Transcription
All right, so here's the plan, and I might end up regretting this. I don't know, but I'm going to try to attempt to put my money where my mouth is, so to say, and prove to you guys how easy it is to sell and whatnot with zero followers.
So, if you clicked on today's video, chances are you are either one of our devout YouTube subscribers that watches all of our videos. And if you are, thank you so much, we love you. Stick around, this is going to be an interesting video today. Or you are the second person, which is somebody that wants to start selling on whatnot. You've heard a lot of good things about it, but it can be kind of difficult. You don't have a social media following. You don't have any social media pull to kind of transfer over to whatnot. You have zero followers or very minimal followers on whatnot already, and you're just trying to get past that that rough spot that is starting on whatnot and kind of growing it into a successful selling platform. And today, I want to give you guys my semi-professional opinion on how to get past that and make whatnot one of the greatest selling platforms for you and your business.
Whatnot is a super fun online marketplace where you can find deals on all sorts of crazy stuff. Funko Pops, action figures, sneakers, clothing, jewelry, pretty much anything your heart desires. If you scroll down here a little bit to the popular show category, there'll be a show from event. We'll pop in here to see, uh, what the top Funko Pop seller on the app is doing right now. They do stuff really, really quickly on the app. I think it's a great example of how to run a, a fast-paced show. All their auctions are only five seconds long, and they start at $5. So, for instance, we got this Funko Pop version of, uh, Post Malone here, and I'm just going to buy it real quick just to show you guys how easy it is. So, once they start the auction, there'll be the little yellow button at the bottom of the screen. You can click and swipe it to the right to bid, and literally takes me 2 seconds. I want it, just like that, and then the item will be shipped directly to my house.
So, I want to start by sharing two things that I'm most excited about moving forward. Number one, there used to be a fairly lengthy wait after you filled out the application to sell on whatnot to see if you were even approved. I had some people that were saying that it would take five or six weeks to hear back from the applications team, and I think Whatnot realized that that was not ideal. So, they've really spent a lot of time and energy kind of streamlining that process. So now, the application only takes about 2 minutes to fill out, and most people are getting approved same day, or at least no more than 24 or 48 hours after the application is done. So, if that has been a hiccup for you in the past, don't let it keep you from applying anymore. Just apply, takes 2 minutes, chances are you'll probably get approved same day.
And number two, which I absolutely love, Whatnot has decided to allocate some of its marketing budget specifically to help first-time sellers on the app. And what they're doing is matching your sales from your first Whatnot show up to $100. There's talks that it may get pushed to like 150 or so, but right now it's at least 100. So, if you get on your first Whatnot show, sell a couple things, make a 100 bucks, they will give you another $100 on top of that. I think it's a great idea. I love that Whatnot is doing this for first-time sellers. So, that's two reasons right there already that you guys should be pretty excited about the future of selling on Whatnot.
So, when you guys click the link in the description of the video down below to apply to sell on Whatnot, this should be one of the first things that popped up. And based on this, it does look like the selling bonus has already been increased to $150. So, I would definitely apply as soon as possible.
I'm going to go over some Whatnot tips. These are practices that I would highly recommend you guys do if you want to grow on Whatnot from zero to a significant amount of followers, AKA buyers. But first, I, I will, I will say that this, let me zoom out, the wrong zoom out a little bit. This video is not going to be like a technical, "here's how to actually go through the process of selling on Whatnot," like listing items and shipping and stuff like that. But Whatnot has created something called the Seller Academy, which is a collection of videos that break down everything from listing your first show, listing your first item, shipping things, like literally everything you need to know about, like the technical side of selling on Whatnot. They already have videos about that. I'll have that link, the top line description in the video down below, is the Whatnot Seller Academy. I personally think Whatnot should make that mandatory for all sellers to go through and like take quizzes on that because that would solve a lot of issues. But just watch all these videos, they're not very long, and they explain everything perfectly straight from the source. So, just watch those videos. This video is going to be more of like some out-of-the-box opinions on how to run a show in a way that I think would get followers, make people buy stuff, and ultimately grow you on the Whatnot platform.
