hey what's up in this interview I talked
to Shane Myers he has the youtube
channel called the rise & grind picker
so be sure to check it out will place a
link in the description and in the cards
so you could see Shane specializes in
reselling on eBay and on Amazon so in
this interview Shane tells us about one
of his biggest scores and it was through
an auction of a storage unit so that's
pretty cool we get to that pretty quick
we talk about how you can get started
with reselling and it's a very you know
straightforward business model really
attractive if you have almost nothing to
start with
in fact Shane tells us how he got
started with his like first flip so
that's pretty cool and I think it's
really inspiring so definitely want to
check that part out Shane tells us about
how he started flipping and his first
couple products that he flipped and he
just kept snowballing into something
bigger and bigger we also talked about
Shane's youtube journey so he's been
youtubing for a little over a year at
the time that we're recording the
interview and it's pretty cool just to
see someone grow and you should
definitely check out his channel so like
I said we'll put a link out there and
let's just get to the interview now
what's up Doug Huntington here and I'm
sitting with Shane Myers how you doing
today Shane hey good luck thanks for
having me on all right and most of the
people on my channel or in viewers don't
know who you are so can you give a
little bit of an intro about yourself
and your YouTube channel absolutely so
my name is Shane and I go by the rise &
grind picker on YouTube and I have a
youtube channel that revolves around a
little bit of marketing reselling
selling on eBay and Amazon and how to
want to jump into something exciting so
do you have any like epic flips that
you've done any that just got a lead
with like what's the biggest thing
you've done absolutely so one of the
biggest things I've done is I've been
reselling since about 2005 ish and
around 2007 I actually hit a storage
unit that I paid $1200 for and profited
about $6,000 off of one storage unit it
had like a really old barn inside it in
a really old
as soon as I moved everything it had
like brand-new power tools stacked up
and all sorts of stuff it was like a
contractor's unit that had like actually
the business had failed and I was able
to scoop it up so Wow and I haven't I
don't know much about the business model
to be honest with you so for a storage
unit it's just auctioned off or how does
that situation work yeah so most of the
time so now they actually have a website
that you can actually go online and you
can actually buy a storage unit and it's
called storage treasures calm but back
then that you didn't really have that
and so you would basically you would go
to an auction and you they would just
auction it off and in that scenario
sometimes they go really really high wow
that's pretty cool so paid 1200 grossed
like six thousand so yeah pretty at six
seven yeah something like that
and I guess like is that how scary is
that to like bid on something and it
could be full of like old you know
newspapers or whatever right it's pretty
scary I mean it's a huge risk and I
don't do a lot of storage auctions
anymore just because there's a lot of
risk involved especially after all the
TV shows some of the actually storage
unit places aren't too on the up-and-up
so you kind of gotta really watch out
for like them loading the units and
stuff like that got it alright so we
could backtrack a little bit and luckily
it like I said I don't know much about
the business model and for the other
people that don't know much can you just
sort of like lay out the retail
arbitrage model and some of the selling
and reselling that you do absolutely so
retail arbitrage what you do is you walk
into a retail store and it's simple you
just buy low and sell high so when you
walk into a retail store you want to
find items that are usually on clearance
or potentially being discontinued and
that discontinued items are a very
sought after item because they're not
gonna be in stock anymore so people want
to buy where do you resell typically so
I live in Illinois and so I basically
source in Illinois I also travel
out-of-state mile travel Chicago stuff
like that but I also sell on Amazon eBay
I do not do any local sales just really
Amazon eBay is about the only two I do
okay and I guess are there certain
products
where it'd be better on Amazon versus
eBay how do you make that determination
absolutely so a lot of your products on
Amazon I saw a lot of books on Amazon
and a lot of your products on the Amazon
especially from retail stores sometimes
you'll get those products like let's say
beauty supply stuff like that it's on
clearance you sometimes even pick it up
for a couple bucks it may sell on Amazon
for like five but you also may be
restricted in it because in the health
and beauty section Amazon restricts tons
