October 14, 2025 • 16 mins
Side Hustle - eBay Store
Zac Shaw is back—and this time, we’re talking all about his eBay side hustle, Over and Out Vintage.
From vintage board games to throwback clothing, Zac’s turned thrifting into a side career, blending online sales with a brick-and-mortar twist.
What started as casual weekend treasure hunting, turned into a serious job with its own highs and lows. Zac spills on the thrill of scoring hidden gems, the hustle of building a solid reputation online, and how AI is shaking up the reselling game.
Join us for a journey through the challenges and rewards of this unique career path.
Zac's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/overandoutvintage/
Want us to cover a specific job? Shoot us an email!
Music credit: Kate Pierson & Monica Nation
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is insane.
That people are throwing thisstuff away Like the thrill of
finding those objects, even ifit's rare is just incredible.
At the end of the day, it'sarbitrage right.
It's just you're findingsomething at a lower price that
someone will value at a higherprice.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hi everyone.
Welcome back to how Much Can IMake.
I'm your host, merav Ozeri.
Last week we heard from ZachShow about his job as a local
news writer and editor.
Today he's back to talk abouthis side hustle, running his
eBay store Over and Out Vintage.
If you ever wondered howthrifting turns into a business,
this one's for you.
(00:40):
So let's dive right in.
Zach, thanks for coming back onthe show.
Let's dive right in and tell ushow did the eBay store come
about?
How?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
did it come about?
Well, I've always been athrifter.
My partner's always been athrifter.
Most of our wardrobe is stuffwe've gotten from thrift stores
Goodwill, salvation Army.
I'm drawn to quirky, weirdpieces of clothing.
Then a few years ago I got intodesigning a board game during
COVID.
It seemed like the perfectthing to do.
I was locked inside.
So as I was designing thatboard game, I got into vintage
(01:13):
board games.
And that's when the realsickness began.
And it was like every yard sale, every goodwill, I was hoarding
all of these vintage boardgames, anything from like 1950s
to 90s.
They just started stacking upeverywhere.
We started grabbing t-shirts.
We got this opportunity wheremy partner who works at LeShag
Salon in Kingston.
They have a little storefrontand they say hey, if you're
(01:34):
doing this vintage thing, howabout you put up some vintage
and used novelty tees and stufflike that?
And, long story short, it wasreally successful.
We sold a ton of them out ofthe Le Chag Salon.
That's kind of the main thingthat we did, but we also
continuously do eBay.
Obviously, we reached a hugeaudience there.
Ebay is kind of a pain in thebutt but it is a great way to
(01:54):
sell certain things.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Would you say your niche is the game, the vintage
games.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
We definitely have some niches, because one thing
we learned early on is youreally have to know everything
about the thing you're sellinglike.
There were so many things thatI learned in the first year of
flipping vintage board gamesthat saved me so much money down
the line and you know, justlike my new things like if the
box quality and the boxcondition is like way more of
(02:21):
the value of a vintage boardgame than any other aspect you
know, I didn't know that until Ibought a bunch of crappy boxes.
So we do vintage games, we dovintage clothes Like I know how
to identify a shirt tag from the80s or 90s.
My partner does the women'sclothes.
You get that feedback whenpeople do buy things that tells
you exactly what you should befinding, and so after a few
(02:42):
years of doing this, we'vegotten pretty good at picking
out the valuable things and thenkeep the trash so what does it
take to open a store on ebay?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
how did you start it?
You started brick and mortarand then you did the shift.
What did it take?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I was fortunate to start an ebay account perhaps a
decade ago.
I have always been a collectorof magic, the gathering cards
and other collectibles, so itwas always a way for me to kind
of make a few extra bucksturning around items in my
collection that I no longerneeded.
What that did, though, was giveme this long kind of history of
always shipping on time andalways shipping the right thing,
(03:16):
et cetera, et cetera.
On eBay, it's reputation, it'severything.
It's kind of like the same waywith the gig economy If you get
too many people saying this shipa week late or this came
damaged, then all of a suddenyour eBay store is going to
collapse.
So we have, like, one of the topeBay seller ratings, because
we're fastidious about gettingeverything to everyone in the
right way, refunding people whenwe need to.