So, Whatnot tip number one: Start small. Start small. So, I'm a member of this Facebook group called "Whatnot for Resellers." It's, there's a lot of good information in there. I would definitely recommend, recommend you guys follow that. Uh, but there's people in there that love to complain about their first shows. And I've seen this for like a year and a half now. They'll put so much time and energy into their first show. They'll share it for two months, they'll schedule it for two months out, and then share it every day in different streams or whatever. And they'll put a 100 items in the show and take three or four pictures of each item, and they're just planning their heads off for the show. And then they sell five or 10 things, and they get discouraged. And then they think Whatnot is a bad selling platform. But news flash, just let me zoom in here for dramatic effect. Your first show is probably going to be bad because you don't have any followers yet. You have to take the time to build in multiple shows to grow that following. I personally think it's better to just go live. Just schedule a show same day. Just schedule a show, go live for 15 minutes, and just try to sell one thing. Don't try to put a 100 things in there and a bunch of photos. One photo, one item, one title. Little thunder going on for dramatic effect. Just take it easy, start slow, sell one thing, go from there. I honestly think it's way better to do four 15-minute shows for 4 days than one 1-hour show for one day.
Starting to rain, and we have a metal roof here, so apologize for the, for the noise. Number two: Have fun. That's a smiley face. While we wait on the rain delay, now it's a great time to tell you guys to remember to like this video if you like it and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. It has literally been raining for like an hour and a half, and I'm tired of waiting. So, we're, we're just going to go inside to finish this video. So, finally get into the office here, bring the whiteboard out and out here and everything. And of, of course, of course, the rain stops.
Number two: Have fun. With the smiley face. Okay, and this is super important because Whatnot isn't just a selling platform. It's got a little bit of social media aspect to it. It's got some entertainment value there. People don't really go to Whatnot to buy a specific thing. They go to Whatnot to just peruse and see what's available, see if people that, you know, the seller can entertain them or whatever. And if you can keep your audience entertained, you can keep them in your show. And the longer you keep somebody in your show, the more likely it is that they will buy something from you. So, it's super important to be fun, have fun, be energetic. I'm sure we've seen Whatnot sellers that are on there in their shows are like funeral homes, you know, they're just uninterested. They, you know, worst-case scenario, sometimes sellers get upset at the buyers because they auction items for really low starts, and then the items don't sell for what they want, and the buyers do not appreciate that. If you want to get $20 for an item, you need to start it at $20. Don't start at a dollar and then getting mad at your viewers when it sells for five. That's not their problem, that's your problem. And your attitude is going to rub off on your viewers, and they're going to leave, and they're going to find somebody else that's more fun to watch and more appreciative of their attention.
Whatnot tip number three is going to be to stay consistent. This is super important because it takes time to build a following. It takes a lot of work to get enough data to understand the platform. It's very similar to YouTube in my opinion. Like, if you were to make one or two or three YouTube videos and you don't have a thousand subscribers, you might think, "Wow, I guess YouTube is not for me." But most of the time, you have to make hundreds of YouTube videos to get to a point where you have enough subscribers and watch time to start making money with your videos. That process took us like 9 months, like 9 months of consistently uploading videos every single week before we crossed that barrier so we can start making money with our videos. And now we're here today. And the same way with Whatnot, you can't just do one show or two shows or even five shows, and there's not enough data there to really understand the platform and give it time to work for you. I've seen so many people like on that Facebook group I was talking about earlier that go all in on Whatnot for two shows and do two shows that are hour long each, and they sell five things, and they get discouraged. And they're like, "Well, I guess Whatnot just doesn't work for everybody." And that's true, it doesn't work for everybody, but you haven't given it enough time to see if you are one of those people that it could work for. And just like YouTube, but Whatnot is a powerful, powerful platform if you are willing to put in that work to build it up.
I came back in the warehouse because I thought it stopped raining, and then I got out here, and it kind of started raining again, and I'm not going back in the house, so we're just going to have to deal with it. But number four, tip number four: Think outside the box. And what I mean by this is, like I was just talking about, inside Whatnot is not just a buying platform, there's some social media and entertainment factors to it as well. So, if you go to somebody's show and they're just selling camera batteries, there's no reason for you to be in that show if you're not interested in camera batteries. So, adding an extra layer of entertainment or fun or something to that show helps people stay. Sometimes Haley and I will do a show, and I'll sing some Disney songs, or we'll, you know, talk. It's almost like a podcast. We'll talk about stories while we sell stuff. Another kind of interesting example is my friend Chris. He's on Whatnot as "Flip the World TX." He and his wife Stacy are full-time Whatnot sellers. They've been doing it for like two years, maybe about a year and a half full-time. And one time in one of his shows, he put a $100 Buy It Now item in the show, and if somebody bought that, he would tattoo their Whatnot username on his leg. He's already covered in tattoos head to toe, so it wasn't as big of a deal as it would be for some other people. Uh, but after, I don't know, like 15 minutes or so, somebody bought it, $100, and he got his tattoo gun out and tattooed their their Whatnot name on his leg. Not something I would personally do, but it was interesting to like watch the show and like see like, "Oh, who's going to buy it? Is somebody going to buy it?" Like it was kind of exciting to watch.
