Buy Low, Sell High
This business opportunity started approximately 150,000 years ago. It’s evolved a bit since then, but the principles remain the same. These modern-day merchants find ways to buy goods at one price, and then sell them at a higher one.
Nomadic Family Cooks Up Profits with Italian Housewares
Wedding Bells Ring Brighter If the Bride’s Not Broke
The Curious Incident of the $300,000 Bouncy House Biz
High School Junior Earns $10,000 Selling Autographed Baseballs
The Live Cricket Drop-Shipping Hustle
Hand Grippers Make for a $60,000-Strong Hustle
NOMADIC FAMILY COOKS UP PROFITS WITH ITALIAN HOUSEWARES
NAME
NATHAN AND KATHRIN SPACCARELLI
LOCATION
PORTLAND, OREGON (AND ITALY!)
STARTUP COSTS
$3,500
INCOME
MULTIPLE SIX FIGURES
WEBSITE
After finding the frying pan of their dreams on a yearlong trip abroad, this family starts an importing business that allows them to keep seeing the world.
Nathan and Kathrin Spaccarelli decided they wanted a different life for themselves and their children. After selling most of what they owned and taking a yearlong sabbatical from work, they’d returned from traveling with a completely different purpose.
While they were proud of the coffee business they operated and everything else they’d built back in Oregon, nothing compared to the rich experiences of exploring the world as a family. They wanted to be able to bring together their love of entrepreneurship and travel into an income-earning project that worked for the whole family. Or, in this case, something that put the whole family to work.
Nathan and Kathrin promised their two young sons that much of the profit from this new venture, and their work within it, would go into the family travel fund and give them more opportunities to explore the world.
Since they were determined to create something that would allow them to be location independent, they focused on reselling—but not in a way that required them to spend hours standing in line at the post office. Through a podcast, Nathan had discovered the Fulfillment by Amazon program, where Amazon stores goods for you and ships them out whenever orders come in.*1 It sounded like the perfect fit.
They were just missing one thing: a product!
Like the savvy side hustlers that they are, they decided to capitalize on the skills and knowledge they already had. Over the twenty years they had been running their coffee distribution company, Kathrin and Nathan had learned a lot about water filtration systems. It occurred to them that they should do something useful with this knowledge.
It didn’t make much sense for them to sell coffee filters, since companies like theirs were more likely to make their bulk filter purchases straight from the source. So, instead, they started to look into filters that anyone could purchase on their own.
One or two sales a day led to dozens of sales a day as they got better at managing their listings and bidding for “clicks” in search results. These filters served as an easy way for them to try their hand at something new, but they weren’t the long-term solution. After the success of their first few months, they discovered a product that inspired them to shift focus from water filters to a different item that would allow them to build their own brand.
On their round-the-world trip, they’d picked up a healthy, nonstick ceramic pan at a market in Italy and brought it back with them to America. Nathan loves to cook, and even with months of use, the pan held up well.
The US market was saturated with Teflon pans that contain a chemical that raises health and environmental concerns. The ceramic-coated, nonstick Italian pan they’d acquired was not only a much healthier alternative to Teflon and other nonstick cookware, it could also easily transition from stovetop to oven. Finally, ceramics bake at half the temperatures required for conventional materials, so they use less energy.
They tracked down the manufacturer and customized the pans to accommodate a few design elements Nathan requested, including features like a longer, heat-resistant silicone handle and a high-heat aluminum base. Since this was their first order, they went with the minimum amount that they could, but it still ended up being fifteen hundred units. The initial investment caused them some hesitation at first, but despite the risk, Nathan and Kathrin were confident in the product.
They launched their cooking line under the name DaTerra Cucina—literally translated as “from the ground kitchen” due to the all-natural, volcanic minerals used to create the nonstick coating on their pans. The new product line was a hit, with early customers writing rave reviews, and the pans flying to the top of Amazon’s kitchen and housewares search results.
During the first year, they had to carefully consider when to place their wholesale orders. There were times when it felt like they were drowning in stock and were going to be stuck with these nonstick items forever, and times when they’d have so few items their customers would be waiting longer than they’d prefer. Finding a balance proved tricky, and it’s still an art that they’re trying to perfect.
Still, they’d managed to make over $200,000 in sales by the end of their first year in business. Much of that money was reinvested into the business, but they were still able to add $40,000 into their family travel fund.
