394 : John Dugan – From Road Warrior to warehouse operator involves learning where it makes sense to sell

eCommerce Momentum Podcast

One thing John knows how to do is sell. Sure he knows how to buy, how to build relationships and how to get great deals. But he knows where his products will sell before he buys them. So buying a large amount of inventory doesn’t seem so daunting when you have so many channels to sell the inventory on. Experience comes with bumps and bruises, John has had some, but also allows a much more rewarding life.

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John’s previous interview #116

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Here is transcript- It is automated so it is not perfect but it does seem to get better over time.

John: [00:00] I may sell it. If I got a truckload of product, I may sell 30 or 40% of it at a whopping loss. It’s the other side of the product that I need to make the money back on, but I know it’s going to be gone and it’s going to be gone fast. The biggest problem that I had when I first got the warehouse and when I first opened my store is I would sit on product too long. The stuff that isn’t, you know, glamorous and fun to sell, it would just get kind of shoved in the corner.

Cool voice guy: [00:26] Welcome to the ecommerce momentum bud jazz, where we focused on the people, the products, and the process of incomers selling to those. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.

Stephen: [00:40] He wanted to take a second and talk aboutGaye Lisbey and Gary Ray’s, Amazon Seller tribe and their daily lists that are put out, um, and incredible stories that you can read if you go out and check out a amazing freedom.com forward slash momentum hyphen arbitrage. I know that’s a lot to put in there. Amazing freedom.com forward slash momentum dash Arbitron and you’re going to get 14 day free trial, no money risk, no, no challenges. You don’t want it when you’re done, you get out. But imagine getting lists as grateful as I like to call it, mailbox money. I love that term. Mailbox money. It’s where you can work from your house, buy things online, having them delivered to you and then sell them on various marketplaces. But imagine you can have somebody else do that for you. So you want to buy time, you want to control, uh, what they’re buying.

Stephen: [01:36] Well, you take these lists and you can join multiple lists if you’re interested and then you can segregate them for the merchandise you want and send them to them. They can make purchases for you on your behalf. Have it delivered to you or delivered to them for prep. Boom, sent into these marketplaces and you could sell. How about that? When that be awesome. I spoke at their conference and there were so many million dollar sellers just using online arbitrage. It’s still available. And again, 14 days. The only way you’re going to get 14 day free trial. So if you come through my link, um, it is an affiliate link. Uh, they do pay me. So I don’t want to mislead you in any way. Um, I would appreciate it, but I’d like to see you try the 14 days. I’ve had so many people that have joined and have so much success.

Stephen: [02:19] It’s very exciting to me and you know, quite humbling to me, um, that they trust me to recommend this group and I 100% recommend this group. I’ve seen the results. These are great people that will also teach you to fish. This isn’t just a, hey, here’s the list. You’re on your own. No, this is, hey, here’s why that wasn’t a good deal. Or here, hey, there’s another opportunity and you get to join their groups. And it’s just a phenomenal group of people. Um, just great, great, uh, leaders in that group and these lists are phenomenal. So again, it’s amazing. freedom.com, forward slash momentum, how you Finn arbitrage amazing freedom.com, forward slash momentum, hyphen arbitrage. Use that. Get weeks free. Try it. You don’t like it, drop out, but give it a shot if you want to add that to your business. Welcome back to the ecommerce woman, a podcast.

Stephen: [03:08] This is episode 394 John Duke. And what a great conversation. What a great, uh, what a great place. He’s taken his business too. I don’t want to downplay it. A, it can’t be easy. Uh, it wasn’t easy. It might be simple. We use that phrase simple, but it’s not easy. 100%. And he’s figured out some things that I think are so powerful. I think we’re, most of us get stuck. He’s pushed past it and you know, I think that’s grit and determination that gets you there. And one of the cool things, we talk about a liquidation.com in this thing. He mentioned to me after the, you know, when we do our, you know, wrapping it up or whatever, after we’re done recording, he mentioned that, you know, they’re publicly traded. I think they’re on Nasdaq. And I think that that’s so important to note because that puts them in a whole bunch of rules that keeps them a lot more honest.

Stephen: [03:56] Um, there’s a lot of other government agencies making sure that they are legit and they do the right thing. That’s some kind of protection. And I just think that that’s important to remember that if it’s too good to be true, it’s too good to be true. I had a friend call me, um, at very well educated guy call me and say, Steve, you won’t believe this deal. There’s a trailer for sale on Ebay and it’s half the price of a normal, that thing. It’s incredible. And he goes on to describe it. He says, only thing, it’s a little odd as you have to pay with Amazon gift cards. I’m like, dude, scam, absolute scam. Don’t, don’t do anything. Do Nothing. Well, you know, I’m like, trust me, that is a scam. He messaged me later on, he says, I called Ebay and they said a hundred percent scam, you know, and I blamed them for allowing that on there.