Another thing that I was thinking about is a lot of golf sellers. I buy a lot of golf stuff on Whatnot, and oftentimes they will use a feature on Whatnot called the buyer appreciation giveaway to sell stuff and keep people entertained throughout the show. So, basically, this is a giveaway that if you buy something during the show, either auction or buy it now, then you're eligible to enter for a giveaway at the end of the show. And usually, that giveaway is a pretty good item. So, for instance, the other day, this guy was selling a bunch of golf hats. It wasn't anything crazy, it was like some basic hats, but he was auctioning off for a dollar each. And then if you bought a hat, you got a chance to enter, uh, for a Scotty Cameron putter at the end of the show. That's like, you know, $250 putter, pretty nice. So, people are more willing to spend five or 10 bucks on a hat that they may not have otherwise because they get a chance to win a putter at the end of the show. And usually, the extra money that you get from selling the hats or golf polos or those less exciting items pays for the item at the end of the show that you give away. So, it all cancels out and just makes selling like bulk mediocre items a lot easier. So, definitely take advantage of that feature once you're established on Whatnot. I probably wouldn't worry about it at first, but once you get to a point where, you know, you've got 20, 30, 40 people coming to your show on a regular basis, definitely take advantage of the buyer appreciation giveaways.
I've never seen anybody do this one, but I had an idea of like, you start an item at a dollar, and then for every dollar that's bid on the item before it purchases, you like add a drop of like crazy hot hot sauce to a chicken wing, and then you eat it when the item sells. So, like the more money people bid, the more drops of hot sauce you put on the chicken wing, stuff like that. Stuff that like excites people and turns a regular everyday item into like a fun experience for the buyer. And maybe if you have a high tolerance for hot sauce, you can do something like this. Or maybe if you don't have a high tolerance, it'll be more entertaining, and somebody might bid $100 for some plush just so they can see you put 100 drops of hot sauce on a hot wing. Anyway, I'm not saying that's a good idea or not, but that's, that's where my brain is going. Just something, some extra layer of entertainment added to your shows to keep people's attention, keep people engaged because the longer they are there and the longer they're engaged, the more likely it is that they will buy something.
Tip number five: Sell the right stuff. So, essentially, there are tons of different categories you could sell in on Whatnot. We've got, you know, accessories, beauty, jewelry, music, video games, antiques, estate sales, home and garden. And inside the home and garden category, there's a category for plants. You can literally sell potted, like real plants, that's crazy. But even with all these categories, we still have to think about tip number five, selling the right stuff. If we focus on selling things that can be easily impulse purchased, those are going to be the things that, that you're going to get top dollar for. Now, you could sell really specific items if you wanted to, but chances are, it's just not going to go for very much money. Let's say you have a box of like, size 17 men's orthopedic walking shoe inserts. That is the most random item I could possibly think of. You're going to have a really hard time selling that on Whatnot because that requires a huge foot from some dude that needs it, you know, and there's just the chance of that guy being on Whatnot at that specific time is very, very minuscule. You might have better luck selling to a reseller. You get a whole box of them, you could sell them in bulk. People do that all the time. So, if you want to sell to resellers, you can sell pretty much whatever you want, but then you're going to get less money. If you want to get more money for your items, you need to focus on selling items with a wide market interest. Stuff that people could see, I'm like, "Oh, that's cute," or "That's interesting," or "That's useful." Like, look at TJ Maxx. Like, I think Whatnot and TJ Maxx are very similar. Like, look at what they're selling specifically in that area of TJ Maxx, like right when you're waiting in line, and they've got like all the stuff like where you walk through. Look at that stuff. Like, that's the type of stuff people impulse purchase. They've done studies, they know what people buy. Just take all their knowledge that they've learned and apply it to your own business. Disney stuff sells really well. Cute little coffee mugs, little aprons, little like gourmet snacks and candies. Like, all that, like candies actually do really well. There's a, there's a candy category or snack category on Whatnot. I bought a ton of stuff from there. That's, that's a really interesting and niche category that people are really, really willing to impulse purchase because it's consumable, it's interesting, they'll buy it for five or 10 bucks, whatever, eat it, love it, whatever. It's the stuff like that that's what you want to focus on. Or again, you can go the reseller route and sell everything, but then just expect to get lower amounts for it.