After the first quarter of year two, they’d already cleared $85,000 in sales, putting them on track for an even more profitable year than their last. This has allowed them to invest in more stock and grow their business by adding three more pan sizes.
With so many water filters and nonstick pans in the market, you may wonder how the Spaccarellis were able to create such a profitable project. Nathan says that the only secret is being fanatical about what you sell: “It’s easy to throw a few products up on Amazon and make a little money, but to be truly successful and stand out, you need to present a quality experience.”
That high standard is what Nathan and Kathrin strive to reach with all of their products. The rave reviews on all of their products show that their customers feel the same way.*2
Whether this new business will ever come to replace their coffee distribution company remains to be seen. Either way, they’ll be heading out again to see the world. Going forward, the Spaccarelli family plans to create their own e-commerce website as well as expand their income streams beyond Amazon and diversify their business…all while traveling together as a family.
“At first we were only selling one or two a day, but a month later, we were getting sales notifications all the time. We finally had to turn them off because there were so many emails.” —Kathrin
FUN FACT Think selling cookware is just a flash in the pan? Well, it’s actually a $15 billion business and growing every year. It doesn’t look like it’ll be sizzling out any time soon.
CRITICAL FACTOR
Nathan and Kathrin experimented with water filters, but then switched to cookware as they learned more about selling on Amazon. They were fanatical about customer service, and over time their many positive reviews became a source of new customers.
WEDDING BELLS RING BRIGHTER IF THE BRIDE’S NOT BROKE
NAME
LOCATION
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
STARTUP COSTS
$20,000
INCOME
$80,000/YEAR
WEBSITE
A New York professional eases some of the painful prices for wedding goods by renting high-end accessories for brides.
Many childhood pursuits are lost to the past, but some take hold, transformed into an adult version of bygone ventures. Brittany Finkle couldn’t foresee that planning the weddings of her three older sisters, starting when she was just twelve years old, could lead to owning an online boutique renting luxury bridal accessories—but that’s exactly what ended up happening.
Her path continued to unfold in college, where she got a degree in fiber science while also designing wedding gowns as a part-time job. The pressure of a last-minute request to design one sister’s gown sent them both out to shop for a reasonably priced one, and that’s where she was inspired.
But first, she was offended.
Wedding dress prices were expensive enough, but Brittany expected that. What she was shocked at was the prices for the accessories, like veils and headpieces. With the dresses blowing out a bride’s budget, accessory costs could send them into sticker-shock stupor. And they don’t need to own all those accessories. After all, they’re only used once.
Enter the idea: Why not supply brides with high-quality accessories that they could inexpensively rent and return? The idea led Brittany to her side hustle, Happily Ever Borrowed. She knew fabrics and quality, and she knew business dealings from her full-time job as a buyer for luxury brands. She used that savvy to work directly with bridal accessory designers, selecting from the new designs for the season from the twice-yearly Bridal Fashion Week in New York.
She had to say “I do” to some startup costs, including about $20,000 on inventory, legal and marketing fees, and a website. But the investment paid off: the company has been doubling its sales year after year. She’s now rented to over five hundred brides, and is well on track to earning six figures a year.
The Happily Ever Borrowed website lets brides-to-be check accessories by product, designer, or style, and the range of goods runs from veils to headpieces to jewelry. Oh, and don’t forget tiaras, for that royal look every bride needs.
Prices are generally 20 percent of the retail price to purchase the item, and any minor spills and damages are covered. Rentals include a prepaid label to ship the package back after the magic is complete.
The company even has a “send before you spend” option for brides who want to try on up to three different pieces, at a flat price of $50 for a two-day rental, which includes a $25 off coupon on any selected wedding rentals, just for trying the service. Apparently, even accessories need rehearsals!
A few of those five hundred brides have had unusual requests, such as wanting to rent pieces for as long as a month—but that’s discouraged, since prices would then start to approach retail.
The business isn’t all champagne and toasts, however. Having to rely on the postal service can be harrowing, because the occasional lost package can heavily impact the bride’s peace of mind. Brittany has worked hard to master precise lead times for all shipments.
Wedding ceremonies last only a moment in time, but they can create memories for a lifetime. Happily Ever Borrowed specializes in making those memories happen—sometimes with a crystal-tiara flourish.
“I think many people who are planning their wedding are shocked at the high costs of everything for a celebration that only lasts a moment in time. We’re here to help with that!” —Brittany
FUN FACT When Brittany got married, she borrowed all of her accessories from her own business. She was then able to experience the business from the perspective of a customer, putting it to the ultimate test.