of people and on eBay it could be
getting like ten bucks and eBay doesn't
restrict anybody so it's a you know and
sometimes it does bad on both you just
got to kind of like make that
determination okay and how did you get
started with this in the beginning you
said like 2005 right so you've been
doing this a while yeah so really back
then it really it was really truly a
side hustle all I did was I just did it
for a little bit of spare change you
know spare money whatever and I wasn't
really serious about it I still have a
nine-to-five
I go to but I actually have a license
business in the state of Illinois and
it's kind of grown into that and one day
I had $20 in my savings account and I'm
like I need to figure something out I
need to figure something out quick and
my wife is like what do you mean I'm
like well I used to resell a lot on eBay
and stuff and this was before I even
knew YouTube existed and reselling I
didn't even know that and I took the $20
I went to a thrift store and I bought
some small purchases and I just kept
flipping them over and over and
eventually you can build the business
out of truly nothing because there's no
overhead Wow do you remember like what
those first few items were yeah I think
really I I one of the items I picked up
was an electronic dog collar still in
the package at a thrift store I bought
it for a dollar ninety-nine and sold it
for $98 Wow and I was gonna say I we
have a dog and we used an electronic dog
collar and I know they they're pricey
even in 98 bucks like that's a pretty
good deal so yeah as they're expensive
and you got it for a buck yeah a dollar
a dollar ninety-nine yeah and it was a
pet safe so it was just a collar and the
little transmitter box and was you know
98 dollars and some change amazing
that's pretty cool so you just you
started with 20 bucks you flipped a
couple times and you were like hey this
works so
and you said you have you still do a
full-time job so this is still a side
hustle for you yeah it's still really a
side hustle the only difference is I
actually put full-time hours into it now
because I have to because it's actually
a legit business I have a lot to ship
out I'm doing any probably per week to
Amazon for books probably about 50 to 80
pounds of books a week and the FBA okay
and that's how you measure it these days
by the pound oh yeah yeah exactly let's
say you need more you know goods right
so how do you go out where do you source
this stuff so thrift stores you
mentioned what are you some other
sources out there so since I have a
business license in the state of
Illinois and every sellers license I can
actually buy wholesale so just like you
know big-box stores I won't get the
discount that yet but I can buy
wholesale I do thrift stores estate
sales garage sales
really auctions are a really a really
good source to do that with really
anywhere that you can think of that you
can really buy something for a lower
cost to be able to flip it a lot of luck
that I've had on finding stuff has been
on like let go offer up and Craigslist
cool and then basically someone just
once like something hauled away I'm most
familiar with Craigslist so someone's
like just pick it up and you could
basically show up with a truck or your
car and as long as you take it they're
happy right yeah and in Craigslist you
can buy stuff off there too but I like
to look at the free category cuz I had a
lady that actually had posted a ton of
books for free I'm not gonna lie it was
like two or three hundred it was crazy
my car was completely full books I
picked him up and I think I profited
like almost two grand off of that deal
yeah it's so amazing okay so they just
wanted it out and you got took it and
interesting yeah and who I don't know
I'm kind of blown away to be honest with
you and the crazy part is is in that big
mess was a bunch of nursing textbooks
and I really didn't think they were
gonna be worth a lot because textbooks
it really is hit or miss and there was
like three or four textbooks that were
in the over a hundred dollar range like
hundred and twenty one hundred eighteen
dollar range in that box so what do you
consider like a good day when you're
going out say to garage sales or thrift
stores or whatever a good day
really
I consider a good day would be if you're
gonna go out to garage sales and and
thrift stores I would say if I could
find at least in one day for the 300
dollars in profit it's a pretty decent
day I found way more than that other
times but it really just depends sure
and I guess like you said some days
you're gonna make 2,000 bucks and I'm
sure other days you're it's a diet right
there's nothing good out there right
right exactly so it sounds sort of
intense with the the work you have to do
which sounds dumb right cuz everything
takes work but in this case like you're
literally going around driving is there
a way to kind of minimize that a little