I'm going to add a little sub-tip down here, like a tip 5B, if you will, because if you sell the right stuff, but you start it too high, if you ask too much money for your items, it's still going to be tough to sell them. We have to understand that when people come to Whatnot, they want a deal. And I'm not talking about 15 or 20% off. I'm talking about 90% off. Like, some of these, uh, big, big sellers on Whatnot, like eBay Princess and _F, they're selling like $200 or $300 dresses for 15 bucks, and they're buying them in wholesale, you know, they're, they're probably paying three, three, four, $5 a piece. So, they're still doubling, tripling their money, but people are getting some killer deals on dresses and, and other things like that. So, that's what you have to work on. I would really try to to optimize your sourcing strategies to where you can sell something for five bucks and still have it be profitable, or you can sell something for $2 and still have it be profitable. That's tough if you're, you know, sourcing at a thrift store and you're paying, you know, five, six, seven, $8 for a men's polo shirt. It's going to be tough getting more than $5 for a polo shirt on Whatnot unless you do like the buyer giveaway thing like we talked about earlier. So, there's, there's ways to get around it, but generally, people want really good deals, and you have to understand that going into it, and you have to adjust your sourcing strategies to make sure it's profitable for you and a good enough deal for the buyers to latch on.
All right, so here's the plan, and I might end up regretting this. I don't know, but I'm going to try to attempt to put my money where my mouth is, so to say, and prove to you guys how easy it is to sell on Whatnot with zero followers, or in this case, technically 11 followers. So, this is a Whatnot account that I created five or 6 months ago, um, for other reasons. I have 11 followers on there. I don't know who those people are, uh, but I've never sold anything on this account, and nobody that follows me on this account knows who I am. It's called "Mystery Flips." There's no association with Harry Tornado at all. I've never sold anything, uh, and I don't have any shows scheduled at the moment. So, what I'm going to do is go live on Whatnot on this account. I'm not going to show my face. Uh, I guess I can, I guess I can talk in an accent so people don't know it's me, being the French man. I'm not going to show my face on here, and I'm going to attempt to sell one thing because what kind of person would I be if I'm telling you guys how easy it is if I don't try to do it myself? The one thing I'm going to sell, or attempt to sell on the show, is this Game Boy Advance SP. It is the model AGS1, it's the NES one, uh, and also does not work. I cannot get it to turn on. So, I'm going to sell it for parts only. There is an eBay comp for this exact one, parts only, for $60, $65, I think, plus shipping, parts only. The exact same one, uh, and so I'm going to try to sell this one for 30 bucks. That way, I could sell it to a reseller on Whatnot. They can pay 30 plus like $5 in shipping, get it, and they can still flip it, you know, going forward. And I think that's really key when you're first starting out on Whatnot. You either have to sell to resellers or just hope that somebody comes to your stream that needs this exact item. That might happen. Maybe somebody will see it in the thumbnail or whatever and want it. But if you're selling stuff to resellers, it's a lot easier to sell if than if you're selling to the final end buyer.
I'm going to jump in here for one second because I'm sure somebody is thinking like, "Hey, why would I want to sell this for $30 when obviously I can get $65 for it on eBay?" And that's a great question. And if you're willing to do the eBay work of, you know, taking six, eight, 10 photos of this thing and doing a title and writing a description to show how it, how it doesn't work, and filling out the multiple required item specifics, and then waiting 30 or 45 or 60 days to find the right buyer, and answering customer questions, and probably dealing with a return issue because they never read the descriptions to see that it doesn't work. If you want to do all that to get your $65, by all means, do it. But what we're talking about here is the pure essence of the phrase, "the fast nickel or the slow dimes." Also, the short-term sacrifice that you have on Whatnot of these lower prices. As you grow your audience and get more people to your shows, you can get to a point like, like where we are now, where we have two or 300 people in our show, and we're getting sometimes full market value for stuff with zero work of making those eBay listings. So, it again, it's a short-term sacrifice for the long-term possibility of what Whatnot can do for you.
So, it is currently 11:18 p.m. Eastern Time. So, you guys have, you know, how know how long it takes me to actually finish this thing here. I'm doing, I'm going to schedule a show in the video game category. I'm going to take a picture of this Game Boy as the thumbnail. And for the title, I'm going to put "Help me sell this Game Boy." And that's all I'm going to put. And I think with that title and thumbnail, people will eventually come to the show, and I can probably hopefully find somebody to give us $30 for this. I think that's a fair price, but we'll see. So, 11:18, let's see how long the whole process takes.