CRITICAL FACTOR
Sure, a bride might keep her wedding dress forever—but does she really need to own the tiara, the veil, and whatever other accessories she wants to wear? Brittany created a rental market for expensive items that could easily be “recycled” by many brides.
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE $300,000 BOUNCY HOUSE BIZ
NAME
LOCATION
CEDAR PARK, TEXAS
STARTUP COSTS
$1,000
INCOME
MULTIPLE SIX FIGURES/YEAR
WEBSITE
A Texas man puts a bounce in his step by finding a uniquely profitable niche. This imaginative project earned multiple six figures in its first year.
Imagine someone comes to you with this pitch: “Hey, I’ve got a great business idea. It’s an underserved market, a product that people enjoy, and a high profit margin. We could make a lot of money here.”
You think, Awesome, is this an app? I’ve heard that apps do well.
And your friend says, “No, here’s the secret—and don’t tell anyone, because I don’t want someone to steal my idea. Here’s how we’re going to get rich: bouncy castles. Also known as bounce houses.”
Seems unlikely, right?
Well, one guy in Cedar Park, Texas, decided to follow his bouncy passion to the bank in the world of playhouse rentals. How in the world did he do it? Just like this.
During the day, Rene Delgado works in operations and supply chain management for a large consumer electronics company. In the evenings, he sells bounce houses to residential and commercial customers. Again, you read that right. Bounce houses.
Rene didn’t decide to sell bounce houses because he has a lifelong obsession with them. He decided to sell bounce houses after some careful analysis. That research began when he set out to consider his side hustle options. He had a long list of ideas: using Fulfillment by Amazon, becoming a day trader, and flipping houses were all on the list.
But it was another idea that stood out most of all: drop-shipping high-ticket items. With drop shipping, he wouldn’t have to carry any inventory (the manufacturers or distributors would handle storage and shipping), and it didn’t really matter what he sold. If he found a way to profit on the difference in price (from what he paid for something to what he sold it for elsewhere), he’d be set.
He liked the low barrier to entry to this business. He also liked the fact that success wasn’t dependent on factors outside his control, as was the case with some of the other options he’d considered.
Still, it didn’t matter what he sold as long as he could profit from it—but what would that be?
Rene made a list of over one hundred possible options. It included everything from toy tractors to birdseed. He then narrowed the list, based on several important criteria: the average price per item was over $400, there were more than five manufacturers or suppliers, the product was hard to find in a retail store, and the level of competition for the item was low. Based on these criteria, he ended up with those bounce houses.
He built a website and spent a few hundred dollars creating an LLC. Once he had the legal framework in place, as well as his spiffy new domain (BounceHouseStore.com), he began calling around to establish relationships with as many bounce house manufacturers as he could. When he was approved to sell their products, he uploaded the images and descriptions to his site, and then moved on to the next manufacturer.
Rene launched in December and saw few sales until the following April. Was he wrong to choose this market? Not really—he was just early. It turns out that the bounce house business is a seasonal one. Once April arrived, sales picked up, and then hit a peak in June. How much money are we talking about? A lot of money.
Before the year ended, Rene had taken in more than $300,000 in sales. That’s right, $300,000!
His tremendous success inspired him to delve further into the world of drop shipping. As bounce house demand declined when the winter approached again, he decided to start another business. This one was also seasonal: an indoor golf outlet. The indoor golf season is the opposite of the outdoor bounce house season, so the two projects work well together.
Remember, Rene wasn’t particularly passionate about either of these markets. The choice came down to reasoned analysis. He works in supply chain management by day, so he was good at operations. He didn’t care what kind of product he’d sell, he just wanted to be successful selling it.
In short, he followed his bounce to the bank.
“There are many moving pieces when it comes to starting and running a drop-ship business. Selecting a niche is absolutely crucial and can make or break your success. Do your research before starting!” —Rene
FUN FACT Rene’s first sale came while traveling for work. He had just installed the Shopify app on his phone so he could monitor his stats. In the middle of a meeting, a loud “cha-ching” sound suddenly chimed from his pocket. He casually pulled out his phone to take a look…and saw that he had earned a commission of several hundred dollars.
CRITICAL FACTOR
After making a list of one hundred possible items for his first drop-ship effort, he ended up with something that met all the right criteria: a high price point with low competition.