bit or is that actually just part of the
fun and enjoyment of like the hunt right
well for me a lot of it's a hunt but if
you really want to minimize it what I do
is I have a website on my phone it's
called a book sale Scouter or something
like that I think it is oh yeah and what
that does is it takes all the book sales
in the United States and it lets you
search in book sales in your area
anywhere you want to search at some of
these book sales have over a million
books so if you're gonna source for
Amazon FBA that's the perfect place to
do it you know you can you might drive
two and a half hours one way but the
profits gonna be pretty decent okay cool
and you said you mainly focus on books
just in general
yeah Amazon FBA I do because personally
me I'm restricted and every category I
actually just started selling on Amazon
August 2nd and I'll pull up my numbers
here today is a 22nd and keep in mind
your first shipment takes a little while
to get to Amazon but I've done eight
hundred dollars in revenue just in two
weeks on Amazon Wow okay you have been
doing this for a while but who are some
people that you follow
maybe that inspire you maybe they're a
little bit ahead of you stuff like that
definitely yeah so some of the people
that you know kind of inspire me you
have Pete the Craigslist honor he is one
of the the big YouTube influencers and
reselling and he has a pretty big
subscriber base he lives in Chicago he
has his own store and he sells online so
he's really
active business and then you have Chad
the golden finger picker same kind of
deal he has a pretty large youtube
influence and then he's been doing it a
really long time and is really
resourceful and our most resellers
focused on YouTube or are there other
bloggers and then instead like I don't
know the ego so is it mostly you guys
mostly live on YouTube for me I do
twitch and I do YouTube now my twitch
account was kind of a test and I just
wanted to see like kind of the the
marketing I get and those in the
subscriber base and I haven't really
done a lot of videos but on YouTube I've
been doing YouTube about a year and a
half and then there is also a handful of
resellers that have a pretty big
influence but there's a big community a
community around reselling where you can
actually like you know kind of reach out
to people and stuff like that so gotcha
I spend most of my time the affiliate
marketing area and it's interesting like
how like siloed off we are even though
it's such a close like relationship the
business model and stuff so yeah kind of
crazy as I started looking there were
just huge channels tons of interaction
big communities and I had no idea and
same here I mean when I first got in
every song I had no idea and I did it
for several years I've had no clue you
have been doing this a while I expect
that you probably made a few mistakes I
know I've made tons of mistakes I still
make them they're just much bigger now
so do you ever need to share maybe you
could help folks avoid some mistakes if
they're getting started
absolutely so when you first get started
and reselling one of the biggest
mistakes that resellers make is
comparing themselves to someone else's
business I mean I can I can show you you
know pulled my back out and show you
that I've had several weeks where I've
done a thousand dollars in sales in one
week but you can't compare yourself to
that when you're first start now a lot
of resellers like to do that when they
first start out I want those numbers but
realistically you're just gonna be
chasing someone else's business you got
to make it work for you I think that
probably translates to like most any
business model because it's really hard
like you do want to compare yourself to
someone who's been doing it for 13 years
you know yeah pretty hard to jump in on
day 2 and right do that so and why helps
me out a lot in in the aspect of retail
arbitrage like going into retail
I did retail management for nine years
and also held corporate level jobs in
retail man so really for me like retail
arbitrage I know how stores ticket their
clearance I know a lot of information
that no one else would know for that so
that really gives me kind of a leg up a
little bit
gotcha can you share in like one little
thing that sounds pretty mysterious
so like target for example so I I
actually held an executive level job at
Target for two years right now I work in
sales I completely kind of got out of
retail and so I hold like a nine-to-five
in sales but what you want to look at is
target how they clearance all their
stuff is it's done by a clearance team
it's really really promiscuous like they
don't target any areas if they happen to
be by an ink app with some clearance and
it's not selling they'll just take it
down and they have the full power to
take it down however far they want as
long as it stays like 30 percent above
the actual price they bought it at you
might go in there one day and stuffs
