Our E-Commerce Journey So Far...Part 7 (The Final Chapter!)

In February of 2010, I started buying and selling Mighty Beanz.  I actually discovered these thanks to a friend of mine who I helped educate about selling on eBay and such and he informed me about Mighty Beanz. For the vast majority of 2010, Mighty beanz have been my top grossing seller.  However, in August 2010, with no real 'fall back' lines that were doing anywhere near the sales Mighty beanz was, I actually attended a job fair at United Health Group to became a customer service rep for those on Medicare and such.  I got the job which I started on August 16th.  Kept my website, http://ToyGamingEmporium.com up and running, my amazon seller account, and eBay store, and my girlfriend took over the pack/shipping of all orders.  However, with my hours tied up at a J-O-B and then not wanting to do much other work related stuff when I got home, things didn't relisted as often, new items weren't acquired, and sales across the board quickly dipped.  After being at the job for about 5 weeks I did some number crunching and figured that the paycheck I was bringing in was only marginally better than my loss of sales on the flip side.  So, I concluded that all I was really gaining was better and cheaper health insurance, more stress, and less happiness.  After discussing with my girlfriend and consulting with my parents, I left the job at the end of September...after about 6 weeks.  Working for someone else just isn't me and this world of e-commerce is my true passion and true calling.

While I still had the job, I actually had some new revenue streams open up I didn't previously have as well to give me a little more safety as far as income goes.  Launched a new website for just Mighty beanz at http://MightyBeanz.biz which I'll be adding a lot more stuff (Mighty beanz of course) to over the coming weeks.  Also became a YouTube partner literally days after starting my job.  Hope to grow that all we can to make the a more prominent revenue stream.  It's also a great source of marketing for us and all the various toys I sell.  You can see some of our videos off to the side here on the blog and within some of our blog posts.  Our future blog posts will focus on current/hot toys and most will be accompanied by a YouTube video we do featuring that product.  This series of posts about our e-commerce journey so far wound up being longer than I anticipated so am excited to start doing posts about toys going forward!

We've come a long way in the past 5+ years.  Just finished up the latest holiday season with better results than ever before.  There wasn't one real breakout hit toys like Zhu Zhu Pets last year but a wide range of hot toys instead.  We did very well with Sing-A-Ma-Jigs, Beyblade Metal Fusion, Mighty Beanz, Zoobles, Halo Mega Bloks, Teacup Piggies, and more. In prior years our only sales channel was eBay.  This year, we added amazon, http://ToyGamingEmporium.com and very recently http://Mightybeanz.biz.  With today being Christmas, obviously the holiday rush is officially over so naturally things will slow back down now.  Was hard keeping up with orders the past few weeks so wasn't able to relist everything as quickly as usual and our eBay store really decreased as amazon took up a lot of our time.  Now, with sales slowing, will need to work on relisting/restocking all our channels, adding additional products and product lines, and anxiously await what 2011 will bring us.

Be sure to follow our blog and stay tuned for new posts about new and hot toys.  You can also find links to our selling channels and social networking pages in the left margins here of the blog :-)

Our E-Commerce Journey So Far...Part 6

With all my inventory taking over my parents house, it was time to consider getting my own place. Luckily, 1st time home buyers at this time were eligible for an $8,000 credit...so that made it seem like an even better idea!

My dad actually did the legwork of finding places and viewing them. After he saw a few he took me to take a look at the ones he thought were worthwhile. The very first one I looked at seemed to work great for me. 1 story with good square footage...which translates into a spacious garage which is a very high priority for me and all my 'stuff.' Looked at others but ultimately went with that first house.

Having my own place meant having more space...way more space than I had in that efficiency apartment in college (check the previous blog posts for videos of it!). Naturally, I've filled it with more and more stuff since moving in. In a way...I guess I'm kind of like a fish. I believe most (maybe all?) fish will grow bigger if they have a bigger tank. If you keep them in a small fish bowl they won't grow all that much. Put them in a larger tank, and they will grow larger. I've gone from a college dorm room with a roommate to an efficiency apartment, to having basically half or more of my parents house for storage, to having my own place, but as my space grows so does my inventory and I never seem to have enough space. If I get a 5,000 square foot warehouse sometime in the near future, I'm sure within 1-2 years of getting that I'd be running out of space there too.

Anyways...back to the actual products and business itself! After the holiday season of 2009 nothing was really standing out to me as the next big thing to sell. Webkinz were big for me in 2007. Bakugan were big for me in 2008 and still do a fair amount with that line. And November/December of 2009, Zhu Zhu Pets were a huge success for me. Caught wind of them a little late, so, in order to acquire adequate inventory, I'd go to Target and Shopko (shopko is only really in the upper midwest so many of you may know nothing of that store) for 8am open every day to check for restocks of zhu zhu pets. I made some occasional big hauls. In early December every Shopko got a big stock of zhu zhu pets in the same day and I have 5 Shopko stores within 10-15 miles of me. I came away with a few dozens hamsters and 40+ of the starter sets which included Patches the Hamster. Those cost $20 or $25 and sold super fast for $45-50. However, after Christmas most retailers ended up with massive supply of zhu zhu pets and the secondary market on them died...at least if your goal was to make a profit.