HIGH SCHOOL JUNIOR EARNS $10,000 SELLING AUTOGRAPHED BASEBALLS
NAME
LOCATION
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
STARTUP COSTS
MINIMAL
INCOME
$10,000 IN THE FIRST NINETY DAYS
WEBSITE
A Maryland high school student parlays his love of baseball into a lucrative sports memorabilia business.
In an era of endlessly available entertainment, the fan base of major-league baseball has diminished. Still, there’s a sizable coast-to-coast contingent of enthusiasts who stake out their favorite teams, players, and spots in the stadiums where they long to catch a foul ball.
Most of those fans go home without nabbing a ball, but Tim Haren gives them a chance to get on base: he’s happy to sell them a brand-new major-league ball, one signed by their favorite player.
When we first met Tim, he’d only recently finished his junior year of high school, but he already had some serious business savvy. He’d realized that he could cheaply collect autographs and goods from star prospects in the minor leagues, and then sell them at a premium when that player made it in the majors.
A lifelong baseball fan and current college student at the University of Maryland, Tim had been gathering autographs for more than a decade, usually keeping the balls and other items he obtained for his personal collection. But a couple of years ago, he transformed what was an expensive hobby into a self-sustaining side business. He started going to nearby Camden Yards (the practice park of the Baltimore Orioles) as often as possible to build up his collection.
Baltimoregraphs, his memorabilia side hustle, came from this new hobby. He buys major-league-issue balls in bulk for around $12 each, gets them signed at games, and then sells them and other baseball items on eBay. He also sells on a Facebook site called Autographs 101, as well as directly through Instagram. In addition to getting balls signed himself, he buys the signed balls of top prospects on the cheap from other, less savvy collectors, and later rakes in the cash when the players make good in the majors.
Tim regards what he does as akin to a player’s stock market. In essence, he’s betting on a player’s potential, and many of those players’ “share prices” have gone over the fences.
In his first few months of business, he made $20,000 in sales. After subtracting his costs for goods and shipping, he was left with $10,000 in profit. A grand-slam home run!
Tim was pleasantly surprised that people would buy his wares, and even more pleased that he could go to games with his dad, get to watch players he’d staked a claim on perform, and expand his collection. And let’s not forget: he was also making real money.
Tim advises deep research for anyone interested in playing in the memorabilia big leagues. Get to know the players while they are in the minors, and make sure they play for a big-market team, like the Yankees or the Red Sox. He suggests you buy only in small numbers at first. Then, lower your risk by investing in a variety of players, rather than putting a lot of money behind any one prospect.
He’s now working on the next phase of his venture: signing a player to an exclusive memorabilia deal. Even for a prospect, that can cost between $5,000 to $50,000, and has to be done through the player’s agent once a big-league team drafts him. With an exclusive deal, players only do autograph signings with the contract holder. They do several signings a year, with up to two thousand signed items each session.
This plan involves more risk, since most prospects never make it to the majors—but it seems that Tim knows what he’s doing. Don’t bat against him.
“I started off keeping everything I got, but it was an expensive hobby. I realized that these players I was watching as prospects were turning into the games’ next stars. Then I switched to buying the young-star prospects for cheap and selling them when they came to the majors.” —Tim
FUN FACT Every ball for use in major-league baseball is rubbed in a unique, “very fine” mud found only in a secret location near Palmyra, New Jersey.
CRITICAL FACTOR
Tim’s knowledge of baseball allows him to place bets on players who are rising through the minor leagues in hopes of playing in big stadiums. He also sought out other forums where he could buy signed items for less than their market value.
THE LIVE CRICKET DROP-SHIPPING HUSTLE
NAME
LOCATION
LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA
STARTUP COSTS
$100
INCOME
$700/MONTH
WEBSITE
A Pennsylvania man sells live crickets to reptile owners, all without ever handling any inventory.
Jeff Neal works as a project manager for an industrial painting contractor. He sets up estimates for manufacturing facilities, and if the company makes the sale, he sees the project through to completion to make sure all goes well.
He’s also a serial hustler. When we were first looking for stories for the podcast, he sent in several. Among other things, Jeff searches for side gigs on Craigslist, and in his first attempt made more than $500. He also has a coupon site, which is interesting and could make for a story of its own. But what interested us the most was a side note he made in the survey form: “By the way, I also sell live crickets to reptile owners. I’ve been doing this for more than six months and it’s going really well.”
Needless to say, that caught our attention.
