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Flip That Sh!t

Bonafide Hustler

Copyright Chris Dupuis 2014

Published at Smashwords

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Contents

1. Prologue

2. Chapter 1 – Hustler Beginnings

3. Chapter 2 – What You Need

4. Chapter 3 – Understanding Risk

5. Chapter 4 – Time is Money

6. Chapter 5 – Where to Hustle

7. Chapter 6 – Avenues

8. Chapter 7 – Importance of Quality

9. Chapter 8 – Condition Matters

10. Chapter 9 – Trends Past and Present

11. Chapter 10 – Hustling Your First Item

12. Chapter 11 – Avenues to Sell

13. Chapter 12 – Profitability of a Process

14. Chapter 13 – The Importance of Time

15. Chapter 14 –Inventory

16. Chapter 15 – Shipping and Returns

17. Chapter 16 – Putting It Together

18. Chapter 17 – Wrapping Up

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Prologue

Humans are an interesting species. Wait, hold on, I am getting somewhere

with this, so hold on. We are capable of huge things and many times we have

everything it takes to get there, just somewhere in the mix we fail to achieve what

we want because we do not have the proper training, motivation, or we lack

something crucial to our success. In my opinion, after the crisis of 2008 things

changed considerably in this country and around the world for that matter. What I

mean by that is the world has changed from a sure place to a very unsure place.

Jobs that were once there and in abundant supply were consolidated, companies

leaned out, and people got a reality check. For some reason or another, the human

race was exposed to all their faults, inadequacies, and ill-planning. Some of you

reading this may be able to relate considerably, but I think 2008 affected many of us

to some degree or another. The key takeaway is that now more than ever it’s

important to know how to make money without relying on someone else.

This book is geared to help you make money and feel really good doing it. I

can’t do it for you, but I will try my hardest to basically give you the “cheat sheet” of

hustling. My goal is for you to be at a Bonafide level to where you feel more than

comfortable with the money you begin to make or are already making. There are

many ways to make extra money out there, but in my opinion for the time invested

and the reward at hand, this is the best gig there is. As always, we are all entitled to

our own opinions, but I have been through many jobs and I can honestly say this is

the most rewarding, enlightening, and fun spare cash thing that I have done.

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In hustling, there are no real boundaries to what you can accomplish. If

you’re a young guy in middle school and you allow this book to guide your hustling

beginnings, you will more than likely be that guy at 24 that has lots of neat things

and you‘ll also be the guy that everyone asks “how did he get there?” In contrast, if

you’re already an experienced hustler this book will not only motivate you to think

differently, but also it will implant certain phrases or one liners that will make you

cash down the road in one of your own hustles. The way to get the most out of this

book is to allow yourself to be like a sponge. Soak it all up. Begin the reading with a

clear mind and finish the book with your own takeaways. Whether you’re young

aspiring hustler or an established hustler, I am confident that both will find this

book of significant value.

This takes me to my next topic, you. Taking control of your success begins

when you’re motivated, informed, and ready. While I would love to say that your

success begins whenever you say it does, the truth is we all say things we want to

do, but the real winners are those who act and apply what they’ve learned in order

to accomplish something. You see, if you act enough times, you end up

accomplishing more than the person who says a bunch and acts here and there.

While both examples can in turn make money, the first example is a person who

will make more over time, and inevitably the first person becomes a better hustler.

Your success depends on how you act, and this book is your catalyst to act. Let’s

face it, you owe it to yourself to get started, or at the very least fine tune your

current situation.

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Do it all correctly and do it Bonafide style. What does that mean anyway?

In my opinion, a person that acts Bonafide is a person who is trustworthy, gives out

advice/knowledge, and acts in the best way accordingly at all times. So that’s

basically how I thought about myself when I started the YouTube channel: The

Bonafide Hustler. Through the channel I have been thankful to interact with people

all over the world and help other aspiring hustlers think differently, make good

hustling decisions, and make some easy cash. As I write this now, the truth is the

book was 80% written before the channel even started on YouTube. I decided to re-

write it based upon a conglomeration of all the interactions I have received and my

new knowledge of what the people in the YouTube picking community really want.

My ultimate goal is to show you how I make money, and for you to have the same

motivation as I do in order to execute your hustling dreams in your own hometown.

When I first started the YouTube channel I picked my name based upon a lyric from

a popular M.I.A song called “Paper Planes”. The exact sentence is this: “Everyone's

a winner, we're making our fame bona fide hustler making my name”. Something in

that lyric really followed me throughout my hustling career. As odd as it seems, I

would always sing that one line in my car; I even put the words Bonafide Hustler on

my longboard, and my girlfriend even had Oakley Radar glasses, etched with

Bonafide Hustler, made for my Christmas gift. Call it destiny, but it was clear on

how I viewed myself, and I was only getting better each and every day. Fast

forward 10 years and here I am; now I have a footstep I the YouTube picker

community not only as a hustler, but also a teacher. That’s honestly the best part of

what I do, making sure others can benefit as I have done so successfully.

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To close this intro I only feel that it’s right for me to explain how I view the

word "hustling". The word hustling has such a ghetto, street-bangin’ association to

it and the way I view it is a bit similar. It’s similar in the sense that you are taking

your feet to the pavement, and making it happen, without looking back. However,

my view on hustling has no drug, violence, or shady parts to it; instead I really

identified with the word in a different sense. So, for all intents and purposes,

whenever I refer to hustling it basically means making it happen, doing it

differently, and getting incredible results. Now it’s time to read forward and never

look back.

-BH

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Chapter 1 – Hustler Beginnings

It was a regular Saturday morning here in Austin, Texas – yes, that’s the

town I live in. Every normal thing was happening; people were running, traffic was

non-existent, and the sun was shining brightly. As for me, I was just enjoying a nice

day in the central part of town by catching a good breakfast and walking around the

lake with my girlfriend at the time. After we did our early morning walk, I decided to

take a look at a Goodwill store on Lake Austin Boulevard. I had always heard of how

deals were found at thrift shops, and here in this town people always dress a bit on

the weird side. I suppose I was looking to buy some neat vintage T shirts. I was

excited at the very least to check the place out and find out really what all the fuss

was about. You know they say life is full of surprises and you never know what

you’ll find out some days. For me, this day would be the day that would change my

life.

I parked my car and looked at the large Goodwill sign while exiting my

vehicle. What would I find? What is this place? Is this where all the weirdos go? I

was excited because I always love checking out the unknown and this was the

perfect place to compliment the beautiful morning that was already in store. As I

walked up to the door I noticed some bikes to my left. There were about 4 bikes, all

in different conditions, all different brands, and they all had price tags. As I scan the

bikes I notice one that is called “Hoffman”; something triggers in my mind, I have

seen this somewhere. It didn’t take long for me to place this brand with the kinds of

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bikes that are ridden in sports within X Games and at local skateparks around the

USA. This was a quality brand, I knew that much.

As I glance at the top tube of the bike I see a price, 7.99. I then look at the

condition and determine it needs tubes. My thought process was on the lines of

“hey that’s going to cost about 10 dollars, why not see if I can perform the work and

charge a bit more for this sucker”. To make a long story short, I buy the bike,

perform the duties needed, and sell it the next day for $80.00 locally. Keep in mind

that there was no craigslist 9 years ago so I had listed it in our local paper’s

classified section. Somehow I just knew that I could not go wrong, it had to work.

After the sale, and with more money in my hands as well as pride on my side, I

thought flipping this bike was the coolest thing I had done in a while. Now let’s fast

forward that to the present day, after hustling thousands of bikes, other items,

making tons of cash, and building a YouTube channel, I suppose you can say that I

took it to the next level. I made it bona fide.

Being a successful hustler is a great thing. Having the ability to walk into a

thrift store and pick things out that will resell for more money is a very good skill to

possess. Though my success is a by-product of my experiences, it is also something

that can be taught. It’s a skill that anyone can have if they have the right

information and motivation. Can we all do it? Absolutely! Will we all see the light?

The unfortunate answer is no. It takes a person who is dedicated to learning and a

person who is not scared to apply simple math to assess risk. You see, hustling is

nothing more than carefully calculated trades of cash, trades that involve simple

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math in your head, and also trades that require you to access your memory often.

Before I get all scientific on you, it’s important that you know hustling in its entirety

is VERY, VERY SIMPLE. If you actively soak up the information in this book, you WILL

make money, it’s pretty much inevitable.

This brings us to the YouTube channel of The Bonafide Hustler and the

reason why it is there for your viewing pleasure. The channel was geared to

highlight the advantages of incorporating hustling into your life. In addition it’s

there for free viewing as a way for me to give back to those out there looking for

more money. The channel is constantly evolving as I am, but in reality it’s there and

it’s free. As the game changes so will the channel, but right now its goal is to help

you out and give you a more than bird’s eye view of what is possible. It is more of a

visual cheat sheet and a tool to incite motivation. Halfway into the channel’s

success, I decided it would be the perfect catalyst for this book, and that judgment

call was made shortly after realizing how many interactions and comments

regarded the basics for hustling. I realized that I knew the answers to many people’s

questions because I had done it before and I had done it with success. While the

channel is mostly known currently for its semi-outrageous intros and engaging

content, the truth is hustling is fun. I live it every day in some way fashion or form.

Hustling works, it absolutely does, and it will work for you if you let it.

The truth is anyone can do this, anyone can be a hustler. My goal is not to

make you a hustler, but a bona fide hustler. By the time you finish this book you will

be able to perform with ease your first hustles, or maybe you’ll fine tune your

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current game; either way, there’s something here for everyone. I have spent 10

years doing this, and it feels like I just started yesterday. I have been through 5

mobile phones, and 4 cameras while being in this game. Seeing the pictures taken

from each device to this day still blows my mind. Don’t get me wrong, there were

some unsure purchases and some profits gone wrong, but ultimately in the end I

stand here writing a book, fully experienced and still in the game. They say people

come and go in hustling, and I say you can stay here so long as you make good

educated decisions. One of the best decisions anyone can make is to invest in their

own hustling education by buying books, dvd’s, watching thrifting/flipping shows on

TV, or maybe even spending that extra time on Friday night making a garage sale

list. It’s all trades, it’s all investing. It’s basically putting something forward of value

in order to get something of greater value. If you get what I am saying, then you’re

learning. If you don’t, do not worry, you bought the ultimate hustler guide, you’ve

committed to investing something, your time and money. Now it’s my turn to make

sure you get your money’s worth.

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Chapter 2 – What You Need

In order to be successful in hustling, there are some things you will need.

Having the right foundation is key in building a business, and this is exactly what

you are building, a business. Whether you like to view it this way or not, there is a

cash flow coming in and going out, and you’re the person organizing and running

the show. Want more money? Run the show better. As stated before, there’s

something in here for hustlers both new and experienced. There are some things I

believe are absolutely necessary and also some that are up to you; some of these

things are tangible, and some are not. Knowing how incorporate everything into a

business will take some time, but then again nothing out there is easy right from

the start. You have to put in some hard work eventually. Fortunately, hustling is

relatively easy if you do it right, and basically you end up repeating/fine tuning your

results as you get better.

The highest ranking, most important thing to have when you hustle is a

positive attitude. Although this sounds elementary, I cannot stress this enough as a

crucial piece to the puzzle. Without this, a hustler swims in a small cash pool.

Approaching the game with a good attitude and good intentions allows you to

bathe in a pool of deep cash. Which do you want? It’s all your decision. This brings

us to the truth of the matter- you get what you put into this book. Buying it was an

investment for yourself, now the next task for you is to read it and then act on what

you learned. All of this requires a good attitude, and some motivation!

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Many people have reached out to me via YouTube and Facebook telling me

that I have motivated them to build a channel, start hustling, or make more money

in general (for the more experienced hustlers). It comes to no surprise that I get

comments such as these because I love hustling and completely urge everyone to

try it. I am motivated by others telling me that hustling worked just like the channel

said it would. That makes me feel good. It’s important, though, to realize that these

people acted on information that I divulged on the channel, and subsequently

found that inner motivation to act, which later rewarded them handsomely.

Motivation is something that you cannot buy, but instead it’s a feeling that incites

action. While you read this book, try to figure out why you bought it; was it for

more money in your future, trying something new, or just to see what the

commotion was all about? Figure that out, and read further while remembering

constantly why you bought the book in the first place. Don’t be afraid to set high

expectations for yourself, and hopefully this book will deliver your missing puzzle

pieces.

Outside of being motivated and having a good attitude, an important thing

a hustler needs to have is a good mobile phone. I do not mean a good brand, but

one that can do internet, email, get apps, has decent battery time, and is relatively

quick. If there’s a tool I use more than any other, it is certainly my cell phone. This

device is the answer to a majority of buy or not buy decisions, routing garage sales,

getting back to customers, seeing what to ship, and that’s just a few of the things

you can do with it. I cannot stress how important it is to have a good phone with a

good media plan. So if you don’t have one get one, and make sure to look at this as

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an investment in your business. I will highlight in future chapters how the mobile

phone is your best friend.

The other more obvious thing you need in becoming a hustler is cash. Yes,

you will need some sort of start-up capital. This can be something as small as ten

dollars, or as much as thousand dollars. Just make sure it’s an amount you are

comfortable with to begin. If you’re an experienced hustler, then you already know

the value of money as it is the lifeblood of hustling. You can choose to have actual

cash or even start hustling on a credit card. Just be sure that if you pick the latter

that you factor in interest charges or at least know when your bill comes every

month. One good tip I have for newer, aspiring hustlers is to pick a beginning

amount that you are very much attached to. For example, if you were considering

buying a $100 table for your house next week, why not take that $100 instead and

put it to hustling; by doing this, you have a personal stake in the game, which

should translate to more action because you want your $100 back quick! Whatever

amount you choose, your return will be better if it’s money that’s very important to

you.

Another important tool to have is a means of transportation. This helps

hustling immensely and allows you to see more stops in a shorter period of time. In

addition to a suv I also have a cargo bike, a bicycle that has an extended chassis for

taking on larger loads. If I had no car then at least the bike would help me

considerably. I actually ride the bike the post office on nice days to drop off

packages. It suppose that’s the perk of having no boss and hustling full time! There

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are so many ways to hustle, but having a means of transportation that’s readily

available is a huge piece of the puzzle. I should also mention that a reliable car or

suv is also a plus. To make it even better, having a vehicle that gets good gas

mileage will only translate into the ability to see further places if needed and you’ll

be able to do repeat visits daily to thrift stores if needed without wondering about

the gas charge. Fine tuning your hustler game comes from many angles, and having

an efficient, reliable vehicle only adds more money into your pocket. I must note

that my favorite hustling vehicles so far have been the Honda Element, Toyota

Prius, and pretty much any minivan. That’s just my two cents.

Another good tool to have is a decent camera. Nowadays the cameras in

phones are pretty good, but they still lack when it comes to super close ups and

macro shots. Going back to the original point, having a good camera outside of your

cell phone camera will help you streamline things such as eBay, Amazon, and

posting on Craigslist. It is also important to show detail in pictures in order to get

more people attracted to your post or ad. When I started hustling, I had a small

canon elph, which was about the size of a palm, and in my opinion it took very good

pictures. Ten years ago, the good cameras in cell phones had not been developed

fully, so I had to think differently. Soon after that I finally got a cell phone with an

integrated camera, but the issue then was the uploading of pics to classified

sections, and the upload speed in general. Having a good external camera is

something I have incorporated into my everyday hustling. Often I will spend 30mins

to an hour just snapping pictures of what I had bought from the day’s haul. At night

I find myself uploading 1-12 pics for each ad I make on eBay; so having pics stored

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on a SD card with the ability to select multiple pics for upload purposes is priceless.

I must say, however, that I was able to get by with very successful hustling from

years 4-7 without having a dedicated camera for my pics. However, as stated before

the camera on your phone will be fine if you’re just a beginner wanting to start

hustling. Back in the day I mainly used my cell phone, and most of my business was

local at that point. Now, my business is much larger and widespread with multiple

sales channels. Being streamlined with an optimized workflow is the most

important thing to me now. Maximizing my hourly rate is always my top priority

and therefore I believe those who are super serious about hustling should have a

separate camera. My camera of choice as of this book writing is the Sony NEX-F3. In

my opinion, it’s the best bang for the buck.

It also helps to have a computer with fast internet at your home. I like

having a desktop computer with twin screens in order to be more efficient when I

list on eBay, do research, or when I route my Sat AM garage sale route. I decided to

upgrade my home internet because I like to have results and information very

quickly, but that’s just me. Having a laptop or something other than the cell phone

is pretty much what I mean by having a computer. You should not rely only on your

mobile phone; having a home base for computing needs only makes your hustling

easier. Take it from me, I have been there and experimented with having it versus

not having it. You make more money when you are efficient, streamlined, and

properly equipped. Also don’t be afraid to invest into getting a better, more current

day setup. Investing in yourself is key, but only if it translates into being more

efficient. That being said, the smartphone revolution is evolving at a rapid pace and

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at some point in the future, a smaller all-in-one tablet may phase out a full blown

laptop and phone combination.

Building the correct infrastructure early is very important to being a

successful hustler. I understand that the general name of the game is to hustle

lean, and incur few fixed costs; however, consider the fact that you may be actually

hindering a piece of your success because of lack of organization. As it stands in

most businesses in America, if you’re prepared you stand a better chance of

succeeding. If you get by with only doing the minimum, you get the minimum. One

of the ways to be better organized starts with knowing how each piece of the

hustler puzzle interacts with the rest. For example, how does a slow, tedious upload

of pictures to Craigslist affect your view on the next ads you need to do, or better

yet your actual bottom line? It’s a valid question because many resellers and

hustlers out there deal with this very issue. The truth is if it takes too long, you are

less likely to do more ads back to back, and this directly affects your bottom line as

well as your inventory. My point is get your organization and systems down. Make

sure there’s a charger for your phone in your vehicle; make sure you have ink and

paper in your printer. Don’t be all over the place reacting when you can be calm,

composed and acting. Hopefully you see what I am saying.

In summary, the success of a beginning hustler and established hustler is

dependent on how you view situations, what tools you have, and how you organize

your tools in order to give you the best return for the time invested. After all, time

is the most valuable thing to a hustler. If you are constantly thinking of ways to get

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more time, you will be surprised to find that you could work on your current

operation in order to free up the time needed. Don’t start hustling being

unprepared. Start the game with your tools and know how each affects the others.

Work on your business, not in your business. Last, be open to everything. Look at

things in a positive sense, and never in a negative one. Approach the game with

confidence, poise, and a good attitude; should you do this correctly you will be on

your way to the hustler riches.

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Chapter 3 – Understanding Risk

In the world today billions of transactions take place every day regarding

the exchange of money. This exchange can be looked at in two ways, spending and

saving. An example of saving would be the person who deposits money in a bank or

places a set amount of money in a 401K every month. On the contrary, there are

spending transactions which range from our everyday purchase of coffee all the

way to the purchase of a home. As a hustler, one of your goals is to spend in order

to save. In this game, there are no guarantees, no set percentage return on your

investment. To most, this sounds like a terrible proposition! As a society, we are

taught so much about consumption and fear, rather than taking chances and seeing

the potential “light”. I am telling you right here right now that hustling is a viable

way to make more money, but first you’ll have to understand this little thing called

risk.

Living in the USA, it is safe to say we live in a very consumer-driven

society, one where consumption is everywhere we go. One of the best perks of

hustling besides the money is the education you receive about the real costs of

goods. More specifically, the better hustler you become, the more money you end

up saving over time just as a direct result. Allow me to explain further. 9 years ago I

was in a peculiar place in life. I had a great income with a fortune 100 company and

had a pretty good life. I did not know that I had been the exact thing I was supposed

to be, a consumer. We are trained to be just this, to buy buy buy. I do not want to

mislead those reading by saying I didn’t save money, because the truth was I was

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able to save about 15%-20% of what I made, which is still higher than the national

average, but here I was a happy guy with some neat toys, and still hungry for more.

At this stage of my life I would say my knowledge of risk was pretty limited.

After I left my corporate job, I decided to become a day trader, and about

2 years later I decided to leave because I was doing marginally well at it. At that

point I realized one thing about making money for myself, more control is better. In

other words, the closer you are to your money, the more you can make it grow, if

you like to use your brain a bit. In hustling, you are in direct control of your money

as you manage it solely and with the intent of flipping it into more. Kiyosaki and

Trump echo in their books constantly about how control is everything. The closer

you are to your money, the more control you have. Hence, this is one of the

underlying premises of why they are big into real estate, and not big in the stock

markets. They can see their physical investments, whereas the latter is based on

trust of a company, or companies. I am not saying that stock market investing is

wrong. My point is the closer you are to your cash, the more decisions you can

make to grow it in the direction you want.

This brings us to risk and what it means to a hustler. We are all little stock

traders in life. You just have to look at it in a different way. For instance, when you

are thirsty and on the road, you are likely to pull over and buy a drink at a

convenience store, and let’s assume that you didn’t have a drink with you already.

