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....