like ten for you know twenty thirty
percent off usually thirty percent off
is the main the main ticket area that
they start at two days later it could be
seventy I don't know much about retail I
just did a little stint in like college
but I go to the Home Depot all the time
they let me bring my dog in there so I
walk in all the time on browse and a lot
of times our stuff on clearance anyway I
had my eye on this like pizza grilling
kit you know the stone and all that
stuff I mean it was like a hundred and
twenty-five bucks and I kept watching it
and sure enough towards the very end of
like fall and I'm in Bozeman Montana so
it gets cold here people are not calling
outside and I like the winter so I think
in like November like it kept getting
marked down and marked down and finally
it was like 24 bucks and I was like I
can't believe I like this this is so
cheap you can't even buy this stone let
alone the hardware so it's like you got
to hang on for a long time of course I
wasn't I just wanted to like make pizza
myself right exactly and that would be
like a retail arbitrage kind of thing
like what you did you would just you
would just watch it and as soon as it
goes down you would buy it
gotcha and I just I should have bought
the rest of him but I just bought the
one I didn't even I was like but I could
resell it but it never I was like I'll
have to ship it the stones heavy and all
that stuff but you just get the seller
enough to pay for it right so you
mentioned that you are you know you're
working your full-time gig and then
you're doing this on the side but you're
putting in like some serious hours so
thanks again for especially time talking
to me but how do you find motivation to
like keep pushing so that's a that's a
hard that's a hard answer because really
your motivation everybody's motivated
for whatever motivates their self and
people are normally motivated for what's
best for them and their family right so
money motivates me growing a business
motivates me and so what I what I do is
I actually you know I have business
accounts and stuff like that I have to
keep books on and stuff and since I work
a full-time job most of that money I
just don't touch it I don't pay myself
and eventually when I do quit my
full-time job most of our bills our
house should be all paid off way early
and we won't have to worry about
anything
it's a I guess some very good y-you know
it comes back like why are we doing this
so that's awesome like it'll obviously
pay off it's really awesome for your
family and stuff that's pretty cool
there must be times where we also get
like frustrated and maybe maybe goes
back to the the same thing where you're
like alright why am I doing this and you
sort of regroup is it pretty much the
same when you're when you're frustrated
is I how you get out of the hole oh yeah
like you're gonna hit a lot of
frustrations in and stuff like reselling
any kind of business you're gonna have
frustrations so what you gotta do is you
gotta find the best way to kind of rigor
yourself to get past it you gotta move
past it you gotta just just got a blow
past it and not look back and so you
know one of the biggest frustrations a
lot of resellers have is they say I
can't find nothing to sell in my area
think about that for a second and then
realize in the United States okay we are
the most wasteful people in the entire
world so any kind any time you go to a
thrift store a garage sale anything what
you got to do is look at what's of
and that's what you sell I'm just
thinking of some of the thrift stores
around here and there's our population
is fairly small here in Montana but even
even so there are like sort of wealthy
pockets like Big Sky there's a couple
thrift stores where you could find like
really awesome stuff because these
wealthy folks just kind of got rid of it
it's very damaging so yeah absolutely
now in my sort of area of affiliate
marketing we talked about mastermind
groups a lot are you part of a
mastermind group or anything similar I
currently am NOT one of the people I
watch on YouTube a lot he does a lot of
sales vlogs he has a mastermind group is
the hard core closer and that's a super
good channel to kind of get motivated
and I take it you haven't been in the
past either no no I know I have no okay
interesting I don't know for the folks
that I've been talking to in some of the
other interviews like this it's almost
like a little therapy session where you
can I mean you're just talking shop and
I mean you could make it as serious or
not as sort of casual as you want but
yeah it's sort of like we can gripe
about business a little bit talk shop
and it's a nice way to just catch up so
absolutely you were talking about like
this roundtable that you do with other
resellers you want to just mention that
it's not really a mastermind group per
se but I'm sure you guys are able to
vent a little bit yeah absolutely so I'm