There you are, at the counter, purchasing something in order to get something. You

have essentially made a trade of something of less value (your money) for

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something of higher value (feeling satiated). If the trade works well, after the

transaction is done and you consume the beverage, you should feel better and not

be thirsty anymore. The risk here is the feeling of still being thirsty; if you were still

thirsty, you would have to get another drink, which would then cost you more

money. However, in this situation most of us are pretty good at this trade, we buy a

small, medium, or large drink based on how thirsty we feel. This is a trade many of

us do on a yearly basis.

In hustling, the trades are different, but inherently the same. These trades

involve money and time, and by the end of reading this book you should have a

very clear understanding of both. When I hustle, I put a sum of money forward in

order to get a much larger sum of money in return. The risk now becomes exactly

what you’re thinking, the money. To some out there, this is uncomfortable, but I

am here to tell you that hustling is simple, and relies heavily on statistics and

probabilities. No, you don’t have to be a math major to understand what I am about

to tell you, don’t worry!

Let’s take this from the top. Suppose I tell you to put 2 dollars forward and

in return you may win 10 dollars. Would you do this? If your answer is no, then

shame on you! The lottery in each state has odds far worse than the odds that I just

presented. In the $2 forward $10 in return scenario, there is a 1 in 5 chance that

you will lose, and a 4 out of 5 chance that you will win. Simply put, this is a GREAT

trade. If this trade was present all the time you would make money over time just

based on statistics. In hustling, the more times you can do this trade, or a trade

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similar to it, the more money you will have for whatever you want to buy. Let it be

known that the trade above is not uncommon. In fact it is more common than you

think if you understand risk correctly.

When I hustle I try to attain odds in my favor higher than the example

above. In reality, using the above scenario once again, if you have two dollars spent

and you stand to make ten dollars, you also know that a possible outcome can also

be the loss of your two dollars. However, with odds such as 4:5 that you will make

money, the chances of losing your two dollars only happens 1 out of 5 times

(assuming you had this scenario above repeated five times). That’s GREAT, GREAT

odds. Suppose, though, you were only to do it one time, and you win. You would

have ten dollars, which is as we discussed, a great trade; but really what happened

is you made four times your risk. Your risk was the two dollars (that you may have

lost), and the reward is the potential eight dollars (of pure cash), together that

makes ten. Two times four is eight. In a winning scenario, or a good hustle as I

would say, you basically made a 400% profit. This is no different than a stock

investor that buys a company at $200 a share and sells it later for $1000 a share.

The only real difference is the scale of money and the amount of control you have

on the investment.

Now here’s the lesson that brings it all together. In the real world of

hustling you will be using this trading methodology all the time, so it is up to you to

make sure you understand it fully. Let’s look at a classic example of how I use this in

everyday hustling. When strolling through the thrift shop I like to mostly look for

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the things that will make me money. At this stage of my hustling career, I can make

money on many things. While I am not the jack of all trades, I am good at hustling

many things. I may come across a nice bike helmet that catches my eyes. Suppose

this helmet has a brand new market value of 100 dollars. Here it is for 20 dollars,

resting right in front of me on a shelf. For all intents and purposes we assume also

that this helmet is in pretty good shape and can pass for being “lightly used” or

“mint”. I assume that I can probably sell it for 60 dollars. Notice how I said I could

“probably” sell it, meaning that it could not sell also. Before making a decision to

purchase I think about my risk first. I think about worst case scenario. Here, that

ends up being the helmet sold for 10 dollars, which would translate into a 10 dollar

loss. Now I think of the average or best scenario regarding the helmet sale, maybe it

sells for 40 -60. What we have here is a potential trade.

Let’s look at the unfortunate scenario. If the helmet sells for $10, I am out

$10 because remember I bought it for $20. But suppose I think I can make money

here; suppose I know about this item and have done my market research. The trade

proposed in the helmet example is basically this: would I place 10 dollars forward to

get 40-60 dollars in return? Would I risk $10 to make $40-60? This is an example of

a good trade that I would do. I figure if I get the low end of the sale, I am looking at

a 300% profit potential and if I get the high end I am looking at a 500% profit

potential. Yes, I may have to tie up 20 dollars for a week or two, but in reality there

is a good chance I will make money on this trade and there’s even the chance that

the item sells tomorrow (if I make an ad that very same day). As a beginning hustler

you must think of things in terms of risk in order to be good with your money. Risk

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is a fundamental piece of the hustler game; bypassing the learning of risk will only

lead to marginal hustling results, but being more of a master at risk leads you to

more money and less headaches. One thing to note, risk is very useful for times

where you may be unsure of something or if you are a new hustler. There will be

many times where you find something and instinctively know you cannot lose any

amount of money, and those deals can present themselves to beginners and

experienced hustlers. I decided to write this section on risk more specifically to

assist newer people in the game and also for those experienced hustlers that just

want to make better decisions with their cash.

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Chapter 4 – Time is Money

If you are a fan of my YouTube channel, often you hear me speak about

the value of time. In my opinion, there are many pieces to the puzzle that is how to

be the best hustler. Time is one of those pieces; it is a resource on your side that

must be mastered. How do we do this? How can we be better at something that we

cannot buy or sell? The reality is that time is something that we all have, and as

mentioned above it is one of the resources that we have besides money and our

own physical capabilities. Understanding time is crucial in becoming a super hustler,

as you will have to make many decisions based on it, and some of these decisions

will involve actually denying cash! Time can be broken down into three distinct

brackets: time as money, time as chances, and time as conversion.

In order to first understand time, I think it’s appropriate to begin with a

simple example of how time affects our basic hustler needs. We are all creatures of

habit in the sense that for the most part, we live repetitive lives. Have you taken the

time to think outside of the box on how you can actually maximize your time? This

may sound funny but it’s completely serious! Hustling effectively answers many of

these questions for those who want to make great money in a short period of time,

and it’s also something that can be shared with loved ones and friends. It’s fun for

everyone to hustle so long as it pays off! One classic example of how I look at time

can be illustrated by how I deny buying certain products that I know will make me

money. You may think why would I ever want to turn down cash? The answer is

simple. I do not have an infinite amount of time so I make the most money out of

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the time I have; therefore I must prioritize the cash inflow and outflow. Some

amounts of cash are just not worth it to me.

By now you may know where I am going with this. Everything you do in life

takes up time, so it’s in your best interest so spend your time wisely, whether that is

to achieve more love, money, happiness, fitness, or some combination of those. My

main goal is to make full time income with part time hours. Of course, it took me a

long time to get here, but that does not mean it has to be that way for you. For

those more established hustlers, this time section should help you prioritize your

time better in order to maximize your profits. In a gist, time is money. It costs

money for example when a hustler sleeps in on a Saturday AM, when we do not

meet up with a buyer off Craigslist, or when we decide to surf the internet when we

could be listing on eBay or Craigslist. Time is money

The real question is how to make more money in the time you decide to

hustle. Hustling time is the time dealing with finding, researching, listing, shipping,

monitoring, meeting with buyers, travelling, etc. Once you look at it in this respect,

you may start to see how to prioritizing is key for any hustler. I think the best way to

maximize your time is to place yourself where the most money lies and give

yourself the most chances to make a big amount of money. This could entail habits

such as planning effectively the right routes and sales to hit on a Sat AM, hitting up

thrift stores on the right times, or even understanding seasonality at a pawn shop.

While I could provide many more examples, I think you get the point. You are in

control of how much you make and your actions will decide what you make, not

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just your thoughts. It’s about working smarter and not harder, it is as easy as that.

As a beginner hustler, the most important thing you can do is to find the time to

visit many garage sales and hit up thrift stores. That’s where you need to be to find

your first scores. Keep in mind a sale is a sale and a thrift store is the same thing as

a resale shop or second hand outlet. The important takeaway for those that are

beginners is that you are spending 60% of your time there until you can get a steady

flow of items. A good mix of time would look like this:

- 60% locating items

- 20% listing

- 20% shipping/meeting w buyers on a local level

It will all vary on your knowledge, experience, town, weather, markets, etc. For the

most part, just be aware of your priorities, and make the most out of your precious

time.

Conversion is another way that I like to be cognizant of my time. People

these days, me included, are pretty busy. I was at a chamber seminar a while back

(when I was an insurance salesman) where the session topic regarded taking

control of your time. One of the best takeaways from the seminar was how busy

people were, but when asked about how much money they were making, the

answer was almost always “not enough”. How crazy is this? So let me get this

straight, you’re really busy not making the money you should be making? This is

absurd! We are all capable of thinking on a higher level, but application is

completely different than the thought and desire. An example of this can be all the

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teaching in the world that physical fitness is a right way to stay healthy, but we also

for some reason live in the fattest nation on this earth. Why is this? Simple, people

know what’s right, but lack the action potential to get there. You can call it

motivation, but I can also tell you I have seen motivated people fail at their

thoughts. That’s why I call it failure to act.

You see, if you act enough, you end up succeeding over time. Much like

hustling, if you make more educated and smart decisions about your time, you will

end up over time making more money. This is where conversion comes in. You can

buy greatest stuff in the world, but if you do not have a sales action plan, you

become a busy hustler that makes little to no cash. In other words, if you want to

make money hustling, then get your buying and selling down. Have a plan! While

this book won’t be able to make a plan for you, I will say that having a plan is

crucial in order to get money converting faster. Without successful conversion, you

end up having a cash problem, or at least eventually you will. No hustler out there

can sustain a business if you’re not at least selling a large portion of what you buy. I

will leave you with these tips on how to establish a good conversion ratio:

- Re-list often and do not be afraid to lessen your asking price

- List often early and soon after you buy the item

- List an item in multiple channels

- Have some buyers on speed dial for certain things you may come across on a

regular basis

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- List and sell the item with the most profit potential or list the most expensive

product first!

- Take good pictures of your finds and list with those pics.

- Be honest about item condition down to the scratch, blemish, hole in fabric,

etc.

- Leave feedback on eBay buyers on a regular basis

- Ship the item immediately

- Call back local buyers interested in your items very quickly

- Push for an appointment to meet very quickly.

These are just some of the suggestions that I have. I urge you to watch more of my

videos to understand what channels I place certain products, and in general how I

sell an item as well as the way I describe it. I find that those in the game that use

their time wisely are much more composed, professional, and knowledgeable than

the opposite. Make sure you schedule out enough time to get your stuff done.

Time is very important to hustling. Whether you are a beginner or a super

hustler, no one truly has mastered it all; however, there are those that are awfully

close. Write down things you need done, and schedule time accordingly to get

those things done. Most of all never be afraid of trying too hard. Hustling rewards

those that are cognizant of their time, those that use it wisely. It creates a nasty rat

race for those that are unprepared and spur of the moment. This is your business

with no rules, no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t waste your own time!

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Chapter 5 - Where to Hustle

A large portion of your time in hustling deals with finding the actual items

that you will sell. As much as I would like to tell you to get out there and start

finding good deals, I think it’s important to highlight some things about these

avenues in order to find resalable goods. In addition, consider the differences you

may have in your hometown versus the places that I speak of. The places that I will

discuss are based on my experience, and largely consider time, effort, money and

reliability. After reading this section, create your own plan based on what you think

your town has to offer. Now let’s talk about where you’re going to be shopping!

I think it’s only appropriate to begin with the almighty garage sale. Yes, this

is much like baseball. It’s a favorite pastime and something that a majority of us

have already experienced. It’s interesting for me now as a hustler to look at garage

sales in a different way than when I was younger. My mother always loved garage

sales and did micro hustles back in the day, mostly with sewing related items. She

would often flip sewing machines for more money, but as we all can imagine she

also had a nice collection of her favorites. While I cannot attribute my hustling

beginnings to my mother’s desire to make extra cash many years ago, I use the

example only because at some point or another I believe we have all been to a

garage sale and scored a great deal.

Now it’s time to look at the garage sale as more than a place where you

can get your desired items for cheap, and rather a place where you can make big

money. In some cities in America the garage sale season is year round; here in

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Austin, TX we have a 1-2 month drastic slowdown around Dec/Jan, but that’s about

it. In other towns there are almost dedicated “seasons” for garage sales. It is crucial

that you understand the importance of this season, because a good garage sale

route at peak season can make your whole week. That’s right; I have had many

weeks that were seriously profitable simply due to my flawless execution of a

Saturday garage sale route that I had planned earlier on a Friday evening. In my

opinion, it’s tough to compete with the cash I stand to make from a 4 hour Sat Am

route; I pretty much, over time, have deducted that the garage sale is either my top

or my second all-time moneymaker.

There are some reasons to why garage sales are such a great place to start

a hustling career, or to fine tune one. First, it’s understood that there is a sense of

urgency to sell the items if you’re the seller. Think about it. You don’t want the

items in the house, and you would rather not take the leftovers after the sale back

inside either. What we have here is an advantage, simple as that. It will be your job

to see many garage sales and capitalize on this wonderful event! People are

basically cleaning out their unwanted stuff. Bring your cash and make sure you

don’t bring large bills; it’s a bit hard to negotiate if you have a wad of 100’s or 50’s if

you know what I mean.

Second, the garage sale is also a place where many pricing mistakes occur.

This is wonderful. As any established hustler will say, the time to make your money

is when you buy the item. I cannot tell you how many times I have had stellar and

epic deals. To be honest, it happens almost every weekend. As a hustler, you will

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get a lot of deals and some super steals. This is typically a result of pricing error,

liquidation of inventory, or great hustler bargaining skills. Either way, these super

steals are the highlights of a hustler’s career and often spur more drive to replicate.

They are also more likely, in my opinion, to occur at a garage sale/yard sale. That

being said, garage sales are only a part of the places you should be visiting in order

to find items to resell.

Another favorite place where I make plenty of money from is the everyday

thrift shop. These are also commonly known as a resale shop, consignment store, or

secondhand store. In Austin we have two large players, Goodwill Industries and

Salvation Army. We also have a plethora of mid to smaller ones that are spread all

over town. I have made a ton of money off thrift stores and absolutely think they

need to be part of a weekly/daily route. The trick to making a thrift store pay up is

one thing only, frequency of visits at the best times. Some thrift stores here have

dedicated truck schedules, which gives me a bit of an advantage. If I show up after

the new stuff is out on the floor, I have a good chance of finding something good.

Finding out when those times occur will take some asking around to people in the

store that work there. Overall, however, the success of hustling a thrift store mostly

comes from the repeat amount of visits you give it. I have been to countless thrift

stores multiple times in a day and found different items on the second time around.

The important takeaway is focus on the amount of visits.

Thrift stores, much like garage sales, have a good chance of having pricing

inefficiencies. In my opinion this is due to two factors: the sheer amount of items

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that are donated that need to be processed and the employee compensation

program that most have. The two largest players that I have seen across the nation

have been Goodwill Industries and Salvation Army. Both are operating from

donations from the public. It is not uncommon for there to be a line of cars

donating goods to these two thrift giants. If you think about it, that’s a lot of stuff,

and it all has to be sorted and priced. In speaking to managers at both stores, much

of the material that is donated to a store ends up being resold at that given store,

but there are also distribution/main hubs of these larger thrift giants in town where

the goods sometimes will be sent. By this point you might realize that there is a

large operation of donated goods going on here, and this is exactly what causes the

first pricing inefficiency. I find that this inefficiency happens more at corporate thrift

giants than any other, but that’s merely my observation and opinion. There are so

many items that need to be priced that there is no way the employees can

individually look up every item. This is great for a hustler, and this is reason number

one for why the thrift store is a great place to visit.

Second, the big thrift giants also have employees, and many of these

employees don’t know as much as a beginning to advanced hustler regarding the

real market pricing of goods. It is important to note that a majority of employees in

the larger thrift stores are recovering drug addicts, homeless individuals, or general

people that have had a string of bad luck. They are all very good people inside, but

somewhere in life something went wrong, and I find it very respectable that these

thrift giants open their doors to these people in order to give them hope or just a

second chance. These employees are working there to get basic food and shelter,

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some wages, and great friends. Typically the ultimate goal is to get these people on

their feet and onto a permanent job; again, I can’t say more about how good this is

for humanity. Going back to my original point, these employees do not have the

knowledge that a hustler has. They do not constantly go to garage sales, check eBay

completed auctions on their phones, meet with people from craigslist, etc. Hence,

this is the cause for the second pricing inefficiency. It’s as simple as a knowledge

difference. Now, the flip side to this is sometimes these individuals think an item is

worth too much, and often you will find some very high prices on ordinary goods.

That is no good. Pass those items up immediately!

Thrift stores are not always giant operations either. For example, there are

many here in Austin that are affiliated with a church, independently owned, or just

a smaller local chain. I find that these smaller thrift stores can yield just as good of

deals as the giant ones, but I often see a better quality of items at a Goodwill or

Salvation Army. It’s a casual observation, and by no means am I saying to write off

the smaller stores. As a very experienced hustler, it’s all about numbers and how

many chances you give yourself to find the items you will need to resell. Chances

chances chances. Remember, garage sales are amazing on Saturdays and

sometimes Fridays. This means you are left with about 5-6 days open to find other

ways to make your money. Don’t be afraid. Just know your other options!

One of the most profitable places I visit on a regular basis are pawn shops.

Yes, I said PAWN SHOPS! I find it very interesting how many people out there are

amazed that I can successfully hustle a pawn shop. It’s really not that hard, but it

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requires a much higher level of education, psychology, and as much as I hate to

admit, it requires more money in most cases. Pawn shops are absolutely so much

fun to hustle because the quality of goods is very high and the reliance on good

negotiation skills is put to the test. A pawn shop is nothing like a thrift store, and in

fact it’s completely different for many reasons. I think the real reason why a pawn

shop has been profitable to me is because there is a timing inefficiency and a battle

of minds that ensues at these places.

I’m fortunate to have many friends in the pawn industry here in Austin, but

each friendship was built over time, and many of these friendships came simply

because the shop managers would see me walk in on a weekly/bi-weekly basis.

When I first started hustling pawn shops I would go in trying to find bicycles. Over

time, as my education grew, I was able to expand into other items such as guitars,

remote control cars, sporting goods, and various others. My point is that I went in

knowing about one item, and many years later came out knowing about many

items as well as how the business works. Over time I understood the aspects of the

pawn business that complimented my business, and that’s where the opportunity

is.

For the most part pawn shops are very educated on item resale prices,

accurate market values, and the time value of money. They fulfill a very important

piece of the credit puzzle in the USA meaning that they are an enormous

contributor to helping people in tight spots attain funds. Did you know that after

the market crash in 2008 that a pawn shop was the second leading form of credit

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lending in the USA right behind banks/financial institutions? That’s incredible!

Before going to pawn shops I had a funny disposition that they were places where

shady things occur and were a bridge for many people’s stolen goods. Well, I was

wrong, very wrong! Pawn shops are important to how we run as an economy and

they are great places to find things to resell.

This brings us to the timing of items at a pawn shop. If you have ever been

to a Pawn Shop before, you realize that some shops have breakdown price tags.

These tags show the price reduction of an item at various future dates. The tags

also show that you’re dealing with a professional hustling business. Let’s be honest,

this is no different than a reseller that knocks off money off their item and reposts

their ad on a weekly/monthly basis. In most cases even the bottom price of the

item at a pawn shop at a future date will still pay the shop a decent amount of

money. Therefore, as time passes, this is a good thing for a hustler. Knowing the

time breakdown and the bottom price on the tag is something that we can use in a

negotiation but more importantly it shows a bird’s eye view on what the shop may

have paid for that item. Many pawn shops also deal with seasonality in regards to

the items they sell. Seasonality only adds to this second inefficiency. Here in Austin

there is a definite season for biking and watersports. In peak season, which is

summer and fall, the pawn shops will have a noticeable increase in the pricing of

season-influenced items, many of which are outdoors related goods. In Austin,

when it begins to get colder in the fall I can expect a decent amount of high quality

outdoors goods to be marked down for quick sale, etc. That’s perfect for me.

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Another advantage for a hustler looking to make money off a pawn shop

relates to negotiation/mind games. If you’re a beginning hustler try not to be afraid

of talking to pawn shop managers or negotiating with them. Confidence and

negotiation are necessary skills to have in order to successfully make profits out of

the pawn business. Let’s begin with confidence. Have you ever tried to lowball

someone when they’re right in front of you? How uncomfortable is that? For most

people, this is just something not in their abilities. I urge you to consider this: the

pawn business is used to this; in fact, they are pros at offering low amounts of cash

to random customers because they need to shelter their risk and make their money

right up front when they buy the items for the shop. What’s the difference if you go

in and do the same thing in reverse? The answer is nothing, absolutely nothing. You

have money, which they need, but you don’t have an infinite amount. They

understand this, but they will try to get as much of your money as possible. In order

to bring things into your court, you’ll need to be comfortable negotiating.

However, one of the first tasks will be to establish some rapport.

