166: How To Earn $10,000 A Month Flipping Phones On eBay - David Kosciusko
David went from being bankrupt to selling over 2 million dollars in phones and electronics on eBay over the last 6 years. He has helped hundreds of people grow their eBay business through buying and selling phones off classified sites and reselling them on eBay.
Interesting Notes Broken cell phones sell fast on eBay!! Dave knows it because when he list it on eBay, it sells within a day or two. Before he did this interview, he listed $7,000 phones. He sold $200 within five minutes. And he expects to sell $3000 overnight. This thing happens every single week. He believes that eBay has so much built-in traffic. With eBay, he gets to sell his products fast. Unlike a physical store where he has to talk to customers, people are already searching for stuff on eBay. When he hears the "cha-ching" on his phone, he would print the label on eBay, wrap the item in a bubble mailer, and it is done. Dave loves eBay because he could move so much inventory so fast. It also takes a whole selling part of the business away from him. It also enables him to focus on what he is good at, that is, acquiring inventory at a price where he can make a healthy profit. He gets his inventory by placing ads on classified sites - places like Facebook Groups and Craigslist. He would say, "We pay cash for phones". Then people would call and sell him their broken phones. He would offer them a price where he could make a 40% to 60% profit. Ten years ago, Dave and his wife had lost their house and car. He was dead broke and lived in his mom's basement. He worked from their home as a carpet cleaner and made $300 a week. He wanted to have a business that he could do part-time. The eBay business intrigued him because he likes the work at home idea. He enjoys working from their house. And to sell online looks exciting to him. So he started selling stuff on eBay. He started finding stuff from yard sales. The first item he sold is an old antique flag that had 48 stars instead of 50. He bought it for $20 but sold it for $.99 with free shipping. He spent three months finding junks at yard sales that did not pay off. On their wedding anniversary, he found a lady selling a designer purse - a Coach. At that time, Coach was a big thing. The lady sells the purse at $30. He bought it for his wife as a present on their wedding anniversary. He thought of selling purses on eBay but was afraid because of his previous experience. He looked at what is selling on eBay and found out that purses sell for $230. He realized that he needs to go for high-dollar value items. The next week, he found four Coach purses at the yard sale. He bought the purses for $15 per piece and made $200 over the weekend. That was a huge, life-changing moment for him. The next weekend he went out again. With a little more practice, he was able to make $400. Selling designer purses turned into a little eBay business for four months. Dave wanted to expand his little eBay business and have something consistent to sell. So he started posting ads on Craigslist saying, "I will buy your used cell phones and electronics, cash!". He wanted to try and see if he can get anything from it as the purses do. He made $10,000 in his first month on electronics. With that, he switched from purses to electronics. His business blew up from there. In his first eight months on eBay, he made a quarter of a million in sales. He does not advertise for cracked or broken phones. He advertised for phones in general. Though people sell him phones in good condition, there are others who sell him cracked ones. He accepted those because he learned from American Pickers that anything with a low emotional attachment usually is most profitable. It made him think, "who has an emotional attachment to cracked cell phones?" Then he realized that one can let it go so much cheaper, as cheap as $30. And it can be sold to eBay for $150, a massive profit margin! Dave's philosophy is sharing information. He believes in the Abundance Mentality, that is, there is enough to go around for everybody. He never gives second thoughts on the competition. He worries about doing better for himself. Now, he trained people on how to flip phones on eBay. And by him training people, they share ideas with him too. When he helped people do better, they also share the good things with him. So, from $20,000 a month on eBay two years ago, now he is averaging $30,000 a month. He has trained over 70 people who have hit over $10,000 in a month flipping phones on eBay. He put them on his YouTube channel to be recognized and become a superstar. He also flips laptops, tablets, Mac books, and iPad. He does not flip old and vintage items because it distracts him from his main business. He focuses on what he knows, that is, electronics genre, and do lots of it. He thinks that he would hurt his sales if he would try to diversify too much because he would not be so focused. To Dave, electronics is cool because it is all the same. An iPhone is still an iPhone....