for group, we can talk about that but, but um, q four for you, you’re big toy sellers, so you’re going to do the arbitrage thing and everything else and make your money fast, but the rest of the year you’re buying either discounted retail arb or you’re buying used through bulk purchases, pawn shops and things like that. Correct. Is that still your business model?
Jerry: [00:26:54] Oh, my strategy’s changed within the past year a lot, but the past couple of years it’s been love thrift stores, lot of pawn shops buying target clearance here and there. And q four, you know, go all in on black Friday. And what nowadays it’s changed ever since toysrus went out.
Stephen: [00:27:11] Okay. And, and that is a, again, I had this conversation with somebody yesterday at a party and we talked about toys r us who’s going to fill in that gap, right? I mean because the wall. I was in a Walmart this morning, they did not expand their toy section versus what it was before twitter and least my store, they’re there today. Now maybe they’re gonna change it for once, Christmas time comes, but today the exact same space they had dedicated the toys. Um, last year is the same this year so far. Um, I haven’t been in a target in a long time, but I’m assuming is pretty much the same that they’re not going to give a lot of space. Who’s replacing toys r us?
Jerry: [00:27:50] Well, right now at party city, they’re renting out old toysrus locations for seasonal Halloween. Right. And they’re starting to stock up on toys, but I passed somebody the other day and employee price design really that good. Anyways.
Stephen: [00:28:05] So party city is now getting into the toy business.
Jerry: [00:28:10] Yeah, they’re doing the halloween city slash toy city locations now.
Stephen: [00:28:15] Yeah. Good luck. Good luck with that. Um, yeah, that’s a tough thing. You know, if toys r US couldn’t make a go of it, what makes you think that party city is going to be able to make a go of it? Right.
Jerry: [00:28:26] Probably power cities in $5 billion debt like toysrus was.
Stephen: [00:28:30] Okay. Alright. So you think that might be an answer for me? You know, the logical answer is that it’s going to move to online. I mean, you know, this year online toys sales I expect to see explode because the options are so limited, right?
Jerry: [00:28:46] Yeah. Like especially let’s say Christmas time a kid wants a certain Lego set, a toysrus exclusive or is out, they don’t make that Lego set anymore. And what’s apparent gonna do make their kid cry saying Santa Claus and bring it on time or just order it maybe a couple of weeks or couple days before Christmas day or to 100 percent markup on Amazon.
Stephen: [00:29:08] Right? They have no choice. I mean, ultimately it has to go somewhere that business, there’s lots of kids in the toy. The toy demand is not gone down. Um, it’s just the ability to do it. So. So talk about your strategy. So you said that in the past that was your model, you would do thrift stores and pawn shops. Um, and you got into electronics to correct. You weren’t just doing game systems?
Jerry: [00:29:30] Yeah, I was doing like DVD players, blue ray players, ipods, lego video games, but nowadays it’s changed drastically.
Stephen: [00:29:41] And why did it change? I mean, what was it that caused you to say, I mean, was it the toys r us and you understanding the toy business? Is that what it is for you that you say, hmm, Opportunity today and as we all know, it could change six months from now, but today, pivot and adjust. It started last year on summer
Jerry: [00:30:04] I drove to the greenroom meetup from Miami, Florida to Austin only hitting up pawn shops along the way. So yes, I was picking up hundreds of video games and systems, but then later on in the year I’d go to asd week for Las Vegas and I talked to the bigger sellers and they’re like, all right, how can you scale the business up so you can double your sales next year? Do you think you can do that same amount or more? Just only pawn shops and goodwills.
Stephen: [00:30:32] And so obviously you said no. Right? I mean hence the reason we’re having this discussion. So. So in your mind, and at this point it’s still just you, right? You have no staff?
Jerry: [00:30:42] No, I only every now and then a friend comes in to help me prep stuff.
Stephen: [00:30:47] Okay. And you’re working out of your house at this point still to. Yes. Still in my house. Can See your costs are low, right? You’re lean and mean as they say. And so you get, you got a taste of what it could be. When you saw this asd, when you saw some of these bigger sellers, when you see that, does the responsibility that comes along with that frightened you in any way? No, not at all. Got to be young. All the old guys are like, whoa. I mean remember we were that young. You have no fear, right? Terry? No fear.