Oftentimes as soon as you walk into a pawn shop, staff will greet you and ask what

you are looking for. Don’t tell them what you are looking for! Just look around and

say “I’m just looking” – which is basically the truth, especially if you’re a beginner.

Whenever you end up at an item that you are thinking of hustling (assuming that

you see a price that is already decent, just not perfect) ask the person what’s the

best deal you can get on the item “out the door”. Saying this implies you are

interested in rock bottom with tax included. They will then tell you some price,

which sometimes is already super good, but other times it just won’t be low enough

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for you to buy the item. Next, I find it important, regardless of what they say, to

walk away or stop touching the item (if you were handling it). This demonstration of

walking away is similar to being at a car dealership and just saying “well, we will just

continue looking”. More times than not, what do you think their reaction is after

you walk away? If you guessed that they come back and ask you what price you

were thinking, or something on those lines, then you are correct. This scenario

happens many times at a pawn shop. I can’t tell you how many times I have been

asked “well, what price were you thinking?” At that point, it’s relatively easy to

close the deal. Just negotiate a bit more and you will have the item at a very good

price.

Remember, almost every shop has daily, weekly, and monthly sales goals.

If you happened to come in on a slow day it’s very obvious in how they act, you will

be able to tell. I find that the best days to visit a pawn shop are Monday through

Wednesday, and the best times to go are between the hours of 10am and 2pm.

That being said, I have also made large pawn shop purchases on Saturdays as well. I

tend to place them in my route if I am out garage saling or if I happen to be close to

one in the afternoon.

When the weather is better and not so hot here in Austin I like to go

picking. Picking to me is the bargaining and deal making with another person on

their actual property. Picking also is very good to find older, one of a kind, and many

times vintage items. It is different from a garage sale in the sense that it is typically

not advertised. Simply put, you have to find the picks yourself. This takes some sort

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of advertising showing that you are a picker. It can be word of mouth, a flyer, or an

ad in a local paper/craigslist. Most times I would just post on craigslist and attach

several pictures of property that I would like to pick. These pictures I would find off

the internet, but they serve as a guide for those out there wondering if they have

some of this stuff that I want to buy. Again, when I get into picker mode I am trying

to find old, dirty, junky, and rusty, one-of-a-kind items, the kinds of items that I

seldom find at garage sales. These items are perfect for my antique booth or eBay.

While not as prominent as garage sales or everyday thrift stores, picks are there as

a place to find stuff, and that’s what is important. It’s just a bit more difficult to find

them as opposed to finding a garage sale, for example.

Picking is a very fun part of hustling especially if you are prepared. In order

to be prepared to pick you will need some items and concepts to ensure you have a

good picking experience. One of the first things that you will need is an open

personality. Picking on someone’s property is great and you want to make sure you

are invited again, especially if you end up finding lots of things your first time. My

very first pick I ever did was at a town about an hour away. It was way out in the

rural part as well. I did very well at my first pick and collectively made about $400 in

profit. I enjoyed my finds and the experience so much that I called again a month

later to pick more. My second visit was even better and I began to bond with the

owners of the land. You always want the person on the property to be comfortable

with you there. When I pick I basically rummage through someone’s land, property,

junk piles, etc. Many times I will have a conversation with the person while I pick

and sometimes I uncover things that they thought they had lost or forgotten!

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Having an open personality and being respectful is the best way to pick and be

invited again! It pays in the end so pay the respect forward.

In addition to needing the open personality you will also need some things

in order to be an efficient picker. I always take shoes or boots that I don’t mind

getting muddy or wet because many times I would find myself picking in muddy or

overgrown grass situations. Having a raincoat is also a plus for the times when it

rains while you pick. I think one of the most important things to have is a good pair

of gloves in order to pick up pieces of wood that are in the way of your goods, or for

shifting things around so you can get somewhere. Gloves are also an absolute must

because you will be in contact with many dirty items. I also like to carry an LED

flashlight that can fit in my mouth so I can bite it while using my other two hands to

sift through a pile or crevice. Lugging around a large flashlight or lantern really gets

in the way when picking, so I stay away from those when I go out.

Another place I visit to find items that are vintage and in demand are

antique malls and antique fairs. There is a distinct difference between the two! An

antique fair to me is an event that is staged for a certain amount of time only. Many

times this is a weekend or two including the week in between. Antique fairs, in

many cases, are held outside and have many vendors in their own little booths.

Sometimes the fairs are many miles long with sellers all up and down a stretch of

country road! Finding Antique fairs is very easy with most of the information being

right on the internet or on flyers in the center of rural towns.

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An antique mall is quite the opposite from a fair. An antique mall is an

establishment, is typically covered and has A/C, and has many individual booths

inside. Each booth has items from a different vendor and sometimes you’ll see

vendors that have multiple booth spaces. These booths in the mall are typically

unmanned, meaning the vendor is not present, but you are welcome to peruse

through their items. At the entrance of the mall there is a cashier that sells the item

to you; the tags on the item show the booth it came from, and the booth owner is

compensated for that item later.

In my hustler experience there is money to be made at fairs and malls, but

you have to be good, real good. In fact, I would venture to say that while not a

viable place to regularly find items, both the antique malls and antique fairs are

very good places to get a free education and be hands on with items that one day

you will find. I really think that as a hustler there are better places to find stuff. That

being said, I never like to write malls and fairs off as both are very fun half-day to

whole-day affairs. As a whole I have made money at booths and fairs but certainly

not remotely close to the magnitude of cash I have made from garage sales, thrift

stores, and pawn shops.

Every now and then I find myself visiting a liquidation sale for some

corporate store. Examples of these can be open box item sales, store returns, or

damaged items. These types of sales do not come around often enough to rely on

them, but many times these liquidation sales of certain merchandise can be

profitable. You just have to keep your eyes and ears open as well as have your

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social media channels turned all the way up. What I mean by this is be subscribed or

“like” the pages of your local corporate stores; this way you can get the early jump

on sale news.

Black Friday is also a place to get stellar deals! Some will argue that it is

getting more and more risky to hustle electronics at that part of the year because

the profit potential is very unpredictable, but for me I like to hustle items such as

clothing, watches, shoes, longboards, active gear, etc. I really try to stay away from

electronics as a whole, unless it’s something such as a newly-released video game

system. Those do well when the supply is very bleak, but demand is super high.

Although black Friday is an amazing time to get deals, the profits come with a price

– waiting in line, nearly getting in fights, lines for paying, crazy parking lots, etc. I

used to do it a lot, now I choose to sit back a bit, but that does not stop me from

performing precise hustler target hits. Precise hustler hits are stores with

merchandise that I know has a huge profit potential but basically no customers.

Those exit, trust me. I think everyone should try to hustle a black Friday; it’s almost

a knighting of sorts! Make sure to bring your smartphone with you. That’s certainly

the most important tool to have at that time of year.

Auctions are terrific places to get your hustle on. There are many different

types: farm, police confiscations, thrift store, city wide, airfield, property, storage,

etc. There are honestly too many to even put in here. An auction is a place where

items are sold to the highest bidder. If you have knowledge and the right amount of

cash, you can be one fortunate hustler. Many auction hustlers will tell you that the

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experience is a rush, and that you can find some really neat items. The downside to

auctions is now the competition and widespread awareness of how to hustle them.

Many TV series are to blame for this, but die hard auction hustlers still make their

profits nevertheless. As a new to intermediate hustler you may want to try one, but

to me auctions are very time intensive and occur at very odd times of the week. I

personally do more of the thrift store auctions, but on those I just place bid in a

book for what I am willing to pay for an item; sometimes I get the item sometimes I

don’t. For those auctions that involve buying lots, as in many items, remember to

consider your transportation/space requirements for when you win one of those!

Sometimes they can be overwhelming! As a whole, I think auctions are a large time

commitment and personally at this stage of my hustling career I generally decide to

pass on most of them.

Every now and then I will find myself watching a dumpster diver vid on

YouTube. While I do not actually do this, I find it pertinent to mention it only

because it’s a way to attain items to hustle. Many times I have checked the outside

of a dumpster after a liquidation sale and found great goods, but I never go in the

dumpster itself. I think it’s worth a shot if you have a corporate store that liquidates

some inventory, but see for yourself on YouTube what people are finding in certain

store dumpsters and judge for yourself whether it’s for you.

Another way to find items to hustle is by telling your friends about what

you do. Let them know what you love to hustle the most and here’s why: eventually

they will come across something and you will be the first they call/text. Many

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neighbors know that I am a big bike geek and a hustler too. I can’t tell you how

many times I have been told to go pick up a bike on the curb over here, or check out

the bike at this one Garage sale close by. Trust me, it pays to tell people close to

you about what you do and what you love to hustle. Also, don’t be afraid to show

them your workspace or examples of what you love to hustle; this way they can get

a visual that ties the item to you! Remember, not all people learn by hearing, many

learn by seeing!

One of the last places that I will mention where you can find stuff is

specifically at a storage auction. I personally do not do these because of the time

aspect and space aspect that storage unit auctions require. This does not mean the

business of storage auctions is unprofitable. For me, I just have enough to do with

my current business and my YouTube channel that it basically does not fit into my

schedule. Many people out there on YouTube talk about storage auctions and if you

search enough, you’ll find opinions on both sides of the business. While some

remain adamant with the notion that it is very profitable, others contest that the

storage auction business is on a decline, partly due to the media and television. The

television show Storage Wars was wildly successful for A&E and became a

syndicated show. In my opinion this show really highlighted the storage auction

business as a viable way to make money. As with any Hollywood type show,

however, the good is mostly shown, and not much of what happens in the

background. There were other types of storage auction shows that echoed off

Storage Wars but the vast amount of storage auction exposure was due to Storage

Wars itself. I do believe that if you’re exceptionally good at what you do,

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competition matters only to some extent. It takes a Bonafide mindset to endure the

waves of business, that’s for sure.

So by now you have an idea of where to start looking for items to resell.

There are places all over to find stuff. Pick your favorite ones and go check them

out. As stated earlier, if you’re a beginner and hungry for some money, start at a

garage sale or thrift store. Make a route and start seeing some places, but only after

finishing this book because I show you how to do it later in your reading. If you’re

already a more experienced hustler, see if you considered all the avenues I just

discussed. If you haven’t been on a pick before, for example, make an ad on

craigslist saying you buy vintage and older items. See what happens. Try as many

avenues as you can, because the cash is at one or more of those. Nothing comes

easy, but fortunately hustling is fun, especially when you have favorite places to

find your stuff.

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Chapter 6 – Avenues for Resale

Once you acquire items for resale purposes, one of the next steps after

researching the item is to determine the avenue in which you will sell the item.

Understanding your avenues is crucial in both the turnover of money and how

much profit you will make. Knowing your avenues of resale will also determine in

some cases whether or not you buy the product. Some of you reading may not

know what an avenue is exactly, but think of it as this: an avenue is the place where

you finally sell your item. Most times, you will make money if you hustled correctly

and sold correctly, but also let it be known that you can lose or break even due to

an incorrect avenue assessment. Let’s begin by knowing about the most common

avenues that are around us.

One of the most widely known avenues out there is eBay. This is a buy and

sell website that is now in 30 countries. Learning Ebay is very important! When I

consider eBay as an avenue for resale I am looking at world exposure. That’s

amazing when considering all you need to do this is a computer, internet, and

access to UPS, FED EX, or USPS. I have helped countless amounts of people

regarding eBay and many other people on just starting eBay altogether. It is not

hard to learn. Learning something new is always a bit scary, but I can say with

confidence that the eBay learning curve is very quick and well worth it. I can’t even

imagine how much cash I would have missed out on had I not started eBay. For

those that are new to this avenue or are thinking about getting into it, consider

what’s to lose in a money sense. For example, it is not uncommon for me to flip a 5

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dollar item for $50-100 on eBay. Again, it’s very easy to get started if you’re a

beginner. There is certainly a need for eBay if you’re on the Bonafide track.

Another avenue that is widely used is Amazon. I have not delved with

amazon in great detail as I have with eBay but I can attest to the fact that certain

items will fetch more on Amazon versus eBay and vice versa. By the time this book

is produced I may have delved more into Amazon but I as of now I am more of an

eBayer. Other friends of mine such as The College Picker on YouTube will confirm

that Amazon is a very profitable avenue, more so than eBay. Then again we hustle

some different items altogether. Do your research on whether Amazon is for you,

but know inside that it is a valid, widely-used avenue to sell goods.

Perhaps the avenue I enjoy the most is the avenue that nearly started the

whole hustling thing for me, Craigslist. I started using Craigslist about a year after

using newspaper classifieds to sell my stuff. Craigslist is a local, free type of

electronic classifieds that is in many towns across the USA and around the world. I

use craigslist for larger items such as bicycles or furniture, mainly items that would

cost a good amount to ship had I placed them on other channels such as eBay or

Amazon. That being said, there are many items on eBay that I will have listed on

Craigslist simply because listing on Craigslist is so easy and nearly effortless. The

same pictures uploaded to eBay can be used for Craigslist and same with the text. I

like craigslist because I understand my town and what people want. Therefore it is

easy for me to look at an item at a store and determine whether it belongs on a

local channel such as Craigslist or on something with more exposure such as eBay.

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Typical items that I sell on Craigslist are bikes, retro furniture, sporting goods,

outerwear, among other items.

Craigslist has its obvious advantages which I will discuss further. I enjoy the

ease of use because the listing and research platform is very user friendly. It takes

me about 1-3 minutes to list an item from my cell phone and even less time when I

am in front of a PC. There are also apps for both the android and apple market. In

addition, there is also the notion that people almost all the time adhere to your

schedule, and your rules. Simply put, you decide where to meet and what time to

sell the item. This is a huge plus considering that as a hustler I am out and about

finding stuff all the time; many times I have met buyers while on my own hustling

route. How great is that, hustling and making money all the same time! Most times,

though, I meet buyers at my house. Is it creepy? No, not really, but then again my

town could be different than yours. Meet buyers at your own discretion. Another

advantage is also the potential money conversion rate being very short. It is not

uncommon for me to post an item and hours later it is sold. Now that’s fast

conversion; that’s super Bonafide. I like that fast cash that’s for sure!

Although I am a complete advocate for Craigslist, there are some

disadvantages, just not many. The most obvious disadvantage is the exposure of the

item. Selling on craigslist will highlight your item to your town and surrounding

towns, but that’s pretty much it. There are some rare cases where I have sold items

across state lines, but those items were super collectible and I believe that’s the

only reason why someone from another city in another state would buy from me

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from a local Craigslist ad. A majority of the time I sell the item to someone else in

my town. Another disadvantage with Craigslist is the widespread amounts of people

that will bargain on your item’s price. I have tactics to prevent this or at least

mitigate the amount of negotiations at hand, but don’t be surprised if you list on

Craigslist and get a bunch of emails or texts asking if you will take less for your item.

Assume that there will be some sort of negotiation and place your asking price

accordingly. Now there’s a Bonafide tip. Nearly everyone that buys on Craigslist will

try to haggle with you. It’s just my casual observation again.

One of the most popular Craigslist questions I receive on YouTube or

Facebook is whether it is safe to meet up with people. Frequently I get asked how I

handle strangers and where I meet them. This is another disadvantage with

craigslist; most times you have to meet up with a person, one who you will not

know. How do you know which ones to give your time and which ones to keep at

bay? Unfortunately there is no real answer to this question because there are so

many factors that matter when selling to a stranger. The most concern I run into is

whether to meet the buyer at my residence or away from my residence. If you are

not comfortable with strangers coming to your residence, the easiest place to meet

then would be a well-lit shopping center or gas station. As stated earlier, most

people I will meet at my residence or on my hustling route, but then again there are

those that I just get a weird vibe from on the phone, and I am the kind of person

who listens to a hunch. Those people I certainly meet away from my place.

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Another of the channels I use is my antique booth. Antique booths are

great places to move vintage items, both large and small. As stated in a previous

chapter, an antique booth is a dedicated, unmanned space, which you pay rent for

in an antique mall. Upon your items selling, commission is taken by the cashier at

the exit of the mall itself. An antique booth generates income based on sales. Not

only is my booth one of my money generators, I look at my booth as also a storage

unit for older vintage, antique stuff. Since I am paying booth rent every month, I

figure I can pile up just about anything old and neat at any price I desire. Some

things sell, some sit there for months. As a whole, the booth is a wonderful way to

learn about your local vintage and antique market. I was able to grasp what people

wanted, not necessarily what I wanted, and thus over many months my purchases

changed to meet the customer’s demands. In the beginning months of having the

antique booth my main goal was to make my rent and then some profit; fast

forward to today and not only do I still love having the booth, I am also on the hunt

for another one, but that in itself is hard to attain here in Austin.

Many of my subscribers sell their goods at flea markets, mainly weekend

ones. A flea market is a neat place to sell your stuff because it can get exposed to

thousands of people in a single day. I have seen flea markets that are very small,

almost nomadic at times, and I have also been to ones that were highly organized

and have dedicated days of operation. I personally do not sell at a flea market due

to the time investment. However, by no means does my opinion mean it cannot be

profitable for you. There are many people out there that swear by flea markets, and

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understand the time sacrifice in order to make money. It is important, though, at

the very least to mention it as an avenue.

Another great avenue to sell your stuff is to have a garage sale. I see plenty

of households here in Austin that have garage sales nearly every weekend. I assume

they get their hands on a lot of products each week and having the sale helps them

move through inventory. The garage sale is a great avenue to sell stuff! I typically

have one sale a year in order to sell and wash clean of items that just did not do so

well on. Unfortunately, I do not make through the roof profits on EVERY item I buy,

but many I do! I like having a garage sale, but I am always hesitant to have it on a

Saturday morning for obvious reasons. In the past two years I have commissioned

my girlfriend and her friends to run the sale, and truthfully it’s something they love

to do anyway. I pay them a little just to sell through my products while I go out and

hustle because that’s where I shine. All in all, the garage sale is a must to sell your

stuff or purge your inventory.

Friends are also a wonderful avenue to sell your products. Don’t worry, it’s

not uncomfortable. As stated in a previous chapter, letting your friends know what

you are good at, or what you love, is important because these friends become

another set of eyes to assist you in finding items to sell. Let your closest friends see

your items, your inventory. If they are interested in one of your products, give them

a deal better than a market such as Craigslist and eBay. Hook them up. Though you

may not make as much on a sale, you help a friend with a good deal, and believe it

or not it will come back to you later. I let my closest friends in on what I do and

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there have been countless times where I have helped them out. In return I have

received tips on sales, home cooked food, and even outings! Treat your friends as

you would like to be treated and the circle of good karma will come around to you

eventually.

Every now and then while scanning craigslist on a Friday night to make my

garage sale route I will come across an ad where someone is having a storage sale.

This is typically a sale that occurs right at a storage unit. This is an avenue that is

used if the seller has an abundance of inventory from other storage auctions, or if

the seller is about to close down the storage unit and wants to lessen the amount of

items he/she will end up taking out. It’s important to talk about this as an avenue

because many of my subscribers have units with inventory. Many times it is difficult

to list things from a unit due to the distance of the unit from home, Wi-Fi concerns,

or because of weather issues especially if the unit is an outdoor one. Either way,

having a well-advertised storage sale is a great way to drive traffic to a unit and only

be there for 4-6 hours.

In the early stages of my hustling career I was using Craigslist and local

classifieds to move my bicycles. I discussed Craigslist as an avenue earlier but here I

want to talk about classifieds. Typically, classifieds are ads that are found on local

newspapers or publications and are also many times in their own dedicated

sections. Before craigslist was around, I remember my mother listing on local paper

classifieds as well as on a publication called The Greensheet, which I believe is still

around. Classifieds are a great avenue to use especially if you live in a small town

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that has a small publication. Many times, Craigslist won’t even exist in small towns,

so a seller is forced to resort to other avenues such as eBay, Amazon, Garage Sale,

or a local classified ad. Items that do well in classifieds are larger ones, those that

cost a lot to ship. When I first got started with classifieds I would sell bicycles and

sporting goods such as snowboards and wakeboards. At that time, Craigslist was

not nearly as large as it is now, so classifieds were the way to go many times.

Another avenue that is more accepted with those that deal with vintage or

antiques is the antique fair. These fairs can be monthly, every weekend, bi-annual,

etc. There is no typical fair as the schedule is so different between many. In my

experience I have seen fairs that come into Austin every month, and then there are

those much larger fairs such as Red Top or Marburger Farms, which come around

twice a year in a town that’s about an hour away from here. The much larger ones

that span for miles and such are many times nomadic ones, where the seller travels

the country going to large fairs to sell their products. For example, I know some

individuals that come from Missouri with a packed van and trailer just to sell at

Marburger for the week. In addition they also attend other fairs around the

Missouri area when they are close to home. If you are interested in selling at a fair,

look up the fair on the internet (do this early because spots do fill up) and inquire

about the cost of booth space. It’s important to note that Antique fairs are

sometimes indoors at an event center or coliseum, or they can be spread about

outside such as the one at Red Top and Marburger, which are close to the town of

Carmine, TX. Pay attention to the weather, especially the heat, because it can get

rather uncomfortable to sell items if you’re not in the right state of mind.