So I'd say, if you're lookingto start an eBay account, it's
(03:39):
really about building thatreputation early on, because,
also, if you have, you know theyrank people on stars, so, like
we have several hundred stars,which means we've had thousands
of sales.
If you start out, it's veryhard to gain people's trust
because you don't have any stars, and so you have to make small
sales to really build that up.
And trust is everything on eBay, because the biggest pain of
(03:59):
eBay is that scammers are notuncommon on eBay People who will
essentially bid on your itemand then they're going to try
and get that item and then saythey didn't get it and they want
a refund.
That's the most common thing.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
How do you check?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
for that.
There's various ways you canmitigate it.
There's no real way to stop itentirely.
I found like you have to offerfree this is kind of technical,
but like you have to offer freeshipping, because if you offer
paid shipping and then youdiscover they're a scam, now
you're out that shipping costand basically the way you
discover their scam is someonebids on your auction that has no
interactions on eBay yet andthey have some random username
(04:34):
that's probably generated by abot.
I get most of them bymonitoring the auctions and
eliminating blocking thosepeople when they do bid.
But everyone now and thensomeone gets through.
So I honestly stopped sellingbig ticket items on eBay for
that reason.
I was running into.
It doesn't happen on thesmaller things, but once you
sell a board game for like $300,people come out of the woodwork
(04:55):
to essentially bid on that, getit, receive it in the mail and
then claim they didn't get itand then yeah, so how do you end
up selling the $300 piece?
Right now we're working on apop-up.
You know, around Christmas timewe're trying to get into one of
the local game stores todisplay the whole vintage game
library.
Then I can get, you know, goodmoney for the higher ticket
(05:16):
items.
The games cost a fortune toship, so the second you're
shipping them.
It doesn't really make sensecost-wise.
And that's what we found is, ifyou can sell it brick and
mortar, if you can sell it inperson, it's just so much more
profitable.
You're not paying processingfees, you're not paying rent to
be somewhere, you're not beingscammed and you don't have to do
shipping.
So you can sell things for evenmore than you would on eBay.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Do you have to pay eBay on each sale?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah, I think it's something like 9%.
I should probably know this.
I do that's a lot.
I kind of close my eyes.
How long have you had the store?
I want to say two years, but wehave done it sort of under the
radar for several more yearsthan that.
Pretty much.
When we first got together wewere going out thrifting and
since then we've done trips toConnecticut through Ohio and we
(06:02):
did some purpose-built thriftingtrips Like we hit, I think, 12
drift stores in Connecticut,reasoning that there's rich
people in Connecticut so theyprobably throw away good stuff.
And we were right but not to bea downer.
But it really does seem likethis has become a very popular
side hustle and it's very hardnow to find the good stuff.
You really do have to traveloutside of areas where people
(06:23):
are doing this in order to findthe gem and people are now much
more hip to what things areworth.
It used to be that I would.
Frequently.
The way you make money isfinding something that's
mispriced, like a strange brandthat the company typed in the
code for and put the wrong priceon.
You can make a lot of moneyfinding those a board game
that's super rare, that theperson didn't know.
(06:44):
But now AI everything justtells you exactly what the price
is and figures it out.
It's a very competitive space.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Is it a good side hustle?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
It is a good side hustle because, even though it's
getting more difficult, thatfeeling of you know, like the
other day we're at a yard salebrand new set of chairs that
goes for you know $200 onlineand you talk the person down
from 40 to 30.
You're just like this is insane, that people are throwing this
stuff away.
The thrill of finding thoseobjects, even if it's rare, is
(07:13):
just incredible.
At the end of the day, it'sarbitrage right.
It's just you're findingsomething at a lower price that
someone will value at a higherprice and in that way it's kind
of dull and there's a lot ofdrudgery and packaging stuff for
eBay and whatnot, but there'ssatisfaction in giving something
of value to someone that theytreasure On eBay.
You'd be surprised at how manypeople write back a message
(07:34):
being like I just got this itemand it's so amazing and it's
made my day and I love this.
Do you get a lot of returns?
No, returns have not beenreally the problem.