It’s probably safe to say that selling live crickets isn’t something that most people would ever want to do. But wait! Before we continue, here’s a key point: Jeff does not receive or handle any inventory. He doesn’t have an ice chest full of crickets or a drawer in his refrigerator that he pulls from whenever he receives an order. In fact, he never sees the crickets at all—he’s simply a reseller for a cricket farm. He takes orders and makes a profit on the markup, but an actual cricket farm does all the shipping.
How did this unusual endeavor come to be?
Jeff knew from his extensive hustling experience, as well as some previous work he’d done for an e-commerce website, to look for a niche that has low competition. Crickets easily fulfill that criteria…there just aren’t tons of people out there reselling live insects, at least until this book is published and there’s a mad rush to compete.
The greater problem was finding the right drop shipper—where a company, usually the original source but sometimes another distributor, will handle the actual shipments. Jeff learned that there were several cricket farms in the United States that offered drop shipping. But because they use FedEx and other private carriers, their shipping rates were so high that it made it very difficult to maintain a decent profit margin.
So after some digging, somewhere around page 10 of Google results, he found a small, family-owned business that looked a bit off the beaten path. He gave them a call, and they offered to handle fulfillment at a great price. They also shipped with the post office, which considerably lowered shipping costs.
Doing a trial run with this business was the one and only time he actually took possession of any crickets. It was good that he did, because he learned something important. He had them send a demo shipment, and it looked fine. He wondered if it was missing some instructions that he’d thought would be included, and that’s when he learned an important lesson: the crickets would eat any paper that was in the box.
Fair enough. He decided to send the instructions in a confirmation email, after his customers placed their orders.
One recent month, he had over $1,200 in revenue on 28 percent profit margins. Unfortunately, the next month saw a big dip in sales, which ended up at $760. He thinks the reason was because many of the reptiles these crickets are fed to are going through reptile hibernation around that time of year.
Fortunately, his website began chirping with orders once the next month rolled around.
“Between some customer service and emailing my drop shipper, I put in about one to two hours per week and am still able to bring in at least $700 a month—and that’s a slow month!” —Jeff
FUN FACT Jeff learned about drop shipping while working at an e-commerce site that also sold a living product. He used that experience as a benchmark when building his own creative project.
CRITICAL FACTOR
There’s not a lot of competition in the live cricket business…or at least there hasn’t been until now.
HAND GRIPPERS MAKE FOR A $60,000-STRONG HUSTLE
NAME
LOCATION
DAYTON, MINNESOTA
STARTUP COSTS
$5,000
INCOME
$65,000/YEAR
WEBSITE
These married fitness enthusiasts are pressing in on the grip-strength market, earning extra cash and peace of mind for their growing family.
Husband and wife duo Matt and Kristy Cannon are literally crushing it with their niche side hustle. The project consists entirely of selling grip-strength equipment, mostly in the form of hand grippers. These simple tools are used to increase hand strength and usually involve a torsion spring fitted with two handles.
Their muscular business, Cannon Powerworks, originally came about six years ago as a natural extension from the couple’s shared passion for fitness.
Stay-at-home mom Kristy is a competitive power lifter. She’s been training with heavy weights for over twenty years, and has competed in USA powerlifting meets. She can squat about 245 pounds, bench 150 pounds, and deadlift 300 pounds…and she’s only getting stronger.
Her husband, Matt, a mortgage underwriter by day, is a competitive grip sport athlete. Yes, it’s a real sport! Though grip sport isn’t yet widely known, its popularity is growing. Between 2010 and 2013, Matt competed regularly and held numerous world records in the 145-pound and 163-pound weight classes. He was the first athlete in a competition to close a hand gripper rated above his body weight—meaning that with one hand he crushed a gripper requiring more pounds of pressure than his entire weight.
He got his start in the sport in 2005, when he and Kristy attended a bodybuilding seminar. At the pool one night, a fellow attendee brought out his set of grip strengtheners. Matt gave them a try and was instantly hooked.
As a community began to organize around hand strength, the couple got more and more involved, and eventually spotted an opportunity. When they started, there was just one other company that sold different grip manufacturers’ products under one roof, giving customers the chance to order a range with one low shipping fee. That company ended up closing its wholesale store, and Matt and Kristy figured they could fill this gap—and find a way to improve upon the concept.