So, it is currently 1:21. I have this, the show set up. I just took the picture of the Game Boy in there. Uh, nobody's here because I don't, I don't have any followers yet. Uh, but something else to note is that again, I'm not going to show my face. I don't think people will recognize me from my voice. I, I don't think, I don't think so. Uh, and I'm also not using our background. We have a background that we use for our Whatnot shows of that wooden thing over there, and I'm not doing that. The camera's going to be facing this way, uh, so don't think anybody will recognize me from a gray wooden background either. So, should be, should be pretty easy to maintain my anonymity under the "Mystery Flips" category until this video goes live, and then you guys all know that this is our backup account.
Almost 3 minutes into the show now, and I do think the most difficult part about doing the first show is the fact that you're just kind of sitting here by yourself, talking to yourself. Uh, I do think it's important to talk to people when they come into the show, um, you know, almost like pretend that there's 100 people there, even if there's only one right now. There's nobody in the show, so I'm not really worried about that. Uh, but it is like difficult, I guess, maybe on an emotional level, like just sitting here without anybody in your show, talking to yourself. But I think once you can like push through that and realize that it's just something you got to do and just, you know, fake it till you make it, I think it's pretty easy to get past that and then get to get to a point where you build up a decent amount of following where you can get, you know, 10, 15, maybe 20 people coming to your show or at least in your show on an average basis, and then it becomes a lot easier.
We got somebody else. "WhiteSteed" is in the house. WhiteSteed, thank you so much for stopping by. Are you anybody that is interested in a Game Boy Advance SP? You need a 3DS, WhiteSteed? If I had a 3DS, I would sell it to you. It is a very niche product. Yes, that is true. But I'm in the video game category, so I feel like if we're going to find somebody on Whatnot, it's going to be in this category, right? What's wrong with it? Oh, Northern Video Games. It doesn't turn on. I charged it, and I, it like lights up when you charge it, but I can't get it to turn on at all. Crown Royal 84, what is up? Thank you so much for stopping by our first Whatnot show. I really appreciate you guys giving us a chance today. Just trying to sell our first thing ever on Whatnot. It's a cool item, it just doesn't work. Jumpman 244, what is up? I hope you're having, I hope you're having a great day. Are you interested in a Game Boy Advance SP? We have six people in the show, guys. Thank you so much. This is so fun. Even though we haven't sold, we haven't sold this yet, I'm just doing this, our first Whatnot show, just trying to sell one thing just to like learn the platform. We got seven people. What is up? I'm so excited you guys are here. I, what, this is, this is great. This is so fun. If you have any questions about this, I'm happy, I'm happy to answer anything. It does not turn on. Physically, it's fine. It's got a couple scratches. I think I have a charger for it somewhere, but I don't know exactly where that is.
Oh, Northern Video Games purchased the Game Boy. Northern Video Games, I'm so excited right now. Northern Video Games, I love you. I love you so much. Everybody give Northern Video Games a follow. I really appreciate that. I hope you fix this for like five, and I hope you sell it for $150, and I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful life. Look at there. Literally, literally just less than 10 minutes for a good quality item that was still profitable for us, profitable for the person that that bought it, and I didn't have to sit there for hours. I didn't have to schedule a show with a, with a bunch of pictures and measurements of clothing and stuff and promote it for three months before you do that. Do you know selling anything? That was it. It took me, what, it was, what we, we started at 11:17, it's currently 1:33. One, come on, 1:33. So, like 15 minutes for the whole thing to do, set up the show, schedule it, list the item, and make the sale. Let's go. Ship it. Let's, let's complete the process.
So, I estimated that this was going to weigh 11 oz after it's packed up. Let's see how far off I was. 9.9. So, that's, that's pretty spot on. So, once you verify that that weight is accurate, all you have to do is click "Generate Label," and it will generate both the shipping label and packing slip. I did run into an issue where the labels and packing slip generated in an 8 and 1/2 by 11 format, so I had to go back to settings to change that to 4x6. But then I just regenerated the label, and it came out, uh, normal, normal size.
So, between the five tips I was able to share with you guys and our real-world example of actually selling something on a brand new Whatnot account, I hope you were able to get something out of this video. I hope you were able to apply this stuff to your personal Whatnot account, grow in followers, grow in sales, and just have fun with it. I truly believe that Whatnot is just an absolutely incredible platform. Nothing has changed our reselling business as much as Whatnot has in the last couple years. Uh, and if you just put in that time, stay consistent with it, have fun, you guys can, can really be surprised at what it can do for you and your business. Again, apply today. It takes 2 minutes to fill out the application. You can get approved same day. And again, Whatnot is matching your first $100 in sales in your first show. That's two really good reasons to give it a shot. Guys, thank you so much for your attention. Hope you enjoyed the video. Hit the like button, hit the subscribe button, and we will see you guys on the next time. The next time. That was, I'm not redoing it. We're ending the video there.
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