part of a actually panel show on YouTube
and it's called the reseller 6-pack and
there's about eight to ten of us that
are actually in the group and what we do
is we talk about business reselling
because there's a lot like reselling a
lot of people don't view reselling as a
business but it is a legit business
model and a lot of resellers are even
going towards more of buying wholesale
and so what you really got to think
about is how can I grow this business
and that's what we talked about and it's
a it's a good time it's on Sundays at 7
p.m. central central time all right
let's say you're able to talk to someone
who is interested in just getting
started maybe they're a little nervous
to maybe go to a garage sale or a thrift
store they're afraid that they're gonna
like buy something that they
you know can't recoup their money or
they lose money on what advice do you
have like for the brand-new person
getting started so for the brand-new
person just getting started my advice
would be to take ten fifteen or twenty
whatever you can afford go to a thrift
store or anything and just get your
phone out literally this is is a
computer that you carry around with you
all day long every day and if you take
it out and you just download the eBay
app and you start looking up stuff you
can look at completed listings and you
can see what it sold for if it didn't
sell and at that point when you buy that
item that's that's your profit you just
got to sell it but you know it sells for
that and so probably my advice would be
don't be afraid to lose money because
you're gonna lose money in any business
you're gonna lose even if it's a dollar
eventually you're gonna lose money just
you know take the risk even if it's
small or big just research it out and
you know my my brain is going to all
right I see that the the products sold
looks good the price works out shipping
how do I make sure I don't lose the
profit and shipping for me I do a lot of
free shipping on eBay I just bake the
shipping cost into my item price and so
regardless if someone's saying I'm gonna
you know sell this for twenty dollars
and seven dollar shipping how I list my
items is I always go to the lowest price
on eBay and I look at the price and for
the most part of customers they're gonna
go to ebay and they're gonna hit the
lowest price because they want the best
deal right in a thirst owner for 19
dollars with seven dollars in shipping
at the lowest well I'm gonna come in a
dollar and under what they are but it's
still gonna have the shipping costume
right cool so you just have to think
ahead all the numbers are there for you
so you should be alright cool and now
there is like some you know some stuff
you can do on eBay like you can do
calculated shipping where when the buyer
actually buys it from you it calculates
are shipping before they they actually
confirm the final purchase and then it
says out of it nice and how do you do
your shipping like what service do you
use so I use either FedEx or USPS the
post-office three-bay you get like you
know on certain services usually about
30 some
and off the 20 or some percent off and
so FedEx is usually cheaper on heavier
items but if it's like clothing and
stuff like that
usually like priority your first class
through through USPS cool I'm curious if
you have any side hustle business ideas
that you don't have time for you sound
like a busy man if you have any business
ideas maybe scratches your own itch so
you know one of my business ideas in the
past was creating board games and around
holiday season you know you can you can
look up like manufacturers in China and
stuff like that you can sketch out a
board game you know kind of illustration
haven't print printed up for fairly
cheap and then you could technically
flip all of them either at flea markets
in the winter or you could just saw him
right on Amazon or Ebay and that was one
of my business ideas in the past and I
just never really got to it you know
yeah are you a big board game person
yeah I like board games so when people
buy board games they're buying they're
buying time with her family you know I
mean and that's why people and families
like board games and so for me that was
a that was one idea I had and I come up
with like 500 a day usually because my
mind's constantly running but I never
remember any of them yeah it's funny
yeah like once you start seeing some
opportunities it's like a floodgate and
you're just like I can't do more I need
to spec coming up with these ideas right
cool
any others I had one really good idea a
while back ago and I completely forgot
what it was but it was uh oh yeah so
it's a blanket okay it's a blanket that
has a zipper in the middle of it but not
really a zipper you could do like
buttons or something where it's not like
really hard on the skin sure so that way
when you and your spouse time gonna
share the blanket it tears apart I see
all right
that's that's a pretty good one yeah and