Jerry: [00:31:18] If this ever goes down and now there’s 10,000 other ways to make money online.
Stephen: [00:31:23] You know, it’s funny you say that because this was a conversation yesterday. Two people with education, like you said, some of those degrees, those lesser, uh, I don’t want to call them valuable because there’s always a value in education, but the lesser you utilize degrees, they’re working at a t and t cell and cell phones were there at starbucks making coffee and stuff. Not that there’s anything wrong with those jobs, but that’s not what they went to school for it, right? That’s about what they’re 60, 70, 80 $100,000 in debt for is to have those jobs because you can go, go get those jobs today with no degree. You wanna work at starbucks, just apply you to work at a t and t to cell phones apply. You don’t need to go to school for it. And so you however, um, have this, this, and it’s funny, you have a, it’s not even a hope.
Stephen: [00:32:13] You just know there’s, what did you say? 15,000 more ways to make money. I mean, just, there’s millions of ways it just think about that. But there’s guys working at starbucks, and again, I’m not picking on him. I don’t mean it that way, but just feeling hopeless because that’s the most they got. They couldn’t find a job. They went for that degree because they were passionate about that subject and they can’t find a job and here you are, didn’t go to and you’re like, man, it’s 15,000 way that one don’t work. I’m going to try another one. We’ll try it that it’s not hopeless. I mean it’s not hope hopeful. I mean it’s just like you just know it to get that. That’s like certainty you. That’s. It’s just so different. Do you get where I’m going with that?
Jerry: [00:32:55] Yeah. I mean I can go on a whole rant about how college debt is ruining everyone, but I’d rather not, but essentially these people are going for 30 to 50,000 in these bigger universities. Spending that money on government backed loans and Andy’s colleges. The try the math classes and stuff that, you know, easier to find jobs once you graduate. Do you realize I’m not that good in math. They’re not that good at memorizing stuff for law school and they’re not into biology and then they find out, oh, but I’m really good at literature. I love reading Shakespeare books. I know how to write books and they spend the next four years studying that. They accumulate all this debt and once they graduate you realize, oh, there’s not really a big corporation that hires writers left and right.
Stephen: [00:33:45] Yeah. The company is not working anymore, you know, and it’s funny, that same skillset, their ability to write, they could have a blog today and make six figures today if they can write interesting stuff, compelling content, right? They could write a book and never, you know, self publish it or pop it up on Amazon, you know, they’re, they’re a create space. They could do all that stuff and spend $0, Zippo, Zilch. And still get and actually have something. Um, it’s a, there’s a real transition. You’re 19. There’s a real transition because I think this next generation, uh, you, and I think you’re at the forefront of it is going to say, Huh. And a bunch of parents are going to say, Huh, not again, this isn’t worth it. We want, we want you to find something you’re going to love to do. I mean, you think about this, do you have any plans for the next 30 years?
Jerry: [00:34:38] Eventually I want to get into real estate because you know, that’s not going away anywhere. Right? But it is know when to buy and when to sell it. Right now it’s a seller’s market. So yeah, I just have to wait till it’s a buyers market,
Stephen: [00:34:51] but you don’t have the 30 year plan. Right? So you’re sitting back and like now I’m going to let it happen. And guess what I would say to you, that’s awesome. Because guess what? In 30 years, the, the workforce is going to be completely different, right? We all know automation is gonna have an impact. And to me the fact that you don’t have to have a master plan. When I went school, you went and worked at a company, your goal was to stay there for 30 years and you’d get a retirement. They literally gave up watches where I used to work, I mean, no kidding, they gave out not gold. They weren’t real gold or gold plated watches, I swear to God or a pen set because I was in the accounting field. They give you this gold pen engraved and that was what you’d worked for, but that’s, you know, those companies are all bankrupt.
