Gamer Levels Up Life With eBay Side Hustle

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Welcome to Side Hustle School, this is Chris Guillebeau. I've got a story for you today that is close to my heart. It's all about a guy who buys and resales classic video games. It's close to my heart first because I spent a long period of time as a child, teenager, and young adult playing video games. And then once I started working for myself, I actually bought and sold video games, just like the guy I'm gonna tell you about today.

I was doing that 20 years ago, and you can still do this kind of business now. It's simple, it's an easy market to enter, there are lots of people trying to do it, but there are also lots of buyers. The startup costs are low and your risks are low. In this guy's story, he too always loved buying video games and playing them, but it wasn't until he stumbled across some of his favorites on eBay that he thought about selling them. So get ready, we're gonna find the princess, whatever castle she's in, but first a word of thanks to our sponsor.

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Video games have always been a passion for Rodney Wittenhagen. Ever since he was a little kid, he's loved nothing more than spending an afternoon, or sometimes the entire weekend, being transported to another universe. And now he's found a way to turn his love of the game into a profitable side hustle. It all started when Rodney was on the hunt for some classic Pokemon games. He played them years earlier, and was itching for a trip down memory lane.

After doing some searching, he came across the games in great condition on eBay. He bought them, then played them through to completion as soon as they were delivered. Rodney enjoyed the ease of the process. He began to wonder if it was something he could use to earn some gold coins on the side. He'd already amassed a collection of video games and had some extra money to invest, so he figured he'd test the idea.

First he took the Pokemon games he'd bought and uploaded them to eBay. He set the price a little higher than what he'd originally paid for them, took pictures to show the quality of the cartridges, and wrote a quick description. Then he went about his day job as a production supervisor. Much to his surprise, the game sold within a few hours, and he'd made a few dollars from each sale. Rodney says that was exciting, but he didn't do much to celebrate.

He just accepted his next quest. That quest was to grow his inventory and make more money from flipping his favorite games. To accomplish the first part, he decided to spend $200 on buying games to resell. He felt this was enough money to get a good return on investment, but if he couldn't replicate his success, he wouldn't be too upset to lose it. In the worst case scenario, he'd just have more games.

Rodney used three marketplaces to source his games, which he still uses to this day. eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and Craigslist. They're often used by people looking to sell their stuff quickly, which means that he can pick up a high-quality game for a lower price, especially when people aren't fully aware of what they've got. It's the equivalent of going to a flea market or garage sale, but it's all online. There will always be collectors who know the value of what they're selling, but from time to time, you'll also find someone who's selling a classic for just $5.

He then took those games and listed them on eBay, just like he did with the Pokemon titles. Within the space of a few weeks, he'd sold the entire inventory again, easily recouping his $200 investment and then making more on top of that. This was clear proof to Rodney that this was a viable side hustle, and he enjoyed the rush of buying and selling, so he decided to keep going. He took all of his profit from that first run and reinvested it into more inventory. He also created a standalone website through Shopify called Pixel Warehouse.

This allowed him to refer first-time buyers back to his site and offer them deals, discounts, and exclusives not available on eBay. This would also allow him to save money on eBay seller fees. He finds the best way to buy cheap games is to invest in larger lots. If you can buy an entire collection cheaply, you can then sell each of the games at an individual profit. Sometimes there will be a gem in those collections, like an original Mario Brothers or Donkey Kong game, which can be worth the price of the entire collection itself.

To ensure the working condition of his games, Rodney only buys and sells games for the consoles he already owns. This means he can test them himself, sometimes doing a lot of testing, before selling them onto the customer. He also pays close attention to video game news to help him get the best price for the games he flips. If there's a new release of a classic coming up or a sequel to a long-awaited title, Rodney will often hold onto a game until closer to the release date to take advantage of the hype. For example, when the new Crash Bandicoot game was released for PlayStation 4 in 2017, the price of the original, from 1996, shot up to almost the same price as the brand new game.

The hardest part of this side hustle for Rodney has been juggling the inventory since he doesn't use any third-party handlers or distributors. All of the games are stored in his spare bedroom, while the sales, dispatches, and delivery addresses are all maintained through a simple, self-created Excel spreadsheet. He hopes to refine the system further as the business grows, but right now it's simple enough for him to deal with around his day job and allows him to invest more of his $500 to $800 a month profit back into the business. Looking ahead, Rodney wants to expand what he sells and create a larger inventory of games. He's already started selling consoles and bundles through his website, and he wants to be able to cover more types of games and accessories.

Eventually, he'd love to move his venture entirely away from eBay and create an online pixel warehouse empire. If he does that, he'll be playing on expert mode. Well, as I said, this is a project that I relate to a lot. I don't play video games very much these days, but I have fond memories of many games and consoles through the ages, especially the late 1980s and 1990s. And let's talk briefly about the pros and cons of this kind of business, all right?

So the pros should be obvious. Like I mentioned it briefly in the beginning, very easy business to start. You can start this now. You can start it without spending a lot of money. The risk is low.

It's also not something you have to maintain all the time. You can just buy something and then list it up on eBay or one of these other marketplaces, and then when someone buys it, then you have to ship it to them. That's pretty much it. So lots of advantages. What are the cons, what are the disadvantages, or things you should be aware of?

So first thing is that profits are fairly limited, or at least they can be. For something like video games, there are some established prices, and you're not acquiring anything that no one else would be able to get. Now, like I said, it can still work because there are a lot of buyers out there, but for most people, most of the time, eventually you'll find that your income is capped. So just a few things to be aware of, but it can certainly be a fun entry into the world of side hustling, especially if you choose a category of goods that you're particularly interested in, just like Rodney did. It doesn't have to be video games.

It could be something else. All of these same lessons apply. If you decide to give it a try, let me know. We've got listeners all over the world who are starting different kinds of projects, and I always love hearing what you're up to. So feel free to write in from the website or tweet me at chrisgillibo.

That's C-H-R-I-S-G-U-I-L-L-E-V-E-A-U. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/564. That is for episode 564. I'll be back with you again tomorrow.

Thank you so much for listening. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]