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Another of the avenues for resale, which is shown heavily on TV, is the

storefront. Having an actual brick and mortar store is also an option to sell your

items. This, however, is more of an advanced avenue simply because of all the fixed

costs and lease terms that face the seller. It often requires a very steady cash flow

prediction and a bit of savings. In addition, there is also the decision on who to hire

to run the business, so you can be out and about finding items. TV shows such as

American Pickers, Storage Wars, and even Pawn Stars show the perks of having

storefront. Then again, the shows are only showing the good stuff, never the

rigorous time and effort spent to actually run the business. I am not saying that it is

misleading; I am just emphasizing how much work there is behind the scenes. Do

your research accordingly if you’re headed in the direction of having an actual

store. How will you constantly bring in more inventory? How will you advertise?

Think about who will run the establishment when you are not there. Being

prepared for the unknown is your best asset in a new endeavor.

No matter what avenue you pick to sell your goods, it’s important to

understand that having many avenues ready and operational will inevitably

decrease the amount of time involved in selling an item. Frequently I will have an

item on both Craigslist and on eBay. That’s correct. The item will be in two avenues.

In addition, if it qualifies, the item is placed in my booth as well. Giving yourself the

best chances to sell your item not only makes you more money in the long run, but

also it makes the game fun. After all, this is just a game involving calculated risks

and the reward is real cash. If you’re good, the cash becomes substantial and worth

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your time. Know your avenues of resale and become an expert on the ones that you

use most. If you’re a beginner, get accustomed to Craigslist, eBay, and Amazon.

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Chapter 7 – The Importance of Quality

One of the most important aspects to learn in hustling successfully is to

learn quality. Simply put, quality is the craftsmanship of the product, the durability

of the construction. It is the difference between something that lasts a long time,

and something that breaks or fails early. As a whole, there is more money in buying

quality goods, because true quality is not as prominent as mass produced stuff. In

this chapter I will discuss branding, knowledge, psychology, and how you can start

looking for the right stuff in order to make some fast cash. Pay attention to this

section, I have always thought that I had an inner gift in relation to spotting quality,

but after teaching people close to me how to do it, I realize this can be taught.

At the pinnacle of hustling items correctly three things typically need to be

in place: the right price, quality, and demand. There are some exceptions to this

rule, but for the most part 95% of good hustles encompass these three things. As

stated above, quality is the difference between something that lasts and has good

construction as opposed to something that falls apart and was constructed rather

quickly. A perfect example of this is your standard cone water cup that you find at

various service departments around the USA. The cone cup lasts for a few drinks of

water, but after a while it begins to warp, distort, and eventually fail. In contrast,

Starbucks has recycled cups that are more cylindrical in shape and do a much better

job at holding water, coffee, or other beverages. In addition, the cup from Starbucks

tends to last a long time, even with liquid inside or in direct sunlight. If you had to

pick one of these cups to last three days which one would you pick?

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In the scenario above it is clear to see that one product was built for short

term use, while another was built for much longer time periods. The same pertains

to items in the field when you’re out hustling. Being able to spot quality will bring

you cash, it’s inevitable. When you become an expert, you will be able to learn

about new brands and goods just by feeling items and objects. I will give you a

classic example. While perusing a Goodwill recently I found myself in the bags

section, the part of the store that contains backpacks, shoulder bags, luggage, etc. I

feel around, and use my eyes to look at things such stitching and zippers, all while

looking for my favorite bag brands of course. My eyes catch a glimpse of a large

zipper, one much larger than I am accustomed to seeing. After digging out the item

I determine that it’s a shoulder luggage bag, has three zippers, and has a logo of an

old DC-10 airplane with the words “Tom Bihn” above it. The weight of the bag feels

good. It’s not too light, and not too heavy; it’s perfect for travelling. The zippers are

branded YKK and upon closer scrutiny I realize that they not only work fine, but are

also set under a little weather stripping that protects the zipper from the elements.

So here’s my thought process on this bag:

-It’s weight feels good.

- The zippers are tough, and have a weather stripping over them.

- One pocket on the rear has backpack straps in it – for back use rather

than using your hands.

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- The inner compartment reveals a tensioning strap to keep your clothes

pile snug.

- The shoulder strap is unbelievably comfortable and the ends are rather

reinforced, and large.

It is important to keep in mind that upon my perusing of the bag, I had no idea what

the brand Tom Bihn was. After seeing all of the signs of quality construction, I

decided to look up the bag on eBay completed auctions and regular auctions as

well. There I saw that the brand Tom Bihn basically starts at 40.00 an item and ends

up at about 300.00. Upon glancing at the sticker on the item I see that it shows

4.99. Deal is done. I buy the item and then list it later in the day when I get home.

Three hours pass and I sell it on eBay for a buy it now at 200.00.

Sales like the one above are not uncommon when you hustle well, but I

also attribute much of my success to the ability of spotting quality. If you’re a

newbie hustler and on your first months in the game it’s important to start looking

for quality goods first. When I say this I also mean across all types of items. Of

course standard advice applies and in the beginning you should only be buying and

selling things that you already know a lot about. However, understanding quality is

one of the safest ways to experiment outside of what you know. In addition, if you

pair this with your smartphone research it’s a very safe way to get into hustling

things you know little about. As of now you should have picked up on the fact that

quality products are the safe and best items to hustle. That brings me to the aspect

of brands. Knowing the quality brands is the next step in becoming a faster hustler

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while at a garage sale or at a thrift store. The faster you are, the more money you

make.

Quality brands are important because it’s almost the cheat sheet when it

comes to making money. I could make an entire book on brands alone and it would

be a very large book. The solution from me is to provide you with the psychology of

why you would want to learn your brands. When hustling items at a sale, your eyes

should be looking for brands that you already know. But what if you don’t know the

best brands on an item? What if you find yourself scared on risking your money on

something like that? You will need to be doing basic research on eBay and Amazon

continually in order to see nothing more than the frequency of brands. Allow me to

explain further. In your downtime it’s very profitable to casually look at items on

eBay that you see at your regular everyday thrift store, garage sale, etc. For me, this

includes researching jackets, shoes, sporting goods, various electronics, bags, toys,

board games, books, household goods, and many others. From here I basically just

sort by highest price on eBay, for example, and learn which brands have the highest

resale capabilities. I look for brands that are pretty much at the top, those that have

many bids as well. This is basic brand research, and not only is fun, but also it will

make you money later as in down the road. Consider it an investment that’s free.

By doing basic premature research like this above, you begin to eliminate

the fear of risking your cash on incorrect hustles. The more you research the more

you make over time. Doing basic research is doing nothing more than programming

your brain with simple picture and word association. The more pictures and words

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you tie together with a brand, the better you know the brand even before you find

the item. Typically the quality brands will always be at the top of all lists and

auctions. So study the top brands well. It’s basically the same as studying with flash

cards for an exam in school except that this exam will pay you cash and the grade is

how well you execute your buy, research, avenue knowledge, and final sale when

you have an item for resale purposes. I am just trying to get you an A!

Another way you can learn about quality is by simply using your senses of

touch and sight. Learning about quality happens at research level and also at sight

level, as in when you’re at a sale looking at an item, or maybe at a thrift store

looking at a pile of clothes. Frequently you can find me at a thrift store looking and

touching rows of clothes, shoes, bags, bikes, and many others, just finding

opportunities to make money. The same applies for any garage sale, yard sale, flea

market, swap meet; I am constantly looking for the right brands and touching items

trying to find quality. In the paragraph above I show you how to research and find

what brands to look for, but what about the other quality items you may not be

researching? How do you find those? Simple, you start touching and using your eyes

to decipher among the mass of other items which one to look at closer.

One of the best ways to do this is to first understand construction of items

and how this is important. Items are constructed many ways whether it is a shirt, a

bike, a toy, or a shoe. Typically you will see that in order to be intact, materials are

typically welded, molded, stitched, glued, snapped, or fused together. This is where

your sight and touch journey will begin. As a beginner hustler, I was already

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accustomed to bikes. I knew them backwards and forwards. Naturally I make great

cash hustling bikes, but at the core level of the hustle is the truth; a majority of the

bikes I have bought and sold were quality bikes. When you take this a step further

and look closer, you begin to see the materials used, the welds, and the overall

construction as being better than mass produced cheap bikes that are commonly

found at larger retailers such as Wal Mart, Target, K Mart, and Academy just to

name a few. To no surprise the superior-in-quality made bikes had better resale

because they last longer and function better than mass produced ones.

In the beginning I was making cash by hustling quality bikes, but for you it

may be different. Think about what you know a lot about. What are the top brands

in the things that you know? Then, can you tell a difference by touching the quality

item versus the cheaper item? In most cases there will be a definite difference in

construction. This difference carries over to other items if you think about it. For

example, if you have ever held and played with an IPad versus a generic tablet the

differences in quality are stunning. First, an IPad feels together, and fused correctly,

with all edges being smooth and the software functioning well. A generic tablet

costing 50% of the IPad's cost feels cheap, fused in a hurry, and is usually quirky,

meaning it doesn’t execute what you need it to execute every time. Sometimes the

screen quality is not that great either. Now, some may argue that the saying “you

get what you pay” is the difference. When it comes to hustling the right items to

make big money, you have to know how to touch and see quality so you can in turn

sell the product to a buyer that’s looking to pay more for a quality product.

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Always be looking and touching the construction of the item you are

looking at if you can. It trains your mind to associate the feel of quality to a certain

brand. Many times you can find great hustles just by touching an item or seeing a

sign of quality and then whipping out your smartphone to research the profit

potential right there on the spot. It’s exactly how I made cash on that first item I

discussed at the beginning of this chapter. The Tom Bihn bag was an item that I had

no prior knowledge of before I saw it at the Goodwill. I only found it because I had

prior experience with quality bags in the past, and I had also taken the time to

touch these items before I sold them. I felt the zippers, the stitching, the edges, and

tested the overall functionality of the product before shipping it off. When I found

the Tom Bihn bag my mind associated previous quality successes and from there I

was prompted to do some fast on-the-spot research. I encourage you to do the

same if you have some high quality goods lying around. Think about all the things

you own: your clothes, shoes, your hobbies, your furniture, your electronics, etc.

Touch and see the construction of the things you currently have and see if you can

determine whether you have quality or mass made stuff. From there, figure out

what those differences are between cheap goods and quality goods. Train your

mind. Also, it’s free education!

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Chapter 8 – Condition Matters

As a hustler of ten years now, I have sold items from baby strollers all the

way to stuffed animals. To this day I have successfully sold all types of conditions as

well. I have sold items that are brand new to items that are broken. Now you might

ask “why are you buying and selling something broken?” The answer to that is

because I know I can make money on it. Some subscribers ask me how I determine

the condition of something, as in “what’s the difference between mint and lightly

used?” By the end of this chapter you should know how to accurately classify an

item and how to also place a value on condition, as it affects the resale value of the

item in most cases. Understanding condition helps build a better, more accurate ad,

which in turn leads to more confident buyers. So let’s have a look at some of the

more common conditions that you will see while you’re out hunting for goods.

Of course at the top of the condition chart we have the easiest and best

condition which is new. New goods are always the best to hustle because, well,

they’re untouched and unused! Everyone, especially the buyer, likes that. As an

experienced hustler I find new goods fairly often, but certainly not enough to where

I can rely on it. Typically I find new goods when I decide to do some retail arbitrage,

or if I am at a garage sale messing with piles of board games, shoes, or video games.

For some reason I find more new goods in those categories than any other. New

condition is great because it basically simplifies your process of buying and selling,

provided you have done a bit of research about the resale potential. A new item in

my opinion is one that either has a box or has no box, and is clearly unused. Many

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times I will find a new shoe or boot and the box is missing, but after looking at the

item closely I am able to tell that the sole has never seen the ground, and there are

also no bends in the leather or fabric that indicates a foot has been in the shoe (not

even to try it on). Across goods, of course, this will all vary, but new is many times a

condition that you can perceive, a condition that triggers your brain by telling you

“hey, this looks unused and new” On certain objects such as the shoe example you

can also smell the new scent on the shoe. Remember, try and train your senses

always while hustling!

We all like it when something is new. A new car feels so perfect, smells

good, and brings us comfort. A used car is a usually not the same exact feeling.

When I come into contact with a new item I keep my ads very simple and in the

description I will place simple sentences such as:

- New, unopened. In box with tags. See pics

- New in plastic. Unopened see pics

- New condition no box see pics.

It’s really that simple. The key is to take good pictures and get all angles of the

product. It also helps to copy and paste the item specifications from the

manufacturer’s website onto your ad, but then again I really can’t say that it’s

crucial because I have had great success with new goods and simple ads.

Remember, in order for an item to be new it must have no use on it. Take the item

and carefully scan it over looking at all seams, undersides, top, etc. Sometimes,

when dealing with electronics, for example, the item may look new but upon

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further inspection I find that it is factory refurbished, which is certainly not new.

When your buyer sees this, you can bet on bad feedback or a call back if you sell the

item locally. Always scrutinize and look at the item carefully; in all honesty, I try to

find something wrong when I speculate something’s new. It places my mind in a

state that dismisses the elation and joy and instead replaces that with skepticism.

You can save a lot of money and headaches if you train your mind not to get super

excited at certain times. Try it out!

Echoing off the previous discussion of new condition, there’s also the

condition called new without tags. This essentially means that the item is new,

never been opened, and comes without the tags. Items with tags can pretty much

be anything, and remember that a tag doesn’t necessarily mean a hanging tag, it

can also mean a sticker with the sku and price as well. Finding an item that’s new

without tags is in most cases just as good as finding a new item. The only real

drawback is that some buyers like for the item to look like it was bought new at a

store, as in a scenario where the buyer gives the item to a friend as a gift. New with

tags plus a box just looks better. In addition, a buyer may want a manual or the

papers that come with a new inbox item, and many times an item that’s new

without tags will not have that. In my selling experience, however, finding

something that’s new without tags is always pleasing and I never complain. It’s still

the best condition of all and I’m here for the cash. When listing the new without

tags, make sure to disclose that the tags or box is not included, and then for

example on sites such as eBay there’s a drop down selection under condition that

has new without tags.

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I think for most people condition starts to get complicated when one

ventures out of the classification of new. When an item is not new it means that

there has been some use and determining that use makes it complicated when

trying to classify the item as mint, light use, or used. I will talk about mint condition

first. In my opinion, mint condition is the item that was used once, maybe twice,

and then never used again. Many times I will see this in shoes all the way to items

such as winter goods. With shoes for example, a seller may have tried them on,

walked or ran around for a day, and then decided that the fit was not right; maybe

their life got too busy to return it within 30 days to the store where they bought it

from and thus it ended up in a closet and then later down the road at the garage

sale or thrift store that you visit.

In order to call something mint you have to use your intuition and eyes

very carefully because your classification of mint may not be mint to a buyer. This is

always where it gets complicated and tends to freak people out, especially new

sellers or hustlers. When I describe something as mint I know it’s mint because for

example I look at things on items such as the size tag (has it even been washed?) of

a shirt. On shoes, I look at the soles (does it still have the little nubs on the tread

nubs?). If it’s a bike, I look at the cassette (is it still very shiny?). I look at the places

on the item where the wear will be most evident and from there I make my

condition call. Finding mint items happens more frequently than finding new ones

so being able to look at the wear spots first will greatly assist you in making your

decision. If in fact you have found a mint item, one of the safest ways to protect

your feedback rating or local reputation is to place many pictures of the item

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especially on the places where it will show its first signs of wear. This will only

protect you more from a buyer that may disagree with what’s mint and what’s not

mint. There’s always the chance that no matter what you do, and no matter how

many pictures you place in your ad, the buyer may disagree. That’s just part of the

game, so prepare yourself beforehand and try not to get offended. It is what it is.

A condition description that’s close to mint is light use or lightly used.

Frequently you will see this in people’s ads all over craigslist. Many times you’ll get

the hint of light use when you speak to a person having a garage sale while you’re

holding one of their near mint items. People at garage sales love to tell you how

much use something has especially when it’s their own item that has collected dust.

Lightly used to me means a product has been used maybe a handful of times or

slightly more. Keep in mind that an item such as bike that’s ridden about ten times

will appear newer looking than a shirt that’s been used about ten times. This is

where you have to make a judgment call between mint and lightly used.

Remember, mint may have been an item that was used once or twice whereas

lightly used may be one with five or more uses. It’s a little difficult to determine, but

over the course of time you will be able to tell this difference. Experience helps a

bunch. If you’re new, just remember to look at the wear spots of an item and

determine from there if the item has a bit more use than mint condition. As always,

to protect yourself, make sure to take many pictures and let the buyer determine

whether it’s lightly used or not. This is the easiest remedy to the issue if you are

worried about your personal condition judgment call.

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The most common condition that I find is used. It’s the condition that

basically means that the item has use, but the intended purpose or structural

properties of the product are still good. I try to not buy overly used, but a decent

used product still has great resale. It all depends on what you’re looking at. Used

items can sometimes have something wrong with them, but it’s sometimes very

small. It may be a small hole in a fleece, tires that have some tread left on a bicycle,

a snowboard with some nicks on the edges, or maybe even a graphing calculator

with scratches. Used is not bad! If your mind is telling you not to look for used items

because they’re dirty or unprofitable, you’re wrong! Used items have great resale

assuming you research and use your eyes appropriately to scan the item. For

instance, people buy used cars all the time at car dealerships. These cars have

varying mileage, and their interiors have at the same time had other people and

cargo inside, yet the vehicle can still get you from point A to B, which is the

intended purpose. Dismissing buying used products from your hunt will cost you

money in the long run, it’s guaranteed. Be OK with used items!

When dealing with used products the most important thing to determine is

whether the item is still functional for its purpose. For example, can the fleece with

the tiny hole or some smudges still keep a person warm? Can the snowboard with

the nicks on the edges still safely bring a rider down a mountain without noticeably

slowing down? Can the graphing calculator with scratches still help a student get

through college? By asking yourself these types of questions, while looking at the

item, you will greatly increase your confidence in buying the item for resale.

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Another best practice to include is to check Amazon and eBay prices for

the item, as both sites deal with goods that are both new and used. A buyer looking

at a used item is going to typically buy based on whether or not the item can carry

out its intended purpose and for how long. When dealing with more slower

degrading materials, a used item may last very long such as a well-made bicycle, or

a storefront porcelain sign. In contrast, a used shoe or remote control airplane may

only have a year or two left in it before it’s deemed for inactivity or display

purposes…or the trash. Many people look for used goods such as items that are

vintage, older, or antique especially if there are no new ones available. A majority of

times these items will always be used unless you come across buying from a person

that collected over years a bunch of one particular item and either displayed or

stored them all. Buying from a collector is a great way to find used or lightly used

items that are not produced current day. Then again, if they’re a collector and

selling their collection, they probably know a bit about the item’s resale. As a

hustler, I try to find better places to find my used goods as a whole, but I never rule

out buying from collectors, it’s just not my favorite way to make money.

One of the most unbelievable conditions that have resale capability is

when the right item for the right price is broken. I cannot stress enough how many

people, including my parents, have been impressed with how I have sold broken

items successfully. I think the overarching truth to this matter lies in this Bonafide

statement: if you buy right and have done your research, there’s always someone

out there who is looking to fix a broken item or use the item’s pieces to fix their

own item. This especially is the truth for items that are not readily found anymore.

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Examples can be items such as old Tamiya remote control cars, older toys, old

bicycle parts, vintage leather goods with holes, or old electronic goods. Upon

inspection of a broken item the main question is whether the item still has potential

to be reconstructed or whether the item has profit potential in relation to all the

other parts that are still intact. For example when I see a broken vintage light

fixture I am asking myself questions such as:

-Can someone with electrical experience get this thing working again?

- Could someone use these parts to build their own vintage light fixture?

It’s as simple as that. The main thing to remember when buying a broken item is to

buy super low. This is because at a broken stage, the item gets classified as being

for parts and not working. Sheltering the risk of the item being broken can only be

done with a super low buy in price. Think of a super lowball offer; after all, that’s

what has to be done. There are exceptions to the rule of course, and typically those

exceptions occur when a good deal of research has been performed, thus leading to

a fair price being paid for the item because the broken condition is still heavily

desired. The example that comes to mind is a broken scooter or an item that carries

great resale in poor condition because of the parts market available to fix the item

back to usable condition.

Condition is certainly an important part of hustling. It saves me a ton of

money because I am constantly asking myself “who would buy this in this

condition?” Making correct condition calls takes many senses into consideration.