I never heard or thought of that yeah so
I kind of want to deke out on the
YouTube stuff so what kind of gear do
you use
what's your workflow look like and stuff
like that so on my youtube channel what
I do is I use morning fame to research
all my content and so I will actually
research out content on what's getting
good views what's not getting good views
and then I just I make the video from
there so like if I type in retail
arbitrage which my Dollar General video
that are my Dollar Tree video I made
actually was like ranking number five
and that in that entire group but what
I'll do is I'll I'll research like a
good title or a good like like retail
arbitrage a good set of keywords and
then I'll look at the videos and I can
see what keywords are actually using and
then I kind of build off of that for me
okay cool and you said you've been on
YouTube for about a year and it looks
like your growths like pretty pretty
awesome right yeah yeah about a year in
a few months and you know it took a long
time to grow so I I did probably a solid
seven months of just talking to myself
not really having anybody watch and
that's pretty typical usually when you
start off a YouTube channel it's pretty
rough right and then you slowly start to
build an influence and for me I think
the best part is doing it from the
ground up and building an organic
following I know exactly what you're
talking about a lot of my I mean I had
some rough ones in the very beginning
but you leave them out there you know
it's part of the whole whole deal so the
evolution right very cool so I guess do
you have any like goals for your channel
in the coming year or what's your what's
your name here yeah so for for my
channel in the next year like a really
what I want to do is keep growing and
see how how much it can grow I'm gonna
be eventually getting better video
editing software to throw up on my on my
pcs and as well as you know new new
filming equipment and stuff like that so
cool what are you filming on right now
so really all it is is a GoPro over my
phone I have a GoPro Hero 4 I also have
like a Samsung it's like the the 1080
bulb
the 360 view camera and then I yeah and
then I use my same either that or my s9
+ but while I'm looking probably in the
next month is I'll begin look at g7x
vlog and stuff with so cool I mean these
cell phones these days are freaking
awesome so yeah yeah it's hard to argue
with them so I mean I have some other
gear too because I like you know tech
gadgets and all that stuff right it's
excuse to get another lens or whatever
but cool so you're just you're using
what you had and then you were shooting
videos and you didn't go crazy and I
know some people they're like I'm gonna
buy all this stuff like right when
you're getting started so you just you
were doing work like right away
basically yeah and that's the thing is
with YouTube you know even if you're
making money off the Adsense you're not
gonna make that right away like you have
a solid year to build that organic
following before you really make your
first cent so really what i did was i
just i bought a gopro hero4 i went on
lego and I typed in GoPro Hero 4 and I
negotiated one down and bought it for a
hundred bucks and it came with all of
the accessories and then I actually the
video editing software I use is uh
filmora wondershare and it's pretty
cheap I think you can get a subscription
around for less than a hundred and if
you buy it once you you have it period
it's just at one time by and so for me I
did that just to start out with and I'm
like well I'll film with my phone too
because on Samsung like if you have an
s9 plus they have a really good video
and so you know I'm like well I'll do
this for awhile and see how it works and
and I bought a webcam nice and that's
you know and some mics and stuff like
that but that's really all I bought I
mean to start my channel out with
probably had maybe a hundred and fifty
dollars wrapped up very cool very cool
alright thanks so much Shane appreciate
you taking the time where should people
find you so you can find me on youtube
its rise and then just a letter in and
then grind picker or you can hit me up
over on instagram at rising rim picker
so alright thanks a lot we'll talk soon
thanks everybody thanks for watching the
interview with shane myers of rise &
grind
picker I'm Doug Huntington founder of
niche site project and I talk about
Amazon affiliate sites and productivity
most of the time and this is part of a
series of interviews about side hustles
so if you haven't seen the others be
sure to check out the playlist for these
other interviews I talked to people like
Nick Lowe / Elise Dharma and Dave young
thanks about Shane I appreciate your
time and everyone please check out his
channel if you do have any questions for
Shane feel free to leave a comment in
this video thanks a lot
you
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