Stephen: [04:40] That that’s a side issue. But having the ability to trust something because you know that they have regulation and they have to follow rules I think really should help you make better decisions. So very, very cool story. Let’s get into podcast and welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. Very excited about today’s repeat guests and bringing them back. And it’s funny, we were talking to the precall, it’s two years since we last talk and boy has situations changed. Let me read this. This is my, uh, lead in back then. X Name 300 Hotel Nights. All right? People are guessing who it’s going to be. Then we’re going to add in 42 states. All right? So that’s the formula 300 hotel nights plus 42 states and then add in 49,000 miles and then you kind of have to somehow factor it with negotiation and then there’s an equal sign and its success. That’s the formula. John Duggan, welcome back, John. Thanks for having me. That is, that’s a lot of moving pieces that when you, when you think back to those days, that was two plus years ago. When you think back to those days, uh, a miss it be, have you ever thought how, how you got through it? To me that would be the hardest thing cause it had to get

Stephen: [05:58] old.

John: [05:59] Um, there were times where it got old. It’s kind of funny. In 2015, I had to take a vacation from it. I just happened to be in Nashville, Tennessee at the time and uh, a couple of weeks to sit in one place turned into six months and I had been living in Nashville for six months because I, I needed a break. But I definitely do miss it now. I often look back and my Facebook memories of all the places that I’ve been and I, I love traveling. So it’s something that I definitely missed.

Stephen: [06:28] Did you make the most of each place you went to when you were doing that?

John: [06:33] Um, yeah. I tried to. The, the beauty of my job is, you know, most people take a vacation, they have a finite amount of time there and if they can’t go see a museum or, or, or something, they have to skip it. Me If the weather isn’t perfect or if we’re really close to close, let’s say screw it, I’ll stay an extra day or I’ll stay an extra two days so I can see what I want to see. And uh, being able to work while doing that, it really gave me that freedom.

Stephen: [07:00] The only barrier would be where you’re staying and you can always find a place to stay. Right? It might not be the best price, but you can always find another place.

John: [07:07] For the most part. There are a couple of times where I had to sleep in my car because there were no hotels, but most of the time there’s always a hotel nearby.

Stephen: [07:15] And what would cause that just because you happen to hit a town that had a convention or something like that?

John: [07:19] Usually it’s something like that. Um, the, the most recent time was actually just a few months ago was that while I was on vacation, I wasn’t even working that week. But I went out to state college, Pennsylvania for a Penn state versus Ohio state game. And I had a hotel booked, uh, in a small town about halfway between state college in Pittsburgh, but they overbooked. By the time I got there, it was like [2:00] AM and there were no hotels within like 300 miles. So I had to sleep in, in the cold, in my car, and I woke up very sick.

Stephen: [07:52] I could’ve put you in the warehouse. You were very close to me. I couldn’t give you a space in the warehouse. I’m not a [2:00] AM I would’ve given you the warehouse key in a code or something, but not, not the house cause. All right, so, so that life is behind you now. So a couple of things, uh, and I don’t know if they’re dramatic, but significant things to happen to you. At one point you were on the road and then you decided to come off the road. What was it that you were thinking you were going to do?

John: [08:22] Um, my plan was to grow into overstock and customer returns, buying truckloads of product and selling it on Amazon. So I got myself a warehouse in Greenbay, my hometown and started with that.

Stephen: [08:39] And at some point you even opened a retail store short, very short term

John: [08:45] [inaudible]. Shortly after I started doing that, I saw a lot of opportunities on product that I really can’t sell it on Amazon. Maybe it’s too big and heavy to make it worthwhile or it’s more profitable to sell elsewhere. So I saw opportunities to open up a retail store and moving all of the product that I couldn’t sell online. How different was the retail business versus what you know of? Very different, you know, with, with online sales, we don’t deal with the customers. We don’t deal with their drama and the issues they have. Occasionally we’ll get an email from a customer that is problematic, but for the most part it’s very hands off. You’re very separated from it. Once they get into retail, it’s a whole different ballgame. Especially discount retail. You’re getting the lower income people who have, they bring a lot more drama into the store.

John: [09:39] Well, let me ask you this, because a couple times you did some liquidation out of your warehouse, almost like a yard sale in theory, right? Maybe a rummage, I dunno. Like a flea market almost that customer is different, has different expectations than your customer that comes to a retail even if it’s a liquidation retail. Correct. Um, you know, I saw a lot of the same customers on both sides. There really wasn’t a lot of difference. It’s discount retail, whether it’s out of a warehouse as an event sale or a regular full time retail store. But there was no difference in expectation. Cause I would think like when I do a yard sale, you know, you know that you go up and you can ask for a better price and if they say no, no big deal, you just walk out and you move on. But when I come to a retail store and I want, you know, hey, I’m the customer John.

John: [10:23] Yeah, I’m never doing business with you again. You know, do, you...