Now...the question was...."what's the next big thing." I was getting by on other stuff but nothing stood out as something that could bring in 25-50% or more of my total sales and be my niche of the year or longer. With the future looking uncertain....I actually started looking at the want ads and applying for J-O-B-S....

Our E-Commerce Journey So Far...Part 5

With my eBay account suspended in the midst of end of semester projects and upcoming finals, I didn't really have the time to go through all the necessary hoops to get the account reinstated. Once my semester ended and I was back at my parent's for winter break I had the time to look more into it. However, 1 of the steps involved faxing in some paper work which I didn't have easy access to. I was unable to do that until the following semester started and I faxed in what I needed on campus. About a month later in mid February, I finally had my account back. If I remember right, all my listing templates and such were gone so I basically had to relist everything from scratch, but at least I was back up and running!

Sparing much of the detail, the rest of my time at college the business continued to grow with additional product lines and thus additional inventory in my efficiency apartment. By the time I graduated in May of 2008...well....I'll let the video do the talking (sorry about the camera work...especially when I turn the camera sideways multiple times forgetting that only works for pictures)....



To get a better feel for the growth, check the video in part 3 to see what the apartment looked like after my 1st semester there. The above video is after 2 years (4 semesters).

Needless to say, moving everything out of that apartment was no easy task..especially with home, my parents house, being nearly a 3 hour drive each way. Roughly...I believe we filled up a van 3 or 4 times and filled up a standard 4 door car for at least another 5-6 times. My dad would come down about once a week or so for the few weeks leading up to the end of the semester and I'd make trips home and back as well on the weekends.

Once I was back at my parents and settled, the business of course continued with orders constantly coming and going and the business, before long, overtook my parents house. Half of the living room was my office space with my desk, a few 5-tier shelving units and a few 3-drawer carts with various inventory on and in them. The 2 car garage became a 1 car garage and my dad and I both kept our cars outside in the driveway to allow more space for inventory. The basement gathered lots of inventory as did my bedroom. Eventually, my dad purchased a shed to put in the back yard against the garage in an attempt to be able to get 2 cars in the garage again in time for winter.

To get a small taste of how the house ended up, here's a short clip of our cat (RIP) howling in the hallway where everyone regularly walks through. So, just image how the basement, garage, etc looked!



Now, don't get me wrong, my parents did and do love me, but all the clutter, not really being able to have company over, etc really did it's number and they wanted me, or at least my stuff, elsewhere.....

Our E-Commerce Journey So Far...Part 4

As we left off in our previous post...Neopets was fading as a source of income due to rising costs and limited liability. Come April 2007, we finally found our next primary product line....

At that time (April 2007) I was home, at my parents house, for spring break (exiting I know). Browsing around at the local mall I passed by a gift store which typically carried a lot of various hot and fad-esque items. At the very front of the store they had a fairly large display which included a small TV which, on a loop, was explaining more about the product. That product...was Webkinz. What got me very interested in them very quickly was the simple fact that each one came with code (to access their online world). I did very well with Neopets strictly because of the codes that came in the packs, so naturally these Webkinz were very intriguing to me. So, I jotted down 'webkinz' on a piece of paper and looked into them further online when I got home.

Longer story shortened...they appeared to be profitable so I began acquiring them. At that point they were already fairly high in popularity and you couldn't just walk into any store that sold them and expect to find a wide selection. Often times many stores that carried them would be completely sold out. During spring break I probably acquired around 200-250 of them or so. More than enough to 'test the waters' first hand.

As I sold more of them and became more known as a seller of them and got a nice amount of repeat buyers coming back often, I needed to be able to get larger quantities more easily. Preferably, also at a lower price than the various retail outlets I was acquiring them from up to that point. I was able to find a couple sources from which I could buy them by the case (36 of the same webkinz per case) for a much more reasonable cost than retail so went with it. I didn't buy anything and everything though as some sold much better than others. 36 of the same webkinz for certain styles could take awhile to sell through and/or have very slim profit margins.

Things went well and that meant more and more inventory coming in and accumulating as well. Things got even better with Webkinz when a lightbulb finally clicked on. My previous primary seller was selling neopets virtual prize codes and then typing/emailing the codes. Well...with webkinz, the code is the primary draw and many people have more than enough plush toys as it is. Thus, many would rather bypass getting the plush, saving the shipping costs, and just having the codes emailed. That helped grow sales on Webkinz all the more as I would list them both as plush with unused code included and also as code only via email.