Stephen: [00:35:31] Every single one of those companies are long since gone. Honest to God, everyone I worked for. Um, and so you sit back today and say, I think your plan, which is not to have a plan, but to learn skills. If you learn real estate, that’s valuable. Like you say, it’s not going anywhere. Those skills that you build up this buying and selling this, especially the pivoting that you’ve done where you said, hmm, this is good. And I could do it. And I guess you could step back to that if there’s asd thing doesn’t work out, right? Um, but I’m going to scale. I built this skill set, these negotiating skills. Now I’ve gotten a little more confidence. I got more cash flow and I’m ready to move forward. Jerry, I’m sitting here saying as I’m looking down at a 19 year old kid who’s got a lot on a lot figured out.
Jerry: [00:36:13] Yeah, a lot of people my age, they still I learning to do, but they’ll get there eventually.
Stephen: [00:36:20] Well, I heard somebody say this is that you want people at 16 to make mistakes and learn. 19th fine. Not at 26. And unfortunately that’s what’s happening is a lot of kids coming out of college having to move back with their parents and trying to figure out what to do with their life. But they’re like you said, 50, 60, $70,000 in debt. They have a college degree, not for something they enjoy and now they’re saying, what do I do with my life? You want to do that now I’m at your age. So that’s very cool. Okay. So you scaled up, you went to this. Um, see, awesome group of guys who I love. I love Chris, Steve and Eric. They’re, they’re just great guy. So they inspired you to, to get bigger and better. You go to asd, you meet up with maybe Jason Clark or some of these other really strong, terrific people and I’m sorry.
Jerry: [00:37:11] Yeah, the big boy salaries, you know?
Stephen: [00:37:13] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Jonathan Cleaner. Yeah. All these guys who were just really have figured out and just doing a terrific job and you say, I want to be like you. Um, and they probably give you 100 percent advice, right? And charge you absolutely nothing. Yeah. And they just want to help you. And so you come up with a plan. So tell me what your, your new revised plan. Don’t give away any secret sauce, but go ahead. Give us your plan.
Jerry: [00:37:40] All right. So, I mean, I believe in January I was like cleaner. He told me a lot about Lego and how we both love Lego’s and we got along well. He’s like, oh, try to set aside, if you’re making 10,000 a month, set aside, maybe a couple hundred to thousand dollars to invest in Lego for longterm holds. So during the beginning of January, end of December, there are clearancing out half the lego section. So a good amount of sets I bought to resell immediately and a good amount I spent and just put it in a closet and right now that’s why I’m caching and all the Lego that I had been holding onto. All right, let’s pause on that because this is genius stuff. So. And they mark it down to about half price, correct? Yeah. It’s 50 percent. Eighty percent. That’s eight cells out.
Stephen: [00:38:24] Yeah. Seventy percent. It very infrequently doesn’t even make it to 70 percent. Right. There’s very few that make it. Usually the box is damaged or something like that. But you took this approach, you said, hmm, at 50 percent I’m going to buy. I mean, and then you went through them and figured out which ones have the most potential to be longterm gains. Is that, is that kind of the math you do and you say okay. And then the other ones, you know, if you’re buying them at half price, you can make more than the fees back and then that additional cash helps you pay for. So even if at the end, if what you bought, you sell half of it off, you’re almost at a breakeven for everything you bought. Correct. Is that kind of the math? Yes. Okay. So then you got that math so then you have this closet full of stuff. I want to ask this because I’m a, I think showing and Angie Cranford, that’s their business model. Their longterm lego sellers. They just know so much. I mean they just know. I mean it just perfect everything about it. They have such good systems. How is your system for organizing storage and tracking those things? What’s that look like?
Jerry: [00:39:27] It’s not that complicated because I don’t do that mate holds, but I still have a storage room in my house where I keep all my returns are long tail items or like stuff the restock when I sell it on Amazon and in the corner. Once you get through the maze of boxes I have, you’ll find the hidden gold stash of Lego.
Stephen: [00:39:48] Okay. So they’re there, they’re protected in a boxed up or something like that to protect them from getting crushed, that kind of thing?
Jerry: [00:39:55] Yeah, I stack them properly and they’re on shelves so they’re not going to fall down.