Their improvement was that they would rate each hand gripper to determine its exact strength. Normally, each hand-gripper manufacturer has its own way of categorizing grippers into strengths. Cannon Powerworks offers a service where they test the grippers for what they call “pounds of pressure to close” so that the grippers can be compared in a reliable way. Customers could either send in their personal grippers to be rated and sent back, or they could buy new, rated grippers online.
When Matt and Kristy’s website went live, the sales started rolling in right away. The couple was so stunned at how well things were going that they didn’t even stop to celebrate—they just worked harder to fulfill the orders.
The first year, they made a consistent $3,000 per month in profit. By the second year, this had shot up to $5,000 a month. They’ve maintained that level ever since, and the couple now brings in about $60,000 each year selling their grippers.
Their online store offers sets of two, three, or six grippers—all from different trusted grip brands—that cost from $34 to $64. Their customers usually include rock climbers, powerlifters, CrossFit athletes, and strongman competitors. Most are repeat customers, and new customers usually arrive through word of mouth.
Startup costs were low, and anything they could do themselves, they did. They went with the least-expensive website template they could find, did no paid marketing, and bought as little inventory as possible, totaling about $5,000. To photograph products for the online store, Matt watched YouTube videos and learned to make a small light studio out of household supplies such as cardboard boxes, lamps, and paper.
In that first year, they reinvested much of their profits to buy inventory. From that initial outlay of $5,000, they now have more than $25,000 worth of goods on site and ready to ship at any given time.
Selling grippers has helped the Cannons pay off their mortgage and save for the future. They say the business has been a perfect way to feed their own interests while providing flexibility as they raise their three kids. And as it has plateaued in profits, they’re now looking to flex their product line and marketing muscles.
Whatever comes next, Matt and Kristy have already proved their status as a power couple.
“Don’t put yourself in a position where you’ll be losing money before you figure out what you’re doing. Frugality is how we had money to buy inventory to begin with.” —Matt
FUN FACT While relatively unknown, competitive grip sports are a growing market. The average healthy man can close a gripper rated at about 90 pounds of pressure, and it’s uncommon for someone to close one rated over 120 pounds without specific training. Matt, on the other hand, has closed one rated at 164 pounds.
CRITICAL FACTOR
There was only one other company selling grippers from a variety of manufacturers, and that company soon closed down their website. Matt and Kristy’s new site then offered a significant improvement by “rating” each gripper so that customers could more equally compare them.
FLIPPING 101: THE COLLEGE TEXTBOOK EDITION
A college student with a family to support reads between the lines and turns a $20 startup into almost $70,000 within two years. This story will flip your lid!
Let’s face it—college is downright expensive. And it’s not just tuition that produces sticker shock: one of the biggest expenses is textbooks, which typically cost much more than any other books. It can be a real problem for cash-starved students.
The good news is, wherever there’s a problem, there’s a side hustle just waiting in the wings.
This brings us to Marcus Kusi, who found himself between a rock and a hard place. He was a full-time student at Castleton University in Vermont, heading toward a promising degree in computer information systems, but money was tight. Marcus had recently immigrated to the United States from Ghana in West Africa. When he wasn’t cramming for exams, he was working part-time making furniture and providing IT assistance at the university. As if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, he was also a new father.
His wife, Ashley, stayed home with their daughter so that they didn’t have to pay for child care, and Marcus was the primary breadwinner, despite also being a full-time student. There had to be a better way—and that’s when he stumbled upon the wonderful world of reselling. He had read my book The $100 Startup and was motivated by stories of everyday people who used small amounts of money to start their own business.
Since he didn’t have much money to spare, he took $5 every month for four months and set it aside for his startup costs. Then, with bills piling up, he put on his thinking cap. Unlike some of the people he’d read about in the case studies from my book, Marcus needed money right away.
Not only was reselling low risk, it was something he could start immediately. The kind of reselling he was interested in was a simple “flip” business, where you buy something at one price and resell it for another—preferably a higher one. Now all he needed was something to flip.
College book prices are a common pain point with university students, and Marcus believed that if you were going to resell something, it helped to find an item that a lot of people were looking for on a regular basis.
If artificial inflation continued to drive the price of textbooks sky high, cheap textbooks were never going to stop being in high demand. And who knows more about textbooks than a college student? It seemed like his best bet, and Marcus was eager to close the chapter on his financial woes.
He began his hunt where many resourceful college students find themselves when it comes time to buy books for class—eBay. With his $20 in startup capital, he purchased two books, relisted them for sale, and sold them right away for around $70. It seemed to be working, but was it sustainable?
