Some Real-world Advice for Amazon Sellers

Cliff Ennico
Mon, 27 Mar 2023 21:00:00 -0700
Lifestyle

It's hard to believe, but next year will mark the 20th anniversary of my involvement with the eBay and Amazon seller communities.

It all began quite harmlessly, with an out-of-the-blue call from Entrepreneur magazine asking me if I could put together a quick and dirty talk on the "legal and tax aspects of selling on eBay" and presenting it at eBay's annual seller convention in New Orleans, three days later.

Since I can never say no to an offer like this, I took the gig and thought to myself as I was flying down to New Orleans, "There will probably be only 10 or 20 people at this thing. Nobody shows up for law lectures."
Updated: Tue Mar 28, 2023

It's hard to believe, but next year will mark the 20th anniversary of my involvement with the eBay and Amazon seller communities.

It all began quite harmlessly, with an out-of-the-blue call from Entrepreneur magazine asking me if I could put together a quick and dirty talk on the "legal and tax aspects of selling on eBay" and presenting it at eBay's annual seller convention in New Orleans, three days later.

Since I can never say no to an offer like this, I took the gig and thought to myself as I was flying down to New Orleans, "There will probably be only 10 or 20 people at this thing. Nobody shows up for law lectures."

Boy, was I wrong. When I walked into the room, there were over 300 people in the crowd. More than 5,000 people were attending the conference. And that was in 2004.

Today, selling stuff on eBay and Amazon (and Etsy and Shopify) is one of the biggest side hustles in America. Millions of Americans make a full-time or part-time living selling on these platforms, and I can't think of how many casual "hobby" sellers there are out there. You probably have at least three living on your street, if you are not one yourself.

And I have to believe more than half of these people have written how-to books for other sellers on their adventures. I get lots of them in the mail, mostly autographed, from people I've met at eBay and Amazon seller conferences (roaring back to life now post-pandemic).

But every once in a while, a seller's guide comes along that just knocks me back in my chair, and when that happens, I have to write about it.

Doyle Carver is a Texas-based entrepreneur and self-taught mechanic, plumber and heaven only knows what else. He started selling auto parts and other metal doodads on eBay right around the time I started speaking at seller conventions, and built a successful e-commerce brand on eBay and Amazon. If you've always wondered what a "hickey bar" was, this is the book for you.

He also happens to be one of the funniest writers I've encountered in this space.

"The Desperate Days of Doyle: An Introverts Guide to Ecommerce" (self-published, available for $10 in paperback on Amazon) is an unabashed, first-person, hell-I-don't-have-the-money-for-a-proofreader account of Carver's rise from failed mechanic/musician/home builder/motorcycle bum to successful e-commerce entrepreneur.

Here is Carver's take on the major online selling platforms:

"To say that one is better than the other is just plain lazy. Each platform has its strong points. Amazon is the giant of the woods, having actually trained its customers to come to them first, while eBay has a tendency to sell the odd and one of a kind thought they have really leaned towards bringing the Chinese sellers into the market. Etsy has a ton of one of a kind, handmade items that are also hard to find anywhere but there. Wal-Mart, while another giant in the woods is still learning the ropes. They tend to push the cheapest of the cheap. Not to say they only sell junk, they don't, but they seem to place pricing consideration over everything else. Consider what you are selling and where it will do the most good."

Entire books have been written saying nothing more than that single paragraph.

Much of his book deals with inventory buying strategies, which is where most online sellers thrive or crash. Carver's advice is straightforward: "First buy things other people don't sell. When a bunch of sellers gang up on an item, the price falls. Most of the sellers get hurt in this. At the end though when everybody is out of this item, you can get the margin you need."

Carver advocates a "shotgun" approach when it comes to buying in bulk — where you buy small amounts of individual SKUs (stock keeping units) to test which items will sell. "Just put them up for sale and see what happens," Carver says. "My risk of buying a dud is lessened but most importantly the opportunity to find a hit increases tremendously."

And never lose sight of what Carver calls the "whoa factor." Carver says that if an item doesn't have that, he won't buy it. "It has to strike my imagination, or provide a perfect fix for a problem, or just be cool. Whatever cool is ... (but) I will admit that what makes me say WHOA might not translate to you."

My only negative comment on this book is Carver's description of himself as an "introvert." If Carver's an introvert, then I'm Jeff Bezos. The stories go on and on, and he never seems to run out of steam. I would love to hear this guy speak live.

"The Desperate Days of Doyle" is not just a business how-to book, it's a piece of Americana. Grab a copy, and while you're at it, spend an additional $4 and pick up its companion "A Day in the Woods: Coming of Age in Texas, 1966."