It's been mostly either peoplescamming and obviously not
having legit accounts, or it'sbeen mostly either you know
people scamming and obviouslynot having legit accounts, or
it's been something likesomething gets held up in the
mail.
Oftentimes someone will ask fora refund and I'll say wait a
few days, you know it's probablygoing to come and most of the
(07:55):
time they're like oh yeah, howdo you drive traffic to your
store?
Well, for eBay it's.
I don't do too much extra.
I mean, we do have an Instagramaccount, but for the most part
it's just showing up in eBaysearches and you know I'm
familiar with search engineoptimization from doing my
digital marketing work, so youknow I know how to write the
titles and put in all the infofor it to appear in searches and
(08:16):
then eBay tells you how manypeople are seeing it and then
you can modify based on that toget more people.
So if we ever were to scalethis up, I'd probably be more
aggressive on social media,because that's definitely a way
to drive people to your stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
So you have different side hustles between music and
digital customers that you helpthem with the digital world.
Which one is your favorite sidehustle?
Is it the eBay?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Well, the eBay is probably the most fun but it's
also not extraordinarilyfinancially rewarding.
Like every time I work on itI'm kind of like I could make so
much more money per hour likedoing any number of the other
things I do, but it just, youknow, the fun of it compensates.
I just love creating stuff thatpeople get value out of.
Like the most popular thing Iever made was the TikTok channel
(09:01):
, which has half a millionviewers, 60 million views on our
top video, whoa.
It paid our rent for a fewmonths.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Well, you mean, you got money from TikTok for that?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, when I talk to kids, I have a 12 year old.
When I talk to some of herfriends, they're like that's
your account, you're a celebrity.
Oh man, you're going to befamous.
The entire channel is mefeeding this animatronic
children's toy.
That's like sitting on a toilet.
I feed weird food, that's allit is.
And so people like there was oneday where I was like we've
reached more people than allcable news combined like more
(09:34):
people have seen what we didtoday.
This makes no sense and thenalso to have your like most
popular achievement be thedumbest possible thing you could
think of.
We tried posting other stuffand then people go no, no, we
don't want this, we want to befeeding the toy.
So we tried posting other stuffand then people go no, no, we
don't want this, we want to befeeding the toy.
So, unfortunately, the toysings a song Uh-oh, gotta go.
And they have copyright struckevery video.
(09:54):
Now, like every anytime we tryand put it up, they just take
out the audio because they haveclaimed a copyright on the song
that the toy sings.
So we can no longer.
So we're like what do we do now?
I don't know.
We'd send this on ourselves,can you.
It got to the point where I waslike what am I doing?
Maybe, but it was like a deepphilosophical hole where it was
just kind of like is this whatmy life is amounting to?
(10:14):
Like feeding a toy cold pizzaso that, like 12-year-olds, can
comment like feed it Almond'snext, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
How much TikTok pays for 60 million?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
views.
Well, talk pays for 60 millionviews.
Well, that was a while ago.
It's not as much as it used tobe.
I mean, back then I think wegot 1500 for that one video.
I kind of I feel like it kindof worked out to maybe like 20
to 30 dollars per million views.
So I told like, uh, my oldlandlord.
I was like, yeah, we got 60million views on this video.
She's like, yeah, my son justcame out as trans or something
(10:44):
and got five million views ontheir video.
I'm like like, oh, I guess I'mnot that special.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Anyone can reach millions of people overnight,
it's a bizarre world that welive in, Totally bizarre.
One thing I'm curious aboutwhen you buy a vintage game and
you buy it at some thrift shop,you have to check that every
piece is there.
Does it happen that you ship itand then there's a missing
piece and it's a whole bighustle?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
yeah, I mean, usually what happens is you you check
the box and you think all thepieces are there and then you
recount and you're like, oh,there was just one missing.
But I actually have an aiassistant that helps me count
all the pieces, because I'll belike, okay, this is the this
year edition of this game.
What are the pieces that aresupposed to be here?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
this is what I'm seeing, and ai, I tell you it
comes in, so handy amazing it'svery helpful I know what was
your biggest seller.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
We sold a lot of band t-shirts for a while.