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You need to be feeling and seeing a shoe under sole, listening to a bicycle shift

through gears, or looking for cracks in a remote control car before you buy. These

are all instances where an accurate condition call determines the future profit

potential of a product. Conditions can be many different classifications, but a fair

amount of questions and scrutiny should assist you in making a sound judgment

call. As always, don’t forget to do some on the spot research if needed to help you

decide things such as demand, market, and profit turnover potential. As a general

rule, when making your ads to list a product make sure to include plenty of pics so

the buyer can make a sound decision as well. When both sides make the right

condition calls, everyone’s happy and you make cash.

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Chapter 9 – Trends Past and Present

Remember back in the day when you were at school and it seemed like

everyone had a certain similar thing; maybe it was a brand of jeans, or a some

brand of backpack, but regardless it was all over the place. Everyone had one. It was

called a trend, and those that participated were called trendy. I think we all know

items from today and the past that are definitely considered trendy. Trends are

great because to a hustler it means one thing only, demand. This of course assumes

the item had some good construction or served some artistic value. Even today,

there are trends all around us. Take a look at all the UGG boots you see around the

fall and winter or how about those café racer motorcycles that every gear nut is

starting to get into. The interesting thing about trends is that they are catchy,

they’re widespread, and they equate to some unbelievable profits if you’re into

hustling.

When a buyer makes a transaction on eBay or Amazon they are buying

something of worth to them, not anyone else, but just them in that one moment in

time. If you knew what everyone wanted, hustling would be a cakewalk all the time,

but unfortunately the cash that a hustler makes doesn’t come in this easy. With

that in mind a hustler needs to be in the know, be in tune with what is needed, and

know what’s of value in order to make educated hustling decisions. Trends are a

great place to start because it’s almost a cheat sheet on where to attack first. By

figuring out what the current trends are, a beginning or intermediate hustler has a

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bit of a guide on where to start looking first. One of the ways to figure out a trend is

to start paying attention.

When I spot a possible trend, I then try to find more instances of that one

particular speculation over and over. I use my eyes and carefully look at what

people are wearing. I look at the accessories, and I look at the material items that

these people keep close. Whether that is a phone, a scooter, a stroller, or a car, I

am constantly trying to find similarities while paying attention to seasons and the

time of the day. For instance, in the summertime I may see some surfers in

California wearing a certain style of boardshort and then when the day is done I see

them hop on to a little skateboard and weave down the street until they’re out of

sight. My mind starts to look at the shorts and the skateboards. I’m looking for

brands, similarities, and a connection. Where there is a connection, there is cash to

be made.

Deciphering a trend is much easier than you think. We are all capable of

finding some extra cash in our respective towns if we just tune into our sight a little

bit. Finding similarities and connections is almost a game, and it’s a game that you

can get very good at. It’s also a game where there’s a good pile of money in the

end. I started hustling UGG Boots only after I saw a good deal of women walking

around with them in the fall and winter. Once a trend has started, there’s typically a

phase where it seems like an uncontrollable wildfire has occurred because it nearly

infects everything. I knew my first 7.99 UGG buy at a goodwill was a good one when

I had prior knowledge of how much these trendy boots cost the average consumer.

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When you suspect a trend, the first thing you need to do is to research it until you

become a bit of a knowledge geek about it. Know why it’s trend, why is it worth

what it’s worth, and know the features. With the UGG boots I knew that they were

stylish, incredibly warm, and very comfortable. I knew this because I went as far as

trying a pair on at a store just to know what the rage was all about. I love trends.

Having a dedicated demand for an item makes it very easy to start looking for the

item itself and it’s almost like you know exactly where to buy/sell as soon as you

find one at a thrift store or garage sale.

Enough about current trends! Let’s now talk about what was going on

when you were young. Here, I want you the reader to take a bit of time, close your

eyes, and think of middle school as well as high school. It was at these times in most

people’s life where having some cool stuff mattered a lot. This was a time where

clicks were prominent, self-esteem was vulnerable, and fitting in was very

important. In some way, fashion, or form we all can remember certain items that

everyone had back then. Maybe it was even certain items that people used to carry

out their hobbies. What were yours? In my Bonafide life memory I distinctly

remember items such as Reebok Pumps, Girbaud jeans, Swatch Watches, NES, BMX

bikes, Yaga clothing, Stussy shirts, Charvel Guitars, Casio calculator watches, Mike

Stewart Bodyboards, Powell Peralta skateboards, and various others, just to name

some. I did not even own an item in most of those brands, but some I did. I

definitely remember my parents saying no way to the cost of most Stussy shirts or a

pair of Reebok Pumps, that’s for sure. Back then, not fitting in felt devastating!

Little did I know that everything around me that I wanted was only because I

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wanted to fit in, I wanted in on the trend, and never wanted to feel out of the “in

crowd.” While my childhood may have been drastically different than yours, the key

takeaway here is how powerful a trend can be.

In hustling, a trend is one of those things that can make you money. The

trend itself does not need to be current either to make cash. Many older trends are

capable of making you money just as much as the current day ones, but the older

ones in my eyes depend more on the quality, art, or contribution of the item itself.

Allow me to explain. A good example of a quality trend back in the day would be

the surge of good steel frame bmx competition bikes that was very prevalent in the

late eighties. These bikes could withstand a beating, and at the same time they

were built to compete as well. Nearly every kid wanted one of these bikes and so

the trend was born. An example of a more artistic trend, and one not based on

quality, would be the swatch watch trend of the late 80s and early 90s. This trend

was based on individuality and art, but the watches inherently were very cheap and

not very durable. Yet, everyone wanted one, and they were heavily customizable,

so that only added to the fad. Last, many video game consoles can be considered a

trendy thing, especially ones that really started the whole video game revolution.

While some may argue that the Atari system started it all; in my opinion I would

have to lean towards the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) as the system that

nearly every kid had in their house. To me, this was the first system that had

everything right. There were all sorts of accessories that you could buy and at the

same time Nintendo heavily marketed this system. It even went as far as making a

magazine called Nintendo Power. Nintendo was a very forceful trend that spawned

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competition, and later led to the creation of amazing systems such as PlayStation,

Genesis, N64, and Xbox. The NES was a huge contributory factor to these other

consoles being produced. Therefore, the past NES trend still lives today and the

resale market on many NES things is very good.

Now we must talk about those trends that depend on quality. One that

comes to mind is the heavy insurgence of the Patagonia brand into the younger

generation across the globe. While it is not clear where this trend started, it is clear

that it is on track to replace the mighty The North Face trend that is still going on in

regards to outerwear. The introduction into trendy functional outerwear for

youngsters was something that North Face accomplished many years ago. The

North Face is primarily an outer garment brand that made extremely high quality

products, the kinds that can tackle mountains such as Everest or K2. They were

most known as being a mountaineering company until the younger generation

started wearing their fleece garments. Fast forward to the current day and you can

now find North Face all over the place. The sad part is it’s being worn by people

who are nearly clueless about the great outdoors. It’s a shame, but then again it’s a

trend; go against it and make no money, or go with it full steam and crush profits.

Being a subsidiary of a publicly traded company, The North Face just jumped into

action with the trend, especially with their fleece line. You can’t really blame them

for the direction they took. Recently, however, there is starting to be a shift in

quality. I am now seeing more outdoors people pick the brand Patagonia as the

brand of choice in the functional outerwear segment. There’s good cash to be made

here. Whereas a year ago I could sell a 5 dollar (garage sale found) North Face

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Fleece for 35-45 bucks, now I cannot. But if I substitute that with a Patagonia fleece,

I will get about 45 and up.

When one trend begins to die, it seems as if there’s always another to pick

up. In the case of The North Face trend, it is only a matter of time until something

of better quality comes along and reaps the profits. Personally I can see a better

craftsmanship in Patagonia clothing and that alone is huge. At the same time their

clothing is not meant to be flashy, but rather meant to be highly functional and

serve a purpose.

I think we are on the beginning of a quality trend shift, personally. But no

matter what trend it is out there, make sure to analyze it to see whether it’s smart

for you to get into it. Primarily, current day trends are created by demand, it seems;

this means they are trendy because there’s a fair amount of advertising and simply

not enough product. Examples of this are PlayStation releases, Christmas Elmo

dolls, tablet releases, new Jordans, just to name a few. It’s easy to make money

here, but many times the cash you make has to be worth the time you spend in line

waiting for the product. High demand situations are almost always paired with

media coverage, lines, and general craziness. Be prepared for that. The good part is

you can make a lot of money doing it if you’re good. Always think of the potential

cash made as being worth your time. If it makes sense, go for it.

Knowing about past trends and current trends can greatly increase the

amount of money you can make through hustling. It’s important to not associate a

trend with a market. A market is a stable place where the item has been regularly

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bought and sold. A trend is a scenario where an undisclosed amount of time exists

where you can make extra money flipping the item. Sometimes it’s only a few

weeks, and other times it nearly lasts forever. No matter what time frame you’re in,

always make sure you’ve done the appropriate research to establish the viability of

the trend itself. You definitely don’t want to be the person with 20 Christmas Elmos

in the middle of summer due to a misjudgment of demand and store

replenishment. Mistakes happen in trend research, but many of this can be averted

if you just pay attention to what’s going on around you. Remember, you ought to

be going around your life analyzing the clothing that people wear, the footwear,

and the items that they regularly bring with them or have with them wherever they

go. These items can be something as simple as Vibram Five Fingers shoes to a B.O.B

stroller, but what’s important is to have the ability to make connections in those

items you see. Where there are connections, there are trends, and where there are

trends….well, you know the rest.

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Chapter 10 – Hustling Your First Item

Now we have finally arrived at the chapter where you get to put some of

your learnings to use. For those that are already intermediate to expert hustlers,

this may not be a chapter of interest to you, but then again I designed this book to

have many hustler cheats in it, and likely you’ll find another subtle cheat just by

reading on. Hustling your first item can be scary, but hopefully the information I

have divulged to this point is going to bring you some confidence in your first

endeavor to hustle. I have taught many on how to do this, and nearly all have had

success quickly. However, let’s not get ahead of what needs to be done. In order to

successfully hustle your first item for profit you have to know some basic rules, and

these rules you can revisit when times get tough in hustling. The rules I will give you

are more of a foundation, and you can’t make substantial side cash without a good

foundation.

The pinnacle of profit will always find you with the items that you know

too much about. These are the items that inherently you have amassed a great deal

of knowledge on simply because you care about them, and at a root level, they

excite you. Think about what makes you happy, what moves you, your hobbies, and

the things you read about behind the scenes in order to know more. These are the

items I am talking about. For most of us, our first hustles are nearly written on the

wall, and they’ve been items that we cared about for a long, long time. For me, my

most natural item was a bicycle. When I was a little Bonafide boy, my parents

basically locked me out of the house after school and encouraged me to make

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friends and be active. Looking back I understand why they did this although at the

time I wanted to play some NES and just be inside. They saw a different generation

of kids emerge before their eyes, kids that were spending less and less time outside

and instead were inside glued to a TV with Mario music playing on the speakers. My

parents decided to embrace more of the things I liked while being outside, and they

noticed that I liked messing with bikes, jumping bikes, and skidding the tires all over

the place. Naturally, I suppose, I was drawn to the freedom of the bicycle and it

later became the item that I would first start my hustling career.

It was never really a question of what I would have picked to start hustling

had someone mentored me much like this book and the YouTube channel is trying

to accomplish with the viewer. Bikes were something I just knew enough about; I

knew how to work on them, what made a good frame, and what people wanted,

among other things. For you it will likely be different, but I urge you to start thinking

about your passions and hobbies right now in order to understand how you can

make extra money by hustling them. In fact, try to find three items that you know a

lot about in order to successfully hustle your first item, because your first hustle will

end up being one of the three that you know. Remember, these items can be

anything from board games to fur coats. Just take a second to find out your three

items, and then proceed to read further.

The first task at hand is going to be to do some basic research. This is

important because we need to see how far and wide the market is for your item. Do

this research on Amazon, eBay, and Craigslist. Amazon will show you the spread of

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the resale prices of the item. On eBay, you will want to sort the data by sold items

and also use the sort by highest function of the filter. On craigslist you want to be

seeing what the asking prices are across other Craigslist cities. You can get basic

research done on these three avenues and the best part is it does not cost a penny.

While researching, start looking at the top brands of those items you enjoy. Look at

the bidding activity, the hard to find models, and the number of items that sell

regularly. In short, you goal is to start making connections on what sells, and what

to look for, within your specific item. So if your item happens to be beanie babies,

then start looking at the highest sold ones, the most frequently high selling ones,

whether there are more auctions or buy-it-now ads on eBay, and how many beanie

babies are selling above the 50 dollar mark, for example. Basically, by doing this

research you’re making connections with pictures and words. It’s much like the

game of memory and having a bunch of face down cards in front of you. Your task is

to locate the matching cards by associating pictures with locations. The same

happens when you research past selling prices of items. Research is free and in the

end it saves you money by educating you on what sells, as well as what does not

sell.

Once you research the items that you are passionate about, you may want

to write on an index card the brands and models to look for. So if you’re into hiking

shoes ,for example, you would probably write Zamberlan, Asolo, Vasque, Salomon,

Kinney, TPS 520GV, Fugitive GTX, etc. Basically those are the good brands and some

of the good models as well. Do this for all the things you are passionate about. If

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you have more than three, then make yourself a little cheat sheet for each item.

This cheat sheet is what you bring to the table when you hustle.

Now you are almost ready to hustle your first item. Before we get to the

fun of buying the item, we first have to figure out where to find it. There’s no better

place to start finding your item than at your everyday garage sale or thrift shop. I

should also note that if you have a regular flea market or swap meet that would be

acceptable as well. You want to find yourself in a place that already has good pricing

and/or gives you the ability to negotiate a bit. It’s quite easy to line up some garage

sales, but for some people these sales can be many miles from one another. Don’t

forget to throw in each thrift store along the way as well, because thrift stores have

a good amount of items. However, In all honesty the deals are generally better at a

garage sale and a good flea market or swap meet.

The goal here is just to show up. Woody Allen, an acclaimed producer and

actor, said “80 percent of success is just showing up”. That’s seriously the truth

about what I do. I make sure to be there at a sale or thrift shop no matter if I am

tired or if the weather is not favorable. Showing up is everything; each time you

show up you rack up experience. Hustling is no more than a game and it’s a game

where the most money driven people succeed because they have systems in place

and they know the value of being out there in the field looking for items. This is

your first system, to show up! Make a list, and place enough stops in there to take

up about 2-4 hours of your time.

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Many people through YouTube and Facebook ask me about how to

develop a super Bonafide list. What’s interesting about how I make my lists is that I

make them to purposely give me a high chance of succeeding. Basically, my lists

make me cash. When making a list, however, you need to know about the tools

around you. When my mother was a micro hustler in Houston TX, there were these

things called classifieds, and they were found in the newspaper as well as a

publication called The Greensheet. She used a bit of those tools and also made sure

to stop by each and every garage sale sign she saw within a certain radius of our

home. That’s how she did it. Fortunately it’s much easier now, and the tools for use

are not only free, but they’re also very easy to use.

The tool I use the most for preparing a list is craigslist because the search

function is very good on it. I get on craigslist, tap into the garage sales section, and

on the top portion there’s a search bar where you can look up any item you want.

Upon submitting “search”, any sale with your particular word will pop up. Fantastic!

Now all we have to do is look up words that pertain to your chosen items. If we take

the previous hiking boot example, you would place in words such as hiking,

camping, Asolo, Salomon, etc. If you noticed, I placed also the word “camping” in

there. I think the reason why is very obvious. There’s a good chance of finding

hiking boots at a place that has camping goods because they go hand in hand. The

craigslist search engine is amazing and has made me so much cash it’s not even

funny. One thing to remember though is to place all word variations of your

particular item in there. If you’re into guitars then your word search might look like

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this: guitar, guitars, Epiphone, Gibson, Les Paul, Dean, Jackson, 12 string, classical,

Ibanez, etc. Once you get to use the search function you’ll see what I mean.

Craigslist search function is my number one thing I use to make a list, but

there are other tools that I need to mention only because they have also made me

substantial amounts of cash by directing me to various sales where I have found

stuff. One is a website called yardsaletreasuremap.com. This site allows you to see

on a map the garage sales around your area and also allows you to mouse click the

sales to see what they have. On a geographical standpoint, this tool will show you

what’s closest to your home. The only downside is that it does not pick up on all the

sales that, for example, Craigslist would have. In a business where one sale can

make your entire day, I recommend beginning with Craigslist as your primary list

maker, and then finalizing with yardsaletreasuremap.com. I also should mention

that the Yard Sale Treasure Map app is decent as well. The app is for use on your

smartphone/tablet, should you have one. I resort to the Yard Sale Treasure Map

app when I have exhausted my Craigslist list first. It’s a bit of personal preference,

although there have been days where I relied heavily on the app in the field and

made cash. The importance here is to know about the tools around you.

It is also important while making your list to search for flea markets, swap

meets, and thrift stores as well. Include these on your list especially if you’re not

able to find enough garage sales or yard sales to visit. In google make sure to type in

and do some basic research on where your thrift stores are. Lookup Goodwill,

Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, etc. Then repeat this by looking for flea

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markets and swap meets. Route these stops into your list, and always remember

that 80% of the success will be just to show up. Once you’re in front of the sale or at

the flea market, you will see the action of buyers and sellers, and it’s very

exciting…especially when you get into it! Showing up is completely different from

spending money. Showing up is crucial to getting accustomed to the game. Much

like the lottery, you can’t win if you don’t play, and with hustling you win more

often than the lottery if you just show up. So, are you now ready to see what’s

next?

After building your magnificent list you’re now ready to get out there in

the field. Adequate research on your items is now complete. Now it’s time to start

looking for items. The next step naturally is how to proceed when you’re at a sale.

Mastering a sale, thrift shop, swap meet, or flea market takes a bit of finesse and a

whole lot of psychology. Don’t be afraid, none of this is complicated, but pay

attention because it makes you money by saving you from spending more. If you’re

a beginner or intermediate hustler this section will greatly help you out. Profitable

hustling happens both when you sell and when you buy. If there’s a more important

place to spend your time learning about hustling and cash, it’s certainly should be

spent on understanding how to negotiate properly. As I have made several videos

about this one topic, I will do the justice by explaining it here in full.

It’s very exciting to go to garage sales, flea markets, thrift stores, and any

other place that has a good chance to make some money. When you become an

experienced hustler it seems as if you think about hustling no matter where you go.

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Constant thoughts regarding making money on this item or on that one is not

uncommon. You begin to wonder whether you can resell a new item for more cash

and vice versa. It’s a bit of an addiction, but a healthy one. Most addictions cost

money; this one will make you money.

So there you are at your first stop. After making a list and researching your

items and stops, the next step is to find your items for a good deal. This can be easy

or tough depending on what kind of person you are inside. I believe most humans

on this planet love to shop, it’s in our blood, and being dubbed a consumer-driven

society is pretty much dead on. In fact, when I am at a sale I am doing just the exact

same thing. I am shopping and consuming, but I do it for profit. That’s what is

happening here when you’re at your first sale or first round of sales. Start looking

around and don’t forget to dig too. Get into the sale and look for what you know. If

you determine quickly that what you are looking for is not there, then leave. Make

sure you do this every time. Shopping for yourself is meant for later in your hustling

career. Now is the time to focus and get some fast cash under your belt. Whenever

you are at any of the stops on your list, look only for your items and then leave; try

to keep conversation between you and the seller at a minimum if you find nothing

at the sale. But what if you find something? What should you do?

If you’re executing your list and find yourself in front of an item of interest,

it’s time to take the next step and that is certainly not to buy it. It’s time to inspect

the item to determine the condition. Take extra time to scrutinize the item and if it

has moving parts try to make them move. If the item is electronic such as a

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camcorder, see if you can plug it in and turn it on. Play with it for a little bit. The

inspection process is crucial because it not only saves you money by finding flaws,

but also it prevents you from being at home and finding a flaw later. When you look

over an item at a sale, you’re looking for flaws and reasons not to buy it or a reason

to talk the price down. I mean, you should always talk the price down even if there

are no flaws, but if you find flaws and the item is still desirable, the flaws are almost

like negotiation ammunition.

Assuming there are no flaws in the item the next step is to get the item for

as low as possible. If you’re at a corporate thrift store, pay attention to the color

tags (if applicable) that show the day’s discount. Maybe there’s a student or senior

discount. Know what’s available for you before you decide to buy. There are certain

corporate thrift stores such as Goodwill where prices are nearly fixed unless you

end up finding an item with no tag, and you just happen to know the manager. For

the most part, you’ll need to know about some basic negotiation skills. Negotiation

is crucial because the profit is made when the item is bought. You make your

money when you buy. It’s as simple as that.