Stephen: [00:40:00] Now you don’t put them up for sale even at a high price and just leave it, lay there.
Jerry: [00:40:05] I’ll sometimes do that. But if I was to, many sellers are priced at, let’s say lego set clearance was $6 and two may, sellers at 12. I’ll wait till it hits 15 before I pr list at 20 bucks and send it into Amazon.
Stephen: [00:40:20] Okay. And so then you’re sending it in Fba. Um, and uh, you’re not merchant fulfilling any of it? No. Okay. Alright. So you’re waiting and you’re letting because what, at least my experience has been, you know, especially with target I think is an easier example because target I think is much more consistent about their, um, their clearance than, than Walmart is. So target would start discounting wherever it is, one end of the coast or the other and then it would work its way across the country. And so in the beginning you’d go and you’d see these great prices, great ranks, and then, you know, you’d send it in and then all of a sudden the price would decline so quickly because the number of sellers would, you know, quadruple right. And it didn’t stay there very long, but if you waited eight eventually recovered and then it becomes a premium again, right? Yes. Okay. So that’s your business model. So how long do you typically have to sit on this stuff?
Jerry: [00:41:12] Oh, Lego sets. Yeah, some sets, uh, uh, hold onto maybe a month or two before price recuperates or shoots the price point where I wanted at other times, it’s six months holding on, wait Til Amazon sells out and let the second hand market making its way up. And once it gets a good price point, we’re making 50 percent. That’s what I was sending it in.
Stephen: [00:41:36] Okay. So that’s your strike price for you. And, and that’s something that you’ve done that Mickey hand, your math teachers are proud. They’re sitting here saying he gets it. Yeah, because I’m telling you, they say it. They know how many kids can’t calculate this stuff. They can’t, dude, you can go to college and not get out of class and not understand how to do that.
Stephen: [00:41:55] You, I used to hire accountants. I understand. I used to say to him, did you go to accounting school? This is deferred income. This is basic high school level. I just learned that in high school. Some of this stuff. So I mean I’m just telling you. So I think it’s a very, very cool that you figured this out again and you know those things and you have a plan for it. So, um, that’s a lot faster recovery than I am. Maybe the market’s changed, I guess, you know, I guess it has changed, you know, with, with toysrus cone out of business, you’re going to see stuff. The toy business is absolutely going to change, correct? Oh yes. Correct. So, so are you doing anything else to plan to adjust for the lack of toys r us this year?
Jerry: [00:42:37] Well, aside from, uh, doing longterm lego holds this year, I started at March, asd,
Jerry: [00:42:44] there was a seller that I previously purchased from and I was like, Oh, do you remember me? I bought $8,000 worth of stuff when you last time. I was like, yes, yes, I remember you. And like, alright, point me to the good stuff and I know you saw on Amazon too because I see you’re still on every listing on. And he’s like, ah, you got me? And he just started pointing out stuff left and right. All right, this is good. I recommend this amount for now. If you need more just let me know and I’ll exclusively sell it to you and five other guys. And from there I built that relationship with him.
Stephen: [00:43:16] So does he know how old you are? You look young, he must know how, but he must also understand the confidence in the concept. So you’re competing with the person selling to you. Um, however, however, he’s limiting the number of competitors. So for him he knows there’s going to be, you know, a thousand units sold. And if he sells 500 and he can mitigate his risk by selling off the other 500 to you. Five guys, everybody’s happy. Right? And he’s gonna make, he gets a bunch of his money back as fast as he can. He can lower his average cost, blah, blah blah. Right? Yeah. Hmm. Now that took two years to develop that relationship.
Jerry: [00:43:56] Yeah. First. And then he’d send me like a monthly email and I’d buy stuff here and there. And this year. So I started buying really heavily from an aid sending exclusive deals just to me.
Stephen: [00:44:09] And so how does that first conversation, because that’s something else I get a lot of questions about, you know, if I go to a trade show, I’m like an asd and especially that’s a huge one. So that’s really overwhelming. It really is overwhelming. How do you approach these people? You know, and when you see the signs, no scanning, you know, you can go make your Amazon pitch, but there were 48 guys ahead of you saying the exact same thing, right? How do you, how do you an 18 year old kid at that point? Go Up and have that conversation.
