Building a reselling business in the margins of life: auctions, pallets, honest wins & lessons. Follower of Jesus. Husband. Dad. Pastor.
Birmingham, AL
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I didn’t use savings to start reselling.
I used my garage.
Here’s exactly how I did it 👇
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I’ve come across some pretty weird food on my food pallets. Maybe I’ll give this gem away to one special trick-or-treater tonight. 😈 if you know, you know.
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The reseller community is full of some of the most generous people I know. Resellers are problem solvers, so helping people comes naturally. Grateful to call @hey_mindi a friend and to be a @bstocksol customer.
$9,323 of food.
Handfuls of volunteers.
A mom from a mountain with a wild idea.
And a supplier that truly cares about people, community and the heartbeat of small business in America.
B Stock covered the expense of these pallets in full to support the devastating circumstances so many families are facing after a historical wildfire season in my small town.
This will be a story I tell over and over.
Because it is the most beautiful example of service, integrity, humility and empathy.
It is what lives in the hearts of all of us.
We are so powerful.
With profound gratitude, from this Reseller and the communities of Okanogan and Chelan counties, thank you @bstocksol family.
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Had to make a special trip to the store this morning to get ready for the weekend. @redbaronpizza
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Gonna need a portable yard ramp, too, so I can accept truckloads of Costco returns from @bstocksol.
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I'm a full-time pastor, a husband, and a dad of 4.
My reselling business gets about 5-6 hours a week.
Right now, I'm focused on live variety food auctions, all sourced from Costco liquidations.
Here's exactly how I spend those hours 👇
The one big job is sorting. When a load comes in, it takes several hours to go through everything. But I only do it when new inventory arrives.
After that, each live show takes about 5 hours:
⏱ 1 hour of prep: assembling boxes, double-checking expiration dates, scheduling the live, and filming promo content
⏱ 2 hours live: the fun part
⏱ 2 hours of packing and shipping: not glamorous, but it's how you earn repeat buyers
My secret weapon is my kids. They help every step of the way, including quality control.
(Quality control mostly means sampling the food. 😂)
You don't need 40 hours a week to build something. You need a system that fits the margins of your life, and ideally one that includes the people you love.
Mine fits in about 5 or 6 hours. 🤓
If you're building something in the margins too, follow me @donnyyoung. I share the real numbers, wins and losses included.
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The question that decides whether "slow" inventory is a good buy:
Can you afford to wait?
My sanding belts took 216 days to make back 7x. But they cost me $189, sat out of the way in my storage unit, and didn't tie up money I needed.
Slow inventory is only a problem when it's expensive, it's in your way, or you need the cash.
If it's none of those, let it sit. 🤷♂️
I spent $189 on an auction lot of sanding belts I knew nothing about.
I've made back $1,401. 🤯
And I still have $450 worth listed.
A little research told me there was a market, so I took the swing.
It hasn't been fast. They've been listed for 216 days. 🐢
What I'd tell my past self: don't be scared of slow inventory if your cost is low. A $189 lot can sit on the shelf a long time and still win big.
Slow money is still money.
$189 → $1,850+ when it's all said and done. 🤓
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I spent $189 on an auction lot of sanding belts I knew nothing about.
I've made back $1,401. 🤯
And I still have $450 worth listed.
A little research told me there was a market, so I took the swing.
It hasn't been fast. They've been listed for 216 days. 🐢
What I'd tell my past self: don't be scared of slow inventory if your cost is low. A $189 lot can sit on the shelf a long time and still win big.
Slow money is still money.
$189 → $1,850+ when it's all said and done. 🤓
I almost made my money back on one flip… and I still have 75% of the inventory left.
A couple weeks ago I bought 16 boxes of sanding belts from a local school auction.
Brand new, never used.
Paid $189 total. About $11.82 per box.
I listed them on eBay and have sold 4 so far.
After fees, I’ve made $165.55 back. About $41 per box… which means I’m clearing roughly $29.57 profit per box.
So I’ve almost made my money back… and I still have 12 boxes sitting in the garage.
This is what I love about reselling.
You don’t have to hit a home run.
Just stack small, solid wins.
Follow along @donnyyoung if you’re figuring this out too.
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How to make your teenager disappear:
“Will you clean up the mess you made in the kitchen?”
🤓
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A lot of modern day TV and sports are unwatchable as a family, primarily because of the totally inappropriate ads, and that makes me pretty sad. I remember 1992 laying on the floor as a kid watching Sid Bream slide into home, sending the Braves to the World Series. It was a family affair. Seems harder and harder to find that these days.
nitter.siddz.com/ACAD_27/status/2110269…
Baseball by BSmile
Can we please get the soft porn ads off playoff broadcasts, TBS, Fox, NBC, @MLB? My son wants to watch baseball with Dada, but how do I justify that when a half-naked women could come on screen anytime?? This is America’s Pastime. Parents shouldn’t have to worry about this.