Now, that was all well and good...or so I thought. I must have missed or overlooked an eBay rule or policy change or something at some point. On December 4th, 2007, I received an email from eBay which started as follows:

"Dear menoknow3,

Your eBay account has been suspended for a minimum of seven days due to a violation of the eBay Copyright Violation - Unauthorized Item policy. We suspended your account after carefully considering each violation and verifying that the correct action was taken."

and the following primary bits of info...

"eBay prohibits the sale of virtual items or related software that violate copyrights."
"All of your current listings have been removed from eBay."
"You are not allowed to use eBay in any way during your suspension."

Timing obviously couldn't be worse...3 weeks before Christmas and in the middle of the holiday sales rush. Also didn't help that when all that happened, anybody that had bought from me within the past day or two which didn't get their order shipped yet...well....my eBay items awaiting shipment was wiped clean. However, I was first informed by phone by someone from eBay that my account was getting suspended. While on the phone, I asked if I'd be able to access my eBay account to fill currently existing orders and was told that I would not be able to access my eBay account in anyway, only paypal. So, I made sure I had the phone call last long enough for me to print off all my 'items awaiting shipment' list on eBay so I could use gmail's search for those users that I had unshipped orders for and see if they still wanted me to ship or if they preferred I simply refunded instead. I had over 50 orders awaiting shipment so that was no quick/easy task even with a 'cheat sheet' so I knew who I all had to contact. Especially being that at the time I was a senior in college with the 1st semester in it's last couple of weeks with multiple group projects and such I was in the middle of. It appeared as if my Christmas wasn't going to be as merry as planned :-(

Our E-Commerce Journey So Far...Part 3

With Neopets Trading Cards out of print and quickly becoming very difficult to obtain additional sealed product, I clearly had to find new primary product lines if I wanted to continue in e-commerce. I dabbled in other trading card games like Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic the Gathering, and continued selling Pokemon Cards as well but none came anywhere near the sales I was pulling in from Neopets. I went through a few different toys as well that school year...Marvel Battle Dice and Star Wars Attacktix. Battle Dice never had a 2nd set due, I guess, to some sort of copyright issues over the name. Attacktix did alright for awhile but never emerged as a primary product line. I was getting by with the misc. product lines but wasn't growing any other that in regards to the space my inventory took up. By the end of the school year, May 2006, got everything from my dorm home to my parents in about 3 carloads I believe.

The time period of selling misc. stuff with no real new primary product line lasted much longer than I would of liked. Next school year started up September 2006 and I upgraded from a dorm room with a roommate to an efficiency apartment of all my own. In October of 2006 a World of Warcraft Trading Card Game launched its first set which I had pre-ordered and it did quite well for me. I believe the pre-order price was around $50 per box or so. Just a week or 2 after it launched, everyone was selling out and secondary prices soared to about $100/box. So, without even having to open any up for singles, was able to turn a nice profit. But, obviously being unable to order more for the lower price, that wasn't a very big gig to profit from. Luckily I was still managing to find sealed Neopets product, although at higher prices than I was able to get the stuff for just months prior. However, I was also able to sell the codes for more and more as well. I went through thousands upon thousands of packs/codes which really kept me afloat while trying to find legit replacements for it once the Neopets well ran dry.

Inventory and overall clutter grew during my first few months in my efficiency apartment. About 6 months prior my complete inventory fit under a bed. After 1 semester in the apartment...well....just watch this video (there's no sound)....



The days of selling Neopets trading cards and codes and all the misc. stuff mentioned earlier without finding a new primary product line lasted into the spring. In April of 2007, during spring break, I finally found my new primary product line....

Our E-Commerce Journey So Far...Part 2

As we finished the previous post, I quit a job to pursue eBay/e-commerce as a full time gig.  That infamous day was June 21st, 2005.  At the time I was a month away from my 21st birthday.  My dad thought it would be something I'd try for a couple weeks or months, get bored of it or something, and move onto something else.  Considering where we are today, *spoiler alert*...he was clearly wrong.

About a week after quitting that job I was off to Columbus, Ohio for Origins where, through 2008, Pokemon held their trading card national championship tournament here in the United States.  At the convention they also have a large vendor hall.  In the end, I purchased 3 or 4 100-pack lots of Neopets Trading cards from Hills Wholesale Gaming.  I had researched the Neopets TCG a little bit before so it wasn't a blind/shot in the dark buy.  I actually had bought about 70 packs from a local card shop the previous winter that had them on closeout and sold off the codes successfully.  You see, every pack of Neopets trading cards came with 1 virtual prize code which could be entered in on neopets.com to get neopoints or an item of some sort.  Most important thing for me though was that each code seemed to typically sell for more than the cost of the packs on eBay.  So, wanted to try it out for myself on a bigger scale than I previously had and I sure was glad that I did!