Negotiation is one of the most heavily requested aspects of hustling that

YouTube subscribers ask me about. I am naturally good at it. I suppose a large part

of that confidence comes from my professional background, which has always been

in some sort of consumer service, consulting, or sales type position. Talking to

people is easy for me, and coercing someone to act on something feels almost

second nature. At heart, if I believe in something, I can assist others in believing the

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same thing. Now I know that not everyone is like me, but you also don’t need to be

like me to score some great cash. That being said, the best hustlers out there are

always looking for the best deals, and they’re not afraid to offer out prices to

people. Negotiation can be very uncomfortable to some people, and a large portion

of the discomfort comes from the unfamiliar surroundings and the fear of rejection.

By the end of this chapter my goal is to take the worry away by letting you

know about how I deal with negotiation and also why I do it each and every time. In

order to understand negotiation completely you must first look at it from a bird’s

eye view. From up top, negotiation looks huge, daunting, and seems like too much

to learn so quickly. I can understand. You’re about to delve into learning something

that will affect your life forever. It’s too hard to learn it all right now, so you’ll need

the cliffs notes and the most important things, those that will encourage you in the

future to always try and make more money. That’s what’s going on here.

Negotiation is the #1 skill to make cash after all the research and visiting the sale is

completed. Now you’re there, at the sale, or at the flea market, and you’re looking

at an item that interests you. It’s time to get a deal!

Negotiation, like any skill, will take ongoing practice. Once you think you’ve

learned the skill, there’s still the psychological/analytical aspect of it that is not

talked about much. When you started driving a car you certainly were not as good

as you are ten years later. Finesse kicks in over time, and the same applies to habits.

In order to make negotiation work for you it’s important to understand that it’s just

like any other skill you have mastered, it just takes practice and you can do it. That’s

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right YOU right there reading this book can do this and get very good at it. But then

again you might be asking why do I need to know this? You may be thinking “I know

how to find a great deal already, this doesn’t pertain to me”. But in reality it does.

Life is an ongoing process with a definite end. You can come to the end

with satisfaction, pride, and a legacy. Or you can arrive at the end and wonder what

may have happened if you had changed this or that about your life earlier. The

same applies to negotiation. Don’t come to the end or realize in ten years, for

example, that you can talk people down more successfully than you have before.

That time is now, and every time a price is not fixed in stone you ought to be

practicing. Any one of us can become the expert. As stated multiple times in this

book, my ultimate goal is to shorten the time it took for me to become the Bonafide

Hustler for you. I want you to get on a Bonafide level in 6 months or maybe a year.

The hustling game is for anyone that likes money, but to attain more money you

need to know about negotiation.

Negotiation, in my experience, pays me about 20-40 percent more than

what I would have made originally had I not asked or offered for a better deal. 20-

40 percent! If I told you that there was a stock that could pay you 20-40 percent

each year on any amount invested would you be interested? Negotiation is that

stock. It is the key to making more money. I wish I could show the reader a year of

my business where I paid asking price for each item, and then compare it to a year

where I use negotiation regularly. The results I’m sure would be astonishing. The

key takeaway here is to leave with the understanding that negotiation alone will

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make you money aside from the money you’ll already make from hustling

successfully.

This finally brings us to the negotiation tactics you’ll have to use when

you’re in person at the sale. The first general rule of negotiation is to not show

excitement. Never be all about an item, especially in front of the seller. If you get

excited about an item, the seller will see a connection, interest, and the overall

want by your actions. As a general rule, the more interested you are in an item the

more set in stone the asking price becomes. Instead, you need to look patient,

confident, and even borderline aloof sometimes. You must remember, the seller in

most cases wants these items sold, and the last thing they want is to haul it back

into the house. Therefore the less interest you show, the more the seller becomes

desperate and begins to wonder how they will sell their stuff. A majority of what’s

at a garage sale will be fluff, unless you’re at one where you find something, or

multiple items of value. When you end up finding something you’re interested in,

try to find the price of the item even before touching the item. If you cannot do

this, simply ask the person, without touching the item, how much the item is. If you

see the price, calculate that price with 25% off, because a majority of items sold

already can be bargained down to this level. The next part is to recite one of these

lines:

“What’s the best price you’ll do on this?”

“What’s the best deal you can do on this ____?”

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“What’s the best cash price right now you can do on this?”

Notice how the line is not “What’s the lowest you’ll go on this item?” or “What’s

the rock bottom price you can do on this?” Generally, a seller that hears the words

lowest and rock bottom is thinking “this person wants this for nothing” “this sounds

like a lowballer.” It reduces your chances of a super amazing deal. You want the

seller to remain reciprocal and open to other prices on the item, so it’s important to

keep the question neutral. Remember, by using the word BEST that’s a good

sounding thing to a seller. Best is great, when has it ever not been? No matter what

they say, your next step is to keep negotiating. Yes, we’re out to get this item for a

very good price and put money in your pocket.

After the seller gives you their best price, it’s important to know that in

about 50% of the cases it’s truly not the best price. Yes, you can get the item for

lower! The next step is to keep acting uninterested and then place the item down. If

you were holding the item, put it back where you found it. Many times when this

happens the seller will give you another lower price, or simply ask “what do you

want to pay for the item.” This is good. We want this. Then just tell them a

respectable price you are willing to pay and the most important thing is to have

some sort of cash showing in your hand. It does not have to the exact amount of

what you want to pay. It just has to be some cash. Try not to pull out a wad of 100

dollar bills either, because then you look like a moron. Making your offer after all of

this negotiating is crucial to do it with some money in your hand. The seller

perceives two things going on here: one, they can get some cash for their item and

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not bring it back into the house, and two, they can say yes and the uncomfortable

negotiation process is over. Remember, negotiation is uncomfortable for most

people, so the seller is likely to feel discomfort while you try to get the best price.

However, what if after you ask for the best price the seller says that’s the

best price, the price they stated. What do you do then? Simple, the best thing is to

offer a price that’s close to their price, and then close it with “and I can take it off

your hands right now.” So the whole conversation may look like this: (and let’s

place an asking price of $20 on the item)

Hustler: **picks up item and looks at it**

Hustler: “What’s the best price you’ll do on this?”

Seller: “I would take 18 and that’s a deal”

Hustler: **places the item down**

Seller: “It’s hardly been used”

Hustler: **Showing a little cash** “I tell you what, I can give you 15 for it

right now and take it off your hands”.

Seller: “Okay I can do that”

That’s negotiation and hustler psychology at its best. In the scenario above, you

have just made an extra 5 bucks because you asked and negotiated. Practice will

turn it into a habit, and before long you’ll be amazed how much less money you will

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spend at the end of a Saturday garage sale run than if you just paid asking price.

Asking price is for chumps. I’m training you to be a hustler.

So this wraps up the chapter of hustling your first item. Always remember

to get the best deal for the item that you have so diligently studied. Negotiation is

key for placing more money in your pocket and at the same time it allows you more

wiggle room on the item in the case that you find it has trouble selling or if

someone negotiates with you. Both of those things happen every now and then, so

be sure to negotiate all the time so you won’t have to worry as much about your

profit. If you do your research right, and negotiate correctly, the natural next step is

to bring your item to market. This is very easy and in the following chapter I will

show you the most efficient way to do it.

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Chapter 11 – Item to Market

Successfully selling your product is a rather easy process, but that being

said I have countless questions about where to post, what to say, most importantly

what to charge. From beginners to advanced hustlers, I receive these types of

questions every day. The good part is the marketing part is relatively easy. If you are

buying decent items that have a market, and you’ve acquired them for a great

price, then the marketing portion will be easy. Follow these suggestions, and

remember that it took me 10 years to master marketing the product.

I always want to bring you birds-eye, looking down from the top, when we

go over important sections of hustling. At the pinnacle of marketing your product

you have the reason behind correct marketing versus the opposite. If you do a good

job of listing your product, your product will get page views. If you showcase

properly, it will get seen at an antique booth, should you end up getting one of

those down the road. Effective marketing is easy to do once you understand why it

should be done a certain way as opposed to another.

Knowing your avenues to sell is the first part of deciding which ones to use

to bring your product to the eyes of the potential buyer. That’s correct. I said which

ones, as in plural. Placing a majority of your items in two channels gives it a better

chance of selling. The three channels that I use most frequently are eBay, Craigslist,

and my antique booth. Many of my items are double listed, and even some are

triple listed – meaning they’re on Craigslist, eBay, and sitting in my booth! The most

widely used avenues out there in a hustling and reselling sense are eBay, Amazon,

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Craigslist, and flea market. No matter what item you may have, one or more of

those avenues can move it. Knowing which ones to pick can be daunting if you are

beginner and eager to hustle your first item(s). Let’s talk about the four main

avenues now and the pros and cons of each.

One of the best avenues to sell is eBay. It’s basically an online marketplace

that can expedite selling your product in a very easy fashion. It will require you to

pair up with PayPal, which is basically a transaction giant. So think of eBay as the

marketing platform, and PayPal as the executor of the financial transaction. That’s

basically it. The most obvious advantage to bringing your item onto eBay is the

exposure. Millions of people visit eBay every day to purchase items. If your item is

there, it will get massive exposure, but only if you know what to place in your ads.

The disadvantage to using eBay, most will concur, is the fees. There are sometimes

fees for listing your item, but the large fee occurs when your item sells, and it’s

based upon the final selling price. If your item sells for more, eBay makes more, and

vice versa. Another common hatred for eBay seems to be how they side with the

buyer in instances where a dispute arises between buyer and seller. I can

understand all of this frustration, but I can’t say that I share in the resentment. eBay

has made me a ton of money and continues to do so. I look at it as a solid avenue

that contributes each month to my overall hustler goal. I have never been super

burned by eBay, and I suppose that may be one reason why I do not have any

negative sentiment for them. I figure 11% of my item’s sales price will travel to both

eBay and PayPal collectively, and to me that’s completely reasonable.

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Amazon is another place where you can list an item. As of this book writing

I do not mess with merchant fulfilled Amazon but recently they have developed

another business called their Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) which has recently taken

off with serious steam. FBA is basically Amazon taking more responsibility on the

item and all you have to do is send the item(s) in using one of their heavily

subsidized shipping avenues. Amazon will then build the listing, handle the

customer service, and most importantly they will send the item to the customer. I

recently started FBA and I can see that it is a great resale avenue for items,

especially new ones. The process to get started with FBA is very easy and should

you choose to start using this avenue, the app Profit Bandit is very good as well.

Profit Bandit helps you scan items that have a bar code to see whether they’re good

for resale on the existing Amazon market. It’s a must have.

Think of FBA as a worker. Just like any business, you have to pay in order to

attain assistance. FBA takes about 30% of your items selling price, but that’s also

because they do a majority of the work for you. All you have to do is find the items

you want to sell and then send all of them off to Amazon. I send off about 30 at a

time now and many times the boxes are heavy and large! As stated earlier the

postage is subsidized heavily so in the end it makes perfect sense. Amazon will

handle the rest once they receive the box or boxes. It’s amazing! As for regular,

merchant fulfilled selling on Amazon, I know countless other YouTube hustlers that

engage with that avenue and see amazing profits. I will leave it at that. Check it

both FBA and merchant-fulfilled Amazon as an avenue if you wish.

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Perhaps one of the most amazing market avenue tools that we have

around us (in most small-large cities around the world) is Craigslist. Ah, the almighty

Craigslist! I certainly cannot live without this avenue. It has made me more than

eBay and my antique booth combined. Craigslist is an online site that allows you to

place local ads for your items for free. The buyer typically lives close, and meets up

with you to acquire the item. Now that‘s simple. One disadvantage to using

Craigslist is it won’t have the immense reach as eBay or Amazon when it comes to

the marketing aspect. Another disadvantage with Craigslist seems to be the

weariness about meeting up with people and such. The remedy is simple, meet at a

well-lit place and when you head home check your rearview periodically. It sounds

funny. I have never had any issues with Craigslist and I have had tens of thousands

of meetups with complete strangers. Another small disadvantage with craigslist is

the high incidence of being talked down, or negotiated. If you hustled your item to

its lowest point possible, then ultimately you can decide whether to entertain their

offer, counter offer, or just place in your ad that the price is firm. It’s your choice.

Craigslist is amazing. With all confidence I urge you to get accustomed to it if your

town is a decent Craigslist type town.

Many of the resellers on YouTube sell their goods at a flea market. I

especially see resellers that have bought lots of stuff, as in large quantities of one

item or maybe a storage locker through an auction, as using the flea market as an

avenue to sell their goods. I have visited many flea markets around the country and

as a buyer I can find just about anything I am looking for if I go to enough of them.

There are no real rules to a flea market. It’s a bargaining mecca at its finest. If you

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decide to sell at these places, you will find that the best negotiators come either

early in the morning or right as the flea market is closing. Those negotiators are

resellers and hustlers mainly. General public and those that are not as well-versed

on negotiation will come in the middle times. It’s a great place to sell items,

provided the slip fee is reasonable and the weather cooperates. If you are more of

the type that wants to pack up a truck or car with items and go to one central

location for 6-8 hours to sell your stuff, then a flea market is for you. It’s not for me,

personally, but don’t let that hinder you from at least experiencing the flea market

as a possible avenue in your own home town.

Now that you know the most important avenues for which to market your

product, the next step is to build an ad. This is very easy, but I have seen too many

people do this wrong, and the result inevitably is their item not selling in an

appropriate time, or just a general lack of the right buyers not even seeing the ad in

the first place. An effective ad has to capture the prospective buyer almost

immediately and this is done by having two things perfect right from the start, an

effective title and an effective main picture. This is because you only have so much

time to capture someone’s attention when they’re shopping. Hitting the main

points and having an amazing picture will assist you in getting your item(s) sold. In

the title line it’s important to place words that highlight Brand, Model#, Gender,

Size, Condition and possibly the color. Sometimes placing in keywords in the title

helps also. If you’re on eBay there is a word limit in the title portion, so it’s crucial

to hit the high points very quickly! An example of a proper ad would be something

like this:

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Men’s Asolo Fugitive GTX Hiking boot. Size 13. Brown Black. Super condition

Another example would be something like this:

Trek Carbon 9.8 Mountain Bike. Size 19” Frame. White Red. With Extras. Good

condition

If you have an item that has been customized, it’s sometimes important to place

“with extras” on the title line. The prospective buyer expects to find a more detailed

description of what the extra things are in the description portion of the ad. No

matter which site you use, you will find a place for title, description, and in most

cases a place for pictures. Amazon has some variations, but altogether ads are

generally pretty simple.

People ask me many times about how to improve their pictures. With any

picture you take, whether it be for personal use or resale use, the impact of good

lighting and clarity makes all the difference. Your item is destined for more

recognition if you have a good lead picture and a good title. One of the most

inexpensive ways to get amazing pics for your ads is to either take your pictures in

the afternoon/evening time or to build some sort of spotlight/backdrop. A decent

spotlight can be built on the cheap. I am talking maybe 10 bucks. Here’s what you

need to get:

A cheap tripod – go to enough garage sales you’ll find one at 5 dollars or

below

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A cheap clamp on lamp – very cheap at a garage sale

Shower cap - 1.00 anywhere you go: Walgreens, CVS

Some tape – you already have this

A backdrop can be a cloth basically on a wall. Put it all together, shine your light

down or straight using the tripod adjustments, and you have yourself a low budget

lighting system that will greatly enhance your pictures. In addition take pics of all

sides and under your product. Get far, get close, and show all imperfections. Attach

the pics to your ad. There, done!

So now you ought to have some direction on where to sell your freshly

found item, and if you’re more of an experienced hustler already, you may have

learned some things. Put these plans into action immediately. Know the possible

avenues you can use to move your products, and then build some great ads. If you

hustled correctly and picked the right item for the right price, you should see some

activity on your ads. Maybe you will get a call back from someone locally, perhaps

you get some bidders on your auction, or maybe you just sell it the old fashioned

way at a flea market. No matter which route you take, always be looking for more

avenues to list your product and be looking to list in more than one avenue when

you can.

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Chapter 12 – Profitability of a Process

Real hustler money comes when you have a goal, and a process to get to

that goal. In this game, anything can happen, and the best of us go full time, that’s

right, we have left our normal jobs to pursue hustling. Can it really be crazy? I can

tell you with partial confidence that most of the full-time hustlers in the game now

had real jobs in the past, and at some point they found out about hustling and

started dabbling with it. It may have been a hobby, let’s say. Then the hobby started

making them money, and with experience they eventually fine-tuned their personal

game. They had some processes in place and eventually the decision was made to

go full-time. What makes a good process? What can a part time hustler do better in

order to do it full time?

For me I have always wanted to own my own business from the start and I

believe inherently we all want to do what we want to do, not what some company

tells us to do. The problem is that as a society we have spent beyond our actual

means, and now we are victims to a vicious, slow rat race. That sucks, really it does.

So many of us are capable of amazing contribution and here we are, most of us,

living a live we don’t even want to live; we work for someone else. Well, hustling

gives you a taste of a better life, that’s for sure. When I started hustling 10 years

ago I was making enough each week to go eat sushi and buy my friends drinks

nearly every weekend for the first year. Then I started to visit nicer restaurants in

general. After that, I was heavily into bicycling, wakeboarding, and remote control

cars/aircraft. RC as a hobby is a huge, but fun, money drain. I figured it would be

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cheaper than rebuilding and juicing up a car, only because I had prior experience

with that. My point is my corporate salary was not sufficient enough for me to

afford all these other things that I thought I really need to experience and have.

And that’s why I started hustling more and more. I was addicted and it

seemed like everywhere I went I could at least find a bike, some wakeboard stuff, or

some other sporting good to resell. I had made more in the first year not even

trying than my own corporate bonus. It only made sense to continue the hobby.

And somewhere it just clicked, and I started to develop a process, one that would

help me locate the places and also help me sell the products.

My first task was to build a small spreadsheet that included what I items I

had bought, the time of day purchased, and where I bought the items. I needed

data, because when you have data, you can measure and look at performance. I did

this religiously for about six months, and then mysteriously I started making more

and more cash. Since I was constantly inputting data into my sheet, my brain was

already making connections with the parts of town that were most profitable, and

most importantly my most profitable places to find goods. It turns out there was a

pawn shop on South Congress St where a good deal of my profit was coming from.

So naturally I started to visit it more whenever I could, sometimes multiple times on

a Saturday. The data also pointed out that the Goodwill and Salvation Army across

the freeway from my house were also super profitable. I figured this was because I

religiously passed by those stores before I went home each day from work. So I

went more often, and found even more stuff.

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Having some good data will certainly help you build a process and

eventually a goal. A good goal is something measurable, attainable, and most

important realistic. In my second year, instead of wanting to make 14K again, I

decided would shoot for 18-20K. My goal was not to make 50K because I had to be

honest with myself. That amount was unreasonable. Next, I had to look at whether I

could measure the goal. That was easy. Since I had my data I could just start

another sheet for the second year and measure it that way. What’s interesting is

halfway through the year again I stopped tracking, because I already knew it was

working and I would be surpassing my 20K goal. Last, I had to ask myself at the

beginning of the second year if the goal was attainable. I already knew that it was. I

had reliable transportation, decent amount of cash built up, and the hunger to buy

some cool wakeboarding stuff for personal use. Make some goals for yourself and

don’t forget to track your progress for a while. The visual connection your brain will

make to a religious data entry each time you hustle will eventually lead you to find

out where your time will be best spent.

A good process will in fact pay you handsomely and cause you make more

in a shorter amount of time. That’s why you need to track your sold items and

where you find them. In the end it will save you from going to that unprofitable part

of town, or maybe that one pawn shop or thrift store that never gives you deals.

The more time you save, the more time you can reallocate to the profitable stuff.

It’s basically that simple.

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Getting organized is also a huge part of a process. When I first started out I

sold all of my stuff locally, and later got into eBay and the booth. I had no processes

for eBay or the antique booth. I remember looking all over the place for boxes to

ship my eBay finds and I was buying tape at Office Depot and Costco. At the booth I

was dropping off dirty items and not doing extended research on most of the items

before bringing them to market. I decided to get organized. So I built a process. I

was tired of frantically trying to find boxes, I had the speculation that I was paying

too much for tape, and I wanted more sales out of my booth. I decided to get

serious.

I started buying tape, 50 rolls of it, off eBay. I got myself a decent scale, a

good tape gun, 100 bubble mailers, and I each time I went to Costco, I made sure

to take some extra boxes home with me. Over time I felt less stressed and since I

was buying supplies in bulk I knew it would end up being cheaper over time. I

started to look at my hustling as a business. I was cutting costs where I could and I

was finding more and more stuff. It was great. Instead of going straight to the booth

after garage saling, I instead came home, analyzed what I found, cleaned where it

was necessary, and did some brief research. I made sure to visit my booth more

often, mostly to tidy up and rearrange things. Business went well, and my process

was making me more money and more time for hustling. It was weird. I got more

efficient and I could hustle more.