Jerry: [00:44:39] Well, for the ones that say no, Amazon, I’ll still scan and try to get my way in, but if I don’t succeed, there are 10,000 other wholesalers at that show. Just go to the next guy and pitch the same thing. But some guys like they’ll know there’s Amazon sellers, but they want to see you buy a good amount first before they trust you with
Stephen: [00:45:01] given that. So that’s how they filter out. Okay. All right, that’s cool. And so you obviously bought the right item last year.
Jerry: [00:45:10] Hey, a handful of good products from them
Stephen: [00:45:12] and spend eight grand and you made your money back in a profit, correct? Yes. So what, what would you say was the reason that it worked for you? Because one of the other things I hear from everybody, as you go to asd and everybody’s selling the same thing, it’s a race to the bottom, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and all the negative stuff. Um, you’re not saying that. You’re saying, hmm, this is exciting. This is it again, are we back to this mindset issue, jerry?
Jerry: [00:45:39] Yeah, definitely a mindset issue. And obviously if the bigger wholesalers you say, hi, my name is Blah Blah Blah, I have money, you want my money out, too much money. And you’re like, oh, I like money too. And that’s how you become friends with.
Stephen: [00:45:54] So that’s the, you speak their language. I mean that’s really it. Did you take a speech class in high school?
Jerry: [00:46:03] In middle school I had a speech class in high school.
Stephen: [00:46:06] Cool. Talented. Your parents, your teachers should be proud of you because you have the ability, you know, how again, how hard that is for people to go up and have that conversation. And here you are an 18 year old kid. This mindset matters has been, I think this is the, I know it’s a second time for sure. But I think there was another inference to it. Where does that come from for you? Where does this mindset, I mean, it doesn’t sound like your parents were entrepreneurs or maybe they were, um, but they were pushing new yoga school. Where does that come from?
Jerry: [00:46:35] Well, uh, I mean both my parents were entrepreneurs and my family originally came from Venezuela and my Grandpa, he was really big into real estate and buying businesses. He had car dealerships and then when my parents moved here and Chavez took control of this widow slowly all my businesses, my grandpa had, we’re shutting down, we’re taking from the government and then my parents are here making their own businesses and mom’s like, oh, be grateful you’re in the US because over there, back home, if you have something, the government’s going to take it away from you.
Stephen: [00:47:09] So there’s a gratefulness in that mindset to man telling you all the old dudes are like, Ooh, there’s a kid who gets it. So that coming from something, you saw the value of it, you saw the, you grew up in that environment. Um, I can see why your parents didn’t push you, why they gave you. They probably said he’s got it. He understands it. And if you understand gratefulness, you take that mindset and add grateful to it. There is no limit. Really. There is. There’s 15,000 more ways to make money, Steve. That’s what you told me to love it. All right, so you got to plan. You’re executing your plan. How’s it going? Because we’re in q four are pretty much. I mean we’re, we’re shipping for q four for sure. Um, how’s it going? How do you feel like you’re, you’re, you’re starting to hit your stride.
Jerry: [00:48:02] Well, ASE, August. That’s why I didn’t really large pieces of a handful of wholesalers and progress has been coming in. Other guys have been sending me lists of leads and I’ll filter out what I want to buy and when I don’t. So I just been easily spent over 100,000 on inventory just for q four.
Stephen: [00:48:23] He’s 19, he’s 19. Everybody go ahead and keep going.
Jerry: [00:48:27] Like this whole month has just been receiving shipments, trying to get out as much as possible stuff that needs to be prepped, like little plush toys or stuff that would be bubble wrapped. Pay a friend and do it because I don’t really feel like doing that and just trying to get any dead stock to have around the house listed and send out and get money back.