So the funny thing is like Idid a little bit of this, maybe
like 10 years ago, and I wasturning over real vintage shirts
.
Like you know, a jimmy hendrixshirt from 1980 would go for
like 150.
That market has collapsedbecause the bands got wise to
this and started basicallymaking fake vintage merch.
(11:53):
You've seen this.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah, no, but I can imagine now that you mention it,
so it looks like a vintage bandt-shirt, like a vintage Def
Leppard t-shirt or something.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
But then you look at the tag and it's printed on and
it's their official merch, andso that gutted the whole vintage
rock market.
But ironically, for a whilethose reproduction shirts were
popular, and this is where itgets nuts.
So these shirts are sold atTarget for like $10.
And you can easily find them inthrift stores for three or four
(12:22):
.
We were putting them on therack for $20 and they were
selling.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Wow, that must have surprised you.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
It blew us away and I mean, I think part of it is
just it's a luxury salon next tomore expensive clothes, so it's
in a context that makes youfeel like the shirt's actually
more valuable than what it'sworth.
And I also think people areused to spending like lots of
money if they go to a show andget merch Like it's always way
more expensive.
Anyway, that's died out.
I think people have gotten hipto that.
But that was probably ourbiggest, most profitable product
(12:53):
because you could just get iteverywhere and they would fly
off the shelf.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
And which game sold the best.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
So I haven't really sold much of the game collection
.
Honestly, sitting on thatcollection a little more because
this pop-up around Christmas,my instinct is that that's going
to be the way to sell them.
Like, a few times a year, go toa game store.
It's easy to find people whowant shirts Everyone wears
shirts.
It's much harder to findsomeone who specifically wants a
vintage board game.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
So do you see yourself doing this in the next
five, 10 years?
Are you continuing with theeBay store?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, I'll always be snapping up these vintage board
games we might phase out ofapparel because, for various
reasons, I just feel like it's asaturated market.
It's hard to find the goodstuff anymore.
But I'm a 10-year believer invintage board games.
I think they're going to belike vinyl records in the future
.
It would be so cool to.
One thing I want to do isprovide vintage board games to
(13:47):
the local bars that have,especially the ones that have
like the vintage aesthetic.
What a great idea.
Amidst all the side hustles andeverything that we've talked
about, the one thing I know I'mgoing to be doing in 10 years is
, whatever it is, it's going tobe mediated by AI.
Like what's coming over thenext few years is going to be a
complete creative revolutionwhere any single person is going
to be able to create their ownvideo game, board game, book
(14:10):
song.
Everyone will be a musician,everyone will be an artist, and
a lot of my fellow creators arescared, terrified of that
prospect, and I just see it asthe best thing to ever happen in
humanity.
Like every single person isgoing to be able to be a creator
.
Like that's where culture getsinteresting again, when you
never know what's going tohappen.
Every day, there's somethingcompletely new coming out of
someone's head that would havenever been able to do that if
(14:32):
they didn't have AI to take them.
You know 95% of the way there,so I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Are you working on designing your own game?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yes, I'm playtesting my card game called the Last
Game on Earth, which is oneplayer plays major disasters and
the other player plays the lastremaining survivors on Earth in
sort of a battle to survive,and I very much look forward to
making video games with AI.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
And, by the way, why did you choose eBay and not
other outlets?
It's just the biggest audience.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I know for certain women's fashion there's better
choices Mercado, I think, is oneof them, but I just have been
doing eBay for so long that itwas there.
It's easier to just stay there.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
All right, that was so interesting.
I know a lot of people aredreaming of side hustles, and I
know another person that has aclothing store on eBay.
She's doing all right, oh good,good I guess, if you learn the
system, you could do really well.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, the women's clothes especially does.
I don't understand it, but theydo especially well.
And Women's clothes especiallydoes.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
I don't understand it , but they do especially well,
and, by the way, why did youchoose eBay and not other
outlets?
Because of the auction?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
It's just the biggest audience.
I know for certain women'sfashion there's better choices.
They're like specific towomen's fashion.
Mercado, I think, is one ofthem, but I just have been doing
eBay for so long that it wasthere.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
It's easier to just stay there.
