How Amazon & eBay Saved My Sanity

Tyler Boufford
Jul 24, 2017 · 8 min read

In the last six years, I’ve had five jobs and I’ve been laid off four times.

The instability over the past few years has caused me stress, high blood pressure and has left me questioning my sanity.

In 2011 I had to leave the military due to an injury. So I moved back to my hometown of Rochester and found a job, but not too long after, I was laid off. Then I found another one, and the same thing happened- and then for good measure, it happened again. (And you thought you had bad luck…)

I strategized about what I could do to avoid getting laid off again. After each layoff, I noticed it was always the Human Resources department that broke the news to employees. So I decided to pursue a career in Human Resources- thinking I’d be safe.

But yet again, I struck out.

My current employer has decided to move the company to another state. They’re not willing to compensate me to move halfway across the country, and they won’t adjust my salary for the 1.5 times increase in cost of living there. So once again, I’m left scrambling.

Sometimes ya just have to move on

I have exactly 100 days until I’m out of a job.

The thing is, this time around I have what I consider to be a fool proof plan. I’m not networking or applying for jobs. Instead, I’m hustling my butt off to create my own source of income and be my own boss.

At the mercy of my own personal and financial life — I’ve decided to document my journey over the next 100 days showing what it’s going to take to work for myself. I have had the the fear from previous layoffs still haunting me as I’ve been slowly preparing myself to become a full-time entrepreneur. I know all too well how crappy it is having your job pulled out from under you, so I’ve learned how to to stretch a dollar or two along the way.

Ever since getting the boot from the Army for a medical discharge I’ve been trying to figure out how the hell I would create a legit business to support myself and create a lifestyle that I dream of. I’ve tried everything from buying and selling dot com / domain names online to cleaning people’s homes. Those strange and even hard to explain journey’s are what lead to what I’ve been doing over the past 12 months.

After working at a sketchy staffing agency that sold little ol ambitious me the dream of a huge commission based salary, I started selling random stuff I deemed useless around the house online. I’d put them up for sale on craigslist and other online classified ads and wait for someone to call or text. After a few months of this hustle, I noticed there was really something solid here.

I was unhappy working for a staffing agency so I spent my off-hours running an online cleaning business and selling my used belongings online while waiting for a freaking break. The money from everything combined was okay, but I was both physically and mentally exhausted from essentially working 3+ jobs.

Then one day, I ran into a nice lady who explained to me how she makes money selling designer purses and women’s hand bags on eBay. After chatting for a bit and talking about the basics of how to get started I was curious to know how much money is to be made selling on eBay.

She broke the ice by telling me she makes upwards of 12 to 15 thousand dollars PROFIT every month selling women’s bag part time on eBay. “Holy sh*t”, I thought to myself. I’ve got to confirm this for myself because as you all know, in order to find the true estimated profit of someone that shares with you their numbers, you simply apply the “GTFOH Equation”.

Yeah! That’s what I said too.

It’s a simple equation really. What you do is you take the numbers somebody is claiming and divide by two. You then divide by two again. Then again. Then one more time. And hell, just to get super accurate numbers of what they’ve really made, divide in half one more time . So from applying the “GTFOH Equation” to the high end of this profit, we’re left with just under $500 cash monies. Eh, I’ll take an extra $500 bucks a month, who wouldn’t?

I began to study the “solds” and “completed” section of eBay to gain a further understanding of a) what people were listing on the platform and b) what was actually selling. After countless hours of this I quickly learned that those numbers miss purse seller lady was doing were actually plausible.

Actual purses sold on eBay (Image credit: ebay.com)

Completely awestruck with the potential profit to be made, I instantly created a seller’s account and cross posted everything I was selling in the local market on eBay as well. Literally overnight, I went from having a few people view what I was selling to potentially thousands of views. Not knowing much (or anything for that matter) about eBay, it was a learn as I go experience, but I remained optimistic. Shortly after posting my first few items on for sale on the domain this video on YouTube went viral:

I couldn’t believe how many views this ‘Chewbacca Mom’ had received in such a short amount of time. I instantly picked up my cell phone and started calling every department store within a day’s drive. Luckily for me Kohl’s actually still had these bad boys in stock & on clearance!

I paid something like $16 and some change while they were selling upwards of $120+ EACH. Whereas some sold as high as almost $500!!! Simply because of good old supply and demand. They were at the end of their shelf life so big box stores clearanced them out. The video went viral, demand went through the roof and supply for the toy were low since majority had been opened and used.

Asking price of Chewbacca Talking Masks (Image credit: ebay.com)

My first item on eBay sold for over $100 profit. I was hooked- determined to become a powerseller! I gathered all the clothes I no longer wore, old shoes that were still in good shape, video games, electronics, watches, sunglasses, hats, cell phones, suitcases, backpacks, suitcases you name it and being listing it on eBay.

I was astounded that I had over $5,000 worth of sh*t laying around I could sell. I posted and prayed it would all sell. Some items I learned were probably WAYYY underpriced as they sold instantly and comparable items were selling for a bit more (should have done better research). Other items were either priced too high or simply stuff nobody else wanted including myself.

After all the nonsense junk around my house had been sold, I began thrifting and sourcing locally for more items to list on eBay. I would attend church rummage sales, estate sales, thrift stores of where ever had stuff to buy for cheap since money was tight.

I was out sourcing items to sell one morning when I saw a guy in a hoodie scanning books at a thrift store. Not wanting to bother him because I hate being bugged myself, I Googled: “Book Scanning at Thrift Store.” I was amazed that people were making lots of money buying used books cheap and selling them on Amazon.

I now had another type of inventory to add to my arsenal. I went through approval process to become an approved seller on the Amazon platform and became eligible for FBA, or Fulfillment by Amazon. Meaning I send inventory into Amazon’s Fulfillment Centers and they’ll ship it to customers once it is purchase on their website and even handle any customer service they might be needed.

This was a game changer. I could now get inventory to be FBA’d and in some cities, the customer could have my item in less than a hour. WOW! I began to scan and research every freaking book I could get my hands on and send in it if I thought there was a profit to be made.

Few hundred books from local library book sale (Image credit: Me)

As of today, Sunday July 23, 2017 I have exactly 100 days until I’ll be out of a job. In that time, I’ll officially have washed my hands with all the corporate nonsense like expecting an email response within minutes.

No more dealing with arrogant managers that dump pointless ad hoc reports on you last minute. No more chasing my tail and flying by the seat of my pants. No more putting up with the know it alls that do everything perfect and undermine you every chance they get to make themselves look better any chance they get.

I don’t completely regret working for these employers. It’s made me who I am and taught me to take action, f*ck fear, take risks, believe in yourself and make it happen. I was scared in the beginning considering all risks that could become a reality but over time said screw it, I’ll make it work come hell or high water. I’d rather deal with the risks associated in my own business than to be at the mercy of someone elses.

I’m documenting the entire journey over at www.facebook.com//groups/100dayhustle. If you’re interested in following, I’d love to share both my milestones and my fails. If not, no worries, just know that with determination, hard work and persistence you too can escape your awful underpaying job. I hope you’re all able to achieve success in any path you choose.

Tyler Boufford

Written by

Over the next 100 days I’ll be a living case study of what’ll take to walk off my job and step into self employment! Good by corporate life, hello freedom!

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