Fast forward to today and in my garage you will find a shelf full of packed

boxes ready for shipping, a ton of bikes, and anything vintage will already be at my

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booth. I try to not have things out of boxes unless I am making a video about it on

YouTube, creating an FBA shipment, or if I am about to list some things on eBay. All

the boxes on the garage shelf are ready for shipment with the items already inside

and listed. I still have a ton of tape rolls, boxes, and my same tape gun. My process,

that was built many years ago, is still going strong! I now list items then pack them

up immediately so I don’t have to see them again. The only thing that sucks is when

someone needs more info or a measurement of some item. Yes, I have to unpack

items every now and then to get buyers their odd info, but aside from that I would

not give up my organization and process for anything.

Now I have certain times when I list my items and I won’t list one item

alone unless it’s something like a bike. I try to have a bunch to list, and then I list.

After that I spend some time packing everything. It’s really no different than a

factory if you think about it and a factory is nothing but a bunch of good processes

put together for mass production of an item. Think of your hustling game as a

factory and treat it the same way. It’s amazing what the mind can do when it

focuses on one thing. When I am in picture mode, all I do is take good pictures.

After that I get into making an ad mode. That’s where I just make ads, sometimes

building templates (on eBay) to speed things up. Then I get into packing mode

where I am boxing, weighing, and measuring my packages. I finally get into shipping

mode where I bring shipments about 3x a week to the post office. It’s all in the

process and with a good one you’ll simply make more money. Develop your

processes early and stick to them.

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Chapter 13 – PMT

One of the deciding factors, by far, of an efficient hustler versus one that

spins wheels is how they deal with time. When I worked a corporate job about five

years ago, my district manager would always say at meetings how we all had

resources: people, money, and time. In order to become the best, you must be able

to understand how you can leverage your resources to your advantage. In order to

succeed, you need to take steps towards mastering these three resources.

People as a resource can mean you, but if you think about it more, it’s hard

to be a mega hustler just by relying on yourself. So it’s important to think outside

yourself as in “how can you leverage someone else to make money for you?” It’s

rather simple to find other avenues to sell an item and have people work for you.

With me, I have the antique booth. It is unmanned meaning I do not have to be

there to sell my items. The front desk at the antique mall does that work. Boom,

there’s some people resources right there. Of course, there is a cost to it, but that

cost is worth it to me considering I do not have to be there during the hours of

10AM-6PM, which are the hours of operation. Then, there’s also the Amazon FBA

program that I engage in. That program allows me to send in all my hustling finds to

Amazon and they do everything else – list, pack, ship, and customer service. There

is a cost to it, but it’s well worth it because I can now spend more time finding more

FBA items. These are ways that the resources of people and money can come

together to assist you in finding more …TIME.

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Have you ever found yourself thinking “if I had more time I could

get it all done?” In reality we don’t have all the time in the world so instead we

prioritize. Life is nothing but a large timer that simply runs out at the end. Yes, it

sucks to say that, but truthfully that’s how it is. Why not make the best out of your

time? Why don’t you do the things you want to do and buy some of the things you

want? The answer is that it costs money and takes time, and many of us do not

have either to spare. Hustling will help you here. It will give you that extra income

you seek, it will allow you to cut back on your current job, and it will give you

answers to many of life’s frustrations. You can do it. So let’s look at time a bit more

to see how you can maximize it and make some serious cash.

Ever heard the term “time is money”? Unless you’ve been living

under a rock your entire life it’s likely that you’ve heard this numerous times either

in real life or maybe while watching a movie. Time indeed is money. If you have

more time, you allow yourself to make more cash. It’s pretty simple. The truth is we

don’t have all the time in the world. That leaves us trying to budget the time that

we have every day. How does one do this? Prioritizing! Oh no, here we go about

priorities again.

After I was done working in the field for the company that I was

with several years ago, I would take the same way home each day. This was

basically my life on repeat, the rat race, etc. Luckily I had known about hustling as a

legit source of income and each day I would find myself going across the freeway to

the Goodwill and Salvation Army before heading home. I can’t tell you how many

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times I was thinking about just taking a nap at home, or just playing with my dogs,

but something else motivated me to take a bit of time to hustle each day. It was

cash. I looked at everything in a time standpoint back then and I figured that it was

worth my time to invest 10-15 minutes to see these two thrift stores each day

before heading home. I had figured at this point that it was merely statistics at play

in relation to cash. The more I stuck to the plan, the more cash I made. Once every

three visits or so I found myself finding items that I could hustle and make an extra

100 or more. It didn’t take long before this became a habit, because I knew the

outcome.

In the example above I had figured that it was worth my time to

not go home each day and instead see the two thrift stores. By investing about an

hour a half a week of my time to visit the stores, I was making about 200 or more.

Think about it; is that worth it to you? If it’s not, then maybe this book is not for

you, but for many reading I am sure your mind is starting to click a little bit. Think

about where you are spending your time every day, and then think about where

you can go each lunch break or on the way home to make potential cash. When I

would visit those two thrift stores I remember regularly seeing this one guy with an

Orkin Army shirt. Apparently he had figured it out as well, and I could only put two

and two together. I figured he lived close and this was the end of his workday as

well. Going to those two stores at the end of every day was merely an example of

one thing that I did to make big money in a short amount of time. Think about

where you can do this. Let your mind think and come up with some ideas.

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In order to hit home a bit more let’s break down that example

above into a weekly wage. If I invest an hour and half (10-15 minutes each day x 5

workdays) finding the items, and let’s say about 30 minutes to research and list the

items, that means in about 2 hours I was making on average about $100. Is that

worth your time? One hundred dollars an hour. Think about it. Fast forward. Later

the Salvation Army relocated a bit further down the road and got much larger/more

prominent. It became harder to make the $100 average, so my average today is

about $50 an hour after doing those two stops. I still go a bit further down the road

just to see that store, but that’s still not that bad. I’m not worried. I have many

tricks up my sleeve to compensate for the money lost. When you constantly think

about maximizing your time you cannot help from inevitably becoming more

efficient.

For some of you out there maybe there isn’t something as close to

the home as what I had. This requires you to drive a bit out to some stops. In

general, there are many towns in America that may not have it as good as I do here

in Austin, with all the places to make potential cash. I don’t have it the best, but I

certainly don’t have it bad. For those of you that don’t live close to thrift stores, or

maybe garage sales are a bit more spread out than you would like, there’s hope.

Make sure you know about all the stores around you. Think of donation centers,

pawn shops, stores with huge clearance items, etc. Always be thinking of how you

can hustle a bit every day. Just make sure to always calculate in your profit

numbers the gas and transit time. For my example above, seeing those two thrift

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stores took up 1.5 hours each week and total it was about 15 extra miles to travel.

Not a big deal. But for some out there it will be much different.

Don’t forget to factor in transit time and gas time in your profit

and see if it makes sense. I would say if you’re making 20 or above on average an

hour then it’s something you may want to keep doing. Always remember that you

can also take a lunch break to hustle. Many of the people I correspond with on

YouTube are doing this now. If you live in a city that has some profit potential

relatively close to your work, consider making your lunch and eating it in your car.

Trust me; the money you could be missing out on might be significant. Who cares if

you don’t chit chat and gossip with everyone else at the break table at work. You’re

the one changing your life one hustle at a time! Before long, you’ll be the one

paying off your home faster, or maybe you’re the one taking bigger and better

vacations each year because you can now afford them. Think about it. These cash

realities exist while most people are stuck in their everyday ruts. How bad do you

want out?

I will leave you with this. Time is money and you have to strive

each and every day to work smarter, not harder. For those out there that are a

beginner or intermediate hustler, really take some time and figure out how you can

maximize yourself in regards to the three resources of people, money, and time.

Fine tune your successes and think of where you can save time and cash, while

making people potentially work for you. Time saved in a day can be allocated to

more hustling, more time with family, and more time to think about your next life

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step. If you’re thinking you don’t have enough time, you’re already in a circle and in

a position where nothing will change. Hustling can be the answer to many issues

out there, but only if you find the time to do it. So get out there and make that

money. It’s out there.

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Chapter 14 – Inventory

Inventory is a very interesting subject at hand when you become a hustler,

because inevitably it is part of the situation. In this chapter I will tell you about how

I started handling inventory and what I have learned over the years to ultimately

end up where I am right now, with a very appropriate level of it in my home.

Inventory can certainly get out of control, because once you start hustling, it’s very

hard to stop. As you become a mature hustler it seems as if the deals scream at you

from all sides. Inventory builds up and if you’re not careful, it can get out of control

real quick. I have been there, trust me. Stale inventory is not good for your mind,

your relationship with loved ones, and overall starts looking very hoarder-ish. So,

here’s how to not become a hoarder, basically.

As stated above when you start hustling you start to accumulate inventory,

or basically goods that have not been sold. This is normal. Sometimes items sell

same day and sometimes they can take a bit longer. It all depends on demand,

market, your ad, etc. Assuming you control most of that stuff and you did a decent

job to research past sales prices and such, the item will end up selling. That time

period it takes to sell is unpredictable. The only way to make the time shorter is to

hustle good items all the time, items that are in high demand and have relatively

good cash profit payout. Unfortunately, especially when you first start out there’s

that learning curve. For me that timeframe was several years. Yes, several years.

Not to worry, this book will shorten that considerably for you. It is the cheat sheet

to hustling.

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When I first started out I was hustling bikes from thrift stores, garage sales,

and pawn shops. Ever since the first sale of that Hoffman BMX, I was hooked

because I knew the profit potential was very large for me to continue and get

better. So that’s what I did, and I started thinking about other items that I could

hustle. This led me to start experimenting after my first year of bicycle flipping

success. For bikes the market was strictly classifieds and craigslist. Luckily I lived in a

very fitness-oriented town that was full of bicyclists and people wanting to get into

riding or acquire another bike for themselves. Profits were good, but anyone would

have done what I did. I looked for other items like the bikes that could make me big

money. That’s where I got my first taste of having some true inventory.

Austin is a hot town for most of the year. Yeah we get our winters, I

suppose, but to whine and moan about lows in the 30’s for about half a month

every year seems ridiculous considering what others in the country have to go

through with all the traffic, snow, delays, blizzards, etc. I mean come on, let’s be

realistic here. Austin’s heat frequently shoots over a hundred degrees for a

majority of the summer, and it’s a bit nuts because I store the bikes I sell in my back

yard. Some sell quickly, some take a couple weeks, but each one is hotter than hell

when I bring it up for sale. Unfortunately when I started experimenting with other

items, I had to consider the heat of our town when deciding where to store the

item. To no surprise the newly acquired wakeboards, stereo stuff, and mainly

remote control cars ended up in my garage. Those items could not be in the sun for

days on end. It did not take long before a small pile formed, and then a much larger

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one. Soon after, I was in a Bonafide crisis, and I started parking my vehicles outside

of the garage. Look, money was good, but I wasn’t doing something right.

I was so caught up on the money and acquisition of goods that I nearly got

in over my head. I was asking way too much for much of my stuff. It’s not that it

would not sell; it’s just that it would take longer. My money was being locked up for

longer periods and hence the pile would start forming. One of the best ways to

combat inventory is to be realistic with your prices. Don’t try to home run

everything. Try to have an item sell at a reasonable time, and certainly not weeks

and months later. I would find myself acquiring more desirable stuff many times,

and the stuff I already had just seemed not that interesting. I would let ads lapse ad

revisit them many days later. I just was not being smart about it.

Inventory issues will hit all hustlers at some point in time. If it never gets to

you I applaud you. But if it hasn’t happened to you, it may also mean you aren’t

doing something right. It’s part of the hustling game to have inventory and to be

able to manage it. It’s almost as if a beginning hustler needs to feel the pain of stale

inventory in order to grow. After reading this chapter I hope to leave you with

some great pointers on how to reduce the stress of inventory and instead replace

the inventory with money, good feelings, and overall positive sentiment. If you have

inventory and it’s always listed, always churning and burning, then you will make

very good money. I always make sure that 90% of my stuff is listed or has buyer’s

eyes on it. Here’s how I do it.

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First I pay attention to trends. They are important because they are similar

to the current of the ocean, if you swim with it you get farther faster. If you swim

against it you burn energy and travel small distances. Trends are the same way. You

want to go with trends for profit reasons and also for inventory reasons. Examples:

Don’t be buying the new PlayStation in bulk after Christmas passes and stock is

replenishing at stores, don’t be buying vintage Girbaud jeans if clearly people are

looking for vintage Jordache, and don’t be stocking up on baseball cards if the

market is eroded. Be smart about trends and you’ll in turn be smart about your

inventory.

Seasonality is also a large thing that can contribute to some unwelcomed

inventory. For me I learned this when I bought snowboards and skis in the middle of

summertime. I figured hey it was winter somewhere else in the world so why not. I

would still try and sell locally, but that basically never worked well. So I was forced

to place ads on eBay and such. It didn’t take long before I realized that shipping

would be the largest nail in the profit coffin. I decided to stop buying larger winter

goods during the summer at that point. Coming into my garage on a hot summer

day and seeing both snowboards and skis on the walls nearly each day really started

getting to me. I decided the punishment would be to wash clean of the winter

goods, to make nothing on the deal, and that’s what I pretty much did. I’m glad I at

least bought in and sheltered my risk correctly! I still continued to sell smaller

winter goods such as boots, jackets, and gloves. It was all the larger items that I had

to stop buying. My point is, pay attention to seasonality especially if you’re in a

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town that experiences seasons. Seasons are not a bad thing, because within

seasonality there lies a trend altogether. Remember that.

About three years ago I decided I needed an avenue for older items that I

was finding at garage sales, estate sales, etc. Before getting into my antique booth, I

was finding great deals on all sorts of items, but I steered clear of amazing older

goods because I knew I had no market for it. I had to turn them down and that

really sucked! I decided on the booth and basically self-taught myself the vintage

trade. Sure there was the help from the American Pickers and some Pawn Stars, but

overall it was me figuring out what sold here in this town. After all, the booth only

had exposure to whoever walked around the antique mall and I had to always keep

that in mind. I noticed two inventory issues soon after getting into the booth, one

dealt with holes on the shelves, and one had to do with vintage things at my house.

If you go into any large corporate owned retail goods store, you’ll notice

that the shelves are stocked very nicely and organized. It’s done this way for many

reasons including buyer perception, store reputation, marketing, and ease of

shopping, just to name a few. There are even area managers of these stores that

have a large portion of their role dedicated to looking over presentation, plan-o-

grams, and inventory. So as you can see, if they find a hole in the shelf where an

item or items are supposed to be, this would not be a good thing. The same

principle applies to a booth or retail space that you may have. You can even go as

far as those people at a flea market selling stuff on tables. Look closely at a flea

market table, there are hardly any open spots because the seller wants as many

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chances of selling his/her goods as possible. Take this and relate it to your space,

your booth, if you have one or get into one. Make sure there are no holes when you

visit your space, and if you have a store, make sure there are no open places. I

would rather have some unorganized parts of my booth than have holes. Holes are

missed opportunities in my opinion.

The concept of holes can also be carried over to Craigslist, eBay, or

Amazon. Those avenues are the shelves of your virtual store. Make sure you stock

your shelves right, place lots of ads, and have no item unlisted. You have to think of

it like this! Master your inventory and the cash mysteriously starts flowing in. If

you’re listing all your finds in as many channels as possible, the cash will certainly

come in. It’s fine to have a little inventory or a lot, just as long as it’s being rotated.

Many of us hustlers have good amounts of inventory, but it sells slower than we

would like. There are ways around that, you just have to be honest with yourself

and then remedy the issue. There are worse problems in life than inventory issues,

let’s face it!

Another way to combat inventory problems is to sell the most profit

potential item first. Get some money and pride under your wing, and then instead

of getting complacent with the cash, find more things and list everything you have.

While you find more things, the listings of your previous other items will be selling

through. It will be cash rolling in while you repeat the process. That’s one of the

best parts of hustling is getting paid while you shop for more profits. Sell the

highest profit item first is a true hustler rule.

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Hopefully now you have an idea of what’s to come, or maybe you’re

already in bad inventory position as we speak. Remedy the bad habits now, and

move through your items. If you’re a beginner, remember not to freak out when

inventory issues come your way. Review this chapter and see where you’re going

wrong. We all go wrong at some point. My goal is for you not to be like me when I

had inventory issues. I crawled my way out, and had to resort to much personal

introspection in order to do that. What I have told you here is what I found out

after many years of great cash and some issues. Make it your own because we are

all not the same. We hustle differently and we all live in different places with

different buyers around us. Be smart about how you attack inventory because the

steady flow of money awaits those that know the value of churn and burn. It’s

hustling and it’s called hustling for a reason.

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Chapter 15 – Shipping & Returns

Many of the questions I receive through Bonafide Hustler Facebook deals

with the issue of shipping. Before I started eBay I was basically selling everything in

town and in my booth; therefore shipping was of no concern to me. Once I started

eBay I then realized that there was a learning curve to the shipping and return

process. If you take the time to learn a little it will pay you back over time. In this

chapter I will briefly go over some of the shipping and returns practices that I use as

well as some of the pitfalls that you can avoid. I have made shipping mistakes, and

it ended up costing me money. I have taken returns here and there. So let’s make

sure this doesn’t happen to you.

I found myself one day buying a bike from a pawn shop in East Austin. The

bike was a 1994 Manitou FS, a vintage mountain bike that’s incredibly rare and hard

to find. After scanning it up and down I found evidence that it had a crack welded at

the head tube. At some point I suppose the previous rider had noticed a crack in the

front of the bike, and more than likely took it somewhere to get re-welded. The

weld was decent, but upon finding this out I decided it could be a major profit killer.

Many of the parts on the bike, however, were hard to find parts; so I decided to get

into the bike at $100 simply because I knew that the parts inherently were worth

about $200 or more already.

As usual, I came home and perused the bike, while admiring some of the

neat features of its vintage construction. It was in decent shape for a used bicycle,

but I was betting on the rarity for the most part. I listed the bike and about a week

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later I had a buyer in San Francisco for $400 or so. It was time for this sucker to get

shipped, and that’s where I got my first taste of a shipping mistake. I went to a local

bike shop and asked them for a box; they willingly gave me one at no charge. While

I was there I asked about the rates on shipping a mountain bike to various cities in

the USA. They quoted me an average of $150. My first reaction was shock, of

course, followed by the natural decision on the lines of “I’ll just pack and ship it

myself”. Big mistake.

I failed to realize that the bike shop was a professional place that

dealt with the building, selling, repairing, and shipping of bicycles. They’re

an expert at that. I instead decided to cut a corner and make more money,

and in the end it didn’t end up in my favor. After packing up the bike in a

decent fashion I took it to an Office Depot here in town and paid for a UPS

Ground rate shipment to San Francisco. It cost me about $50. Wow, I

thought, I just saved some cash. A week passes and I receive a message in

my inbox. It’s the buyer in San Francisco. Apparently the bike made it

there, but half of it was coming out of the box when he saw it there on his

porch. The seat tube was crushed and later in the letter he asked for

money back or half of the money back and he would send me back the

frame.

The lesson learned here is to first be aware of much larger

shipments and the job involved getting them to the end destination in one

piece. As an item becomes heavier and larger, the more you will need to

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decide on how it gets shipped. In a gist, if something is too large and very

heavy I involve professionals. It’s plain and simple. I am not an expert on

shipping super large things, and I also do not want to invest the time and

materials space to become an expert. There are times where you just need

to disclose the shipping rate as a large rate, or just roll the shipping rate

right into your item’s asking price.

That being said, the story had a happy ending. In the end I only

made about 15 dollars out of the entire deal, and that was largely in part

due to my buy price (remember, you make your cash when you buy) being

very low. I let the buyer have some money back as well as I let him keep

the frame. I wanted to be done with the situation and at the same time

leave the buyer with a token (the frame – which he probably fixed). It was

a great learning experience for me to say the least.

Currently I deal with shipping when I sell items on eBay. If it’s a

bicycle I now have a good deal with a local shop, and all of my bicycle

shipments go to that particular store. For other items I use the shipping

companies that eBay deals with. As of now, those companies are USPS and

Fed Ex. I mainly use USPS and every now and then I will use Fed Ex. It’s

very easy on eBay to ship an item and the site basically walks you through

how to do it. You print labels from your home, place them on your box and

either schedule a USPS pickup from your home or drop them off at your

local USPS branch. It really is that easy.

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Many ask me about whether I do free shipping or do I charge for

shipping. My answer to that is I place free shipping now on all my ads. First

of all, eBay likes this and will stamp your ad with a “fast and free" logo, and

also the buyer is more likely to see your item as a deal as opposed to

others. Free shipping to me entices people to look and act on your ad;

therefore, I see it as an asset that you can use that can make your ad stand

out above other competitive ads. I roll my estimated shipping price into my

item price or auction price. When I deal with bicycles, I roll my $100

shipping charge into the item’s asking price and to this day I have never

had an issue with any buyer regarding that. The same pertains to other ads

that I have on other items outside of bicycles.