Instead of pocketing that initial profit, he reinvested it in more books and created an Amazon seller account. In his experience, eBay was fine for occasional transactions, but your rate of return is mostly driven by the consumer. On Amazon, you can set your own price and have full control of profit margins. And since Marcus needed to get paid on a regular basis, he needed to expand.
Within his first year, Marcus pulled in $20,000. In year two, those profits climbed above $48,000—almost $70,000 in total! Over the course of those two years, he flipped more than five thousand college textbooks. And it all started with $20 saved in $5 increments across four months.
How did Marcus manage to score books so cheaply, and how did he know which books would sell?
First, he realized that many students didn’t actually know the value of their books. They’d buy their books from the bookstore only to find that either the bookstore wasn’t planning on selling them next term or that the bookstore would only buy them back for a small fraction of their selling price.
What’s a broke student to do with this excess of seemingly worthless books? Sell them on eBay! And that’s where Marcus came in. He found that students are often desperate and motivated to get rid of their books, the sooner the better.
With that in mind, Marcus learned to reach out to sellers directly whenever he noticed a book he wanted to buy. He’d make a cash offer for immediate transfer. The impatience of youth often worked in his favor, and he’d use this technique early in the bidding when the bids were low, which made his offer look more desirable in comparison.
As for knowing which books would sell, it’s not magic—it just involves keeping an eye on Amazon’s sales ranking system.
When Marcus found something promising on eBay, he’d head straight to Amazon to see where that title landed on their ranking system. This was an easy way for him to determine whether it was in high demand and, therefore, if it was a worthwhile investment. With enough monitoring, he learned that if a book had a sales rank of 75,000 or lower, it was being purchased consistently. Those were the titles he’d then try to snap up and resell.
The side hustle proved to be a much needed lifeline for him and his family. It provided them with a way to pay their bills and save up an emergency fund. When the washer or heater broke, it didn’t end up being the end of the world.
All things come to an end, even books, and the textbook flipping side hustle was no different. When Marcus graduated and started working as an IT business analyst, he stopped reselling textbooks and started thinking about a new project.
This chapter may have concluded, but the next is just beginning.
“If you’re going to be successful at reselling, you need to (a) make sure that what you’re planning on selling is in high demand and (b) know the product like the back of your hand.” —Marcus
FUN FACT As the textbook reselling project was nearing an end, Marcus was able to use some of the profits to start his next project: a blog, podcast, and set of resources about marriage for newlyweds. He runs this new side hustle together with his wife.
ACTION PLAN
1. A reselling project is all about buying something at one price, then selling it at a higher price.
2. Identify items that you might be able to resell. In this story, textbooks were perfect: it was a renewing market with lots of buyers and sellers, and Marcus was a student—therefore all too familiar with their high prices.
3. Begin experimenting by buying a few items at a time, listing them for resale, and paying attention to what works and what doesn’t. (For best results, do more of what works.)
4. Increase your average selling price by providing impeccable service. This will generate positive reviews, which in turn creates trust from buyers.
CRITICAL FACTOR
College textbooks are a recurring market. Every semester, there are lots of buyers and sellers. By keeping a close eye on online auctions, Marcus was able to profit on the difference in price as he moved books from one student to another.
SIDE HUSTLE LABS
Where to Find Items to Resell
Reselling is probably the easiest side hustle to start. Even if you’ve never done it before, you can be up and running within a week.
Your basic goal as a reseller is simple: buy low, sell high. Or at least, sell at a price higher than you pay, and one that compensates you for your time and any other costs. So where do you find items to resell?
First, start with what you already own. Do you have comic books in the attic or old clothes in the back of the closet? Take an inventory, and then get paid for getting them out of your house.
Second, start thrifting. Go around to yard sales, garage sales, or flea markets. Bring your phone so you can discreetly look up average sales prices for anything you find. When you find a potential discrepancy (something you can buy for less than you think you can sell it for), snap it up.
Those actions will get you comfortable with the basics of selling online. To take it up a level like some of the people in this book have done, you’ll need a more consistent source of products. It usually helps to specialize in something, and it’s best if you specialize in something that isn’t cheap—camera gear or luxury clothing, for example.
You may also want to look at a source like Alibaba. For more on that, see the Side Hustle Labs feature on this page, or check out the notes at the site below.
For more, visit SideHustleSchool.com/resell.