All right, thank you so much.
That was fantastic, my pleasure.
All right, thank you.
That's a wrap for today.
Big thanks to Zach for sharinghis side hustle story.
If your dream is to have yourown eBay gig, I hope his tips
sparked your next move.
(16:09):
Thanks for tuning in and don'tforget to hit the follow button
before you go.
See you next week.
This is insane.
That people are throwing thisstuff away Like the thrill of
finding those objects, even ifit's rare is just incredible.
At the end of the day, it'sarbitrage right.
It's just you're findingsomething at a lower price that
someone will value at a higherprice.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hi everyone.
Welcome back to how Much Can IMake.
I'm your host, merav Ozeri.
Last week we heard from ZachShow about his job as a local
news writer and editor.
Today he's back to talk abouthis side hustle, running his
eBay store Over and Out Vintage.
If you ever wondered howthrifting turns into a business,
this one's for you.
(00:40):
So let's dive right in.
Zach, thanks for coming back onthe show.
Let's dive right in and tell ushow did the eBay store come
about?
How?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
did it come about?
Well, I've always been athrifter.
My partner's always been athrifter.
Most of our wardrobe is stuffwe've gotten from thrift stores
Goodwill, salvation Army.
I'm drawn to quirky, weirdpieces of clothing.
Then a few years ago I got intodesigning a board game during
COVID.
It seemed like the perfectthing to do.
I was locked inside.
So as I was designing thatboard game, I got into vintage
(01:13):
board games.
And that's when the realsickness began.
And it was like every yard sale, every goodwill, I was hoarding
all of these vintage boardgames, anything from like 1950s
to 90s.
They just started stacking upeverywhere.
We started grabbing t-shirts.
We got this opportunity wheremy partner who works at LeShag
Salon in Kingston.
They have a little storefrontand they say hey, if you're
(01:34):
doing this vintage thing, howabout you put up some vintage
and used novelty tees and stufflike that?
And, long story short, it wasreally successful.
We sold a ton of them out ofthe Le Chag Salon.
That's kind of the main thingthat we did, but we also
continuously do eBay.
Obviously, we reached a hugeaudience there.
Ebay is kind of a pain in thebutt but it is a great way to
(01:54):
sell certain things.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Would you say your niche is the game, the vintage
games.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
We definitely have some niches, because one thing
we learned early on is youreally have to know everything
about the thing you're sellinglike.
There were so many things thatI learned in the first year of
flipping vintage board gamesthat saved me so much money down
the line and you know, justlike my new things like if the
box quality and the boxcondition is like way more of
(02:21):
the value of a vintage boardgame than any other aspect you
know, I didn't know that until Ibought a bunch of crappy boxes.
So we do vintage games, we dovintage clothes Like I know how
to identify a shirt tag from the80s or 90s.
My partner does the women'sclothes.
You get that feedback whenpeople do buy things that tells
you exactly what you should befinding, and so after a few
(02:42):
years of doing this, we'vegotten pretty good at picking
out the valuable things and thenkeep the trash so what does it
take to open a store on ebay?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
how did you start it?
You started brick and mortarand then you did the shift.
What did it take?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I was fortunate to start an ebay account perhaps a
decade ago.
I have always been a collectorof magic, the gathering cards
and other collectibles, so itwas always a way for me to kind
of make a few extra bucksturning around items in my
collection that I no longerneeded.
What that did, though, was giveme this long kind of history of
always shipping on time andalways shipping the right thing,
(03:16):
et cetera, et cetera.
On eBay, it's reputation, it'severything.
It's kind of like the same waywith the gig economy If you get
too many people saying this shipa week late or this came
damaged, then all of a suddenyour eBay store is going to
collapse.
So we have, like, one of the topeBay seller ratings, because
we're fastidious about gettingeverything to everyone in the
right way, refunding people whenwe need to.
So I'd say, if you're lookingto start an eBay account, it's
(03:39):
really about building thatreputation early on, because,
also, if you have, you know theyrank people on stars, so, like
we have several hundred stars,which means we've had thousands
of sales.
If you start out, it's veryhard to gain people's trust
because you don't have any stars, and so you have to make small
sales to really build that up.