Whenever an item is small or light and in addition maybe super

heavy, I always start thinking about flat rate boxes or first class rates. I am

sure you’ve seen the commercials about flat rate boxes on TV. They always

have that saying “if it fits, it ships”! You can order supplies like flat rate

boxes and bubble mailers from USPS.com, and many times the cost is free

as well. In regards to first class rates, these are low rates for any item that

is 13oz or less. For example, many times for me when I ship off Vibram Five

Fingers or calculators I will use first class rates. There are so many items

that you can just throw into a bubble mailer and ship off for a very low

cost. Make sure to visit your local post office for the rates on the flat rate

boxes, as well as first class rates in order to get better accustomed to what

it will cost you. Remember, eBay is simple enough to where you can just

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ship from there and it’s very easy. They let you select between USPS and

Fed Ex, so once you have measured and weighed your package, you can

play with the shipping tool and see what’s the best rate and option for you.

I also receive many questions about how to ship globally. To many

people, shipping globally is a bit scary and I honestly didn’t do it until one

day someone from another country won one of my eBay auctions and

asked me for an invoice for shipping. I try to do all my global shipping off

eBay because the process is very easy and certainly beats waiting in line or

filling out a customs form with a weird foreign address at the USPS. That’s

the worst! Taking it from the top, it’s important to note that you as the

seller can restrict certain countries or just ship within continental USA, etc.

Since you have the item and you’re paying eBay a fee at the end for selling

an item, you also have the control of your entire ad. This is another place

to just play with the options; I can’t tell you what to do. As of now,

however, I will tell you that I offer my products to nearly every country and

I use a 3 day handling timeframe. I have yet to get super burned on any

deal, and until that day comes I run my business as widespread as I can.

As you become a better seller on eBay, there are all kinds of

rewards they give to you. There are stars and badges that you can earn,

eBay logos that incite buyers, and also shipping discounts that you can be

eligible for. While I do not dabble too much with Amazon merchant

fulfilled much, I am sure they have equal or better deals in relation to

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eBay’s deals. Last, I will also mention that eBay has an algorithm in place

that favors certain sellers over others; do some internet research and you

will see what I mean.

I also get many questions on how to handle returns, and many

even ask me if I take returns in general. The answer is yes. I take care of my

customers when it comes to eBay and the antique booth. Most of the

returns I deal with will come from eBay, though, so I will talk about that

because at the Antique mall the front desk takes returns as a policy. On

eBay, however, your prospective buyer is the most important thing to

consider. Prospective buyers turn into actual buyers if you get back to

messages and the questions that they may ask you. Even after you take the

best pictures and disclose everything in an ad correctly, you may get a

disgruntled buyer. Many times the unhappy buyer will open a case through

eBay against you. Don’t worry; this is a normal procedure for any buyer to

follow once they deem your item did not meet their standards. Many of us

hustlers go wrong in what happens next.

Once I get an unhappy buyer I do just about anything to retain a

positive feedback rating in the end because once it’s over the buyer still

has the authority to rate you and the entire transaction combined.

Attaining bad feedback is not good for your seller rating and eventually will

end up placing you in eBay handcuffs, basically. There are all kinds of limits

that eBay can place on you as well as shipping discounts being reduced or

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eliminated altogether. So in fact what can happen if your unhappy buyer

carries out his/her mission of tarnishing your rating is a much larger money

hit for you down the road. Think about that before you retaliate, even if

you know you packed the item right, or if you know you disclosed that one

imperfection, etc. Do you want to make more money and have repeat

customers? Want to spread goodness? It starts from within.

I could care less about my pride and such when it comes down to

having returns and such. I take care of the customer at all costs. I get back

to the customer fast, even if I don’t know how I am feeling about the

situation. In many instances I offer full refunds or I refund partial money

back. Sometimes I will refund partial money and let them keep the item. I

have had unhappy customers give me positive feedback in 90% of cases

just because I restore their happiness while compromising my own. I am

fine with that. Real business is run this way. Have you ever had a drink

order at a Starbucks become completely messed up? Have you noticed

that they give you a free drink card in most cases AND give you your

original drink order for free? Seriously! In any customer service job I have

ever been a part of, the customer is always right. If you contest this, you

have a very good chance of bad feedback or an unfavorable yelp rating (if

you own a second hand store, for example). Don’t fall victim to aggression

or being right all the time; it will cost you more out of your pocket in the

long run.

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Hopefully by now you have a good idea of how to ship an item

and also deal with an unhappy customer. Make it your own and consider

the advice I have imparted upon you to guide you in your journey. There

are many ways, really, to handle shipping and returns, but I choose to have

a system for handling both. I try not to get all complicated because after all

I have to run the YouTube channel, the booth, craigslist, eBay, FBA

shipments, as well as my own Bonafide life. Systems and being simple is

what I am all about. I try not to get too technical when life does not

require it.

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Chapter 16 – Putting It Together

And now, we’ve come to the end of all the teaching, all the Bonafideness,

all the cash tips. Hey, it has to end at some point, right? Here is where we review

what we have learned by taking examples of items and situations and then placing

them all together. Think of this as a role play. If you’ve ever worked in corporate

America, you’ll know how this goes. Basically, we need to play out scenarios that

you can expect to encounter in the real world. How should you proceed? How do

you know to buy or not to buy? This is where you can put what you’ve learned thus

far to the test. Don’t worry, though. If you’ve stayed with me this far, you’ve

learned something. Plus, you can always reference earlier chapters whenever you

like.

Let’s start by creating a hustler and a town. We’ll call our hustler Margaret

and give her a home in Hustlertown, a beautiful mountain city of around 500,000

people and plenty of lakes nearby. There are a few other towns nearby, each with a

population of 80,000 – 100,000. Hustlertown has Wal-Mart and Starbucks stores

everywhere, and some decent sized freeways. It isn’t large enough for a

professional Football team, but there are informal minor and club teams within the

city. The people in Hustlertown are pleasant, generally active, and concerned with

city politics for the most part. Margaret earns $45,000 a year working a decent but

boring 40 hour a week job. Margaret is very good at her job and likes to reward

herself. She enjoys browsing for fine things, such as home furnishings and gadgets,

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and cars that are out of her budget. She even dreams of taking a vacation to

someplace exotic.

Though Margaret has a stable career, she is hungry for change, financial

gain, and overall personal happiness. In this example, Margaret can be a beginner

or intermediate-level hustler. It really does not matter. What matters is that

Margaret got word of an amazing book coupled with a YouTube channel that

piqued her interest. A fire brewed, and the flames have now transformed into

action. Margaret is ready and motivated to reach new heights. She remembers now

to think about what items she is most familiar with, and that happens to be jeans,

golf clubs, and Nerf guns.

Margaret’s knowledge of jeans comes not only from having owned so

many pairs throughout her life, but also from constant exposure to emblems,

stitching, and various colors and wash styles of denim in the general public.

Margaret plays golf regularly and is a member at a small country club about 15

minutes from her house. Her parents taught her to play golf as a child, and,

throughout the years, Margaret has not only become good at golf, but has also built

a sizable social network from playing on impromptu teams and in some

tournaments. Margaret has two kids, who frequently buy Nerf guns with their

allowance money. When the guns break or become jammed, Margaret is usually

able to fix them. Margaret often watches her kids play with their Nerf guns, and

notices many times how they interchange scopes, clips, tripods, and assemble and

disassemble the guns themselves. Without even knowing it, Margaret has secretly

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become a bit of a closet Nerf expert, all because of basic proximity and exposure to

these toys.

Margaret, being motivated, decides that she is going to put some of her

newly acquired knowledge into action by going to some garage sales this weekend.

It’s currently Wednesday and the whole family is in the living room watching a

television program. Margaret’s husband is sitting on the sofa working on his laptop.

Margaret decides the first step is to do some basic research. After breaking out a

tablet and propping her feet up on the coffee table, Margaret pulls up eBay and

types in “jeans” in the search bar and presses go. An overwhelming amount of

information populates the screen, none of which seems to be sorted in any order.

Margaret looks all over the place trying to make some sense of the information, but

it’s a bit overwhelming.

Margaret then remembers that she needs to look at the sold and

completed market only, because in reality that’s what matters. She then presses

some buttons and, voila! the information is sorted by “sold” and “completed” as

well as “sort by highest first”. The data shows what has sold recently and is also

sorted showing the highest selling prices first. Finally, this is data! Margaret starts to

see what’s in demand and the names and styles of the popular sold jeans. She

recognizes many of these brands and also notices that certain ones from back in the

day are also selling for very good amounts of money. Incredible! Not only does

Margaret start tying together pictures with brands and sales prices, but the

research results also reveal to her that older, vintage jeans have a large market.

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Who would have known? Now Margaret takes out some paper and jots down some

notes. I must add that if you’re more cell phone savvy, the app Evernote is amazing

as well. Over the course of the next hour, Margaret takes down brands, names, and

models of the reasonable good sellers in the marketplace for not only jeans, but

also for the golf industry, and for Nerf guns. The research time is not only fun, but

very eye opening, due to the simple wow factor on the money potential in all three

categories. Extra motivation, Margaret thinks.

By the time Friday evening rolls around, Margaret is not only starting to get

excited, but also prepared after having spent some time on Thursday researching

random things that came to mind. She decides to get equipped for the following

morning by doing a little more preparation. Again, everyone’s in the living room

watching some TV. It’s the perfect time to research some garage sales. Margaret

pulls up Craigslist on her tablet and presses the garage sales tab. She then grabs a

pad of paper and a pen and keeps them nearby. Browsing through the sales,

Margaret notices the search bar at the top and types in ‘jeans’ and then hits the

‘search’ button. The data that follows is relatively uncomplicated: no pictures, just

lines of information showing the types of sales and where they will take place.

Margaret narrows her search down to the sales that appear to be within a 30-

minute drive of her home. All she sees on her screen now are sale listings that

contain the word ‘jeans’. After writing down some sales on the paper along with

start times, Margaret then retypes in the search bar “clothes” and after seeing that

data, and also decides to search the words” Nerf guns”, “Nerf gun”, “kids toys”,

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“golf”, “golf clubs”, “golf gear”, “sporting goods”, and “clubs”. I think it’s obvious

why.

Now, Margaret’s paper is populated not only with hastily written start

times, but also with some quick turn by turn directions for each sale. The list looks

as if it has 15-20 sales. Margaret is pleased with this and then proceeds to check her

purse to make sure there’s some cash ready for the next morning. Upon awaking

the next morning, she remembers not to dress too nicely, but also not to dress too

shabbily. Perception goes a long way at a garage sale by the way. If you dress nice

in real life, try to tone it down, especially while visiting garage sales, because you

tend to get better deals if you look like you don’t carry much cash. Margaret puts

on some regular clothes – something average that does not stand out – and heads

off in her SUV that she has meticulously unpacked so as not to convey an image of

wealth.

As Margaret cruises out of her neighborhood, she glances at the sheet

from the previous night and looks for the closest sale with the earliest start time.

It’s currently 7:45AM and the first one is only 10 minutes away. “Perfect, I can get

some coffee at a Starbucks, since it’s so close by”. After nailing down a doppio,

Margaret is now pulling up to the sale. It looks like there’s stuff everywhere – boxes

overflowing with clothes, tarps on the ground covered with kid’s stuff, toys, tables

erected with electronics, some housewares, and even some furniture. Margaret

takes all of it in with a smile as she shuts the door to her SUV. As she walks up,

Margaret notices that the sale is even larger than she expected. She thinks to

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herself: “Ok, look for what I researched, what I know”. Before the thought is even

done, she notices some Nerf guns in a box under one of the tables. Among them are

some guns that are a bit harder to find and some from the list she created last

Wednesday evening. Margaret gets excited, but remembers to not look the part of

an over-zealous cash-making maniac, so patiently she calls over the main person of

the garage sale to ask the prices of the Nerf guns. Before asking, however, she

remembers not to touch the items and instead to act very nonchalantly, as it shows

the seller that there is interest, but no attachment. The seller then quotes a price of

two Dollars per gun. Upon noticing that the box has 6-8 guns in it, the real

excitement starts to hit Margaret. Like a trained member of Seal Team 6, however,

she maintains composure and instead says “What’s the best you will do on the

whole box?” Yes, that’s right. Go for the kill if there’s a bunch of items that are all

drastically undervalued. The seller quotes 10 Dollars for the whole box. Margaret

skillfully replies: “I tell you what, I will give you $8 right now” and makes sure to

flash some cash at hip level where the seller can see it. The seller then says “sure”.

Overwhelmed with joy, Margaret takes the box and starts walking around

the rest of the sale with it, periodically placing it down while perusing for some

jeans. The excitement is fresh, and visions of cash start infecting her mind. This is

common, I tell you, but cease the thoughts immediately and proceed onward and

use caution. Elation, while more than likely stimulating a release of oxytocin, needs

to be contained, because too much will often cloud judgment for other items.

Margaret decides to pull it together and continues sifting through some jeans that

are folded nicely and resting on the tarp. She then notices some Seven for Mankind

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jeans and also a pair of Rag and Bones jeans that both appear to be in very good

condition. After inspecting each one like a hawk, she decides that they are in good,

saleable condition. Repeating the process she used with the Nerf guns, Margaret

strikes up a deal with the Rag and Bone jeans which happen to sell for 5 dollars.

Throughout the next 2-3 hours, Margaret enjoys finding such great deals,

but this is only half of the battle. What lies ahead is where many go wrong, and so

she races herself and remains calm. The ride home is pleasant, much credited to the

fact that there were so many great scores, and also to all the great successful

interaction with all the sellers throughout the day. Next up is listing the items as

well as testing the Nerf guns. In order for this to go smoothly, Margaret decides to

lay out all her finds on a table at home. After testing out all the guns, she sees that

there’s one particular place on the table that looks better than the others in regards

to light and decides to place the guns there for the picture. After taking the pictures

with a digital camera, Margaret takes out the SD memory card and places it into the

computer.

For the jeans, the best market seems to be eBay, and so Margaret begins

making an ad that includes a good title. The title is as follows: Rag and Bone

Women’s Jeans. Size 4. Dark wash. Boot cut. Excellent Condition. Several pictures of

the jeans are uploaded and the main pic is one of the jeans sprawled out on the

table. Since a majority of jeans of this particular brand and in this condition sell for

about 79 dollars, she decides on a starting price of 39.99 with a 7 day auction. After

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finishing the eBay ad, Margaret repeats the process on Craigslist and posts another

ad within 2 minutes.

After posting her ads for the jeans, Margaret gets to work on the Nerf

guns. While perusing craigslist for a viable avenue of resale, she realizes that there

are many Nerf lots up for sale. While these lots are a bit less in cost to those on

eBay, she also realizes that there’s no shipping involved, nor are there any fees

associated with selling the guns locally. This alone would allow for good savings if

packing were not part of the equation. A quick glance at eBay Nerf auctions also

shows that there are two guns in Margaret’s Nerf pile that seem to do well just

being alone on auction on eBay. Margaret separates these from the bunch, makes

ads appropriately in both channels, and moves on down the line to all the other

great finds from the day.

The next day comes around and there’s a phone call. Someone is

interested in seeing the Nerf gun lot that’s posted on Craigslist for 40 dollars. A

meeting scheduled for two hours later is made, and Margaret decides to place the

box of Nerf guns in the SUV. She then checks the mobile eBay app and finds that

there are watchers on the all auctions that were placed yesterday. This makes her

happy! After meeting with a gentleman from Craigslist at a local gas station,

Margaret comes home with some extra cash. It turns out the Nerf pile, excluding

the other two guns placed on eBay, sold for 35 Dollars. “Hey, it’s good money with

me” Margaret thinks, and proceeds on with the day. After a week, she ends up

selling the jeans for 66 dollars and the Nerf guns for about 30 each, including

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shipping. She also sells other items bought at the last garage sale. Armed with more

cash and a sense of pride from the previous success, Margaret returns to the field.

She is not only a bit richer, but also more educated and experienced. Fast forward

three years. Margaret now has an extra $30,000 saved up in the bank, in addition to

all the other great things the rest of the money has brought to the family.

Collectively, they have gone on an average of 2 more trips a year and have started a

small college IRA for each of the kids. All this extra money had been sitting there

the whole time! Margaret looks back and thinks “Had I only known about this just

ten years ago, I would have…” and the thought stops there. She thinks “True

hustlers don’t dwell on the past. They crush it now, for the future”. And so that’s

the story of how someone begins and how someone gets better. The game rewards

the dedicated and those who want more freedom. What do you want?

The purpose of this chapter was to illustrate a hustler life from start to

finish. It’s easy to do this on your town. Think of all the places you can find stuff.

Yes, think of everything! It may not be Nerf guns or jeans, but maybe antique

lamps, furniture, rugs, or even old military machinery. The categories are endless.

From there, it’s mostly about showing up on time or early. I speak from experience

and have fine-tuned my own game. I have found that there are many places to

make money. You just have to do and execute. It’s as simple as getting into your car

and going, even if you don’t want to. It’s crucial to execute after reading this book,

because I can tell you with the utmost confidence that it’s the difference between

your life and a life with hundreds of thousands more dollars. Think about it. What

would you buy, what will you save, where will you go? These are all questions to

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which you will find answers if you begin hustling and stick with it. So, now that you

know how, go get it done!

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Chapter 17 – Wrapping Up

If you got this far, I applaud you. Not only are you bestowed with more

information than you need, but you’re also ready to go make some serious cash. It’s

unbelievable what hustling has brought to my life, and to this day I am so lucky to

have found this skill. If you think about it, once you’ve started and become

successful, it’s a skill that no one can take away from you. The world can go into

collapse mode, much like it did in late 2008, and you can still make money. In times

of strife, the American public trades down, and in effect has less money for the

same goods that they were accustomed to having. Internally we are born

consumers, so when times get rough we still consume. A hustler survives in each

economy because people innately love to get great deals, and that’s what we do.

We locate the deals, make money off the items, and pass the deal to the customer.

It’s very easy.

In the future I aim to build my channel even larger provided YouTube

maintains its creative lifestyle. I suppose it’s also worth mentioning that if YouTube

ceases to operate for some reason, I have most of my videos backed up and ready

for any other site. I urge each and every one of you out there to watch the channel

and subscribe to it. It’s that important. Five minutes of a majority of my videos will

teach you something. If you don’t learn something on a hustler level, you will

definitely learn that life needs to not be so serious, and my channel shows that. Be

honest with yourself when you hustle, and when you become good be sure to share

by either helping someone in need with some cash or maybe building your own

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channel. YouTube has been the charity I have always been looking for. I always

wanted to give back somehow and I made the channel to share the money with

others. The proof that it has worked wonders for people all over the world lies in

my inbox on both YouTube and Facebook. When someone far away decides to

hustle something that I had taught them on a video, they often write me back a

letter. In the letter I have seen a common theme and it goes a bit like this: “I cannot

begin to tell you how much money you have made me; I sold that xxx for $200 on

eBay!" Thanks Bonafide Hustler!” and also the “I want to send you some money

back for what I have made”. I decline the money every time and instead

congratulate. I am proud of the hustlers that I create.

There are also other amazing channels out there on YouTube that you

ought to be watching. Over the years these channels have proven themselves

worthy of teaching you something so I certainly support these others:

The College Picker

Raiken Profit

The Urban Diggers

Glendon Cameron

Katie Patton

There are many more that also come to mind, but the ones mentioned above are

established channels that have a good message. They are channels that understand

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the game properly and the gist of hustling is alive in each one. Remember, YouTube

is free so if you’re into watching some great free content, I see no other better

place to invest your time. Some of those channels above also have products

available for purchase or membership-driven websites. That’s there for anyone

wanting the fast track into getting money quicker so I urge you to remember the

philosophy of a trade I discussed earlier in this book when deciding whether to

purchase other goods from other YouTube. The trade there is to buy a product and

reduce the amount of time it takes to make more cash. Think about whether that’s

something you want. It’s a good proposition, a near no-brainer!

Look, the money is real and it’s out there. It’s for you to have if you want it.

I am happy I have made people money and in return I only ask for support! Yes,

comment on my videos, interact with me on Facebook, hit me up for a consultation

session on Skype, or maybe buy my next book! That’s what I want in the end – more

people happy and supporting each other. As a human race we are separating

farther and farther from each other due to work, digital devices, and overall lack of

communication. Hustling is fun for all people to do and make sure to include others

when spending your profits!

If you liked the book, don’t forget to write a little review on Amazon as I

am sure it will help me out a bit. I wish you the best of luck and now I want you turn

all this new hope into cash. Tomorrow is your day. Actually, today is your day! Go

make some money as soon as possible. Execute what I have taught you and later in

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your hustler career just make sure to get back to me on how it all worked. I know

you’re out there and I read everything I get. You’re ready now. Hustle on.

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Copyright 2014 Bonafide Hustler: no part of this publication may be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by

any means without the prior written permission of the publisher