Stephen: [00:48:48] Yeah. And that’s such a smart pro tip right there is take that dead stock. Especially since you’ve changed your business model. Right? So your business model is pretty sound. Do you have a plan? You’re waiting for that stuff to go in. Some people would say, oh no, I’ve got to go out and scan jerry. I got to run out and scan, scan, scan. But you don’t have to scan to stuff in your garage. You’ve got to get it sent into space to sell. Right? I mean that’s really the smartest, the easiest return. Even if you only got part of it back, it doesn’t matter. You didn’t have to spend a dime more than you’ve already spent. It’s sunk that cost, right?
Jerry: [00:49:17] Yeah, like some. My storage closets had over like 100. So video games are back. Last Thursday I got those lists and I already had half sold out by the time we were talking today.
Stephen: [00:49:30] So here’s a 19 year old kid giving you advice. Everybody listen to him, he’s saying, Hey, get you dead stock. Send it in, get rid of it, move on a again, use that term sunk cost. That’s my term, um, and, and invest that money and freed up because you’re going to have these lists, so you’ve got all that money. Those who have that video game money that you got back, you have the ability to buy those toys or maybe an extra or more increased the volume. The other thing you’re doing is you’re partnering up with other sellers. Um, can you talk about that a little? You don’t have to say names or whatever, but just,
Jerry: [00:50:03] yeah, talk about it a while. The sellers I talked to a lot, he was able to make it the last asd when he’s like, Oh, if you have any leads that the wholesale was salt of both of us at once, let me know. And at the last day of asd and August, I found one wholesaler that was hidden in a way. Not many people saw that person. I established a relationship by doing an initial purchase a few weeks ago. They sent me a list of items for sale and I found one with really good potential low competition and, and retail stores you can’t even find anymore. So ask them, oh, can you send me an invoice for me and once my business partner and they’re like, yes, no problem. Just let me know how many will by. So within the next couple of days that big orders coming in and
Stephen: [00:50:53] no, why we could do that. Let’s talk about that for a second because why would you do that? Because you know, hey, business is business. It’s not personal. This is a cutthroat, right? You got to make sure it’s all about profits, Jerry. It’s make your way at everybody else’s expense. It’s climb on your competitors. It’s fierce. So why would you do that?
Jerry: [00:51:13] I mean we’ve done joint ventures in the past like traveling Ra and at least for this video game item, if I were to buy a thousand for myself, that take way too long to sell through and I dogged that cash flows is spending on one item. So I’d rather just split it amongst maybe two or three other sellers and we each get money, but we don’t have too much invested on one item.
Stephen: [00:51:41] So you’re mitigating your risk. Do your economics teacher would be very proud of your jury because that’s a concept in economics. So I think he did well, I don’t know where he went to high school, but you got an education. Um, and I’m assuming it’s your grandfather and your parents have taught you along the way. I think it’s very, very cool. Um, and you know, again, I sit back and I think about watching people evolve over time and figuring it out and mitigating your risk, taking chances, but calculated chances. Um, and it probably does start with your parents believing in you, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s really important, isn’t it?
Jerry: [00:52:19] Yes. Especially last year, that’s when you’re like, all right, you’re on your own now. Don’t be asking me for money. I was like, I don’t worry about it, mom, I’ll make my money. I’d rather go broke then to beg you for a couple hundred bucks.
Stephen: [00:52:35] And so what is, what’s the conversation with them now when you talk about business in that, I mean, do they have a smile? I mean, do they sit back and like, okay, I mean they’ve got to have a respect. I mean, there has to be a respect
Jerry: [00:52:49] sap even just, she just keeps bugging me like, oh, you have this pile of stuff in the corner there for two months and get out of the house.
Stephen: [00:52:56] Okay. Alright. Alright. So that piece I always tell the story is that getting a warehouse for marriage? I’m. No, this is good for parents to. Was the best thing I did was getting all that inventory. I guess I used to go buy a business and put it on our garage, getting empty it and then fill it up again and fill it up again. And she got sick in winter, not putting a car in the garage. So I get that. That’s a real thing. All right. So you were evolving, you were adjusting, you’re tweaking your business, you have a plan. What’s, what do you think? I mean, as you sit and you look at this, I’m clearly you’re having some success, right? You don’t know how this is going to go. Q four, right? You’re, you’re definitely taking bigger chances. Um, you’re not running as much Aria for traveling. Yeah. You used to travel extensively for Ra and stuff like that. So you’re not running as much?