And trust is everything on eBay, because the biggest pain of
(03:59):
eBay is that scammers are notuncommon on eBay People who will
essentially bid on your itemand then they're going to try
and get that item and then saythey didn't get it and they want
a refund.
That's the most common thing.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
How do you check?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
for that.
There's various ways you canmitigate it.
There's no real way to stop itentirely.
I found like you have to offerfree this is kind of technical,
but like you have to offer freeshipping, because if you offer
paid shipping and then youdiscover they're a scam, now
you're out that shipping costand basically the way you
discover their scam is someonebids on your auction that has no
interactions on eBay yet andthey have some random username
(04:34):
that's probably generated by abot.
I get most of them bymonitoring the auctions and
eliminating blocking thosepeople when they do bid.
But everyone now and thensomeone gets through.
So I honestly stopped sellingbig ticket items on eBay for
that reason.
I was running into.
It doesn't happen on thesmaller things, but once you
sell a board game for like $300,people come out of the woodwork
(04:55):
to essentially bid on that, getit, receive it in the mail and
then claim they didn't get itand then yeah, so how do you end
up selling the $300 piece?
Right now we're working on apop-up.
You know, around Christmas timewe're trying to get into one of
the local game stores todisplay the whole vintage game
library.
Then I can get, you know, goodmoney for the higher ticket
(05:16):
items.
The games cost a fortune toship, so the second you're
shipping them.
It doesn't really make sensecost-wise.
And that's what we found is, ifyou can sell it brick and
mortar, if you can sell it inperson, it's just so much more
profitable.
You're not paying processingfees, you're not paying rent to
be somewhere, you're not beingscammed and you don't have to do
shipping.
So you can sell things for evenmore than you would on eBay.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Do you have to pay eBay on each sale?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah, I think it's something like 9%.
I should probably know this.
I do that's a lot.
I kind of close my eyes.
How long have you had the store?
I want to say two years, but wehave done it sort of under the
radar for several more yearsthan that.
Pretty much.
When we first got together wewere going out thrifting and
since then we've done trips toConnecticut through Ohio and we
(06:02):
did some purpose-built thriftingtrips Like we hit, I think, 12
drift stores in Connecticut,reasoning that there's rich
people in Connecticut so theyprobably throw away good stuff.
And we were right but not to bea downer.
But it really does seem likethis has become a very popular
side hustle and it's very hardnow to find the good stuff.
You really do have to traveloutside of areas where people
(06:23):
are doing this in order to findthe gem and people are now much
more hip to what things areworth.
It used to be that I would.
Frequently.
The way you make money isfinding something that's
mispriced, like a strange brandthat the company typed in the
code for and put the wrong priceon.
You can make a lot of moneyfinding those a board game
that's super rare, that theperson didn't know.
(06:44):
But now AI everything justtells you exactly what the price
is and figures it out.
It's a very competitive space.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Is it a good side hustle?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
It is a good side hustle because, even though it's
getting more difficult, thatfeeling of you know, like the
other day we're at a yard salebrand new set of chairs that
goes for you know $200 onlineand you talk the person down
from 40 to 30.
You're just like this is insane, that people are throwing this
stuff away.
The thrill of finding thoseobjects, even if it's rare, is
(07:13):
just incredible.
At the end of the day, it'sarbitrage right.
It's just you're findingsomething at a lower price that
someone will value at a higherprice and in that way it's kind
of dull and there's a lot ofdrudgery and packaging stuff for
eBay and whatnot, but there'ssatisfaction in giving something
of value to someone that theytreasure On eBay.
You'd be surprised at how manypeople write back a message
(07:34):
being like I just got this itemand it's so amazing and it's
made my day and I love this.
Do you get a lot of returns?
No, returns have not beenreally the problem.
It's been mostly either peoplescamming and obviously not
having legit accounts, or it'sbeen mostly either you know
people scamming and obviouslynot having legit accounts, or
it's been something likesomething gets held up in the
mail.
Oftentimes someone will ask fora refund and I'll say wait a
few days, you know it's probablygoing to come and most of the
(07:55):
time they're like oh yeah, howdo you drive traffic to your
store?