 A code card from the "Hannah and the Ice Caves" Neopets TCG Expansion (code blocked out):

In the 12 months that followed, I spent well over $25k on sealed packs of Neopets cards.  Late in 2004 I had about $200 to my name so obviously I was having very good turnover on the Neopets codes.  I sold lots of 10, 25, 50, and 100 codes on eBay.  Everytime I made a sale I'd open enough packs to cover the order, type the codes, email them to the buyer, and, unless I made a typo or two, the transaction was complete.  In the early going I was able to buy the 1st 2 sets of Neopets cards for about $0.50 per pack and I sold 100 code lots for $90-100.  So...selling/typing/emailing just the codes, I was nearly doubling my money.  I was never good at selling off the actual trading cards though...no joke...I think I have around 1 MILLION of the non code cards still in inventory.  Would happily move them in bulk, rares holos and all, for a penny a card.  Would make a lot of space and, considering I was well in the green selling just the codes, it would basically be pure profit.  Been meaning to assemble and try to sell off some lots or complete sets but newer inventory always keeps me plenty busy.

My 1st 2+ years selling on eBay, Neopets cards/codes generally made up at least 75% of my total sales and at times over 90%.  So...wasn't exactly 'diversified.'  After Haunted Woods, the 10th set of the TCG since being introduced in September of 2003, Wizards of the Coast would not put out any additional sets and all 10 sets would not be printed any more.  Thus, with myself and I'm sure many others opening up thousands of packs, the 'world supply' of sealed product began to diminish and prices of sealed packs and boxes quickly started to rise.  Before long, what I was paying $0.50 for was $1, then $1.50, then near impossible to find for under $2/pack.  Luckily I had a large inventory and was even able to find 1 source a year or two after prices had begun their asscent at under $2/pack.  I actually still have a few hundred sealed packs in inventory.  eBay changed their policy awhile ago for digital based items which, since I was emailing them, the codes were.  People buying them don't typically want to wait for 'snail mail' to deliver the code cards to them which is how it would have to be done these days (will have more relating to this probably in part 3).  So, when my inventory diminished I just sold the codes to my long time top repeat buyers.

Nevertheless....with the Neopets TCG out of print and sealed product soaring in price, I clearly had to find other things to sell if I wanted to continue with ecommerce.  My sophmore year of college I lived in the dorms with a roommate and all my inventory fit under my bed on the highest level it could go without being lofted.  2006 would quickly become the beginning of the end of my small square footed inventory......

Our E-Commerce Journey So Far...Part 1

My e-commerce journey began in 2004 as a Freshman in college.  One of my hobbies was playing the Pokemon TCG competitively and had finally discovered I could buy sealed boxes of cards on eBay for a lot less than the local card shops.  Few months later though, my bank account was dwindling...down to $200 or so.  Thus, I decided I should (and NEEDED to) start selling off the Pokemon cards that were extras or that I didn't need for decks and such.  This brought in just a few hundred dollars in sales for the first few months but allowed me to keep up with the newest sets.  I somehow stumbled among other things to sell as time went on.  One of my earliest discoveries were Star Wars Kid's Meal toys from Burger King.  I bought just the toys from the restaurant's for about $1.50 each and sold them for $4-7 each or so plus shipping on eBay.

That summer I attempted to find a 'real job' as many others would say.  Despite turning in resumes and such during the winter, I had troubles finding anything I wanted to do.  Ended up at Wendy's when I couldn't find anything better.  Thought I'd get 20 hours a week...but 2 weeks in I had a TOTAL of about 12 hours.  Often I'd go in for a 4-6 hour shift and be sent home after 2 hours because things were slow.  Barely enough to cover gas to go the 15miles round trip and such. So, with the help of a family friend, I got a different job after 2 weeks at Wendy's building roof troughs.  I'm a pretty scrawny guy...I don't do a lot of working out/heavy lifting/etc...so it certainly wasn't a job all that well suited for me.

I was one of four guys on my line.  After 3 weeks being there, 1 guy threw out his back, 1 got a nail through his shoe/foot, and 1 got really bad heat rash on his face.  Also, the head of my line was a major 'butt.' Also...the job was Monday-Thursday from 3:30pm-2:30am AND I was doing a little eBay on the side.  So...average day I'd get up at noon, check email, eat, package orders, leave around 3pm for the Post Office and go straight to work from there.  Get home around 3am, catch up on emails, go to bed around 4am.  ZERO life.  Granted all that, the 'butt' of a boss, and that everyone else got some sort of injury...I escaped while I could with my health in tact to pursue making eBay/e-commerce a full time gig....