Jerry: [00:53:48] Not as much. I mean, I’m playing on a trip for next month, so go up the east coast, but other than that just come back home maybe a week or two before black Friday and say Miami for a couple of weeks and probably January. Just take them on the boss.
Stephen: [00:54:05] Don’t tell me you’re going to some place. Wow. I guess Miami is warm already. That’s where people want to go. So you don’t have to go very far. That’s, that’s funny. That is. There’s, there’s some, there’s some value in that, um, where you live. Okay. All right. So that’s the plan. And then next year, what would you, what would you say if you had to put together, somebody said to you, Hey Jerry, what’s your plan for next year? We got you this year. What? What’s the, you know, you’re going to double your sales. Do you have and work your way through that. Sounded like Jason Clark here for you. Tell me what your planner.
Jerry: [00:54:36] Well, this year my plans were already an adult. My sales and at the pace I’m going, I’ll probably go maybe 20 percent over that goal, which that’s what I want, but then for next year I’ll see. All right, let’s see if I can match the same numbers I did within seven months and whenever I’m making q for it I’ll be extra. So probably let’s see. A 30 percent growth my business next year.
Stephen: [00:54:59] Now, do you see a need for a warehouse? Do you see a need for uh, other things or is your goal to find a way around all those things?
Jerry: [00:55:10] Well, I’m trying to get mostly into wholesale now. I don’t do that much chasing around the country for discontinued items or gold nuggets here and there. So probably next year I’ll have to buy a warehouse. Received shipments. They’re shipped stuff out from there.
Stephen: [00:55:28] Okay. And are you selling on a more than you sell on Amazon and you still sell on Ebay or no?
Jerry: [00:55:35] Yeah, East Bay is either returns from Amazon Lego for both eyes or just stuff. I’m just trying to liquidate to get quick money bag.
Stephen: [00:55:46] Okay. Or a restricted item or something like that. Right. So whatever you get stuck with. Okay. All right. Do you, do you see yourself selling on any other platform at this point? Have you looked at any of the other platforms
Jerry: [00:55:59] at cn? Poshmark, they all have their own value, but not to clothing.
Stephen: [00:56:04] A Walmart, I guess, or jet or any of those? Not, not, not in it for you now know. Okay. All right. All right. In school, you know, again, I sit back and I look at, uh, where people are, where they’re going, and man, sounds like you’ve got a great plan, Jerry. It sounds like you’re executing it. I think maybe that’s the better thing. You’re executing the plan so. Well, I think that’s the, that’s what’s making you an outlier. That’s what’s making. It’s why your name kept coming up to me. Like you got to see this kid and everybody kept saying sorry. They call you a kid. Don’t get offended by that. That’s. We all wish we were your age.
Jerry: [00:56:37] Use A. use your age to your advantage.
Stephen: [00:56:40] That’s absolute. We all wish we were your age, right? All these guys out here, we die to be your age right now, especially if we knew what we knew. Um, okay. So, um, one thing you’re doing in, and I’m gonna I’m going to let me make this comment about this and because you know, I have sponsors that, that, you know, for my show that have groups and stuff like that, but here’s a 19 year old kid who’s got a little group he does and he has a, um, his own little list, daily list and he has a queue for list. And so I’m not pitching it, I’m not pitching it. I don’t benefit in any way other than seeing him do well, which as you can tell, I want to say period. Okay. Um, so I’m willing to let him give his contact information and then you could dig if you have any interest, if this connects with you in any way, then you seek it out and you’re gonna have to do the work.
Stephen: [00:57:29] I want somebody to do some work so that way I can, I can still feel good about myself and I just don’t want to hurt. Uh, you know, my commitments that I’ve already made, so I don’t want to be that guy, but, but I, I still would love to see you continue to expand and what you’re doing because I’m telling you, you are getting the best education, the best education that I’ve heard of in this business because you’re figuring things out, you’re understanding margins, you understanding where your money is made, you’re understanding, hey, this isn’t working or I’m adjusting because I want to get bigger and there are limitations and I understand those limitations and I have goals and then I match my goals and I exceeded my goals and now I’m setting goals for the next time I’m setting my travel plans around my schedule and I’m moving. All those things are fabulous education, Jerry and, and I’m very excited about it. All right, so if somebody wants more information or wants to get in touch with you, what’s the best way to do that?