Well, for eBay it's.
I don't do too much extra.
I mean, we do have an Instagramaccount, but for the most part
it's just showing up in eBaysearches and you know I'm
familiar with search engineoptimization from doing my
digital marketing work, so youknow I know how to write the
titles and put in all the infofor it to appear in searches and
(08:16):
then eBay tells you how manypeople are seeing it and then
you can modify based on that toget more people.
So if we ever were to scalethis up, I'd probably be more
aggressive on social media,because that's definitely a way
to drive people to your stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
So you have different side hustles between music and
digital customers that you helpthem with the digital world.
Which one is your favorite sidehustle?
Is it the eBay?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Well, the eBay is probably the most fun but it's
also not extraordinarilyfinancially rewarding.
Like every time I work on itI'm kind of like I could make so
much more money per hour likedoing any number of the other
things I do, but it just, youknow, the fun of it compensates.
I just love creating stuff thatpeople get value out of.
Like the most popular thing Iever made was the TikTok channel
(09:01):
, which has half a millionviewers, 60 million views on our
top video, whoa.
It paid our rent for a fewmonths.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Well, you mean, you got money from TikTok for that?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, when I talk to kids, I have a 12 year old.
When I talk to some of herfriends, they're like that's
your account, you're a celebrity.
Oh man, you're going to befamous.
The entire channel is mefeeding this animatronic
children's toy.
That's like sitting on a toilet.
I feed weird food, that's allit is.
And so people like there was oneday where I was like we've
reached more people than allcable news combined like more
(09:34):
people have seen what we didtoday.
This makes no sense and thenalso to have your like most
popular achievement be thedumbest possible thing you could
think of.
We tried posting other stuffand then people go no, no, we
don't want this, we want to befeeding the toy.
So we tried posting other stuffand then people go no, no, we
don't want this, we want to befeeding the toy.
So, unfortunately, the toysings a song Uh-oh, gotta go.
And they have copyright struckevery video.
(09:54):
Now, like every anytime we tryand put it up, they just take
out the audio because they haveclaimed a copyright on the song
that the toy sings.
So we can no longer.
So we're like what do we do now?
I don't know.
We'd send this on ourselves,can you.
It got to the point where I waslike what am I doing?
Maybe, but it was like a deepphilosophical hole where it was
just kind of like is this whatmy life is amounting to?
(10:14):
Like feeding a toy cold pizzaso that, like 12-year-olds, can
comment like feed it Almond'snext, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
How much TikTok pays for 60 million?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
views.
Well, talk pays for 60 millionviews.
Well, that was a while ago.
It's not as much as it used tobe.
I mean, back then I think wegot 1500 for that one video.
I kind of I feel like it kindof worked out to maybe like 20
to 30 dollars per million views.
So I told like, uh, my oldlandlord.
I was like, yeah, we got 60million views on this video.
She's like, yeah, my son justcame out as trans or something
(10:44):
and got five million views ontheir video.
I'm like like, oh, I guess I'mnot that special.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Anyone can reach millions of people overnight,
it's a bizarre world that welive in, Totally bizarre.
One thing I'm curious aboutwhen you buy a vintage game and
you buy it at some thrift shop,you have to check that every
piece is there.
Does it happen that you ship itand then there's a missing
piece and it's a whole bighustle?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
yeah, I mean, usually what happens is you you check
the box and you think all thepieces are there and then you
recount and you're like, oh,there was just one missing.
But I actually have an aiassistant that helps me count
all the pieces, because I'll belike, okay, this is the this
year edition of this game.
What are the pieces that aresupposed to be here?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
this is what I'm seeing, and ai, I tell you it
comes in, so handy amazing it'svery helpful I know what was
your biggest seller.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
We sold a lot of band t-shirts for a while.
So the funny thing is like Idid a little bit of this, maybe
like 10 years ago, and I wasturning over real vintage shirts
.
Like you know, a jimmy hendrixshirt from 1980 would go for
like 150.
That market has collapsedbecause the bands got wise to
this and started basicallymaking fake vintage merch.