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The Kelly Clarkson debacle is the timeline distraction we all need in this troubled world. 🤓
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“Nobody dreams about becoming the flagpole guy.”
I love these type of posts from @TS_Secrets.
Highlighting ordinary people living extraordinary lives doing overlooked, “boring,” and seemingly ordinary things.
The reality is that MOST of us end up doing something that we never really set out to do.
there are so many opportunities to make a decent living doing something you enjoy and are uniquely good at.
You don’t have to have that cookie-cutter job or career that sucks the life out of you.
Find the niche that you are passionate about, that you are skilled at, and that solves people’s everyday problems and brings them value and makes their life better.
That’s the lane where you will find some genuine fulfillment and satisfaction in your everyday work life.
A dad I met yesterday has the best business and only works 3-4 days per week.
Get this, have you heard of Flagpole repair?
Hotels, dealerships, schools, businesses and government buildings have giant flagpoles with ropes, pulleys and hardware that eventually break.
He does about 10 jobs/week × $350 = $175,000/year.
Learn to do the work safely and properly.
Nobody dreams about becoming the flagpole guy.
It’s insane that this is a thing and no one ever talks about it.
Day 273 tagging @mikeroweworks and bringing awareness to the trades.
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Had a mystery box bid up to $370 tonight on my live show. I was shocked.
Too bad it was a bot and the payment failed. 😭
The thrill was fun while it lasted though. 😂
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I’m not suggesting this is a battle in my home… but what is the appropriate lifespan of a condiment/sauce bottle in the fridge?
Assuming it’s still within date, is there a threshold for when it gets tossed?
I think we have more condiments and sauces in our fridge than actual food. 😭
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Frustrating update to my Dumpling and Nee Doh story:
Thankfully, some folks on X alerted me to a recall on the Squishy Dumplings. Someone else pointed out that the Nee Dohs I got were counterfeit.
When I called my supplier (a well established distributor in town), he didn’t seem interested in looking up records to see if the Dumplings were included in the recall. No problem to refund.
Here’s the worse part: Regarding the Nee Dohs, I told him it looks like they are counterfeit and asked if he could verify they are authentic.
His responses: “no, these are knock offs”
“Excuse me? So when you sold these to me, you knew they were counterfeit.”
He replied, “yeah, the real ones are way more expensive, that’s why got such a great deal.”
He said he’d refund no Problem.
I went today to get that taken care of.
I honestly was just trying to get my refund and not get sucked into the lecture I wanted to give him. Get in. Get out.
He doubled down on the Nee Dohs though, saying I could sell them because they have the Nee Doh logo and they are just “knock-offs” because real Nee Dohs are $400 a piece. (Yes, he said four-hundred dollars🙄.)
“Dude, tiktok would shut me down for selling counterfeits AND it’s a felony to knowingly use a company’s trademark on goods that are not authorized.”
Him: “let’s get that refund processed”
Lesson learned as a new reseller: Know where your merchandise comes from and be confident it’s authentic.
I feel like I definitely dodged a bullet here in 2 ways:
1: mitigated risk to my TikTok account
2. Learned who I will never do business with again.
**Also, super big thanks to my friends here on X who alerted me to these issues and quite literally saved my business. 🙏🏻
This is what $1500 in Squishy Dumpling and Nee Doh’s looks like (not very impressive!). I got them for $294. Over 80% off retail, and 57% off the normal wholesale price.
I just priced checked at a local c-store: $16
Wholesale price: $6.95
My price: $2.95 per unit
PLUS, a distributor that is excited about me being able to move his distressed inventory on a platform outside his normal distribution channels.
The market is cooling on this product… but I really think it’s just the parents are cooling on it and don’t like the price (I’m one of them!😂). My kids told me this morning kids still love this. My middle school daughter told me a kid at school is trying to sell her a Squishy Dumpling for $18. I think I’m gonna send her to school with a few and have her sell them for $10. 😂
I have a lot of moms in my TikTok live shows. I plan to add these to kids-themed snack boxes that get over a certain price. A $16 perceived add on that cost me $2.95.
Going live Sunday at 6pm Central. Would love for anybody you to follow my channel and see how this experiment works! Click the following invite link to my channel… and TikTok will give you a coupon worth between $10-$200 to use for your first purchase in my live!
tiktok.com/t/ZTyBRcNQb/
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