Jerry: [00:58:23] Easiest way for direct contact with me on facebook as Jerry sent me a message. I’ll be happy.
Stephen: [00:58:32] B, a l, e p. so, and I’ll, and I’ll put a link out here for that. Okay? All right, so now if that, if somebody wants to reach out to you and find out more about that. Okay. So the goal of this podcast is to help people get stuck. Now wise, 19 year old Jerry, we need your wisdom young man because you’ve got lots of it. What’s your best advice? Because you have people coming. I mean it’s got to feel pretty funky to you for people double your age, coming to you for advice and I know it happens because you’re having success and they got to be like, wait, how are you doing this? What? What’s your advice that you give to people who are stuck?
Jerry: [00:59:11] People who are stuck.
Speaker 5: [00:59:13] Oh,
Jerry: [00:59:14] one good piece of advice. Learn from your mistakes, make a lot more mistakes and learn from those. And then the second piece of advice, don’t be afraid to reach out, talk to people, join facebook groups. Join maybe a couple of those groups here and there to just see what everyone else is talking about and just try to gather as much information from anywhere you can.
Stephen: [00:59:38] That’s phenomenal. The green room is a great place. I mean, that’s another, that’s a great place. I’m in a member in that group. Um, and I just love those guys because they’re just real sellers, uh, who grind it out. Um, but if all designed a life, when I think about all three of those guys, they have 100 percent design their life, of course we, he is, he’s got a life like no other, you know, Steve Rake and you’ve seen the transformation in what Steve is doing. And then Eric, the picker, a college picker. You mean? He’s like, every time I see him, he’s someplace else in the world, you know, living the life he’s designed and yet they can help you advance. So there’s a group that I can pitch, um, all the other groups, and I always say this, you tell me if this is right, you got to go where you connect with people, right? Where you fit in, that person you’re going to travel with, you guys connect, right? And so that takes that relationship even further.
Jerry: [01:00:33] Yes. There’s those big facebook groups of a 20, 30,000 people. And even those at May, just find friends in those groups
Stephen: [01:00:43] and the put yourself out there and go to a meetup by I, you know, go to ast. That’s a good example. Go to asd, maybe not to even go to the show, but go to the meetups and then meet other people. Then go to the show and go collectively and like you said, even make some purchase to. I think it’s a very, very smart dude. I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m proud as a dad for you. I’m telling you, I’m sitting here thinking to myself, my God, 19 years old and you have figured out so much mindset matters. Add some gratefulness. Jerry Ballam. Dude, thank you so much. I wish you nothing but success. Alright, thank you. Hopefully it figured out the word was grateful. Gratefulness. Um, you add that to that mindset and look at what happens. Look at where somebody could go. If you’re a parent, don’t you wish your kids were this prepared for life?
Stephen: [01:01:33] Is there any doubt that Jerry’s is going to be successful? I don’t care if Amazon goes out of business. He’s got 14,000, 999 other ways to make money. You heard it. There’s a confidence in there. It’s not a cockiness. It’s a confidence because he’s got a good set of skills. He’s ready. His parents, his family, his grandfather had prepared him because he has the right mindset, but then he knows about gratefulness and that’s the answer right there. I always say love is the biggest thing, but gratefulness is it right? He gets it. You need to get it. I need to get it right. So Steve, we’re talking to you. So very, very cool. Um, great guy. Uh, can’t wait to meet him face to face. Hopefully he’s coming up my way. I’m gonna. Make sure I get some time with them. I need some jerry tongue because I want some of that ecommerce
Cool voice guy: [01:02:20] momentum.com. ECOMMERCE, momentum. Dukkha, take care. Thanks for listening to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found@incomersmomentum.com. Under face episode number, please remember to subscribe and the lake us on itunes.