(11:53):
You've seen this.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah, no, but I can imagine now that you mention it,
so it looks like a vintage bandt-shirt, like a vintage Def
Leppard t-shirt or something.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
But then you look at the tag and it's printed on and
it's their official merch, andso that gutted the whole vintage
rock market.
But ironically, for a whilethose reproduction shirts were
popular, and this is where itgets nuts.
So these shirts are sold atTarget for like $10.
And you can easily find them inthrift stores for three or four
(12:22):
.
We were putting them on therack for $20 and they were
selling.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Wow, that must have surprised you.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
It blew us away and I mean, I think part of it is
just it's a luxury salon next tomore expensive clothes, so it's
in a context that makes youfeel like the shirt's actually
more valuable than what it'sworth.
And I also think people areused to spending like lots of
money if they go to a show andget merch Like it's always way
more expensive.
Anyway, that's died out.
I think people have gotten hipto that.
But that was probably ourbiggest, most profitable product
(12:53):
because you could just get iteverywhere and they would fly
off the shelf.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
And which game sold the best.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
So I haven't really sold much of the game collection
.
Honestly, sitting on thatcollection a little more because
this pop-up around Christmas,my instinct is that that's going
to be the way to sell them.
Like, a few times a year, go toa game store.
It's easy to find people whowant shirts Everyone wears
shirts.
It's much harder to findsomeone who specifically wants a
vintage board game.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
So do you see yourself doing this in the next
five, 10 years?
Are you continuing with theeBay store?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, I'll always be snapping up these vintage board
games we might phase out ofapparel because, for various
reasons, I just feel like it's asaturated market.
It's hard to find the goodstuff anymore.
But I'm a 10-year believer invintage board games.
I think they're going to belike vinyl records in the future
.
It would be so cool to.
One thing I want to do isprovide vintage board games to
(13:47):
the local bars that have,especially the ones that have
like the vintage aesthetic.
What a great idea.
Amidst all the side hustles andeverything that we've talked
about, the one thing I know I'mgoing to be doing in 10 years is
, whatever it is, it's going tobe mediated by AI.
Like what's coming over thenext few years is going to be a
complete creative revolutionwhere any single person is going
to be able to create their ownvideo game, board game, book
(14:10):
song.
Everyone will be a musician,everyone will be an artist, and
a lot of my fellow creators arescared, terrified of that
prospect, and I just see it asthe best thing to ever happen in
humanity.
Like every single person isgoing to be able to be a creator
.
Like that's where culture getsinteresting again, when you
never know what's going tohappen.
Every day, there's somethingcompletely new coming out of
someone's head that would havenever been able to do that if
(14:32):
they didn't have AI to take them.
You know 95% of the way there,so I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Are you working on designing your own game?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yes, I'm playtesting my card game called the Last
Game on Earth, which is oneplayer plays major disasters and
the other player plays the lastremaining survivors on Earth in
sort of a battle to survive,and I very much look forward to
making video games with AI.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
And, by the way, why did you choose eBay and not
other outlets?
It's just the biggest audience.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I know for certain women's fashion there's better
choices Mercado, I think, is oneof them, but I just have been
doing eBay for so long that itwas there.
It's easier to just stay there.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
All right, that was so interesting.
I know a lot of people aredreaming of side hustles, and I
know another person that has aclothing store on eBay.
She's doing all right, oh good,good I guess, if you learn the
system, you could do really well.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, the women's clothes especially does.
I don't understand it, but theydo especially well.
And Women's clothes especiallydoes.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
I don't understand it , but they do especially well,
and, by the way, why did youchoose eBay and not other
outlets?
Because of the auction?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
It's just the biggest audience.
I know for certain women'sfashion there's better choices.
They're like specific towomen's fashion.
Mercado, I think, is one ofthem, but I just have been doing
eBay for so long that it wasthere.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
It's easier to just stay there.
All right, thank you so much.
That was fantastic, my pleasure.
All right, thank you.
That's a wrap for today.
Big thanks to Zach for sharinghis side hustle story.
If your dream is to have yourown eBay gig, I hope his tips
sparked your next move.
(16:09):
Thanks for tuning in and don'tforget to hit the follow button
before you go.
See you next week.
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